Chances are that you have trouble managing your cravings. If you are not hungry then it is unlikely that you will have cravings. Sometimes because of emotions, anxiety or boredom cravings can arise, but one strategy for alleviating cravings is to keep yourself feeling nourished. The more nourished that you feel the more able you are to avoid the cravings.

• Eat until you are satisfied.
  • Not all meals are created equal, just as not all calories are not created equal.  It is important to leave the table feeling full and satisfied. This does not mean to overeat, but to choose meal options that include all six tastes and are at least 75% vegetables. By following these basic guidelines you will be more able to create meal options that feed you in a different way. The volume of water contained in vegetables make for a low calorie meal helping you to feel satiated with without worrying about extra weight.
• Digest fat
  • Fat is becoming one of the most important macronutrients after a decade of low fat diets that don’t work. For example many Eskimos can have one meal every few days and feel satiated until the next meal. Our ability to digest fats will allow us to feel fuller longer. This depends on the health of the gall bladder. If the gall bladder and liver are healthy then increasing your intake of meat, nuts, avocado, olive oil and other healthy oils. By choosing this in conjunction with a high volume of vegetables then you will support the body’s ability to find its optimal weight.
• Choose foods that are assimilated over time
  • Many of the foods I have mentioned so far can assist in delaying or eliminating cravings because they are nutrient dense. The more nutrient density in the food the more time it takes to assimilate the nutrients. Other foods that can be beneficial in addition to healthy fats, vegetables, non starchy grains and wild game meats.
    

All of these strategies are simple. Yet, simple interventions are often the most effective. Try them as experience is the best teacher.

Cleansing has always been an important part of health, not just for humans, but for all animals. These days we are exposed to many man-made substances that our bodies are not accustomed too and so more frequent cleansing may be necessary. Here are a few of my favorite reasons to cleanse:

1. Everything we put in our body is either appropriate or inappropriate for our goals of health. Cleansing cleans out the body’s aqueducts and allows us to access our bodies innate wisdom.
2. Cleansing has been utilized by every ancient tradition including Egyptian, Indian, Persian and Greek in order to facilitate healing.
3. Your ability to maintain discipline and receive the results of cleansing improves with each cleanse that you do. It builds a neural network in your brain allowing healthy choices to be the norm.
4. When you clear out all the clutter you become more sensitive to the subtle and profound messages that your body is sending you all the time.
5. Cleansing trains your body to extract the maximum amount of nutrition from you food so you can minimize your consumption of resources.
6. Cleansing brings you closer to your true nature as Spirit and allows you to access your super consciousness and have deep realizations.
7. Brain fog can be eliminated through cleansing leaving you mentally clear and sharp.
8. With the enhanced clarity from cleansing you will see your purpose more clearly and opportunities will knock loudly on your door.
9. People will notice your glowing skin, optimal weight and balanced energy.
10. The more you cleanse the more you will be used to functioning at a high level and will experience longer periods of health and well-being.
11. Cleansing foods support the proliferation of beneficial bacteria and restore biological terrain.
12. Bad bacteria, yeasts and parasites starve during cleanses making them easier to eliminate.
13. Decreasing the amount of bad bacteria increases your energy levels as you no longer have to work to neutralize and filter their metabolic excretions.
14. When you are clean and clear within you will be more prone to let go of clutter in your home, work and car.
15. Your quality of life improves as toxins in your fat cells and blood are no longer creating stress on your body.
16. A cleanse will make you feel better which can make you feel happier.

 
A cleanse is a way of loving your body. When you take care of your body and show it love and support then it rewards you with energy and vitality. Share the love with your body now.

Having been teaching and sharing wellness since 2002 I have learned a lot. Time after time while offering many of my gifts I have been told that I look at least 10-20 years younger than I actually am. Many people owe my youth to the many practices that I have employed since taking that first yoga class when I was 16 years old, but I’m not so sure. Recently there has been a lot of research into cold shock proteins and I believe this may have a lot to do with my youthful appearance.

This culture tends to promote and increase the Ayurvedic dosha of Vata. Vata is known as being extremely inventive, intuitive and intelligent. So why is it that these days the aspects of Vata that are more common are lack of focus, poor memory and inability to concentrate. That is because our lives our so full it can be hard to keep the mobile aspect of vata in balance. This is where healthy and seasonally appropriate routines come in. By having routines in place we can leverage the power of vata and get access to its inventive and idealistic nature. The four routines below will assist you in this endeavor. Vata tends to bite off more than they can chew and get overwhelmed so don’t fall into that trap. Implement these one week at a time or wait until you have success with one routine until you shift your energy to initiating and maintaining another one.

It has always been a conundrum to me that athletes and people with type A personalities are Pitta types because these are the types of people that are the most susceptible to inflammation which would compromise their athletic performance and cognitive function. Not necessarily from the increased demands that they put on their bodies and minds on a daily basis, but because of their tendency to respond to imbalance through inflammation. This is the cornerstone of imbalanced pitta and let’s look at how this inflammatory response often occurs.

