Ayurvedic medicine continues to evolve as a whole body approach to healing. Practitioners promote wellness and prevent illness by balancing your body, mind and spirit. Ayurvedic healers approach weight loss as a balance between your food intake and proper digestion. Ayurvedic tips to lose weight include herbs that you may find at your local health food or grocery store.
Diet
Ayurvedic healers prescribe ways to enhance digestion as part of a weight loss remedy. Ayurvedic physicians believe certain herbs and foods are more beneficial than others to increase digestion. Ginger is a common herb found in many Ayurvedic weight loss treatments. Ayurvedic weight loss tips with ginger include drinking ginger tea three times each day, chewing on a slice of fresh ginger root before each meal and spicing your food with ginger whenever possible. In addition to enhancing digestion, ginger may also decrease your appetite.
Spices such as black pepper, cayenne, mustard seed and cumin also are used in Ayurvedic methods to help facilitate digestion, and you can spice your foods with them as often as possible. Other herbs prescribed by Ayurvedic physicians to add weight loss include powder or capsule forms of gotu kola, amalaki and shilajit. The tonic herb guggul is also prescribed to stimulate weight loss.
Ayurvedic healers also suggest increasing your intake of fruits such as papaya, pineapple, mango, dark bitter greens and bitter melons to help increase digestion.
Other Ayurvedic weight loss tips for stimulating your digestion involve liquids. Sipping hot water throughout your day may aid digestion. A liquid fast one day each week including fruit juices, vegetable juices, light soups and teas may also help with digestion.
Enhancing your diet with herbs, Ayurvedic or otherwise, may lead to side effects if taken in combination with other medications. For example, ingesting excessive amounts of ginger may cause mild heartburn, diarrhea and mouth irritations. Always consult your physician before beginning medicinal herb treatments.
Remove Ama
Ayurvedic healers believe that eliminating ama from your system is critical to losing weight. Ama is a byproduct of incomplete digestion, clogging the lymph, circulatory and other channels in your body, according to Ayurvedic practice. Turmeric and barberry are used to reduce ama. Ayurvedic herbal compounds such as trikatu, triphala and guggulu may also aid in removing ama from your body. Follow the directions of an Ayurvedic practitioner to eliminate ama from your system.
Exercise
Ayurvedic medicine prescribes exercise based on your dosha, or body type. Your dosha type may be pitta, vata or kapha. Your dosha is determined by a trained Ayurvedic practitioner based on descriptive body elements such as physique, weight, hair, teeth, eyebrows, hands, arms, shoulders and calves, just to name a few. Other elements involved in determining your dosha include appetite, immunity, learning patterns, activity patterns, speech, sleep patterns, temperament, memory and concentration. Other factors include truthfulness, spiritual study, willpower, forgiveness, dreams and hygiene. Ayurvedic exercise recommendations for persons with a vata dosha include gentle movement exercises such as tai chi or yoga. Kapha types are recommended to run, hike, swim, dance and other forms of vigorous activity. Pitta types are urged to participate in competitive sports and to take challenging hikes.
References
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Ayurvedic Medicine Introduction
- Holistic Online: Ayurvedic Remedies for Obesity
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Ginger
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Ginger
- National Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine: Determining Your Ayurvedic Constitutional Type
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