5 Underrated Ancient Rituals to Lasting Weight Loss

In Ayurveda and other ancient healing traditions, weight is never just physical. It's also emotional and energetic. If you're constantly criticizing your body, telling yourself that you're not enough, or obsessing over how much weight you need to lose, your body hears that message that creates more tension, more stress, more resistance, instead of letting go, letting the body do what it wants to do. Because on some level, hearing those words, it's feeling attacked rather than feeling supportive. Does that sound familiar? You ever had just constant negative thoughts? How many parts of your body you criticized and for how many years? Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Rooted in Wellness podcast and today's solo episode inspired by how I help my clients successfully lose weight long term. So when we think about it, when we think about weight loss, most of us go straight to the usual suspects. Eat more, move more, work harder. But what if I told you that true, lasting weight release isn't about punishment or restriction or intensity. It's about alignment and creating coherence within your body. In both ancient traditions and modern science, the body holds onto weight when it feels unsafe, when it's inflamed, or when it's overwhelmed. Healing, then, can happen when we shift into balance. And that's within our mind, our body, and our spirit. So in today's episode, I'm sharing five underrated things that deeply influence your ability to release weight. And I promise they're not the ones that you've been told over and over again. We'll explore why your mindset is just as important as your meal plan. How aligning with your circadian rhythm can actually reset your metabolism, and why addressing your hormones might be the missing piece that you haven't considered yet. We'll also talk about the power of strength training just two or three times a week, and why adding more isn't always better. And finally, why restorative movement and balance. Often, you know, they do more for your body than endless hours of intensity. And I can attest to this personally. When my weight was at its heaviest, I was 45 pounds overweight. I was inflamed. My heart palpitations were at their worst. I was addicted to hardcore. I was spending hours at the gym. I was on the most restrictive diet out there, Atkins diet, and I was suffering and the weight was not budging. All right, so if you were like me and you feel like you've been doing all of the right things and you're still feeling stuck, this conversation will help you see your body differently. Think of it as less of a fight against Your body and more as creating the conditions for it to do what it naturally wants to do and let go of what it no longer needs. So number one, start with your mind and release what you're holding. In Ayurveda and other ancient healing traditions, weight is never just physical. It's also emotional and energetic. If you're constantly criticizing your body, telling yourself that you're not enough, or obsessing over how much weight you need to lose, your body hears that message that creates more tension, more stress, more resistance, instead of letting go, letting you, the body, do what it wants to do. Because on some level, hearing those words, it's feeling attacked rather than feeling supportive. Does that sound familiar? You ever had just constant negative thoughts? How many parts of your body have you criticized and for how many years? Gosh, that lands really deeply for me. When you speak negatively about your body, you're not just having a fleeting thought. You're activating a biochemical cascade. You, your nervous system shifts into that stress mode, and every cell in your body starts to listen. Think of your thoughts like casting spells. Your words are powerful. And often when I'm coaching my clients, I'm guiding them in dialing into what these words are specifically, or what their inner belief systems are that are guiding those constant words that they are affirming over and over and over, what you believe becomes you. And from a scientific perspective, there are now decades of research that show that chronic self criticism elevates our body's cortisol, your stress hormone. Elevated cortisol disrupts your hormones, disrupts your digestion, it weakens your immune system. It throws your rhythm off and slows your metabolism. It's the body's ancient way of protecting you. It's your body's way of conserving energy. It stores fat because it's bracing for survival. And the more that you demand or punish or shame your body, the more your body is going to resist change because it doesn't feel safe. Quantum healing adds another layer of understanding to this. Our cells are not just these biochemical units. They are vibrational beings within us. Studies in epigenetics and psychoneuroimmunology show that stress and emotions influence how our genes either can turn on or off, literally reshaping our cellular behavior. Negative self talk or these patterns, they create a low vibrational state. This is a field of disharmony. It's when our cells start to struggle to repair. They struggle to regenerate and even communicate with each other. And over time, the cellular noise can manifest as inflammation, as Accelerated aging, or even as disease within the body. From an Ayurvedic perspective, this negatively creates amma, the stagnant energy that blocks flow within our body. And the body receives this message that it's not safe to release. We get stuck holding onto everything. That's why so many people feel stuck even when they're eating well or they're exercising consistently. Sound familiar? I've been there. You can do everything right. And on the outside, it feels like you're doing all the right things. But on the inside, if your mind is filled with self criticism, negative self talk, your body's going to continue to hold on to the weight of all of those thoughts. And gosh, how many years of thoughts could have accumulated within you? And where are those thoughts