Balance Your Body Type – Based on your score, you can find better health, balance, and passion-purpose work
In 2008, I went through Deepak Chopra’s Perfect Health Program in Carlsbad, California that cost me more than any vacation I can remember. My reward has been a life changer, as I’ve used some of the life skills every day and still to this day, over a decade later (and you can use to help balance your body type).
I believe everyone can use this helpful information for their whole life in several ways, including better health to slow aging, whole balance, and finding passionate work.
HOW I DISCOVERED THE PROGRAM
I was personally struggling with remaining angry emotions from a stressful, uninspiring management position I had just left.
Some roles aren’t the right fit, and there was one in particular I held after a line of unsatisfying work that mildly put was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
You could be good at your job and hate your job, which is how I felt, so I left that position (but my story had a good ending as a new role was created for me at the same company). Continue reading…
Either avocado smoothie way, an avocado super fruit is one good healthy fat food to eat first thing because of its profile. 🥑
An avocado has fiber, protein and healthy fat that will help your muscles, and prevent blood sugar spikes that’s easier to do on an empty stomach before you’ve had your first meal.
And all that helps prevent weight gain from cravings.
And on those missions, you can add one more healthy step intention.
You can make your avocado smoothie more of a savory experience with a little vinegar, leaning into its veggie appearance. Yes, adding a little vinegar like in a salad but in your smoothie.
I recommend drinking this with the simple avocado smoothie only, but up to you or not if you add to your avocado coffee as a healthy smoothie enhancement.
Vinegar with acetic acid is a natural probiotic and can help balance gut, improve digestion, and lower bloating and gas.
As food as medicine goes, ACV can be your remedy for heartburn symptoms taken before or with your meals. No more popping pills.
A good way is to add a few ACV eye dropper drops full or a teaspoon of vinegar to your avocado smoothie that you’ll barely taste.
And one last easy step for your healthy balanced living is growing an avocado seed to a plant.
This way you keep all the avocado parts, in sustainability efforts.
An avocado plant from a seed adds life-giving greenery to a room in just weeks.
The plant can serve as a daily reminder that an avocado could be your healthy change today.
For healthy inspiration and other delicious anti-inflammatory smoothie recipes 🌈 , get the free 7-day Healthy Smoothie Recipe Guide while it’s available.
Avocado is one of the healthiest ways to break the fast in the morning. It's high in glutathione antioxidant that's raised with coffee in research studies.
…You can also get in your Dolphin pose right where you are! 🐬
For inspiration, dolphins are one of the friendliest animals to us out there… and we think of them as our happy, summer ocean friends we can pet.
…Next to our dog land friends. And maybe that’s why the yoga Dolphin pose is similar to Downward Dog… and both poses are done on dry land.
In Dolphin pose yoga moves, instead of your arms fully stretched out, your elbows bend while your forearms and palms are laying flat like pancakes on the mat.
Because of this, your nose in awareness is also a lot closer to the mat.
…Like dolphin beaks called rostroms that are in placement where noses usually are on mammals.
This gives dolphins their appearance that they’re smiling and then when they show their pearly whites, we smile… and maybe that’s partially how they charmed their way to Hollywood as celebrities in Dolphin Tale with Florida home perks. 😉
But back to noses, dolphins have blow holes at the top of their heads where air is connected to their lungs.
This is where they breathe like us (and not like fish with gills)… and we can remember them in our daily Ayurvedic yoga breathing.
On the mat (…maybe you’re there now?), our Dolphin pose yoga fins and palms are also flat on the mat for good yoga form.
You get a good stretch in your entire body from head-to-toe in Dolphin pose yoga moves.
What you may notice that’s different is your body formation.
Your top half of your body may not be the same length as your bottom half.
If you have long legs and a shorter torso, then you won’t be as high peaked.
Your upside down “V” in the air will look different if that’s your body description. So you get to play around (or splash around 💦) in your Dolphin pose.
…You’ll be more like a hill than a mountain by design.
And that helps you to embrace your unique body and special creature that you are!
…You look more like a dolphin swimming instead of jumping hoops in dolphin show formation. 😁
Like us, dolphins are social and intelligent creatures with abilities.
To get more of their vibe, you can swim with a dolphin and not be afraid that you’ll be thrown.
