As a clinical practitioner of Ayurveda, with a background in clinical nursing, Emily has dedicated her life to bringing together Eastern and Western medicine. To do so, she has split her time between her center in New Mexico and India. But that was before the pandemic.

Having to close her center due to COVID, Emily decided to start Yoga Health Coaching and pivot online. She has been on the fast track of YHC, transitioning her business to the new model.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about the support Emily has found in the YHC community, how she is organizing her business and learning how to sell high end tickets.

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How to pivot your existing wellness business
• How to sell a high end coaching ticket
• How to brainstorm your course bonuses

Links Mentioned in Episode:

• Find out more about the Lead the Journey Course
• Check the Find the Money Course
• Watch the Masterclass

Show Highlights:

• Bring East and West together
• Organizing your mind with the Lead the Journey Course
• Helping your members make lasting changes

Timestamps:

• 2:55 Splitting time between New Mexico and India
• 11:49 The dynamic energy of having a community
• 17:51 Implementing YHC in an existing business
• 26:53 Vata overload and overwhelm as a Coach

Guest Bio:

Emily is the founder of Agni Ayurveda, in Santa Fe, NM. She is a clinical practitioner of Ayurveda specializing in Panchakarma cleansing, and a wisdom keeper of Vedic Astrology. Emily was trained by mystical doctors and healing masters who guided her to fine tune her capacity to perceive the many levels of reality that make up our human experience. With a background in clinical nursing, Emily is continually engaged in the process of learning and personal development. Her whole-being enrichment approach to healing bridges the East-West paradigm. She teaches and lectures internationally and currently resides part of the year in Vaidyagrama Ayurveda Healing Village, in Coimbatore, India.

Now that I’m allergy-free I look back and see the obvious internal imbalance of my allergies in graphic detail – the language my body was communicating to inform me how to avoid the unwanted outcome of allergies. Read on and I’ll get you acquainted with what your allergies are trying to tell you. I’ll give you simple solutions to decode and uproot the internal imbalances that cause your allergies. First, you need to to understand what the heck is going on here with allergies.

Why are you allergic to Nature?

To people with allergies we’re heading into allergy season. For everyone else, we’re simply entering into the season where Nature grows, thrives or decays. (People don’t have allergies in winter because Nature takes a break.)

Ever step outside and have a respiratory attack or mucus-removal fest? While it may appear you are allergic to Nature, chances are you’re out of sync inside your body.  My experience is that out-of-sync bodies become reactive bodies when an internal tipping point is reached. This tipping point is often reached when seasons change.

What kind of allergies you have, and what else is going on inside you tells us how to uproot your allergies. To figure that out, you need to learn the language of allergies.

The language of Allergies 

Ayurveda understands the language of your allergies. Through the language of your allergies, Ayurveda does it’s best to interpret what your body is effectively communicating. Here are a few important statements your body is currently making:

• What an acute attack is like, in juicy detail.
• What your body is experiencing chronically, in juicy detail.
• When they are worst, or best.

See how this plays out with me, Jack and Henry and you’ll get insight into what is happening in you.

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Check out 3 allergy-attacked individuals.

(1)  Cate is sixteen. She’s a strong athletic gal with a sweet tooth. She can gain weight easily and keeps this in check with exercise and eating a lot of fruits and vegetables. She’s suffered constipation since early childhood, but it’s gone undiagnosed. She started having allergies when she hit puberty in the form of itchy eyes and embarrassing amounts of snot, especially after meals.

(2)  Henry is a skinny 8 year old who seems to be allergic to everything. He gets really involved with imaginary play and has to be coerced into eating. His mother and doctor have determined he is allergic to 13 foods, 10 normal household substances, including dust, most animals, and grass. His allergic reactions vary from sneezing, wheezing, coughing, headaches, and random itching.

