181: Learn Your Body Type, How To Eat For It, and Why Properly Digesting Your Food and Emotions Changes Your Diet and Being with Sahara Rose

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Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model turned self love.

Junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author, each week.

I'll bring you a guest or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul and get focused and clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves, get ready to earn, own and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me? Here we go.

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Welcome back to the earn your happy podcast and this episode is brought to you by my Bliss Habit E course. It is a 12 week e course that you can do at home, at your own rate, in the comfort of your home. And you guys, if you want to know all of the foundational lessons that are going to help you not only dissolve your fears but to get clarity in your life and get connected to a tribe online of women who are ready to support you and who you get to show up for every day and also it creates that massive accountability. And I believe that people in life right now need to create accountability for themselves, people to show up for people that you want to cheer on and also who cheer you on. So you guys, if you are interested in learning more about that, go to theblisshabit.com and I can't wait to see you in the tribe. And you guys, today's podcast. I'm so excited. I have to be totally honest. I am so new to Ayurveda. I don't know if you guys have ever heard the word before, but you are going to learn all about it. It's basically ancient wisdom on how to eat and different ways on your mindset and your beliefs and different ways to really figure out which type of archetype and body type you are and then basically eat and do different things that bring out more of who you are that helps you feel more balanced. Now guest Sahara Rose is going to do a much better job at telling you this. And I was learning for the first time on this podcast. So you're going to be learning right along with me. If you know about it, you're going to learn even more. She is a best selling author of the Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda and I told her that book was written exactly for me and it's she's been called a leading voice for the millennial Generation into the New Paradigm Shift by Deepak chopra. She's a 26 year old certified Ayurvedic, holistic and sports nutrit wellness blogger and host of the Highest self podcast and that is listed as one of the top seven podcasts by Yoga Journal. Her mission is to awaken people of their innate potential so they can share their gifts and fulfill their purpose on this planet. So you can listen right along side of how I was learning as well. And really we were going through all of the different things in my life and I know you'll find yourself within the stories, within her story. And let's get started. Sahara, I'm so excited to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for coming on.

Oh, thank you so much for having me. And now we know we're neighbors.

I know we just had this great conversation all about like, we've basically been passing each other on a daily basis. We may have passed each other and not know.

I'm sure we have. Yeah, I know.

It's such a small world, really like Santa Monica. Once you get in it, you see the same people over and over in like the health wellness community. So we're gonna pass each other soon enough for sure. So I would love, because you have the most interesting story and you're into something so unique that I know is going to help shift so many people, I would love if you would share your story and exactly what you're up to now with us.

Absolutely. So, like, I think most people listening to this podcast, we all come to wanting to learn about health and wellness due to our own healing journeys. I think every single healer first needed the healing themselves. And my journey began when I was a young kid. I was really overweight. I had really bad asthma to the point that I wasn't able to go outside. And I was just severely overweight. Doctors didn't really know what to do with me. I was on so many prescription medications. And one day when I was about 12 years old, I decided I was going to go on a top secret mission to lose weight by going to a yoga class. So I started practicing yoga. It was a hot yoga at this time. And of course I'm like a 12 year old in juicy couture sweatpants. And everyone's probably like, what is this girl doing? But I loved it. I loved how it made me feel and I felt so connected. And it was like finally like a type of like movement and exercise that I could do because I was like the type of kid that would like skip school on the days that we had to run in gym, like, I could do the tests, do everything running. No way. So I liked how yoga was, like, kind of this new sort of movement that made me feel really good. So started practicing yoga and then just kind of getting more curious about that lifestyle. I became really infatuated with India. I was living in Boston at the time, and I remember, like, people were like, what do you want to be when you grow up? I'm like, Deepak Chopra. They're like, huh? I'm like, I want to be Deepak Chopra. They're like, okay. Like, I want to be Britney Spears. So I was definitely just kind of like, took this more spiritual route from. From the beginning because of that weight, that weight gain that I wanted to get rid of. And once I got into college, I got more and more into health and wellness. And I read about the raw vegan diet, and I was like, this is it. This makes so much sense. If you cook foods, it's so bad for you. And, you know, fruit just comes from the tree, so it makes so much sense that all we should eat are fruits, right? I mean, intuitively, when you hear about it, it makes so much sense. So I decided I would become a raw vegan. And again, I'm living in Boston, which is like Antarctica. So I'm drinking all of the coconut water and smoothies and salads. And at the beginning, I feel, like, really high vibe. I'm like, I have so much energy. I feel so. And then that slowly, after a few months, starts to go away. So about eight months into being a raw vegan, I had lost so much weight that, like, people on the street would just be like, are you okay? And at first, like, you know when you lose weight and people are like, are you okay? Like, this, like, kind of messed up part of you is like, takes it as a compliment. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm just, like, so skinny. But it was like, it was just not okay. It was. It was past that point of it, like, looking good to the point of it being scary. And I remember being at the gym on the elliptical machine, and then just suddenly just like, of seeing stars and feeling like I needed to throw up and lying down, where I probably was there for, like two hours because I just couldn't get up. I had just lost the wind out of me. And the more I would exercise, these bouts of nausea with. With, like, fainting would happen. And I lost my period. Over a year had gone by. No period at all, like, not even spotting. So my Hormones were obviously really off balance. I got a blood test and I was. Was not producing any estrogen. My body had gone into menopause before I was 21 years old.

Oh, my God.

