Day 27-
Today's diet:
On waking: Hot water with a slice of lemon.
Breakfast: Gluten and wheat free muesli with psyllium husks, lecithin and rice milk. Green tea.
Morning snack: A banana.
Lunch: Miso soup with rice vermicelli and an egg yolk (hard boiled).
Afternoon snack: A handful of nuts and seeds. Detox tea.
Dinner: Chicken curry with saffron flavoured brown rice and vegetables (cauliflower, purple carrot and snow peas).
After dinner snack: 3 squares of dark chocolate, detox tea.
At least 2 litres of filtered water throughout the day.
Exercise: None.
Sleep: About 8 hours, woke up twice, for about 1/2 an hour each time

A much more relaxing day today, we just hung out at home except for a quick trip to the shops to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables, followed by a play in the park. I'm noticing that my vegetable intake is nothing like as much as it should be and I'm planning to sort that out as of tomorrow, lots more vege on the agenda. I still have to try out my juicer too.



So, Ayurvedic Practice.

Ayurveda is the traditional holistic medicine of India, Joshi explains that the point of Ayurvedic Practice is to achieve a healthy balance between mind, body and soul. As it is a holistic method, it takes into account your emotional and mental well-being when assessing or treating a physical ailment, as opposed to just treating the symptoms of the physical ailment. He says that at the heart of Ayurveda is the creation of harmony and that normally an Ayurvedic physician would assess a person by assessing them physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and culturally. However, Joshi has some charts and other methods which are supposed to help with self-assessment.

He states that the philosophy of Ayurveda is based on the idea that everything in the universe is made up of five elements, earth, water, fire, air and ether. The idea is (if I have understood this correctly) that in our bodies there are three metabolic types or 'doshas' and we are all predominantly one or two of these types. When you have figured out which type, or types, you are, then you are supposed to follow certain guidelines when it comes to food, exercise, etc to ensure that your health is always at its best.

The three doshas are Vata, Kapha and Pitta and they are all in charge of various parts and functions within the body. Vata governs motion and movement, responsible for the air and liquids within our body, Kapha governs the phlegm and mucus and gives the body form with muscle, fat bone and sinew, Pitta governs digestion, metabolism, temperature, intellect, vision and other things.

There is a great chart which you are supposed to complete to figure out your type and then you are supposed to look up all of the advice for that dosha. This is about where it all becomes a bit too hard for me, I seem to mainly be a combination of two doshas that seem to have completely opposing advice (Kapha and Pitta), so yeah, the whole idea seems very interesting, but I think if I wanted to go down this track I would be getting a professional assessment rather than trying to do it myself.