More and more people are striving for a healthy lifestyle, because… when the body is sick, life is focused only on recovery. People are constantly in a hurry to get somewhere, do not pay enough attention to the quality and quantity of unhealthy foods they eat, and an unbalanced diet has become the norm. This in turn causes excess weight. They introduce various diets into their lives, without taking into account their health status, existing deficiencies, and genetic characteristics. Health is the basis for a beautiful body and the ability to feel happy and fulfilled. In a highly competitive world, people are obliged to lead a healthy lifestyle!
At their core, Ayurveda and nutritional science lay an integrated approach to achieving health and maintaining it.
Losing excess weight without causing even more harm to the body – this task requires an integrated approach with the support of a specialist.
I want to share with you life hacks and general rules that, according to my observations, apply to almost everyone who strives to return to their ideal weight.
Lifehack #1 – Snacks
How often do you have snacks between meals? Even if you eat 1 cookie and any fruit, our gastrointestinal tract perceives this as a meal and the entire system starts to digest what was eaten. We often don’t notice how many times a day we put something in our mouth, but on average it’s every 1-2 hours. If you record every snack, you will understand why I attach great importance to this. Try to write down what you eat and at what interval of time, this will allow you to see the full picture of your food intake. Take notes until proper nutrition becomes your way of life. This healthy habit will help you control your diet. It is important to understand that the gastrointestinal tract needs time to prepare and digest food, on average it is 3-4 hours (a full cycle lasts 12 hours or more!). This process depends on the type of constitution and the strength of the digestive fire.
Frequent snacking puts a strain on all your organs and forces them to work without interruption. This leads to the fact that your organ system is depleted and begins to work worse: the liver is overloaded and does not have time to recover, the pancreas produces few enzymes, insufficient secretion of gastric juice, the intestinal mucosa becomes thinner, etc. This is a common cause of metabolic disorders and contributes to the formation of excess fat.
Ayurveda and nutrition, based on scientific research, recommend eating main meals with a break of 3-4 hours and without snacks.
Therefore, if you want your digestive system to work perfectly and you can lose excess weight without much effort and as quickly as possible, remove snacks from your diet!
Lifehack #2 – Plate size and color
The Delboeuf illusion is an optical illusion of perceiving the relative sizes of objects of perception. For example, if you take 2 identical volumes of rice, but put them on plates of different sizes, then it will visually appear that the larger plate will have less rice than the other, smaller plate. This visual illusion has a direct connection with our appetite through satiety signals sent by the brain. If the brain receives a signal that there is not enough food on the plate, it informs other systems about this – everyone begins to work with readiness that the body will not be full. Automatically, such internal adjustment of systems provokes overeating, which overloads the work of all organs and organ systems and over time leads to the formation of fatty deposits (this is the glucose that turned out to be excess due to overeating, and the body was unable to remove all of it through the cleansing systems).
Thus, the correct plate size is an excellent prevention of overeating. The same dish on a large and small plate will give different psychological saturation, and from a large plate, a person can eat more.
It is interesting to note that the same rule also works in the opposite direction! Eat from a small plate, on which there will be the required amount of food in the form of a slide as if there is so much food that it does not fit on the plate – this will contribute to faster saturation and the likelihood that you will not be full will be minimal. Remove all large-sized plates from your daily routine. Use small plates at every meal, eat the right portion of food and you will see results that will please you.
The color of the plate also matters, with which you can regulate your appetite. Neutral colors are considered blue and light green. Red and white colors increase appetite. Dark blue, lilac, black, and marsh allow you to eat less and get full faster.
Lifehack #3 – Preparation and mood for eating
Our sense of smell can detect a trillion odors. What smell do you like now? What aromas of spices, herbs, and foods fascinate you and evoke a feeling of inner satisfaction? When food is just being cooked, you inhale its aromas and your organ systems are already starting up, preparing to eat the food that you smell. This is an important process for the production of digestive juices and the production of necessary enzymes. We perceive the taste of food through the nasopharynx, the so-called taste sensations are what results.
