Diets -- Ayurvedic Weight Loss

No other weight loss program or system pays so much attention to what you actually eat, as is to be expected in such a holistic system.

Pan-Fried Paneer and Fresh Avocado with Pineapple-Papaya Salsa

1 cup ½ inch paneer cubes
1 cup firm avocado, diced
1 cup baby spinach leaves, trimmed and washed
10 almonds, soaked, blanched and slivered
2 tablespoons ghee

Salsa

2 tablespoons chopped pineapple
2 tablespoons chopped papaya
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
¼ teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon fresh cilantro, minced
rock salt and ground black pepper to taste

For the salsa, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and leave to one side to blend through.

Add ghee to a hot non-stick skillet

Place paneer in the pan in a single layer, cook for 3 minutes then turn. Repeat until all sides are golden brown.

Remove paneer, and then toast almonds in the ghee for 3 minutes and then remove

Wilt spinach leaves in the pan for a couple of minutes and then remove the pan from the heat.

Line a serving dish with the spinach, arrange paneer and avocado on top of the spinch, and sprinkle with almonds.

Drizzle salsa over the dish.

Sweet and Sour Carrots

1 cup thinly sliced carrot, peeled
1 tablespoon raisins
Rock salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
½ teaspoon fresh ginger root, minced
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1/8 teaspoon crushed cardamom
1 tablespoon ghee

Steam the carrots for 5 minutes until tender

Heat ghee in a pan and sauté raisins until plump

Add carrot, ginger, cardamom, salt and pepper and sauté for a further 3 minutes

Remove from the heat, add lemon juice, zest and parsley

Ayurvedic Weight Loss

Ayurveda is the traditional medical practices of Hinduism, which developed in India well over 2000 years ago. Being a holistic approach to medicine, Ayurveda seeks to cure the whole person rather than simple correct the faulty parts as it were. Weight loss by using the Ayurvedic approach to medicine is as much about changing lifestyle as it is about losing weight.

With a wide range of approaches to Ayurvedic medicine, the following plan is a guideline plan rather than a definitive Ayurvedic method of losing weight.

This ayurvedic weight loss program is best done on a residential basis and consists of 5 elements:

Herbal Massage – using a specialized ayurveda massage treatment, the herbal paste is applied to the body and massaged into the body for one hour per day. The massage is effective for weight loss as well as re-invigorating the skin.

Yoga for weight loss – specialized yoga asanas which are practiced for a period of between 1 and 4 hours a day, these yoga exercises are for keeping your focus on losing weight.

Diet – using organic and fresh ingredients, the residential centre prepares food in a way sensitive to the ayurvedic path. Some centres will also train the dieter how to make their own food, for when they return to their home.

Exercise – an essential element of any weight loss program, in most residential centres this takes the form of walks through the nearby countryside, and involves lots of animal spotting.

Weight Maintenance – once you have lost weight, obviously you want to keep it lost. Most ayurvedic centres provide on-going assistance as part of their service.

Unlike western approaches to weight loss, ayurvedic medicine is less concerned with the outward appearance of a person being treated but is rather interested in the whole person, body soul and spirit.

When people give their stories about ayurvedic medicine for weight loss, they rarely boast of the many pounds they have lost, but rather about the fact that they feel better within themselves.