This Ancient Diet Cleared My Skin + Eased My Anxiety. Here's Exactly What I Did

With the new year in full swing, I wanted to spend two weeks focusing on finding ways to get more centered, improve my sleeping habits (which were admittedly terrible, leaving me tossing and turning most nights), and overall quality of my life—because isn't that what we all want (and need) at the end of the day? I decided to focus on an Ayurvedic diet, rich in foods suited to my body type and lifestyle—a diet that wasn't rooted in having to remove the foods I've found to work so well for me and without the need to count calories or make my already clean diet any more restrictive.

To kick things off, I chatted with Dr. Amy Shah, an M.D. (and mbg class instructor!) who mixes Ayurveda with traditional Western practices. To assess my Dosha, she gave me a series of 40 simple questions involving physical, emotional, and mental characteristics (you can find your own quiz here). I inevitably was as Vata as it gets—no surprise there. In Dr. Shah'’s words, Vata types generally have:

From there, I spoke with mbg class instructor, best-selling author, and celebrity nutritionist Kimberly Snyder, to assist with my diet plan for the coming weeks. To start, Kimberly emphasized the importance of eating as many warm, grounding foods as possible, especially during New York's chillier winters. She also mentioned that when Vata types are imbalanced, they're more prone to insomnia and anxiety—again, it's like she was reading my mind. Safe to say, I was more than ready to tackle whatever Ayurvedic diet plan Kimberly had for me. If her guidance could help with my current sleep schedule (or lack thereof), I was more than in. She then recommended introducing the following to my daily routine, with an emphasis on foods that fell under the sweet, salty, or sour categories:

I also worked with both women to map out exactly what I'd be eating in the coming weeks. Turns out, my biggest undertaking would be amping up the ghee (not a problem), minimizing any sources of caffeine, and getting rid of those drier, crunchier foods I've grown to love…i.e., raw apples, rice cakes, and popcorn, to start.

Most mornings, I started my day with brown rice porridge, goat milk yogurt, ground flax, banana, and cinnamon. I replaced my morning cup of java with chai, and lunched on warming curries made with red lentils, spinach, zucchini, sweet potato, and brown rice with "golden milk" (blended with ghee) on the side. I replaced my afternoon apple and almond butter with sweet potatoes or bananas with almond butter and noshed on more grounding stews or egg scrambles with avocado, ghee, and brown rice tortillas for dinner. Before bed, I'd sip another warming elixir and, believe it or not, sleep soundly.

Where I'd normally reach for a handful of plantain chips or a rice cake with almond butter to tide me over, I found myself instead making warming elixirs (which quite honestly was way more fun and satiating).

Want to try it yourself? Here's a one-day diet to kick off your own Ayurveda experiment.