(3)  Jack is 40, has a high intensity job, a rapidly receding hairline, and a penchant for finding an effective hay fever medication. None of the medications he has tried work without unwanted side effects. However, if he doesn’t take them, his eyes get swollen and itchy to the point of interfering with his ability to work and meet with people. They get worse mid-morning and last until sunset.

From these 3 descriptions, you can see that what we call allergies ranges drastically. How they should be treated ranges drastically as well.

Now many of you, my holistic mavens, see a range of imbalances that are provoking the bodies immune response to the allergen. But, for those who don’t have a clue, I’ll spell it out.

Cate has ama in her system. Ama is undigested food that stores as toxin, first in the g.i. tract, and later wherever convenient in the body, which for her is her sinuses. Her ama built up from incomplete elimination. Her stomach lining is coated with mucus, which is why the attacks come after eating in the form of snot. Top 3 things Sally can do right now:

• Detox to clear the ama
• Take triphala or Downward Flow every night and every morning, up to 1 tsp. of powder in 4 oz. water
• Enjoy crazy amounts of vegetables at lunch and dinner, especially the green variety

What should Hypersensitive Henry’s mom do?

Henry needs some belly fire. His lack of internal combustion power is weakening his immune system, which is reacting on all fronts. He needs:

• A strict routine around eating 3-4 times a day.
• Taking some digestive spices or Fire Starter before meals.  A few pinches of ground fennel and cardamom mixed into a tbsp. of fresh yogurt would work.
• Daily bath with oil massage to built immune integrity.

What should Itchy–Man Jack do?

Jack’s system is packed with a heat toxicity we call pitta ama in Ayurveda. His liver is stressed out from his high-intensity lifestyle and acidic diet. His body is now dumping toxic heat out through his eyes. Not an ideal toxic dumping ground. Top 3 things Jack can do right now:

• Do an anti-inflammatory detox, and stick to an alkaline diet
• Stick to a Pitta reducing lifestyle
• Take Liver Repair in spring, summer and/or fall.

What do these 3 peeps have to do with you? First, ask yourself,

Are you out of sync?

If you have allergies, you’re out of sync. Whenever I have any allergy reoccurance, even subtle allergies, I use that particular information to correct an internal imbalance. How you are out of sync determines what you need to do to uproot your allergy.

What You can do about allergies:

1. Locate any imbalance within your inner environment and uproot it.
2. Detox if strong enough.
3. Strengthen your immune system if not strong enough to detox.
4. Locate any pollutants in our outer environment and remove them.

What we shouldn’t do about allergies as a long term solution:

• Medicate to suppress or mask symptoms of internal imbalance. Otherwise, plan for side effects.
• Focus on removing external pollutants while ignoring internal imbalance.

I created a 2 hour Allergy Relief Workshop , which you can purchase for only $25 and download immediately, if you’re looking for allergy relief for yourself or the peeps you take care of.

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Fat Makes Us Function

Our bodies need fat to function, period!  Some types of fat, such as dietary cholesterol help us create and maintain optimally functioning hormones like progesterone and testosterone. Other kinds, Omega-3 and Omega-6, help us feed our brain, which in fact, is the fattiest organ in our body, consists of up to 60% fat. We need fat to create the coating that protects and insulates our neurons. Fat is essential for proper function of our nervous system. We even use fat for fuel in the form of ketones to create more efficient energy for our mitochondria and our body to function at its best, better than when we use glucose for energy. Fat is essential for a healthy and proper functioning body.

If you’ve been on a low fat diet, please stop! Fat is important for good health. If you don’t consume much fat, start adding good healthy fats to your diet, it will aid you in becoming more grounded, nourished, and help your brain function better.

What Is a “Healthy” Fat?

It’s a common question that I love to answer! Healthy fats are found in many different types of food. Some examples are, avocados and their oil, nuts, seeds and their oils, fatty fish like wild caught salmon, olives and their oils, grass-fed butter or ghee (clarified butter), whole eggs, grass-fed and pasture raised meats, coconut and it’s derivatives, like oil, butter and full fat milk. These are just a few examples of great sources of healthy oils and fats that you can consume on a regular basis.

Your Skin Needs Healthy Fats To Thrive

Although eating fats and oils is great for our health, it doesn’t stop there. Our skin, the largest organ in our body, also needs oil to be fully nourished and cared for. The skin has its own microbiome, and oil is just one of the best ways to feed it and keep it alive, thriving, and beautiful. In fact, oil is what keeps the skin young, taut, and supple.

I use oil on my skin in the form of self massage, also known as abhyanga. Apart from delivering the oil directly onto the skin, abhyanga provides those that do it with nourishing love and deep care. Abhyanga nourishes the senses, calming and grounding the nervous system, reducing stress, improving digestion and circulation, and helping the body to flush out its waste products more efficiently.

I now do a daily practice of self massage. Before I did self massage every day, I would walk around with this feeling of vulnerability, exposure and anxiety. I felt un-protected and as I implemented the practice of abhyanga, I realized that abhyanga acted as a safeguard, like a kind of protective blanket. Abhyanga made me feel safe and cared for because the heavy quality of oil, helps me to get and feel grounded. For me doing this practice daily is worth the small time investment.

Give Yourself Some Love

In Sanskrit the word for oil is sneha and it also translates to” love” or “affection.” When we practice abhyanga, and use oil to massage our bodies, we literally coat our vessel with a layer of affection and love as well as a healing touch, providing comfort, vitality, strength and flexibility. Abhyanga increases the flow of prana in our bodies and minds. We are straight up loving our bodies through touch! As Katie Silcox points it out in her book Healthy, Happy, Sexy, touch is 10 times stronger than verbal or emotional contact.

Abhyanga is a great daily practice to have for all Ayurvedic constitutions, especially if you are Vata, and especially if you are an imbalanced Vata. Self massage will bring your scattered mind and thoughts back to center helping you feel grounded and embodied in your own physiology.  An excellent oil to use to balance Vata constitutions is cold-pressed organic raw sesame oil, due to its warm, nutritive and penetrating qualities. To stabilize Pitta it’s best to use organic cold-pressed coconut oil, which is unctuous and cooling in nature and for Kapha constitutions it’s best to use organic sunflower oil, or maybe even skip the oil and do a dry massage just with your hands or a dry brush.

My Tips On How to Oil Your Body

• Start by warming the oil. We warm the oil because it cures it, allowing it to be more easily absorbed by the skin and tissues. You can warm your oil by putting the oil in a small glass bottle and placing the bottle in a coffee mug with hot water, letting it sit for 10 minutes or until it’s warm enough.
• Gently massage just enough oil onto the face and the rest of the body. On the arms and legs use back and forth strokes. On the joints, use circular strokes. Massage your whole body including head, neck and feet. On the belly, use circular strokes in a clockwise motion (if you’re looking down at your belly) as this is the direction in which our large intestine moves and it will stimulate proper digestion.
• Move from your head towards your toes for a relaxing feeling, from your toes to your head for a stimulating energy or massage towards the digestive tract for a detoxing action.
• Shower to rinse the extra oil off.

Take Your Time For Best Results

Take 15 to 20 minutes to carefully and lovingly massage your body. If time is an issue, spend at least 5 minutes in deep presence with your own vehicle. Notice the parts of the body you tend to avoid. Is it your belly? Is it your thighs? Spend a little more time in those places as these are your places that need the most love.

While you’re doing your Abhyanga practice, take advantage of the time and the oil you’ve got handy. Put a small amount of the liquid on your hand, dip your pinky finger in it and start rubbing the oil inside your ear canals as well as the inside of your nostrils for extra lubrication, especially when it’s really cold and dry outside.  You can also rub oil in your belly button to keep it clean and moist. I hope these practices help you to feel fully embodied, nourished and comfortable in your own skin.

Vata Yoga

Being predominantly a Vata Constitution, I was very weak when I started on my yoga journey. I chose a more Vata aggravating practice during my yoga teacher training. I completed my training in Core Power Yoga and Baptiste Yoga. Both of these types of yoga are wonderful for more muscular body types like Pitta or sturdy Kapha. But for me the flow was too fast for my nature and chronic injuries. The yoga ended up aggravating my bulging disc and neck and that is when I turned within. I found a Yoga Physical Therapist with a background in Ayurveda, and she taught me how to move slower and more methodical in my Vinyasa Flow, and I have never turned back.

Here are some tips I learned in healing my back pain:

1. Exercise the Pelvic Floor 

Many yogis say we don’t have a yoga practice without our breath! I would say the same about the pelvic floor and deep core – the breath and the bandhas go hand in hand. We don’t have a strong yoga practice until we have learned to incorporate the bandhas. A bandha is a lock where a segment of the body is sealed, isolated or constricted in some manner.

2. Practice Mula Bandha

The Mula Bandha is also called the root lock. It helps tone the pelvic floor.  Mula bandha is found at the base of the torso at the perineum, and is part of the muladhara chakra. If you think about it, the chief axis of prana is the spinal column, which rises from the perineum to the crown of the head. I utilize the Mula Bandha to stabilize many yoga postures. Activating the Bandha takes time and concentration to incorporate it with my breath, so it slows down the ether and air aspects of my Vata Nature and grounds me in my practice. It’s great for lower back pain because it allows you to move in a safer way through your asana practice. It takes pressure off the lumbar spine, and it allows strength for the upper spine to expand upward when the lock is in place.

3. For Thoracic Back pain or Scoliosis, Practice Uddiyana Bandha

The Uddiyana Bandha, after all the air is exhaled, is an upward lock or abdominal lift where the abdominal organs are all swept up to a higher than normal position. The abdomen is pulled under the rib cage. By activating the Uddiyana Bandha, I am able to message my thoracic spine through my breath with the lock engaged. When the lock is in place, there is a balloon-like effect of the rib cage. Udiyana stretches the respiratory diaphragm, which spans the chest and the abdomen and attaches to the base of the rib cage and lumbar spine. When you have Scoliosis the chest cavity and breath can be constricted, and it feels really nice to open up the chest cavity that can get locked down with scoliosis (or at least that is true in my body).

Connecting the Root Chakra to Ayurveda

When someone of a Vata nature is out of balance they can feel anxiety, isolation, feelings of being alone, abandoned, fearful or unsupported. Thus, working with the root chakra helps draw attention to aspects of Vata that need attention. In my case, after I started working with the root chakra, I realized that when my back pain was exacerbated, I felt unsupported, “in it alone,” or abandoned. It’s my Vata nature to push through projects, and then be completely diminished. I work intensely on tasks and then end up feeling weak and unsupported when all things are said and done. Most of my life, I have felt that I have to go it alone or make it happen on my own and that I am unsupported. It is when I don’t feel “support” that my lower back will go out on me literally paralyzing me in pain.

Root Chakra and the Relationships with Vata Dosha

The root chakra is related to the earth element. It’s responsible for our safety and security. It is the support or base that grounds us and provides stability. Imagine the roots of a tree deep within the earth giving the tree strong roots to soar high into the sky. When I started working with my root chakra, I realized that I was usually afraid or fearful that something wouldn’t work out financially in my favor.

Declare Your Needs to Save Your Back

Throughout my real estate career, many close friends or family members would engage me in a conversation about selling or listing real estate. I always assumed that my friends and relatives would use me as their agent when it came time to list or sell their home. In many cases, I would later find out that someone I assumed would work with me to sell their home, would end up choosing to work with someone else. I learned from these experiences, that in life if I fail to declare my authentic needs and allow others’ needs to take precedence over my own, I pay the price. For example, I never signed exclusive buying agreements with close ties because I trusted them. I did not pronounce and stand for my need to get paid and reimbursed for my time. I put friends and family members’ needs above my own self-protection. In one case a relative bought without using a realtor (thus not paying a commission or me after I had offered lots of free help), in another case a relative didn’t want to mix business and family, and in a third situation the financial decision-maker in the family wanted to work with their real own estate contact, after getting lots of free help from me. Over and over again I was devastated by these betrayals. On one occasion, a family member who had asked me to send them listings for months ended up using someone else. When I found out one day over a nonchalant conversation in the kitchen with this family member, my root chakra was on fire, my lower back was debilitated, and I was in crushing pain. This family member was insensitive to the fact that I had skin in the game. I never received an apology or an explanation. When I began to work with my fears, I was able to release the tension in my lower back. The fear statements that I would tell myself is that if you cannot rely on your friends and family, then who can you rely on? These feelings of abandonment were literally putting me into back pain attacks. The lesson I learned is to stand up for myself and to declare my needs. Had I declared my needs and wants, then I could have saved myself a lot of pain.

Dhanvantri – The Divine Healer

Lord Dhanvantri in Ayurveda is the Divine Healer within all of us. Healing back pain requires turning inward, and the best way I can describe this experience is becoming very primal. When my back and neck hurt, if I close my eyes and get on my mat and breathe I find my body instinctively knows what to do next. The breath guides me into the next posture, and the next, and the next. At times I lead my body with the ego, but when I let all that go, and I start with my ujjayi breath and then begin working with the bandhas, the gateway opens into an incredibly deep experience. I typically start in cat cow and breathe into that asana until my body decides what it needs next, usually it is a simple down dog. Don’t ever underestimate the power of a down dog! These two postures alone can be enough to just melt away the stress and bring the necessary ease to turn inward. For all those with back pain, I highly recommend stretching gently, slowly, and to close your eyes and just look within there is a mystery of healing waiting for you. I promise! 

Relieving Pain with Meditation, not Medication

In saving the best for last, one of the best practices for calming down my back problems and bringing me back to ease and a sense of security is finding a state of calm amongst the storm. When my back has flared up, my body has communicated to me that I need to slow down, and if I don’t, it will slow me down by locking my back up. When I have overworked, ran myself into the ground, or overextended myself for others, without honoring myself, I have been crippled by pain. One Christmas I had 16 people coming over for dinner, and my back locked up. I couldn’t cook, clean or manage or do anything. I don’t smoke pot, but I was so desperate that my husband called a friend who brought over pot butter for me to eat to help me unravel and unwind. At Christmas dinner, I proceeded to tell everyone I was high and f*&^# it. I got a few good laughs that year. At the time, I didn’t have a meditation practice to know that I could turn inward to heal. I was still seeking outside relief without knowing the Divine Healer was within. Our body is immensely aware of what we need. Without meditation, I am not able to turn inward and listen to what my body is trying to communicate to me. If I cannot slow down, my body has a way of arresting itself for me.I’ll admit that I am not good at any of these practices. Being a Vata, I resist these practices with every ounce of my being, However, it is through habit evolution that I have learned to honor my body. I crave movement, multitasking, and chasing my next biggest idea – however, nothing can come to fruition when one is arrested by back pain.

Final Tips for Overcoming Back Pain

Slow down long enough to listen to what is really going on inside yourself.

• Focus your attention on your root chakra. Are you afraid of something, angry about something, or feeling out of touch with yourself? Bring your awareness from your crown chakra all the way down to the root chakra, allowing each chakra to feel your attention through your breath and awareness. Acknowledge what you are feeling, and start to meditate and breath into your own body, and allow whatever comes up for you to be released.
• If you have a yoga practice, then bring this awareness into your body and listen to what your body is communicating back to you. If your body isn’t wanting to do an asana or posture, hold back, and do the postures that bring you the most relief. If you are a Vata nature, slow down and move through your practice slowly and methodically. There have been times when I have been in such crippling pain that I could only manage one posture. Find the posture that fuels your entire being, breath, and open up to the whispers of your soul awaiting you.  

