7

Daily Living

Benefits, Challenges, and Next Steps

 

If you have made it this far, you should be seeing the benefits of the Ayurvedic reset diet. After completing two weeks of vegetables only and two weeks of fruits only, with two days of fasting at the beginning of each week, you will observe a reduction in weight and in the severity of gastrointestinal tract issues like yeast overgrowth, hernias, hemorrhoids, pains, stool irregularities, bloating, gas, acidity, and constipation. You will also experience more energy, alertness, and lightness in the body, along with a sharper and more focused mind, a cleaned, healed, and refreshed gastrointestinal tract, and a more immunologically healthy digestive system.

Some of my clients have lost anywhere from six to seventeen pounds. Other benefits besides weight loss and gastrointestinal tract wellness include a reduction in joint pain, fibromyalgia, depression, and a feeling of helplessness. And an added advantage is that your sense of accomplishment and pride in yourself increases because you have taken charge of your wellness, and you are doing something for your body that will have lasting impact on your overall health.

The ultimate success of the Ayurvedic reset diet and its ability to heal the gut is based on the following:

STAYING ON THE ISOLATION MEAL PLAN

You can continue the isolation meal plan laid out at the end of chapter 6 (pages 118–26)—fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes or meats/eggs, eaten at different times of the day and not all together in one meal—for weeks at a time and could safely continue this way of eating as long as you prefer. Because the isolation meal plan gives you the chance to eat all the food groups, albeit only one food group at a time, you end up getting all the nutrients you need without any of the problems that arise from eating a combination of food groups that often lead to viruddha ahara. Some people begin to see the benefits of the plan, and they either continue this pattern of eating for longer periods of time or stop for a while and then resume it from time to time. Good habits, once learned, are hard to forget.

Between each week, maintain the two days of fasting: one day consuming water only and one day alternating between water and herbal tea. This is an essential practice. It gives the digestive system two days of rest and when you go back to eating food, your digestive system is better able to extract all the nutrients from it. Also, when food is withheld, the body turns its attention toward extracting energy from the reserves of glycogen and fat stored away in the body. Two days of abstaining from solid foods also comes with the advantage of restricting calorie intake. Calorie restriction is known to add longevity and facilitate improvement in general health.

GOING BACK TO REGULAR EATING

All that said, the biggest challenge to this might be boredom. People get tired of the same old, same old routine and they begin to look for change. So long as fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, eggs, and meats along with modest amounts of fats are a part of your eating pattern, you will receive all the nutrients needed from your food. If one or a few of these items are omitted, and junk foods begin to take the place of the omitted food group, then the body will go back to its pre–reset diet state and the nutritional balance will suffer. One perceived advantage of going back to the regular, older pattern of eating is that people feel freer. They do not have to worry about eating out and eating in company. They can travel easily. And by eating a lot of different foods in one meal, they feel that they are having fun. But, all things considered, the food combining portion of the Ayurvedic reset diet is a sane way of eating that allows you the luxury of eating everything healthy in a way that the foods do not fight in your digestive system.

If you would rather go back to “regular eating” than stay on the meal plan, you can follow either one of the simpler plans below or go back to combined meals in which certain foods are reintroduced gradually.

SIMPLER MEAL PLAN FOR MEAT EATERS

If you include meat in your diet, eat eggs and nuts for breakfast. For lunch have two parts raw salad, one-part cooked vegetables, one-part whole grain and animal-based protein. At dinner, eat just vegetables and salads only or whole fruits only. Be sure to keep the six-hour gap between meals.

It is wise to minimize the use of red meat even if it happens to be organic. Focus more on poultry and seafood. Avoid processed and cured meats completely.

SIMPLER MEAL PLAN FOR VEGETARIANS

If you are a vegetarian, your breakfast can consist of nuts, seeds, and fruit smoothies. Lunch can be two parts salad, one-part cooked vegetables, and one-part whole grains and legumes. For dinner eat a large salad or just whole fruits.

For both styles of eating, fasting on water must be carried out at least one day per week. One day of fasting with water only and a second day with water and herbal teas alternating is still preferable and recommended. Also, be sure to follow the water-intake guidelines given here.

REINTRODUCING FERMENTED FOODS

With the Ayurvedic reset diet, you have successfully shed the load of unnecessary germs from your gut and detoxified your whole body. Now is a good time to reintroduce healthy bacteria back into your gut. This can be done by including small amounts of fermented vegetables or beverages in your meal such as olives, dill pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, and kombucha.81 These contain a live probiotic mix of bacteria and yeast that are good for digestive system health. When consumed, these probiotics establish themselves amid the gut flora, and since the Ayurvedic reset diet has enabled us to flush out the unhealthy mix of gut flora from our system, these new strains of probiotics have an easier time colonizing the gut.

REINTRODUCING DAIRY AND WHEAT

If you are not lactose intolerant or allergic to wheat, then as you begin eating combination meals, you can reintroduce these items. However, start gradually. Overloading your digestive system with foods that you have stayed away from is not a good idea. Starting with small quantities of these foods and consuming them infrequently is, however, a winning strategy.

Go for organic whole wheat, wheat germ, and germinated wheat and organic whole milk, cheese, butter, and yogurt. Even though whole milk has a full-fat content, this fat is better for you than artificially and chemically modified, low-fat dairy products. The trick is in consuming small quantities and not overeating anything, even if it is organic and wholesome.

