I thought this was an appropriate time to talk about immunity, especially since many of ya'll have asked me how to build strong immunity with Ayurveda in the past week or so... ;)

So let's do it! Below is an overview of 'Bringing Ayurveda to Life' podcast episode #36.

First, you have to understand what immunity is and how immunity is created, according to Ayurveda.

Below is an excerpt from my book In Your Elements. 

In Ayurveda, our immunity is called ojas (OH-jus). Ojas is the essential energy of our vitality, immunity, strength, luster and health. Ojas is the pure essence of all bodily tissues. Which means that after all the tissues in the body have gone through their transformative digestive processes, ojas is what is left. Ojas is our immunity and responsible for reproduction and creation. We only have a tiny bit, a few drops, and it lives in the heart. People with good ojas rarely get sick and often avoid even the most contagious office bugs.

When ojas is low,...

Agni, in Ayurveda is our digestive fire and when it functions properly, we have optimal digestion and optimal health. However, all digestion is not created equal! Depending on your dosha, you may have variable agni (vishama), overly hot agni (teekshna), or low agni (manda.

In the video, I give ayurvedic digestion tips for each one of the 4 agni types. Since each agni, has their own characteristics, I go over digestive problems and solutions for each one.

So whether you have variable digestion, fast digestion, or very slow digestion, don’t freak out. It may just be the way you are made! Therefore, it’s good to know to balance your digestion by way of Ayurveda.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Keep bringing Ayurveda to life!

This is the story of a major Thanksgiving fail, but Ayurvedic win. 

For Thanksgiving last week, I wanted to make fun mini caramel apple bites on a stick! So cute and mini-sized to go along with some of the heavier desserts. Perfect! 

There is nothing Ayurvedic about these, btw. 

Around 11am on Thanksgiving (after the parade! *jazz hands*), excitedly, I went to work. I didn't burn the caramel!! And that's the only good thing that happened.

Watch this 4 second video to see the results of those sassy apples...

Never make mini caramel apples. Just don't even do it. No matter how cute the Youtube videos are, they lie. It sucks. 

Ok, so. In a panic, I scrapped the cute little disasters. My husband calmly said, "What do you know how to make that's tried and true?"

{think-think-think} 

"My chewy ginger snaps!"

I ran to the closet, grabbed my book, In Your Elements, and flipped to page 155. RECIPE!

{stomach sinks} Uhhh...I don't...

Below are the best foods for vata dosha and are especially balancing for fall and winter, which is vata season.

It's way easier to make the right food choices once we know what foods balance our dosha.

By the way, in case you were wondering, there is no such thing as "Ayurvedic food." 

Food is food. Certain foods will balance certain doshas better than others, however Ayurveda says that any food can be nectar or poison depending on the person who is having it. 

Below is an excerpt from my Ayurvedic book, In Your Elements. 

Oil is vata's #1 food

Why oil? Because the dry quality of vata is most likely to go out of balance first. And! Dryness causes all kinds of health problems. We don't want the body to dry out, because when it does, we break down, deteriorate and age. Nice right? Oils, people!

“Yes” foods for vata

Moist, grounding, building, nourishing, oily/ fatty, easy-to-digest and warming. Think: warm, goopy, soupy, sticky, comfort foods.

...

Find more video trainings, on my  YouTube channel
Or, grab a copy of my book In Your Elements  on Amazon!

One of you wrote to me and said, "Hey, Monica B, what does Ayurveda say about milk and cheese?"

Great question! Is it good for us, bad for us, good for certain people or certain seasons? Lots to think about!

Some people absolutely love it and it does really well for their body. Some people are actually intolerant of it and can't have it at all.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about what does milk and cheese exactly do for our bodies and who it's good for.

First let's talk cheese. Cheese comes in 2 different tastes:

1) sweet and
2) sour

Cheese is heavy. It is coating, and sometimes it can be sweet, which is cooling, and sometimes it can be sour, which is heating.

Sweet cheeses are soft and more milky like cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, especially fresh mozzarella and burrata. Ricotta also falls under the sweet category.

Sour cheeses...