being stored? It's like trying to run with this heavy backpack on. You're holding on to all of those things and just not letting go. So how on earth would even through your best efforts, could your body let go of the things that you desperately want to? The hopeful truth is our cells respond to negativity, but they also respond to coherence and to safety and to the feeling of love and gratitude. So when you shift your inner dialogue, when you practice gratitude and self compassion or even simple breath work, you probably felt it. You calm the nervous system, you're lowering your cortisol within you. You're inviting harmony into every tissue within you. Your body moves out of defense and into growth and repair and vitality. This proves that your biology is not fixed, it's listening. And the way that you speak to your body is one of the most powerful forms of medicine that you have. This is also one of my greatest lessons. Going to the ashram, living in a community where this was part of our daily discussion and understanding the negative self talk and criticism that I'd lived with for years, just constantly criticizing myself and others around me until I understood how to soften that language. So this shift for you begins there. It begins with your language. So maybe instead of saying something like I hate my stomach or I hate my thighs, try to say, I'm grateful for my body. I'm grateful it's digesting. I'm grateful that it can move every day. I grateful that it holds me every single day. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Just saying that out loud. Can you just feel the difference in that? It's a subtle shift that signals safety within you and it tells your body it's okay to relax. Okay, she's not yelling us at us anymore. He's not yelling at us anymore. This, over time is going to restore balance. It's going to support you in balancing your hormones and it's going to create the conditions for release, release of stress, release of tension, and often the release of weight. In Ayurveda, this is the release of what we call energetic heaviness. By letting go of the weight of negative thoughts, you create space from the physical body to also let go as well. This is why practices like journaling or affirmations or mantra repetition or chanting are so powerful. They don't just shift your mind, they you're signaling to your body that it's loved, it's supportive, it's safe to transform. And often by recognizing the beauty of things outside of you, it's no longer in that self centered state of criticism. It's in a mode of expansion and gratitude to things that are around you. Notice if you can adopt a spiritual practice like that into your life. Or maybe you've felt it before. Because the truth is that lasting change, it's not going to come from you hating your body. It's not going to come from hating your body into submission. It comes from learning how to speak to it with respect. And this is something that we weren't ever taught as kids. As you change the way that you talk to your body, you'll change the way that you feel in your body. And that shift creates the environment that your body finally needs to release. To release what it's holding onto, to release what no longer serves it anymore. To release the pain and the trauma and the thoughts from the past that have just been stuck within you. So tune into your self talk is the motto of that message. All right. The words that you use and everything that you are affirming every day and maybe even subconsciously are the things that are sabotaging your health goals. And ask yourself the words that you repeat to yourself, the thoughts that you're constantly thinking, would you want me to hear them? Would you want anyone else to hear them? Would you say them to a best friend? And if the answer is no, then this is an opportunity to just be mindful. Be mindful of what those thoughts are. Maybe give yourself a 12 hour period where you decide you're going to just be mindful how often you're criticizing yourself without judging yourself. Again, just be mindful of how often you're in that mode and then maybe that will lighten the weight within you. All right, Number two is you want to align with your body's circadian rhythm. I love that this is a topic that's trending right now because it is ancient wisdom. Your body runs on an internal clock, your circadian rhythm. It governs almost every process within you. Your metabolism, your appetite, your digestion, your hormones, your body temperature, and even how your brain clears waste overnight. When you live in sync with this rhythm every day, your body naturally balances energy and it balances your weight because your body can function as it should. It's not taking care of emergencies. It's in alignment, it's in flow. When you ignore your body's circadian rhythm with things like late nights, erratic meal, eating all over the place at different times, constant screens, you're forcing your system to really turn on that stress signal, which over time leads to inflammation, leads to food cravings, and leads to weight gain. It's not necessarily something that we feel immediately. It's how it accumulates over time. So why does this matter? Hormones follow the clock. Your cortisol, melatonin, insulin, thyroid hormones, and even your reproductive hormones, they all rise and fall according to circadian cues. If you disrupt that rhythm, you disrupt fat metabolism, you disrupt your hormonal regulation, you disrupt your hunger signals and even your energy regulation every single day. So over time, you're going to really feel, feel that impact. Then you'll understand that you're looking for resources to fill something that could just be resolved by aligning your body's circadian. Did you know that your digestion has peak hours? Studies show that eating late at night leads to higher blood sugar spikes and more fat storage, even if the calories are the same. Ayurveda has taught this for centuries. Your agni, your digestive fire within you, is strongest at midday and weakest