FASTING AS A SUSTAINABLE METHOD OF WEIGHT MANAGEMENT, DISEASE PREVENTION, AND LONGEVITY

Getting back to a regular routine of eating everything in one meal is very tempting because it has been our lifelong habit. We never question the logic of a mixed meal, though we have incurred a heavy fine in the way of various illnesses that have come upon us from combining all the available industrially manufactured foods in one meal and the stress and tension of the modern, sedentary life we have gotten so used to.

To help with this situation, there are very convincing studies that support the point of view that calorie restriction is the way to go.82 While you are on the Ayurvedic reset diet, each week is preceded by two days of fasting when you don’t eat any solids and drink only water on one day and water alternating with herbal tea on the second day. If your “regular” combination meals give you 2,000 calories a day, say, you can shave off a total of 4,000 calories in one week just by fasting for two days. This practice can be continued going forward. Just simply make a decision to fast on water for one day and water alternating with herbal teas on the second day and allow this nectar of nature to flush and cleanse your entire system and help you lose weight. On the other five days, you can eat combination meals, but again, eating sensibly and in moderation are the keys to success.

The myth about fasting is that you will feel weak and have less energy for your daily tasks. That is what it actually is, a myth. Once you make a disciplined effort to make fasting into a routine, a habit, you will see that you actually begin to look forward to the fasting days because of the following reasons:

 

Gandhi’s Political Fasts

Mahatma Gandhi, the founding father of India, undertook fasting on seventeen occasions for a variety of reason. His first experiences of fasting were focused on health, then he progressed to spiritually motivated fasts, and ultimately even used fasting as a political tool. Whenever he undertook fasting with an agenda, he made national and international headlines. He had several different agendas for resisting the policies of the British rulers and he did so by using the principles and practice of nonviolence as well as fasting. He fasted on just water, and sometimes he would even abstain from that. His whole plan was to convey to the British that if they did not hear him and his people, then he would let go of food, let go of water, and simply die from starvation. Even with all his fasting, he was full of good cheer and good energy. Fasting often allowed him to work for longer hours with deeper concentration, and on his shorter fasts he could even keep up with his exercise routine.

 

After very heavy eating during celebrations or when you return home from traveling where the discipline of healthy eating is hard to maintain, it is a good idea to go back to the isolation meal plan for at least one week. You can follow the one-week Ayurvedic reset diet protocol described here.

After this week, you can return gradually to your combined meal plan.

MOVING FORWARD

On thinking about the impact of modernization and industrialization making cheap industrial foods available to the masses, it is evident that the clock cannot be turned back. Our individual and collective past is out of reach. Our future is not yet born. All we have on hand is the present moment. But we can look back and learn about the life of our hunter-gatherer ancestors who lived on every continent of the earth before they were wiped out in genocides across the globe.

All the aborigines and native tribes were essentially tied to their place. Their identity, their foods, and their stories were also tied to their place. They walked about for spiritual quest, as a rite of passage or for food, but only within their own range, their own place. And in that place-bound existence, the natural order provided them knowledge about how to live and how to fend for themselves while living in sync with nature. They lived among their own kith and kin, and their place provided for all their needs.

Now, however, we are living in the Kali Yuga, the great age of mixing. We travel, intermarry, live in other countries, and eat food grown in other countries. This great mixing cannot be avoided or prevented anymore. It is as if nature and the great cycle of time are allowing it to happen. There is no point in fighting it, and there is no way this clock can ever be turned back.

Our salvation comes from doing the best we can in the circumstances that we find ourselves in. We are living in a modern, industrial and technological age. Our lives depend on electricity and fast transportation, and our smart phones and tablets travel with us wherever we go. There are very few people among us, if any at all, who would want to give up everything and go to the forest to start living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. That leaves us with only one option: do the best we can in the moment we happen to be living. With this clarity, we can choose to lean toward organic, locally grown, and seasonal foods to the best of our ability and to use our resources wisely.

As I see it, our life is like our hand. A state of radiant well-being, the palm, is in the center, and it receives ongoing healing and support from the following five fingers:

  1. Fasting and improving diet and nutrition for disease prevention
  2. Spiritual practices and higher, positive aspirations for mental wellness
  3. Healthy familial and social relationships for emotional wellness
  4. Exercise in the form of walking, yoga, swimming, weight lifting, cycling, and so on for physical fitness
  5. Healing modalities (modern medicine as well as all the other alternative systems from every culture and continent) for physical wellness

Engaging in just one or a few of these measures is not sufficient because such a partial, half-hearted engagement creates an imbalance in life and our life force begins to become diminished instead of shining radiantly. A hand is complete only with the presence and activity of all five fingers, and when even one finger is injured or missing, the hand suffers in functionality and appearance. Similarly, only when all of the above-mentioned disciplines are engaged does our life attain balance and radiance.

Taking better care of ourselves is a lifelong healing journey. It begins with a commitment to making significant lifestyle changes like learning to eat differently on the Ayurvedic reset diet. Making this commitment and sticking with it provides the necessary foundation on which the success of spiritual practices, relationships, physical discipline and exercise, and any or all medical/alternative-healing modalities depend. Just as the five fingers and the palm work together to do everything that we need the hand to do, our lifestyle practices and medical/alternative-healing modalities work together with our commitment to change to make radiant good health and well-being a true reality in our lives.

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Namaste.

The radiant being within me greets the radiant being within you.