A few factors that immediately improved my digestion have nothing to do with diet and everything to do with our rituals, habits and behaviour around food:
- Thoroughly chew the food until it becomes liquid.
- Engage the five senses when eating.
- Eat-in a calm environment free from tv, radio or other stimulants.
- Before eating, find our centre, cleanse our energy field. I use to arrive home and eat, then with Ayurveda, I would get home, have a shower or bath to wash the day away from my mind and centre myself then eat.
- Being as present as I can when cooking and eating. To avoid eating my worries, stress and concerns. In Ayurveda, the energy of the person cooking the food can either add nourishing vibes to the food or poison vibes. When I was introduced to this concept, I was very sceptical. Still, the years of practising yoga made me very sensitive to subtler energies. Right now, I agree to a certain extent.
- Before eating, thank and bless the meal.
- Sit down when eating.
- It around the same time every day. The body likes consistency.
- Ditch all stimulants: caffeine, chocolate, processed sugar, alcohol.
My diet is plant-based and mostly sattvic, home-cooked. I only eat food cooked by me my partner or grandmother. I don’t eat out. I don’t buy ready meals or any sort of pre-packed, processed foods. I buy the bulk of the foods locally and in season. I avoid supermarkets and purchase in farmers market because it is the freshest produce we can get unless we grow our own and support the local community. I also don’t snack between meals. I eat 3 big meals during the day with at least 4 to 6 hours in between meals. Of course, this won’t suit everyone. I do this because I have a tendency to binge eat, eat when I am not hungry and eat to cover up difficult emotions. This kind of habit really suppresses my ability to digest life.
Foods considered healthy that I don’t eat: garlic, onions and leeks, and nightshades vegetables.
My pyramid food is heavily ayurvedic. As you all can tell, it consists of 60% augmenting foods and 40% of extractive foods and healthy fat sources.
Augmenting foods are sweeter in taste, dense and heavy, like grains and starchy vegetable.
Extractive foods are bitter or astringent in taste, light and rough like greens such as kale, spinach, or legumes.
Examples of augmenting sattvic foods:
Grains: barley, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, rice, rye, oats, wheat.
Veggie: beets, carrots, cucumber, fennel root, parsnips, turnips, squash, yams, sweet potato, zucchini.
Fruit: Apples, apricots, bananas, cherries, cranberries, currants, dates, figs, grapefruit, kiwi, lemon, lime, lychee, mango, melons, nectarines, oranges, papayas, passionfruit, peaches, pears, persimmon, plum, pineapple, pomegranate, prune, raisins, strawberries.
Examples of extractive sattvic foods:
Legumes: adzuki, black-eyed, lentils, chickpeas, mung, split peas, dhal, tofu.
Nuts and seeds: almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, fennel seeds, ginkgo nut, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, pecans, pine nuts, sesame seeds.
Veggies: asparagus, bamboo shoot, beet greens, bock chop, broccoli, brussels sprouts, burdock root, cabbages, cauliflower, celery, kale, mustard greens, okra, peas, spinach, swiss chard.
What is local for me and a big part of my diet?
Sweet potatoes, yams, squash, carrots, beets, cucumbers, asparagus, leafy greens, zucchini, black-eyed, chickpeas, peas, butter beans, red beans, black beans, local Portuguese rice, wheat, olives, olive oil, lupin beans, greens beans, berries, cherries, lemons, nectarines, apples, pears, grapes, melons, watermelon, strawberries, pumpkins, avocados, chestnuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, persimmon, pomegranate, local herbal teas and fresh herbs( basil, coriander, parsley, oregano, thyme), figs.
What I consume that is imported:
Oats, Indian dried spices, ginger and turmeric, sesame oil, Portuguese bananas from the islands, Tahini, lentils, mung, jasmine and basmati rice, tofu occasionally, dates, Triphala, sesame and mustard seeds.
Eggs, homemade ghee and occasionally fresh cheese, are a part of my diet at the time being. I want to be very clear here: The butter and fresh cheese that we get is from a nearby farm that does not kill or exploit their animals for consumptions. The caws are not raped for dairy productions or killed to feed people. They are part of the family and are part of a biodynamic homestead. They help graze the grass, fertilize the soils, and they are very generous to share their milk with humans when they have. Where I live right now, we have chickens. They live free, and they are the best farmers to keep slugs at bay. There is plenty of eggs on a daily basis, and during times that the female chickens do not sit, there is an abundance of eggs that get shared between everyone who lives here.
Ghee is the fat of choice during autumn and winter. I only have ghee and fresh cheese when I have access to this farm or farms with the same principles and values.
The way I cook changes with the seasons. For example: during autumn and winter, I will cook fruit before eating and drinks more herbal teas and warm water. During spring and summer, I will drink freshly pressed veg and fruit juice and room temperature water. I won’t eat salads or raw foods during the colder months, and during the warmer months, I will.
What I gained with eating like this: I feel calmer, more grounded, I have consistent energy throughout the day, I have no gas or bloating, my tummy does not rumble, and somehow the days feel longer. I suppose that might have to do with being more present.
To be very honest, when I am having an off day, I do feel the urge to mess up by visiting a supermarket and buy all the favourite sweet junks. On challenging days I doubt the hard work, I blame my bland diet for keeping me distant from my loved ones, and so on and on.
It is dam hard to follow through and keep on track with this diet as my partner and I are the only one’s from all our family eating like this. We are judged constantly, and no one understands our choices. Anyways somehow feels right to us.
As usual all Ayurvedic info I learned throughout the journey of healing my own digestion with Hale Pule
for this awesome challengeThank you all for your support
Love, light and blessings
💙💙