Heart and soul is a part of our bodies that we can’t see, but we can feel daily. Pizza is heart and soul food (recipe below for making a heart shaped pizza 🧡).
A daily heart and soul-centering check-in can change your life! You could be an old soul or have an old soul like some of us who remember young life before the internet.
…I remember when I first started out working and ambitiously I thought I wanted to climb the corporate ladder. It didn’t take many years before I shifted my priority to wanting better work-life balance.
And with those intentions, I career pivoted that gave me that outcome. But had I not picked my head up to see what my heart and soul was telling me (and now I know my spirit was helping me), I would’ve missed the message about finding time to work on me. Personal growth was something I had to go outside of work to find in volunteering and discovering myself.
It’s never too early to start checking in. Maybe now is a good time to set this priority in your life as you had to rethink parts of your life in 2020, along with everyone else (so you’re in good company!).
There were many external changes made affecting your life, that you had no control over, and may help you later on in ways you may not see how yet at this moment.
So for now, you can just keep going, growing, and focusing on creating the best that your life offers in abundant possibilities that you put intention to until the next step. There’s always a next step when the timing is right.
It’s better to think this optimistic way and joyfully pivot into your forming newer overall life, including work, relationships, passion, and purpose, so you can enjoy the process with greater ease (and not create unnecessary dis-ease or woes-me feelings).
That doesn’t mean you don’t have varying feelings with so many gray areas and small decisions you need to make, but that you’re finding your happier way now in the process (and possibly then seeing through a different lens than the one you may have been previously looking from).
I provide a lasting impactful way to do a heart and soul check-in, further below. ⬇️
Encouragement: Our Society, You, and Your Gained Ideas
In America, convenience is at our fingertips, and many of us started last year to positively lean into our interests, curiosities, and skills development.
You may have learned how to grocery shop differently, cook meals, bake your own bread, and learn new digital skills as a way to communicate with the rest of our virtual world and the local community.
You picked up other life skills that everyone needs so you could stay relevant.
You may have even discovered or rediscovered a few passions and hobbies, and read more books than you sought out originally to do. Those were some of the common gains for many of us.
All was not lost in our home life, and more has been gained (and is being gained) in our overall lives if we choose to focus on the higher lens way of living.
It’s helpful for you to reflect and personally remind yourself of the progress over perfection you’ve made, so you can stay feeling uplifted in your spirit. It’s too easy to get sourly influenced in our culture.
You can be less on guard, open up to your authentic self and reap the benefits in a new era where we’re all finding our way in many ways.
Over the past year especially, you may have changed some lifestyle habits or behaviors that you like, that work better, and that you decide to keep forever.
And you may have gained clarity about what you want in the next chapter of your life. Even though you wouldn’t have done this if you weren’t challenged to do so. But you can use your situation to your good advantage!
You may even have found the better way, and experienced that good changes in your life can show up as a combination of thinking, doing, and feeling what is right for you. You get internal clues and they can help you find your second or next act.
If you took or take your connect-the-dot lessons one step further, you can reflect on how you felt about what you first thought about specific ideas. You can then take another brave leap of action so you can try and replicate best practices and discover even more new ways, as our world is evolving. This creates innovation and gives you a better way of doing things.
For example, you’re inspired to try a new recipe and that seemed to work out and made you happy, so the next time you tweak the recipe and create something new and different that you enjoy. This works the same with a new workout, new route, or a new passion project you’re developing. Variety and innovation keep you making progress!
And that’s how personal growth attitudes and creative progress are fed and can seep into every fiber of your life if you’re open to new ways and ideas.
New ideas can take time to form in the process and as you start dabbling with curiosity, you can become less intimidated to make mistakes. That’s how you grow and learn.
In this forming introspective way of life, you can also dig deeper into yourself to find what gives you more meaning and joy than what you previously found made you happy, as you become more of who you are and will become.
You can also reach higher levels of contentment and then feel fewer emotional ups and downs.
Many positive changes can be happening all at once in this complex life, with yourself and your life.
You may have even re-thought your life’s retirement plans and this year’s optimistic and realistic plans. And you’ve probably learned to be more grounded in reality and to get back to simple basics, focusing on what actually is happening to you and around you.