Yeah. So my body was basically shutting down. And I was trying to figure out what's wrong with me, had I gotten parasites, do I have ibs? Like, what could be wrong with me? Because my diet definitely can't be that thing that's wrong with me because it's raw vegan. Right? So I'm trying to figure it out while still eating this raw vegan diet, thinking that's the only thing that I'm doing that's holding me together. If I wasn't doing that, God knows where I'd be. And at that time, I was doing volunteer work in India. So my infatuation with India brought me there. I was teaching health and sanitations in the slums of Delhi, still being a raw vegan. I would order my food from, like, a farm in Delhi and, like, eat salads in India, which is, like, the weirdest thing ever. People would call me a cow because no one. If you've been to India, the first thing they say is, like, don't eat the raw food there. But there I was still. Still being raw vegan. And I decided I had done iin and I had heard about Ayurveda, and I was like, this is kind of interesting. Like, maybe since I'm here in India will be a cool cultural experience for me to visit an ayurvedic practitioner. I thought it was like a psychic or an astrologer or something. Like, you know, who knows what she'll have to say? Definitely not ever considering taking it into account because I knew she was going to suggest rice and lentils and ghee and all these foods that I would never eat. So she asked me questions about, like, my dreams and, like, my personality. I was like, why? Like, I'm here about my digestion. Like, why are you asking me these things? And she basically told me that my vata, which is basically my air energy energy, was so out of balance that I was at. At that point, I was infertile, and I was at the risk of Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. And I was like, like, what? How could this happen? Like, what's the cause? And she had me tell her what I was eating. And she was like, it's because of the foods that you're eating. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm a health coach. Like, I know what I'M doing like, your diet doesn't make sense. This is the way to eat. Like my David Wolf course told me, like, nothing can be wrong. And she basically said that the foods I were eating, my body basically became so air like that. It's, it's lost its grounding, it lost its fire. So fire is like your digestive system. So my digestive fire has had basically become depleted that even though I was eating foods, my body was not retaining any of the nutrients, so I was malnourished. And when you're not getting the nutrients you need, the first thing that shuts off are your hormones because your body's like, okay, well you need to survive. And having a baby is not like essential to you living. So let's shut down your period. Let's shut down your digestion because you'll live if you don't poop for a few days. So all of these systems in my body were shutting down because I was malnourished because of my digestive fire being so weak.

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Oh my God. Yeah. So that was a huge awakening call because I realized that the, this ideology that I had created for myself was actually like the reason of my demise. And it was so sad because I was doing it because I was trying to make myself healthy. But then I was kind of at a loss because everything she suggested to me I was just so against. I mean, I was a vegan. She was telling me to drink cups of ghee. Like, I genuinely don't like spicy cooked, especially really overcooked foods. And all the suggestions she gave me were basically like, you have to eat Indian food for the rest of your life. And I was like, like, this can't be the way, that this is the only way I can be healthy. So I began to create my own approach and I said, well, if she's telling me to eat warm grounding foods, maybe I can do quinoa instead of rice and maybe I can do some mashed sweet potato instead of this like pumpkin curry, whatever thing and just make it really simple and just something that I could continue to do when I leave India and I don't have all of these spices available to me. And so the moment I started doing that, not only did I feel a shift physically, but also mentally, I didn't realize that I had Insomnia, like my whole life I thought everyone, it took them hours for them to fall asleep. I didn't realize that this is something related to my digestion. And just my personality was just someone who. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was just kind of all over the place. I just had so many ideas, but I would never really follow through with things. And I became much more grounded and I started this blog and the blog took off and I just literally the qualities of the foods I were eating were taking shape in my mind. I was becoming a more grounded and fiery person because I was so out of touch with those sides of my personality. And it was really when I realized how connected the mind and body are. And upon realizing this in myself, I was like, wow, there is such amazing magic to this. And I instantly received the download from the universe that I need to write some sort of book that modernizes this. Because most people are not going to, to go to India and take all this time to learn about it and figure it out for themselves. I need to create a system. And I had studied sports nutrition in Boston University. So I realized vata pittsikapha are a lot like ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph. And I realized so many similarities between like the serotonin gut connection and what they were saying about the mind body connection and how just so much of this research is actually now grounded in science. So I decided to create this book which I have had called Eat right for your Mind Body Type. Infusing Ayurvedic wisdom with modern nutritional science. And I ended up spending two years in India studying writing, going to Kerala to the oldest Ayurvedic centers, going all over, just really immersing myself in Ayurvedic wisdom and doing every single thing that it had suggested and some of the things I loved and some of the things I hated. And so I created this, this system, which I thought was going to be like a 50 page ebook on my website and end up being 100 pages, 200 pages, thousand pages, over 2000 pages of material that I had written about this. So I was like, okay, I don't know what to do with this now. This needs to be a book. Like, it would be such a shame for me to just like put it online and no one reads about it. Because the more I blog, I realized so many people have sibo candida, like all of these gut issues. So I decided I would find somehow for this book to be on the shelves of Barnes and Nobles. That was just my vision. No idea. Never met an author. Didn't even know what a literary agent was. But I decided, this book's going to be in Burns and Nobles.

That's how it starts.

