Spinach and Yoga

Plus a FREE class on how to emerge VIBRANT, HEALTHY and LIGHT after the holiday season

We tend to ignore things that we don’t see.

inflamed gut

We never see the insides of our stomachs. Too bad, things would be a lot more clear if we had a window into the depths of the GI tract.

Imagine, you could peak inside and find out

• whether your body is clean or has old food left overs sitting inside
• whether your digestive system is ready to break down a mountain of food or whether you need a day with nourishing cleansing broths and soups
• if certain foods cause irritation, swelling, and inflammation
• if your body is having particularly hard time digesting certain combinations of foods.

You would know it all!

Unfortunately, we don’t have a window into the stomach. Our digestive tract keep its mystery. The only way we can communicate with it is through sensations, the health of our immune system, and our energy level.

Trash Chute Syndrome

Since we don’t see how certain foods effect stomach and colon lining, we tend to treat it as a trash chute sometimes. We throw stuff inside and hope it will be gone at some point later. We don’t really know much about the process that it takes to clean out that trash chute. We take it for granted. We consider it natural and automatic. If it doesn’t happen we complain but more often than not, we don’t see how we can improve this process.

The only difference is that your body is not a trash can! There is no 3rd party cleaner who will come and clean your garbage out, unless you get a colonic.

Whether you want it or not but the reality is that your emotions, your energy level, your health are dependent on the state of your cleaning system. If you are clean, your body feels great. If stuff starts getting stuck, fermenting, decaying, your health will deteriorate along with a positive mood.

Since we can’t directly see inside the digestive system, we need to learn to understand the signals that it sends us in hopes to communicate. It is essential to our health and well-being.

Why Digestion Is Important:

The efficiency of your digestion will in a big part determine your vitality (life force). Your physical body and your emotional body are interconnected. If your body is deprived of nutrients and your digestive system is exhausted after years of struggling with difficult-to-digest foods, it will project accordingly in your physical, emotional and mental state.

If you want to live a fulfilling meaningful life where you share inspiration with others your energy level has to be high. You have to be acting from a place clarity, strength, and positivity. A lot of it comes from good health. Good health starts in the gut. Our body re-builds itself on a daily basis and the quality and vitality of the cells is determined by the efficiency of the digestive system.

What It Means For You

The cells that line the intestinal tract are normally very active and quite sensitive.  They are the barrier between the internal systems of the body and the outside world. If certain foods cause inflammation or swelling, it negatively affects absorption of nutrients and elimination of waste.

Instead of being properly digested, food sits in your digestive tract and ferments. It creates bloating, gas, constipation, gray-ish skin tone, fatigue, bad body odor, and crappy mood.

Most of the time, we don’t know what causes symptoms because we have ‘Body as Trash Chute” symptom. We eat so mindlessly and so much that it is difficult to create a clear personal food map with foods that work for our body and those that don’t.

The first step is to start paying more attention. You can star a food log to track the food that you eat and the way you feel after it. Certain symptoms can show up as much as 2 days later, so it is helpful to be able to look back and see what exactly you ate. Overtime you will be able to see correlations and hopefully build causation links.

Second, is to eat well-balanced meals and then allow enough time for digestion. No grazing! Constant non-stop snacking is another symptom of ‘Body as a Trash Chute’ syndrome. Respect your digestion. Know that every food takes a certain amount of time to be digested. You can’t rush the process. There is no sense in throwing food in and hoping that digestion rules don’t apply to you.

Third, respect your body’s signals. It means eat when hungry, don’t when you are not. Avoid foods that make you feel bloated, tired, give you heart burn, or constipation. There are always great alternatives. In the beginning it might be scary to have to refuse gluten, dairy, nuts, or other food that you might not be digesting well. You might be reluctant to go through life without a cake from your favorite bakery or milk in your coffee. But once you try new foods, experiment with new recipes, and find new items on the restaurant menu, you will find new favorites. Don’t let food determine whether you feel happy or unhappy. There are many more pleasures in life than just food.

Learn With Me LIVE and FREE

With holiday season in full swing it might be more difficult than usually not to give in into the ‘Body as a Trash Chute’ syndrome. Endless parties, a lot more temptations that usual, and more peer pressure can be hard on our digestive system. No wonder everyone feels down and fat in Jan after all the celebrations. It doesn’t have to be this way though.