As a global society, we’re still not able to freely travel and create safe, live events. From these changes, new ways have been born and are birthing, such as the newer apps where you’re entering live global event conversations safely and without travel hassles.
You could use the saved travel time and energy to work on your life, to double down on a new purposeful trajectory, or seek a new mission in your life.
Just one idea can change your life and if you have an extra few minutes, that could be the difference-maker in your life.
So where would you spend those extra minutes? Here’s what I do and what I suggest.
Prioritize a Daily Heart and Soul Check-in
Especially as we’re all distracted, prioritizing a heart and soul check-in can be the best way to (re)focus on your life.
Orange smoothie sounds good to me! Navel orange in a smoothie is a dream come true with creamy popsicle vibes. It can be made like the frozen treat I grew up around ice cream trucks and drink stands with colorful fun signs.
This sign is orange (and not lemon-ade) like you often see.
And you can make a healthy orange smoothie dream come alive with oranges like these.
For beverages, the orange flavor is calming to the body.
Oranges calm our parasympathetic nerves that directly impact if we feel anxious or not. It’s also one healthy way to celebrate that we have decadent beverage variety choices when we get a ‘lil creative.
The orange calming factor can give you a new reason to be happy today. 😊
Orange dream smoothie recipe below.👇
Your body, balance, and sensitivity to tastes and smells change all the time. What’s good for you in this season may change in the next or even tomorrow.
You can come up with your own creative dream smoothie ideas like I did and stumbled on the creamy dream orange smoothie.
Stumbling upon keeps life interesting!
And this is one sweet and healthy smoothie to add to your list.
As a natural Ayurvedic Vata, I was born with a sweet tooth, so if I think a dessert is too sweet, then believe me… it has waaay too much sugar, so that’s why I came up with less sweet, healthier options!
Especially in America, where foods are loaded with sugars, our healthy taste buds and sense can be off track.
The average American consumes over 70 grams of sugar a day, when 25 grams of maximum recommended added or processed sugar is agreed on by both the FDA and American Heart Association.
While fruit sugar (fructose) is a better kind of sugar, it’s still sugar at the end of the day.
And that’s what makes this orange dream smoothie irresistible!
When I first made this creamsicle orange smoothie, I loved the textured beige-cream frothy color beverage (and maybe you do too!)
A creamy orange smoothie like this will help your calming morning.
The whole orange is much healthier than concentrated orange juice if you want to do a small step replacement for healthy habits.
And a much healthier version than the childhood popsicles that this special creamy orange smoothie comes from.
Use one whole orange. A Calfornia navel, blood orange, or Cara Cara navel orange will give you a more balanced sweetness than a Florida orange.
If you can, opt for organic or heirloom oranges especially if you’re using the outside peel or zest that’s a great idea for taste and texture.
Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment). This would be good for your drinks, bakes, and even Creamy Orange Smoothie.
The magic add is 1 tsp orange marmalade (add bold sweetness but you don’t need much) or you can stay wholesome with your orange zest only
Add vanilla milk
Also add vanilla yogurt (to thicken) or if you prefer, you can add a banana that will slightly alter the taste but still pair well with an orange.
And ideally you will have a full-on orange smootie.
How?
Make some orange zest from one medium orange. That can be very calming too while you sniff orange scents.
Blend with a teaspoon of marmalade, yogurt, and vanilla milk. Marmalade has sugar so that’s why keeping in moderation is a tasty-good idea for this Creamy Orange Smoothie.
This one tastes like the orange cream popsicle but without so much sugar. If you want to add some protein, blend in fine almonds or add powders.
And if you want to have low-sugar, then eliminate the marmalade and cut down on the orange zest.
1orange (a navel or California orange will give you a balanced sweetness)
1tspmarmalade (add bold sweetness but you don’t need much)
Vanilla milk to thickness liking
Vanilla Yogurt (to thicken)
Instructions
Blend. Zhugh glass rim with orange zest. Enjoy!
