Structuring your week using ayurvedic principles

As you know, we are huge fans of Ayurveda, you don’t just eat Ayurveda you live Ayurveda. 

Did you know that different days of the week are governed by and embody the energy of different Doshas. By re-structuring our activities and eating to be in harmony with the Dosha and corresponding energy of different days of the week, we are able to live in more alignment to be more efficient and live with a greater sense of  grace and ease. Making small changes in our daily routines has the ability to completely change the flow of our lives.

As you read on you will see that how to generally structure your week to be in alignment with these energies.

Sunday

Sunday is governed by the Sun, therefore, this means that the Pitta Dosha dominates which encompasses energy, passion, and power. Take the opportunity to use this increased energy on Sundays to go for a run, a hike in nature or a strong yoga practice.

Pitta also governs our digestive fire, so making use of this to catch up with friends for Brunch or a picnic is also a nice way to enjoy this energy. As pitta is fire, try not to overload your body with foods and beverages that are hot in nature, so leave red meat, chilli, and alcohol for Saturdays instead.

Monday

Moon Monday, Monday is governed by the Moon which encompasses cooling, soothing and nourishing properties dominated by Kapha and Vata. Although in our society today Monday is seen as the day to rev up your energy and get things done, according to Ayurveda those actions are seen to be very harmful. Instead, take the initiative to incorporate some journalling when you wake, a stroll on your lunch break and a little extra time spent meditating in the evening.

Undertaking a yin yoga class is a wonderful way to embrace the moon energy on Mondays. Keeping this moon energy in mind, when it comes to your diet on Mondays it may help to stick to liquids via a smoothie for breakfast, soup for lunch, vegetable broth for dinner and lots of our juicy goodness in between.

Tuesday

Mars is said to govern Tuesdays, which embraces Pitta characteristics – fire, anger, and courage. Using this energy wisely, it’s a mighty fine day to commence one of our cleanse programs if we say so ourselves. On Tuesdays, we like to use this fire to work through more challenging projects that require a little more courage and stamina. When it comes to exercise, channel this fire into a spin class, some boxing or weight training.

Wednesday

Humpday is governed by the planet Mercury and is influenced by all three doshas, providing more balance and harmony. Wednesdays allow all that you have worked on the past two days to flow seamlessly, however, do not step back, keep working at a steady pace to reap the rewards. Take Wednesdays as a time to reflect on where you can improve going forward through the simple practice of journaling.

Thursday

Jupiter governs Thursday, where Kapha takes a stand to provide some much-needed grounding.  On Thursdays, try to incorporate some plyometrics, pilates or vinyasa yoga to keep your kapha in balance to avoid becoming stagnant and naturally heavy. In regards to food, you might like to eat a bit lighter – enjoy a little more juice today plus a wholesome salad.

Friday

Friday is governed by Venus which is influenced by Kapha and Vata. This means that Fridays are for creativity to stimulate all of your senses. This could look like wearing more colorful clothing, a walk in nature, mix up your look with bold lipstick and listening to music. Friday is a time to get creative, so if you have followed the principles that we have mentioned so far, you shouldn’t need to order pizza, wine, and a Netflix marathon.

Saturday

It’s the weekend, which calls for movement, passion projects, hobbies, and creativity. As Saturday is governed by Vata it provides the perfect opportunity to dive into all that defines you away from work. A balanced Saturday could look like a morning walk and breakfast with a friend, a ceramic class before lunch and a yin yoga class in the afternoon. It is really important that you don’t skip meals on Saturdays, as Vata requires a lot of grounding, so make sure you emphasise wholesome meals on Saturdays.

Moving with the seasons: Our guide to Autumn yoga

Autumn is the season of transformation. We can see this all around us in nature: the leaves are falling, the air is changing and we welcome our new season’s fruit and vegetables.

It is important that we change with the seasons — just as nature does — by adapting our daily habits, yoga practice and food choices.

Ironically, it is only through change that was can stay grounded during this shifting season.

AN AYURVEDIC APPROACH TO AUTUMN

According to Ayurveda, there are three primary doshas, or energies. Just as each person has a dosha that predominates, each season is also dominated by one of the three doshas.

