I Tried the Ayurvedic Mono Diet

2020 - What a year it has been! And it’s only June. A new year, a new decade and with it a virus that has completely changed our lives as we know it. Now more than ever our focus has shifted to mindful consumption, clean local produce and self care. 

This brought me back to the way my grandparents and my great grandmother - or Panji as I’d fondly call her - lived their lives. Simple, sustainable and rooted in Ayurveda. 

At the start of the year, I’d decided it was time to give up on fad diets and really just go back to the simple way of living that they used to follow. Little did I know then that this year would push us all to live more simply and sustainably.  

So as part of this - I decided to try the mono diet prescribed by Ayurveda. Now, I know it has the word ‘diet’ in it but it definitely isn’t one of those, it’s more a cleanse. So as I call it, the mono cleanse. 

I did this for 7 days and wow! It really made a difference. The Ayurvedic Mono-diet means eating Kitchari  every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Scientifically, when we give our body just one type of food, the body produces less digestive enzymes. Which gives the body extra energy to reallocate for all its natural cleansing processes. Essentially, the body uses extra energy for digestion, detoxification, and cellular repair. 

The mono-diet is the traditional Ayurvedic diet for detox and recovery but can be used anytime your body is run-down and needs to repair.

In just 7 days I felt lighter, my body was actually digesting food better and I could sleep a lot better. The amount of energy I had was unparalleled, I was up and about (in my house, of course) from 7am to 10pm on all those 7 days. My skin was also a lot clearer and in my humble opinion looked more radiant. 

I thought I would get really bored of eating the same food for every meal but surprisingly, it wasn't so. It's pretty easy to do, I found it so beneficial that I'm actually doing a full day of just eating Kitchari almost every week now. 

It really makes a difference! Give it a try :)