Oh sure, occasional travel can be exciting and fun. I would be the last to knock it, having traveled extensively throughout my 20s and 30s. But truth be told, we have to be intelligent and skillful with our self care if we want our bodies to stay healthy while traveling. Only careful planning and strategic actions will keep our minds grounded during travel considering the stressors travel brings.

In the Ayurvedic, view, travel provokes Vata which is linked to overwhelm, anxiety and nervousness in the mind. Vata also causes constipation, dehydration, and dryness in the body.  Vata consists of air and ether.

How does Vata relate to travel?

Let me explain…

• Air is related to movement. When we go from point A to B that implies movement.
• Ether, aka space, is involved in travel as we start out in one space and end up in another space. This requires the body to adjust to the different requirements in those spaces including climate, food, timezone, altitude and maybe even a different culture.

Travel is particularly impactful the older we get

As children we are naturally strong and resilient because we are in the Kapha phase of life (earth and water). As adults we maintain our system with Pitta energy which is not quite as strong as Kapha, but still has a maintaining quality on our physiology.

As we hit 35 years of age, Vata increases with age. The older we are the more pronounced Vata becomes. Travelling, a Vata inducing activity during a Vata time of life, results in a lot of Vata.

Too much Vata has consequences…

Vata has a deteriorating quality by nature

For this reason grounding and nourishing practices are of utmost importance when we travel.  And, please, don’t think that I am unfairly judging. There are lots of beautiful things about Vata.

Vata is the great mover in the body. Circulation, lymph movement and breathing are just a few physiological processes that require Vata energy.

When Vata is balanced a person is creative, visionary,  enthusiastic and genuinely excited about life. The pitfall comes when Vata rises too much. We call that Vata aggravation. The equation goes:

Travel (Vata) + Age above 35 (Vata) + Vata inducing lifestyle = too much Vata

We don’t want too much Vata. As I said before, Vata is deteriorating to the tissues in the body and it creates an unstable mind.

Keep your Vata in check and make travel an easeful and enjoyable experience with these seven travel tips. Feeling good in your body and mind makes all the difference when you travel long distances to spend time out with loved ones for the holidays.

Seven Stellar Travel Tips from Ayurveda

1. Prep for your trip.

Get plenty of sleep before you start your trip. Eat grounding foods like root veggies, soups and stews, unless it’s the blazing heat of summer. Hydrate a lot.

Prevention is the best medicine. Also take at least 5-10 min to get clear on how you will spend your time. Write it down. Is there anything practical you need to attend to or can you totally chill? Being clear about the intention of your trip including what activities you’d like to do, calms the nervous system and allows you totally let go.

2. Eat grounding foods.

You know how they give you pretzels and crispy sticks in the airplane? Forget about those. They are drying and aggravate Vata. Instead opt for soup (before travel, while in the airport or on the road), lots of hydrating drinks (forget beer, wine and coffee all of which are dehydrating; go for the water instead, hot is best).

Beets have an incredibly grounding effect on the body and increase downward flow. That is good to prevent constipation. Eat those if you can.

3. Take a bath.

Upon arrival, the first thing I do is take a bath, ideally with epsom salts. Water counteracts the light Vata energy, salt is heavy and grounding. If you can’t take a bath because there is no tub, take a long, hot shower. If you can’t do that, wash your face, hands and feet with hot water.

This bathing practice not only grounds the Vata in the body but the mind too. Water relates to the Moon and thus our emotions. Surrounding yourself with lots of water grounds your emotions and washes away any anxiety, overwhelm and nervousness.

4. Take deep belly breaths.

Vata energy, when imbalanced, has an upward and outward movement. The feeling is: I am crazy and all over the place. Taking full, deep belly breaths draws the energy down into the center of our body. Do it whenever you are standing in line somewhere or first thing when you sit down in a chair.

5. Do Self massage.

Use oil. Lots of oil. Ideally with grounding essential oils or vata reducing herbs. Check out this blog on Abhyanga (aka self massage) to get more details. Also listen to this podcast on how to alleviate achy joints and muscles. Sarah and I talk extensively about abhyanga.

If you have never done this practice before, start out by massaging your feet with sesame oil. Add any grounding essential oils like Vetiver, Jatamansi or Chamomile. Put a pair of old socks over your feet and let the oil sink in.

6. Choose airports and places that feed your senses.

According to Ayurveda, one of the major ways we get out of balance is through the misuse of our senses. Misuse refers to both overuse, underuse or incorrect use. Travelling inherently causes overuse of the senses. We are exposed to tons of impressions, through our eyes and ears especially.

Consider eye masks whenever possible and ear plugs whenever appropriate. Also, what I have found helpful is choosing routes on my trip that are less aggravating to my system. For example, I frequently travel from the US to Germany. Choosing stop overs in smaller airports like Portland or Reykjavik keeps me more calm and settled versus travelling through noisy and overstimulating airports like New York. The smaller airports also tend to have more holistic food choices.

7. Use essential oils.

They are a great rescue remedy that fit into any purse. You can also go through security with small bottles when air travelling. Essential oils are power houses as they carry the essence of plants in just a few drops.

Putting various drops of essential oils on key places such as the crown of the head, palms of the hands and soles of the feet ground and seal in your energy and prevents Vata energy all over the place.

Making It Work

If this sounds like a lot, pick one remedy and do it diligently. Next time you travel adopt a second one, then a third one. Over time these practices will become habits. Your body will thank you.

And hey, if you need help getting a grip on these practices, we, as Yoga Health Coaches are here for you. That’s what we do. We help you establish healthy rhythms and routines even while travelling.

P.S. By the way, air travel is even more Vata aggravating than car or train travel. Think about it. Air travel as the name already suggests, makes you deal with the air but also the ether element. Vata is comprised of air and ether. in contrast, during car and train travel you still have some connection to the earth, thus counteracting the impact of the movement a bit more. Still in all cases you want to ground Vata.

As you look back in your life, do you notice a pattern of your body weight?  Do you forget to eat or do you reach out for food when you are upset?  Do you know someone who eats exactly like you but doesn’t gain an ounce while you struggle to keep the weight off?  Where do you feel discomfort when you have digestion issue?  Is it your stomach, intestine or colon?   

Your Ayurvedic Constitution

According to Ayurveda, there are three body types (doshas or constitution) that correspond to our physical and personality traits: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Understanding your dosha is the first step in gaining tremendous insight in your body as you learn the right diet, exercise routine and lifestyle that are optimal for your health. You may find an Ayurvedic practitioner to accurately determine your dosha or you may take the online dosha quiz to get an idea. Most people are a combination of two doshas, but one typically predominates.

Don’t get too hung up on the detailed analysis of your dosha quiz as you might find different results each time you take the quiz.  You want to know your dominant dosha so that you start paying attention to how you body reacts to different foods at different time and you become more connected with the food that you eat.  As time goes by and you get to know yourself better, the quiz result will become closer and closer to your true self.  For example, when I was younger and less self-aware, I thought I was Pitta-Kapha, but having looked back at how I reacted to eating in my younger years, I realized I am actually Pitta-Vata.

Let’s look at your diet based on your body type:

Vata

Vata is made up of ether and air.  It is light and dispersing. Those with predominantly Vata are naturally thin and difficult to gain weight.  Foods containing a lot of ether and air which are raw, dry and cold should be avoided.  