Exactly. So having that vision, I mean, just guided me through. I just. I looked at everything you could about writing a book. How to write a book, proposal, how to. I probably emailed every literary agent in the United States. And finally, I met my friend Maria, who is on this podcast. She just wrote the Real Food Grocery Guide. And she's an amazing friend of mine. And I met her, and she was writing a book. So we became friends, and she introduced me to her literary agent. She was like, I don't know, like, if it's a good fit, but I'll just introduce you. That literary agent loved my book at that time. By that time, I had gotten the book, like, just for myself. I had gotten it edited, graphic designed. It was like a finished book. And this is where it gets crazy. So she's like, I love your idea of a book. Let's shop publishers. And as you know, you don't just, like, approach one publisher. You maybe submit it to 50, and maybe one or two of them respond. So we're going to shop publishers, see what people have to say. We send it out. Two days later, she gets a call from Penguin Random House, which we didn't even submit the book to because we were like, okay, let's just start really small. And they're like, hey, we're looking for someone to write an Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda. Do you happen to know that's insane? And out of all literary agents, this one, who I had just met, and she's like, well, I mean, I just started talking to this girl who wrote an Ayurveda book. They're like, no, no, no. We need, like, an expert. Someone who's worked in the field for, like, 40 years. Like, this is a serious book. And she's like, I mean, she knows a lot. Like, I can just put you in contact. And they're like, well, normally for Idiot's Guide, so it's the official Idiot's Guides. Like those yellow books you see everywhere. You have six months to write them. And they had an author who four months in, quit because it was so hard, because they're so specific about the format, and every page and a half, it needs to be like, here's a fun fact. Like, here's a word of the wise, like, blah, blah, blah. So she quit four months in and they need someone to finish the book from scratch in two months. 400 page book with their tone, their everything and all of all of these things, which is a job that no one would probably want to take on except for me. So they, they're like, okay, well this is the table of contents the previous author had worked on. How would you edit it if not you can just send it back. So I look at it, I'm like, it started with like the Koshas and all of these like very in depth Ayurvedic things. I'm like, no. If I want a book for someone like me who has digestive problems, they want to know a body type they are, they want to know what Ayurveda is and then they also want more of the mental and stuff. But it can't start too esoteric or otherwise. It won't connect people. So that day I had a week to write the table of contents and that day, from start to finish, I wrote an entirely new one. Like just, I think all of this writing I had done had like prepared me for that one moment for sure. And yeah, and then they were like, okay, well now we want to see your style of writing. Like you have a week to write the first chapter. It's like an 18 page long chapter introducing everything in the table of contents. And that day again, by the end of the day I sent it back and I was hired within two days. So it was like insane and just a huge example of when you're in the right place at the right time, things will just happen really fast. And so I wrote that book in the two months allocated and that sent me even further into my journey of like, this is so much more than food. Like, like, it's not just food we're digesting. It's thoughts, it's emotions, it's experiences. And the more and more I get to know Ayurveda truly, I see this is so much of a spiritual practice that's just grounded in the physical body and that's truly where my heart is right now. Of like, if you can just heal your brain, then everything else will be fixed.

Oh my God. That I was literally like eating out of your hands right now with a million questions. So I love what you said though, because truly, you know, we can't heal other people until we heal ourselves. And if we follow our own mission of healing, I just thought that was the most beautiful lesson and story on how if you really just follow healing yourself, your whole purpose and mission in life will be revealed. To you. But so many times we look for our purpose first before healing something in us and we're just piling on top of a foundation that's totally not solid. So I really. And along the way, you know, along the way with the work, I'm sure you got a lot of healing along with writing this book as well. Did that happen for you?

Oh my gosh, for sure. I mean I still like for me, the thing I'm still struggling with is timing. With Ayurveda, it's very based on the circadian rhythms of sleeping, like right after the sun sets and waking up. That's the thing that I'm like still struggling with. But the more I like, I actually adjust my schedule to the thing that Ayurveda recommends. They actually outline every hour of the day and like what you should be doing according to your energy. And the more I do it, I'm like, wow, this really works. And we know it really works because it's 5,000 years old. It's the world's oldest health system that every other health system is based off of. Chinese medicine, Western medicine, surgery, all of these things come from Ayurveda. So what I love about it is it's not just like another fad or another thing that someone just thought up, but it's actually going back to where it all started.

Oh, so much of that. I was just thinking when you were talking about, you know, going to bed after the sun sets. It's so funny the things that we do to try to resist that. It's like winter comes and we're like, I'm so tired when it's dark and it's like I really want to start adjusting every year, like my bedtimes earlier and waking up with the sun because it is so different. Right. It's like these, these no brainers that we kind of. And not that we can even, not that our lives can completely do that, but there's so many cues. So I, I'm like, I don't.

This is.

You have me totally like where do I start with you? Because there's so much. I have like 10 things written down right now. Okay, so let's just say I'm super. My curiosity super piqued with what you're saying. You've talked a little bit about the body type, so why don't we just start there?

Yes. So the premise of Ayurveda is that there's not one diet or when meditation, yoga practice, anything thing for all people. It's according to your doshas. So the word dosha means energy. So the doshas are based off of the elements like earth, fire, air, water, ether, which is space. Just like in Chinese medicine. They have five elements, but they're a little bit different. They have wood and metal, so we are a reflection of nature. So these five elements come down to three doshas, which I just like to call the mind body types just because it makes it simpler.

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So the first one, which I had an imbalance of is vata. So that's a lot of air and space energy. They're a very airy person. So like Laurie, if you think of an airy person, what do you think.

Of somebody who kind of just. I think of floating, like floats through the day and is it up in the clouds, maybe like a dreamer or something like that?

Totally. Exactly. So that's a vata mind and if someone's like, I feel like I have a lot of air in my digestion, like what's that.

Air in my digestion? I. That's. I don't know.

So gas.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay. That just seemed like, like the no brainer answer, but okay. Yes.

Yeah, Ayurveda. The more you know about it, it's like, it's so no brainer. It's like, of course.

Do you know what I thought of? I was like, okay, can I really say this? I. I think of when I used to drink big McDonald's milkshakes and just like burp the whole time afterward.

