Dancer pose is one of those poses that has everything… showing grace, balance, flexibility, and creativity. You see your limits and your possibilities.
Whether you love yoga or not, you can use Dancer pose productively for the next steps (or habit stack on top of another activity or intention).
Dancer pose is a good opportunity to feel like you’re already at that place you want to be in this season (where you can lift yourself off the floor ground).
You can believe yourself into your next destiny or destination. And you can feel fearless in the moment that can carry you in your day.
And it doesn’t require much. 😊
You can do Dance pose anywhere you can stand and spread out.
The middle of a room is a good place, but a good way to start off whether you’re new to the pose ornot quite awake in the a.m… is to do the pose when you’re in the kitchen waiting for warm water or food to heat up or drinking a glass of water.
You don’t need to be cooking or baking (but that’s an option!). And you can use your kitchen counter or a solid above waist flat ledge to help you balance.
Or you can use a chair with the back of the chair facing you to support you. It’s not just sitting chair pose. 😉
This’ll give you the edge for a better Dancer pose stretch and to give you a little foundation until you feel stable enough.
It may not be as pretty as free form, but it can give you your best form for the day. And you can stretch your flexibility further.
After you get used to how it feels, you can get free from your nearby props.
Dancer is a great balancing pose where you feel empowered to do more than you would. You can feel like you’re on top of the world.
It’s a graceful pose, and if you like Barre classes, this might be right up your alley! You feel a bit like a ballerina. 🩰
So to start, rest your palms on the counter if you’re using a support. Then take one hand and grab the same side ankle and then extend that leg behind you. And let go of the opposite hand and aim it in front of you.
You’re now in a balanced Dancer pose (without worry of falling or wobbling over).
You’ll feel a nice stretch up to your backside and mid-back. So you don’t have to be on a mat face up or down.
And when you do this standing pose for 30 seconds maybe on each side, you’ll feel tension release from your back.
You feel lightweight like you’re floating a bit. It’s as close to a bird with wings as we’ll get.
And as Dancer pose becomes (or is) second nature to you, and you can do before you’ve had your morning caffeine jolt if that’s your jam, then here’s one added useful intention:
Content creation that has grown wildly since around 2015.
I’d been regularly blogging since 2009 (yeah… I’m one of the ones that started back when Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were the big social media sites, and blogs fell in those categories).
Back when social media was the wild-wild west. 😁
And now this is how we regularly communicate with those we know, and grow ideas and do business life with.
So getting in the habit of doing Dancer first thing can be the way you habit stack to grow your ideas.
…And maybe take a pause to hold the pose a little longer than usual and come up with one creative idea as your intention.
We’ve gotten past the point of just sharing about our immediate lives. We want to share more (in what that means to each of us) and expand what we’re about.
So a hobby or interest that we’re passionate about can be conveyed in photos, videos, and words.
Little did I know that I would be posting about my healthy baked creations. But this has become my passion over the past few years, second to writing.
Dancer pose can help you find what it is that you want to communicate to the world in the first place.
Then when you content create regularly you build something special.
We all start off wondering if we’ll stick with what we’re working on, or branch into something else. It’s all good. It’s always a branching off to the next step on your journey.
And when you put a creative intention out to the world, and you want to contribute as a content creator in some way, that opens you up inside
…Doesn’t that sound appealing to have a unique purpose along with some other activities you love, such as visiting the same stores where there’s comfort and familiarity?
You can run the same track but doing something different with your tracks helps you find a new dimension in your life.
We’re all meant for so much in this life if we stay open.
Your creativity has no limits.
You’re only limited by your beliefs and limitations.
When I went from a traditional college to corporate work path, my creativity drifted and stayed hidden.
Only when I picked up writing as a regular habit and practice did my creative juices get ignited where I wasn’t needing to start and stop to let the creativity flow out of me.
And Dancer pose was one of the first yoga poses that let me feel like I was free to do something outside my structured corporate mindset I had grown.
And you have something in you that is wanting to come out, and the world would love to see… and more of! Unleashing yourself (and maybe with a Dancer pose to start) brings out your best.
For many of us, when we’re in school we’re chasing good grades. But grades never determine whether you’ll have a happy or successful life.
Those that chose an unconventional path to drop out or take a creative arts path I believe helped themselves out, so they could find their deep creative well earlier on in life before practical adult responsibilities grew.
I didn’t do that as I took the traditional path.
The good news is, the second best time to realize your dream or life’s work (especially if you didn’t like your first career or path)… is NOW.
You can restart and pivot. Dancer pose is a good metaphor for pivoting. It can help free up your mind to feel untethered and get on a leveling playing field with yourself so there are no more limitations!
You can start at any age, wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing in life. Your past doesn’t dictate your future abilities.
So use your dreams intentions to bridge your creative self (hmm,a dancer maybe?) that brings new ideas, meaning, and purpose to your life.
That’s where I’m heading now… and you can too on your path.
