Kate O'Donnell, Ayurveda Practitioner

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Food for Thought with Billy and Jenny,
brought to you by the Box Center. For more than
fifteen years, this dining duo has been eating their way
through New England, mixing it up with top chefs, jumping
behind the line of the hottest restaurants and giving you
the inside scoop on where to wine, dine and spend
your time. So get ready, it's Food for Thought giving
you something to chew on.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, everybody, welcome into Food for Thoughts, brought to you
by the Box Center. I am looking forward to the
conversation today because it's the woman that's been on our
show a couple times, so if you've listen every week,
you will have heard her voice.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
But as always, there's exciting new things that we can
talk about with it. Cato'donald has been a friend of
mine for a long time, but she started out as
my teacher. She's a nationally certified Araveda practitioner, a senior
yoga teacher. She's the author of some unbelievable books, and
I think most of all, she's an incredible educator. So

(00:55):
we're going to talk about Araveda, which I know we
have touched upon I think one of the great things
about the last show Billy did was he finally figured
out how to say ira Veda, which I know made
me very happy. But it's such a pleasure to have
Kat O'donald back, Kate. How are you. I'm good, Jenny.
It's great to be here, always great to connect with you.

(01:17):
So we have so many new things to talk about
since you were last on the show. And I do
say that sort of as a joke, but I've been
studying Iraveda. I met you as a teacher. Now you know,
about six years it's been and Billy could never say it,
and either could my husband, And it was like, come on, guys,
it's not really that hard.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
And so when when he mastered it, and when my
husband mastered it felt like a big celebratory moment, which
I know sounds so crazy. But the more that people
hear about it, the more that people understand it, the
more they can sort of adapt it into their lives.
But before we talk about the concept of ira Veda,
its origin, so many different components about it, I like

(01:57):
to sort of start by giving people a background on you,
and so can you tell us a little bit about
your backgrounds? And how Areveda came into your journey.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
I always wanted to go to India, Jenny, since I
was little, which is just such a strange thing, you know.
I come from this New England, Irish family. My dad
was a Piscopalian minister or pastoral counselor. It was a
I mean, we were a spiritual household for sure, but
we were also very just kind of day to day

(02:32):
you know, something like going to India was completely out
of the box. So I don't know where I got
the idea, but once I had the opportunity to go there,
I was in college and I went there to study
to teach, to teach English, and I ended up kind
of getting really sick a bunch of parasites. And that

(02:55):
was how I found Areveda and started getting into Ireveda
when I was in college, and I was so blown
away by this system of medicine and how it how
it understands the body, but also the really important role
that food plays in our health. So that was what
I had been looking for. So I kind of really

(03:15):
devoted my life through this since I was in college,
since I was twenty years old. It's pretty awesome and
I want to talk about sort of that spiritual connection
and maybe how that assisted you on your path, because
there is not only this medical system but there's obviously
also a spiritual component that is so important. But first,

(03:39):
go back a little bit. When did yoga come in?
I mean a lot of at least I think of
yoga being the gateway for people, but you it was
really India. So was that also a time when you
started practicing yoga? It absolutely was. Yeah. Yeah, while I
was there as a student, I was taking classes with

(04:00):
some people in the community where I was teaching, and
it was over there. I was just completely love, you know,
and just completely in love with it. So I've really
studied and lived the two systems of yoga and iraveta.
I've lived on side by side all these years, and
they stem from the same philosophical route and have the

(04:20):
same anatomical understanding of the body. So for me and
they've become almost inseparable. But I think for a lot
of people, as you say, yoga is the gateway because
it's everyone really knows about its health benefits, you know.
I think most people can, like mention a family member
or a friend who is has healed some sort of

(04:42):
issue and their body by doing yoga, So we inevitably,
I think, at some point start to hear about Ariveda
if we're interested in yoga, And yoga's kind of like
the really fun part, you know, because you get to
jump around, you just you get to do exercises, you
get to learn how to relax, you know, out. But
then there's this whole other aspect of our of our

(05:04):
health and our lives of you know, are we fulfilled,
are we happy? Like? Are we eating well? Are we sleeping?
You know? Are we making enough time for things that
are important to us, that are important to you know,
our our spiritual self. So I think that too, I
mean to other create that yeah, yeah, the two together

(05:27):
are so important. And you can speak more to this,
but I I'm you know, anyone that listening is listening
right now. One of the things that you say in Iraveda,
and I'm assuming obviously also rooted in yoga, is this
idea that Araveda finds you. It's not something that you
seek out. Iraveda finds you. And the good news is
Iraveda is being found by so many more people in