The vata dosha is most prevalent during autumn. Vata governs movement in the body, as well as activating the nervous system and the processes of elimination. The qualities of vata are cold, dry, rough, light, changeable, irregular, and moving. Vata is composed of the elements of air and space. Because of vata’s association with the nervous system, its state is often reflected in our mental health.

With the abundance of vata energy circulating during the autumn season, our bodies and minds can become overwhelmed and out of balance. During this time of year, you may feel unsettled, ungrounded and unstable. But while we cannot change the seasonal weather shifts, we can maintain internal balance by adjusting our lifestyles to counter the predominant vata energy in nature. We do this by incorporating yoga poses, food, and lifestyle choices that naturally hold the opposite qualities of the vata dosha.

5 Autumn YOGA POSES

During autumn, try to schedule your yoga practice at the same time every day and for the same length of time. This will help to build a routine and calm the chaotic vata energy. Do yoga poses that focus on the lungs and large intestines, as these are the two organs associated with the autumn season.

1. Twists: Half Lord of the Fishes Pose, Noose Pose, Revolved Triangle Pose

2. Side Stretches: Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose

3. Backbends: Bow Pose, Bridge Pose, Camel Pose

4. Warrior I Pose and Warrior II Pose

5. Sun Salutations will also warm the body during the chill of autumn

After your practice, enjoy a long Savasana (Corpse Pose) to stabilise the moving energy of vata.

Autumn FOODS AND HERBS

It is important to eat three meals a day, preferably at the same time each day. Try to avoid skipping meals and sporadic grazing, and be sure to sit down while enjoying your food. Like all other lifestyle choices around this time, set a routine around eating.  Here are some insights to help guide your autumn meal plan.

• Eat lots of warm soups.

• Choose foods that are warm, cooked, and moist. Avoid raw veggies and salads, as these are vata provoking.

• Eat two apples a day to aid with elimination.

• Drink warm tea of fresh ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon. This will warm the body and enhance circulation and digestion. If not this tea, aim to drink some kind of warm beverage.

• Eat root vegetables to enhance your connection to the Earth.

• Sweet, salty and sour tastes are calming to vata.

LIFESTYLE CHOICES

• Lights out for bed at 10:00 p.m. Try to get a full eight hours of sleep and awake when the sun rises.

• Consistent, moderate exercise regulates vata’s mobile nature, so make sure to schedule time for physical activity.

• Curb your tendency to talk unnecessarily, and settle into the rejuvenation of silence whenever possible.

• Use a neti pot to help keeps the lungs clear of congestion.

• Apply oils to the skin to keep it moist. This practice, called oleation, reduces the vata emotions of anxiety, depression, fear, and nervousness.

• Commit to a regular meditation practice to assist in quieting, centering and grounding the active vata mind.

• Practice right nostril breathing: Close your left nostril using the ring finger on your right hand. Inhale through your right nostril for 6-8 seconds, then exhale through the same nostril for 5-7 seconds. Repeat for 7-10 rounds, a few times a day. This will enhance the sun energy that helps keep the body warm as the temperature drops.

Why juicing is the perfect summer cleanse

Summer is a time for fun, spending time with friends and family and enjoying the sunshine. There is something truly magical about this time of year that makes us want to lighten up (literally and metaphorically) and embrace the organic supermarket fruit and vegetables section. Our appetites wane slightly, we have the urge to exercise more, and our bodies intuitively want to shake off excess weight. In a nutshell, it's the ideal time to embrace nutrient-packed juices or, better still, consult with a trusted medical professional about embarking on a juice cleanse regimen.

It's widely known that many of us need to up our game when it comes to fruit and vegetable intake. Even if you are eating the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables how many of those are raw, meaning you’re getting the most nutrient-rich bang for your buck?

