Start Of Your Day Right
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What you have for breakfast and the amount of food you consume will determine how you feel throughout the day, how well your digestion works, and how much energy you have. Breakfast has to provide simple easy-to-digest nutrients that will charge you up with energy and gently wake up your digestive fire after a night of fasting. In the morning your agni (digestive fire) is just starting out. Think of warm coals that need to be restarted by bits of kindling to turn into a fire. At the start of the day, when agni is low, it’s not easy to digest a big breakfast. A heavy breakfast consisting out of too much bread, sugar or oil, or the one with a wrong combination of foods will make you sluggish, form toxins, accumulate excess fat, and induce unhealthy cravings for the rest of the day. To prevent this, Ayurvedic practitioners recommend an easily digestible meal that nourishes without overwhelming our bodies.
Eating breakfast according to Ayurvedic principles, you will have more energy throughout the day and be more productive at work.
Most Ayurvedic practitioners will advise you to start your day with a glass of lukewarm water with a fresh slice of lemon. Imagine eating breakfast without brushing your teeth first… By drinking lemon water you rinse your stomach from accumulated toxins and stimulate gastrointestinal tract and peristalsis (the waves of muscle contractions within the intestinal walls that keep things moving). Or have a cup of hot water with lemon and ginger to help stimulate digestion, cleanse toxins, and give you a boost of morning energy.
Here are some basic Ayurvedic dietary guidelines to ensure that your first meal of the day will fill you up with energy instead of weighting you down: Eat warm, well-spiced, easy-to-digest foods, with an emphasis on hot cereals and cooked fruits, rather than cold cereals and raw fruits or heavy meals. A balancing morning meal might consist of stewed apples, pears, and dates, stirred into hot cereal cooked with some warming spices. Warming spices are those that stoke agni (digestion) and make it stronger, they also increase metabolism. Examples are allspice, black pepper, cardamom, cayenne, cinnamon, fresh ginger, and nutmeg. Try this yummy buckwheat recipe.
Most important, eat slowly and savor the wonderful breakfast before you. Enjoy each delicious bite, knowing there’s no better way to fire up your body’s furnace and start the day right.
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