Totally. That's. That's anything with air bubbles. That's all vata. So bloating, like when you eat something and your stomach's just like distended, like, it's like, this isn't even food. This is just. Just air inside of me.

Got it.

Okay. That's vata. And the air, it's. It's cold and it's dry. So if someone has a cool and dry colon, like, what do you think their poop's gonna be like?

I mean, not awesome.

Yeah, like constipated, like dark, small, pebbly. So that's vata right there. Anytime you think of air, you think of coldness, dryness, and the personality in the body. You have vata. Then pitta is, is fire. So what would a fiery person be like?

Oh, as far as fiery person, personality. Okay, definitely, like someone who is reactive or somebody who's very maybe aggressive or assertive. Something like that.

Totally. Yes. So a pitta person. The. The pro side is the assertion they are goal oriented, they're strong willed, they're good leaders, they're managers, they're organized. But the flip side is if you're fiery, you're gonna explode. It's like a volcano. So they can be impatient, a little bit like scary because you never know what's gonna happen. Like I like to say we have, we have a pita in president right now. It's like a little bit scary. It's like lots of fire, lots of rage. And you can see it because normally it manifests in the body. So they'll have red tints to their skin. Oftentimes red hair is actually growing. So. So a lot of times you see politicians, athletes, people like that tends to have more fire in them. And then in the body. What would like a fiery body be like?

Oh, I just picture like acid, acidic, acid reflux, just kind of discomfort.

Exactly. That's exactly a pitta imbalance. Too much acidity. So if the digestion is like a fire and there's too much fire, they're gonna secrete too much stomach acid, lead to heartburn, lead to ulcers later. On. So it basically is like the vata doesn't have enough of that fire in the pitta, has too much of it. And then in the body, they just feel hot all the time. If you're someone who, you know, the moment you start working out, you're just like sweating. Or if you don't have like an AC or a fan in the summer, you're like, you just can't. That's pitta. And then since the fire is so strong, there's whatever food they're eating goes through their system really fast. If you have the tendency towards loose stools or you're eliminating, you know, three times a day, that's more pitta.

Okay.

And then the last one is kapha, which is earth energy. So what would like an earthy person be like? If someone's like, she's such an earth.

Mama, Totally grounded, just very, I feel like centered, but also. God, you can't use the word earthy to describe earth. Yeah, just I feel like ground more grounded, more centered, more. Just more natural in their lifestyle.

Exactly. So earthy, grounded. That's the first thing we think of. So we think of like they're like an earth mama. Like you think of like kind of like full hips and like swaying hair. And it's like this, like this almost like natural mother, like beauty to it. So the earth, it gives its. Its kind. It's. It provides us with energy, with source, with everything. So people have kapha, like minds. They're very caring, they're giving, they. They talk slower, they take their time. With people like Oprah, I think of Oprah as a very kapha like person. But then in the body, like, what would an earthy body be like?

Inside the body?

Yeah.

Oh, I keep thinking of the foods that they're eating. So I feel like if they're eating a lot of, you know, vegetables and nuts and things, probably. I don't know. You're stumping me on this. But I feel like it's more natural. So it'd be a. I don't know.

Help me. Yeah, so. So an earthy body, since, you know, going back to the Oprah, like people who tend to have these very warm, giving personalities sometimes don't care about themselves. And I know that's something Oprah has spoken about so much. So you're always making sure everyone else is okay, that sometimes your own self care goes on the back burner. And the earth, it retains. Just like the earth retains water, retains earthquakes, retains so many things that it tends to retain and store body Fat. So kaphas have the hardest time losing weight and the easiest time gaining weight. And it's not because they eat more. In fact, they actually eat, eat the least of all of the doshas. But it's because their bodies tend to hold on to whatever they put into it. So if you're someone that you know, if you eat a little bit off, you'll like, notice you're like significantly either puffier, you're retaining water, or you're just gaining weight easier. That's kapha. And kapha is also related to any like, mucus. It's in the throat area, the throat chakra. So if you're having mucus congestion, sinus issues, as well as, as thyroid issues, it's all related to kapha. So it's earthy, it's grounded, it's calm. But on the flip side, it can retain too much and can also make you feel stuck. It can make you unable to, you know, take the next move or go out of your routine because it's very habitual. So just think of it as a very, like, heavy and retaining energy. So there we have vata, pitta and kapha. So people listening are probably like, I'm not really sure what I am because I relate to all three. And that's true, we all relate to all three, but in varying amounts. So this is when people start to learn about Ayurveda, they take a quiz and then they're like, I'm not really sure because all three make sense. So I don't really know which one to follow. So this is where the rest of the people don't really go into because it can get a little confusing. But if you want, I can go into how you can tell which one you are and how they change. I think your audience is like, they know they're ready. Yeah.

Oh, totally, I'm ready. I was already like, I so identify with one that I was like, okay, let's keep going.

