Overweight Pitta an Ayurvedic Perspective

Transcript

hey it's Kate with yoga healer and a couple weeks ago I published a video and a blog post I think we also put it out on the yoga health coaching as a podcast on overweight vatos people with a vodka Constitution from our Veda that philosophy that understands constitutions elementally and everyone has a constitution and what happens when you're lighter air ether that's about two constitution we have a lighter Constitution but you're carrying a lot of excess body weight so when you're an overweight Vata and what happened is people were like well wait what about the overweight pizzas and what about the overweight cuffs and so that's what brings us to today of really what to do if you are in overweight pizza and how to work skillfully for those of you who are yoga health coaches or wellness practitioners and yoga teachers and you're working with people that are more put in the area you have someone that's more Pitta in nature and how to help them how to have them adjust now I want to explain a little bit about pizza and then I'm just gonna dive right in with advice the thing about pizza and pizza body type people's pizza is fire right it's fire first off and it's water second and it's it's so much more fire than water it's like if you look at someone's eyes and you see the light coming through their eyes that's the fire of pizza and if you see that white member it's our that watery membrane that surrounds the eye that is the water that surrounds the heat of fire in order to keep it biologically in balance in our physiology so people that have more fire in their constitution than they do earth or air or ether people that are naturally intense right if if they're carrying too much weight the reasons behind that have a lot to do with their fiery nature itself so let's talk a little bit about the metaphysical component of being a fiery person Pitta people are attracted to transformation their natural visionaries they see how the world could be different and they work to make the difference that they see come to light come to fruition so they tend to move full throttle towards putting a vision into action which is awesome on the physiological level they tend to have really strong digestion and they have a very strong appetite they tend to be quick burners hi metabolizers they often have quick elimination as well they generally typical Pizza Constitution will not have issues with elimination of course there are exceptions to the rule I'm actually one of those exceptions to the rule so I get it in general Pitta types have a more mesomorphic muscle to bone structure they you know for instance like a mesomorphic will not be like really bony on the outside that's more of an dough morph and people that are pretty squishy when you give them a hug that's more of an endomorph so ectomorphs are more Vata and endomorphs are more kapha so pictus are right in the middle they tend to be more life they tend to have an easy time gaining weight in an easy time losing weight they usually can do what they set their minds to do and their minds tend to be sharp and focused and they naturally have a hierarchy of decision-making which gives them an edge on making things happen they can change their minds on a dime given new information they're not changing their minds in a flighty way they get more information and they're like oh there's a better way that's what I'm doing now it's a very typical Pitta type response and out of balance what happens in their mind is that creates a very critical frustrated self reflected or outwardly reflected firestorm right and so when when you have a blazing fire of sort of a judgmental critical nature you can burn up your relationships just ask me I can tell you loads about that I so if we look at what's happening in a typical Pitta type prakruti which means a patella type Constitution with excess body weight is to me it's actually it's a pretty simple equation the person is used to being able to digest a ton of food and just bam transform it the name of the game of pizza is transformation so their bodies are naturally when they're when these people are young they're naturally like high metabolism right they can actually turn food into energy or food into waste or food into tissue very quickly but the thing about the body in ageing is that the body is becoming more and more efficient as it ages that's the name of the game of dynamic aging is is physiological efficiency so the body needs less and less fuel to make the same amount of transformation happen over time and that ratio like that equation keeps going as life goes on so a pizza in their teen years can eat anything I mean really like I think any like five meals a day and not put on a pound in their 20s all of a sudden they start to notice like I can't eat quite as much right and their 30s by then they tend to have some extra flesh on them if they've kept up with the eating right in their 40s 50 60 70 is it keeps going what's happening is the digestive fire is becoming actually less intense because the body needs less fuel the body simply is becoming more and more and more efficient but often what happens is that is such an interesting component what we call identity evolution in in the body--the right of course and we work a lot with this we also work with it on a career level with the yoga health coaches identity evolution is when you can actually more for your identity right so you can go from who you were be like yeah that's who I was when I was in my 20s I could eat this and this and this and this and burn it but now I'm in my forties and all my body really needs is is this in this so while I used to be a big eater I'm no longer a big eater I actually am just an appropriate eater based on my body type and that's a really big deal to actually you know to actually just allow that to happen in modern society because often pizzas are super stressed right there high achievers so they bite off often more than they can chew and they're going after this and they're going after