This coming Wed, Dec 19th I would like to share all my tips for maintaining your sanity, healthy weight, and digestive health during the last and often most intense week of holidays. This class is my gift to you! It is absolutely FREE and it will be awesome. You will learn a lot of actionable tips and strategies to implement right away. We will talk about ways to restore and detox quickly after the holidays.

You can join this LIVE online class here. 

Join the healthy holidays party online! I would love to hang out with you! You will be able to ask questions live, too!

Ayurveda Practitioner Weighs In

Cleanses are so HOT these days, they’re like a bikram yoga class in the summer. But just like not every yoga class is for every body, not every cleanse is going to benefit every body in the most optimal way. So before diving into the vast juicer-kale-mung bean laden world of cleansing, take a moment and use this guide below so you hit the Ojas-full feelings of detoxification & rejuvenation just right, and skip the fatigue/wrinkles/depression of depletion cleansing.

I realize this post might be a little controversial and I want to start off with the old adage of Ayurveda (the medicine of the Vedas): “Nothing is good. Nothing is bad.” because it’s all about who it’s for, which is why I love Ayurveda so much in the first place. Everything in this world has a way of acting as a medicine and a poison; it all depends on whom it’s for and how it’s used.

So keeping that in mind, one could say that all methods of cleansing could potentially be “good” just so long as they’re used by the right person – and for the appropriate length of time. For clarity, I’m going to go through some of the most common types of cleansing below but first, the basic constitutional types so that you have a frame of reference for the doshas.

Imbalances of the Vata-type Cleanser: very low weight or potentially underweight, weight accumulates around waist/belly, anxiety, worry, feels easily overwhelmed, insomnia (waking in the night), lack of direction, dry skin, constipation (lack of daily bowel movement or small pebble-like poops), abdominal distention, bloating, gas, dislike of wind, often cold, PMS: cramps bloating fatigue, lack of menses. *And if you’ve had an eating disorder in the past, look no further.

Imbalances of the Pitta-type Cleanser: medium body fat, weight accumulates around thighs & hips, stress, perfectionist, critical, anger (repressed or quick to explode), insomnia (can’t settle down at night), inflammatory skin conditions, acne, loose bowels, very smelly gas, generally runs hot, PMS: acne anger.

Imbalances of the Kapha-type Cleanser: plentiful body fat (can be overweight but not necessarily), weight accumulates evenly all over body, dullness of mind, lethargic, depressed, over-attachment to belongings/emotions/habits, wakes feeling sluggish even with 8-10 hours sleep, congestion-prone, can have constipation but due to stagnancy so will improve with exercise, PMS: breast tenderness water retention.

So now what’s the right cleanse-medicine for you…

Sunshine & Water Cleanse
This is sometimes recommended in Ayurveda for true Kapha constitution individuals and only for a short amount of time. This is not something I would ever recommend to someone living in a city, who has a job, and/or can’t take absolute rest. Continue to juice cleansing for why…

Juice Cleansing
This is perhaps the most popular type of cleansing at present and for good reason. Juice cleansing can balance Pitta and Kapha all depending on what types of juice you use. Juice cleanses typically use lots of bitter and astringent greens both of which are balancing for Pitta and Kapha. Kapha needs ample spices to be sure its digestive fires stay up like ginger, black pepper, and cinnamon. Pitta can follow a juice cleanse for a day perhaps but without the strong fire of Pitta being fed, it can blow out of proportion even more so than before. Don’t believe me? Find a firey type who is doing a juice cleanse and see how “balanced” they stay before they want to rip someone’s head off. Thinking “oh but that passes”? Scroll down to Signs of good cleansing below.

Now, Vata-types, I know that juice cleansing appeals to you because it just looks so simple. Like you wouldn’t have to think about anything, and you’d feel so “clean” and “clear”. I know, and I hear you. But how about feeling grounded and calm so you can think clearly? How does that sound? “Cleansing” really isn’t what Vata-types really need. In some ways they can cleanse their lives of things that are making their Vata worse like coffee, sugar, alcohol, and eating un-mindfully which for most will feel like a big “cleanse”. What Vatas don’t need is something that’s going to strip them down and make their nervous system even more raw to the elements around them. They need to learn how to build a comforting home in their own bodies through nourishing rituals and meals, so that they feel that they can better weather the storms of life. Vatas, darlings, scroll down to Kitchari Cleanse…