(05:52):
the United States. But I love your story because everybody
sort of remembers when it comes into their life, and
I certainly remember when it came into mine, and mine
had to do with a health journey for my daughter
and me not being able to understand how we weren't
able to bring peace and ease and health to her,

(06:14):
and then ultimately I was able to uncover so much
about my health. So I say that because anybody who's
listening now you now get to say, are Veda has
found you, and now you have an opportunity to take
it in so many beautiful, wonderful directions. So okay, we've
said the word probably twenty times already in the first

(06:35):
couple of minutes of talking. And as I said, you're
such a strong educator. So when somebody is meeting you
for the first time they hear this word ire veda,
they probably don't know how to speak it. They know
that this ultimately is an Indian word because you talk
about the medical system of India right away. But it's

(06:56):
something that requires time, thought and messaging. And you have
been so great in crafting a way that people can
succinctly understand, both from your cookbooks and from all the
education you do and from the Aravedic Institute, which we'll
be able to talk about later, but we're going to
take a break, and when we come back, I'm going
to say, once again, what is araveda and how do

(07:17):
you describe it? Who is just someone who was hearing
it for the first time? We have cato O'donald Aravedic, practitioner,
author of so many unbelievable cookbooks that I can't wait
to dive in with you more about. We'll take a
break and we'll be back in just a minute.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel in Sweet.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Welcome back to the Thoughts brought to you by the
Box Center. My friend, my teacher, the unbelievable Aravedic practitioner,
yoga teacher, author is our guest cato o'donald, so Kate,
we talked a little bit about how you got to
the place that you're in a not necessarily a traditional path,
but I think the beauty of this is there really
never is one, but it sort of took hold for

(07:59):
you young age. You knew there was something about India
that you wanted to experience. When somebody is your meeting
for the first time and asks you what you do where,
asks you what are veda is? How do you how
do you describe it? Great question? Yeah, I start by
such saying that ireveda is really about learning how to

(08:20):
understand your body's cues. You know, so you what your
body's telling you about, you know, your hunger, your digestion,
your detoxification, your sleep. It's like we're getting messages all
the time from our body, and if we sort of
use this lens of looking at the messages the body
sending us, then you kind of, like you described Jenny

(08:42):
the story with your daughter. You know, something that previously
didn't make sense and might have felt overwhelming becomes clear,
you know, when you look at it through this lens.
So it's in some ways if people have heard of
acupuncture or Chinese medicine, it's similar in that way. We
sort of look at the body as composed of elements

(09:04):
like earth and water and fire, and those elements bring
their qualities to the body. So a fiery body type
is going to be hot, a watery body type is
going to be a little like like maybe heavier, more
moisture in the body, like their skin will be really
supple and beautiful to have this amazing hair, right, and
if somebody's got to say more air, they're the kind

(09:26):
of person who's like super creative, on the move, doesn't
like to sit still, right, generally has a lighter body type.
So by looking at the qualities of the elements in
the body, each person sort of has this unique body type.
I think that's part of the wisdom about Irivta that
people aren't finding so helpful, is to understand your own

(09:47):
unique body type. And then it's, oh, I already have
enough fire, so maybe I need to bring in some
things that are cooling and calming instead of more fiery
activity or more fiery food. It just helps you understand
and then you can start to make choices, you know,
to balance what's happening in your body. Yeah, and so

(10:08):
balance is key. And I love the idea of you
saying it's kind of about understanding your cues. And I
think what happens, at least in our culture is we
might ignore some of those cues and then those those
those little subtile cues ends up leading to more, you know,
something stronger, some kind of stronger disease, and then we

(10:29):
really have to pay attention to it. Because it's become
a really big problem. And one of the things that
I think is so great about where our world has
gone from a medical standpoint is there's so much more
curiosity and consideration around preventative medicine. Right, So I think
everybody listen, everyone listening can think of, you know, someone
who sees a functional doctor, or someone who's heard the

(10:51):
word a naturopath, someone who's really focused on preserving health
as opposed to having to use modern medicine because you're
already at a state of disease. Now, I think one
thing that's really important to do is we've sort of
like touched upon this in a broad stroke. Is also
just sort of break down the word iravita what you
do so nicely, and also talk about the fact that

(11:14):
this medical system is very old. So this is this
far predates what we what you teach and what we
are what I am learning about in IRA beta far
predates anything we know of as it relates to modern medicine,
right right, Like I'm not sharing my personal opinion as
much as I'm sharing information that has been codified over

(11:37):
thousands of years of human trial and error. Right, So
it's like finding what works you know, noticing how bodies
react to different things. So for me, that was ultimately
what has kept me with it, you know, is knowing
that this It's not like, oh, avocados are you know,
bad fat, and then ten years later avocados are great
for you. It's information that has been you know. It's