Okay. So we are all born with our DNA or deck of cards. Like, you have blonde hair, I have brown hair, someone else has green eyes, whatever. Just as like, just like our personalities. If you have kids, you know, one of your kid might have been calm from day one, the other one may have been more adventurous. So this is just in our DNA. And this is called our Prakriti in Sanskrit. So Prakriti is natural born constitution. So we all have a varying amount of all three doshas. So you may have been born primarily more pitta, secondarily more vata, lastly more Kapha or somewhere in between. So that's your natural born constitution. So I can use myself as an example. So I was born with more kapha in me. That's why I have a really round face. I have a really very kapha like characteristics. Like kapha people have very like soft features. They're not very like angular, it's just more like round and gaining weight easily. That's why I was overweight as a kid and that's why I had asthma issues, sinus issues, mucus issues. It was all related to too much kapha. Then later on in your life with your diet, your lifestyle, where you live, stress levels, all of these things, your doshas change if you go on a diet, if you do this, if you do that, and that makes up your vikruti, which is your doshik constitution that you have today. So for me I switched out of those things and I became a raw vegan, which is very airy, very light, very cold. So I got a vata imbalance because my body was not naturally vata and I made it become vata. So my body was like, well, this is a lot of vata going on and we don't know how to handle it because it's not natural born to us. So I began manifesting different imbalances. And it's basically your body's warning, it's your body saying like, hey, this isn't working. And the more you ignore the imbalances, the more grave they become. So we all have to balance basically what our vikruti is, what we have today versus what we were born with. Does that make sense?

Totally.

So where are you kind of feeling like between these doshas?

You know, I feel like, you know.

I read a lot of your story.

And just I struggled with my weight as a kid. My, my whole family's really overweight, at least 100 pounds overweight for pretty much every woman in my family. So I did what you did and I think I went to the other side of just going crazy fitness, really getting strict with my diet. And for a long time in my 20s, I didn't get my period either for like three years while I was doing fitness competitions and then finally really adjusting food, it all came back, but I was so off cough. So now, I mean, I so identify with kapha because of the sinuses, the congestion, the always giving to people, things like that. And where if I don't really watch my food, like I just came back from a trip where I, you know, had some sugar and I didn't drink at all. But I, when I, when I do, it's like everything. When I have sugar and when I drink, everything swells immediately, like, to an extreme point of, you know, sometimes I'll just weigh myself to see the water weight once in a great while and which I don't recommend. I rarely ever do that. But when I know it's all water, I'm like, what am I actually doing here? And it's normally about £7 and it goes away in a couple days. But I'm over. Like, I'm always so overwhelmed by the amount of water that can come on in just like two, three days of eating off.

Yep. Yes. I mean, I have the same exact thing. And that's kapha. So it's retaining.

Yes.

And it's basically. Yeah. And it's basically your body kind of. You know, with Kaphas, it naturally tends to go slower. So when you do things that, you know, maybe are a little too fast or something like that, it can go into this, like, survival mode of like, oh, my God, I'm not going to be okay. So let's hold on to all the calories that we can. Even though. So you basically have to like, tell your body, like, no, I like doing this exercise. I actually like eating this way. Because if you're going into it with a negative state of mind, then your body's going to think it's going to go into fighting and flight response. Whereas someone who maybe naturally, like, I would have guessed your pitta just from looking at you because you're so muscular and you're so fit, you would think like, oh, she, she must have just naturally been that way. But it's amazing to see that you weren't. And it took you a lot of work to get there and you were able to balance that. But you have to pay particular attention to. It's really easy for your coffee to.

Go off, really easy. And it is, you know, I've just been paying attention to it for so long, but now I'm at the point where I'm. This is why this is so interesting to me. Me, I just want to attempt, like, what is balance, Right. But I really want to attempt to be as kind and nurturing to what my body needs. So it'd be like, I'm so intrigued to know what it is that all of us can do to kind of find that centering to give our bodies what they need so they can relax and, you know, heal and feel more ease.

Totally. So we'll start with vata. So if you're a vata, you're experiencing the coldness, dryness, consciousness, constipation, gas, bloating, anxiety, insomnia. Then what you need is more grounding. Since your energy is all up, it's all airy, so you need to literally root yourself back down to earth. So what's grounding like, what would you say is a super like grounding natural food?

I don't know why I picture more like I'm picturing like grains and nuts.

Yeah, totally. Grains, nuts, anything warming, especially root vegetables. Vegetables, yeah. So root vegetables literally are grown under the earth. You know, we pull them out and they still have like the roots attached to them. It's so beautiful. So when we eat these foods, we're naturally evoking the grounding qualities in our, in our system. So that's why in fall, fall is vata time. Fall is very cold and dry and it's when we're, you know, it's like back to school, back to work. Create your new identity. So we need, we gravitate towards the, the pumpkin stuff because it's what our body naturally needs. And the amazing thing is earth provides us with what our body needs at that time. So if you go to just your local farmer's market, you're going to kind of find the foods that your body needs at that time. So vata's, lots of grounding, warm cooked oil, sesame oil, especially sesame oil is the most warming and grounding oil. So Ayurveda traditionally recommends gheem. I, my book is plant based. I offer the ability to have ghee and my next book coming out, Eat Feel Fresh is like the first totally plant based and rice free Ayurvedic cookbook. So I think you don't need to eat the traditional rice with ghee and all of these things you can still just do. I love doing sweet potato with cinnamon and sunflower seed butter or just making a quick little coconut curry of different veggies and cooking it in coconut, coconut milk. So different cooked foods because the raw foods are really hard for your body to break down. And if you're not breaking down foods and you're not retaining the nutrients and that's going to lead to other imbalances. So really the cornerstone of Ayurveda is it's not you are what you eat, but you are what you digest. So digestion triumphs, everything triumphs. Micronutritional value, macronutritional value. It's all about what your body's actually retaining.

Interesting.

Yeah. So warm cooked, cooked grounding, nourishing foods for vatas, for pitta, they have a lot of fire, so they actually need to cool down and calm down. What's. What's going on within them. So fiery foods, like, what's something that you eat that you feel like, hot after?

Oh, I immediately just think of, like, spicy foods if you're doing a lot of Thai or Mexican or things like that.

