{"id":6448,"date":"2024-09-29T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-29T00:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fitolympia.com\/?p=6448"},"modified":"2024-09-29T16:59:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T16:59:39","slug":"ayurvedic-diet-for-a-week-and-heres-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fitolympia.com\/na\/ayurvedic-diet-for-a-week-and-heres-what-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayurvedic Diet for a Week and Here is What Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IT’S FAIRLY<\/strong> well-established that not every weight loss plan works for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, whether or not you can successfully lose weight depends on many factors, from your gender to your metabolism to your genes. But what if you were told that your body type and your overall mental makeup also play a role?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s the core principle behind Ayurveda (pronounced eye-yur-vayda and translated to \u201cscience of life\u201d) Medicine, a holistic wellness system of beliefs that originated in ancient India nearly 3,000 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, wellness gurus have been dipping back into Ayurvedic texts to come up with the principles for the Ayurvedic Diet, which ostensibly uses Ayurvedic principles to help you lose weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to try the diet. My late, great mom, who was born and raised in Mumbai, India, always used spices like turmeric and ginger in her own cooking. When she passed last summer, I took it upon myself to dabble with some of those spices in my own cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes when I cook, I feel like my mom is guiding my hands through. It\u2019s a special connection, and the fact that Ayurveda originated in India made this diet\/lifestyle resonate with me that much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all of this info in mind, I decided to try the Ayurvedic Diet for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK…what, exactly, is the Ayurvedic Diet?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

AT THE<\/strong> root of Ayurveda is the belief that everyone has a set body type and energy that comes along with it. This is called your dosha<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Kate O’Donnell’s Everyday Ayurveda Cooking for a Calm, Clear Mind<\/a> <\/em>(which I used as my bible of sorts for this experiment), the three doshas are vata, pitta and kapha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vatas tend to be thin, lean creative types (bizarrely, they often tend to suffer from cold hands and feet).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaphas tend to have wider bodies and rigidly loyal tendencies, but sometimes suffer from foggy thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the middle are pittas, who have medium builds and are highly motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each are equipped with specific bodily traits and energies associated with them that supposedly sync with the five elements of nature, including earth, water, fire, space and air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s important to note that Ayurveda lacks a medical or scientific basis, meaning there’s pretty much zero actual proof that any of this, ya know, works <\/em>at all. <\/em>But it does encourage being mindful of your daily eating habits<\/a>, avoiding processed foods, and being conscious of your mental health and wellness, all of which have been linked to weight loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you eat on the Ayurvedic Diet?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