Notes
Creamsicle Creative Smoothie 1 orange (a navel or California orange will give you a balanced sweetness)1 tsp marmalade (add bold sweetness but you don’t need much)Vanilla milkVanilla Yogurt (to thicken)Make orange zest from one medium orange, blend with a teaspoon of marmalade, yogurt, and vanilla milk.This one tastes like an orange creamsicle popsicle if you know what those are. If you want to add some protein, blend in fine almonds or add powders. And if you want to eliminate sugar, then eliminate the marmalade and cut down on the orange zest.
They’re prebiotic foods that are fiber and feed the good bacteria in the gut. AND they are great for immunity. Plus they add so much savory flavor without much effort.
Baked onion ring recipe below 🧅
In cold and flu season, I stock up on onions. And they’re such an easy and affordable add to foods and plant based dishes. One that I didn’t like when I was younger. Today, it’s a staple because I know how healthy they are!
Onions are a good way to start a plant-based diet morning. They are part of the Crudite I begin with. And a more plant-forward intention for the day, along with healthy proteins from all sources.
Plant-based diet doesn’t mean you have to give up non-plant based foods like meats. It simply means adding more natural plants into your diet (and less processed plants 🏭).
While a full plant-based diet is not what I do, I have incorporated one plant-based meal per day that matters. I share below a meal plan that I think is a good way to maintain a consistently healthy ideal weight, year after year.
Eating healthy and balanced doesn’t just affect your physical body, it also positively impacts your brain, daily thinking mind, and mental health.
Getting proper vitamins and minerals that come from animal proteins help our brains function properly, that helps us keep our mind-body system balance.
I believe that not including fish, meats, carbs, fruits, and vegetables is missing what God gave us here on this earth.
We hurt our bodies when we don’t eat enough from any of these categories, or we eat too much.
In most meals, strict vegetarians don’t receive enough vitamins and micronutrients (minerals), some that are richly found in animal protein. Fish that are also considered animal meat, contains necessary B vitamins and good omega fat sources that healthy vegetarians usually come to realize they’re missing.
If only we could take vitamin supplements as a 1:1 nutrient exchange for food, but that’s not the case and especially with diluted vitamin pills.
And onion is food medicine with Vitamin C and some B vitamins.
And was is every diet book I was looking into.
My favorites were The South Beach Diet and The Inflammation-Free Diet.
Today those are evolved to a Mediterranean diet and an anti-inflammatory diet that I prescribe to that has a list of foods that are healthy and easy to find at the grocery store.
And there are similarities like plant-based food, and a baked onion ring snack that would fit the bill.
I do my own meal prep that incorporates these more sustainable and healthy ways of eating daily, and that includes a hybrid plant-based diet and a wide array of foods.
Everyone’s immediate health goals can be slightly different. Overall we all want to maintain a consistently healthy weight, have more energy and vitality, and prevent disease and inflammation.
Aligned to those goals, I’ve noticed this is the eating way my body appreciates and my healthy mind works to prepare meals.
Here’s a quick overview of my meals today…
Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Eating 3 meals per day, balancing roughly one plant-based meal per day (dinner preferred as later in the day), a heavier lunch with chicken or fish, and a health-conscious breakfast, I believe is a way to maintain your ideal weight, year-round, and what I practice to stay a consistent size 4 for over the past decade.
Breakfast for me can be a smoothie, cereal, or oatmeal which sounds healthy but these are all still either high in sugar, acidity, or both. That’s why athletes and extreme health fanatics eat lean protein for breakfast, such as fish. They’ll include non-sugar carbs and sprouted bread.
Egg whites (and eggs) seem to be the safe breakfast protein. In my balanced natural Vata form, I like to mix it up. But if someone comes up with a plant-based diet for breakfast I’d definitely try to incorporate. Easy foolproof poached eggs and onion are a great healthy start and tasty combo.
Bearnaise sauce (like in bougie Eggs Benedict served in fine brunch restaurants) is so easy to make at home deliciously and healthy (without butter).
I consider breakfast the creative meal of the day where you make it interesting. For a typical Vata (that’s me!), every morning it’s a brand new day to choose a mix of healthy sweet (e.g. cereal or smoothies) and salty (e.g. eggs and potato) desires.
