How to Rekindle Your Digestive Fire using Ayurveda and Lose Weight

As we come up to the time of great feasting and quaffing festivities, it is recommended to have good fire in the belly to burn up those extra calories ASAP. In Ayurveda there is a tried and true method to reset the digestive fire, or "Agni". Agni may have been reduced to useless smoldering embers due to a wrong diet, or even to have been put out completely by drinking too many cold drinks, too much alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and other liver assaulting substances.
Many people have not had a proper functioning digestive system since childhood. Reset Agni and return to the days of bright eyes, beautiful skin, and the endless vitality of youth! I myself am 500 years old and don't look a day over 30.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Willingness to fast and eliminate the terrible trinity of caffeine, alcohol and sugar for a few days.
• Tongue scraper. Available in health food stores or online under Indian things.
• A good book on Ayurveda such as "Perfect Health" by Deepak Chopra.
• Foods appropriate for your body type.

1. 
   dirty, dirty, dirty, nasty

   Toxins accumulating in the body are called "tamas" in Ayurveda. These tamas are caused by eating food that is full of pesticides, chemicals, synthetic ingredients, and also foods that are wrong for your body type, or "dosha". (See my article on How to Keep Your Figure...) The tamas will not only pack on weight, but just as a dirty house attracts little demons (in reality astral scavengers trying desperately to clean up the mess and perhaps biting your ankles out of sheer frustration), so tamas can attract little unpleasant bogies in your body and aura to eat up the emanations of the toxins. This can impede spiritual clarity, and therefore progress, for whenever one sits in meditation, these little creatures will try to take all your attention to force you deal with the prima materia -- the body in which you live. They can also induce bad vibes, depressed spirits, and dull wittedness.A good rousing digestive fire should sort that out!

2. 
   tongue scraper

   Just as a mote of dust in the Temple of Arte can cause one's magic to go awry, even a particle of tamas in the body can cause one to feel sluggish. Therefore, the first thing to do is to clean your mouth with a tongue scraper. First stick out your tongue. See a white coating on it? That is tamas. It is easy to scrape it off with a Hindu tongue scraper ( mind your gag reflex).That white coating has been covering up the enzymes your digestion cries out for at the starting gate. Once it is gone, you will find everything tastes better, you are more satisfied, and eat less. A clean tongue also helps eliminate bacteria that contributes to teeth and gum problems as well as bad breath. So stop complaining about looking silly and scrape!

3. Resetting Agni takes about 2 days. On Friday, eat a normal breakfast and lunch. ) Eat a light, nourishing dinner. Before bed have three tablets of the laxative, senna, followed by a glass of hot water. Go to bed early. You know what happens next...

4. 
   Juice fast

   Before you can restart the digestive fire, you must first lower it. Therefore, on Saturday, only drinking is allowed. Apple or grape juice heated with hot water is easy on the stomach. Orange juice is too acidic. Have a glass at breakfast, one at lunch and another at dinner. Drink only three more during the day, otherwise drink water. The aim is to diminish your appetite and have only minor calories to digest. Spend a quiet day reading your Ayurvedic book and learning about how stay forever young. Or just watch TV -- but be aware that toxins going into the mind can be just as bad as toxins going in anywhere else!

5. 
   Ahhh! Lunch!

   On Sunday eat a light breakfast of hot cereal with a cup of herbal tea. Licorice for Vatas, peppermint for Pittas and Kaphas. Have a second helping of cereal if you need it. Do not eat again until noon when you should cook up a substantial, nourishing lunch. Have ginger tea with it as ginger kindles the inner fire. At dinner, keep it light. Make sure you eat no less than three hours before bed. When you wake up, Agni will be blazing and ready to go!

Tips & Warnings

• It is important avoid alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes while doing this fast as they they throw off your Agni rhythm and defeat your purpose.
• It is better to eat at regular mealtimes and avoid eating between meals.
• Keep coffee, alcohol and salt to a minimum and always have with food. Strong stimulants destroy digestive balance.
• Stick to recipies that use only foods appropriate to your dosha. These will enhance you digestion and keep your figure just where it should be.
• Remember: Breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince, supper like a Pauper.
• If you get excessively faint on day 2, stir some honey into your warm juice. It will restore blood sugar balance and you should feel better.
• Only Kaphas can skip meals without upsetting their balance because their systems are relatively slow. Skipping meals upsets Agni.

[cynvela]

on 12/4/2008 Great article. Years ago, I lost a considerable amount of weight by resetting my agni. I'm kapha, so I tend towards being soft. :\

[HardworkinJudy]

on 11/14/2008 Fascinating content, however, I've a question. How can we determine our dosha?

[leanan]

on 11/8/2008 Thank you for this very useful article!

[lildutchgirl56]

on 11/2/2008 Very interesting and informative article. Thanks.