Attaining Your Optimal Weight

by Prahsanti de Jager

The focus of Ayurveda, the ancient science of living a “Life in Balance,” is perhaps 20% disease and 80% True Wellness because energy, to a large extent, follows thought and intention, and thus the outer reality of our world often coalesces on subtler structures of fixations. So if you are always fixated on disease there is no end to the fight.

However, if you are focused on True Wellness you hold space for that. In other words, just like joy is much more than simply the absence of grief, so health, without doubt, is much more than the absence of disease. But when health care is disease-centric, we tend to miss the opportunity of True Wellness.  

In the same way, perhaps it is time stop talking about weight loss and start focusing on attaining our “optimal weight?”

Just as a house “holds space” for a home, an office for a company and a field for a football game, so the success of any endeavor often hinges on what “holds space” for it. Using the rule of 5’s is one trick to create the space and support that will in turn ensure your success.

Choose five friends to hold space to attain your optimal weight. Perhaps one goes to a gym with you, another holds you to your protocols, and another introduces you to a facet of True Wellness that is new to you, such as healthy cooking with organic food and a myriad of spices.

Choose five lifestyle changes that will “hold space” for your true wellness. Again and again, aim for True Wellness and within that, optimal weight. Diet, exercise, when you rise in the morning, how much time you spend in nature, the temperature of your shower, eating metabolic oils, are all examples.

Rising at dawn or earlier increases metabolism, rising after sunrise increases the chance of being systemically congested. Cold endings to showers increase metabolism. Just like fire needs air to burn, the high quality Prana resulting from walks in nature makes your inner fires burn hotter, thereby increasing the chances that you create high quality tissue and reduce low quality tissue. Eating metabolic oils, like ghee, hemp and flax supports optimal weight, while eating anabolic oils like hydrogenated processed oils, tends to make you gain weight.

Choose 5 herbal allies to support your goals.

• Thermogenic herbs that increase metabolism are great. Examples include Turmeric, Tulsi and Motha (the main herb in the Complete Flexibility formula). Thermogenic herbs also tend to be great at detoxifying. This also contributes to green tea’s reputation in attaining optimal weight. Tulsi Green Tea is a good choice to reach your goals, especially when consumed warm.
• To create high quality tissue in digestive systems prone to excess acid, use Amalaki. Amalaki decreases the factors which attack the digestive lining while increasing the factors that protect the digestive tract.
• To increase the absorption of nutrients but slow the absorption of dietary fats use Triphala, a formula of the three superfruits of India. Triphala is simply an outstanding homeostasis formula. In other words it can balance almost any state of digestion: by slowing or cooling a digestive system that is too fast; by speeding up and heating a digestive system that is too slow; by stabilizing a variable digestive system; and by removing/detoxifying congestion due to less than optimal digestion, food and eating patterns.
• Use the Liver Kidney formula not just for detoxifying but also for rebooting deep physiology.
• Use Sugar Balance when your optimal weight is thwarted by less than optimal blood sugar levels. This is more common than most people think.
• Drink Tulsi Tea every day. Tulsi has at least 10 different mechanisms to support True Wellness including optimal weight. This confluence of factors is why it has become one of the top herbs used for thousands of years in Ayurveda.

Choose 5% increments to monitor your success toward your total goal. A principle of Ayurveda is to take something according to your ability to digest it. In the same way, if you set too big of a goal too soon you will tend to only dismay yourself and give up. So have long term goals. True Wellness, for sure, but be compassionate to yourself, and divide that overall goal into 5% progress increments, and then “devour” those increments up. This will give you emotional and psychological momentum and that alone can make the difference that will ensure you attain your version of True Wellness.

The True Wellness paradigm is about acknowledging the full spectrum of healing and wellness protocols, and making sure that each is in its rightful place. Once this happens, will you find your rightful place, and that place is your right to True Wellness. No one has the right to take this right, this dignity, from you.

ORGANIC INDIA is a pioneer in the collective shift from the current disease-centric paradigm to the new True Wellness paradigm focused on attaining your greatest potential. Let us know what you choose and how we can be a source of True Wellness for you!