If you like these, join me Live on Fridays at 11 am PST.

What does Ayurveda say about hunger?

Ever wonder if we are supposed to feel hungry? Like what if you feel hungry all the time? Or what if you never feel hungry at all? How hungry should we feel?

Sometimes we're taught that we're actually not ever supposed to feel hunger so we should eat five to six meals a day to avoid getting hungry.

Years back I saw a nutritionist and was told to eat five or six meals a day to never get hungry. And what happened? I gained some pounds within two weeks! My pants were tight and everything was tight. I felt heavy. I felt just really overall kind of awful. I knew it wasn't working for me.

It wasn't until I discovered Ayurveda that I figured out why eating all those small meals left me feeling so terrible.

So, what does Ayurveda say about hunger? It is good to feel hungry! Yay!

There are three guidelines about hunger.

1. It is a signal from our digestive...

Have you ever wondered, "How much water am I supposed to be drinking every day?"

We're told to drink, "eight glasses of water." Or, for weight loss, "drink a bunch of water before your meals so that you don't feel as hungry!" I've even heard if you divide your body weight by 1/2 and and turn that into ounces, that's how much water you should drink!

So, how much water should I drink? Well, it depends on your dosha.

Vatas, you would think would need a lot of water, because they are the driest. But along with the water, they also need a healthy amount of oils. You're like, "Why? Water is hydrating!" It is hydrating, but think about this. If you do something with your hands in water for a long time, like let's say you're washing dishes, your hands get very dry. So for vatas, because they have a dry constitution, they will need a good amount of water, but they need some oil to provide the unctuousness they need.

Pitta is the dosha that needs the most water because pittas are...

Soooo...raise your hand, if you have kind lost your appetite lately. Or, notice any strange cravings, like you just want a bowl of cereal for dinner or a piece of fruit for lunch?

You're not crazy! It's because we are moving right into pitta season! In pitta season the fire + water elements govern the weather, the greater nature surrounding us.

We tend to think of summer as hot/fire, so you might be thinking, "But wait, it's hot...like increases like, so I should be starving." Good thinking! But notice that water element.

Because of the water, our digestive fire actually goes down a little bit. Water puts out fire.

Spicy, saucy, savory foods don't really sound good to us right now, it's counterintuitive to what's happening in nature. Instead we start craving pitta-balancing foods that are cooling and sweet like sweet fruits, sweet cereals, maybe ice creams! We no longer order a hot chai, we ask for an iced matcha.

 In fact, I just...

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Grab a copy of my book In Your Elements on Amazon!

One of you wrote to me and said,

"Hey Monica B. What is one small change that I can make based on Ayurveda, that would achieve great results?"

And I was like, "That's a good question. I have like five, maybe eight things that she could do!" and then I was like, "Dang, she said one, I've got to think of one."

So I did it. I thought of one thing that is hugely impactful, and achieves great results and I'm excited to share it with you!

Something important to note, the one thing is not very exciting. In fact you might be like, "Meh, that's it?" but I want to understand the benefits you'll notice because that's where the goodness is!

My one recommendation for the small change to make is, to make lunch the biggest meal of the day. 

And why do I say that? Because usually we're at work, or we're in the middle of our day, we're rushing here and there. We grab...

photo credit: This is my daughter Alella when she was teeny. We stuck a mustachio on her and...photoshoot! We were sleep deprived and slap happy. She has a pitta tongue with a wee bit of milk on it :) 

Below is an excerpt from my book In Your Elements. Get your copy on Amazon! 

Our entire digestive system is reflected on the tongue.

If you didn't know what your tongue says about you, well, I'm gonna share! Our tongue tells us a nifty story, we just have to know what to look for. 

A simple practice: Every morning, first thing, check your tongue. It will most likely have a little coating on it, so if you have a tongue scraper, scrape it a few times. Look again. If it is pink, that's a great sign. If it is white you may have ama, which is toxins or undigested food stuffs. 

Come along and let's learn what other things Ayurveda says about our tongue!

Besides a white coating, there are other things we can look for on our tongue. If there is redness, it can...