Slim Down For Spring: Ayurvedic Practitioners Help You Chuck the Scale For Good

Everyone is talking about weight loss right now and it can become the most cliché wellness topic if you're not careful. From going vegetarian to raw and everywhere in between. Should I fast, cleanse, or give up carbs? What's the best workout trend or fad diet? Having explored so many diets and exercises, it's hard to find any consensus. In holistic wellness, trends rarely gain traction for the sheer fact that they don't work. After years of experimenting, I have found that the Ayurvedic lifestyle is the healthiest diet for my body. That's why this week I'll be exploring how the principles of Ayurveda align with weight loss. Today, I'll talk about giving up the vices that hold us back from our weight loss goals. I'll also be discussing the classic Ayurveda meal, kitchari and why it promotes weight loss.

The more people realize that fad diets don't work, the more they turn to holistic health practitioners for weight loss. Ayurveda is a 5,000 year old science that's as effective today as it was back then. It's a gradual way to drop weight that will last a lifetime and once you know the secrets of Ayurveda, you'll never look back. Yoga and Ayurveda practitioners have long prescribed Ayurvedic remedies for all that ails us, and weight loss is no exception.

Slim Down With Ayurveda
Gradually Remove Caffeine and Alcohol From Your Diet
It's incredibly important to be gradual with the vices that you remove from your diet. In fact, in Ayurveda caffeine and alcohol in very small quantities is good for you. But the quantities are so small that most people only experience the ill effects. When you drink too much caffeine during the day, you tend to get really ampted up. If you're going a mile a minute all day long, it's impossible to slow down so we tend to overindulge to weigh ourselves down. Instead of eating or drinking too much, indulge your other senses. Light candles, read a good book, meditate, or put on comfortable clothing. Most importantly, work to keep yourself calm throughout the day so that you don't need to decompress at night.

If you drink coffee every morning, start by switching to ¾ caffeinated and ¼ decaffeinated. After a month or so, reduce it to 1/2 caffeinated and 1/2 decaffeinated. After another month go to ¼ caffeinated and ¾ decaffeinated. Eventually, what you'll find is that coffee, even decaffeinated, is too hard on your stomach and then you can switch over to decaffeinated tea. The same goes for alcohol (I am not referring to alcoholics here). Count the number of drinks that you have per week (and be honest). Cut that number in half and then in half again over a few months. Until you get to the amount of alcohol per day that's considered healthy Ayurvedically, which is about 3 tbsps. Some people can just give up vices immediately, but in my experience, for most it backfires.



Cleanse with Kitchari
Kitchari is the quintessential Ayurvedic meal. It's a cleansing food that's made with mung dal and basmati rice. The mung dal is known to remove environmental toxins like pesticides from the body. Kitchari is very light but it has all the nutrients that the body needs to survive. During a mild cleansing ritual, kitchari can be eaten for as many as two meals a day. Eat until satiated, but not overfull. Combine your recipe with fresh, seasonal vegetables found locally. It promotes optimal and regular bowel movements, which is essential to weight loss. Kitchari has ample protein and carbohydrates and it's tasty. It's free of meat, dairy, any processing, and sugar. Even though there is ghee or clarified butter in kitchari, once clarified, the milk properties are removed so it becomes lactose-free.