Raw Foods Cleanse
I love me some raw foods. Yes, that was my Pitta talking. Raw foods for a few days can be just what the doctor ordered for someone of strong Pitta constitution. Their blazing digestive fire can happily handle eating raw for a little while and the extra work required to digest raw foods can help bring that excess fire to balance. Kapha folk, meh, you could do this for a little while but ultimately you’ll want to bring back those heating spices I mentioned in the juice cleanse section and hot teas or you’ll never spark that fire that you need to get the spring back in your step and instead the food you eat will just sit in your belly and not feel like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Vatas, if you want to feel spacey, and more prone to fatigue, bloating, and constipation, give this a try; in other words, please don’t go there with the raw food diet.

Kitchari Cleanse
Ah, Kitchari, the traditional dish of Ayurveda made of mung beans, rice, ghee, and spices. Kitchari is the star of the Pancha Karma diet (if you don’t count ghee). The Ayurvedic Cleansing that you see offered by myself and the majority of Ayurvedic Practitioners here in the west is an incredibly mild version of PK (if we can even say that) as PK should only be done under the keen supervision of a qualified practitioner and away from life (work, family, bad weather etc). Kitchari is balancing to all doshas provided it’s done with appropriate portions/spices and for an appropriate time (not too long for Vata). Kaphas do well with more beans and spices and less ghee and rice. Pittas do well with equal parts beans and rice, lots of cilantro, and some ghee & appropriate spices. Vatas do well with more rice, ghee and spices and less beans. Like the above cleanse methods, a Kitchari cleanse follows the Signs of good/bad cleansing too.

Some of the many great things about Kitchari:

• It’s a complete protein, which means you can eat it and still have energy for a full day of work/life
• It’s incredibly easy to digest. So long as the spices are right, no one has any belly/GI trouble after eating this.
• It soothes the nervous system without bogging it down. Kitchari because it’s so easy to digest remove any stress from digestion allowing the body’s tissues to detox what they don’t need and take the nutrients they do.
• Kitchari heals with its amazing spices like cumin, coriander and fennel.
• Mung beans have been used for centuries to detox the body.

If a Kitchari Cleanse sounds right to you, join the online cleanse I’m leading with the Doctor Blossom Team this fall!

Whole Foods “Cleanse”
For some this is perfect. This diet will suit all doshas though might not be the best medicine for Pitta and Kapha. Giving your body a break from all processed or refined foods, stimulants, and depressants can be huge! The better your digestion can function, the better your body can eliminate the toxins you naturally come into contact with. If your week typically includes more days with than without coffee, alcohol, refined sugar, baked goods, or processed meats then this could be the perfect place for you to start. If you’re considering one of the other cleanses it’s wise to include a few days of this Whole Foods diet on the start and end to avoid any boomerang-effect that brings you back into your old less healthy habits/crutches.

What To Look For While Cleansing

Signs of good cleansing:

• Improved sleep
• Improved energy (after the initial rest period that your body has been craving)
• Feeling less sluggish in the morning
• Clear lustrous skin
• Improved digestion (happy belly)
• Sattvic (peaceful) mind
• Grounded clear thinking
• Increased comfort in your body

Signs that it’s not the right cleanse for you or that you were doing the right one but for too long: Excessive cleansing leads to depletion of Ojas and increase of Vata so you’ll start looking more like the Vata-type Cleanser if you cleanse for too long or too strongly.

Signs of not-so-good cleansing:

• Increased aggression, anxiety, lethargy
• Feeling “spacey”
• Feeling cold, especially hands and feet
• Waking in the night
• Bloating
• Constipation
• Loss of appetite
• Deep fatigue
• Sustained achiness and/or popping joints

If you’re giving up the famous dietary crutches (caffeine, alcohol, sugar, meat) there are often a few days of the less fun detox with some headaches, body aches etc. It varies completely from person to person often having little correlation with how much of the crutch foods they were using. If in two or three days these detox symptoms haven’t cleared up and you’re not feeling more of the good cleansing signs, then adjustments need to be made.

I hope this article helps shed some light on what method of cleansing would best suit your current state of health. If you’re looking to learn more about what fits you, you can always book a consultation with an Ayurvedic Practitioner (like me!).

If you’re considering a cleanse of any kind it is always a good idea to consult your health practitioner first.

