Using Ayurveda as a guide for diet

(Disclamer: I'm not trained in Ayurveda so this post is just based on what I've learned through my own reading, through consultations with Ayurvedic practitioners, and listening to educational talks from people with training in this field.)

According to Ayurveda, we are all born with a certain constitution called prakruti which is measured in terms of the three doshas - vata, pitta, and kapha.  Vikruti, on the other hand, is the current state of imbalances of the doshas in the body.  The doshas get out of balance due to unfavorable diet and lifestyle choices.  Long term imbalances in the dosha will cause the manifestation of various diseases in the body.  You can read a little more about prakruti and vikruti here.

Find out your prakruti and vikruti

The best way to find out your constitution according to Ayurveda would probably be to get a consultation from a practitioner.  They can usually assess the prakruti and vikruti by reading the pulse.  If you don't already know these, you can get a rough idea by taking one of more of the online quizes -- just google "dosha quiz" and several pop up.  You can try the interactive one at the Chopra Center or the printed ones at the Ayurvedic Institute (prakruti and vikruti).  

As stated in the instructions by the Ayurvedic Institute, it helps to take the quiz twice, once based on long-term tendencies for the prakruti, and once based on how one is feeling more recently for the vikruti which is why they have two forms.  The Chopra Center says the quiz is only for vikruti, but I guess if you filled it out based on long-term tendencies rather than what's been happening in the recent past, then it can be used to get an idea of the prakruti as well.

Finding balancing foods

Once you know your vikruti, you can consult an Ayurvedic food chart to learn about which foods would be best for balancing the doshas.  For example, if one finds that one is primarily pitta dosha, then one should try and eat pitta pacifying foods more often than not.  Some of the foods are pacifying/favored by all doshas.  Such foods are sometimes referred to as tridoshic foods.

Summary

I've found these guidelines to be somewhat helpful for bringing my body back into balance.   It takes a long time to heal the body just through diet changes and often the help of herbs may be needed.  However, by eating foods that agree with us, we immediately start to experience better digestion. 

My constitution is vata-pitta, so I try to eat foods that are favorable for both vata and pitta doshas.  In other words, I try and find foods that are in the columns of the food chart showing they are favorable for both vata and pitta.

Blogger template designer not working?

For several months now, I've had trouble with getting my blogger template working.  I finally came across this article which provides a detailed step-by-step guide for fixing the problem.

By reinitializing the template, even though Google Analytics reported in its status that it was "Receiving Data," it really wasn't.  When I went back and checked the template, I found that the javascript for Google Analytics was gone.  I had to reinsert that to get things working again.  A couple of useful references for this:

• How to add Google Analytics to your Blogger blog
• Verify your web tracking setup

A brief introduction to Hinduism

When I was a student at Duke University, one of our professors in the electrical & computer engineering department, Dr. Kishor Trivedi, distributed a small booklet titled "An introduction to Hinduism."  I read it back then, but I wasn't really in a position to appreciate it.  Now, almost 15 years since I graduated, I picked up the booklet and reread it and it made a lot more sense, probably because of the time I have been spending at the Yoga Farm on Saturday evenings listening to their teachings.

I was able to find a pdf of the booklet online.  I really like the way it categorizes the ancient Hindu texts, philosophies, and beliefs.  Well worth a read if you have an interest in this subject.

Miserable and magical

Last year, I wrote about a graduation speech by Nipun Mehta on the subject of Learning to Walk.  Today, I learned via the Service Space mailing list that he had delivered another speech, this time to graduating high school students titled Miserable & Magical.

The theme of the talk is generosity.

The first key is to give
The second key is to receive
The third key is to dance

He has several inspiring anecdotes to exemplify each of those points.  Well worth a read.

This is very much in tune with the theme of the movie I Am, which I saw a while ago.

Holistic medicine going mainstream?

I recently came across an article in Duke Magazine titled "The cure for the common medical practice."  The article discusses some of the services being offered by the Duke Integrative Medicine.  It is encouraging to see holistic medicine being adopted at an institution renowned for its academic programs and hospitals in the field of western medicine.