(12:00):
it's the longest continually practiced medical system in the world.
Actually ire beta, so the word means so the beta
is it's the body of knowledge from India, ancient India.
And the word ayr means life, so people will call
it the science of life, but the word iyr actually

(12:23):
means life. That has four components. So we look at
the physical body, we look at the mental fear, We
look at the senses, so like what's going on with
your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, So those organs and
their functions are super important, and it gets so juicy
when you start looking at yourself and in terms of

(12:46):
what's going on with your senses. And then the fourth
component is soul. So there is that again, that sort
of spiritual fulfillment aspect that if we look at our
health with all four of these components, you know, the body,
the mind, and the senses, and the soul all together,
then we get this truly holistic medicine right where the

(13:07):
idea is, if any one of those four aspects is
not kind of taken into account, then help may remain elusive.
And you mentioned this idea of the of the oldest
medical system, and it's important to note that what you
have been studying for how long now, Kate, how long

(13:29):
has this has has been since your first trip to
India twenty five years?

Speaker 4 (13:35):
Oh my gosh, that's such amazing.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
I can't even incredibly imagine this over twenty five Oh
my god, that's awesome. So I think one of the
things worth noting is that you studied what has been
studied and literally written in text form dating back thousands
and thousands of years. So all of these things that
you're noting. This idea of the avocada was great example.

(14:00):
We see so many trends come in, come in and
out of our landscape. We're what we're going to try
to uncover for you more today is something that is
literally thousands and thousands of years old, Is that right?
That is right? Yeah, at least five thousand years. And
you know, of course there's modern texts coming all the

(14:21):
time and iro das positions, you know, dealing with modern
day diseases. But what's interesting is so many of the
things that I see in my practice, it's like there's
no new plot in terms of health and disease in givents,
right right, right. So I use this framework, and we're
sort of talking in this framework of sort of going

(14:43):
back and forth to things like functional medicine or things
like whole body health because that is sort of what
Kate just identified is we think of things so separately,
and the modern medicine system has created one that obviously
is it obviously is incredible for things as it relates
to acute situations or you know, surgeries, and there's so

(15:06):
much about it that is so valuable. The part that
even the modern medicine UH space is identifying is that
what has happened over a you know a period of
time is that it was sectioned off, like people became
specialists in certain areas as opposed to still being able
to take the whole body into a picture as it

(15:29):
relates to health. And that's hopefully something that we're seeing
it getting back to. But that in essence is what
iur beta is all about. It's studying the body, the mind,
the soul as one as one whole entity. We can't
look at one without looking at the other. And I
wonder for you, because it's been twenty five years, how

(15:50):
how does it feel to you to finally see that
people are identifying these practices. It's almost like it we're
coming up for new words for something that already existed.
But it does feel a little bit like a full
circle moment where people are paying attention to what Araveda
has always known. Yeah, and I think that many people

(16:12):
are finding that the compartmentalizing of the health story, you know,
and having like a doctor for this and a doctor
for that, and those two doctors don't talk to each other, right,
so one of them is giving you meds for this,
one of them meds for that, and then then you
have a mess. You know. I think people really aren't
getting the results that they want all the time. And

(16:35):
that's when I see people heading over to Araveda and
looking into holistic modalities. Is you know, actually I need
I need a paradigm or a modality that sees all
of me, you know, that can understand like the demands
that are on me on a day, you know, as
a parent, let's say, or as a professional, and what

(16:56):
stress levels are like you know what, like I'll talk
with somebody out their their daily flow. You know, what
time you get up, when do you eat your meals?
You know, how do you cook? All that stuff is
really important and if we want to live a healthier life,
you know, we we need to look at the context
of the life, you know. And I think what we

(17:17):
see there is you know, go ahead, well, and the
context of life changes so much and and so I
think that's one of the great things about having a
practitioner like yourself from a client to client base, that
or being able to use the resources that are your
books is so many different things come out where you
have to recalibrate and you have to kind of change

(17:38):
the things of what are happening in order to preserve
your health, in order to preserve your balance. We're going
to take a break, and when we come back, I
want to talk about how people can experience you through
your cookbooks. We'll be back with more Food for Thought.
In just a minute.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you buy
It's the Box Center and Sail and Waterfront Hotel and sweets.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Okay, you and I could talk and and and go
into so many different elements of Iravita, which we will
later in the show, but I want to take a
minute for folks listening who are kind of saying, oh,
this is of interest to me, but I can't wrap
my head around everything that they're saying. You have done
a superb job in four different cookbooks giving people different

