Photo by Lisa Hobbs on Unsplash
I’m sure you’ve heard about all sorts of theories around health hacks before. Whether it’s an Atkins diet, celery juicing, high protein or some other funky diet.
Whilst I’m not against such diets, they only seem to work for a certain group of people. For me, I’ve tried many different approaches, but none of them really seem to stick.
My next approach was to go with a far more scientific approach. But here, I found a style of living that felt overly restrictive, and not really conducive to everyday living.
On reflection, It feels like these approaches are focused upon unrealistic over-optimisation. Whilst this may be great for top performance, I’m not looking to become a professional athlete. I also don’t fit in the general western standards of what a body ‘should’ look like. On the BMI scale, I’m over 35, categorising as morbidly obese. A year later filled with strength training and some cardio, I’m now slightly heavier than I was before. Now, everyone is quick to tell me that BMI is a flawed approach. But that doesn’t stop it from being the first measurement used, and pretty much the basis of such a scientific approach.
Western approaches to health and body have also felt off with my genetic and cultural heritage. Certainly in Belgium, a professional is very unlikely to have ever seen a body like mine before. I’ve also learnt to be wary of going to these professionals due to how ethnocentric they tend to be. I’ve got to the stage where I fear talking about my upbringing where we would eat rice and curry every day. I expect to meet an awkward blend of them not understanding and a bunch of judgement for having a diet of the ‘savages’. Ironically, before modern diets, indigenous communities have eaten more healthily and better than in the West.
This line of thinking led me to looking for a historical perspective, something closer to my ancestral origin. It’s here that I came across ayurveda, but I never really knew what it meant. It’s actually something I’ve been curious about for a while, but I hadn’t quite found a good way to access it.
In a previous job a few years ago, there was someone in the office from another company who was an ayurvedic practitioner. I bumped into her in the office one day and asked her about it. She glared at me, and told me that if I wanted to know more about ayurveda I should google it. I guess I wasn’t her target market, which later evidently turned out to be for other hippy-type white women… Alas, as is the fate of many eastern approaches including yoga which have faced cultural appropriation.
It has actually been ChatGPT that has been able to point out resources to me. It pointed me to the book, Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution by Robert Svoboda, as well as helping me with the understanding. It’s funny to think that modern technology is what is helping me to connect with thousands year old approaches.
I am by no means an expert, but some of the main points is that we are formed of three doshas (life energies) – Vatta, Kapha and Pitta. I’m simplifying, but broadly, Vatta represents wind, Kapha represents earth and Pitta represents fire.
We all have these three energies, but the important part is understanding your own dominant dosha, so that you can keep your energies in balance. It’s actually fairly straightforward to figure this out, and there is even a free test you can do here.Unlike western questionnaires which are quite narrow, this asks not only about your diet, but also your features – your hair, body pulse, eyes and other physical characteristics.
My constitution is Kapha, or earth. Which, if you look at me, is actually quite obvious. I have a large complexion, and naturally broader shoulders. It was actually really relieving to see that my natural inclination is to be more withdrawn and to gain weight quite easily. Finally I have found something that actually explains things beyond blaming me for a lack of self-discipline.
The benefits of being a Kapha-type is that I generally have healthy bone structure and features. My body’s natural tendency is to retain more nutrients to keep me healthy. I actually have pretty good skin, and I am rather tall for a South Asian. Pyschologically, it has done me a lot of good to realise that I’m not broken, just a different category. Of course, it is vital to keep movement and exercise, as kapha in excess can become inactive and lethargic.
More fundamentally, it gives a very different way of looking at what foods I eat, without needing to delve into the complexities of micronutrients.
With a burnout, my kapha energy has been really low. I’ve also been living a lifestyle pushing lots of activities, so my vatta (wind) energy has been too high. So the important thing for me now is to actually eat more warm, grounded meals. Dry foods tend to encourage vatta, so I need to avoid these. So actually, eating more salads would be discouraged considering my current state. Spicier foods tend to encourage pitta too, which right now I don’t need.
One of the biggest struggles I’ve had is when I’ve had a ravishing hunger. Sometimes I will eat dinner, only to find myself hungrier than I was before I started. The answer to this is not about calories, nor is it about quantity of food, it is about giving the right thing that my body needs. This means having more warmth. I’ve cut out cold drinks and switched them for warm water or tea. I’m figuring out how I can have more soups and broths, as well as changing from cold desserts to warm things like microwaved rice puddings.
This feels far more intuitive as an approach than anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s also built upon wisdom that has been built up over thousands of years, whilst also taking a far more holistic approach than western scientific approaches do which are so heavily focussed on optimisation.
I’ll have to see how it goes with the results. The early days have actually been quite rough. I’ve cut out energy drinks and coffee, which needs an adjustment period. Although these give a temporary boost to my energy, these are only perpetuating my imbalance by being high in Vatta. But I’m hopeful that this will give a framework for a long term way of living.
Time will tell.