Well, I take that back…
Once upon a time I swam with dolphins… or a better description is I was thrown from a dolphin’s beak landing into a pool of water.
That was a dolphin ride! Even though in the beginning I wasn’t sure what to expect 🤔
But I did know dolphins are happy and friendly creatures, so I knew we’d get along great in the end. And we did that day.
In that spirit, you can try these other water animal yoga poses that help with flexibility, and you can do on dry land without a splash.
Water Animal Poses
You can use Dolphin pose as a transition break pose before ending in Fish Pose (that’s an opposite position pose on your back), reminding us that dolphins aren’t fish.
And if you’re starting in Dolphin, you can then transition into a Turtle Pose, turning and facing sideways on the mat.
This way you can use the length of the mat and get a new perspective of your surroundings.
💡This is a good metaphor in life to change your perspectives for good outcomes.
TurtlePose is especially good for shoulder streching and tight hamstrings where you’ll feel a good stretch in those parts.
In the pose, your shoulders are a bit hunched over forward to give that turtle back look. 🐢
Turtle is a low to the ground pose where you’re seated and legs are ideally in “V” formation laying flat on the mat, or with slightly bent knees until you get more flexible.
Yoga is a journey.
Then you span your wings (that were fins in Dolphin pose) as far from one end to the other underneath your legs.
Maybe you bend forward with body closer to the mat if you can.
You can challenge yourself daily to bend forward as much as you can in the pose, and then build up your flexibility with knees straightening and legs flattening down toward the mat.
Then after you’ve spent enough time as a turtle, you can turn into a frog.
…Which btw, turtles are reptiles and frogs are amphibians even though they both live on land and water.
And in your land-water abilities, still optimizing the length of the mat, you can flow your legs that were positioned forward in a “V” previously… and move them behind you like frog legs.
Your arms can rest on the mat and floor in front of you.
FrogPose is exceptional for inner hip and thigh flexibility.
🎉Between turtle and frog, you’re getting full upper leg stretches. Your legs are in the largest muscle group in the body.
You optimize your legs in Frog pose that looks just like the yoga pose name, so it’s easy to remember and get into the position.
If you’re a swimmer and know frog swimming strokes, then you’ll be a natural. 🐸
This is a good pose to challenge yourself and see how low you can go eventually, but if you can’t get there just yet (and still feeling a bit like a turtle), blocks are good to rest your forearms on.
For any yoga pose, don’t hurt yourself by overdoing it the first go-round.
Let yourself open up slowly like a lotus 🪷 and that way you protect your joints and tissues from injury.
💡It’s better to start up high and easy and then work your challenging way down, down, and more down to the mat over time.
In a good way, yoga can take you out of your regular norm and reset your mind because usually going down references in your day are easier than getting up and going.
You can pause and think about that one in the pose. And the longer you spend in the pose, the better! 😊
If you spend 5 seconds in a pose, that counts for total time. If you spend 30 seconds in one pose, that’s 6 times the amount for total time.
Not that you’re playing a game of keeping score, but the point is the longer you spend, the greater the daily benefit… and for next time.
Yoga flexibility is all about gradually stretching further each time.
The longer you hold the pose, the more flexible you become in your body’s abilities.
So don’t expect it to happen the first time.
And if you take a break or a season off from yoga, you’ll start over in flexibility. BUT, the your body cells don’t forget so you’ll likely get there quicker than the first time you tried.
Like dolphins that have good memories, body cells also have good memory.
And like the turtle fable metaphor, slow and steady wins the race.
If you’re naturally super flexible, you can rest your forehead on the back of your hands in front of you for both poses.
Then to round out your water poses, you can finish by going into a seated position and laying back into Fish pose. You can do a Dolphin pose yoga move before your transition if you like.
Fish Pose is a great stretch for your neck.
You lay back with your elbows resting on your mat behind your shoulders like you’re catching some rays. ☀️
Then you let your neck rest backward behind you.
Your neck could be wound up as we spend most of our day with our heads and necks leaning forward especially if we work most our day on a device.
So a counteracting reverse pose like Fish Pose helps our neck unwind.
Before you try it full on without prep, it’s good to stretch your neck looking up first to get it more ready and flexible.
Our necks are delicate because they have such small muscles that also have to hold up our heads that weigh like bowling balls.