that and they're going after the other thing and food becomes a way of pacifying their intensity right so they're naturally a very intense they're naturally very like going for the goal that's the definition of a Pitta mind type is they're gonna go for it and they're gonna literally bite off more than they can chew and if they don't if they don't basically adjust for their changing digestion and their body's evolving efficiency by not biting off more than they can chew at mealtime they basically are eating emotionally for their level of intensity now the other thing what happens with pizzas is they crave foods that have intensity and the foods that have intensity are well--there's beverages as well so caffeine and alcohol both have an intensity for the liver all right the livers actually it's I mean there's a reason alcohol is called firewater and caffeine has a natural like heat-related toxin if you if you sweat after you have like a shot or two of expresso you know exactly what I mean by that pitchers will often crave spicy foods right they like to add hot sauce to everything or a few pinches of cayenne they'll often crave meat and all these foods are like the the meat is like literally the blood the heat component is in the blood tissue it's called the rock - the rock dough the rock - doc - the heat component in the blood and often a pizza will crave that in fact in back in India back in the day of the caste system they would feed the warrior class a lot of animal meat and a lot of animal blood and a lot of animal blood organs like liver in the reason was because it was thought to like increase the energies increase the emotions increase the intensities so this is a big deal because if a Pitta kind of gives in to their nature in a way and it eats the foods that aggravate their Constitution right the spices the meat alcohol caffeine even chocolate is in there what will happen is they're going to keep adding fire to the fire if they don't learn how to calm their mind how to cool their mind with practices like yoga meditation quiet walking journaling reflections gratitude practices then their mind is going to increase in heat and then they'll emotionally eat too basically there's so much heat inside their feeding what they think is feeding their digestive fire it's really not it's it's they're feeding an emotional toxicity a heat generated emotional toxicity within them and what'll happen over time with this is like yet they'll have excess body weight right but they'll also have a level of self-criticism right which can lead to to self-hatred that's kind of a strong word but there it is liver weakness ulcers skin issues all these are really typical a lot of inflammation right even inflammation and joint tissue for pidge's is related to this lack of a tuning to their own constitution so what is a pit to do I think I mean again first of all just realizing that you may have been able to eat a horse when you were in your teens or in your 20s but your physiology is getting more and more efficient and that is something to celebrate to have that shift in identity evolution going from someone that's like hey I used to be able to I used to be able to eat more food than anyone else at the table right like that was me I'm a big eater - Wow isn't it totally super groovy that I can thrive unless each year that my body is increasing in efficiency so that's number one that's just called like reckoning day or coming to terms with your physiology with your reality number two is is attuned to the mind if you have a pizza type body and you also have a pit to type mind you want to learn how to cool your mind how to give a lot of space element or ether element to your mind and that's like even little simple things like looking outside at the clouds or the sky or the trees and just letting your gaze rest and letting your thoughts pass right and so letting go of that sharp eka grata or one pointed focus letting go of the focus and then taking some time to just sit at the beginning of the day at the end of the day and for many pizzas it will help to actually take a moment before they lift their fork to just diffuse to simply settle down so pizza is fire it rises up just to take a moment to settle down on and to take a breath and to feel like especially before meals like how much how much do I want right now alright how much is optimal right now what is optimal right now so to add these little breaks of spaciousness in the meditation practice at the beginning of the day or the end of the day to have that meditation practice be a very diffusive practice as opposed to a focused practice but just don't need to improve their concentration they don't need to like gaze at a candle light without blinking it's just a really good way to develop it it's not a good way to settle Pitta but just simply a practice like sitting and allowing allowing everything to be as it is without getting involved without problem solving you'll see that pit is capacity to digest to digest thoughts to digest problems and transform them that's their mo that's their their modus operandi and so we want to turn that on its head and just be like you know what just for now I'm just gonna allow it all to be not gonna problem solve very effective way to begin the day very effective way to end the day and all this does is it starts to defuse the heat buildup in the entire system and as that happens you'll just notice like your cravings for the heat intensity will also diffuse you won't want quite as much caffeine you won't want hot sauce with every single meal well what alcohol quite as much you'll start to notice the relationship more between what you really want how you really want to feel and how you really might want to feel is cool calm reflective it's a very watery word reflective right we need water to see our own reflection and in that there's a deeper insight there's a slowing down but there's a deeper process happening so as we're aging and our physiology is becoming much more efficient we're getting more out of less the same thing is true