(18:17):
areas of ways to digest and understand Araveta. Tell us
about those books. The first book is the Everyday Ierveta Cookbook,
and that's the one where I really dive into how
to balance your body with food. And it's a seasonal cookbook,
which makes it fun and easy to use, so you
can kind of you just open to the spring section

(18:39):
and make a couple of spring recipes balance your body
by balancing the things that happen to bodies in the springtime.
So the Everyday Iraveta Cookbook is actually we're celebrating its
tenth year anniversary this spring, so we have a new
edition coming out with new forwards and some new cover
art and some changes to some of the recipes. So

(18:59):
it's a great time to get involved, for sure with
the Everyday Iravated Cookbook, and halfway through writing that one,
I heard to really think about the mind, you know,
and how mental wellness is something that so many of
us are talking about and thinking about these days. So
I wrote a second cookbook, it's Calm, Clear Mind, and
that one is about Iraveda and yoga also have language

(19:22):
for talking about mental wellness and how we promote that
with food. So it's also a cookbook, which is just fantastic.
I love. I am a total mind dork. I love
talking about psychology. And then I went on to write
the guide to self Care, every Day Iravated Guide to
Self Care, So that one is it's not a cookbook,

(19:44):
it's home remedy. So for you know, there's recipes for
digestive aids, coffin, cold flu remedies. So for somebody who
really wants to kind of make their own medicines, especially
if you have family and kids, that's a great way
to get natural, natural medicines at work. And then most
recently I published every Day Aravata for women's health, and

(20:06):
so that's specific looking at you know, healthy menstruation, fertility, menopause, perimenopause.
There's a lot to talk about with women's health and
are Beta has so much to share about how we
can remain healthy and heal the death parts of the body. Oh,

(20:27):
your cookbooks are incredible. They have been so used in
my home. They I think I need, certainly need the
new first edition, but I probably need new copies of
all of them. And not only are they filled with recipes,
but they're filled with education, They're filled with context. They're
filled with stories that make what we're talking about feel
a little bit more approachable. I'm going to take a

(20:47):
break and we'll be back. More Kate, more Arabta and
just you're.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Listening to Food for Thought, brought to you by It's
the Box Center and Sale and Waterfront Hotel and Sweets.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Okay, thanks for giving an overview of your four awesome cookbooks.
They all have just such a unique identity, all within
the same framework, which really goes to show how much
one can sort of dive deep into this medical practice.
But I want to give people an idea of what
it's like to work with an Arabated practitioner, of which

(21:20):
you know, luckily there are more and and and how
you even you know can connect with you and how
you can connect with this this ancient form of wisdom
on a day to day basis, and how it sort
of differs from what we experience in a traditional medical setting. Yeah,
the first big difference there in like an intake with

(21:43):
a practitioner or an iravatic position is time. So it'll
it'll be a ninety minute meeting out of the gate
where you exchange a lot of information with your practitioner
about the state of your digestion. So they'll ask you
a lot of questions think that maybe you hadn't thought about,
you know, or notice like do you have gas, you

(22:03):
get acidity? Like what kind of foods do you avoid
because they make you feel bad. There'll be questions about
your your poop and your pee, and your exercise regimen,
you know, how what you eat, and really deep dives
into as we've talked about, all those different aspects of
your daily life and of your health and any disorders

(22:27):
or diseases that you're experiencing. So it takes you. I
think what a lot of people are feeling right now
is that the narrative aspect of medicine, you know, where
there's a story you know that leads you to the
illness that you're experiencing it's like, we want to unravel
that story and really get to the cause, like what
is causing the disorder. So that's what an irvitic practitioner

(22:51):
is aiming to do. And once they get the whole picture,
you know, they're they're looking for what are the elements
present in your body. Also that they're trying to understand
what your constitution is. And then you walk away with
recommendations for you know, these foods will be helpful for you,
these foods might not be great right now, practices that

(23:12):
you can do, like there might be some things you know,
to care for your lungs or your sinuses or your skin.
So you kind of slowly start to adopt practices that
are going to bring your elements back into a state
of balance based on the coaching you know from your practitioner.
And we'll usually meet, you know, monthly in the beginning,

(23:32):
and then it will just move into seasonal meetings. You know.
Sometimes there's herbal medicine as well. If you know, especially
if something has been going wrong in the body for
a while, that there's a really advanced pharmacopeia in iobatic
medicine and a lot of interventions we can do with
herbs as well. So this idea of taking a look

(23:56):
at the whole picture, I think the part that really
is incredible to me is what you would say to
me would never be the same as what you say
to another human being. