How Can Ayurveda Help with Natural and Gentle Weight Management?
Updated: Oct 15
Discover Ayurvedic methods to awaken your body's natural intelligence for promoting healthy weight management. Here are 10 effective Ayurvedic strategies for weight control that are simple to incorporate.
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How Can Ayurveda Help with Natural and Gentle Weight Management?
What we consume is more than the specific chemicals such as fat, proteins, carbohydrates. Ayurveda uses food as medicine and the intelligence of the food we eat matters. What do I mean by that? Think of a bag of potato chips compared to a fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits from the grower’s market, or your own garden. It’s clear which has more intelligence, and more to offer to our inner intelligence.
Our bodies have an inner intelligence that we want to reawaken and support with an Ayurvedic way of eating and lifestyle. This intelligence governs all the functions, including hormones and metabolism.
The body is brilliant, and it does the best with what we feed it and how we use it. When we’re providing intelligent foods, and living with the guidance of Ayurveda, the knowledge of life—our body and mind operate at their best.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, if there’s a weight problem, it’s due to some disruption in the inner intelligence.
Enjoy our video: Natural, Gentle Weight Management with Ayurveda.
Ten Ayurvedic Tips To Engage Your Body’s Intelligence.
10 Best Ayurvedic Tips For Weight Management
1. Develop strong digestion as it's key to a healthy body and mind. It is job #1. If digestion is not optimal and balanced, the rest of the body (and mind…) feels it. If digestion is weak, ama, or toxin, is created which is undigested food particles that block up the flows of the body. Think of it as running your car’s motor with gunky oil (ama) trying to circulate (inner intelligence) through the parts. It doesn't work so smoothly.
Ama shows up as a coating on the tongue, in feeling dull, stiff, fatigued, constipated, bloated, foggy, poor sleep, bad breath, and feeling older than we are, and many more symptoms. Using the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda, we gently remove ama through use of food as medicine, herbs, and Ayurvedic lifestyle practices.
If you're wondering if you have a doshas imbalance read a Wild List of Vata Imbalances, Hot List of Pitta Imbalances, and a Sturdy List of Kapha imbalances. See if you have signs of ama.
When digestion is balanced and healthy, food is digested, assimilated, and eliminated completely. If you've been wondering why Ayurveda is interested in bowel movement--that's why! Stool says a lot as you'll discover here: Ayurveda Stool Analysis: What Your Poop Says About Your Health.
Balanced appetite, proper assimilation, and complete elimination is foundational to good health as it prevents ama, or toxins, from building up and blocking the inner intelligence.
2. Eat food that is correct and balancing for your doshas, and according to your custom Ayurveda plan. This is determined by your original constitution (prakruti), your current state (or vikruti), stage of life, season, and where you live. Using food as medicine--and eating what balances you as an individual versus the-one-size-fits-all approach--we begin to feel like ourselves again regaining a sense of vitality, calm, focus, and ease returns to our lives. Reduce ama (toxins) and balance your agni (digestive fire) by eating according to your dosha.
3. Listen to your body’s intelligence. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of information out there, it gets really confusing, and the information is often inconsistent or contradictory. It's anxiety provoking. Not to worry, Ayurveda offers' a simple approach.
The healthiest way to eat is to listen to the body’s intelligence because that is designed specifically for you. In Ayurveda, the saying is, eating according to agni, or digestive fire. Agni, or appetite, may vary day to day, so tune in and you'll be guided wisely.
“Veena was able to help me regain my energy in just a few months and I’m feeling like my “young” self again! I love the food plan she designed for me, and all the supporting practices (am/pm routines, breathing techniques, herbs, and spice mixes) are so enjoyable to incorporate into my day. I highly recommend Saumya Ayurveda if you want to feel better and have more vitality.” --Molly Rossini, Minnesota
4. Use our free daily guided practices, to reawaken your inner guidance. Used morning and evening, these practices, 10 minutes in length, provide a foundation for shifting from fight-flight to the rest-relax-restore side of our nervous system. This supports healthy digestion and overall well-being.
5. To balance weight, we need to set in motion that inner intelligence to regain balance to all the systems of the mind-body. When we restore balance to the doshas, activate our innate intelligence, a shift occurs.
6. Enjoy our popular Ayurvedic Recipe: Lose Weight While You Eat Kapha Reducing Kitchari. Invigorate your metabolism, enhance digestion, and cleanse with Ayurvedic Kapha reducing kitchari. Kitchari is a perfect food--it's food as medicine at its best. Kitchari provides the digestive system a much-needed vacation as it's easy to digest, it's cleansing, nourishing, and it balances Kapha dosha.
7. Drink hot lemon water. Regular consumption of lemon water can offer various health benefits due to its natural detoxifying properties. Starting the day with a large glass of warm water mixed with fresh squeezed lemon juice can enhance agni (digestive fire) and support weight loss. The cleansing properties of lemon, when combined with warm water, can increase metabolism and aid in weight management. Additionally, this refreshing drink can provide an energizing and invigorating start to the day.
8. Take regular exercise. Exercising daily is essential for maintaining fitness and supporting healthy metabolism. The Ayurvedic approach to weight loss highlights the importance of sweating, especially for Kapha. Ayurvedic suggests engaging in 45-60 minutes of exercise or yog-asana each day to enhance metabolic functions. Check with your physician prior to initiating an exercise program. Combining a well-rounded Ayurvedic food as medicine plan with regular exercise and yog-asana not only fosters relaxation in the body but also nurtures peace of mind and spirit.
9. Eat seasonally. To effectively lose weight using Ayurvedic principles, it is recommended to consume foods that are in season in your geographical location, and aligned with your unique doshic picture. Explore more about Ritucharya: Ayurveda Tips on Seasonal Eating.
10.Walk After Meals. Ever feel sleepy or dog tired after eating? Meals that are not aligned with your doshic picture tend to make us drowsy or sleepy. If agni (digestive fire) is not balanced, that adds to the post-meal just-gotta-fall-alseep! However, for healthy weight loss, it is recommended to walk after each meal to help with digestion. Also, if you feel tired after lunch at work, even a short walk will energize you and get the juices flowing again.
How Do I Know If I Have a Dosha Imbalance?
If you took the dosha quiz and found yourself more confused, peruse these comprehensive and convenient lists of signs and symptoms of dosha imbalances and see if anything looks familiar.
As we are all comprised of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, there can be an imbalance in any of the doshas, or a combination of dosha imbalances. Read all three lists and see if anything looks familiar.
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How Can Ayurveda Help with Natural and Gentle Weight Management?
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Veena is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and meditation teacher, and monk.
She is President Emeritus and teaching faculty of the Meditation Center.
Veena fell in love with the traditional medicine used in her family’s home, learning herbal remedies at her grandmother's knee.
An experienced Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Veena’s deep, intuitive knowledge of Ayurveda empowers her clients to reclaim their fullest, most vibrant lives –mentally, physically, and spiritually.
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