Exactly. So, so spicy foods like sriracha and chilies and all of these things are going to boost up your pitta, and it's not what pittas should be having. And the funny thing is, when you're out of balance, you crave the things that further bring you out of balance. So pittas who are listening are probably like, no, like Mexican and Thai are my favorite foods. Like, I can't do that. But it's because your body's out of balance that it's like perpetuating the system. And once you switch it, you're going to start craving the more cooling and simple food. So lots of leafy greens and broccoli, cruciferous vegetables, cauliflower, like a cauliflower pizza or cauliflower rice would be a really good idea. Salads, just steamed vegetables, like brown rice. Pittas do tend to burn through energy the fastest. So they do definitely need to make sure they're eating enough carbs because if they don't, they get really angry. But eating them in the right way, so cooling, calming, like coconut water, mint leaves, all of that is really good. For pittas, then for kaphas, Kaphas have a lot of earth energy. So the foods that are really earthy, like the root vegetables and the oils and things like that, are the foods that they kind of want to steer clear of. And instead they want to eat foods that are more stimulating. So stimulating is going to increase their fire, it's going to reduce. Increase their metabolic rate, and it's going to get them even mentally more stimulated. So those spices that are not good for pittas are actually really good for kaphas, like ginger and turmeric and cumin and all of these. Just adding these things to your food in any way you can is really going to help. And you want your food to have more of a bitter taste to it, because bitter is the opposite of sweet. Kaphas tend to gravitate towards word sweet, but it's like the antidote of what their bodies need. So asparagus. And you know, asparagus is a diuretic, so it's really good too, and just different. Bitter, leafy greens Rainbow, char, dandelion, greens, all of that stuff. But Kaphas do want to have it steamed, if possible, because they do have also colder digestive systems. So slightly steaming something or roasting something is going to make it way easier for their bodies to digest.

So interesting. I feel really amazing when I am eating all of those more bitter greens. It's funny, when I travel or, you know, when you go to Europe, sometimes it's hard to find things like that. It's like, I come home and I'm like, I don't know why, but all I want to do is eat through, like, all of these greens so that I. It's so weird how your brain can be, like, feel normal again, you know?

Exactly. And it's the amazing thing. Like, I like to think of, like, balance as, like, a pendulum. And the more balanced you are, the more you crave the things that will keep you in balance. And the more imbalanced you are, the more you crave the things that bring you out of balance. So it's just switching that pendulum to back into balance. So you're like, yes, like, greens feel really good for me, like, not eating tons of fruit today and tons of grains today, because I've already had a lot of sweets. And, like, realizing that connection, it's what's going to help you regain just, like, a balanced state where you can eat the occasional sweet thing and it's not going to affect you.

That's definitely. I feel like you're describing me. I can. I now have, like, a lot of awareness. So I think a lot of our listeners do as well, because they're, you know, either they're. They're pretty darn conscious of things that they've done or they've tried a lot of different things. So at this point, you know, because I think a lot of people might hear this and get overwhelmed because they want to either start it all or they're craving balance so much. But what is something that if they just want to start. Did you start with maybe switching your breakfast or adding one thing? What is the smallest thing that we can do to start shifting and noticing that we feel different?

So the smallest thing that everyone can benefit from is if you're drinking iced cold things, iced coffee, icy smoothies, iced water. That's the first thing that's going to really make a difference from your digestion, no matter what dosha you are. Because if your digestion is like a fire and you're putting ice over that fire, what's going to happen? Then? It's Going to go off? Yeah, a lot of us, you know, we wake up and we have our iced coffee and then we have our green smoothie that's with frozen fruit and ice, and then we eat a salad and then for dinner, like we get another salad or we eat just leftovers from the refrigerator and we're actually not eating anything warm throughout the day. So if you realize, you know, if you've taken your temperature, you're 98 degrees inside and inside your gastrointestinal tracts even warmer. So when you're eating cold foods or cold drinks, it requires so much energy for your body to heat up the temperature of that food or beverage that that energy is taking away from your digestive process. And, you know, 80% of your daily energy expenditure is towards digestion. So if your body's so busy taking something that's freezing cold, meaning it's below 32 degrees to 98 degrees, that's a 70 degree temperature increase. It has to do. That's really going to impede on your digestive process. So if you're drinking ice, water, ice, whatever, at least switch to room temperature and you're going to feel a lot better.

That's amazing. Okay, so if, if you've identified, let's just say what is one small thing, if you've identified with, you know, one of these body types, can we go through each category and say something that each body type could do? I know that you just did that a little bit, but was there something that specifically so they can say, okay, did you eat more, maybe sweet potatoes? Or was there something that shifted for you that you really felt a difference with certain foods?

For sure. So vatas, vata is like the wind. The wind is unpredictable. You never know which direction the wind is going to go. So vatas tend to eat the same way. So if you're super vata, like I was, I was just snacking randomly all the time, like I'd eat this, forget to eat for a long time, then eat other things. And your body operates on a rhythm. It operates the best when it knows what's going to happen. So you need to try to set some sort of routine for yourself. Whether it's at one o' clock you eat lunch or at this time you take your walk. The more routine your life is, the better your body is going to be able to digest when it's supposed to sleep, when it's supposed to exercise, when it's supposed to. So if you're snacking randomly throughout the day, at least just try to set routine times for yourself. And just the timing is going to help so much, even if you're just eating the exact same thing. Okay. And then for Pittas, they tend to have lots of fire and they tend to be attracted towards running, lifting weights, boxing, all of those things. And that's not what your body needs. Your body needs more cooling and restorative exercise, which I know is super hard because you feel like you have all of this fire inside of you that needs to get out. But the thing is, the more you ignite a fire, the more it's going to burn. So later on, like, I just had a client to text me, she's like, oh, my God, I'm breaking out in rashes all the time. And she's known, she's pitta. And she's like, you know, maybe it's all of this running and boxing I'm doing. I'm like, maybe. So we don't realize that these things that, you know, your skin, your acne, can be related to all the stress that you're creating for yourself. So if you're doing, if you live a stressful job and then when you're exercising, you're doing the most stressful exercises possible and then watching a stressful movie when you get home, then try to, you know, slowly get rid of at least one of those things and maybe next week something else. And I know it's hard to switch careers, but at least finding more calming and breathing throughout your day and that's going to affect your entire digestive system as well.

