Tag Archives: exercise

June 30, 2020 · 1:13 pm

Keep Cool This Summer

In the hot months of summer our digestion begins to slow down as the body spends its energy keeping the body from over heating. This is important to remember as we move into the season of BBQs, frozen treats, and lots of time in the sun.

In the summer it is no surprise that we begin to crave things to keep us cool like iced drinks, frozen treats, and shade. This is a natural response from our body to help maintain homeostasis. Summer is the Pitta season, according to Ayurveda, and contains the qualities of fire and water like oily, pungent, hot, spreading, sharp, and light. Our physical form and mental state are affected by these qualities and take them on. This is why it is important to bring the opposite quantities to maintain balance.

Self Care Sunday June Edition - Keep Cool the Summer with Angelina Fox ERYT500, YACEP, Yoga Teacher and Ayurveda Health Counselor in Washington DC and Northern Virginia Areas

Check out my live videowith some tips to stay cool this summer.

One easy way to balance the heat is to incorporate bitter, astringent, and sweet flavors into the diet. Bitter tastes come from leafy greens, astringent from many fruits and spices, and sweet from the fruits of the season (sweet doesn’t mean sweets or chocolate, in this case.) These tastes offer a cooling sensation to the body and are easier to digest when our digestion is not its strongest. It is good to reduce the tastes of salty, pungent (spicy), and sour. Foods dominant in these tastes create more heat and are harder for us to digest in the heat of summer. If you can’t give up those spicy tacos, make sure to load them up with lots of cilantro and avocado to balance them out.

Food Lists

It is also important to make lunch your largest meal and to eat between 12 and 2 pm because this is when our digestion is the strongest. Below is a list of foods to incorporate into the diet over the summer. Some of these will have multiple tastes, but are listed in their dominant taste.

Bitter

Aloe vera
Amaranth
Artichoke
Asparagus
Barley
Bitter Melon and Gourd
Chicory
Citrus
Cocoa (at least 80% and 1 oz or less)
Cranberries
Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, arugula, cabbage, radishes
Eggplant
Endive
Jicama
Leafy greens
Lettuce
Nettle
Oat Bran
Oats (and astringent)
Tapioca

Astringent

Apple
Alfalfa Sprouts
Aloe Vera
Avocado
Bananas
Beans
Chicken (white meat)
Sesame Seeds
Legumes
Lentils
Pear
Peas
Pomegranate (tastes sour on the tongue but is both astringent and bitter)
Popcorn
Potatoes
Quinoa
Seitan
Sprouts
Tofu

Sweet

All the Berries
Coconut Milk/Water
Couscous
Dairy (in small amounts)
Melons
Pancakes
Pasta
Peaches
Plums
Pumpkin Seeds
Rice (basmati, white, wild)
Rice Cakes
Spelt
Sprouted Wheat Bread
Wheat
Wheat Bran

Spices

Basil (Bitter and Astringent)
Bay Leaf (Astringent)
Cardamom (Astringent)
Cilantro – Did you know coriander grows into cilantro?
Clove (Astringent)
Coconut Oil (Sweet and Astringent)
Coriander (Astringent)
Dill (Astringent)
Fennel (Astringent)
Fenugreek (Bitter)
Ginger (Bitter) – In moderation
Marjoram (Astringent)
Mint (Astringent)
Nutmeg (Astringent)
Oregano (Astringent)
Parsley (Astringent)
Rosemary (Astringent)
Saffron (Astringent)
Turmeric (Bitter)
Vanilla (Sweet and Astringent)

Iced Beverages

Enjoying a ice cold lemonade on a hot day sounds pretty refreshing. However, this can kill our digestive fire and cause gas, bloating, and discomfort if we consume iced beverages with our food. Enjoy your cold drinks throughout the day, but try to have room temperature drinks with and up to two hours after meals to help aid in digestion.

Take Time to Chill

Another great way to keep cool is through reducing very strenuous exercise and doing your hardest physical efforts early in the morning before it is too hot and when the body is the most stable. Consider changing out your hot yoga classes for a slow flow and keep your exercise non-competitive. Offer yourself lots of space to relax. Relax in a hammock with a good book. Sit in the shade with loved ones and spot cloud animals.

Always stay hydrated. Make sure to consume at least half your body weight in oz of water which will include liquid in your foods. Keep your skin protected with sunscreen and appropriate summer gear like a sun shirt or hat.

Want some helpful tips on cooking this summer?