I have some time off from school and I am spending it on a biodynamic farm in Southern Oregon. It is so peaceful and quiet here. In deep contrast to my life in Oakland.

I have noticed that I believe all the hard work and rushing will have the eventual goal of landing me permanently in the environment that I am experiencing this week on the farm. The quiet, the community, the peace. Yet, even with so much unscheduled time I still wake up in the morning with a sense of haste.

We are a culture of causes. Always looking for a reason a diagnosis, someone to blame for everything and anything that has ever occurred in our lives. Although some things are quite random in the case of many conditions we can trace them back to a primary cause. Take the following symptoms for example

• Environmental allergies
• Sensitives to certain foods or smells
• Eczema or acne
• Anxiety and depression
• Gas, bloating and constipation

When you read that list do you think that the root cause could be the same thing?

Within the realm of Ayurveda there are three gunas or qualities that define the universe. These qualities can be considered to be the perspective that we bring to the events in our life. This perspective colors all our activities and leads us towards outcomes and behaviors that may be appropriate and beneficial or self-destructive. By understanding the three gunas we can choose to bring in more of the perspective or mindset that allows us to achieve our goals. The three gunas are:

1. Sattva – Mature mindset
2. Rajas- Growth mindset
3. Tamas- Fixed mindset

Being a health care provider since 2006 I have seen a lot of changes every year as a new pivotal study is published and everyone rushes to be a part of the newest fad diet. During all of this I have continued to prescribe diets based on peoples constitution (vitality, digestive strength, mindset, etc and imbalance. This structure is not a reproducible and cannot be called a diet because it is uniquely tailored to the individual. However I have found some interesting data to support this.

We have all been there. In a state of panic or obsessive worry that we just can’t seem to break free of. It affects our relationships, our ability to function and our motivation for life. So what can be done? In Ayurveda anxiety is considered to be a Vata condition. This is because the Vata dosha is governed by the space element and space resides in the ear. When you are anxious your internal voice won’t stop its monologue. It is said that worry is in the ear, not in the eye. This condition is often the result of cortical rigidity. Which takes place when the limbic system and emotional brain have lost the capacity to respond flexibly to changing circumstances. This makes us worry and obsess, because we are trying to stop change from happening. As all of us know that is impossible so better to cultivate the emotional responsiveness and re-establish our cortical plasticity. Some ways to do this are:

I admit it. I am subject to the same tendencies as everyone. Yesterday I ate a half a block of goat cheese. Why didn’t I stop when I knew it was enough? Because I didn’t employ my strategy for stopping. Willpower by itself is rarely enough unless you are from India and have been meditating since you were 2. Gandhi and Eknath Easwaren seemed to have more willpower than the average person, but they also had powerful motivation and probably some deeper insight that fed their willpower. For the rest of us relying on willpower probably won’t work. In order to get control of your eating habits there must be an upstream, in the stream and downstream approach. I call this the Stream strategy.

 
These days asking someone “How are you?” basically means hello. As a clinician the questions I ask are more than how are you, but I consistently find the same thing. Someone will say that they basically feel OK. Nothing serious is holding them back and that they are doing fine. After some further interrogation it becomes clear that feeling OK includes fatigue, poor sleep, bad skin and bloating. That doesn’t sound “fine” to me, but many of us have learned to put up with a certain amount of stress and discomfort. What if I was to tell you that this is not necessary? That you no longer need to sweep things under the rug and you can remove 80% of your symptoms if you were supported to complete five things. Sounds too good to be true? I have seen it work time and time again and I encourage you to make a commitment to incorporating these five things into your life and see the results.

Your diet is math. It is simple like math if you add this then it will equal this. Of course depending on what you are adding to. Meaning that your unique bio identity is what you are adding or subtracting from through the foods that you eat. Just like with math you can go too far in either direction. At first it may be necessary to subtract certain foods from your diet that have been linked to inflammation, but if you diet becomes too simple or too homogenous then it may be time to add some new kinds of foods in.

I know that the title of this article sounds a little farfetched. Stress is a natural part of life, but I have been hearing a lot of talk from my clients lately about gaining weight easily, feeling tired, weak, stress and anxious. Most of them are calling it adrenal fatigue. Which by all accounts is the result of their adrenal glands being worn out from the stress of modern life. There is a huge supplement industry that is growing up around this theory and plenty of marketing materials to support it.

The adrenal glands are small lumps that sit on top of our kidneys. There primary function is to secrete various hormones including the most popular hormonal response to stress, cortisol. These days who hasn’t heard about cortisol? It is true that the adrenal glands can stop working. In an autoimmune condition called Addison’s disease the immune system destroys the adrenal glands. The public is led to believe that adrenal fatigue is a mild version of Addison’s disease that is caused by stress.

Chai is becoming a popular substitute for coffee because it helps people get going in the morning without as much caffeine. Chai is a traditional Indian drink and it has a lot of healing properties. Many people depend on stimulants to get going in the morning. Like everything in Ayurveda we must assess whether it is appropriate or inappropriate and coffee may not be appropriate for most people. Try this morning tea cocktail instead of coffee in order to reduce your dependency on stimulants.