at night. Sleep is another one. Sleep is your metabolism's reset button. So between the hours of 11pm and 3am, the liver and gallbladder perform deep detoxification and cellular repair. So if you're missing that window, especially consistently, and your body prioritizes staying awake, instead of cleansing and restoring over time, this is going to cause an increase in inflammation within you and it's going to slow down your metabolism. So. So how do we bring yourself back into rhythm? We want to wake with the morning sun. We want to expose your eyes to natural sunlight. Within 30 minutes of waking. Just five to 10 minutes outside, it resets your clock, strengthens your cortisol awakening response, and sets up a natural rise and fall of energy throughout the day. Next, you want to fuel. You want to eat your food when your digestion is strongest. So make your lunch the most Substantial meal of the day. It's when your digestive fire and your enzyme production are at their peak. Try to keep your dinner lighter and earlier, if possible. Your body will digest more efficiently and sleep more deeply. I can say for my clients, those that push their dinner back by 30 minutes or even 60 minutes on nights that are possible, that consistency really pays off. It allows them to sleep better and they're noticing big differences in how their hunger cues respond the following day. You also want to set a sleep window with consistency. Try to aim to be in bed by 10 or 10:30. This allows your body to drop into that deep sleep when detoxification, hormone regulation and cellular repair are most active. And it takes time. People don't talk about this, but as an adult, you have to sleep train. So it might not happen immediately, but try to give yourself one week of being consistent with going to bed at the same time. Setting. Set the stage so that going to bed at that time becomes you. I promise you it will be a new ritual in your life. And to do this, you obviously want to limit your evening blue light exposure. So constantly looking at screens, and I know this one's a tough one, it tricks your brain into thinking that it's daytime, you're suppressing your body's melatonin and making it harder to sleep. It's like you're doing it to yourself, right? So try dimming the lights in your house. This is what we do at night at my place. We dim the lights after the sun goes down. We use blue light filters when possible, or sometimes I'll wear my amber glasses if I do have to be on my device later at night. Next, we want to move with rhythm. So light movement in the morning, stretching, yoga, walking, pilates, qigong, these all energize our body without being incredibly overstimulating. Afternoon is actually a more ideal time for more intense exercise when your body's temperature and strength naturally peak. You might have even tried that before if you've noticed the difference between your energy levels or your strength in afternoon. At an afternoon workout versus a morning workout, you might feel that it gets a little bit easier. This is because of your body's circadian rhythm. Evenings, of course, should just be about more calming styles of movement. Stretching, breathwork, restorative yoga, legs up the wall. And of course, it just makes sense, doesn't it? We want to start to restore our nervous system at the end of the day to come into balance, to cue the body that it's time to get out of acceleration and come into Rest to prepare the body to get into a beautiful night of sleep. Another modality that's powerful for your body's circadian rhythm is fasting with intention. So try to aim to fast for at least 12 to 14 hours between your dinner and when you have your breakfast. When you break your fast, this gives your digestive system some time to rest. When it does that, it's able to support your body. It supports your insulin sensitivity, it encourages your fat metabolism, all while working with your body's natural rhythm. It's important that we give our bodies a nice long break to be able to restore. Try to honor your evening wind down. You want to create a nightly ritual that feels good for you. So think about this for a second. What does feel good for you? Is it grounding herbal tea? Is it reading a book? Is it connection with loved ones? Journaling gentle breath work? Whatever it is for you, things that signal your nervous system that it's safe to slow down, that it's time to rest. This transition is going to help your body move seamlessly from activity into restoration. And when you live in alignment with your circadian rhythm, you're no longer forcing your body to into survival mode. Instead, you create an environment where your hormones, your digestion, your metabolism flow effortlessly. Energy feels steady, weight regulation becomes natural, and your body can finally release what it no longer needs to hold onto. These practices might seem very simple, but I promise you, over time, they will have a profound impact on how you look and feel. Number three is you have to address your hormones. This is one of the most overlooked barriers to weight loss. Hormone imbalance. You can be eating clean, working out daily, and tracking every single detail. But if your hormones are out of sync, your body might still resist letting go of weight. We know this through science as well. It's affirming. Think of your hormones as your body's messengers. They tell your cells whether it's time to burn fat, whether it's time to store energy, whether you should feel hungry, whether you should feel full, or whether it's time to rest or stay in high alert. When these messages are constantly scrambled or out of sync, your body goes into that default mode of storage. It will hold onto everything despite your best efforts. So here's how specific hormones will impact your weight. First is cortisol. This is your stress hormone. It's getting a lot of attention lately. Chronically elevated cortisol tells your body to hold onto fat, especially around your midsection, while also increasing your cravings for things like