of a reflective pizza as they age on the minds own that in the mental plane they'll also be able to do so much more with so much less and that becomes a lot of the name of the game purposes so if we're overweight the other thing of seeing what's going on here is the body is weighing down it's getting more water and earth element it's weighing itself down to deal with the intensity so wouldn't you rather deal with the intensity head-on right and just actually look at like hey can I can I lessen the intensity can I lessen my generation of intensity of sharpness of focus of stress can I actually invest my attention into that which is detoxifying that which is soothing that was just grounding that which is softening so the other main components for a pizza in terms of foods and in terms of eating I mean for everyone always first and foremost eat seasonally eating seasonally you don't have to follow a special diet just follow it's in season it'll naturally adjust to your body type in to what's going on often pizzas that are overweight will be ingesting the majority of their calories at the end of the day and so just simply switching that having the bigger meal in the middle of the day having dinner but having dinner be done by 6:00 p.m. which if you are not used to that like that can be a huge life changing identity evolving kind of habit change so you might want to take that slow you might want to adjust back by 15-minute segments you might want to switch from a bigger plate to a smaller plate like all of these little tips that we use in body thrive in the course they really help but just make it easy fit just thrive on a diet that has a steady intake of fresh food of dark leafy greens in particular they can eat naturally more raw foods they can have more raw green juices they can have more raw green smoothies and green salads all of that is the color green is incredibly cooling and soothing for pizza what they can't have of is heat toxins alright and that's pretty easy to navigate in the world of food if you're eating Whole Foods the big thing I find with pizza is just having a good satisfying lunch even resting for a few moments after lunch and I'll just give you an example today I had I had half a sandwich that had a lot of protein in it and in a big green salad at lunchtime and I sat down outside without my computer without any distraction just me and outside this and I had lunch and they sat and I enjoyed my lunch and that's all I did at lunch let's just sit and eat and enjoy and then after lunch I felt like I do I want to take a five minute nap or do I want to do something kind of fun I thought oh I want to go visit a neighbor and I usually you know my old pattern would be like work work work work work I'd just you know stretch the limits of the day pack in as much as I possibly could so that no I'm gonna go I want to check in on my neighbors so I I walk next door now that I live in the neighborhood and I checked in with with my neighbors with Miranda and Brooks and it was so sweet and it was so deeply fulfilling alright in these words of like however relationships become deeply fulfilling how just gazing at the clouds enjoying the breeze on my skin how that's deeply fulfilling that starts to take the place of eating too much food for my body to digest so I go I chitchat with my neighbors for 15 minutes I come back and I'm ready to work I'm ready to put in the kind of focus and effort and attention in the afternoon I'm completely fueled I know my dinner will be a lighter meal it'll be a salad based meal we're in still in warm weather here and and that'll be that for food it won't be this super big deal a balance picked up becomes so much less attached to food their cravings detoxify and if you haven't detox and you really should like it's such a simple way to reset your metabolism twice a year in alignment with how your body wants to operate not how your mom how much not how much food your mind wants your body to digest but how much does your body actually want to be digested in this phase of your life with whatever you've got going on and we need that we need to reset our cravings pit does in particular need to detox heat toxins regularly whether those he toxins are generated by food by alcohol or by stress it's just a very simple way for a pizza to become balanced on an annual cycle is simply by doing to detox as a year if you're a pit to Constitution and you're overweight and you're not detoxing twice a year like open your calendar right now and just schedule in a week in either September and October or a weekend March April or May and do a detox if you need instruction on it go to yogi detox calm I offer live courses twice a year and you can always get into the replay of the course but the point is to simply to do it and to build that into your identity evolution like hey I'm someone who optimizes my physiology optimizes my mind optimizes my projects summarizes what I can get done in my life right optimizes my experience here on planet Earth by simply doing a reset twice a year checking in and optimizing my choices in alignment with what my physiology really wants optimizing my habits so I hope I hope this has been helpful again quick recap pit does need to smarten up by eating less as they get older they need to identity evolve into what their physiology needs they need to eat their biggest meal in the middle of the day they need to be done eating dinner by 6 p.m. even though they used to be able to eat anything at any time of day they need to eat green a lot of green a lot more green than the other constitutions they need to detoxify their heat toxins twice a year they often need to reduce alcohol caffeine dark chocolate things that are aggravating to their physiology hot sauce hot spices and that'll naturally happen the more they attune their constitution the more they do the twice a year seasonal detoxes all right that's what I have for you overweight pit does it's so much easier than you think because again your constitution is not just easy to gain it's so easy to lose weight