Update 11/30/2014

Closer to home in Sacramento, I recently came across the website for Sutter Center for Integrative Holistic Health.  I have no idea how good it is as I have not yet tried it.  I also came across the following articles in Sacramento Magazine:

• Integrative Medicine: A Local Look (July 2010)
• Alternatives for Healing (November 2009)

Update 06/04/2016

Came across this release from the NIH.  Many interesting stats:

• Nearly 18 million adults and 927,000 children practiced meditation.
• Children whose parents use a complementary health approach are more likely to use one as well.

Related reading

• Alternative medicine gains ground, partly due to lower cost

What happened to the links for astrology forecasts?

For many years now, since around 1994/1995, I maintained a page with links for astrology forecasts using my account at Duke University where I was a graduate student at the time.  I continued to have access to the account even after I graduated.  A few months ago, I lost the ability to login to my account there.  Then a couple of weeks or so ago the page went offline.  As a result, I didn't have a way to notify users of the page about the new location.

I'm currently hosting the page at anoop.netlify.app.

Finding a good credit card

This is a post to summarize some features I look for in a credit card and resources for where to research them.  It has been a long time since I applied for one, though.

Must haves

• No annual fee.  Since there are many options without fees, why pay a fee?  Some cards offer interesting concierge and travel benefits but their fees can be as high as $400-$500 a year.  Since I don't have a lifestyle to take advantage of those, I don't bother with them.
• Cash back.  There are many cards which offer cash back varying from < 1% to 5%.  Some have rotating categories of spending (e.g. for one month you get 2% on groceries, otherwise it falls back to the standard rate of 0.5%), some are tiered (e.g. 1% for the first $5000 spent per year, 2% thereafter, etc.).  I don't think it's that critical to try and optimize this return.  Just getting something is good enough.
• Annual summary statement.  This is a great benefit at least for me.  At the beginning of each year, I can toss out all of the statements and just hang on to the annual summary statement.
• Auto rental insurance.  Having this allows one to decline the various insurance add-ons that rental car companies tend to offer.  The catch is that the rental must be paid for with that credit card.
• Extended warranty.  Many cards offer an extended warranty for products purchased with the card, doubling the manufacturer's warranty, up to 2 years.
• Good customer service.  This one is hard to figure out without actually getting the card.  At a minimum, there should be 24-7 customer service, and it shouldn't be something that is only automated after hours.

Nice to have

• No foreign exchange transaction fee.  This is a fee that credit cards usually tack on to purchases made in a foreign currency, even though it might be a web purchase.  The typical fee is about 3% but some cards charge a lower fee, like 1%.  This is getting harder to avoid.  There are cards which offered no foreign transaction fees in the past but now charge 1%.

Don't care for

• Loyalty programs.  I don't care for cards that offer frequent flyer miles or other loyalty programs such as hotel or shopping points.  This means that I am stuck with whatever they offer and I find that restricts my options when it comes time to plan for travel or shopping.
• Low interest rate or balance transfer fees.  I usually pay my card in full each billing cycle.

How many cards?

Can't have zero because we need credit cards for such basic things as renting a car and reserving a hotel room.  One card can be limiting.  Sometimes, there are situations where a card is lost, forgotten at a merchant, or compromised by fraud and thus deactivated.  In those situations, it helps to have a second card handy.  Finally, having just one card may mean that it is not accepted everywhere.  For example, many places in Europe do not accept American Express.  Also, while Visa and Mastercard are almost universally accepted in the US, there are merchants in Europe that will accept only one or the other.  So it's generally a good idea to have at least 2 cards.  I should mention that an ATM check card could be used in situations where the credit card is lost, stolen, or not accepted.

I would avoid getting too many cards or even getting a card for its introductory freebies and then canceling it.  Your personal details will be in too many places and despite all of the security, there can be loss or theft of that personal information and identity theft is on the rise.

Credit cards and credit history

Each time we apply for a credit card, our credit score gets dinged; not by much, but it does get dinged.  So that is something to keep in mind.  Getting lots of cards and canceling them also dings the credit score.  Having lots of high-balance credit cards, even if they are not used, negatively impacts the credit score because the person is viewed being at risk of being able to run up large balances.  Finally, even after we close a credit card account, it typically remains in the credit report for up to 7 years.

Places to research credit cards

• creditcards.com
• money-rates.com

Additional reading

• 5 credit card fees you should never pay

(Disclaimer:  I am not an expert in this area.  This is just a quick summary of what I've learned over the years.  If you happen to find an inaccuracies, I'd appreciate hearing about them so I can correct them.)