Join Kate in the Doctor Blossom Online Fall Cleanse where you’ll receive a cleanse catered to your unique constitution and current imbalances!

Kate Lumsden, a San Francisco-based Ayurvedic Practitioner & Yoga Teacher, spreads her love for these healing practices in her home city and beyond (via phone & skype) through her recipe blog, group cleanses, yoga classes and wellness coaching practice. Catch her on Facebook or Twitter where she posts regularly on how to weave Ayurveda into everyday life in fun, juicy ways.

Thursday Ayurvedic Eats

About 2 weeks ago my friend Katerina who wrote about ‘Learning to Let Go‘ in a yesterday’s post and I decided to try to refuse sugar for a while. Everything that contained white sugar or other forms of concentrated sugar including agave and all kinds of syrups had to go. I kept fruit and stevia. Since sweet things is my weak spot, no raw desserts, no raw chocolate or macaroons was tough!!! But wherever there is a will, there is a way! After a week cravings subsided and taste buds became a lot more sensitive. Things that seemed pleasantly sweet before now seem too sweet. Green Giant smoothie from The Juice Press that has spinach, kale, coconut meat and water, spirulina, apple, lemon, cayenne and 1 date tasted too sweet to drink when I got it yesterday. I couldn’t believe my tongue!

Chocolate Acai Sauce Ingredients

One thing that seemed just right in term of sweetness, calories, and nutrients was an accidentally invented Chocolate Acai fruit salad with hemp seeds. That creamy deliciousness made my heart sing! Special ingredients in the sauce make this fruit salad into a nutrient dense powerhouse:

• It’s easy to make and easy to digest.
• It won’t spike up your blood sugar and there are no empty wasted calories.
• Each bite is loaded with flavor, vitamins, and minerals.
• It is an Omega 3, fiber, protein and antioxidant heaven:)

I can already see you getting impatient to see what’s in this magical recipe! We are almost there. Let me just tell you that you can have this dish for dessert or for breakfast and that it gets better after a few hours in the fridge when all the flavors absorb.

Fruit Salad With Chocolate Acai Sauce and Hemp Seeds

Chocolate Acai Fruit Salad with Hemp Seeds

Ingredients:

• 1 apple chopped
• 1 banana
• handful of blueberries
• 1 Packet of Unsweetened Acai puree. I used Sambazon Pure Acai
• 2 tbsp cacao powder or for an extra kick try Cococeps with Certified Organic Cocoa, Full-Spectrum Micronized Cordyceps & Reishi*
• 2 tbs hemp seeds
• vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of cayenne
• a few drops of stevia
• 1/3 cup water or almond milk (use more a less depending on the desired consistency)

Mix everything together and pour over fruits. Sprinkle with hemp seeds.

When making the sauce, remember that cardamom, cinnamon, and cayenne have a special sugar balancing and metabolism boosting role! So don’t skip them!

*Linda Wagner, a very inspiring and creative health coach wrote about using Cococeps when trying to kick the coffee habit. Read about it here

To receive more health tips and ayurvedically-inspired recipes subscribe to Spinach and Yoga! Please Like Spinach and Yoga on Facebook and follow health and yoga tips on twitter @realyoganyc.

Sweet Hugs and Kisses!

Nadya

Once in a Lifetime Chance

Hey there Health Explorers,

The field of integrative health, holistic wellness, and optimal diet can be quite challenging to navigate on your own. Many theories are controversial, many statements are just theories without any proof, and many promises are empty. Life is too short to try every single diet and health is too valuable to make mistakes. We are constantly looking for an authority who has an answer, for a book that can give us guidance, for a nutrition plan that can address our needs.

In my search of answers, I found a very interesting website that is full of information on nutrition, health, and relevant research. It was created by Dr Stanley Bass, a 93 year old nutritionist living and STILL WORKING in NYC. What is most surprising about his 70-years worth of research and work is that he is honest about his personal diet and transformation over the years. He tried it all – juice fasting, water fasting, eating once a day, eating in specific sequences, eating raw, vegan, vegetarian, and non-vegetarian diets. He also spent 4 years conducting a nutrition research on mice. Dr Bass put groups of mice on every possible diet he could find and observed its effects over 4 years. He paid for the study himself and had no invested interest in any particular diet. This not some dairy farmers sponsored calcium absorption research! He did it because he wanted to know the truth for himself, for his body, and his patients.