So. Interesting.

Yeah. And then if you're kapha and, you know, maybe you're feeling like things are a little slow for you and you want to start these routines, but you're just kind of like overwhelmed and you want to start exercising, but it seems really hard and you can't find one that you like. Just start with something. And kapha is the highest between 6am and 10am so if you do that active thing like exercise in the morning, you're going to be so much more energized for the rest of the day. Whereas if you wait till later on, chances are either you won't do it or you're not going to actually, you're not going to receive the benefits for the rest of the day, and it's not going to have the same, you know, feel. Because when you wake up first thing in the morning, that's actually you supposed to be your peak energy. So if you can do some sort of exercise between between 6 and 10 in the morning, that's really gonna help reduce your kapha for the rest of the day.

I love that. So you talk a lot about, you know, eating for your mind, body type. So how did this really affect you mentally? What opened up for you?

For sure. So I had, you know, just so many ideas of things. Like, I was bouncing from diet, one diet to another, one career to another, one identity to another. I was just really confused in my life because I liked so many things, but I didn't really know how to hone them in. And that was all related to so much vata. It's like, I like to think of it when there's so much wind inside of you, it can be like a tornado. So vatas are really creative and artistic, but at the same time, what happens to so many creative, artistic people? They, they go mad and they're in their own ideals. So it's really important to ground that down. So once I started incorporating more grounding foods in my diet, more routine, more even for me, like, exercise was like, go to a Zumba class, do spinning, like, do something that's like going to leave you breathless. And once I started to do things like to connect, like, more like back into my body and even build strength in my body, like lifting weights and toning, I felt so much more grounded in my practice, in my career of realizing that any of my ideas for them to come to fruition. It takes a lot of hard work on the things that, you know, if you want to start a blog, you're going to spend a lot of your time at the beginning learning, like, SEO and like, all of these things that don't really feel fun, but that's what it takes. And now that's helped me so much in my life because, you know, like, as an entrepreneur and podcaster, you're doing all of these things. It's like the interview is one part, but there's so many other moving pieces around it. And having that grounding deep within me allows me to be able to be like, okay, just take it one step at a time before being like, ah, this is overwhelming. I can't do it.

So you. You're talking a little bit about the parallels, but I would love to know more. Parallels of what, what started showing up for you as you started switching things. So, you know, you were doing just different foods. And how do you. Because a lot of people are, you know, especially if you're getting success, you get really stuck. We can get really stuck in our success, but we feel another level, right? And a lot of times that can Take a massive shift. So, you know, right now as you're speaking, I've been knowing that I'm called to something slower at least a couple times a week, like yoga. But I am really, I mean, I'm being super honest when I say I'm really struggling with the thought of slowing down because I love that 45 minute quick. Just get that workout in, you know, get your heart rate way up and get your, get on with your day. And it feels really good. So for the people who are struggling because they're habitual, they're, they're in that. What would you, what did you do? What did you think about in order to switch gears?

So I always think about what, what energy I'm trying to evoke in my life. So when I was, for example, writing the book, I was on a, a really slow, sharp deadline and I had to evoke a lot of pitta within me, which is something that I'm not really pitta. So I was like, okay, I'm going to amp up the pitta now. Like, I would try to drink like ginger soup and more like spicy things and I would like do like the like metcon whatever class, like metabolic conditioning and like all of these like really intense classes at the gym that normally I'm like, no, never. And at first I was like, this is so hard. They're yelling at me like, what's going on? And after a while I started to like it and like just that feeling of like leaving and being like, yes. And almost like this like masculine like brotherhood feeling with everyone in the class. It was exactly what I needed to write the book because I needed that like, like stepping into my masculine, getting stuff done. So that exercise was perfect for me. But then, you know, once the book was done and I'm like, oh my God, like, I feel like I'm in like, burn out. That exercise would have been horrible for me. I needed to do something restorative to build back like all the energy that I had lost. Like, that was my time to just do yoga, like only yoga for two months and not see any of those classes. So it's really just depending on that energy that you, that you need at the time. And that's why it's so beautiful. Because in life it's always changing. We're always going through different stages.

Okay. So as you're, as you're talking, I'm seeing, you know, if we're looking at, if we want to attempt to kind of, of balance throughout those. Right. Because from what I'm learning It sounds like, correct me if I'm wrong, that you kind of want a mix of all of them. You don't want to be too much of any of them. So are you eating kind of from all of them and doing different movement? Because I, while I feel so called to high intensity, I'm also called to yoga. So can you mix those? What does that look like and how do we intuitively know or follow it?

