Does this sound like you? You have a naturally thin body and putting on weight has always felt difficult. Your skin usually feels dry. You feel extra cold in winter. Your joints often make crackling sounds. And your mind is always racing with thoughts jumping from one to another. If you found yourself nodding yes to most of these, chances are you are a vat body type. Now if you're hearing this term for the very first time simply know that as per Ayurveda each of us can be classified into these three body types vat pa and tuffer. Now here's where things get interesting. Being a vata if you adapt your food and lifestyle to your body you can be amongst the most energetic people even the most creative of all have iron strong discipline and be highly spiritually receptive. But if you don't, as per the Ayurvedic scriptures, you also age much faster, experience early weakening in your joints, feel bloated after meals, easily lose hair, and often feel anxious, all without ever understanding why. And that's exactly why we made this video to help you understand your unique body type, and finally feel at home in it. So, in part one, you'll understand what are the characteristics of a vata, so you can confirm if you're one or not. In part two, what are the best foods for fata? Along with a detailed diet plan to help you reach a healthier weight and develop a natural glow. And in part three, we'll discuss five simple everyday lifestyle habits that a vata should never miss doing. As a vata myself, these habits help me reduce my racing thoughts and become much more stronger, not just physically, but also mentally. [Music] Let's begin with our first part. There's a beautiful verse from Ayurveda which captures the four core qualities of vada people just perfectly. If you truly understand it, suddenly all the strange things about your body will start to make sense. Come let's see what it says. First means dry and k means rough. A vada person's skin tends to be dry and rough. Even the lips tend to be chapped. No matter how much oil or cream they apply, the body drinks it up quickly. Even their hair reflects this dryness. It's rough, frizzy, a little dull, even thin and prone to hair fall. Sometimes looking scanty. Their second quality is lagu as in lightness and sukshma which means small. They have a thin frame. There's a certain delicacy in their body. weight. That's a line they may say multiple times in their life. If they do manage to gain weight, it often shows up mostly as a pot belly. Third comes meaning cold. Pas naturally have a cold constitution inside and that's why winter season is so difficult for them. Where others are enjoying the cold breeze, they'll be the ones wrapped up and still shivering. And finally, the fourth chalha. One of the most important characteristics of vada meaning movement. They're very chantal by nature. Their hands or feet may constantly be moving. They won't be able to sit in one place for too long. And that's because their energy is just like the wind always moving both in body and mind. That's why they also find it very hard to focus on one thing for too long. And you'll frequently find them multitasking or thinking or talking at a really fast speed, moving from one thought to the other. I'm sure you've noticed this in some people. While talking about something, they'll suddenly switch the topic and talk about something totally different. This windy energy also serves a purpose and can be a huge advantage for them. It's what makes them adapt to any change in life, whether it's moving to a new city or switching roles at work. So those were the four main characteristics of Vata. Now, if you're related to many of these, chances are that you are either a pure vata or have a significant percentage of vata within you. Either way, come let's move to the next part of this video and learn what food is best for you. If you understand this one principle of Ayurveda, you will automatically understand everything about food for different bodies. And that is you always need to eat foods with the opposite qualities of your own body type. Now think about it. Vata is naturally dry, light, cold, right? So what kind of food would bring it back to balance? Yes, moist, oily, heavy, and warm foods, isn't it? Now let's see how that would practically translate through a meal plan. Let's start with pre-receneial for vatas. You just need half an apple, one beetroot, three to four carrots, and a coin of fresh ginger to bring in that warmth. Because this juice is made of root vegetables, it's naturally grounding and earthy. Also, it has slightly sweet taste. Another suitable juice for vata is amla juice. It's a powerhouse of immunity, and we shared exactly how to make this in a recent video. You see, out of the six tastes that exist, sweet and sour are very good for vata. They help bring balance to this body type. Also, remember to never have your drinks cold. You have to have them always at room temperature. If it's cold or winter where you are, you can also have a cup of warm almond milk sweetened with dates and a pinch of cinnamon to start your day. All right, let's move to the next part of our meal plan. By the way, this plan that we are sharing with you will help you gain weight. Say goodbye to bloating, gas, constipation. So, pay full attention. Okay. Coming to breakfast, I'll share two options. One light and one slightly heavier. For the light option, you can have a fruit platter. Now, remember, vata is naturally light. So, what kind of