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.

Through Cate’s Body Thrive course, Johanie learned how to create healthy daily habits as well as the importance of breath work and meal spacing. She discusses her new way of looking at her needs and her hunger and talks about all the positive changes she’s made in the process.

What you’ll get out of tuning in

• How ayurveda can heal chronic illness
• Why changes in habits affect changes in beliefs and identity
• What you can learn from the Body Thrive course

Links

• Body Thrive
• Living Ayurveda Course

Show Highlights

• 01:43 Johanie tells the story of her childhood, being sick and also living in an abusive environment, her life into her teens, digestive issues and immune issues, kidney failure, and other ailments
• 10:03 – Johanie discusses a pivotal moment in her life: Attending an ayurvedic retreat
• 16:42 – How Johanie found Cate and the Body Thrive course
• 22:07 – Johanie talks about how other people perceive her as she creates her new identity
• 28:40 – What’s next for Johanie: Energy and healing as a way to help others

Favorite Quotes

• “Making peace with my past was a big thing.” – Johanie
• “I don’t have to be perfect, I just need to enjoy the process.” – Johanie
• “Healing comes from a spiritual space that you make.” – Johanie

Guest BIO

Johanie Poulin, having found ayurveda at a healing retreat, has transformed her life from one of being sick and tired to one of health and hope.

Now in her mid-thirties, Johanie’s mission is to continue her path of healing and to spread the word of her journey.

The body loves simplicity, the soul loves celebrating.

It is about to be Easter, a jovial spring time celebration honoring the resurrection of Jesus and the miracle of life. Celebrations are amazing in that they feed our soul. There is a feeling of connection, joy and gratitude in the air that our souls thrive on.

Thinking back to my childhood when I was embedded in a society dictated by Christian holidays (Germany if you are curious) Easter was one of those occasions, where my extended family got together. It would look something like this: Visit church in the morning, followed by an elaborate feast at lunch, easter egg hunt and afternoon coffee and desserts. Yummy!  My Mom would cook a luxurious meal, and a couple of cakes, just in case we run out. Auntie Sue would bring her legendary apple pie, and grandma would match that with her version of a dessert. All was thoughtful and lovely. And like with any other feast, there was always the danger of stuffing yourself.

Time to Prepare

Once upon a time, Lent preceded Easter. Well, actually, it still does. It’s just that hardly anyone follows this ritual anymore. Lent is the time period 40 days before Easter. It is a time of fasting, repentance and preparation for the coming celebration. It is a time of self-examination, reflection and going without.

Today Easter seems to be a standalone celebration for most of us. A time of abundance is followed by more time of abundance. The body doesn’t like that. The body thrives on the principle of ‘less is more’ NOT more is better. Undereating, in fact, is a way to stay younger longer. Simplicity allows the body to rejuvenate and rest. It allows the digestive fire to burn strong and your energy to be high. Living daily life simply allows us to enjoy celebrations more deeply.

Both simplicity and celebration play an important role in our health. Celebration feeds the soul, simplicity honors the body. We need both, ideally in pulsation.

The question then arises how can you feast and honor your body at the same time?

Ideally, we would honor Lent and go without or at least with little for 40 days. That way we prep our body for the big meal to come.

Dang, you might think, I  missed it this year. Not to worry, it’s not too late yet. You still got a few days to prep yourself. Here are three simple strategies how you can get ready in the remaining days:

3 Strategies to Prepare for the Easter Feast

Strategy 1: Simplify

Turn towards a mega simplified meal plan to give your body and digestive system a rest.

• Eat the same for lunch and dinner.
• Make one pots meals like soups or kitchari.
• Simplify your food combinations. Ditch the carb-protein-veggie obsession and eat either carb + veggie, or protein+veggie.
• Reduce the quantity you eat.

All those are strategies to make it easier on your digestive system and allow your agni (digestive fire) to come to full bloom. We want that when we are celebrating as it helps us to digest a big Easter meal, enjoy Aunt Mary’s homemade pie and still leave room for Aunt Sue’s cake.

Big meal + weak digestive fire = digestive issues and sad face

Big meal + strong digestive fire = happy face

Strategy 2: Intermittent fasting

For the remaining days till Easter, or at least the day before, practice intermittent fasting. This may be a little more of a hardcore approach but very rewarding.

Intermittent fasting refers to an eating pattern where you refrain from taking solid food for at least 16 hours. Either have dinner early, skip dinner altogether or switch to a two meals/day approach.

For example:

• If you eat dinner at 5 pm, kitchen closed after that, and have nothing else but water until 9 am, that is a 16 hour gap. So you could have meals at 9 am, 1 pm and 5pm.
• If you have strong constitution,  you could have meals at 9 am and 1 pm and skip dinner. That gives you a gap of 20 hours.
• Alternatively you could also have two meals per day say at 10 am and 4 pm.

The effect of intermittent fasting is similar to strategy 1 but more profound.  Your energy levels will be higher, you will feel lighter and more clear. Also if you struggle with weight, and celebrations are contributing to your weight gain, intermittent fasting is the way to go. Less is more.

Strategy 3: Poop like a champ

On the day of Easter drink a ton of hot water upon arising. Start with 8-16 oz. Stay relaxed but drink it in a short time frame, say 3-5 min. The water will digest within 15 min and move into your intestines where it will apply pressure against the intestinal walls. This will jumpstart peristalsis and make you poop. If 16 oz wasn’t enough, drink more hot water.

Getting a full 18 inch bowel movement will make you feel so good. It feels like emptying the overflowing trash can in your kitchen. An empty body has more room for the goodies your family and friends have prepared.

Plan Ahead for Next Year

Oh and before I let you enjoy this year’s celebration, one last thing…..let’s prep for next year:

Pull out your calendar. Yep that’s right. Stop reading and pull out your calendar.

• Add Easter to your calendar: April 1, 2018
• Add Ash Wednesday: February 14, 2018

The time between Ash Wednesday and Easter is Lent and your time to go without. Plan for it today so you can be successful tomorrow.

Now you are ready for a Happy Easter, not only in soul but body too.

Happy celebrating! Happy Easter egg hunting!