The Yoga Body Diet is a four-week plan that inspires you to eat, move, and think according to your natural rhythms. It was written by Kristen Schultz Dollard who is also the digital director of Self Magazine, the former editor of iyogalife.com and a yoga teacher in New York. She wrote The Yoga Body Diet with Dr. John Douillard, a physician who has written and produced 18 health and fitness books, and is the current director of LifeSpa, an Ayurvedic rejuvenation and detox retreat center in Boulder, Colorado.

We had an opportunity to speak with Kristen about her new book. She shares with us some of the life-changing principles of yoga and Ayurveda, and how they can support weight loss and wellness in a way that is specific for you and only you.

What was your motivation for writing The Yoga Body Diet?

I thought I was incredibly healthy; I ate healthy and competed in triathlons. But then I was diagnosed with a hereditary hernia and learned that I had health complications that could lead to fertility issues. So to stack the odds in my favor, I decided to do all I could do for my health, and I began focusing more on the inner aspects of my health and not so much on my external health.

If you take care of your health, weight loss will happen. Stress is such a big factor in our health, yoga encourages you to embrace your shape. Ayurveda teaches us to understand our bodies and that when it comes to diet and eating, one size does not fit all.

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With spring knocking ever so gently on our weather-proofed windows, it is that time to get ready for longer days, sunnier skies and more time spent outdoors. According to older systems of holistic healing like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine, spring is a call to do a clean sweep of our bodies and diets. The stagnant air of winter in combination with the lack of sunshine, exercise and too much time spent on the couch hibernating indoors has made us feel a little sluggish and perhaps even weightier, if you are one of the millions of Americans who puts on a minimum of one pound during November to March.

While detox products and cleansing programs line supplement shelves, you can do your own detox program at home without investing in fancy or expensive products or tonics. Yahoo Health recently posted a 5-step DIY detox regimen that includes a diet and herbal supplement regimen. The routine, which was created by Dr. Mao from the Tao of Wellness, is meant to spring clean your body and get it ready for the bright days of this celebrated season.
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As a very weight-absorbed culture, we are always looking for the latest, greatest and quickest way to shed some pounds. There is no shortage of weight loss products on the market today. From hoodia to green tea, the new wave of weight loss products come from nature rather than being manufactured in a sterile lab by a team of white-coated researchers.

One such product that has been picking up steam is Caralluma Fimbriata. While hoodia hails from Africa, Caralluma grows in India. In fact, it shares a lot of similarities to hoodia such as also being a succulent-based plant and it has been eaten as a vegetable by natives for hundreds of years to stave off hunger on long journeys or through bouts of food shortages.

How Does it Work?

Caralluma is believed to work its magic by blocking the opportunity for fat cells to form and forcing fat stores to be used as primary fuel. It is also believed to act on the brain, particularly, the part of the brain that controls hunger. Caralluma acts like an “off” switch telling our brains that we’re full even if we’re not. Therefore, fewer calories will be consumed and the pounds will start to come off, or so it is hoped.
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Is it just me but for those of us who live in cold climates, do you also have cravings for warm food while rejecting the idea of eating a cold salad or sipping a glass of iced tea this time of year? As I delve more into the study of Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of health and healing, I find that some of its main principles, such as how our eating patterns change from season to season, are right on target with what I am experiencing. In the summer, my body can’t get enough of leafy salads, fresh fruit and the occasional soft serve ice cream cone, but when the first snap of winter hits, my taste buds quickly switch to begging to be fed with warm bowls of soup and cups of hot tea with threads of steam hovering over it. According to Ayurveda, we should combat the coldness and dryness of winter by opting for food choices and lifestyle changes that employ the opposite qualities. So my insistence on warm food or perhaps your need to slather yourself in rich lotion each morning to thwart off the dry skin that winter also brings is not that far off from what the ancient Indian sages recommended thousands of years ago.

We’re very excited at Diets In Review to welcome our newest contributor to the Diet Column, as well as a new expert voice behind those reviews you’ve come to depend on. Heather Ashare joins us this week. Heather is a writer specializing in nutrition, wellness and health. She received a Masters degree in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Michigan. Heather has written for a number of health publications and magazines around the country including The Detroit News, NY Spirit and Smart Woman Chicago magazines.

Heather has also been a dedicated practitioner and instructor of Ashtanga yoga for the past six years. She has also been studying Ayurveda medicine, the ancient form of Indian health and healing for the past three years and edited the book “The Power to Heal” which is an introduction to Ayurveda.

She currently lives with her boyfriend and their daughter in Michigan.

Welcome, Heather.