fruits would it need? Slightly heavy dense fruits like bananas, chikus, mangoes, figs, coconut, pammen. Make sure that you also top your fruits with a big handful of soaked nuts and seeds and about four to five dates. Nuts are naturally oily and slightly fatty which is much needed for vatas. To change it up sometimes you can also have delicious smoothies. For example, if you blend two ripe bananas, four dates, a handful of soaked nuts, little water, and a touch of cinnamon powder, you'll get a delicious banana date smoothie full of healthy fats. You have to make sure this is not served cold or it may aggravate your vata. Now, if you feel more hungry in the morning or if you've engaged in a strenuous workout in the morning, by the way, in part three of this video when we discuss about those five lifestyle practices, we'll also share with you what are the best and the worst workouts for vata. Now, you can even have a slightly heavier breakfast like a moon dal chila, a sweet potato chart, uh lentil sprouts, or even a millet porridge. These are just some options. Coming to lunch and dinner, you want to have a grain and legume meal. This means that you need to have three important components in your meal. A grain like rice or millets or quinoa, a legume like dal and lots of veggies. This could be in the form of roti sabzi, a kiti, a dosa, anything. When it comes to vegetables, make sure to include root vegetables for avata. They grow in the ground and they're naturally grounding in nature which is exactly what the airy bath means. Sweet potato is a superstar vegetable for them even better than regular potato. Other great ones to include are pumpkin, carrots, beetroots. Now in terms of legumes for avata, moonong dal, masur dal, lobia, green peas, these are all good. But too much of chola, chana, rajma can cause bloating. When it comes to spices, mild spices like ginger, cumin, awan, coriander, cinnamon, these are great to add. They help make the digestive fire stronger which can often be irregular in vada. But don't use too much chili. That can be very drying for this body type. Also, soupy foods like stews, curries, soups with mild spices, these can be very pacifying for you. Think of it like this. Whatever food you eat should feel like an internal hug. Okay, we've discussed breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now, what if you feel hungry between meals? You can have snacks like bananas topped with uh some nut butter. This is very delicious, by the way, and a great weight gain bowl. Or you can have homemade laddus made of nuts and seeds. Or even warm herbal teas like ginger tea, tulsi tea or chamomile tea. So that is in a nutshell a perfect meal plan for vatas. Of course, you need to adapt it to your schedule and make it work for you. To help you make these meals more easily, we've also created four beautiful satic food books containing quick and easy recipes made with simple ingredients that you'll already find at your home. If you'd like, you can also order this combo through the Satvic movement website after watching this video. This is all good but I have always heard ghee is good for vada. You didn't mention it. Can I take it? H we all know that ghee is highly suggested in Ayurveda, right? However, there is a deep reason why we don't recommend it at sarpic movement. Please understand earlier in the villages back in the days the quality of milk was excellent. The cows were healthy and treated really well. But today the condition is totally different. Most dairy products that come to our homes are coming from commercial dairy farms where the cows are kept in cramped conditions. They're heavily injected with different chemicals, antibiotics, and artificial growth hormones and are themselves quite unhealthy. This is a hidden reality exposed today in many national and international documentaries. Plus, Suba and I, both of us, have traveled to hundreds of farms across the country and witnessed the harsh reality of these dairy farms ourselves. We know this might be a little difficult to perceive right now, but dairy or any of its byproducts that we are getting today are not what were referred to in our scriptures. What the scriptures ultimately wanted you to consume were healthy fats. And today there are other sources of it which come without the problems. So what do you think? What are the best sources of healthy fats? Nuts and seeds. You can easily consume the coldressed oils extracted from them such as olive oil, sesame oil, mustard oil, ground nut oil. Remember you want coldressed oils, not refined oils. See, if there's one body type for whom oils are really good, rather essential, it's none other than our dear vata. You can add them from top to your chapati, subzies, curries, kitis. They are the most soluble kind of fat which easily absorb into your cells. Now tell me, have you ever seen an old wooden door? If you don't oil its hinges, what will happen? It will creek and strain and eventually jam, right? The vata body is just like that. Low on natural lubrication, especially around the joints. That's why you might hear cut cut sounds from your knees or shoulders. But the moment you oil those hinges, the door glides open. Isn't it? That's exactly what oil does for your vata body. It'll help you move, think, digest with much more ease. Other sources of healthy fats include coconut chutney, a chutney made with sesame seeds, or sliced avocados if you have access to them. I know you might still have many questions in your mind