A sticky sweet bun would be too cloying for me now because I’ve trained myself to not like super sweet items as they make my skin crawl. And that evolved into my blindsiding adult eczema.
And I had to re-learn (again) healthier ways to not-tip-the-(skin)-scales. Thank goodness low-sugar recipes work for a sweet tooth… and is a good formula for healthy and happy long living happy missions in life.
You find what works for you.
And then for lunch, I consider the energy and productive meal that keeps you going…
For lunch, I have a filling carb like pasta along with chicken or another low-fat protein that hits the spot and I know I won’t be hungry for hours so I can make it through the afternoon. Rarely will you see me eat a light salad bowl for lunch as high calories burned in the daytime.
Without sustenance, especially if you have a dominant Vata body (or have a combination Vata body), you can have a tendency like I do for your blood sugar level to drop fast so you wanna stay ahead of those crashes.
For me, I learned in those past situations where I felt light-headed or a bit jittery.
You know exactly what I’m talking about if you try to carry a dry snack or some in-between snack (like an onion ring would be good) with you around when you go out in the day.
So I eat or snack before any hunger sneaks up.
And the big switch that I’ve made over the years is eating a plant-based meal with sauteed spinach salad. Some are harder to spell than to add to the diet like broccoli or Brussels sprouts (named after the Belgium capital so is funny with two ending “s”).
For variety and taste, I will add some tofu or garbanzo beans, but it’s not necessary. That’s the meal I keep light.
The difference is that I’m not hungry by dinner so eating a light meal makes sense. If you find you’re most hungry around dinner time, then you may want to experiment eating heavier meals earlier in the day, seeing how that lands, so that you can try a lighter, plant-based meal way in the evening.
That was a gradual shift for me from years before, but definitely a healthy move.
When I used to go out to restaurants at night to eat a substantial dinner (or after eating a heavy Thanksgiving meal), I’d find that hard on the digestive system… maybe that’s what you’ve found in your experiences.
Without taking a digestive aid to help break down the food enzymes or drinking peppermint tea afterward to calm the stomach, that could keep me (or you) up all night or bring on nightmares and a rough night of sleep. Maybe you’ve experienced that before?… if so, you could take advantage of eating at home more often that can change your habits to the healthier ones you want to make like eating heavier meals earlier in the day.
As you get older, your body changes, and what you could do to your 20-year old body doesn’t work anymore.
Plant-Based Meal vs. Vegetarian Meals
We all know vegetables (like this onion ring that looks like another planet) are good for us.
Strict vegetarians and vegans won’t eat fish and seafood.
As the Vata body I live in (and the one you learned about above)… I know I would just graze and graze all day, still being hungry, if I ate beans and vegetables all day.
A variety of protein fills the hunger in a good way and provides healthy vitamins that aren’t filler like processed sweet and salty snack substitutions that are empty calories.
So that’s how I moved toward a plant-based meal in the evening.
I just listened to my body.
I never called it a plant-based diet that you hear about everywhere now…
Having one plant-based meal (over a fully plant-based diet) plus one low protein animal meal daily or regularly, I think you get the best of all worlds–having energy and vitality, and looking young, as your food and what you ingest shows up on the healthy glow of your face and skin.
Having a regular, healthier eating plan to stay consistent gives you the best chance for achieving and sustaining an ideal healthy weight and energy that we all desire.
These tasty plant-based onion ring snacks can help you toward your goals! 🎯
And when you’re feeling like you’re coming down with a cold, eat onions for some assurance.
Nutritional yeast (or panko bread crumbs for panko method)
Instructions
Cut rings of onions to thickness desired.
Bake on low heat until crispy-texture desire. 300°F temperature recommended. Nutritional yeast is vegan-friendly and gluten-free, and has a powdery cheese texture and will melt in the oven as such -- it won't be a melted cheese effect and it won't be a full-on powder that doesn't melt. Alternatively you can use the Panko (breaded crumb) method. Dip onion rings in olive oil or water, flour, and then bread crumbs before baking, depending on your desires and diet needs.
Morning thoughts that aren’t always pleasant tpop up when we’re groggy and half awake coming out of dreams we don’t control.
