The Maharishi Ayurveda Approach to Weight Loss

5 Easy Steps to A healthier Weight

Although different people have weight problems for different reason, these 5 tips address fundamental lifestyle habits that affect virtually everyone. The really good news is that these 5 powerful tips are easy to implement and can bring about great changes in your life and health once in place.

Point 1. Eat a light evening meal with easy-to-digest foods.

Everyone dealing with weight loss issues needs to know that it is virtually impossible to make serious progress if you continue to eat large evening meals with heavy foods!

I cannot emphasize this point too much. Ayurveda describes that digestion is less strong in the evening, plus lying down to sleep a few hours later further slows down digestion, metabolism and circulation. The body simply cannot assimilate large evening meals properly. The result is that much of the food is digested poorly and eventually creates toxins, fat and excess weight. For most people using the approaches of eating less during the day, herbs, pills, special powders and drinks, and even exercise cannot overcome this most serious of all weight loss mistakes.

Especially avoid in the evening: cheese, yogurt, rich desserts, red meat, leftovers of any kind, cold foods, processed foods

Avoid or reduce in evening meals: fowl, fish, desserts

Evening meals should be vegetarian, hot, light and liquidy. If you are significantly overweight the foundation of the evening meal should be 1) non-cream soups, 2) grains cooked in water (for example rice, quinoa, cous cous, barley), and 3) vegetables either steamed, roasted or sauteed with small amounts of extra virgin olive oil. If you must have dessert, I recommend cooked fruit desserts made with only small amounts of organic sugar.

2. Eat the largest meal of the day at lunch with a wide variety of warm, cooked food.

Lunch is the time our bodies can best digest and properly assimilate larger quantities of food due to the fact that digestion is strongest at noon and we have many active hours to metabolize the food before we sleep. Lunch is the most important meal of the day and the meal we most need to plan and prepare for.

Lunch should be warm, cooked foods with a wide variety of tastes and dishes. Warm food is essential as it can be more easily digested and assimilated. Cold foods suppress digestion (remember your chemistry- cold temperature suppresses chemical reaction, and digestion is chemistry!) The result of regular meals of cold foods is indigestion, the accumulation of ama (undigested molecules that clog the channels,) and weight gain.

Having a wide variety of foods is essential for nutrition and to prevent the body from developing food cravings-the downfall of many a well-meaning diet plan. Food cravings often occur because of imbalanced diets that included only a few food types. Diets restricted to mostly carbohydrates or protein or fat eventually lead to undernourished tissues that rightfully send hunger messages to our brain. Even though we have just finished eating a large quantity of food, parts of our body are still truly malnourished and hungry. Unfortunately if we don't realize this when the hunger signals come we may reach for even more carbohydrate rich and dense foods like desserts when actually we need green vegetables and legume soups.

A good, balanced lunch also helps us feel less hungry in the evening, making it easier to stick to that all-important light evening meal.

3. Drink hot water frequently throughout the day

By sipping hot water throughout the day you help cleanse the digestive tract and entire body of blockages and impurities. Hot water drinking improves digestion and assimilation of food and helps prevent the body from becoming toxic and clogged. It also is a great aid in reducing food cravings between meals. I have known people who lost over 50 pounds by following only this single recommendation.

Most people can accomplish the hot water recommendation by getting a good thermos and having a cup sitting on a small cup-sized hot plate. You can pour your hot water in the cup, put it on the warmer and sip it throughout the day as you work.

The most purifying and cleansing water is water that has been boiled for about ten minutes. Boiling water for ten minutes reduces its heaviness (you will usually see a fine powder at the bottom of the pan that consists of precipitated materials from the water) and energizes the water. Drinking water from your hot water dispenser at work is better tha