WELL, THAT<\/strong> depends on your dosha.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayurveda doesn\u2019t place any hardcore restrictions on your diet, but it does stress being more mindful of your choices and eating according to your dosha<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ayruveda<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WESTEND61<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vatas, pittas and kaphas are encouraged to eat fresh, cooked food that is heavily spiced and easily digestable. Vatas are a cold and dry dosha, <\/em>so they’re encouraged to eat foods that are warmer, heartier, and richer in oils; pittas are encouraged to eat drier, more carb-heavy foods; and kaphas lean towards smaller portions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re trying to follow an Ayurvedic diet, identifying your dosha should be your first step. The Ayurveda Experience<\/a> has a quick three-minute quiz to help you ID yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the questions may seem silly (the quiz asks, among other things, whether your veins are visible, or if your joints make a cracking sound when you walk), the ultimate goal is to personalize your health and weight loss plan, according to Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary<\/a>, MD.., a neurologist and author of the weight loss manual The Prime<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is unique to Ayurveda is that we never make the same dietary recommendations for everyone,\u201d Chaudhary says. \u201cIn other words, some people would do very poorly with a raw diet; some would do poorly on a vegan diet; some would do poorly on a juice fast. Ayurveda takes your individual constitution into account before making any dietary recommendation. In this way it\u2019s very personalized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What is unique to Ayurveda is that we never make the same dietary recommendations for everyone.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Alan Marks, the CEO of vpk by Maharishi Ayurveda Products International<\/a>, told me that people who follow the Ayurvedic Diet are encouraged to go light on breakfast or skip it altogether, go light on dinner, and make lunch their heaviest meal of the day. This runs counter to most conventional weight loss advice, which encourages people trying to lose weight to get most of their calories in the A.M.<\/a>; further, there seems to be some debate in the Ayurvedic community on whether or not skipping breakfast is OK. But Marks explained that there are drawbacks to loading up on calories in the evening, which most people tend to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we eat our largest meal at dinner, we\u2019re sending two competing signals to our body,” says Marks, who has followed the Ayurvedic lifestyle for more than 35 years. “We\u2019re telling it, \u2018When I go to bed, I want to settle as deeply as possible and get as much rest as possible, but I also want to digest food.\u2019 So people who eat a really large dinner don\u2019t get as deep of sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of whether the Ayurvedic Diet works in general, this particular takeaway is actually (kind of) supported by science: eating too much too late has been linked to lower-quality sleep, and a number of studies have found that people who pack in the calories at night are more prone to metabolic issues, which can lead to weight gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with the knowledge of how the diet worked, and how it might work for me, I set off on a week of cooking and eating, Ayurvedic style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To start the week, I took the online quiz on the Ayurveda Experience to ID my dosha. I\u2019ve always been on the skinny side (in fact, my problem has always been trying to gain <\/em>weight, not to lose it), plus I\u2019m definitely a creative, so I was immediately pegged for a vata, <\/em>which meant I was encouraged to use spices such as turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon when cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(These spices have some well-established health benefits: turmeric, which is often used in Indian cooking, has notable anti-inflammatory properties, and ginger is often used to treat nausea).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a light breakfast or a heavy lunch, so this day was kind of a write-off. I vowed to start the diet in earnest tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to keep the start of the work week simple and clean. So I started the day by enjoying my typical breakfast, steel-cut oatmeal with blueberries, which felt light enough. For lunch, the heaviest meal of the day, I went with oven-roasted chicken thighs and some garlic saut\u00e9ed spinach; for dinner, I made pan-seared tilapia. Nothing fancy, but it was definitely a vibe for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As a freelance writer, my life can get pretty unpredictable, so when I had to head out the door to cover an event, the “mindfulness” aspect of the Ayurvedic Diet crumbled. I grabbed a strawberry pastry from a bakery in Queens on my way to the subway that morning and treated myself to a lobster roll in Manhattan that evening. Those were the only things I ate that day, so that was not good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, I wasn’t hungry, so I skipped breakfast. For lunch, I ordered Pad See Ew Thai noodles, which came with spring rolls and a salad; for dinner, per Marks’s advice, I grilled a cod fillet. It was simple, light, and delicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’m lucky to have grown up on what I consider some of the best Indian food ever (thanks, mom). But since she passed, I haven\u2019t eaten much Indian food, just because it\u2019s not the same as mama\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>MARK LELINWALLA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, with this experiment, I got a little bit nostalgic. So per O’Donnell’s book, which contains a recipe for lentils daal, I called a local Indian spot to pick up a dinner plate of lasooni daal, a.k.a. yellow lentils covered in a garlic sauce and served over a plate of fragrant, savory Basmati rice. Per the guidelines for the diet, it was actually pretty light for dinner\u2014at least, lighter than the chicken slice of pizza I took down for lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I had a big bowl of oatmeal with blueberries for lunch, just to see how that would sustain me as a midday meal in lieu of breakfast. I also had a mango lassi (a delicious, creamy yogurt Indian drink, pictured above). For dinner, I went lighter with tilapia, which is one of my favorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my surprise, even though this was my third straight day of skipping breakfast, I felt totally fine. So much for breakfast being the most important meal of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although I was out with my daughter all day Saturday, I still managed to somewhat adhere to the flow of the Ayurvedic diet. I once again skipped breakfast and made lunch my biggest meal of the day (although, to be fair, my lunch was a burger, which is not the healthiest option). For dinner, I made us pan-seared cod with buttery garlic sauce \u2026 which she loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Results<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

WHEN I<\/strong> started the Ayurvedic Diet, Marks predicted that I\u2019d feel more energized and alert by the end of it. While this might just be placebo effect (and while I admittedly didn’t do a great job sticking to the diet at first), I must say that I did feel both of those things\u2014especially from Wednesday through Saturday, when I made lunch my first and heaviest meal of the day, followed by a lighter dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, I didn’t lose any weight, but because I’m already a pretty lean guy, I wasn’t exactly trying to, which made the diet a success for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marks say that \u201cAyurveyda honors that people eat the food that they\u2019re comfortable with,\u201d and for the most part, I felt like it really did. I never failed to be mindful of the food I ate and how it affected my body, and if you’re trying to lead an all-around healthier lifestyle, I think that’s super important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IT’S FAIRLY well-established that not every weight loss plan works for everyone. 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