Dr Bass’s understanding of human physiology and his personal experience with various diets gave him an ability to help and heal many people who came to him for advice. From psoriasis to cancer, from IBS to anxiety, from tooth decay to fatigue – he worked with many conditions and wrote about it extensively in his books.

After reading everything on Dr Bass’s website, today I got enough courage to call him and ask for an interview. And he said YES!!!

The interview is this Fri and I need your HELP to come up with smart, interesting, real questions.

What would you like to ask someone who tried it all? What would you like to know about your diet, nutrition, and healing process?

Please comment with your questions below and sign up on the top right corner to make sure that you don’t miss out on the interview!

Nadya

Yes, You Can! If You Know How To Shop!
(Fall Grocery Shopping List included)

Staying healthy, losing weight, speeding up a recovery process starts with selecting the healthiest and the most nutritious foods at the grocery store! It is easy to eat well when your kitchen is stocked up with easy-to-prepare delicious ingredients.

How do you shop for groceries? Do you make a list or just grab whatever looks pretty? Either way can work as long as you end up with a fridge full of nutritious vegetables, fruits, grains, and seeds to feed your family…

Last night my friend and I had an interesting discussion over dinner of roasted fennel, pumpkin, beets, and onions which we had with a little bit of grilled chicken. She complained that even though she loves all the healthy food and would love to eat it more often, she never remembers what ingredients to buy at the supermarket. How could she, if she needs to shop for the entire family and consider everyone’s needs and likes?!  Plus being pressured on time (who isn’t?) and tempted by the “special” hard-to-miss deals artfully created by the marketing department, how can one stay on track? In stressful situations, which grocery shopping can easily turn into, our brains try to create a path of least resistance. In most cases it means going for what worked before. As a result, we end up with a number of routine very familiar items in a basket plus/minus a few that the supermaket smart marketing placement convinced us to buy.

While it works to save time and energy, it won’t always provide the most nutritious choice of seasonal foods, especially if you are trying to shift gears to a healthier diet.

If you are trying to follow a healthier diet, to lose weight, or to better your immune system, you need a plan and a grocery shopping list! Whether on paper, on your iphone or blackberry, or in your head (if you trust it), but you should create the ‘must get’ items list based on how you would like to eat next week.

There are many benefits to using a shopping list:
- You won’t forget anything
- You will save money as you are less likely to give in to marketing and buy stuff that you don’t need
- You will be able to try new recipes since you will have all the necessary ingredients
- You are more likely to stick to your diet plan if you have fresh nutritious items in your kitchen
- You will save money on ordering food or getting take outs

Before you create a shopping list, consider the following:
- How much time you will have to cook. It will determine whether you include some pre-made food or if you need to buy only raw bulk foods
- What your goals are nutrition-wise. Are you looking to cut out gluten, to reduce sugar, or to experiment with Power Foods? Based on your needs you can include or subtract certain items. For example if you are going gluten free, include gluten free bread so you not tempted throughout the week to have regular bread. If you are reducing sugar intake, try stevia and buy lots of fruits. Even though there are general healthy items that are good to buy, your shopping list should be customized to your needs and your current situation
- What meals you are going to have at home and which snacks are you taking to work. Most days I make my breakfast and lunch to-go before I leave to teach yoga. So I always make sure to stock up on quick-to-make green leafy vegetables and grains that can be soaked overnight such as quinoa. A nutritious lunch can be ready in minutes!
- Are you planning to try a new recipe or a new type of food? Experimenting in the kitchen is quite fun! Leave some space in your grocery list for fun-to-try items and keep your mind open. Maybe one week it will be chia seeds and another week some sprouted beans. Who knows maybe that weird looking seaweed can become your new favorite snack?! Using your pre-planned menu, make a list of all ingredients you will need to complete your menu.

Make sure to stick to your list when wandering through the store. It’s easy to stray when your kids are begging for certain types of cereal, or your eyes are drawn to the fresh, yummy-smelling, box of doughnuts placed in front of you! Stay focused and stick to your list.

Naturally, your list will change based on the season and local specialties. This one, for example, was for Fall.

