Kitchari & Matzoh: My Foods of Liberation

This week has been a time of deep reflection on both on food, as well as concepts like freedom and liberation. I led my annual spring cleanse and enjoyed a weeklong kitchari and juice fast, in the company of over 40 people who joined me for the journey. The experience always opens up channels of creativity and introspection for me, and leaves me feeling connected to food in a deeper way.

Kitchari, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a delicious (and easy-to-make) stew of spiced rice and mung beans that comes to us from India, where it is a staple food in the country’s ancient healing science, Ayurveda. Kitchari is the food your mother would give you when you’re sick, so it’s basically the Indian equivalent of chicken soup, and every bit as satisfying. It’s also the food that Ayurveda has used for hundreds of years both to help the body detox and to restore healthy digestive functioning.

I first discovered kitchari in 2007, on a visit to Los Angeles before I lived here. I went to a party where it was served and it was pretty much love at first bite. I adored the flavor, as well as the look of kitchari, a rich yellow thanks to ample amounts of turmeric. I returned home to Oakland and proceeded to eat kitchari for the next six weeks, even taking it to Burning Man and re-heating individual portions for my meals at the festival. At the end of that period, I was feeling the best I’d ever felt in my adult life. I knew I had stumbled on to something big.

In the years following, I did several kitchari cleanses, eating only kitchari and some complementary chutneys for flavor. I added different seasonal vegetables to my kitchari and delighted in making my own ghee to drizzle on to each piping hot bowl of the magic yellow porridge. I became a kitchari evangelist and prescribed it to my friends, who did things like break caffeine addictions and cut intense sugar cravings. In my own experience, I found that kitchari not only reduced cravings but also helped me to get really clear in my mind – it lifted my mental fog, which I sometimes did not even realize was present until after indulging in a few days of kitchari.

 In 2011, realizing the transformative power kitchari held, I started offering organized online group cleanses, and have continued to offer kitchari-based cleanses every spring and fall since. I’ve been amazed to hear the stories participants share of the many ways kitchari helps them to be free, including its power to help people lose weight that they thought was impossible to shed. One woman gave up her daily habit of fast food after eating kitchari and has gone two years without it.

Kitchari is truly a liberating food, helping us to transform various eating patterns and dietary choices for the better. Best of all, a kitchari cleanse, unlike a juice or smoothie cleanse, lets us eat comfort food and have a full belly. It was so liberating to me when I first realized that cleansing didn’t have to mean starvation and deprivation (which had been my experience on other cleanses).

This year, it so happened that the tail end of my spring cleanse butted right up against Passover, which is very fitting given that the holiday is a celebration of liberation. Eating kitchari for a week prior to last night’s seder felt like perfect preparation.

During the seder I attended last night, I came to see matzoh, the cracker-like bread that is a staple in Jewish homes during the holiday, in a whole new light. In my experience, it’s very easy to underappreciate matzoh. It is after all pretty bland and seems to always break apart as you bite into it, scattering crumbs in all directions. Growing up, I always saw matzoh as simply the vehicle to usher something more delicious into my mouth, whether it was charoset (an apple and walnut salad that is part of the seder) or my childhood favorite – cream cheese and raspberry jelly.

The story we all learn about matzoh is that at the time when the Jews had to flee Egypt in order to gain their liberation from the pharaoh who has enslaved them, they hit the road with pretty short notice, meaning there was no time for the women to let the dough rise for their daily bread. The story goes that the Jews brought the dough with them, and during their journey in the hot desert climate, it baked quickly into a crunchy flatbread. And so we eat it today in recognition of their efforts to provide us with freedom today.

Last night, I learned a new interpretation of matzoh’s symbolism, one that I love and that has redefined matzoh for me as another food of freedom. A guest at our seder shared that some people see matzoh’s flat quality as a reminder to not inflate our egos, to be humble. During the eight days of Passover, we can liberate ourselves from the grips of the ego, and each bite of matzoh is a reminder of that.

Happy pesach to those who are celebrating! And congratulations to everyone who is taking part in the spring cleanse who is nearly at the end of our weeklong journey. I’d love to know what foods inspire a sense of liberation for you – let me know in the comments below.

Clean Up Your Springtime Routine

The warmer (and in some places wetter) days of spring are upon us, and chances are you may be feeling the urge to clean up your life a bit. Whether you’re caught up in the craze of konmaring your closet or looking for cleaner foods to eat, the ancient science of Ayurveda provides some insight into why so many of us feel like lightening up in the springtime.