To finish off your Dancer pose, you can rest your right palm on your heart to get centered and reach back your left hand to meet your left ankle.
Wellness morning routines are not easy when you live a busy Western lifestyle.
Cramming in a few minutes to eat healthy, do yoga and get some re-centering quiet time is not usually the routine unless you get up super early as trade off for sleep or staying up late.
I’m exhausted already when I hear how hard charging some people are in their season descriptions… and then I quickly remember that was my life not too long ago when I worked in the corporate world 40+ hours a week and had side hustles.
Matcha sourdough bread and satisfying crunchy chewy bagel 🍵… I couldn’t wait, I had to take a bite! 😋
If you’re of a Vata mind, a structured wellness routine can be challenging as the mind fights against set consistent routines when a routine is what’s needed most. …And heavy Vata minds can’t sit still as obvious signs.
If you carry a Vata mind (that any of us can), you can easily tire from to-do tasks like opening up or pulling out your calendar every day or several times a day. Those simple, but mundane types of activities can be draining.
…Today, living daily aware now years later from what was filtered or partial conscious life, I personally don’t do life without daily checking in on my balanced-imbalanced moods and well… wellness.
Your moods show you what’s going on inside. Your mind-body is intuitive, so it serves you the truth and gives you the information about what you need to restore your health. And, restoring sour moods back to happy and neutral is one way to accomplish more daily.
We all can get affected by external factors that can put us in daily moods. That makes us human. But moods can create more disruption than an external interruption, so it’s better to manage ASAP to nip sour moods in the bud.
As a quick scan, as long as you feel good for stretches of daily moments, and about what you’re doing, you’re probably in good shape. Or you know how to bounce back quickly, so that doesn’t become your season longer than it has to.
One routine I changed up to avoid uninspired moods, is I gave up working on a calendar that I used to color code as a planner. I found better systems that worked for me. And that’s something you can consider for yourself…
To Have A Working Calendar (Or Not?)
On purpose, I avoid having a working calendar these days (and the past few years) as they distract from my productivity.
I do work on other people’s Google and Outlook calendars, but not my own. I’m sure you have examples in your life where you do things differently for yourself than others. I do a much better job and follow through, managing other people’s stuff, as I want to help and serve them the best I can. That helps to keep the balance.
But I found that as pretty colors as my own rainbow calendar looked, I was following it when I didn’t have to. And that was not helpful! So I had to come up with a better way. 🌈
Plus, I also did professional catering management for many years, and all I did was rely on and live off of a calendar religiously year-round, knowing and planning other people’s event dates. And at times, an unhealthy task holding onto dates as though my life depended on it.
So, these days I like to be less reliant on a calendar. If you’re wondering how to live or wean yourself off of a calendar if that’s your want, here are some ideas (and what I do)…
First, I created slightly different weekly goals for each day of the week. And I have deadlines for different tasks on each day, no matter how small.
The thing is, if you don’t apply what it is you’re doing to something meaningful, it becomes meaningless.
On purpose, we’re meant to teach, share, encourage, and use whatever gifts we have, or we lose them. And when we USE them, we get more, and some we may not know we have (e.g. hidden talents) until we get there.
You discover the next talent once you start and develop the first talent. Then you’re ready for more!
And I found calendars got in the way of that as I spent time managing them when I could be working on a talent without working within boxes if you know what I mean.
Like these waffles that can be made healthy.
Healthy chicken and waffle recipe below. 🧇
We all have our special preferences. ❤️
And to make life easy, when I was getting used to the habit of different daily tasks, I set up specific reminders. I’ve learned to let it be easy with no self-imposed struggles or habits. And that takes observation and not being too busy to notice.
It’s also useful to know what day of the week you’re on as the world runs on this time. And if different night TV shows are how you keep it straight, hey that works! 📺
To capture the best of your creative and productive time, find the balance that works for you and where you feel relevant and making good strides. That’s all part of the good wellness journey.
And I found that bi-weekly appointments and schedules can mess that up. So keeping it weekly simple works! 🗓
From experience, I know that building any kind of complicated system is a recipe for disaster in life. 😒
It can build a house of cards that will eventually crumble as there’s too much to manage when the enjoyment factor can disappear one day. Some of the excitement wears off of newness (it always does!).
That’s where the overwhelm and reality feelings can creep in, and easier when you keep it simple from the start.
And after taking a sabbatical in 2016, I realized that sometimes your calendars don’t open up, or they disappear, and then you waste more time trying to backtrack. That’s when I took the hint as a sign, tossed out the calendar and lists, and figured out a more reliable way.
And a way to go digital calendar-less AND paperless.
And to add the internal clock reminders back in… what people in the past probably did before paper was invented.
If you live spirit-led and wellness bound, it’s easier to go to simple ways where you discover your natural internal compass that you learn to trust over time.
And today, you can use digital reminders like alerts or notifications as a backup plan. Those are like a trampoline that ensures you bounce back without falling.