sugars and carbohydrates. Daily restorative rituals like meditation, breathwork, or even 10 minutes of stillness can really calm your nervous system. That will help to lower your cortisol. It will help to reduce your body's belly fat storage. And over time, you'll come into balance. Then we have your thyroid hormones. So think of these as your metabolism regulators. A sluggish thyroid is going to slow your metabolism, it's going to lower your energy, and it's going to make weight loss just feel nearly impossible. It's so frustrating. Supporting your thyroid health with selenium rich foods like brazil nuts and sunflower seeds, along with iodine from things like seaweed, really nourishes thyroid function so that your metabolism can really fire properly. These are numbers that you're going to want to get checked with your practitioner. Then there's estrogen, your balance hormone. When estrogen is too high compared to progesterone, it's often called estrogen dominance. This is when your body's more prone to bloating, fluid retention and fat storage. I have been there. It sucks. This is when you want to focus on things like cruciferous veggies like broccoli. Broccoli sprouts are my favorite. Cauliflower, kale and bok choy that contain powerful compounds that help your liver determine detoxify excess estrogen, which over time will help to restore balance. I know it feels like a lot, but it's worthwhile. Understanding your biology. The key takeaway is that if you feel that you're doing everything right, you're eating well, you're exercising, you're managing your stress and the weight still won't budge. It's time to stop. Stop and take the guesswork out of it. You need to look at your hormones and do a deeper dive into. You need to get them tested. Find a practitioner who is your partner in healing. Blood work or functional labs can really help to reveal hidden imbalances that no amount of willpower or dieting can fix. And as somebody who's just been there, and I've tried so many different protocols, I hear this all the time from my clients because they think it's them. You have no idea. Understand the beauty of your constitution. What your biology is trying to tell tell you you'll avoid all that, you know, trial and error. The testing is going to give you answers. And with answers, you can finally create a protocol or a plan that works with your body and not against it. It will feel aligned. You will feel the difference from all the efforts that you're putting out there. Into feeling good. Think of this not as weight loss, but as weight release through hormonal harmony. When your hormones are balanced, your body naturally feels safe to let go of the weight that it no longer needs to carry. Next, number four is strength training. Two to three times a week. So in ancient traditions, movement was never just about burning calories, it was about cultivating strength, resilience and vitality every day. Practices like yoga and martial arts were designed to build not only flexibility, but also deep inner power and strength that supported longevity. Today, modern science is confirming what these traditions understood intuitively. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, and building it is one of the most powerful ways to support long term health and sustainable weight management. Most people think that the secret to weight loss is more cardio. Long runs, endless spin classes, hours on the treadmill. We've all been there. But here's the truth. Cardio burns calories in the moment, while muscle changes your metabolism. Long term, muscle is metabolically active tissue, meaning that it burns energy even while you're at rest. So over time, the more muscle that you're building, the more efficient that your body becomes at using energy instead of storing it instead of storing it as fat. So here's the reframe. Muscle doesn't just help you lose weight, it helps you replace fat. Muscle is denser than fat. So while the number on the scale may not drop dramatically, your composition is going to change. Your clothes are going to fit better, you're going to look leaner, you're going to feel more fit, you're going to feel stronger. In other words, it's not always about the number on the scale, it's about the shift that happens when you feel going from soft weight to solid strength in your structure. You'll probably stand taller with more confidence. Why does muscle really matter? It's your metabolic engine. Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat tissue. The more muscle that you carry, the higher your resting metabolic rate. Which means that you're going to be burning energy more efficiently and all day long, not just while you're working out. It optimizes insulin sensitivity. Strength training improves how your body responds to insulin, lowering blood sugar spikes and reducing fat storage. This is especially important if you struggle with cravings or carb cravings, energy crashes, or that stubborn belly fat that won't go away. It matters for hormone balance. So resistance training actually helps to regulate your body's hormones like growth hormones and testosterone, which play a huge part in fat metabolism and also muscle repair. It helps to lower your body's cortisol when it's paired with proper recovery. Muscle also goes hand in hand with longevity. Muscle is now seen as one of the strongest predictors of healthy aging. Strong muscles support your bones, protect your joints and lower your risk of falls. As we age, it keeps you vital for decades to come. You know you want to start thinking, how do you want to feel? How do you want to look when you're 80, 90, 100 and above? Do you want to be hunched over and fragile or do you want to have your posture and strength with you? This is because of muscle. How are you going to do this? You're going to aim for two to three full body strength sessions per week. You're going to use weights, resistance bands and simply your body weight if needed with moves like squats and push ups and lunges and planks. They're powerful. You'll