Freshly made cold pressed juices are the simplest solution. Even if you already follow a plant-based diet, you’ll quickly feel the benefits of supercharging your consumption of enzymes, phytonutrients and living water into your body this way. Recent studies have found that a three-day organic juice cleanse improved the healthy balance of gastrointestinal microflora. That leads to boosted immunity, improved digestion, and reduction of harmful free radicals in the body. Study participants also reported feeling significant boost in energy up to two weeks later and an average weight loss of two kilograms. In short, juicing supercharges your body and helps set you on a healthy path for the warmer months.

So, what should we be juicing?

Summer is the perfect season to cleanse, the fruit and vegetables that traditionally appear in summer are perfect for juicing. Plant-based foods that are at their peak in the summer provide us the best vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, living waters, sun light, and energy we need for our health coming out of winter, says Gary Dowse, aka The Juice Chef. 

Summer is the season of new growth, he says, when we start to see green again on trees and in our gardens after the barren chill of winter. And in that vein, it’s also the ideal time to embrace green juices, which contain ingredients seasonal to summer and packing the energy punch we all need this time of year. “Think sprouts, leafy greens, and herbs (like parsley and basil) as well as any green vegetables that grow above the ground, like celery, cucumber and zucchini,” Gary says. “All these green foods provide us with minerals like sodium and potassium to help us move our bodies more, and an important green nutrient known as chlorophyll helps us get our blood pumping.”

The magic of chorophyll

Chlorophyll is a powerful plant-based nutrient, often referred to as a plant’s blood, that helps them absorb energy from sunlight and is what gives them their green colour. When consumed, it is a powerful anti-inflammatory, helps the body detoxify, fights oxidative stress, protects the liver, boosts the immune system, boosts energy levels, and may even have anti-ageing properties.

Eating and juicing green herbs and vegetables is one of the best ways to get more chlorophyll into your diet. A cold press juicer is the best machine to extract the maximum amount of green juice and allows you to store the juice in the fridge for up to three days without loss of nutrients.

While there are plenty of ‘liquid chlorophyll’ supplements available in health food stores, and even supermarkets, they don’t actually contain chlorophyll. Rather, they feature a compound called chlorophyllin, a semi-synthetic mixture of sodium copper salts isolated from chlorophyll. The bottom line: always opt for fresh over supplements. “You’ll soon see how it outperforms the man-made versions,” agrees Gary. Foods with the highest chlorophyll content ideal for juicing in summer include broccoli, brussel sprouts, celery, coriander, parsley, spinach, silver beet, and the hero of the chlorophyll world thanks to its high concentration, wheatgrass.

What about the other colours in the rainbow?

Gentle warming foods like fennel and cabbage are also good for summer as they help you make the transition from the colder months into the warmer season, says Gary. Both are high in folate, potassium, and vitamin C, which are great for heart health and our immune systems.

We have more warmth in the air in summer, we should start to introduce the orange and deep red colour foods like rockmelon, carrot, beetroot, and cherries to our juices, says Gary, as they will take your energy up another notch. Red and orange vegetables are high in antioxidants, including vitamins A and C, great for anti-inflammation and anti-ageing.

Sound great? We agree. See you in the supermarket organics section!

How yoga can help improve your gut health

A healthy digestive system is integral to living a balanced and wholesome life. The gut plays an essential role in a variety of functions throughout the body, and when undernourished and out of balance, the gut can contribute to a number of health conditions.

Some of these health issues include:

• Mood disorders (anxiety and depression)

• Autoimmune conditions

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome

• Fatigue

• Skin conditions

• Allergies

• Headaches and migraines

• Weight gain

• Hormonal Imbalances

• Poor nutrient absorption

• Bloating, constipation or diarrhea

• Joint pain

How yoga benefits the gut

 A healthy lifestyle has the potential to profoundly benefit our gut health and act as a preventative measure to many illnesses. Yoga, in particular, is a great way to begin this journey where it can heal our microbiome through stress reduction, gentle exercise and in aiding digestion.

Stress Reduction

The gut is so important in regulating stress responses in the body, where it is involved in the production of neurotransmitters in the brain such as dopamine, and GABA, as well as the regulation of other hormones. The microbiome is highly sensitive, where it can be thrown off of balance when hormones are produced to signal that the body is in stress, be it mental or physical. Yogic breathing and meditation has been researched to activate the parasympathetic nervous system which clears stress responses within the body, thus restoring the health and balance within our gut.