Like other areas of injury, necks can take weeks to fully heal so be gentle the first few times.
For precaution, a good pre-stretch for the stretch can be practicing looking up toward the ceiling at least 15 seconds several times a day.
I micro-habit stack this move while I’m filling up the filtered water pitcher that takes about that amount of time.
You can also do head circular motions wherever you are and turn your neck from side to side. Those are good if you spend a lot of time car seated.
Hope this keeps you encouraged in your yoga moves and instruction. Stay cool! 😎
Lemon strawberry parfait is a cool light summer treat for the senses and a sweet afternoon pick me up. Made with yogurt and eggs, this would make a great brunch waffles idea! 🎉
I love a delish layered dessert with a divine summer fruit pairing like strawberry and lemon (…you too?) that you can make year round in the day…
And night…
Luscious lemon parfait with berries.
This luscious, low-calorie parfait is better than any store pudding I’ve ever tried… and as healthy as a smoothie.
Here’s the ingredient low-down that makes this dessert healthy:
…Oh and I almost forgot that it’s happy too! Because a lemon color that’s more sunny than cool yellow makes me smile. ☀️
Lemon – this is the ingredient in many cooked dishes especially close by the Mediterranean. If there was a fruit as commonly used as butter, it would be a lemon. 🍋 Yes?
A fresh lemon is tart and acidic enough to make you want to pucker up.
Lemons are anti-inflammatory Vitamin C-rich fruits good for anti-cancer pink ribbon breakfast ideas. 💗
They’re also loaded with limonene that’s anti-stress, so calm-soothing… and that’s why we get happy with citrus scents around, like bergamot.
If the lemon color didn’t create a favorable emotion, the powerful lemon zest flavors in the curd are bound to make your lips curl. 😊
Then when you pair the tart with a sweet balanced flavor like a strawberry, you’re in for a divine food pairing marriage that won’t disappoint.
Strawberry – you can use frozen strawberries for this recipe and that’ll be useful for a later date when strawberries aren’t in season.
These days, it’s hard to tell which season we’re in by the temperatures outside and as we see summer fruits in the winter, and vice versa. With a freezer, you can freeze the effects and have a year-round grocery store with your fave foods. 🎉.
So you have options. Either you buy fresh and freeze or you can also buy a bag of frozen strawberries, like the kind you would use for smoothies.
Also, organic strawberries are in-season in the summer, and getting strawberries from your local farmers market is a good idea. Organic ones are the ones I would recommend eating as free from pesticides.
Plain Greek yogurt – when selecting yogurt, it’s best to take a look at the ingredients. With so many yogurt options, you can zero in on the lower sugar content tubs.
Whole milk texture consistency will work well with this recipe, but all plain yogurts will taste good. The star ingredients for this parfait is the lemon and strawberry (in case that wasn’t obvious).
Making the lemon curd is pretty easy too, but makes this parfait taste perfect.
For an extra citrus zing-y experience, add zest to the zhugh. Because afterall, zhugh is the zest of life… at least in food anyway.
For zing, there’s no better substitute in this lemon strawberry parfait than lime zest to compliment the lemon tart and strawberry sweetness… and bring out the balanced sweet paired dessert vibes in a cool lemon zig and lime zag way.
This is a divine pairing that's cooling, light, luscious, and healthy!
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
lemon curd
frozen strawberry
Plain Greek yogurt (whole milk fat)
additional lemon zest for zhugh
lime zest (optional)
Instructions
Thaw frozen strawberry so that it's mushy and there's strawberry juice. Mash to the bottom of your glass. Then freeze again until ready to make the parfait.
Make your lemon curd and refrigerate until cold.
Add your lemon curd ontop the frozen or semi-frozen strawberry layer. You can de-thaw in the fridge a few hours before you're ready to eat.
Add yogurt to the top layer as it makes this snack luscious to enjoy! Zest with lemon for zing and also lime for a citrus twist!
This was my Sunday brunch. Recipe on the saffron shrimp white omelet below. 🍤
Let me first start by saying that food is a passionate lifestyle for me where tasty and healthy is a food pairing marriage from heaven.
…I started out as a buttery hotel food catering professional and moved into more healthy olive oil menu event planning in Mediterranean restaurants not too long ago.
Even though I’ve retired from those corporate industries, the experiences live daily in me and is my way of life I live and breathe. And why I’m writing and researching on the topics daily.
