Gearing Up

So, this week, I will begin cooking from my new book, The Yoga Body Diet. I received the book in the mail last week and read it, cover to cover, in about three days. I took the assessment test and discovered, much to my own surprise, that my dosha, or personality(ish) type, is pitta. Pittas are associated with the element fire and the summer season. They are typical "Type A" personalities with a fair amount of drive and ambition. Now, I can't say that I fall completely into this category, especially because the test indicated that I am also fairly close to the kapha, or earth dosha, but a lot of the pitta characteristics seem to apply to me.

Why am I writing about this right now? Mainly because, as a pitta, I am supposed to (essentially) cook from summer's bounty and limit the amount of spices that I use in my cooking. I am good with the fresh fruits and vegetables that abound with this season - in fact, summer is really my very favorite time/season in which to cook. Summer produce is incredible and the flavors are made even more amazing by eating everything at the peak of ripeness. (Anyone who has ever been suckered into buying summer fruit -watermelons, strawberries, etc. - during the winter knows what an extreme disappointment they usually are. Trust me - been there and done that just because I have been jonesing for a bite of summer on a cold winter day.) I love the beautiful, ruby-red strawberries and the way their flavor brightens my entire mouth. I adore fat, fuzzy peaches and their sweet-tart juiciness that feels like a dose of sunshine itself. Summertime, homegrown tomatoes are to die for - plump, earthy, explosively warm tomato flavor in a riot of colors. All kinds of peppers are amazing - some scorching and some sweetly piquant - picked at the peak of ripeness, and can enliven just about any dish. I also love the cooking techniques (or lack thereof) the hot weather brings - cold and crisp dinner salads, savory meats grilled outdoors, fresh fruits and vegetables that need no further embellishment than a sprinkle of salt or a twist of black pepper. Ahhh......I can almost taste it all now.

I started by saying that I can deal with the pitta perspective of a diet based on fresh fruits and vegetables and that is, in fact, the truth. I think the only issue I might have is with limiting the spices, although I think my children will thank me for it (not big fans of spicy anything, unless it is a sausage of some sort). True to my predominantly pitta nature, I LOVE spicy foods and would pretty much eat them any day and any way. As a Central Texan, I adore Tex-Mex, but I don't limit myself to the cuisine of chips and salsa. Oh no, I am international in my spice consumption - Thai, Indian, Italian and so on, each hold at least one heavily spiced dish that is near and dear to my heart (and the subsequent burn). Ah well, much like the alcohol that I have overindulged in the past couple of weeks, it is not going to hurt me to give it up for the next few weeks. It should facilitate the re-balancing of my dosha and the deepening of my yoga practice (which is a surprisingly good workout - trust me, I am pretty hard core with my exercise and I was astounded by how difficult holding various poses actually is). I am menu planning this afternoon and should have more posts this week as I attempt to adhere to an Ayurvedic, pitta-specific diet. Wish me luck....or perhaps send me a "namaste".