In this way, I haven’t missed a Zoom meeting yet when we were all doing Zoom calls, because my internal clock is wired to the energy around that activity, even if it’s just a one-time event.
And if you’re in a season or work environment where a calendar is expected of you, then you can still do this.
You could go hybrid… using a personal calendar when you have to, and then relaxing the policy when you don’t. 😎
Testing out ways that work for you is a good change to find out what is reliable and helpful for your life now if you want better outcomes, or to improve your life and wellness.
Having been at many jobs, in my wellness balance journey, I realize that none of the tasks are all that significant in the grand scheme of things.
…When you leave a job, you leave the calendar behind. Plus, the next person in your shoes (that you may even train) has their preferred way.
And, the last day of work ends the calendar work cold turkey, and your next day is like the calendar didn’t exist. And then you’re off to your next venture and bigger and brighter things.
When you do this work transition enough times, re-inventing yourself and pivoting, you get the pattern.
You can also can get a-ha’s about your specific past getting you to where you are today. And letting you become who you are today. You can keep moving forward and quicker if you want.
So on that note, I wanted to share 5 quick morning wellness habit stacks that I’ve found useful this season (that may be useful for you).
Habit # 1: Keeping same waking up hours every day even on weekends or days when you don’t have to be somewhere.
This could be what you do today… but also adding a few minutes of intentions time is good for a wellness practice so you’re not just running in the morning.
Intentions could be about what you want from this life, so you can head in that direction and work ON your life, and not just in it.
In the morning, you have the most mind-awakened energy and that can be with or without caffeine.
And you never know what the rest of the day will bring that can change your productivity, moods, or stress level.
Getting up early has a lot to do with the way you’re naturally wired, your environment, and your habits.
Irregular sleep is common with Vata’s (…you too?). In that case, you could challenge yourself to get up earlier than you’re comfortable with, but where you get enough regular 7-8 hours of healthy rest.
Keeping the same getting up hours can calm your Vata. It’s one routine where the instructions are simple.
You can get motivated to naturally get up earlier if you go to bed earlier and if you change up some of your habits like allowing yourself one entertainment show, instead of watching until you’re bored 😊.
Habit # 2: I first drink water and warm water or ginger tea as a primer to get the body running.
And then I work in a preferred green banana, quinoa cereal, lentils, oatmeal, Greek yogurt, OR a fruit smoothie. I mix it up. I may even choose a few from the list.
And then I’m ready for a cuppa joe.
I drink low acidic organic cold brew that I homebrew and drink black or with almond milk (extra calcium) and dilute the acidity further… I don’t have a fancy java machine on purpose.☕️
And my coffee rule is: I don’t drink coffee past 12 noon (…that’s easier than counting cups) or on an empty stomach. This helps with habit #1.
…Oh, and I started coffee late in life, so I’m OK to quit early in the day.
Habit # 3: Ab crunches and yoga wellness
Last time, I talked about losing weight that’s often one struggle aspect of a Kapha imbalance.
And one way I’ve figured out how to incorporate an exercise habit is, I’ve been doing an abdominal crunch challenge (…that may be something to try).
It gets easier as the weeks go by than the first week when it can be a struggle to peel yourself off the mat. But don’t give up!…
In the beginning, all the torso area fat can appear to move to the gut center. But don’t be fooled by the looks as that will eventually turn to muscle if you keep at it. That’s what I plan to do 50 ab crunches per day later. (And if that’s not what you notice if you try, good for you. It doesn’t have to be hard and preferably it’s easy).
The benefit is: strong abs allow your back to strengthen, and each vertebra becomes more flexible. You can roll up more easily like a roly-poly bug (…remember those? I don’t see those around anymore).
And if you start these now (or you take a pilates class), you’ll be better off in your golden years especially when bones get weaker despite the increased calcium and magnesium you may intake.
Falls for women and men are common accidents for seniors. So maybe that gives you a little motivational edge today to start today.
Ab work keeps me grounded, literally. And then while I’m there, I do yoga and exercises. You actually wake up and get happier faster as your endorphins kick in. And you feel more clear-headed because of this, and get excited about your day if that’s what you need this season. That’s well-rounded wellness.
You can get your daily re-centering done on the mat as well. My mat says, “you got this” that’s still my mantra.
Habit # 4: Have a reward activity (or two).
Towards the weekend, I healthy bake in the mornings as part of my wellness routine. This is a reward for me if I’ve met my deadlines earlier in the week. I always have recipes lined up and ingredients on hand, so that’s where the relaxing part comes in. No stress baking.
Another reward is I watch a show for an hour. Usually cooking shows (no surprise there!). One I’m enjoying is about pizzaiolos around the world who’ve opened up wood fire oven pizza parlors. 🍕
Having worked in a pizza shop, I can tell you it’s a lot of fun and one of the easiest bakes to make that brings smiles to faces, young and old.