Here is my basic fall grocery shopping list: (if you would like to shop with me and to learn new warming Fall-friendly recipes, join the Kitchen Evolution brunch and shopping tour on Oct 15th)

Vata Fall Shopping List

• Beets
• Squashes/pumpkin/sweet potatoes
• Spinach / mixed greens
• Bok choy
• Fennel
• Onions
• Avocado
• Raw Kimchi or Sauerkraut or Fermented Pro-biotic Green Miso
• Quinoa or buckwheat
• Bob Mills Muesli
• Mung beans
• Red lentils
• Hummus
• Almond milk
• Dates
• Figs (fresh while they last)
• Plums (Love small sweet plums!)
• Papaya
• Lemons
• Carrots
• Chia seeds
• Hemp seeds
• Flax seeds
• Sprouted Flax Seed crackers
• Sesame Seed Bread
• Almond flour and Coconut flour (for my new gluten-free baking experiments)
• Goji berries
• Raisins
• Dark chocolate
• Pumpkin Spice
• Cinnamon
• Daal Spices
• Black pepper, Celtic Sea Salt, and Turmeric (I buy spices whenever I run out, not every week. It is best to keep them fresh and buy organic)
• Ghee

Occasionally, I buy fresh goat cheese and eggs from Union Square farmer’s market. Even though I am not vegan or vegetarian, I rarely crave dairy and chicken so these items are not on my must-get list.

Did you ever try to create a grocery shopping list? How did it go?

See you at Lifethyme for some serious grocery aisle exploration!

Nadya

Related articles

• Kitchen Evolution: Grocery Shopping Tour and Brunch (spinachandyoga.com)
• How to Save on Groceries (housefuloflove.wordpress.com)
• 25 Frugal Items for Your Organic Vegan Grocery List (wisebread.com)

Hey guys,

I have started a new weekly column YOGI EATS at Strala Yoga blog. It will come out every Wed and talk about what a yogi should eat and drink and why. It should be really fun and I am looking forward to sharing my food adventures with you! Stay tuned!

Here are the last 2 posts:

Sexy Cashew Nut Milk

Yogi Eats: On the Go!

Spring is finally here: flowers are blooming allover NYC and new life is sprouting

Wet Seedling --- Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

everywhere! Spring is a perfect time to move to a lighter diet of fresh herbs, greens, and sprouts. Since my trip to India, sprouts became my favorite go-to snack and sometimes breakfast. Everything sprouted is super healthy besides being super delicious. Sprouted beans and seeds are one of the most enzyme-rich and nutritious foods known. (source) Eating sprouts in the Spring is a perfect way to replenish vitamins and minerals that got depleted over the Winter time.

Just imagine all bright vital nutrients and micro elements bursting into your system as soon as you start chewing sprouts. Immediately your energy levels go up, your muscles become stronger, and your brain works better! Sprouts high!!!

It is really easy to include sprouts in your diet without starting a home garden. Several health-conscious food companies ( Organic Sprouted Flour, Shiloh Farms, Foor For Life, and Shasha&Co) did all the work for you. Their sprouted products are available online or at major health stores.

Sprouts are absolutely lovely raw and just as good cooked into a soup or a stew. Start by substituting sprouted grains and beans for the regular ones. For example try a sprouted bean soup or this yummy lentil curry. You can even have sprouts with chocolate. Sprout People shared this amazing idea for an almond/chocolate torte .

Here are more delicious recipes:
Sprouted Green Gram and Vegetables
Spicy Mung bean salad
Simple Mung Bean sprout patties
Basil Mung Bean Salad
Lots of recipes for sprouted lentils, rice, and beans at Shasha & Co website.
If you feel adventurous and want to start a small home garden, here is an excellent sprouting guide, with what temp water to use, how long to soak and how long to sprout.

Please let me know in the comments section if you try any of the recipes and how you like them!

Sprout to Life this Spring!

Related Articles

• Nutrition Facts on Bean Sprouts (brighthub.com)

The seasons are changing and our bodies are changing along with the nature. I can usually tell when the seasons are about to change because my body is starting to ask for a different kind of nourishment. As of last week, my belly is predicting the coming of Spring! Every Thursday I try to stop by Lifethyme to get lunch. The entire winter I kept choosing the same dish: a rich medley of roasted squash, zucchini, and onions with a bean casserole. It was nourishing, warm, and very hearty – a perfect meal for a dry cold Vata season. Last week, when the weather changed from freezing cold to a slightly warmer breeze my regular lunch didn’t seem so appetizing anymore. Instead I was craving something bitter and spicy. According to Ayurveda such shift in cravings is normal during Spring time. Both ancient Ayurvedic text such as Charaka Samhita, and modern ayurvedic practitioners including Dr Vassant Lad agree that it is natural to crave foods that have bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes during the cold wet Kapha season (Spring). All the foods that are warm, light, dry, and spicy help to counter balance the heavy dull qualities of Kapha.