From the Ayurvedic perspective, spring is the season of kapha, an energetic quality associated with the elements of earth + water (think: mud). Typical descriptors of kapha include dense, heavy and slow, but the one that I prefer (that came to me via my dear friend Dr. Siva Mohan) is accumulation.

Spring is the time that we actively work to counteract physical manifestations of various accumulations in the body (which may present as excess mucous, slow digestion, bloating or a few extra pounds), and in the same way, we may feel the urge to clean up other facets of our lives as well.

My personal routine includes a weeklong food-based Ayurvedic cleanse (you can join in as well!) and a commitment to do more vigorous exercises this time of year. I’m also a big believer in a daily neti pot, which is great year-round, but particularly beneficial in the spring for anyone suffering from allergies.

I asked a few wellness-expert friends for their top recommendations for cleaning up their self-care routines in the springtime and I’m delighted to share their suggestions with you:

1) Get Your Lymph Moving

Ever since I discovered Ayurveda, I’ve been a big fan of sugar and salt scrubs as a way to stimulate the lymphatic system (dry-brushing also works wonders). A daily scrub not only helps to counteract stagnant accumulations in your body’s joints and tissues, but also helps boost your immune response as well. I generally make my own scrubs because many commercial scrubs contain synthetic ingredients, manufactured scents and nasty things like plastic beads, but I’ve been blown away by Beautycounter’s Lustro Sugar Scrub, which was gifted to me by Chantalynn Huynh. It’s simply sugar with natural therapeutic and essential oils, and its amazing lemongrass citrus scent will invigorate your mind as well as your skin. Chantalynn has been educating me (and the world!) about Beautycounter's products and benefits, and I highly recommend this brand to anyone looking to make more conscious skincare/cosmetic choices.

2) Make Kitchari

Kitchari is an easy-to-digest mung bean and rice stew that Ayurveda prescribes for cleansing. Aside from its digestive wonders, it helps to strip toxins from the blood and also is a complete protein, so it leaves you feeling satisfied and energized. It’s the main superstar in my online cleanse, and a regular part of my everyday diet as well. If you want to simplify your shopping and whip up a batch, Dr. Siva Mohan offers a kitchari kit complete with mung beans and spice mix. Just add rice and water and you’re good to go! I also like adding chopped vegetable while cooking for a complete one-pot meal. If you join in my spring cleanse, you'll get to know Siva as one of our guest speakers during the week and also learn some of her best tips for managing kapha season.

3) Drink Tea

One of the simplest (and most delicious) ways to fight accumulation in the body is by using stimulating spices. This chai tea from Left Coast Apothecary was recommended by founder Alexandra Scott as a great kapha-buster. It contains warming spices like cinnamon, and ginger, which help stoke your belly fire, as well as dandelion root, which is an incredibly powerful detoxifying herb. Added to the mix is Trikatu, a blend of three types of pepper, which has been used for centuried in Ayurveda as a way to rid the both of excess ama (accumulation that gathers in the body from undigested food). This blend is a great digestive booster, and is sure to provide noticeable results whether you choose to include it as part of a formal cleanse or not.

What are your favorite ways to manage kapha season? Any special products to recommend? Share in the comments below!

Yielding to Life

One of the first things I noticed after arriving in Costa Rica was the interesting relationship Tico drivers have with yield signs. There weredozens of them on my initial ride into San Jose, far more than I probably encounter at home in any given week. Here, there seem to be quite a few creative interpretations of what the signs mean, and I enjoyed observing this as part of my initial landing here.

I grew up in a place where I spent a lot of time studying the art of yielding. In my hometown of San Antonio, Texas, the intricate highway system includes yield signs at just about every off-ramp I can recall. My mother would (and still does to this day) get especially peeved at the drivers who blew through the yield signs, who from my recollection were more often than not men in cowboy hats driving insanely oversized pick-up trucks.All this musing on yield signs the past few days – and maybe my whole life – became meaningful for me when I found myself navigating a situation related to my travel plans. I came here with plans to visit just two places that are not particularly close to one another, but not all that far given it’s such a small country. I’ve traversed much bigger distances in places like India and Vietnam by train and bus and have never had any issue getting exactly where I wanted to go at relatively little expense.Long story short, I found that getting from my point A to point B here was not the easy, tropical breezy task I thought it would be. For the first few days after I arrived, I spent a good amount of time emailing and calling various transport options only to find that the timing was off or the expense was ridiculous since I would be booking a 6-person van just for myself. And yet, I persisted, feeling determined to make things happen exactly as I envisioned they should.

Finally, on my third day here, after time on the phone with a particularly slow and cranky bus line agent, I felt the need to just take a pause. In a short moment of meditation, I got the message to explore if there was an intermediate place to travel to, allowing me to break up my travel time, see a new place and avoid the inordinate expense that seemed inevitable if I pushed through with the plan I came here with.