This tea may seem reminiscent of Bulletproof Coffee, and it is.  They serve similar purposes and it is for this reason that I named it 16 Carat Chai. It is also similar to Tim Ferris’s Titanium Tea.

In locations where there are four seasons every season has unique characteristics that define it. Spring is characterized by cool, wet, variable qualities. Summer in most places is primarily hot, dry and intense. Fall brings about the qualities of cool, windy, dry and variable weather patterns. Winter is characteristically cold, wet and steady. Each of these characteristic qualities affects our physiology and affects the growth of certain plants and the animals that consume them. For example in the Spring the stored food like nuts and seeds that were used during the winter are all gone and there is less availability of food. What is available are primarily spring greens and roots that tend to cleanse the blood, lymph and heal the kidneys. Examples of these kinds of herbal foods are dandelion greens and chickweed. These herbal foods are perfect for gently cleansing the body of the heaviness and rich foods that predominate in the winter. If the diet is not adjusted to honor this natural cycle then the heavy food can bio accumulate in the body leading to conditions such as obesity, heart disease and cancer. That is why aligning with these rhythms can prevent the accumulation of wastes caused by eating too much of one kind of food until the body can no longer adapt and it becomes aggravated thus leading to disease.

If my hard core Ayurvedic friends knew I was a fan of the smoothie bowl they would probably disown me and call the Ama police. If you are not familiar with the ama police they are the Ayurvedic individuals committed to serve and protect your digestion from mis-digestion. I wish there was a similar community for miscommunication, but that is another topic. The basics of a smoothie bowl is to turn a smoothie into a meal and if you are have every enjoyed one this Ayurvedic tips can help keep your digestion strong while enjoying your smoothie bowl.

Guest Post by Nathan Platt

When ancient people started picking through the topmost layer of earth to find what was buried underneath the soil, the first metal that they came across and started using with purpose was copper. The soft metal was easy to work into useful shapes, and although it was not strong enough to withstand heavy impacts without reforming its shape, it was perfectly suitable for making simple objects such as containers.

Thus began the first practical uses of metal by ancient civilizations some eight thousand years ago, followed quickly by the realization that copper was a particularly good material for holding and storing drinking water. Ancient copper containers dating back thousands of years have been found in civilizations around the world from ancient Egypt, Hindustan, and Central and South America.

For thousands of years plants have been used as medicine. It has not been until recently that the scientific community has begun to study and isolate certain compounds in plants and utilize them as medicine. This strategy of isolation and reductionism has proven useful to develop new drugs that treat many diseases. Unfortunately in conjunction with these advances in treatment there has been an explosion of unwanted side effects normally mitigated by the synergistic nature of the whole plant. Ayurveda has long since seen the strength of using whole plants and combining them in artful way to create personalized cures. Just like any effective team or group when herbs are combined together they become more powerful than their individual parts.

Chances are you have tried everything. You have tried cutting calories, but calories feed muscle, bones and fat so if you have done this and you are exercising or doing cardio then cutting calories is doing you harm. The more muscle that you lose the more likely it will be that you will have trouble losing belly fat, shrink your thighs and firm up your arms. It is not about the amount of calories that you eat it is more important to pay attention to the type of calories you are eating. Not all calories are created equal choose veggies whenever possible.

When we think about our motivation and what goes wrong we learn that the nature of our motivation is extremely important in whether we will be able to sustain a new habit long term. Most of us have been brought up to have a reward mentality. This mentality encourages us to receive extrinsic rewards for a job well done. This is partly because of the way that school and work are organized. We receive rewards and credit for what we do on the outside. Because of this many of us have lost track of what our intrinsic motivations are.

Each different Dosha has a unique way in which they can get motivated intrinsically. This explains why an individual with a higher proportion of one of the Dosha may be more motivated then another.

Small wins were considered one of the keys to Michael Phelps winning strategy in Beijing at the Olympics. The idea behind small wins is that everything we do can be seen as a win or a loss and when we create a lot of small wins that gives us the momentum and good mood to be successful when we face real challenges.
With Michael Phelps he would eat breakfast and do the same stretches and training regimen before each race. Each one of these activities creates a sense of accomplishment and success and builds on itself. I feel this sensation when I am hiking. Traversing cliff side trails or getting to the top of a mountain gives me a sense of accomplishment. In our modern lives we have fewer small wins which will make us less insulated towards rejection and challenges.

The hair and fingernails can be a good determinant of the overall health of your body. Not to mention that the quality of our hair is also really important for your self-confidence. When you hair starts to thin or recede it can be an indication that your hormones are out of balance and something needs to happen to get them back on track. In addition to hormones the dominant theories also include nutrient deficiencies, autoimmune conditions and stress.
 
Ayurveda is uniquely attuned to be able to address stress related hair loss. Ayurveda has precise practices from maintaining energy levels, balancing sleep patterns, maintaining a positive mood and improving our behavior and decision making abilities. By combining all of these we get a more complete picture of the person and the effect their decisions have on their appearance.