Habit # 5: Then about an hour after waking up, I start my work that includes the unique daily task goals where I don’t need a calendar (that I mentioned earlier).
I used to reserve the morning for writing because that’s when I could get in my writing zone. But I realized after a couple of years into writing, I can pretty much do it anytime with the same result, as I’ve built up the writing muscles. 💪
And if I had to crank out a quality book in a week, I believe I could. That’s just practice.
And that’s one reason why I think it’s good for anyone to start a daily practice for their creativity and to discover their talents. If you need a quiet environment, a walk-in closet is a good space.
Also, one of the best investments you can make is having an air purifier, not just for the obvious use of better air, but also to cut out distractions with the white noise. And when you’re ready to go to sleep, it’ll help you get good rest and start all over again the next morning. 🌅
And starting with chicken and whole wheat waffles could be protein energy you need to power through your day.
For Southern-style brunches, this is a common dish that you can make super healthy and get your daily protein points.
Course brunch
Cuisine American, southern
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
chicken breast
apple cider vinegar (with the mother)
bread crumbs
Instructions
Cook chicken breast. Bake on 350°F until chicken is safely 165°F cooked or higher. This usually takes 45-55 minutes depending on chicken thickness and oven placement. For a whole chicken, follow the instructions on the packaging that can be 1.5-2 hours for a small chicken. Check 165°F temperature to be sure.
Add apple cider vinegar to cooked chicken. I use an eyedropper but you can use any method that works for you such as dipping chicken in a bowl of ACV.
Toast panko crumbs and stick to ACV dipped chicken. Alternatively if you want to be super healthy, you can crush sunflower seeds or nuts.
Add any spices you would like (e.g. oregano, thyme, black pepper, cayenne for a hot kick, etc.).
Intuitive eating can be a reframing way to develop a healthy relationship with food and greater food appreciation.
Intuitive eating is mindful eating thta can open up personal tastes to more healthy food variety that helps our bodies.
When your body is running well, intuitive eating can be a sustainable non-diet approach. 🧡 It can be more automatic than programmed into our day. We don’t need to count calories and other nutrition data content.
As daily eating routines, you listen to what your body wants and needs. This is where intuitive eating and Ayurveda meet. Ayurveda is body and mind listening for balancing and learning what your body is telling you by its wants. You can discover more about this with a body balance quiz you can take to get results.
In healthy terms, Ayurveda is more specific in what works for each type of imbalance, whereas intuitive eating is a general description for eating with when and what feels natural and healthy.
That would include a diet balanced with proteins, healthy fats, and good carbs (both veggies and minimally processed grains and starches).
Below, I share some valuable nuggets from a Vata (body) perspective who doesn’t need to lose weight… along with some RD thought weigh-ins.
For most of us as we age, we need more proteins that help build muscle. If you’re a natural Vata especially, you need more filling foods that give you the most energy like proteins with amino acid building blocks.
Intuitive eating refocuses our attention on what our bodies are telling us, rather than hard and fast, food “rules” that are imposed on us from diet culture and other external forces.
Vatas tend to get hungry easily (and can lose weight even faster), and we’re more likely to get close to the 23 servings per day Food Pyramid diet than the other body types, just to feel full.
Food is fuel and as a Vata example, realized I wasn’t getting enough proteins… because I wanted to tone muscles and despite doing the same toning exercises I couldn’t make a dent. That’s normal after age 40.
So the change I made is trying to get 50 grams of protein in per day. I work in the yogurt, seafood, legumes, nuts… and eggs that have a smidgeon of protein. Like an appetizer plate of shrimp doesn’t hurt 🍤
Many of us Vata bodies are lean (or have a small frame) and need to eat more, not less… and more often. For many Kapha metabolisms, that would not work well.
In either body types, it’s easier to get daily full-satisfied with proteins. Where a Vata can easily gravitate toward comfort starchy carbs that’ll help satiate hunger, while a Kapha body could lean into veggie carbs.
Vatas can also get a skinny-fat build if eating too many sweets (that’s a natural Vata body trait) or processed foods, and if they don’t work on moving and exercising like everyone else.
And while this is the profile of a typical Vata, whatever body type you have, you want to figure out what works for you.
Protein and plant-based are a good combination for most people. With most healthy eating habits, healthy intuitive eating is about getting enough good healthy foods in the diet.
While I do like some food rules, the RDs I collaborate with who promote intuitive eating, describe it as a way to make peace with food and prioritize your physical and mental wellbeing.
So, it’s intuitive eating is like another piece of the puzzle for heathy eating.
“It’s a way to get back in tune with your body and refocus your mind away from “food rules” that can be good for certain people.”
Intuitive eating de-prioritizes weight as a primary measure of health, while inviting you to eat the foods you want when you’re hungry—and to stop eating when you feel full.
Eating intuitively means being curious about what and why you want to eat something, and then enjoying it without judgment.