And we can change our thoughts and attitude from this one exercise and yoga exercise habits described below. 👇
Below are some yoga moves so even you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or have a busy day, you don’t miss out on your best day where you feel good when your head hits the pillow at night.
Wake up, Sunshine! Rise and shine. In the morning when you get out of bed with groggy morning thoughts.
But you can change this with your breaths in present moment.
Morning is a great time to start deep breathing for more oxygen… a natural way to get more energy.
Sitting up and standing helps to clear your passages that can be stuffy from laying down.
Survey your home and where the best morning light is if you’ve never done that.
That will be the eastern exposure windows or if you have indoor/outdoor living.
Be sure to let light into your eyes for at least 30 seconds.
Wearing blue glasses to protect eyes from digital screens and shades during the day outside is is a good idea! 😎
In the morning when it’s not direct sunlight like at noon, take them off to look outside and see what’s happening in your natural environment while you enjoy your morning water, smoothie, coffee, etc.
If you’re not a morning person, this is especially good so you wake up.
And if you experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD), this can change your outcomes.
Women need more sleep than men and children need more sleep than adults. Waking up adult energy changes and depends on many factors including a Kapha imbalance (could be mind or body).
If you’re naturally a Kapha body, then this is your natural way more than your Vata and Pitta counterparts.
If you’re not sure which imbalances you currently have and want restoring suggestions on your specific body imbalance symptoms, then I encourage you to take the body balance quiz.
Morning Yoga
Morning yoga even for 5-minutes is worth the effort for restoring good morning thoughts!
Everyone has 5 minutes they can sneak in.
And getting into Table Top pose and doing Cat and Cow can change your day.
Your Ayurvedic routine can include ginger and water. And finding your imbalances. If you’re super tired, Kapha is dominant.
If you’re super hard charging, Pitta is dominant.
If you’re feeling scattered, Vata is dominant.
And if you feel all, know that your Vata runs the show. The other name for Vata is wind, so like howling wind, that will dominate. But then later in the day you may find that your other (Pitta and Kapha) moods kick in.
These are all natural but the more you can feel less moods and restore them to peace and calm, the better.
It’s like your healthy body that doesn’t have symptoms. And when there are symptoms, then you’re focusing on how you can fix the symptoms.
So in the morning, maybe in the kitchen or bathroom, survey what your mood is. Do you need to calm from anxiety, worry (Vata) or being critical of yourself or others (Pitta)? Or are you tired and withdrawn (Kapha) or the opposite extreme of being needy (also Kapha)?
Yoga can change your day. And deep breathing on your mat will help all these restoring needs…. calming anxiety, lowering blood pressure, and breathing in oxygen for energy.
This is a good way to ease into the morning even if you only have 10 minutes before someone or something needs you.
My stretch routine is below (and if you’re a yoga beginner or think you’re not-good at yoga because of body issues, I’ll explain how not to be intimidated).
Here’s a daily yoga morning practice that you can try and tweak to how you like.
Do your Sun Salutations that are done standing.
You can rise up slowly and as controlled as you can like one spinal vertebra at a time, into a standing Mountain pose position.
From there, test your body for where there are kinks in the body, where there’s tightness and especially cracking sounds that are common in the morning or if it’s cold outside.
It’ easier to do this seated or laying down.
Seated, do a Seated Spinal Twist to see if your sides are tight. This was one we did as kids (maybe, hoola hooping, doing Twister, or Sit-n-Spin).
Then check your back. Lay on your back in Corpse pose. Survey. Then when you’re ready, do a Bridge pose. See if there’s tension in your bridge.
Easy Yoga for Beginners
If you’re intimidated by the idea of yoga and doing poses wrong, don’t be…
I’ve been in yoga classes before where I would hear people say they’re “not good at yoga.”
Re-framing your morning thoughts help and then you’re better at it in the future!
We all start as yoga beginners and each morning is a re-start so your body feels different than the day before. It’s a good metaphor for being a lifelong learner.
If you look at laying down flat on your back as another name for Corpse pose, you can make the connection that yoga can be a fancy name for “just being.”
Besides, the funny and interesting thing is, no one is looking at anyone else in a yoga class. Everyone is too busy concentrating and looking at their own body parts and poses.