like what about salads? I've heard vatas shouldn't have raw food. We'll answer more such questions at the end of this video. And trust me, the answers might surprise you. But for now, let's move to the third part of this video. Five powerful daily habits that a vata should never skip. To help you remember these five habits, we have a very interesting way to do it. These five habits all start from the letter S. The first S is self massage. See, Vata's nature is ruka dry. If you don't give that external lubrication, the skin will wrinkle and age faster. The joints will start weakening. That's why for vatas oil application is not a luxury, it's a necessity. The best oil for them is sesame oil, also called tilk. It naturally has a warming effect on the body. Try to do a full body oil massage called abyanga everyday preferably in the morning at least about 30 minutes before your shower so that the oil has time to fully get absorbed and if you're short on time at least oil these four key areas on your body your earlobes your feet your navl and if possible your scalp these are the four power points for calming vata so don't delay this step okay it's the easiest one get sesame oil and start today only. Oh yes, one more important thing. Vatas usually have light sleep. One practice you can do to get more sound sleep is massage the soles of your feet before going to bed. All right, let's move on. What do you think the remaining S's are? Have you been able to guess any? Well, the second is strength training. Do you ever hear people say this to you? Bro, have you lost more weight? The most important movement that a vata needs to build strength, build muscle, stabilize or even gain weight is strength training. This can be through external weights like dumbbells, which means doing exercises like bicep curls, shoulder presses, dumbbell lunges, or even through lifting your own body's weight, which happens through exercises like squats, push-ups, pull-ups, or even through slow yoga practices requiring more holding of asas, which builds a lot of strength. You see, vatas have a natural tendency to get weaker bones as they age, more than other body types. So if you don't want to risk getting joint problems or risk getting fractures later in life, strength training is absolutely non-negotiable. It helps build muscle which is so crucial to protect the bones. By the way, we've uploaded a followalong 30inut strength building practice on our yoga channel which is especially for the vata body type. You'll find the link for it in the description below. Now on the other hand, what do you think are the movements that a wata should never do? Well, it's movements like intense cardio, hit workouts, lot of running or zumba. Such fast movements totally throw the body out of balance. What you actually need are slow grounding movements. Before we move to the next S, there's something I really want to share with all my fellow vatas. Even today, people look at me and say, "You're so thin." But what they don't see is how I feel on the inside. The strength, the agility, the mental clarity. The thing is they're measuring health by size, comparing it to others. A friend of mine, a brilliant doctor, once told me something I'll never forget. He said, "God made the giraffe a giraffe and the elephant an elephant. If a giraffe tries to become like a bulky elephant, that's not wisdom. It's stupidity." And that story really hit me as a vata. Your frame, my frame will always be light. That's our design. We're not meant to be bulky or broad. We're meant to be light. But that's also why we're so fast. We're so quick. We're so full of energy. Yes, you can build strength. You should reach a healthy weight. But chasing someone else's size, that will just fill us with unnecessary stress. For far too long, Wata bodies have been misunderstood. And it's time to rewrite that. And it starts with ending this comparison. If you feel strong, if you feel your mind is calm, if your body moves with ease, you're exactly where you need to be. So, we've covered self massage, we've covered strength training. Now, the third one is actually why don't you try to guess actually what it is. It has to do something with taking in natural warmth. Remember how in our previous video we spoke about how vata carries a higher proportion of air and space elements than other body types. So to balance it, what elements do we need? Yes, more of earth, water and fire elements. Now if we talk specifically about fire, how do you think we can get that in? What's the most powerful source of it in the whole wide universe? Yes, it's the sun. So the third S is sunbathing. If you tend to feel cold, this practice will provide natural warmth while charging your body up. You know, I was reading a beautiful book called Life of Balance. And I was surprised to read that vatas are also called sun worshippers because they're naturally drawn to sunlight, not like pithas who run away from the heat. So if you're a vata, make sunbathing a part of your day. Just 20 minutes a day you need to show your body sunlight. Wearing a thin layer or even no layers. This one habit will heal so many issues. It will help you absorb more nutrition from your food and more absorption will help you reach your optimal weight faster. I do understand that we live very busy schedules. If you don't have time to lay down and sunbathe, you can also move your exercise or yoga practice outdoors. Coming to the fourth S, this is something more to do with your mindset. It