It’s about trusting your body’s wisdom without external influences. When you have a healthy body, it’s a reliable way to see what’s missing in a diet.
These were the original 10 Intuitive Eating principles that Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch (practicing registered dieticians) came up with decades ago:
Reject The Diet Mentality
Ditch diets that give the false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. You are not a failure for every time a diet stopped working and you gained the weight back. Until you break free from the hope that there’s a new diet around the corner, you cannot fully embrace intuitive eating.
Honor your hunger
Your body needs adequate energy and nutrition. Keep yourself fed to prevent excessive hunger. By honoring the first signal of hunger you can start rebuilding trust in yourself and food.
Make peace with food
Stop fighting with food and give yourself unconditional permission to eat. Stop fostering intense feelings of deprivation by denying yourself a particular food, as these can lead to cravings and bingeing. You don’t want your “giving in” to lead to overwhelming guilt.
Challenge the food police
Confront the thoughts that you as a person are “good” or “bad” based on what and how much you eat. Diet culture has created unreasonable rules. The food police are the negative, hopeless, or guilty thoughts you can chase away.
Discover the satisfaction factor
Pleasure and satisfaction are some of the basic gifts of existence. By allowing yourself to feel these when you eat, you can enjoy feeling content and fulfilled. When you do this, you will be able to identify the feeling of “enoughness.”
Feel your fullness
Trust that you will give yourself the foods you desire. Pause in the middle of eating and ask how the food tastes. Listen for the signals that you’re not hungry anymore. Respect when you become comfortably full.
Cope with your emotions with kindness
Restricting food can trigger a loss of control and feel like emotional eating. Be kind to yourself. Comfort and nurture yourself. Everyone feels anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and anger. Food won’t fix these feelings—it’s just a short-term distraction. Ultimately, you have to deal with the uncomfortable emotions.
Respect your body
Everyone is genetically unique, whether it’s shoe size or body size. Respecting your body will help you feel better about who you are. Being unrealistic or overly critical of your shape or size makes it hard to reject the diet mentality.
Movement—feel the difference
Feel the difference activity makes. Not militant or calorie-burning exercise, but simply moving your body. Focus on how energized it makes you feel.
Honor your health—gentle nutrition
Choose foods that honor your tastebuds and health. Don’t focus on eating perfectly. One snack, meal, or day of eating won’t suddenly make you unhealthy or deficient in nutrients. Look at how you eat over time. Choose progress, not perfection.
The science behind intuitive eating
Studies show that people who eat intuitively tend to also have lower body mass index (BMI) and higher levels of body appreciation and mental health.
They are also associated with lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and inflammation.
A review of eight studies compared “health, not weight loss” eating styles with conventional weight-loss diets. While they found no significant differences in heart disease risk factors between the two types of diets, they did find that body satisfaction and eating behavior improved more for people in the “health, not weight loss” groups.
Another review of 24 studies of female college students showed that those who eat intuitively experience less disordered eating, have a more positive body image, and greater emotional functioning.
Overall, there is a growing amount of research that shows the benefits of intuitive eating for both physical and mental health.
The non-diet approach of intuitive eating fits within the concept that there can be health at every body size.
It’s good to come up with your own sustainable healthy habits so you’ll stick with them, finding the foods that satisfy you and your body.
Removing the “good” or “bad” labels on food and ditching the guilt or pride about eating a certain way is at the heart center of peaceful eating.
Taking care of our bodies and embracing what we enjoy eating as balance are healthy ways to live.
Anti inflammatory eating is a lifestyle. One that I’m passionate about. And I’m not the only one.
The longest living groups of people on the planet live this way. They’re in the Blue Zones founded by Dan Buettner.
It takes a world effort.
After many moons and decades, anti-inflammatory eating has caught on like wildfire for the health-conscious.
I remember when gyms cropped up like micro greens, and healthy living in the U.S. was focused on getting fit through cardio exercise.
…And was less focused on healthy eating to prevent inflammation and disease.
…While all along heart and cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers are still the leading causes of mortality in the U.S. (according to the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm)
So, then we shifted to a healthy diet as the core strategy for preventing diseases, providing energy and nutritional medicine, and the #1 answer to losing weight.
I watched daily the evolution of this through my management lens working in catering and as an event meal planner… kinda like subscribing to and watching a YouTube channel, except social media didn’t exist back then.
Today, the health-conscious are tuned into anti-inflammatory eating, with plant-based whole foods, quality protein, healthy dairy, and good heart oils. Just in time as cognitive decline and diabetes rates are on the fast rise.
A food’s nutritional composition, low glycemic index, and synergistic food impact on the mind-gut connection have never been so celebrated.
And, that makes me happy because I’m a foodie who loves good-tasting healthy food… and maybe you do too!? 🎂
Whole, plant-based foods are greatest when they’re at their seasonal best and the star in a flavorful-exciting meal.