With just a little research, I confirmed that indeed there was a great option, one that would let me travel by boat and spend a night in the little beach town of Montezuma. When I sat with this possibility, I noticed that my body felt at ease. I was able to let go of all the physical tension that had accumulated as a result of this search.

In that moment, I felt like I had just yielded to life. Instead of trying to push through, like a crazed Texan in a giant truck, I slowed down, let go of my plans, and saw another way.

This experience reminded me of something I’ve already known, but can easily forget: Anytime we encounter continual obstacles to a plan, it’s generally worthwhile to consider other options. Doing so requires mindfulness to consciously slow down and realize we are attached to a plan, and openness to consider that there might be some alternative way of achieving the outcome we desire.

In the end, I got to where I needed to go, and I did so in a far more scenic and adventurous way than I even initially knew was possible. When you yield to life, you also may get a much more fulfilling and robust experience than you had even imagined possible.

So, the next time you feel like you’re pushing through a bit too hard, just remember to yield a bit to life and not be this guy:

Just Because It's Local Doesn't Mean It's Seasonal

Those of us living in Southern California are blessed by the amazing availability of fresh produce grown not too far from home. Unlike some areas of the country where farmers markets are seasonal, our markets operate year-round, making it easy and affordable to access gorgeous produce 365 days a year.

When we walk into a farmers market here, it can be tempting to let down our hyper-vigilant food consumer guard. With no labels to study, no country of origin stickers to squint at, many people think they can breeze through the market and be assured that anything they come into contract with is local and seasonal. The local piece may be true, but it is very much a myth that farmers markets sell only seasonal fare. Indoor growing facilities and various alternative growing techniques (e.g., aquaponics) allow SoCal farmers to grow things like tomatoes throughout the year.

As an informed consumer, it’s up to you to learn what is truly in season in your neck of the country. For those in Southern California, the L.A. Times offers a great online resource to help you identify seasonal crops (and it includes tips for picking the best of the bunch). And if you live outside of the region, this is still a pretty handy guide considering much of our country’s produce comes from this area.

You might be reading this and asking yourself what the big deal is about eating seasonally. If something is available, locally-grown and organic, why not just eat it? Here are a few advantages seasonal eating provides: 

1) Seasonal foods are powerful medicine. We live in a time where many of us are disconnected from the rhythms of nature. Seasonal foods remind us that nature is constantly in flux, and many are inherently balancing from the standpoint of Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and other healing systems. For example, in fall and early winter, times when people are prone to feeling a bit scattered, root vegetables and heavy winter squashes grow in abundance, providing grounding energy. Melons are cooling and flourish in the summertime. It’s not a mistake that certain things grow when they do. If we eat them year-round, we might actually thrown ourselves off-balance. It is advantageous to our health when the contents of our plate vary from season to season.

2) Greater enjoyment. If you compare a December strawberry to a July strawberry, you can bet with pretty great confidence that the latter will be sweeter, juicier and more delicious. Fruits and vegetables simply taste best at their peak. I also find that when I don’t eat something all the time, I come to really appreciate it during the time when it’s meant to be eaten. For example, persimmons are typically only available in the fall, and I eagerly anticipate their arrival each October. I make it a point to savor each one, knowing their time is limited. If I ate them all the time, I would not have nearly the appreciation I do for them.

3) Seasonal foods are good for the earth. From what I’ve learned from my friends that farm, the best way to maintain healthy soil is to cycle various crops throughout the year in the same soil. Keeping the same crops going all the time depletes the soil and produces food that is less dense in nutrients.

You can say yes to seasonal growing by making a point to shop from stalls at the farmers market that sell mainly seasonal crops. I always avoid the places that sell the same things all throughout the year. 

If you do want to enjoy tomatoes, berries and summer’s other gems throughout the year, use this as motivation to learn how to can, make jams, dehydrate and take part in other food preservation techniques if you don’t already do so. The tomatoes you can at the end of August will always be superior to any tomato you can buy in February. I generally like to use preserved foods as accents to meals that include mainly seasonal ingredients.

By no means should we beat ourselves up if we decide not to maintain a 100% seasonal diet, but I do encourage people to let a minimum of 90-95% of their produce purchases be truly seasonal. People generally share that eating in this way not only yields tastier fare, but also challenges them to learn about new vegetables and seek out new recipes and preparations. If eating seasonally feels limiting to you, try reframing it as an opportunity to enjoy the best of the best and to develop a deeper appreciation of food and the ever-changing nature of the world around us.