Please join me on July 18 from 10am-12pm EST for Ayurveda Kitchen: Cooking Class for Summer where we will prepare two main dishes and a sweet treat. This will be live, so you will be able to ask questions and cook along with me! Once registered, I will send the recipes, grocery list, and if you register by July 9 you will also receive a spice pack and a special gift. Enroll now! yogawithangelina.com/online

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Filed under Angelina's Blog, Angelina's Newsletter, Angelina's Yoga Posts, Angelina's Yoga Videos, Ayurveda

Tagged as Ayurveda, ayurveda tips, dosa, dosha, doshas, exercise, health, health tips, pitta, self-care, selfcare, summer

May 14, 2020 · 9:36 am

Add Spring to Your Step

Add Some Spring to Your Step

According to Ayurveda, spring is the Kapha season. Kapha is a blend of water and earth elements which give it qualities like heavy, dense, wet, cool, slimy, dark, smooth, liquid, stable. These are not to been seen as negative qualities, but qualities in of themselves. We need these qualities in our life to function. Without the heavy and dark qualities it would be difficult to sleep. Without stability, we would fall apart. Without liquid or slimy qualities, our joints would dry out.

View my video with more information and follow me on Facebook for monthly Self-Care Sunday tips.

In spring time these qualities are more abundant and directly affect us so it is important to take care to not let ourselves be overwhelmed by them. Like increases like and opposites balance is an adage closely followed in Ayurveda.Â By adding light, dry, warm qualities throughÂ lifestyle practices and diet choices it is possible to bring balance to the qualities of Kapha and prevent them from taking over and creating that sluggish, don’t want to get off the couch feeling and add spring to your step!

Think of the “spring cleaning” ritual many of us follow with our homes. It is the same thing with our body. We need to shake out the cobwebs we accumulate over winter to make space for the fun of summer and begin to feel light on or feet.

If we are wise, we begin to incorporate the practices just when the weather is starting to turn from winter to spring to reduce things like allergies and colds as much as possible. But it’s never too late!

Lifestyle

Start to move your body more! Exercise is critical to keeping the heavy and sluggish qualities at bay. Every day move your body for at least 30 minutes. This does not have to be high intensity or all in one take, simply walking, or dancing in your living room counts!

Kapalabhati Breathing is also a great way to bust up excess Kapha. Kapha tends to collect in the lungs and airway, which is why it is important to breathe deeply. To do this, sit tall, have a tissue on hand, forcefully heal air through your nose. Your inhale will happen on it’s own. If you feel light headed, take a break or stop. Always be safe and listen to your body.

Doing a saline rinse with a Neti Pot helps keep the cilia in the nostrils functioning at full capacity to help filter allergens, dust, and other pathogens keeping galleries and colds at bay.

Drink your beverages warm or room temperature (At least no ice!). Because Kapha has the cold quality already, we don’t want to aggravate it and further reduce our body’s ability to digest the food we eat.

Diet

Incorporate more foods with bitter, astringent and pungent tastes and try to reduce sweet, sour, and salty tastes. In Ayurveda, sweet is more than sugar and candy. Sweet is anything that has a sweet taste like dairy, heavy meats like red meat or pork, wheat, etc. Replace flour with amaranth, millet, oat, barley, or buckwheat.

Have your meals warm to make them easily digestible. During the spring, our digestion is not as strong, so eating fully cooked foods that are warm make it easier to digest to the food. Make dinner your lightest meal or if you’re digestion is particularly sluggish, you may consider skipping dinner all together for a short period of time.

Bitter:

Leafy Greens (like kale, collards, dandelion greens)
Cabbage Family (broccoli, cauliflower)
Cranberries
Artichoke
Brussels Sprouts
Chard
Collards
Coffee
Sesame Seeds
Bitter melon
Burdock root
Eggplant

Astringent:

Apples
Blueberries
Lemons
Pomegranates
Rye
Popcorn
Corn
Ricecakes
Legumes and Beans
Green Beans
Carrots
Potatoes (not sweet)

Pungent:

Black Pepper
Cayenne
Onion
Garlic
Chilies
Ginger

Begin to reduce oily, cold, dense, and sweet foods like fried foods, avocados (I know, it’s a bummer. Don’t have to give them up entirely, just reduce to like once per week and you can bring them back in full force over the summer!), soy, sweet potatoes, olive oil, cucumbers, bananas, oranges, dairy, etc.

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Tagged as allergies, Ayurveda, ayurveda tips, cold remedies, dosa, dosha, doshas, exercise, health, health tips, helath tips, kapha, kapha dosha, kappa dosa, relaxation, self-care, selfcare, spring cleaning, stress reduction, Video, yoga, yoga instruction, yoga poses, yoga tips, yoga video

February 11, 2019 · 3:09 pm

Oil Your Feet for Better Sleep

If sleep eludes you, you have trouble falling asleep, or you feel restless in bed, massaging your feet before shutting the lights may help you get better sleep.