Today we know our energy in old age (longevity) is heavily influenced by our lifestyle and healthy eating pattern choices. (Harvard Study: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/following-a-variety-of-healthy-eating-patterns-associated-with-lower-heart-disease-risk/)
Through lifestyle choices, we get to play a big role in our physical and mental health destiny, and in the mind-body connection. It’s realistic to aim for a goal of being active at 💯. 🎯
Anti-Inflammatory Eating Goals No Matter What Age or Body Type
Anti-inflammatory eating works for all ages and body types. It’s a healthy eating lifestyle that embraces food variety (biodiversity) and includes sustainable everyday foods where you’re rewarded with feeling good and a body you’re comfortable with… and that helps so you don’t have to switch into different clothing sizes in-between seasons.
You can have food sensitivities and substitute those food items or brands with another highly nutritional equivalent.
Anti-inflammatory isn’t a diet, but it can be a lifelong food plan and THE DIET you stick to, to maintain a consistent healthy body.
…And It’s probably the only anti-anything I live for these days as I believe in peace when at all possible. 😊
In anti-inflammatory eating, there’s generally not a need for elimination diets when the body is running smoothly; and if it’s not, specific anti-inflammatory foods can help restore you back.
Meal planning with daily anti-inflammatory foods (as top of mind), you support your efforts to prevent preventable health issues down the road and chronic inflammations that can mysteriously show up one day.
When you’re younger you may not think about these maturing signs, but older and wiser, we feel our internal body changes by the quality of our daily life activities.
No matter what AGE you are, anti-aging and anti-inflammatory can be your healthy targets, as you look and feel your best today and in your bright, promising future.
We know it’s never too early to start naturally reversing any damage.
There is no downfall to anti-inflammatory eating…
I suppose you can eat too many carrots, but you’d probably grow bunny ears too. 🐰
…Anything is possible, but not likely.
And if you’re on the Vata body side of the spectrum, you appreciate all the variety 🌈, and not eating the same thing every day.
And if you’re on the Kapha end, your healthy, lighter food moves can usually get heavily rewarded, spilling over into other complex body systems winning you bonus points.
Below are the different body types according to Ayurveda in case you’re not sure what your type is.
You can see which one (and sometimes a cross between two) of the Ayurvedic body types you most resemble. By going through each of the 10 statements, you choose the one that most accurately describes you and your body.
Then total up the count for each column seeing which one you have the most check marks in. That’s your dominant body type.
It’s your natural way and the body you’ve gotten used to. Usually, one type is more dominant, but you can have a close second or a tie.
Plus, the types fit more like in a circular pie (or percentage pie if you like math descriptions), where the 3 fit as 3 slices.
Everyone has traces of all 3 types even if one type is just a small sliver or a few crumbs (…can you tell I like food descriptions?).
And this is good to know …especially if you don’t like your body type diagnosis here. I’m sure you also fall into some of the descriptions in the other types or in different times of your life 😉
These come from the learnings I had back in 2008.
No matter which BODY TYPE you have, each one of us can benefit from daily anti-inflammatory eating.
Eating anti-inflammatory is like cardio exercise. …in that, we reap healthy benefits as we have a heart that runs better with our healthy moves.
So, then armed with this information, you can better plan your daily anti-inflammatory “eat from the rainbow” meals that can become your established eating-being way.
Enter The Healthiest Combination: Ayurveda Habits and Anti-Inflammatory Eating
In my relationship with food, I choose anti-inflammatory foods when grocery shopping, and then make easy home meals based on what balances my dominant Vata sweet tooth-to-salty craving body.
And I use food as natural “medicine” to help restore my Ayurvedic imbalances—Kapha, Vata, Pitta, or a combination of them that get out of whack for any of us at any time.
Think of the 3 body types in us like colliding earth, wind, and fire (…and like the timeless rock band who still plays in harmony… and just this past weekend).
…Do you remember (the 21st night of September)?… 🎸🎺🎤🎶
…So anyway, with all the chaos brought into our bodies, layering anti-inflammatory foods and balancing them with Ayurvedic food choices is a good way (and I think the best way!) to smooth out undesired moods like anxiety, depression, anger, and any shades in between.
These mood types that linger as undercurrents or that are obvious to us (and others), can cause chronic stress leading to inflammation and debilitating diseases already mentioned.
But the good news is… subtle food changes can change our subtle moods (…nice tongue twister there 😊).
This is true for all ages, types, and sizes as we all can carry off-balance moods seasonally or from time-to-time.
Even though my size is usually consistent year-round, I have a big Vata sweet tooth and too much sugar irritates my skin. That’s a sign of a Pitta body imbalance.
With The 2 A’s (Anti-Inflammatory and Ayurvedic) approach I know I’m doing everything I can to support my prized health and honor the body that was given to me… and that can be your intention too.
So, I put together a list of 200 anti-inflammatory foods so you know easily what to grocery shop for (and shortcut to the checkout line).
