Ayurvedic Meal Times - Going Along With Your Digestive Fire's Rhythms

I had no idea that the digestive fire (digestive juices), Agni, has certain particular rhythms that it follows based on the movement of the sun, and the circadian rhythms of the body. Recently, I decided to follow the rhythms and work along with it, rather than against it.

Transcript

Hey everyone!

I hope that you guys are doing amazing,

You people are doing amazing wherever you are in the world.

I'm so grateful that you're listening,

Subscribing and commenting.

I appreciate the support.

And in this one,

I wanted to speak to you about,

In general,

The way I've been living my life.

I've been really trying to focus or practice ayurvedic styles of eating,

Consumption and living.

Now,

If you guys don't know what ayurveda is,

It's a general but very old practice of living,

Basically.

It's like Chinese medicine.

You know how Chinese medicine is probably thousands of years old,

Probably five,

Six thousand years old.

Same thing with ayurveda.

Ayurvedic practices go all the way back to,

I think,

Six thousand years ago,

When they really started creating these practices and really working on these yoga masters or these masters in general.

They sat down and created all of these techniques for people to live by.

And you do live by them.

If you do live by them,

Then you have a very balanced,

Harmonious way of living in the world.

Your body feels good.

Your body is in harmony with its systems and with nature and with the world in general.

And you're able to live a more easier life in general,

Is what I've found,

At least for myself,

As I follow these ayurvedic practices.

And so there are many things that ayurveda teaches,

Hundreds of different things that you can do as an ayurvedic practitioner or as a person who is bringing ayurveda into your life.

There are many different things that you can do in order to perhaps manipulate your life a little bit in order to inculcate these practices.

But there are a few that I want to share on this one,

On this audio or video,

However you guys are listening to this.

A few things that I thought were so powerful that I had no idea was the way that things were,

Especially related to my digestive system,

Our digestive system in general for human beings.

Now of course,

Ayurvedic techniques are always about eat less meat or no meat at all if possible,

So no animal byproducts,

And as many vegetables and fruits as possible.

Now of course you don't have to completely go to that extreme route.

If you want to eat meat still,

That's okay.

But for me,

The main thing that I want to talk about in this video or audio is about the times of meal,

The meal times.

It's a very simple thing,

But most of us do not have strict meal times every single day.

Perhaps if you work in an office,

Then you eat lunch at noon because that's the time that everyone goes to lunch at,

And perhaps you eat your breakfast at 9 or 8 am because that's right before you go to work.

And then you come back home and perhaps you have your last meal or your dinner around 8 or 7 depending on when everyone comes back and you finish cooking your dinner.

And so perhaps you do have a very strict or very.

.

.

You eat at the same time every single day.

For me,

Living at home,

Working from home,

I didn't really have that schedule.

And because of the fact that I get obsessed with work and I get distracted by work,

I noticed that I wasn't really paying attention to my meal times at all.

As long as I had 2 or 3 meals a day,

I was happy with it and I didn't really think about when they were.

As I started reading about Ayurveda,

They started talking about the digestive fire or agni as they call it.

And basically what they say is that our body,

Just like all of the different circadian rhythms on the planet,

There is a million different rhythms that the planet and nature and animals and beings follow in order to emulate the movement of the sun.

So basically morning,

Afternoon,

Evening.

The way the sun moves to the horizon or to the sky,

A lot of our rhythms are based on that.

So melatonin is produced at a certain time in our bodies so that we get sleepy or we wake up.

And other things,

Other hormones,

Enzymes,

Different things are produced in our body at certain times of day depending on where the sun is in the sky.

So at noon,

Where it's the highest,

Certain things happen in our body.

At 6pm,

When it kind of starts going down,

Certain things happen in our body.

And so the digestive fire,

Which is basically the production of digestive hormones in your body,

Happens at certain times during the day.

And yeah,

You can have meals at any time of day and perhaps your body will produce a little bit of digestive hormones to digest that food.

But in general,

It's a good idea to follow these set times because then your body is already producing these hormones or these digestive juices.

And so it doesn't have to do extra work in order to digest your food.

So basically what it says is that 8am,

Noon and 6pm are the best times if you want to work alongside your digestive fire to eat your meals.

So again,

You have a very small meal at breakfast,

So 8am,

Before 7.

30 to 8,

Around that time you have your breakfast.

And you try to have a smaller meal then because your agni or your digestive fire is not as strong in the morning.

