In
Ayurveda, India’s 5,000 year old Science of Life, there’s no “one size fits
all” answer to managing our weight.
The solutions are as unique and individual as we are. You start by knowing your “dosha” or
Ayurvedic mind/body type.
KAPHA
The most common type of
weight gain is caused by having a slow metabolism. This is common for a person
who is a classic Kapha type. Kapha
dosha is comprised of the earth and water elements, so this type of individual
will reflect those qualities. A Kapha person will be structurally bigger, with
bigger bones and a more easy-going, stable, gentle personality.
For a Kapha person, being
skinny is usually not a healthy goal. If you are prone to gain weight, and are
always five to ten pounds overweight no matter how little you eat, it would go
against your nature to ever be really thin. Rather, it would be better to
balance your metabolism, increase your ability to digest sugars and
carbohydrates by adopting a Kapha balancing diet and lifestyle, and allow your
body to naturally find its ideal weight. You may not be skinny, you may always
weigh five to ten pounds more than average, but you will feel better and look
healthier, and you will lose most of your excess weight.
Diet
The main principle for
balancing Kapha is to introduce some of the fire element into your food and
lifestyle. This will balance the earthen and watery elements of Kapha dosha.
Flavor your vegetables and
dhal soups with spices that are mildly pungent, such as black pepper, fresh
ginger, and turmeric
Other tastes to balance
Kapha dosha are the bitter and astringent tastes. These include green leafy
vegetables, split mung dhal soup and other bean soups, and astringent
vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. It\'s important
to cook your vegetables and eat them warm, rather than relying on raw
vegetables. Raw vegetables are difficult to digest, whereas to balance Kapha
dosha you want to eat warm, light, cooked foods.
Quinoa is an excellent grain
for managing weight, as it has high protein and zinc content (4 mg of zinc per
cup). But it should be cooked with a bit of ghee or olive oil, as otherwise it
may be too drying.
Basmati rice is also a good
grain for Kapha dosha, because it has a more drying quality than other types of
rice, but quinoa is better because it has the intelligence of fire to support
weight loss.
The fire element can even be
added to the water you drink. If you boil your water for five minutes on the
stove, you are adding the intelligence of fire to your drinking water. If you
sip the water throughout the day, the intelligence of fire will permeate the
molecules of water, and thus permeate your body. You won\'t notice anything
right away, but if you continue with this routine, in time you will feel less
fatigue. This is because Kapha dosha tends to create a feeling of lethargy, and
by introducing the fire element in the water, you\'ll gradually feel more
energetic.
If you are Kapha by nature,
you\'ll want to stay away from heavy, cold desserts such as ice cream and
cheesecake, as these will only slow your metabolism and increase the cold,
heavy qualities of Kapha in your body. Rich desserts, fried foods, foods made
with refined sugar and refined flour, cold foods and drinks — all of these
should be avoided if you want to balance Kapha and your weight.
Lifestyle
Regular exercise is the most
important change you can make to improve your metabolism. The problem is that
people with excessive Kapha dosha often feel somewhat complacent or even
lethargic, and they might have to push themselves a little to exercise every
day. Usually Kapha types need more vigorous exercise for a longer period to
have the same effect as milder exercise would have on a Vata person.
Even making a habit of
breathing more deeply can help charge the metabolism with more of the fire
element. When Kapha dosha is out of balance, one of the first things that
happens is that the person becomes a shallow breather. Deeper breathing is
healthy for all body types, but especially for Kapha dosha, because deeper
breathing helps wake up the body\'s metabolism. When the metabolism is lower and
breathing is shallow, the body\'s channels get blocked and cause even more
lethargy, which becomes a vicious cycle.
The digestive fire is weaker
in the morning when you wake up and in the evening before bed, so breakfast and
dinner should be lighter meals. An excellent breakfast for balancing metabolism
for all three body-types is a cooked apple or pear with cooked prunes and figs.
This breakfast choice is light and sustains most people until noon, when they
can eat their heaviest meal. A healthy supper for a Kapha person might be soup
made with vegetables, grains and dhal and flavored with spices such as cumin, fresh
ginger, black pepper, and turmeric. Or kitcheri, a light meal made with rice
and split mung dhal, is also a light Kapha-reducing meal Kapha Churna is an
excellent spice mixture for balancing Kapha dosha.
VATA
If you are Vata-predominant,
you are normally thin and wiry. But that does not mean weight gain will never
be a problem for you. Sometimes Vata types are thin all their lives and then
suddenly put on weight because their metabolism has changed. Vata-predominant
people are susceptible to mental stress because they tend to overuse or misuse
their minds. When under stress they also tend to forget to eat regularly, thus
disturbing their digestion, creating ama
and clogging the channels. This is often the precursor to weight gain.
Diet
When Vata dosha is the underlying cause of a weight problem, it\'s important to
eat a balanced diet that is easy to digest but also nurturing. Take the middle
path, and eat a tridoshic diet, which means one that balances all three doshas.