Nutritionology claims that if you don’t eat on the run and give your body time to adjust to the food, its texture (crispy, soft, fibrous, elastic, hard), appearance (what colors it is, how attractive it looks, what table setting), aroma – then you will be able to assimilate it with a greater probability, i.e. your body will absorb maximum nutrients from the food you eat.
Ayurveda gives more accurate and in-depth recommendations for eating, but in this article, I will expand only on what complements the mood for eating – food should be taken in a good mood and silence, it is important to focus on this process. Thus, Ayurveda states that if you are in a bad mood, angry, or sad, then it is better to drink water and calm down before eating. Otherwise, you will not be able to tune in to it, you will not be able to concentrate on what you are eating, and therefore you will not get much benefit from this food, because there is a direct connection between satisfaction from food and good digestion!
Life hack #4 – The right time to sleep
The glymphatic system is a recently discovered macroscopic waste removal system that utilizes a unique system of perivascular tunnels formed by astroglial cells to facilitate the efficient clearance of soluble proteins and metabolites from the central nervous system. In addition to eliminating waste, the glymphatic system also facilitates the distribution of several compounds in the brain, including glucose, lipids, amino acids, growth factors, and neuromodulators.
In simple terms, the glymphatic system removes waste from the nervous system and brain. It is interesting to note that this system functions primarily during sleep and is largely shut down during wakefulness. Thus, when we sleep, the brain enters a state of activity to remove potentially neurotoxic waste products. It turns out that the less we sleep, the worse neurotoxins are eliminated, the more our brain is poisoned, and the faster its cells die.
During sleep, our body rests and recovers. If a person is awake at night, this negatively affects his health and appearance – the skin loses elasticity and firmness, the person ages faster gains excess weight more easily, and gets sick more often. All these are consequences of a lack of melatonin, which performs several important functions in our body. Melatonin is a sleep hormone that is produced in the blood in maximum quantities from 23:00 to 03:00, then gradually decreases. If we are not sleeping at this time, not enough melatonin is produced. This has an impact not only on our appearance but also on our mood and well-being, because… The antagonist of melatonin is the hormone cortisol, which launches us in the morning and maintains our activity throughout the day. When there is little cortisol, it is difficult for us to wake up, concentration drops, fatigue quickly occurs, etc. Therefore, to maintain hormonal balance, it is advisable to go to bed before 23.00 and get enough sleep.
Ayurveda gives slightly different recommendations regarding sleep for different types of constitution (about this in a separate article), but just like nutritionology, Ayurveda says that when the body sleeps enough, it is healthy! This healthy habit will greatly improve your quality of life.
Ayurveda relies on the characteristics and manifestations of doshas. Doshas affect all areas of our lives – they manifest themselves not only in the body but also in the seasons, periods of life, and throughout the day. Thus, Ayurveda recommends going to bed during Kapha between 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm. The Kapha period is when the rhythm of nature slows down and the day comes to an end. At this time, it is good to turn off the mind from all worries and practice techniques of spiritual development. Then your sleep will be complete and deep. This healthy habit will significantly improve your quality of life!
After 22:00, the Pitta period begins – this is when the digestive fire is activated, and if we sleep, its energy cleanses the body, burning toxins. If we are awake, then the valuable energy given to us by nature to cleanse the body is wasted on other purposes. We develop an appetite, a desire to do something and communicate with friends. This leads to the accumulation of ama (toxins) and, as a result, fatigue, migraines appear, and arthritis develops. Unfortunately, many people consider this a normal condition after thirty to thirty-five years, although this is not at all the case.
If you want to learn about how you need to eat, by your health characteristics, type of constitution, and lifestyle, then come to me for a consultation. I will be glad to help and support you on your path of development and work on your habits.
To summarize, try to go to bed before 22.00, have your last meal 3 hours before bedtime, and have a light dinner – then you will sleep soundly, the nervous system will rest and recover, the system of cleansing the body of toxins will work better and, accordingly, excess fat will be burned.
Introduce healthy habits into your life: good sleep, proper nutrition, exercise, and this will help you easily, effectively and permanently lose excess weight.