No one talks about other people’s poses, in or after class. The point of yoga is that it’s an individual sport. You get to look inward and see yourself like when you look in a mirror.
If you’re self-conscious, then yoga can help you break away judgmental feelings about yourself.
If you’re a beginner, doing more yoga gives you self-confidence, and you feel better about your body when poses work.
When I attended my first class I didn’t like it because I didn’t know what was going on, and that’s just par for the course of learning a new skill.
And practicing yoga at home gives you more confidence. So don’t be too quick to rule out yoga as a sustainable activity for you and your morning.
If that’s you at this stage, just have fun with getting to know your body, and center your mind on parts of your body and intention for your practice. The rest will work itself out.
We all have weak spots and our vulnerabilities and bringing them to light is how to go through them. You never know, you may end up loving yoga like I did and do.
And if you’re beyond beginner yoga overthinking or any yoga insecurity, then maybe use your morning yoga practice to work on your patience and resilience.
So that’s my morning routine start (that you can use) before my coffee and catching up with my daily news.
Then I make myself a breakfast smoothie or a breakfast snack and get to productive work.
I hope by reading this, you’re a wee more happy inspired to get up in the mornings and kick those negative morning thoughts to the curb!
Sugar cravings don’t have to get the best of you… and the orange scone recipe below may help you get over the worst sugar sweets as it was the healthy start for me, someone who ate way too much daily sugar that many of us do. It’s no one’s fault.
The new dreamy sugar – orange zest! Use in a good orange scone recipe below… 🧡
Oranges and citrus fruits are good for blood sugar levels as citrus fruits have a lower glycemic index as a general indicator for how a food will impact your blood sugar level.
And juicy foods like oranges also have a way of quenching your thirst and hunger. Like water and tea, you can feel less hungry when you consume oranges and lower your food cravings.
Using orange and orange zest are also a good way to avoid artificial sweeteners while brightening your food and day.
Maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is at the heart (pun intended!) of a healthy heart.
I became aware of the American Heart Association when I volunteered for the American Cancer Society in my backyard while I was attending college.
The “Eat Smart” campaign was one of the promoted programs and I remember posters (remember those?) were donated that had healthy fruits and vegetables.
These are now known as anti inflammatory food ideas like oranges that were brightly represented on the poster and I proudly displayed on my wall.
Who knew that anti-inflammatory foods would become so important with all its healthy benefits and in many healthy diet movements like the Mediterranean Diet and plant-based diets?
And we couldn’t have predicted that the role of Vitamin C would grow in highlighted health importance, and that oranges would relatively stay the same while we see more orange varieties on the grocery shelves.
We keep evolving in food, health, and nutrition.
Vitamins stay as a focal point in the anti inflammatory diet. Some are antioxidants that are good body protectors for preventing heart disease, Diabetes 2, certain cancers, and cognitive decline that can start off as harmless brain fog or short memory mental health lapses.
In the beginning of 2020, I created a smart pantry for “just in case,” where I collected processed, longer shelf-life foods in cans and boxes. That’s where I failed in my sugar cravings dilemma and developed an itchy eczema skin rash by mid-summer. The source: sugar indulgence.
But not again, because it’s preventable with healthier habits and ways like sweet smoothies in a 7-day eczema diet plan.
Luckily I caught on before things got worse. I got aware and my love for sugar got replaced for Ayurveda ways, moderation, and anti-inflammatory foods.
Sugar we know is good for our happy selves, but not our healthy one. They latch onto lectin anti-nutrients in our gut and can destroy our microbiome that we know controls so much of our daily body functions.
My hope is you’re onboard for a healthier new year, new health progress goals, and micro habit changes. Fasting is one way I have deployed in my healthy lifestyle and you can too. Another is hiking and taking with me smoothies.
And when you’re eating, if you’re like me, you’re a bit choosy and conscious about your food choices.
I love foods, food variety, and enjoy good foods. I planned catered parties in nice hotels and foodie restaurants for a decade, so it’s a part of me that has been weaved into my adult DNA. And healthy eating that I learned early on.
But I have a weakness… a sweet tooth.
Many of us enjoy some sweets in moderation.
