Are you a person who looks in the mirror each morning, gasps and pictures yourself half your size?  When you see a photo of yourself, are you surprised?  Imagine someone handing you a magic key to permanent weight loss. Wouldn’t you treasure such a gift – especially as spring approaches and you’d love to lose those extra pounds that mysteriously appeared over the winter?  Spring is a perfect time to shed unwanted inches!

I understand the anguish of being overweight. At one time I was more than 50 pounds overweight.  I’m a doctor, and I looked like a round ball and felt miserable.

But today, I am slender and have maintained my ideal weight for 20+ years.

How did I do it?  For 10 consecutive days I conducted an experiment and ate nothing but mung bean soup . In  those 10 days, I lost about 15 pounds. My agni (digestive fire) increased, my ama was reduced and my vata started coming into balance. I was getting in shape!

Next, I followed these simple guidelines for losing weight and keeping it off:

·        Drink 3-5 glasses per day of warm ginger water. 

·        Eat at least 50% protein diet in your meals such as fish, tofu, mung or lentil beans

·        Eliminate fatty and fried food like red meat or pork.

·        Take at least one meal a day of only Mung Bean Soup or thick, pureed Mung Soup.

·        Avoid ama (toxin) increasing food such as wheat, cheese, fried food and red meat.

·        Women – avoid yogurt because yogurt blocks the channels and creates water retention.

·        Eat cereals and legumes only twice a day. When you are hungry at other times, eat vegetables, fresh juices, and fruits.  This will satisfy your belly and burn your fat.

·        Take at least 60 grams of protein a day in your diet either through food or by adding protein powder to your juices.

·        Walk briskly for at least for 30-45 minutes every day.

Take it from one who knows: fighting fat is like penetrating a rock in your life.  Prior to following this program, nothing was working!  My state of mind was depressed, stressed and anxious.  Each time I dieted, I shed a few pounds and as soon as I went back to my ‘normal’ diet, the weight came right back on.

When it comes to losing weight, consistency creates magic! Let me share this story:

You may have already discovered innumerable crash diets that burn your excess fat temporarily, but the moment you start eating again, those pounds come right back.  The only way to create a permanent transformation in your body is by putting forth consistent effort to boost your metabolism.  This burns your excess fat and keeps it off.  In Ayurveda, this is the magic key.  A strong digestive fire burns through anything.  Then the weight comes off – and stays off.

 So let’s review the process.   For 10 days, I ate nothing but mung bean soup – and the pounds literally dropped off me. This food stokes the digestive fire, agni, and fires up the metabolism to burn fat!  After two weeks, I mixed the soup with some vegetables and the results were even more astounding.  Try it!  You will find the same works for you! 

At night, I would take 1 teaspoon castor oil with 1 pinch of ginger powder.  I also took some Ayushakti herbal supplements to support metabolism and help detoxify the body.

Whenever I was hungry, I had mung and vegetables cooked in cow’s ghee, asafoetida, cumin powder and wild celery seed.   Only 30 days later — 10 days on mung and 20 days on vegetables and mung — I added fruits to my diet. Believe it or not, within 3½ months, I had lost about 50 pounds.  I also exercised, including walking regularly and special sit-ups and push-ups called ‘dunda’ that helped me tone my stomach, increase my muscles and my energy.

Keep in mind that all-important is to keep agni, the digestive fire, very strong.   When agni blazes high, we digest our food well so life-giving nutrients get absorbed into our tissues. On the other hand, when we eat too much food, and especially too much ama (toxins) producing food, our metabolism gets clogged, the amount of fat increases and many health problems begin.  Diet plays a crucial role in reaching optimum health in Ayurveda since the stomach is the main gateway for either health or illness. 

It’s important to remember that too many kapha producing foods (in particular, cheese, milk and cream, oils, red meat) can increase fat.  Eating vata producing food in excess (and without the proper spices, such as asafetida, cumin, garlic and ginger) will bloat your body with gas like a balloon.  Excess vata also creates food cravings along with emotional conditions such as depression, fear, low self-esteem and a stressful mind. Vata producing foods include caffeine, raw foods, dried foods, beans, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

In Ayurveda, diet plays a crucial role in reaching optimum health since the stomach is the main gateway for either health or illness.  Now my patients have started asking me, “Dr. Naram, what is happening? You are looking so wonderful, amazing and so much younger.” As I did, you can make 180 degrees change in your physical energy and the way you look – and feel 25 years younger than you are!

To learn more about the doshas (elements of air, fire and earth/water) in Ayurveda and how to eat properly for permanent weight control and good health, read out Fundamental Principles of Ayurveda page and read Smita Naram’s book, Secrets of Natural Health. Call 201- 767-1720 to order.