And your digestive fire is the strongest at noon.

At 12pm,

Noon,

When the sun is the highest in the sky and the strongest,

Your digestive fire is the strongest at that point as well.

Which means that you should have your biggest meal at that point,

Lunch time,

So that you are able to use the power of digestion to digest that big meal.

And then as time goes on and as the day goes on,

Your digestive fire gets weaker and weaker and it's the weakest in the evening.

So unfortunately,

As I did and a lot of people do,

We have our biggest meal in the evening for some reason.

Perhaps because you know it's the end of the day and you're relaxed and you're at home and you're having a meal with your family and you just end up eating a lot more than you normally do.

But most people will eat their biggest meal in the evening.

But as Ayurveda says,

Our digestive fire is very weak at that point.

Usually it's not strong enough at 7 or 8pm,

Which is usually when most people eat their meals,

To digest that amount of food.

Which means basically that if it's not digested,

It just sits there in your digestive system.

It sits in your intestines,

In your stomach and it doesn't get digested.

It just sits there and ferments and rots and causes health issues.

So in general,

As I said,

If your digestive fire is very low,

You have a smaller meal obviously at dinner,

But at 6pm.

So around 5-6pm,

You have your last meal,

Don't eat too much and give your body enough time before sleep in order to digest that food.

So if you're going to sleep at 10pm,

Which is again recommended by our Ayurveda,

It gives you 2 or 3 hours of your body to digest all your food.

So it's not just sitting in your intestine or your stomach rotting away,

It actually gets digested and it gets inculcated into your body.

So it's used by your body.

So that is essentially what Ayurveda says about meal times.

It's very simple really if you think about it and actually makes a lot of sense when you think about digestive fires and hormonal cycles and circadian rhythms.

But again,

I'm surprised that no one actually really talks about this stuff.

Also,

I'm surprised that all these masters are able to create these Ayurvedic techniques thousands of years ago,

Before there was any technology or science or anything like that.

So I'm really impressed by them for sure.

And so for the last few days,

I've been trying out this new way of eating.

I haven't really changed that much except I kind of shifted my meals up a bit.

Normally I would have my first meal at 10 am and then I had my second meal around 2 or 3 pm.

And then I had my last meal around 7 pm or 8 pm.

And so as I said,

I just shifted it up by 2 hours.

So I had my first meal at 8 pm and then noon is my biggest meal and then 6 pm is my last meal and usually a smaller meal as much as possible.

It's a little bit difficult because when you live in the real world,

Again,

A lot of dinners and events take place in the evening.

And a lot of these events are filled with big meals.

And so sometimes I do end up eating big meals later in the evening with friends and family.

And so I'm not saying that I'm being completely perfect with it.

And I don't think that's what Ayurveda expects for you as well.

I mean,

They know that life will sometimes get in the way.

But in general,

As much as possible throughout the week,

Try to maintain these meal times in order to take advantage of your digestive fire.

So that you're not just putting food in your belly when it's not able to digest it properly.

When the hormones are not at its peak.

When the digestive juices are not at its peak.

And so I thought I'd share this with you guys because it's a simple change to make in our bodies.

And probably a lot of you guys are already doing this because of the fact that you work a 9 to 5 job.

And so it's great.

You're already kind of following the Ayurvedic practice,

Which is perfect.

But also kind of try to think about your last meal of the day and try to keep some distance or time between your last meal and sleep.

So that you're able to digest your food and don't eat too much in the evening because again,

Your body won't be able to handle it.

And I think that's the reason a lot of people get indigestion or heartburn or you have to wake up in the middle of the night.

Because they have to go to the washroom,

Things like that.

Because your body is kind of still dealing with that food in your system.

Again,

I'd love to hear from you guys.

Do you follow these Ayurvedic meal time principles already?

Or do you follow other Ayurvedic principles as well?

I'd love to hear about that as well.

I've really been reading a lot about Ayurveda recently.

So I'm going to do a bunch of videos or audios on it,

I'm sure in the future.

As I start bringing them into my life and gaining the benefits of it.

So again,

I hope this was useful and enjoyable.

And hopefully you'll be able to kind of perhaps apply this in your life as well if you're not already.

Again,

I'd love to hear from you if you have any comments or feedback.

Thank you so much for listening.

I shall see you the next time around.

Bye for now!

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Useful information. Thank you 🙏🏾