One Size Does Not Fit All

Lessons From the Mat- One Size Does Not Fit All (written in 2015)

Unless you are talking about tube socks! According to the tradition of Ayurveda, we are all made up of different amounts of the 5 elements that make up the whole world. Those elements are ether (space), air, fire, water and earth. Some people can be a combination of air and ether, or fire and water, or water and earth. Many times people will have lots of one or two elements and others will have more. Some people even have a more even blend of all of them. Each combination of elements creates a different platform from which people experience foods and stimuli. That means, one size does not fit all.

When "studies show..." that, say, drinking 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day is optimal for your health they are not taking into account the different ways people process caffeine or other situations that are present in a person’s life. There are so many ways to get the statistics they want so more people will buy more coffee. I cannot drink 4 cups of coffee in one week, never mind in a day. My stomach would feel lousy, I wouldn’t be able to sleep for days, and my hands would be sweaty and shaky.

You can start taking charge of your own health by being more aware of your responses to foods and situations. Self study is one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself because the more aware you are of how you feel the less likely you will fall for a food fad. Here is a way that you can learn more about the way foods make you feel:

Start a daily journal that includes the following-

              what did you eat for breakfast?

              how did you feel right after eating it?

              how did you feel an hour later?

Do the same things for lunch, dinner and snacks. At the end of the day assess your overall energy and mood.

There are things to look out for that you might not associate with the food you just ate. As you write your journal be mindful of these:

              stuffy nose

              throat clearing or cough

              bloating, gas, belching (these are not normal responses to food. A little gas is normal but with anything you notice to be that is regularly associated with a particular food beware that you might be having a negative response to that food.

              fatigue (particularly in the afternoon)

              crankiness

              weepiness or anxiety

              super high energy with a crash later

Once you journal for a few weeks you will start to notice a pattern in the ways certain foods make you feel. You might be surprised by what you discover.

If you want to get really sophisticated, you can also include the weather for the day. We are greatly affected by what is happening in our environment as well as what we are doing before we eat, while we eat and after we eat. By taking note of these things you can more quickly discover ways to eat that create the desired effect you are looking for.

I can help you discover the diet and lifestyle to suits you and give you the tools to be able to figure things out on your own. You can set up a chat session with this link.