The healthy and anti-inflammatory shopping lists help you decide what to grocery buy and fill your kitchen with when you’re lazy or feeling a ‘lil Kapha… and you want to make easy choices… and not have to search high and low in your fridge and cabinets trying to figure out your next meal when it can be made deliciously in minutes or in one bowl with ideas on-hand.
Plus you can overlay the Ayurveda food lists provided, so you have all the researched nutritional food knowledge and references, food lists, and meal ideas all in one place and at your fingertips…. and have the food knowledge I acquired from my decade of event meal planning working with chefs. You can use the list of ingredients and take the flavor ideas to make similar simple, tasty meals that impress you and those you’re feeding.
Another benefit to anti-inflammatory eating that I’ve learned is that your at-home healthy practice can change your sugar.
What do I mean by this?…
At home, you can control the ingredients you eat.
Since 2020, I took up baking regularly. I built a deeper relationship with ingredients and food. I learned to modify bakes without refined sugar (or any white sugar-type substitute) that irritates the skin. And in other body types, sugar can add to insulin resistance and wreak other body havoc.
I do make a few exceptions, but pretty much I’ve learned to enjoyably swap what I once loved (sugar!) with sweet anti-inflammatory ingredients that I now prefer the taste of… because taste is super important to me, as it is to you! 😋
These days, I’m choosier with flavors and I think that makes for better-tasting and healthier bakes.
I’m sure if I got a taste of something super boozy sweet now like in a restaurant dessert with an oozing middle, I would probably only be able to take a small bite without thinking it was too sweet.
So, what you eat regularly changes your body desires and tastes to match your diet.
You are what you eat (and you can become what you eat).
…So that’s another benefit of making the healthy switch!
Your healthy desires catch up to your habits and routines.
That’s good hope for sugar cravings or any other unhealthy weak-in-the-knees food cravings (like the FF word 🍟).
…And if you were to offer a diabetic person, a sugar-free yummy cookie, they probably wouldn’t want it, but if they did, they wouldn’t enjoy it the same way they would if they had the taste of sugar regularly.
So, our tastes also change to help us out.
That’s some good inspo if you want to cook or bake more today or into this year.
And, I’d add... if you have pantry ingredients close on hand, you’re more likely to pick up this handy life skill sooner if you want. You can decide to keep a good shelf-life food pantry, in addition to shopping regularly for fresh ingredients or meals.
You could also keep a secondary “food as medicine” kitchen cabinet that includes spices like I do.
If that’s far from what you do today and you’re not there yet, but wanna be… be encouraged that your desires change. Like in my home cooking journey…
I rarely turned on the oven or stove at home when I planned menus all day at work as a catering sales manager. I came home tired and had a couple boxes of pasta and tomato sauce in my cupboard… nothing for me to get excited about even after I re-charged my energy.
Grocery store shopping was my personal foodie food event.
Cooking was the last thing I wanted to do being around food conversations all day.
And in your case, you may be dead dog tired by the end of the work week, overwhelmingly busy season, or just had a Pitta day, that all cause you to want to stay away from the stovetop oven… yes/right?
But you could change your mind and ways when you get used to sniffing and reading ingredients that you have on hand at home a few steps away from the couch that you can check out on your way back from the bathroom or reaching for a snack 😉… and that way you can see that you can actually make your own this-and-that just as easily as going out or to the store.
A factory doesn’t need to supply all the combined ingredients in a package for you to enjoy.
Food was available before we had modern machinery and even available sugar for baking.
So you can put ingredients together yourself in seconds or minutes (and without all kinds of convenient gadgets and kitchenware).
You can use what you have available.
And in those mindful minutes, you can tap into your creative and therapeutic part of your day.
That can lead you to want to learn more about the variety of interesting anti-inflammatory ingredients available out there as regular substitutions to sugar and high processed foods.
…And you can start with the most important meal of the day. 🎉 Visit low-sugar breakfast recipes for enjoyable, anti-inflammatory food inspiration.
Instincts help you out. You’ve probably heard of the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO).
During the global lockdown, we went with our better instincts to make decisions, as no one knew for sure immediately what next steps to take.
Deeper joy is unleashed here in my Sunday brunch experience. Onion pizza recipe below 👇
Some healthy outcomes during that time were that a lot of people grew, became more resilient, and today are still reaping the benefit of becoming better versions of themselves. That’s something to celebrate! 🎂
Even though “missing out” wasn’t something we chose, that’s what most of us did to stay safe and healthy in the world.
But tell that same story logic to a child or a teenager (…or the child still in us 🧸), and missing out on events can be devastating. But it doesn’t have to be!… and below I share two ways that “missing out” can be the biggest blessing for you and us all.
If our happiness is based on external situations, and not on ourselves, we can suffer sadness and disappointment.
Instead, inside us, we have the peaceful joy instincts built-in that today we may or may not have developed fully yet like we would in learning a skill.
…Wherever you are on your journey now is great. You are exactly where you’re meant to be, and you have a choice to replace what doesn’t work best.
