I Followed an Ayurvedic Diet for 30 Days — Here Are My Results
Losing 3.7 kgs, gaining better skin, better cravings control, and more
May was a tough month. I was overstressed, overworked, and slept an average of 5 hours daily from my usual 7–8 hours.
I’d suddenly gained weight and jumped back to my body-image issues.
I was overweight all my life and worked extremely hard at 18 to lose 25kgs, but sometimes I feel the fat kid is still inside me, and I get triggered by weight gain.
Fast forward a few weeks at the end of May, I met a few friends over drinks, and one of them was talking about her diet. She’s about to get married soon and hopped into a diet plan.
I enquired about her dietician and then forgot about it.
A few days later, I called the number she gave me.
I told her how I’d already lost weight and that I know the basics of calorie deficit, protein intake, etc. I’ve been eating healthy for 9 years and have been working out every morning consistently since then.
I told her how my tummy had suddenly become so big that I no longer fit into jeans that I wore three months ago even though I was weight lifting and eating well.
She heard me patiently and told me — “I’ll work with you on a cellular level.”
I paid the fee.
Told her I’ll eat to my heart’s wish on my birthday weekend.
So let’s start on a Monday.
Little did I know we’d have a fight on Monday…
She gave me the toughest diet I’d ever seen.
I don’t think the diet was tough. I think I got agitated seeing tomato juice because I don’t like anything squishy like tomatoes, raisins, cranberries, etc. They make me feel weird.
I told her to process a refund.
She replied that the system doesn’t process refunds.
I told her I can’t do it.
She told me to give this a try, and she will mould it according to my lifestyle, as she does with all her clients. She told me to trust her.
So I tried…
The first few days weren’t easy.
I was eating slightly lesser food than usual. But hey, I’m also aware that the human body doesn’t need nearly as much food as we dump in it. Also, our stomach is stretchable, and that's how we increase our appetite with time.
I’ve read plenty of books on health and nutrition to educate myself because I never went on a diet. I wanted to lose weight the right way, the sustainable way.
Little did I know everything I’d ever learned was going to get challenged.
Here’s something new that I did:
- New vegetables: I hadn’t had ash gourd, palak dal (lentils cooked with spinach), chickpea salad, oats in a smoothie, oats in an omelet, and a variety of vegetable juices. I also hadn’t had a bottle gourd soup before, and it’s so yummy. It’s also a highly cooling vegetable and good for our body (and my acne).
- Morning elixirs: I drink nearly a liter of water when I wake up, but here, I had three glasses of different types of water. Like lemon water, honey water, basil seeds, turmeric and fenugreek, and fresh coconut water.
- Lack of caffeine: Having fresh coconut water nearly every day gave me more energy than coffee ever has. I haven’t had my afternoon cold brew this entire month and my afternoon slump has decreased.
- Nothing from a packet: everything I ate was homemade. I cheated by having ketchup instead of making tomato chutney, but apart from that I haven’t eaten anything that isn’t fresh and cooked. I was given a slice of bread and peanut butter only once.
- Doing what I fear: Indian mangoes are the best mangoes one can have, and we have one variety after another that comes in. It’s a time I look forward to all year! I have highly acne-prone skin, so I consume it as a mango shake or have it once in a while. I also don’t consume ginger and any nuts in summer because of my breakouts. But guess what? I ate a lot of mangoes and nuts, and I was absolutely fine.
- Ayurveda: I’ve had stuff I’ve never had, like isabgol, Triphala, amla (Indian gooseberry) juice, aloe vera juice, etc.
Here are photos of some recipes I made:
But you’re probably looking for the results now, right? Trust me, this 30-day journey was life-changing for me, to say the least.
I’m not comfortable sharing my body measurements, but here’s my measurement for June 09 minus July 05:
To give you a perspective: I’ve been on medications for acne since July 2022. After I got married in November, the acne became much worse, and right now, my face has plenty of fresh pink and red scars and older brown ones. With this diet, my acne stopped in 3 days! I mean — what the hell?
Here are some other benefits:
- Clear skin: after applying meds for 11 months and getting so much acne the past seven months, this feels so good. I feel so good looking at myself when I’m not looking at another new zit.
- Flat tummy: it’s unbelievable, but my stomach is… flat. I don’t even have to pull it in anymore.
- Weight loss: I’ve dropped 3.7 kg. I’ve also been working out every day.
- Glow: My face has some glow on it… Every time I’ve been my present weight, around 64kgs, I usually get comments like ‘dull’ and ‘weak’, which I don’t like. For some reason, my face is glowing.
- Energy: I’m more focused and energetic than before.
- Cravings: I used to eat one piece of chocolate every alternate day, but I haven’t craved sugar even once. In fact, I don’t think I want to eat any sugar or desserts anymore because I feel so good without it. I’ve had a lot of natural sugar, though.
- Relationship with nature: I don’t cook and rarely enter the kitchen. But something as simple as peeling and cutting a cucumber and juicing vegetables feels so… grounding and nice. Because I live a lifestyle where I barely interact with nature, this felt good. I know I sound weird but I’m saying what I feel.
When I told her all this, my dietician said:
“You came to me worrying about an extra 3 kgs. I didn’t care about that even once, it was never my goal. My worry was your acne. You’ve been using medicines which aren’t healthy long term. Moreover, acne is a result of inflammation when your gut is irritated. I wanted to heal your gut, and I knew then everything would be okay.”
It reminded me of my first year in university when my professor told us how most of our illnesses arise from our gut. Of course, I didn’t pay attention to that, nor did I bother learning about it.
While I leave for a holiday this month, I want to hop back to this again because of the impact it’s had on me. I want to make this a lifestyle, not a diet plan.
I never knew how tasty simple home food can be in different preparations.
I didn’t know that nature has blessed us with such amazing vegetables for the Indian summer.
Moreover, I now believe that nature is the greatest healer. It took 3 days for me to stop getting acne, and a week for my skin to clear out. All because I treated my body with food from Earth instead of factory-packed stuff.
I ate non-veg too, but not every day.
I feel so good when I look at myself. It’s a wonderful feeling to feel this good!
I hope this helped you and I encourage you to eat more fresh food to dig deeper into healing your gut. It may heal many problems you may have and ameliorate your mental and physical health.