feel them if you're consistent with them. You want to prioritize compound movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Things like deadlifts and rows and presses. These not only burn more energy, but they also build functional strength for daily life. Number five, don't overdo it. It's easy to believe that the harder and longer you work out, the faster you'll lose weight. But the truth, backed by both ancient wisdom and modern science, is that pushing your body too hard can actually have the opposite effect. Movement is essential every day, but intensity isn't. In fact, when every workout is high intensity, sprints, boot camps, you can overwhelm your body's stress response, sending a signal to hold rather than release. Here's why. Stress hormones rise Intense exercise. It spikes your cortisol, which in moderation is healthy. But if cortisol stays elevated from overtraining plus the stress in your life, it's gonna lead to fat storage, especially in belly fat. It's going to disrupt your sleep and it's going to slow down your recovery. Next, your metabolism is going to slow down. Constant high intensity training without rest can push your body into survival mode where it needs to conserve energy. Instead of burning the fat that you need as energy, the result is that you're going to hit a plateau. You're going to hit fatigue and frustration despite it looking good on the outside every single day. Overdoing it is going to cause your hormones to get imbalanced. Overtraining can suppress your thyroid hormones and it can reduce progesterone in women. It can lower testosterone in men, all which impair our fat metabolism and our energy levels. And of course, inflammation is going to build intense Training it tears muscle tissue. Without proper recovery, that micro damage turns into chronic inflammation, making it harder to lose weight and easier to get injured. So what's the role of restorative movement then? Intra practices like Ayurveda and yoga have always emphasized this concept of of balance. Movement is meant to energize and ground and heal, but not deplete you. Modern science now validates this approach. So daily gentle movement like walking, yoga, stretching or Tai Chi is known to lower our cortisol, increase our insulin sensitivity and improve our lymphatic flow. Our lymphatic flow is our body's natural detoxification system. This is why taking walks every single day, practicing restorative yoga, spending time in nature can be so effective. Even more effective for long term weight release than hours of high intensity interval training at the gym. These forms of movement regulate the nervous system. They keep the metabolism humming and they allow your body to feel safe and to let go of that stored weight. So think of it this way. Strength training two to three times a week, that's going to help to build your muscle and support your metabolism. Then daily restorative movement is going to help to lower your stress, balance your hormones and support your fat. Release occasional intensity once or twice a week. Amazing. You're going to boost your cardiovascular fitness without tapping into burnout. The takeaway from all of this is that more is not better. The takeaway from all of this is that more is not better. Better is better because you're going to feel better when you shift out of the mindset of punishing yourself, punishing your body to supporting it with intentional movement. Your body responds with more energy, with balanced hormones and the ability to finally let go of weight. So let's recap. Weight loss isn't just about burning more calories. It's about creating balance and an inner ecosystem that knows that it's safe. And look, everyday life is going to pull you into dysregulation. But it's about the balance and having that safety where your body knows how to ebb and flow between dysregulation and regulation. And it all starts with the mind. It's with softening those negative thoughts that keep your body in that protection mode. It's about recognizing the belief systems that you have within you that you've been affirming for so many years. It's going to allow you to flow into living with harmony with your circadian rhythm so that your hormones and your metabolism can do their job as they know how to do it means paying attention to those hormones and supporting them naturally. It's choosing strength training two to three times a week to build resilience and strength, and of course, pairing that with daily walking or restorative movement that you love. Because less is often a lot more. When you honor your body in this way, you're not forcing change, you're inviting change. You're reminding your body that it's safe to let go and look. Give yourself some grace. I understand that this also comes with a lot of unconditioning things that we've been told by society to do, which now I'm asking you to give yourself full permission to tune in to what your body and constitution actually need. All right, give it time, give it a little bit of space, but tune into how your body feels after those sessions of strength training and restoration and how you feel by simply acknowledging those thoughts in your mind. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to follow the Rooted in Wellness podcast so that you don't miss any upcoming conversations like this one that are all designed to help you look and feel better in your body. And if you feel called, please share this episode with someone in your life who's been struggling with their weight loss journey. Sometimes all we need is a softer, more gentle, perfect perspective that feels more aligned. My wish is that you stay rooted in your health and your healing. If you want to dive a little bit deeper, you can join me in the Rooted Academy, where we go deeper together, where we merge ancient wisdom with modern science so that you can finally get the results that you deserve while stepping off of that hamster wheel of diet culture, which we know doesn't work. Until next time, thank you and namaste, my friends.