Having a sweet tooth is natural but isn’t helpful on a healthy lifestyle mission.
If you regularly eat sugary foods to curb your sweet tooth and sugar cravings, you set yourself up to have more sugar cravings. It’s a vicious cycle.
For entertainment, I had started watching TheGreat British Baking Show, that’sa competition show that started with U.K. bakers… initially, it wasn’t the best thing to watch if you want to curb sugar cravings and stop eating so much sugar.
But I worked through it and can now watch the show without eating a sweet dessert. I’m telling you this because I believe everyone can get there!
In my search, I came across a book called The40 Day Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake.
It reminded me of a sugar fast I set out to do for 3 weeks in 2011 but ended up doing the sugar fast for around 40 days.
How?
When I had my tonsils removed as an adult, the fast was a smooth transition as I mostly had a liquid diet in the beginning.
And if you’re trying to break the sugar habit, finding a time when you’re not dealing with as much stress is your best bet.
Like if you’re a teacher, do your sweet fast after the school year ends and you have the summer off. You usually crave less food in the hot months anyway, so use all those helpful situations to your advantage.
Another helpful situation is when you have support. To keep me encouraged, the church I was attending was doing an annual fast for those who wanted to participate. So, it was perfect timing as I wasn’t doing it alone.
And as I focused on giving up sweets for sweet Jesus, the sugar cravings also miraculously disappeared. The ones I’d had every single day since I was a child.
I didn’t use my own willpower to make changes. That doesn’t usually work.
I focused on my heart and deeper desires. To my surprise, my way of thinking changed. It was supernatural and beyond my small capabilities to overcome sugar on my own.
But that’s just a reminder that you don’t have to do it alone and can encourage the Universe or higher source you turn to, to help you.
I also use maintaining good teeth as motivation. As a child I always had a mouth full of cavities. I wanted to live a better dental life later in life. That same motivation carried me when I quit all sodas years ago. Previously as a young adult, I’d have at least 1-2 sodas by noon.
Do whatever works for you and your healthy motivations.
Another tip is to look at sugar nutrition labels. Most food labels are in grams and 1 gram = about .24 teaspoons or a quarter teaspoon.
We use teaspoons for baking in America so that’s easier to visualize.
It doesn’t take much in a Western diet to go over 20 grams of refined sugar at breakfast alone!
You can try these breakfast plant-based breakfast ideas and tips to stop sugar cravings and craving sweets if you want some suggestions.
And sodas are off the charts starting at 30-40 grams.
I drank diet sodas early on, but those are linked to heart disease and Diabetes 2 so they’re no better and probably worse off
Also, keep in mind no fat is usually linked to higher sugar in foods, so you’re giving up one evil for another.
The better healthy answer is to change your healthy food and beverage habits. And then you will enjoy the healthy foods and especially after you have adjusted. I promise.
If you’ve every shifted from a whole milk to a plant or other milk, you know what I’m talking about.
You no longer go back to the other because 1) your body doesn’t need the same quantity of nutrients it needed before or growing up and 2) you have a decent food or beverage replacement.
Most of are lazy in this area about food fixing. It we have something easy and near us, we’ll grab that instead of go out and forage if we don’t have to.
And for fruit, I still don’t overindulge even though the Food Pyramid I grew up with recommended 2-4 servings of fruit per day. These days, MyPlate says at least 1 piece of medium fruit.
Even natural fruits and dried fruits have a huge dose of natural sugars, the better fructose sugar, but still sugar. I limit myself to an apple, a banana, and an orange if I’m craving fruits and sweet foods.
Foods that you wouldn’t suspect and maybe even classify as healthy food like a Fig Newton or low-fat “healthy” cereal are loaded with sugar. You discover reality when you do package label reading.
I once felt I had to add a puff of white cloud sweetness that finished off almost every dinner dessert, holiday cheesecake, pie, or warm beverage. The nutritional breakdown ingredients of some whipped foods say “hydrogenated oils” or trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup to avoid.
You can always say “no whip, please.”
And you can choose moderation where it’s okay for a happy celebrations, but not for daily healthy consumption. That’s what I do in the balance.
