What is the best way to lose weight and keep it off? Know what season you are in and eat accordingly!
If you lived on a farm and ate the foods you harvested there, you would naturally follow a seasonal diet. There would be three growing seasons and three harvests - spring, summer, and fall and your diet would change substantially about every four months.
The first harvest in spring would produce roots like ginger and turmeric, fresh sprouts, and bitter greens like dandelion.This diet is by nature low-calorie and low-carb.
In the summer you would harvest an abundant variety of fruits and vegetables. This diet is by nature high-carb.
The last harvest of the year would have you gathering the last winter squash and pumpkins off the garden floor. Nuts and seeds would be collected and preserves would made to get you through the winter. This diet is by nature high-protein.
Ayurveda prompts us to stop thinking of our diets as things we follow the entire year long and to learn to eat the way nature intends for us to in the season. After a dormant winter where we bulk up on fats and proteins harvested in the fall, we arrive at spring where we cut back on meat and nuts and opt for lighter spicier foods. Next, in the summer, when we are very active, we need carbs to fuel us.
Recognizing this natural annual cycle is the most healthy way to keep your weight in check. It is not what you eat in a day that is the largest indicator of your weight, it is what you eat in a year that will determine how you can lose and keep the weight off.
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