Increases microbiome diversity

Consistent exercise is correlated with higher levels of microbiome diversity as well as the amount of healthy strains of bacteria within our gut. As a gentle exercise practice, yoga has the potential to support a flourishing and diverse microbiome.

Aids with Digestion

Ayurveda, the oldest healthcare system in the world and the sister of yoga, believes that a healthy digestive system is vital for optimal health. Specific asanas can promote “agni” (our digestive fire) to facilitate digestion as well as cleanse and release toxins within the body. Certain asanas can also act as a massage for the internal organs as well as improve oxygenated blood flow to a variety of organs and lower blood pressure. 

TOP 5 ASANAS TO HEAL YOUR GUT

Peacock

Yogi masters have been quoted to say that if you practice this pose regularly, it doesn’t matter what you eat. This pose places pressure and cuts blood flow to your stomach, liver, intestines, kidneys and spleen. Not only does this increase the digestive fire, but once released, fresh oxygenated blood flows to the organs, reducing the production of toxins in the intestine thus improving function. This is the perfect yogic detox pose!

Revolved Crescent lunge or Seated Twist

These poses aid in digestion, where pressure from the twist is applied to the organs. This facilitates with digestion of fluids and foods, as well as the release of toxins, and helps eliminate waste.

Shavasana

This is the perfect stress reduction pose to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and keep your gut happy and stress free to restore balance within the rest of the body.

Bow Pose

This stimulates digestion by rocking forward and backwards on your belly, and also provides a massage to the internal organs. This also increases blood flood flow, oxygenating and revitalising the digestive system.

Sun Salutations

These are great in stimulating the digestive fire, as a few sun salutation combined with inhalation and exhalation of breath, produce heat in the abdominals, facilitating detoxification and digestion.

Article Author: Sofia Poggi

Article Source: https://www.powerliving.com.au/blog/here-is-how-yoga-can-improve-your-gut-health/

Lifestyle tips to create a healthy gut

Our gut can influence our general health, mental health, skin, and so much more. Fortunately, if we give our gut some love, we can really reap the benefits quite quickly. The article below covers some strategies we can take to work on improving our gut ecosystem! Take a read and see how you go implementing some of the changes!

Love your gut, your second brain: advice from Registered Dietitian Jo Travers

Our gut health has the power to impact not only our physical wellbeing, but also our mental health and mood. This is due to a direct link between the gut and the brain, called the gut-brain axis.

The gut and the brain ‘talk’ to each other on a regular basis, using special chemical messengers produced by the billions of different bacteria that live in our gut. For example, among these we can find dopamine and serotonin – also known as happiness or ‘feel-good’ hormones. Although gut-brain axis communication is two-way, over 80% of the messages are actually sent from the gut to the brain rather than the other way round. So, it really does pay to give your gut some love!

As Jo Travers explains: “The gut is connected to many of the body’s organs, whether it’s through digestive enzymes or the link to the immune system, and its connection with the brain is one we can absolutely use to our advantage.

“Although scientists are still working to fully understand this two way street, it appears that the gut is attuned to the signalling and functionality of the brain and vice versa, so if conditions are less favourable in either place, then this can affect the other.”

To help us give our gut (and brain!) the love and attention it deserves, Jo has shared her top tips on how we can begin:

Get enough sleep

Sufficient sleep is something everyone needs. Found yourself resisting sleep to watch another episode of that favourite box set? This unfortunately means you may be depriving yourself of sleep which in turn, won’t help communication between the gut and the brain.

The bacteria in the gut directly communicate with the central nervous system and disrupted sleep can affect the levels of bacteria in the gut.

Manage your stress levels

Because of the unique link between the gut and the brain, mental stress can affect what happens in the gut. We’ve all had “butterflies” when we are nervous and many people who suffer with IBS notice their symptoms getting worse if they are stressed.

This mental stress can actually alter hormones that work on the gut. By practicing meditation, or any relaxing activity, you can reduce stress and help your gut get back to normal functioning again.