…I also do believe you can eat deliciously daily like a healthy foodie and still keep your consistent healthy weight whether you’re a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha.
I have some tips and strategies in this article for changing ways without giving up tastes… where rice cakes and lettuce doesn’t have to be the main foods in your diet.
The diet meaning here is the little “d” word as in what you eat and not the big “D” diet word of focusing on what not to eat that weight loss diets often focus on.
I like to focus on the positives for healthy change because then you become what you eat... whole food ingredients. Those are the affordable, delicious healthy foods and pairings that people at their ideal weight are eating most the time (that’s NOT a pipe dream). Those easy-to-find natural foods are filled with fiber, protein, and healthy fats that help to lose weight.
We know today that it’s not just how many calories in and how many calories out, as all calories are not created equal.
Compared to my catering working days, we’ve come a long way in nutrition news!
Oh, and then there are the developing research areas. One evolving research example is that some foods that cause our bodies issues are high glycemic load carbs that spike insulin.
This one I embraced in the Inflammation-Free Diet book that I picked up decades ago. Since then, research in those areas has evolved and happy gut health has exploded.
Those were pre-mind-body balance days.
And so often it’s a mindset change choice we get to make with certain types of foods as we have built relationships with our foods that are hard to shake off.
Changing food mindsets not because of taste changes preferences, but because of wanting to live healthier lives is a good healthy push start.
When I started out as an adult, low fat foods were hailed for weight loss diets and healthy benefits. All fats were considered fats and bad.
So one college summer I ate all low fat foods as what I learned from the research at the time for weight loss Diets (with a big “D”).
I moved to the beach and worked at nearby ocean seafood restaurants.
Being a care-free summer when most of us want to eat lighter anyway in Pitta season, I thought that would be a good opportunity to get super slim.
I was skinny fat in today’s standards. I’m naturally a Vata body, but we all have our relative sizes in our one-and-only-body we get to live in and make decisions for.
My strategy then was avoiding all high fats (including healthy fats that we didn’t know about). I was scanning nutrition facts on labels for fat content.
Pasta was and is one of my fave foods that passed the test.
So, I went on a mostly pasta diet.
I ate pasta and a certain low-fat cookie in a green box that was popular at the time. I don’t see them around today.
It took just a few weeks for me to see that I had gained weight I never had before.
Most of us know those yo-yo diets where you gain all the weight back and then some more. That’s what happened to me.
So using percentages I had gained about 10% when I was trying to lose about 5%.
The principle is the same for anyone in their body so there’s no healthy comparing between people. The healthy way is to choose for your body.
And weight cycling can happen easily when you start to crave all the foods you’ve known to love, but aren’t eating. 🥲
I was a newbie at weight loss plans. So I didn’t have any experience with food willpower.
I just loved all foods and they loved me back without question. It was unconditional love that I didn’t feel in other areas of my life.
…and once I got a taste back into the real world of tastes again, I couldn’t stop.
And that’s how it is for most of us where certain foods are addictive.
These days, we can use low-carb, healthy fats and healthy proteins to point us in the better direction.
I’m following along with this better directed macros plan. And not my former macaroni plan. 🍝
I’ve seen the improved results as compared to decades ago where I learned that calorie counting is hard work.
No More Hardwork Calorie Counting
Calorie counting is hard work and exercising to burn calories is even harder work.
Today we know it doesn’t pay off consistently in the long run like eating healthy regularly that can be very enjoyable.
So saving ourselves the trouble from learning better information is a better weight loss plan.
What helps the most is giving your body what your natural body wants.
Some healthy foods are universally healthy to most bodies and some are unique often told by the story of our individual body’s tastes and preferences.
Ayurvedic food categories for our balances and imbalances are more predictable, where we crave certain tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, or salty) that are found in healthy foods.
We can make the natural switch to following our Ayurvedic preferences.
I compare it to getting off an alarm clock that’s like processed foods. An alarm is not when your body naturally wants to get up or do the activity you’ve set the alarm to.
If you naturally follow your body’s time instincts, you become naturally attuned to time changes and circadian rhythm that’s like the eating healthy balanced way.
And if weight loss is a goal of yours, also focusing on keeping veggie fiber carbs balanced at the top of the list helps.