Since our needs are changing, so should our grocery list! To make it easier for you I created a short Springtime shopping list. Use it to stock up on seasonal goodies, to cleanse your body from the heavy winter pounds, rejuvenate your digestion, and prevent the onset of a seasonal depression. The Spring is coming!!!

Note: Always buy fresh, organic and local if you can. Herbs can be dried. Please don’t buy frozen or canned food!!! It is considered dead according by all ayurvedic principles.

Springtime Shopping List

Vegetables: Arugula, asparagus, beets, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, chili peppers, daikon radish, dandelion greens, endive, garlic, green beans, spinach, jicama, onions, kale, parsley, green peas, sprouts, watercress. Cut back on sweet and watery veggies such as cucumbers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini.

Fruits: Lemons, apples, applesauce, dried apricots, dried cherries, pears, persimmon, pomegranate, prunes, raisins. Fruits to cut back on: Out of season fruits and high pesticide fruits like non-organic grapes and berries.  In general avoid very sweet or very sour or very juicy or very watery fruits: avocado, bananas, melons.

Grains: Barley, bran, buckwheat, dry cereals, granola (dry with NO milk or added sugar) or muesli, millet, oats, spelt, sprouted bread Grains to cut back on: Bread (containing yeast), pasta, rice flour, wheat (tamasic dull mind), whole wheat flour.

Protein (Beans, Legumes, Meat): Adzuki beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, chick peas, lentils—red and brown, lima beans, mung beans, navy beans, pinto beans, split peas,white beans; chicken—white, eggs, fish—freshwater, pheasant, rabbit, shrimp, turkey—white, venison. Avoid: Red meat, tofu, and kidney beans

Seeds: chia, flax, popcorn, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds.

Beverages: aloe vera juice, spiced apple cider (drink hot with a stick of cinnamon), apple juice, bancha tea, cinnamon tea, dandelion tea, hibiscus tea, jasmine tea, lemon balm lemon grass tea, peppermint tea, yerba mate. If you crave alcohol, dry wines are best. Avoid: Milk shakes, cold drinks, iced smoothies, carbonated drinks, and hard alcohol

Oils: ghee, olive oil, mustard oil, almond oil, sunflower oil

Dairy: buttermilk, goat’s cheese—unsalted and not aged (try Queso Blanc from the Patches of Star farm on Union Square Farmers Market), ghee, non-fat milk, goat’s milk (avoid homogenized if possible) Avoid: Sweetened yogurts, aged cheese, blue cheese, cream, butter, and ice cream . (Hold on until summer)

Sweeteners: honey (raw, uncooked only)

Spices: Ginger, Cumin, Cilantro, Black Pepper, Sesame Seeds, Mustard without vinegar.

Have fun food shopping and let me know in the comments section what your favorite ingredient is from this list and I will create a Spring detox recipe just for your taste!

Are you struggling with losing holiday pounds? Is losing weight and staying healthy on your 2011 resolutions list? Or would you like to enjoy food more without experiencing a sense of guilt after it? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, Mindful Eating Workshop is for you!

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

Yoga helps us connect directly with our mind and body. This kind of awareness is key to a healthy, happy relationship with our selves, as well as (enjoyably) with our food!

In this experiential afternoon, we’ll break down the concept of Mindful Eating and go over its major principles. You will experience first-hand the way mindfulness applied to eating can cut cravings for things your body doesn’t need, and help you enjoy what you eat and make the healthiest food choices for you. Better digestion and feeling great all the time is another plus! You will also learn 7 easy steps for making Mindful Eating a part of your everyday life, without sacrificing your favorite dishes.

WHAT TO EXPECT

-We will do some yoga to increase body awareness

-Cover the How’s and Why’s of Mindful Eating

-Experiment with Mindful Eating principles on real food

-Discuss questions in an open nonjudgmental environment

Lets make being healthy fun!