Nourish the gut (bacteria)

There is some evidence that what you eat can affect how you feel mentally, via the gut-brain axis. Fibre from plants feeds the bacteria in the gut that, in turn, produce chemicals to communicate with the brain.

The greater variety of plant foods you eat, the broader the range of useful bacteria your gut can support.

Include Fermented foods

Fermented foods like kombucha, kefir or other fermented milk products actually contain bacteria that can alter brain activity via signalling pathways in the gut-brain axis. The consumption of fermented food was shown to reduce social anxiety in young women.

Increase polyphenols

Polyphenols are plant compounds that are thought to be involved in the gut-brain axis. Polyphenols help gut health by encouraging the growth of useful bacteria like Bifidobacterium strains and inhibiting the growth of “bad” bacteria such as C. difficile. Eating foods that are high in polyphenols has also been shown to affect cognition.’

Article source: https://loveyourgut.com/all-entries/love-your-gut-week-2021-registered-dietitian-jo-travers-shares-her-tips-on-the-gut-brain-axis-and-how-to-nurture-it-for-good-gut-health-happy-love-your-gut-week-2021/

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Nourishing your gut

Our guts are very complex and often can be temperamental. Many people learn to persevere with tummy troubles, however, there is a lot we can do to support the health of our gut!

Read the article below to learn about some of the foods our guts love.

Probiotics

Our gut contains billions of different microbes which help to digest our food and produce useful waste products that reduce inflammation and bolster immune function. When the microbes are out of balance, we may experience symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, digestive discomfort and even poor mood.

Probiotics are defined as ‘good bacteria that confer a health benefit to the host’. They are powerful microbes and can help re-balance the gut. They are found in fermented foods such as kimchi, kefir and yogurt. However, not all fermented foods are made equal. Look for those labelled to be ‘raw’ or have ‘live cultures’ – they are usually kept in the fridge to control the level of fermentation.

Probiotic supplements are also readily available containing different strains of bacteria, but evidence as to their benefit is limited. Research is pointing toward there being no single ‘one-size-fits-all’ blueprint of the perfect gut bacteria population! The blueprint of your ideal gut microbiome is influenced by all sorts of factors, from the way you were born to your lifestyle, your genetics or even where you live.

Fibre and prebiotics

Fibre is the indigestible part of food that makes its way intact through the stomach. There are two types – ‘soluble’ and ‘insoluble’. The insoluble fibres are more well-known. They provide bulk to stools to help keep you regular. Soluble fibre on the other hand helps keep blood sugar levels stable by slowing down the release of sugar from food during digestion, thus maintaining energy and mood throughout the day. It also helps you feel fuller for longer, making it useful in appetite and weight control. Fibre is found in all plant-based foods and can be purchased as a supplement, usually in the form of psyllium husk powder.

Some types of fibre are called ‘prebiotics’ as they are fermentable fibres that feed our good gut bacteria. Some of the best sources of prebiotic fibres are asparagus, raw onion, raw garlic and Jerusalem artichoke.

Good gut health improves nutrient absorption, supporting hormone production and playing an essential role in regulating mood. It also results in reduced inflammation and improved immune function.

Wholegrains

Wholegrains are an excellent source of fibre and resistant starch. Grains consist of 3 parts – the inner germ, the middle endosperm layer and the outer bran. Most grains in the supermarket are refined and are mostly made up of just the starchy endosperm. Whole grains have all 3 layers intact and provide much more than just starch. They also contain more fibre, protein, healthy oils, vitamins and minerals.

Resistant starch

While most starch is quickly broken down into glucose and released into the bloodstream for energy, resistant starch is harder to break down and acts more like a fibre. It makes its way into the large intestine to be fermented by the gut bacteria, serving as a prebiotic. Resistant starch selectively feeds the good gut bacteria and helps rebalance the gut.

Resistant starch is found in lentils, oats, underripe bananas, cooked then cooled pasta, rice and potatoes.’

Article source: https://tghd.com.au/powerful-food-to-feed-your-gut/
Article author: The Gut Health Dietitian

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