If you’re a balanced Kapha body, then also lean into bitter tasting and astringent foods for weight loss diets (again the little “d” diet for what you do eat).
If off-balance, that’s where we can get into trouble until you restore balance. It’s easy to tell if you’re off balance with clues around you and a simple body balance quiz.
Healthy Weight Loss Diets
If you eat mostly healthy foods, you also slowly turn your taste buds to healthier choices.
You desire the healthy foods and crave less of the bad. It’s your lifestyle choice that makes your healthy intentions and changes your tastes.
Healthy ingredient and food substitution is a good weight loss strategy, that also develops creativity skills as a side benefit.
And when you prep, cook, and make your own goods you have more control over what you put in your body. You’re rewarded for the time and effort you put in. 🎉
…Cooking and baking daily, I’m in better shape today than I was last year, definitely from college years, and anytime in between…
I’m feeling nostalgic today because I wrote this Un-DietGuide twenty plus years ago that I found.
I wasn’t blogging or writing anything else back then. So coming up with a 73-page manual with recipes was interesting at the very least (…maybe even strangely prophetic for my interests today).
Today my evolved manual would include sustainable healthy living meal prep habits and fasting once a week (but no yo-yo fasting habits). My motivation: living longer optimally (longevity). And if that’s you… amp up your longevity game with my free intermittent fasting guide.
I appreciate what I eat and drink more, and am more productive… enjoying LIFE and being active…. discovering new places 😉
I also enjoy more healthy foods in my diet that was a gradual change, when I started consistently making and baking in all my meal ingredients.
When you stay consistent and keep your favorite celebrational food and drink habits in moderation, you don’t yo-yo in weight or go overboard one day or season when the stress situation arises or willpower gives in. Been there, done that!
And in not denying, there’s no obsessing and making our binge food dreams happen. I learned that the hard way (and maybe you did too on your food journey).
Overall keeping most meals, snacks, and days as eating healthy real foods gives us our best results. Our healthy changes are gradual.
And when you choose your ingredients for meals and dishes, you do a couple of healthy things:
You become more intentional about what you source and put in your body. Every ingredient and amount you’ve sourced and researched. You know on some level what you’re putting into your body.
You also get to try new foods to bring in more rainbow variety, new flavors, and aromatic spices to your life.
That’s exciting to me (…you too?).
Never being bored with foods is a healthy norm.
You never grow out of loving food because there’s always a healthy substitution to turn to.
We’re not meant to be bored or avoiding eating. Our hunter gatherer forefathers didn’t live that way.
They were inventive and foraged for new tastes and ways.
Finding Your Lose Weight Food Diet
Wherever you are on your journey for trying new foods, it helps to carve out time to be food mindful.
When I first started out baking and cooking daily, I had to adjust to carving out time to think about meals and sniff spices.
My motivation was eating but also creating colorful plates.
I always enjoyed that part of my job in catering where I got to decorate food with food. It’s fun to play with your food.
In the same way, you can think of food as a creative outlet and the cherry on top is you get to eat and share it at the end.
You can’t do that with all other passions, like say making paintings that you either need to find a place to hang or else find a way to pass them onto others.
Embracing food passions can be an easy creative outlet.
I realized early on that I wasn’t the home kitchen maker that wanted to make complicated dishes.
Being easy and creative for me was not following a recipe if I didn’t have to.
So early on I didn’t create recipes at all. But now I embrace them as a way to share easy baking steps and shortcuts.
And I believe there’s always room to change ingredients, amounts, and methods.
Because even if you use the same ingredients and amounts provided in a recipe, so many factors could change your bakes…
Like temperature in the oven, outside temps, and materials used. …and especially how much love you put into your dishes.🧡
If you create when you don’t feel like it or on half-empty energy, your dishes will reflect and not be alive.
The myth that baking relies on recipe precision is a myth. Great baking I’m familiar with is an art and a science that you feel good about.
In my decade career managing hotel catering and Mediterranean restaurant event planning, I came across the most delicious ingredients…
They inspired this 15-minute Sunday brunch Saffron Shrimp Egg White Omelet dish that you can tastefully make and is good on a low-carb weight loss plan. 🍳🍤 And a delicious Gorgonzola Italian Bean Salad that’s loaded with protein and fiber. 🫘🥗
