A Month of Ayurvedic Living For My Skin (but much more)

Yoga has been a part of my life for about 10 years (off and on, but more of a constant since moving to Austin with an easily accessible and wonderful community that I’ve found at Wanderlust). I had heard of Ayurveda—and I’d even been to Ayurvedic shops while in India—but never understood it until I took a workshop at my studio with one of my favorite teachers.

The timing of the workshop couldn’t have been more in sync with my then mental state. I was coming off a few weekends of constant travel and just felt terrible. I was letting convenient food, alcohol, and lack of sleep get to me. Not only did I feel sluggish, my skin was congested and angry. My main goal was to try to adopt better habits that would holistically help my skin as opposed to topical solutions alone. I found myself craving a return to good habits or at the very least a reset. I completed a 2-hour workshop on the Pitta dosha and decided to spend my July living in a more Ayurvedic-centric way.

What is Ayurveda?

I’m not and never will be an expert on Ayurveda so I defer to the many resources and books available on the subject. Broadly, Ayurveda is the study, and what some would call “science,” of the body as a microcosm of nature. It can be described as the sister science to yoga as an attempt to live in a way that optimizes the connection of the body, mind and spirit. While Yoga primarily concerns itself with the physical body and energy of the body through meditation and movement, Ayurveda focuses on daily habits (diet, hygiene, rituals) that help to stabilize an individual’s dosha in an attempt to live a long, healthy life.

What is a dosha?

According to Ayurveda, as each individual embodies the 5 elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether), one has a prominent “dosha,” or “mind-body type” that correlates to a combination 2 of the elements. Each of these doshas, or energies, exists in various places in the body. There are 3 doshas—Pitta, Vata, Kapha—and each have their own characteristics. If you are Pitta dominant (which we’ll get to in a second), when your dosha gets out of balance, you likely experience issues with digestion in the small intestine as that’s where the energy is said to be focused. The elements of Pitta are water and fire.

Doshas can be determined physically by your body type or through simple reflection on your lifestyle and moods. Again, as I am not claiming to be an expert, I’ll defer to other online resources that claim to be able to identify doshas. I found myself to be a Vata-Pitta, Pitta dominant. No matter what your dosha, there are primary ways you tailor your diet and habits to return an out-of-whack dosha to a more calm state. The point of Ayurveda isn’t an attempt to have equal parts of each dosha in your makeup, but to know when your dominant dosha is too heightened and to return to homeostasis. I won’t get into best practices for each of the doshas, but will reflect on what I personally did over the course of a month to calm down my Pitta-ness in the heat of a Texas summer.

The background of my Pitta-ness I was looking to solve for revolves around my fieriness. Pittas get out of harmony when they are exposed to stimulants (coffee, alcohol, spicy foods, heat) and this expresses itself through anger, impatience, competition, intensity and inflammation (that’s where skin comes in)! All of this really resonated with me so basically, I was ready to chill out.

My adopted habits:

Diet – I decided to start eating foods that, according to Ayurveda, would help cool down my body. This meant very limited/no alcohol, no spicy foods, no snacking (primarily sugary and salty foods), no dairy. However, I saw this as just increasing my intake of the foods I knew I was already missing a lot of in my diet, such as fresh vegetables and fruits, beans and lentils, cinnamon, turmeric and all things coconut. I also adopted a morning tonic of apple cider vinegar for digestive health.

Coconut curry with all the good veggies and basmati rice. I ate this for many meals.

The diet portion of my Ayurvedic month was the most exciting. I had been looking for some type of guidance to help me start cooking and eating healthier at home, and this lifestyle gave me the confidence to refocus on what I was putting into my body. Grocery shopping became fun as I found the easiest, healthiest things to cook (that were also cheap). Pitta recipes are generally very simple and fresh, nothing complicated. It also made me rethink what I did have in excess—snacking on very salty foods. I was by no means totally adherent to a Pitta diet and certainly treated myself when the opportunity presented itself. Again, it’s all about the awareness of what could potentially put me in an imbalance and what I should be mindful of.

A typical breakfast of oats cooked with coconut milk, cinnamon and chia seeds, bananas and plums.

Oh, and no way in hell was I giving up coffee. I just started using coconut milk instead of almond, and limited myself to one cup a day. I had tried giving up caffeine in the past, but I’m just not at that point in my life yet.

Hygiene – A few Ayurvedic practices apply to all doshas. Some of these include tongue scraping, oil pulling, dry brushing, and body oiling. As you can see from my habit tracker, I was most consistent with my tongue scraping (obviously, as it’s the easiest to abide to when you’re already brushing your teeth). Toxins are readily released through your tongue and scraping helps to eliminate them. I did realize I could taste things better and salty foods that I consumed became even saltier. Once I found a body oil I liked, I adopted this (at the end of July). I’ll get to the oil pulling and dry brushing eventually.

Sleep habits – Doshas have different “active” parts of the day; for Pittas, you are most “intense” or “focused” between the hours of 10 and 2 (both AM and PM). This means you want to eat your biggest meal during those hours, when your digestive system is the most fiery, but that also means you want to be asleep during those hours to get your most intense sleep (or else you’re an energized crazy person at night). I tried my hardest to be winding down and headed to sleep by 9:30 when I could, and also started taking melatonin. My favorite part of the month was when I thought I had bought magnesium supplements to take at night (aids in sleep as well as digestion) but I realized about a week in I had bought melatonin, and just decided to keep it up.

Yoga/fitness – I knew that a more mindful month would lead me to the studio more, so I was happy to keep up my yoga practice when I wasn’t traveling. I had planned to take a nightly walk after eating dinner, but that obviously died quickly. I already walk to and from work, so I was outside a good deal and could technically count that. But again, it’s not about the counting or a perfect month of anything.

Mindfulness – I also kept a morning routine to set an intention. Sometimes I would write them once my day completed, and most revolved me breathing more and trying to listen to my body. These are always great things to keep in mind, and intentions I choose frequently in my yoga classes. It was nice to consider these thoughts throughout my whole day.

My morning intention journal. I tried to keep it simple (also, can you tell which day I watched Brene Brown?)

So what happened by the end of my month?

To sum it up, I learned a lot about my body and myself.

Diet – I learned that I can cook, and eating better feels so much better in a few different aspects (saving money, not feeling ill, slowing down to eat what you’ve created). I learned that you can be healthy and still indulge for special occasions. I had always been in the mindset that once I “ruined” my diet or plans, everything was compromised. That’s not true. One of the times I indulged in all of my stimulating food groups after 2 solid weeks of Pitta eating, I had very bad consequences (severe bloating and cramping, constipation) and it was interesting to tie that back to a specific meal since I had been paying attention.

Skin – I did see improvements in my skin by the end of my journey, primarily with less congestion between my eyebrows and a healthier glow. I unfortunately compromised my skin in the last week by using too strong of a peeling product, but otherwise I was doing very well. Increased water and fresh foods combined with limited dairy and processed things restored the glow.

I’ll always have hormonal issue with my chin, but overall the glow is back! No make up.

Yoga – The habit of going 4 times a week was already becoming a larger part of my life, and my time going to class when I could in July solidified this. I was traveling for a few of the weekends I typically go, but I was happy to return to the studio when I could.

I’m continuing to study Ayurveda and adopt habits that make me feel good. My interest in Yoga and the Yogic lifestyle certainly pre-determined my choice to look into Ayurveda but I’m happy I did. Ayurveda paired with Yoga is thought to lead to overall wellbeing and connection to a heightened sense of self-actualization. So the journey continues!

Just my typical meal now. Zucchini, salmon with citrus, fennel and celery salad.