(Plus Vata Diet Tips to Correct Any Vata Imbalance)
A Vata dosha imbalance may not only cause you to be always in a rush, stressed out and even depressed, but to easily gain weight as well.
That’s why here you’ll find out practical tips on how to balance your dosha, recommendations of Vata Ayurvedic weight loss diet, including specific supplements helpful for your Vata body type.
Before anything else, here’s something to remember. While it’s true that as a Vata type you may be naturally slender, but this doesn’t mean that weight gain will never be a problem for you…
You can be thin all your life, and then suddenly put on weight because your metabolism has changed and your digestion has been disturbed. Incomplete digestion caused by eating the wrong foods for your dosha creates toxicity in your body – toxicity that clogs your whole system and causes weight gain.
Not to worry though, here are some useful…
Vata Dosha Ayurvedic Weight Loss Diet Guidelines
The most important diet adjustment you could make to correct your Vata imbalance is to eat three cooked, warm meals per day – at the same time every day, if possible. This greatly improves your digestion and assimilation of vital nutrients.
What to Favor: according to Ayurvedic weight loss guidelines, Vatas should favor moist cooking (sautéing, steaming, & boiling), and avoid frying, baking and roasting – as these contribute to your vata imbalance.
Use coconut oil and butter (or ghee, which is clarified butter) as the most healthy cooking oils.
Always favor warm drinks over cold ones.
Choose whole, fresh, unctuous foods that are sweet, sour, salty, slightly oily, and mildly spicy. Try to use vata-pacifying spices like ginger, basil, oregano, tarragon, thyme, cumin, and fennel as much as you can.
Here’s an example of daily menus that will pacify your Vata body type helping you release the extra weight:
Breakfast: try either a sweet & creamy hot cereal meal, or one that is based on sweet fruits: warm stewed berries, apples & pears with cinnamon & nutmeg; or fresh bananas, apricots, grapes, figs, and dates.
Lunch (make it the heaviest meal of the day) should include:
- 30% well-cooked vegetables (choose vata-balancing, “warming” vegetables like beets, carrots, zucchini, leeks, asparagus, green beans, onions, sweet potatoes)
- 20% light proteins (chicken, turkey, seafood), and
- 50% grains like brown rice, couscous, whole wheat pasta.
Late afternoon snack: try some halva with a hot herbal tea, or some raw, slightly salted nuts with yogurt or kefir (preferably of goat or sheep).
Dinner: whole-grain bread and butter with a hearty vegetable soup, or a cup of warm milk and fresh cheese (cottage, ricotta, labneh, goat or cream cheese).
Just before bed, you can have a cup of buttermilk, or warm milk with honey and a pinch of ginger for a sound, restful sleep.
What to Avoid: according to the Ayurvedic weight loss recommendations for your dosha, you should avoid any cold
foods (frozen, canned, or packaged foods and iced drinks), raw salads and vegetables, astringent fruits and dry snacks (crackers, cold cereal, rice cakes, popcorn).
Also, avoid all cereals (except wheat), fermented and aged cheese, red meat, cold cuts, as they are extremely unfavorable for your dosha.
Among the veggies to avoid are: cayenne/chili/sweet peppers, alfalfa sprouts, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes and beans. They are irritants to your system, just like another group to stay away from: coffee, black tea, ice cream, sugar and chocolate.
Avoid flaxseed oil as well – although generally a useful aid in weight loss, it activates too much your Vata dosha.
The Supplements for Vata Imbalance…
…are helping you lose weight too. The most useful ones are:
- Ashwagandha (reduces physical & mental stress)
- Arjuna (reduces emotional stress)
- bee pollen & royal jelly
- spirulina & blue-green algae
- vitamins: A, B, B12, C, D, & E, and
- minerals: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc
Remember This
To pacify your Vata dosha and lose weight (or merely feel better, energized, focused and balanced) you must:
Eat 3 warm, cooked meals daily
Favor warm, moist, unctuous foods & drinks over cold ones
Adopt eating & lifestyle routines
If you’re like most people, you’re a combination of two doshas – a predominant Vata dosha and a secondary one – either Pitta or less likely, Kapha. Whichever your secondary dosha is, it influences you more or less – depending on its percentage in the mix.
Both your predominant and secondary doshas can be out of balance. If that’s the case, both need to be “pacified” for your optimum physical and emotional equilibrium, so you may want to check as well the Pitta Diet or, Kapha Diet.
Would you like to get a 28-day Vata dosha step-by-step plan PLUS 1 full year of delicious menus and Vata-balancing meal plans? Then take a look at this Ayurvedic Balance 1-year program >>