And from what I’ve experienced, I know those deeper instincts are there to help us if we’re ready. They give us more peace and steer us to our best life. And I wish I tapped into my inner joy instincts sooner in life.
Feeling inner joy gives us better control over our lives and our feelings in situations we can’t always control dealing with specific people, places, and things we encounter.
And with practice, we can bring out our inner joy and turn it into a daily healthy habit we apply (replacing our original “happy” lens that doesn’t always help us).
I know this all too well from my younger days when I got excited about going to parties that sometimes got out-of-hand… a little too many Animal House-type parties that I wish I could take back now (…and go figure I became a professional party food event planner as my first career to round it all out).
During those immature pre-school graduation days, I wasn’t in control of my life on the inside. I lived for the outward happiness feelings that put me on an emotional roller coaster when situations didn’t go as planned.
And as I grew up… and as you and I are growing now, we naturally grow out of what we already experienced that wasn’t good for us whatever that looked like… and maybe even a bit relieved that we’re past those years and times… grateful we’ve “been there, done that” and not going backward.
For me today and maybe you too… happy fun is re-defined from a new lens of daily joy.
Inner joy is more freeing than external happiness that’s fleeting.
It doesn’t mean giving up on fun because that would be no fun! But coming up with new ways… that’s what I do anyway to please my Enneagram 7. We tend to get our enthusiasm from fun. That’s one thing I hope to never change.
…And that motivated me to set out a fun day (Sunday) anti-inflammatory donut table while Nadal showed his sustainable match win, and the Queen her Jubilee and longevity.
You don’t usually see donuts on an anti-inflammatory menu, but these ACV cinnamon honey ones are without added sugars.
…While creating a menu and daily food joy like this is nice, it doesn’t make or break the day. That’s an example of finding joy in the moment and then movin’ on.
And that keeps the inner peace, and naturally feeling good in daily calm living. Good grows. And I don’t mess with good growth! 🌱
And if you’re into growing, want new experiences, and are ready to tap more into your deeper sides and joy instincts if you’re not already… or still wondering why that matters or how it’s different than what you could be doing…
Here are a few more differences…
By developing your joy instinct by filling up your moments with your peaceful and calmer desires, you feel less disappointed moment-to-moment (or not disappointed at all) when events don’t happen and situations don’t pan out.
And ultimately, you’re in deeper control of yourself, thoughts, and feelings… and that’s super powerful to your life. Finding deeper instincts feels like a superpower when you discover it later in life.
Finding that life-giving abundant space inside is a gift. I think so, anyway.
And experiencing that chosen path opens you to a whole bunch of other great things you pick up along the way.
…Like, I rid of the worry habit. Worry is helpful until it isn’t. It helps when it gets you to think, and those thoughts help you to initiate solutions or a new way to look at a solution.
But staying in the habit of worry is not helpful or healthy. So one day in the bookstore (…remember those?), I picked up The Power of Positive Thinking written by the late-Norman Vincent Peale, and read the “Worry” chapter in the self-help book.
It starts like this… “Worry is just a very bad mental habit. And I can change any habit with God’s help.”
I read that chapter over and over again and practiced the 10-point steps that literally transformed my life of worry in less than a decade. That sounds like a long time, but most great things take time.
And at the time, I loved it so much that I went out and bought a few additional book copies and gave them to my co-workers around me. And I’m passing it on to you here. Hopefully, you can read it…
How to Stop Worrying Chapter (Steps 1-6)How to Stop Worrying Chapter Continued (Steps 7-10)
So then I carried less unhealthy worry turmoil, and I worried less about my workers as they knew what to do. 😉
So leaning into joy has perks and side benefits.
…I hear myself talking about joy like it needs to be sold as a natural drug, haha. And sometimes it does feel that way in a good way!
Two cool perks about stepping into your inner joy are:
Feeling contentment – and not getting emotional when things pan out or don’t. Being free of this feels relaxing, stress-free, and breathes in more joy. Back in the day, when we didn’t know any better, we would describe this as, “you’re so mellow.”
With contentment, you feel more peace and get more done without the thought-feeling drama.
Your creativity – is the gateway to your highest purpose, second or next act, and clarity with what you want to do with your life if you’re not feeling fulfilled with the one you’re in. You can unleash greater imagination, gifts, and buried talents. There’s a treasure trove in you. And it costs nothing to discover what’s inside. Not only can it bring new ideas and save you from spending money, but also save you from losing time and unnecessary headaches.
The two C’s can be a ticket to your best life today. They can make the difference or be your launching pads to a “new life” in a world of uncertainty and give you a peaceful escape from your job, especially if you’re not happy there.
If you’re looking for more joy in your life, be encouraged that the way you started out and the path you’re on doesn’t have to be the one you stay on.
And choosing to trust and lean into your healthy natural instincts is easy, light, and aligned when you pick the channels meant for you.