Avoid foods that are too hot and spicy (such as food spiced with chillies,
cayenne, and black mustard seed), and at the same time avoid foods that are ice
cold, such as ice cream, iced drinks, and cold, heavy desserts. Stay away from
foods that are too heavy (such as aged cheeses, meats, and heavy desserts) and
also avoid foods that are too light and dry, such as crackers, cold cereals,
and packaged snacks. In general, avoid leftovers; frozen, canned or packaged
foods, and processed foods of all kinds.
Lifestyle
People with a predominance
of Vata dosha need a regular routine, to balance the uneven, variable nature of
Vata dosha. It\'s important that they go to bed early, well before ten o\'clock
and rise early, before 6 a.m. A regular routine with adequate sleep is one of
the best antidotes to Vata imbalance. Regular meals are essential, with three
warm, cooked meals a day. It\'s important to eat them at the same time every
day, as Vata digestion tends to be irregular. By eating at the same time, your
digestive enzymes will prepare to digest the food and digestion will be
stronger. Avoid work that is stressful to the mind, and practice relaxing
exercise such as yoga and pranayama. A daily oil massage, abhyanga, is
especially important for Vata. The skin is one of the primary seats of Vata
dosha in the body, so massaging your body every morning with warm,
Vata-pacifying oil can go a long way toward soothing your entire nervous system
and emotions. The more relaxed you are, and the more regular your routine, the
better you will withstand day-to-day stress and the less likely you are to fall
prey to weight imbalances.
Many times people with Vata
disorders find themselves in a rush, always in a hurry. It\'s not healthy for
anyone to always be rushing around, to constantly have to hurry, and it\'s especially
harmful to people with Vata imbalances. If you find yourself in that situation,
it\'s important to cultivate a habit of taking it easy and slowing down. Learn
to structure a more relaxed, royal daily routine. This is important for mental,
emotional and physical health.
PITTA
You would think that since Pitta
dosha is associated with the fire element, a person with high Pitta would not
have any problem burning up carbohydrates and sugars. Yet if the person doesn\'t take care of the digestion, that
can create problems. For instance, if someone who is predominantly Pitta by
nature skips breakfast or other meals, that can create ama, digestive impurities, because the
digestive fire becomes too strong. In this situation, stomach acids can
\"burn\" the food and even damage the stomach.
To understand how this
happens, think of setting an empty pot on the stove. The heat is on, but there\'s
nothing to cook. Instead, the pot itself gets burned. In the same way, if you
have a strong digestive fire but you don\'t feed it regularly, then the
digestive enzymes go out of balance, burn the food and create ama the next time you eat.
Many people with high Pitta
dosha are overweight, precisely because they are not eating regularly and as a
result ama has coated their digestive system. When ama blocks the channels of digestion and the channels that
circulate nutrients throughout the body, then metabolism slows down and weight
gain results.
Diet
First of all, the person with high Pitta should get into the habit of
eating three meals a day, starting with breakfast. This is very important, as
otherwise the stomach will continue to be burned by digestive acids. Eating a
cooked apple or pears with cooked prunes or figs for breakfast is a good idea,
because it will soothe the digestive fire but not overload it. Raw pears or
other sweet, juicy fruits are also good for people with high Pitta.
A vegetable that is good for
weight management is daikon radish. This white radish can be grated and added
to dhal soups for a mildly spicy flavor. Include sweet vegetables for lunch and
dinner, such as squashes that are white inside (zucchini, loki or yellow
squash). Steam them well and then sauté them in ghee with mild, cooling spices
such as powdered fennel, small amounts of cumin and small amounts of
turmeric. Flavor
foods with Pitta Churna, a delicious spice blend specifically created for
balancing Pitta.
Avoid eating pungent spices
such as chilies, cayenne, and black mustard seed. These will only increase the
acidity. A person in this situation may be drawn to heavy, cold, sweet foods to
cool the acidity. But heavy, cold foods will only make the problem worse by creating
more ama and blocking the
channels of digestion and metabolism. It\'s better to cool the digestive fire by
cooking with cooling spices, eating light desserts with your meal such as fruit
crisps, and by drinking light dairy drinks such as sweet lassi.
Lifestyle
People who are predominantly
Pitta should go to sleep before the Pitta time of the evening (10:00 p.m. to
2:00 a.m.). Even if you feel like you have a lot of energy then, or feel more
creative, it\'s not a good idea to stay awake during the Pitta time of night,
because this only aggravates Pitta dosha further. And if you stay awake during
the Pitta time of night, you will invariably get hungry and thirsty and may eat
packaged cookies or salty snacks, or drink soft drinks or alcohol. All of these
things will only disturb Pitta dosha further and contribute to weight gain.
Lissa Coffey is world renown
as the authority on Ayurveda and relationships. She is the author of “What’s Your Dosha, Baby? Discover the
Vedic Way for Compatibility in Life and Love.” For information on Ayurvedic products to balance your dosha,
including teas and churnas, visit her website: DOSHASMART.com