is single tasking. You see we vatas, we love multitasking or doing a lot of things in life often all together. This constant juggling between tasks, between projects, between things gives us the illusion that we're doing a lot. But in reality, it leads to shallow work, more mistakes, and a skyrocketing sense of over stimulation, overwhelm, and anxiety. So, what I'm about to tell you now is important. Pause this video, write it down, and don't forget this. As simple as it sounds, do one thing at a time. Just one tab open, one single task, one project. Give it your full undivided attention. Dive deep into it. And only after you've brought that one thing to completion, then and only then gracefully move on to the next. Multitasking scatters your energy, single tasking conserves it and brings out a vata's true potential who's naturally a powerhouse of creativity. And this one habit alone will help you become more effective, reduce that constantly racing mind, and help you to go to bed every day with more peace. Okay, coming to the last S. This is the one I found most unexpected when I first learned about it. It is soothing touch. Remember how we spoke about how vatas are intrinsically cold and need warmth around them? Well, the need for warmth is not just physical but also emotional. You see, when a vata gets imbalanced, the emotions that they'll experience are anxiety, fear, nervousness. Unlike a pitha who will first experience anger. So especially if you're a vata, if you can live in an environment where you have loved ones around you and find every opportunity to receive their love and warmth, whether it's through a soft embrace, a warm hug or soft touches. These are not small things for Avata. They're deeply therapeutic. In fact, the word sneha in adurva means both lubrication and love or care. And all of these two are amazing forms of snighha. Oh, and also the opposite of this is also very true. Just like watas don't like cold weather, they will not get along with cold naturatured people either. I'm not sure if there's anyone in this world who will get along with cold naturatured people. Simba, anyways, that completes our five S's. Just to summarize, self-massage, strength training, sunbathing, single tasking, and soothing touch. These are the true medicines for a vata body type. Now that you've learned what's good for Avata, we have a quick game for you. Let's see if you can get this right. Out of these, what do you think are the four things which cause the biggest imbalance in Avata's body? A salad straight from the fridge. A heavy dish made with rice and potatoes. Following the same routine every day, the winter season, long or frequent travel, taking a nap in the afternoon, long hours of fasting, or having a warm bath every night. You have 10 seconds. Let's see if you get this right. All right, let us reveal the answers. First thing that can cause the greatest imbalance is a salad from the fridge or for that matter anything from the fridge. A soda, ice cream, frozen fruit or ice cold items severely disturb a vata. Now about salads, if you eat a large cold salad, especially as a full meal with no fat, it will aggravate your vata. On the other hand, if you eat it at room temperature and make some small tweaks like adding a good source of fat, a creamy dressing, or drizzling some coldress oil, or sprinkling some warming spices, or even steaming it a little bit, any of these will make the same salad nourishing and a nutrient-packed meal for you. The second thing that is bound to disturb water is cold or windy weather. Even cold indoor environments like airond conditioned flights or riding a bike where cold wind directly hits the chest or traveling to chilly places like Manali. All such situations can aggravate the dry skin, pain in joints and stiffness. To prevent this, we vadas need extra protection from the cold, extra warmth, extra covering. This means a thicker blanket at night, multiple layers to wear in the day, especially in the three vital parts. Remember to cover the neck with a scarf, the head with a cap and the feet with socks. The third thing which will cause an imbalance is long or frequent travel. You see, travel is a highly vata aggravating activity because your body is going through a lot of movement at that time. To keep yourself in balance, doing a daily massage at least from one week prior will be extremely healing for you. Also, while self massage is great, getting a massage from a trained therapist before, during, or after your travel will also be very effective. The last one, continuous fasting. You might be thinking, huh, isn't fasting good for everyone? Well, yes, but long fasts are not meant for a vata. You see, the bodies break down tissues very easily, and if you push it too far, the body doesn't heal or cleanse during a fast. It withers. Does that mean they should never fast? No. For overnight fasting, they can stick to a 14-hour fast. Dinner at 7, breakfast at 9. Simple. If they wish to do a full day fast to cleanse their bodies, it's better to do it on nourishing soups and not for too long. As far as the remaining four options in our quiz, these are actually all beneficial for vatas. If this video helped you, do share it with anyone in your life who you think might be a vata. This knowledge is a gift to us from our ancient scriptures which needs to be shared. If you're a mixed body type, you can click here to learn about PA or here for kafa. That's all from us for today. We hope that we see you soon again.