That’s the modern Ayurveda way that is sustainable. Turning to healthy and anti-inflammatory foods that are also good for weight loss and preventing weight gain, so you don’t have to do one more yo-yo diet that never works long-term.
Modern Ayurveda lifestyle people love following natural, doable, and achievable (practical) advice.
So here are 3 actionable Ayurveda creature habits and tips for reducing sugar in your diet and curbing sugar cravings:
Become aware which foods have high sugar, added sugar – fact vs. fiction. Read labels at least until you are familiar with the foods you eat regularly.
Substitute your sweets not for other foods, but for a higher calling or purpose for yourself. Find a motivation that makes you stick to your plan and look forward to maintaining.
Do one daily baby step food choice action you can make to create a healthier micro habit. Reminder: the more you eat sugar, the more you crave sugar.
Maybe that’s substituting an empty calorie sugary dessert with a fortified cereal that at least has some nutrients?
And if you need a replacement for something super sweet, I have a low sugar, Orange Scone recipe below I mentioned above that you can try that’s super easy and you’ll love (or grow to love!).
What I love about this recipe is the orange peel zest you would normally throw away is used as the main sweet ingredient.
Oranges are also good for calming in our parasympathetic nerves, so in the strong orange smells, we experience calmer nerves instead of anxiety. You hear people who like to eat oranges by their bed and this could be a good reason why. They are calmer, better managing worry and anxious thinking hours before sleep o’clock.
This orange recipe has no needed added refined sugars, but you may like the turbinado sugar small packet crunch finish like I do, that has 5 grams of fat total used for the entire 8 scone slices. So you do your daily sugar math and see if that’ll work for you.
I also love that you won’t use all your eggs in one recipe. And, in the easy, it can take less than 10 minutes time to prepare!
It takes about 40 minutes total time (from prep to baking to mouth 😋). That’s something to celebrate!
This can become a regular dessert bread for you that’s healthier than sugary processed breads and pastries. Great for a sweet tooth (or a Vata)!
1 egg
2 cup flour total (can mix gluten and gluten-free flours if you choose)
2 tbsp frozen unsalted butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup plain or vanilla Greek, plus more if needed (this is a good food item to look at sugar labels). Use more solid yogurt parts to bring it together if it gets too crumbly.
Zest of an orange (navel oranges are great)
Cinnamon to liking (and you can purposefully add a little teaspoon of sugar, some tips below)
You omit sugar that normally would be added. Since you’re not using sugar, you don’t need salt either to balance any sugar. NO refined white sugar, yay! 😊
Add flour to a medium bowl. Add butter and cut it into small pieces with a knife. Add the egg and mix with a spoon.
Add yogurt and keep mixing until well mixed. Add baking powder and baking soda. Add orange zest and mix until blended into flour mixture.
Form a ball with the spoon in the bowl. Then place the dough on a baking sheet and flatten it slightly, so it forms into a 6-8” circle.
There will be flour crumbs, just stick them on top of the circle to blend in (like you’re adding clay to pottery before being fired in the kiln).
Sprinkle with cinnamon if you like. Cut 8 slices before placing in the oven.
Optional sweet: if you desire, you can add one brown sugar packet of Sugar in the Raw (turbinado cane sugar) on top of the circle bake before it goes in the oven. These small brown crystals are similar to refined sugar in health terms, but if you add them in moderation, that’s not going to make a big difference. If you’re feeding anyone diabetic, they’re not going to eat it anyway… or if they can eat monk fruit sugar, you can add that.
You can also optionally add ½ tablespoon of dried currants or raisins and blend in the mixture before you form the circle. Or you could do half and half (4 pieces plain and 4 pieces lightly sugar)… then you can please those you’re sharing with who won’t necessarily appreciate your low sugar, healthy scone bread efforts.
Finally, put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake the scones to a golden brown for 25-30 minutes at 350°F/180°C degrees. Let your scones cool, and then you’ll be ready to enjoy.
A daily heart and soul-centering check-in can change your life! You could be an old soul or have an old soul like some of us who remember young life before the internet.
Wake up, Sunshine! Rise and shine. In the morning when you get out of bed with groggy morning thoughts.
