Better Health through Ayurveda: Observations
In giving up coffee for 3 days I truly found that it was not the coffee I was having cravings
for. All the coffee I buy and drink is decaffeinated so it was not the caffeine I was craving. I have every day for as long as I can remember at least 12 years now bought a decaffeinated Americano at Starbucks so giving up coffee for the few days I did was extremely difficult for me. I did however discover that it was the cream and sugar in the coffee that I crave not the coffee itself. The cream and sugar made me feel heavy and weighed down sluggish and slow moving.
Because I am a Kapha I have a slower digestive track so after discovering this about my body I
began to wake up in the morning and the first thing I would do was scrape my tongue to analyze my ama to see how my digestion was from the day before. As a result I found that my body was not digesting food properly, next I would try using different warming spices in meals in an attempt to regulate my digestion. I used such spices as Cayenne pepper, black pepper, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, I also twenty minutes before a meal would make a shot of lime juice, sea salt and ginger root to light my Agni. Trying to reduce or cut out any synthetic butter sprays, oils, sugar or sweeteners I was substituting ghee in the place of butter and honey in the place of sugar. I have not noticed a significant change but I do believe it is helping my daily digestion. For the first few days with the spices I did get the hiccups and I did notice my body temperature felt warmer. I do however feel lighter on my feet and more energized.
I stopped snacking and only ate three balanced meals, lunch being my biggest meal of the day
with this I also cut gluten products out of my normal diet. In doing so I felt not bloated, puffy, weighed down and had no headaches. I think I may have a gluten allergy however I do find that I crave breads and gluten products and don’t understand why. In addition to keep my body from having to work over time to heat up drinks I consume I have stopped drinking anything cold all my fluids have been tepid or room temperature. By doing this my body really appeals to the warm fluids and feel better over all. I now crave warm fluids.
Every night I would take a shower and just kind of rub off the water and then massage sesame
oil into my skin then blot dry. After getting dressed I would apply more sesame oil to
the bottom of my feet then sleep with socks on. I found that my skin is super soft and I have no cracks or dryness to my feet and at night when I sleep, I sleep sound. I wake up really feeling like a slept. I also found getting a good amount of sleep hours in and quality sleep has really improved my ability to make it through the day more focused. It has definitely helped my over all personal health.