Totally, yes. Um, so once you're in balance, when you're out of balance, you have to kind of bring that dosha back into balance. And then once you're in balance, it's all about just maintaining. And you know, on every day, especially with women, your period cycles, you know, you can also cycle sync, which is, adds another layer of depth. But I noticed like, for example, like yesterday Mondays, I told myself, oh, Mondays is going to be my boxing day. Yesterday I really did not feel like hitting anyone or just kind of being in that state. So I was like, okay, I'm not going to go. Like, I'm always just checking in with like, why? What my body needs at that time in terms of diet, nutrition, anything. And with the period cycles, you know, when you're menstruating, you're a little bit low energy. When you're ovulating, you're higher in energy. So for a woman, if you just track your period cycles and notice where you are, you know, right after your cycle, when you're kind of building up the cells again, that's a good time to do cardio, to sweat, to do your brainstorming, creative planning. And then when you're ovulating, that's a good time to do more high intensity stuff. And then when you're going into, I think it's the luteal stage, then that's more of a time to go back into more calming exercise than menstruating, not exercising. There's an amazing app called like My Flow that you can like do your periods and stuff, which is a layer that Ayurveda did not go that in depthly about because it was such a masculine discipline that men didn't really know that much about it. But now that I'm like diving more into Ayurveda, I'm seeing that like among women orally as a tradition, this was really being passed along.

Okay, awesome. So what are some. Since we don't have that much time and I just really want people to take as much away from this as possible because there's so much wisdom. What are some of the things that you want the biggest takeaways for you that you would love to have people implement to feel shifts.

Totally. So I think first just, just know where you're at. Always check in with yourself, whether it's through meditation or through journaling or any form of practice that is allowing you to foster inner awareness. Because it's really hard from just being like body, what dosha am I right now? You can't know it only. It just takes like this subtle practice of knowing yourself, which is something that, that only through stillness you can acquire. So have. Have some sort of meditation, reflection, whatever calls to you. And then once you have that, like, honor that body's voice. I know we have schedules, we have, you know, busy weeks, but if something's in your schedule that's really not working with you, you're not rude to change it. You're actually being really brave and you're giving other people permission to do the same. So I think if more people just listened to their bodies and said like, hey, I. I'm actually really not feeling like doing this because whatever reason, more people are going to be like, yes, I also feel that same way. And there's nothing wrong with not going to this workout with your friend because you actually really feel like staying home or not going to that social event because you need inward time or scheduling a few hours of your week just to be by yourself and be creative. We need these times to regenerate and reflow and allow us to gain that sense of inner awareness. So just don't feel bad about doing that.

That so beautiful. So where can we find you? Where can we follow you? How can we learn more? Because I'm sure there's people who are like, whoa. But I want to know, like, I seriously, I'm ready to dive in. So what's the first step?

Yeah, so I actually have a quiz on my website which will definitely make everyone's lives way easier. It's a what's your mind body type quiz. But unlike any other Ayurveda quiz, I've separated the results between the mind and the body. So you'll see what percentage of each dose you are in your mind and what you are in your body. And for me, this was like huge because when I was taking other Ayurveda quizzes, I related to some in my mind, some in my body. I didn't really know what to practice. So take that quiz and then follow the dietary things based on your body, follow the mental lifestyle things based off of your mind. And that's really going to Help you find like your own practice of what works with you. And then come back in a month and take the quiz and see how it's changed. And then if you want to learn more about Ayurveda, I wrote my book about it, the Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda, which, which really simplifies it at the beginning, but you'll see it goes very in depth. But I put it in language that like someone who's never heard of the word Ayurveda before can pick it up and understand it. So if you want to learn more about what to eat, the digestive system as well as the spiritual system, home remedies, beauty tips, all of the things, you can find it in my book. And My website is iamsaharose.com and that's my Instagram, I am SaharaRose, Facebook, Twitter, everywhere. So yeah, we can also give away three books, books to your listeners too.

Oh, that's amazing. We would love that.

Yeah, let's do it.

So how, how do you want to work that Sahara?

We can, however, we can do it on Instagram. We can just have them write why they want the book and then we can just pick three people.

Okay, let's absolutely do that. We'll pick three people and send it to them. And you guys, everything will be in the show notes. So when I post this, we can actually pick people, people off of that post. That would be absolutely amazing. So when I post this on Instagram, we can do it there. Does that sound good?

Perfect.

Awesome. See, we didn't even have to edit that. Okay, you guys, well, I want to acknowledge you for the work that you do in the world. Truly, I came, I came at this. If you can't tell, cuz clearly you can tell as a total idiot. So I love the Idiot's Guide because honestly, I have so many questions that I'm going to to go look at that and you're probably going to see my email come through because I'm about to take your quiz. So I just want to acknowledge you for all of the work that you are doing in the world and being so committed and for following your journey and sharing it with all of us because you gave us so much knowledge and so much wisdom. It was so new to me. So I appreciate you just explaining it to me in a way that was very understandable. So thank you for that.

Yay. Well, thank you so much for creating the space where different people can talk about, you know, what we works for them. And I think that this dialogue is so needed in everyone's healing journey. And it's something that I wish I had when I started. So thank you for putting this all together.

Absolutely. And I always end on one question. Are you ready?

Yes. Okay.

So you are in an elevator. It's a really short ride, and it's only about 30 seconds. And someone looks over at you, it's a total stranger, and they say, how can I make myself happy? What do you say?

Okay. How can you make yourself happy? Do that thing that you always wanted to do as a kid that maybe you thought were it wasn't gonna make you money, wasn't going to get you anywhere in life. Just go back, whether it's art, dancing, playing outside, whatever it is, and go do that thing that you did in your childhood.

Oh, my gosh. Beautiful. Thank you so much. And you guys, if. If you love this podcast as much as I did, make sure you share it with your friends. And until next time, earn your happy.

Bye, everyone.

Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful also. So please leave us a review. If you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought, an honest comment, tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again, guys.

Bye. Bye.