Vatas favour sweet, salty and sour tastes. They should eat moist, warm, oil and heavy (grounded) foods.  When Vatas are out of balance, their poor digestion will cause bloating and constipation.  They tend to forget to eat when they are overwhelmed or upset.  Looking back at my own life, I realized that my Vata imbalance that had caused me to not feel hunger when I broke up with my boyfriend during my final exam in university many years ago.

Check out Overweight Vata Podcast.

Pitta

Pitta is made up of fire and water.  It is intense and radiating.  Those with predominantly Pitta are medium build, can gain and lose weight fairly easily.  Their digestive fire is strong and sometimes they think they can eat anything.  I am very Pitta (more than 50%) and I had had very huge appetite during my younger adulthood.  This is a very common problem for most Pittas because we think we have been eating this much of food in the past without putting on the extra weight and we should be able to still do the same. The reality is our body becomes more efficient as we get older and it requires less food.  So if we don’t adjust how we eat, we can still gain weight easily.  This is exactly what happened to me when I was in my 30’s and I started to pile up a couple of pounds every year, going from size 0 to size 6.  Not until this spring when I started intermittent fasting (meal spacing that cycles between at least 13 hours of fasting and eating) that I finally regained control of my healthy weight.

Pittas favour sweet, bitter, and astringent tastes. They should eat sweet juicy fruits, cooling vegetables like cucumber, kale and lettuce while avoiding hot and spicy foods, alcohol and caffeine.  When Pittas are out of balance, they suffer from acid reflux or heartburn.

Check out Overweight Pitta Podcast.

Kapha

Kapha is made up of water and earth.  It’s heavy and dense. Those with predominantly Kapha are heavy build and find it harder to lose weight. I have a Kapha girlfriend who loves to have healthy snack frequently in small quantity, and she likes her sweets too. You can see the snacking (or meal stacking) and sweets are aggravating Kapha. It will be very difficult for her to maintain a healthy weight unless she starts to intermittent fast and obey her dosha-favoured diet.

The Kaphas favour pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes. They should eat a lot of vegetables and high fiber foods like legumes while minimizing dairy, oily foods and sweets. When Kaphas are out of balance, their slow digestion may lead to weight gain.

Check out Overweight Kapha Podcast.

Meal Stacking May Cause Disease

Regardless of your body type, if you are constantly eating (i.e. snacking or meal stacking), you will have food at different digestion stages along your gastrointestinal tract —  an apple from an hour ago in your stomach, a cookie from 3 hours ago in your intestine and your lunch from 4 hours ago in your colon. This constant buildup of food depletes our energy to actually do a proper job in digestion, absorption and elimination. When food builds up like this, we start to accumulate ama (toxins from undigested food and usually caused by weak digestion). If you have more Vata in your constitution, ama will accumulate in colon, Pitta in small intestine and Kapha in stomach.

You want to pay close attention to ama because it is the first stage of disease according to Ayurveda’s six stages of disease.  

So how can you prevent ama from building up?  

Have your largest meal between 10 am and 2 pm  – when your digestive fire is the strongest. Eat when you are truly hungry (not emotional hunger) and space your meals for proper digestion, absorption and elimination.  According to Ayurveda, Vata should eat 3 to 4 times a day, Pitta 3 times and Kapha 2 to 3 times, and no snacking in between meals. This is also called intermittent fasting. This concept is foreign to some people who have been told to constantly graze to boost metabolism.

Besides meal stacking, dosha imbalance may also happen when you violate your daily habits like eating late heavy dinner when the digestive fire is weak, going to bed late with full stomach obstructing digestion and proper body cleansing, eating junk food or not eating mindfully.

What is your take?

Should you care how you eat for your body type?  Intermittent fasting or meal stacking? Experiment it for yourself, connect and listen to your body, and notice how you feel. Check in with your body when you crave certain food.  Is it the pure craving or is it dosha imbalance? Our body is very intelligent, if you attune your diet and lifestyle to your body constitution and the natural rhythm of life, you will start to find your healthy weight and have a radiant longevity.