In Ayurveda, Vata is a dosha, or biological humor, made up of the two elements ether and air which make it mobile, cold, dry, rough, hard, light, clear, and subtle. You may notice some of these words describing your sleep pattern and/or your feet. By massaging the feet before bed, it is possible to mitigate or lesson these qualities to allow you to fall asleep sooner, stay asleep, get better quality sleep, and help your liver detoxify your body.

Padabhyanga

In Sanskrit, pada means”foot” and abhyanga means â€œmassaging the limbs.â€ Abhyanga is made up of two words, abhi meaning into, towards, to and anga meaning limb. So, padabhyanga means massaging the foot. The Sanskrit word for oil is “sneha,” which is also the same word for love. It’s time to show your feet some love for all they allow you to do in life!

Oiling and massaging the feet each night before bed, can be a tremendous boon for better sleep and stress management. This doesn’t have to be a major operation and can take as little as 3-5 minutes. If you have the time, it’s good to give each foot a solid 10-20 minute massage each.

In addition to showing the feet some love, you will also be loving up on all your internal organs. Reflexology uses pressure points in the feet to stimulate certain parts of the body. When you give each foot a good massage, youâ€™re also massaging the organ associated with the pressure points you apply pressure to.

Here’s your reflexology “light” lesson. You aren’t literally massaging your internal organs. The pressure points in your feet are energetically connected to your organs through energy channels in the body called nadis. When proper pressure is applied to a specific area of the foot, the energy travels up that channel to the correlating organ to help clear energy blocks. If this sounds awesome, read up on reflexology or get a treatment from your favorite spa.

Benefits:

Because we have these pressure points connected to our organs in our feet, massaging the feet has many benefits, including reducing the qualities of Vata, which can be leading causes for trouble falling asleep, light sleep, anxiety, worry, and stress. The energy is brought from the head to feet giving the restless mind a break.

Reduces stress and anxiety
Better night sleep
Releases stress and tension
Improves blood circulation
Improves digestion
Softer Feet
Lessens foot pain

What You Need

Massage Oil
Socks you don’t mind getting oily
Oil warmer (optional)

What Oil to Use*

You don’t have to spend a ton of money of a fancy massage oil, although you can, if that’s your thing. There are many companies you can buy oils from, including your natural foods grocer. Your skin is your largest organ and anything you put on your skin is digested in to your blood stream, similar to food. You can obtain a simple oil like coconut, sesame, castor, ghee, or sunflower from your local grocery store. Organic is ideal, but get what you can.

If you tend to run hot at night (or in general), coconut is a good choice unless, you have an allergy or it irritates your skin. If you tend to have cold feet, sunflower or sesame are a good choice. If you’re not sure which oil to use, sesame or castor oil generally work for most people.* If you don’t love the smell, you can mix in a few drops of your favorite essential oil.

The Technique

If you’re using an oil warmer, add 1TBS of oil and let warm up for about 5-10 min. You can do this while doing your other bedtime rituals like brushing your teeth, flossing, etc. If you don’t have an oil warmer, you can put your bottle of oil in a bath of hot water to warm the oil. In either case, make sure the oil is a cool enough temperature to put on your skin comfortably. Use an amount of pressure that is comfortable for you in each area of the foot. Note: joints are massaged in a circular motion and long bones are massaged in a linear motion.

Option 1 – I have 3-15 minutes for this

Wash your feet with a washcloth or in the tub or shower.
Follow these steps with both feet simultaneously or one at a time. Rub a small amount of oil to coat both ankles and feet.
With a little more oil, begin to massage your ankles in circular motions all the way around each ankle.
Dip back in for more oil and begin to massage the top of the feet moving to and from the toes to the ankle.
Pinch and massage each toe.
Massage the sole of the foot and heel.
Interlace your fingers between the toes and role your feet around in the ankles both directions. It’s easiest to do opposite hand and foot.
Make sure to put on some socks before moving about so you don’t slip. (You can keep the socks on while sleeping or remove them once in bed.

Option 2 – I am making a relaxing evening out of this

Fill a small tub with warm water, 1/8 tsp crushed ginger and 1/4 tsp Epsom or sea salt. Stir until dissolved.
Soak your feet in the tub and relax.
After soaking your feet for about 20 to 30 minutes take them out and pat dry.
Follow the steps above massaging each foot individually.

*Educate yourself on what oils work for you and when. Not everyone can use the same oils. Don’t use an oil that irritates your skin or you are allergic to the source product of the oil.

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Tagged as Ayurveda, ayurveda tips, better sleep, dosa, dosha, doshas, exercise, get better sleep, health, helath tips, more sleep, reflexology, relaxation, stress reduction, vata, yoga, yoga tips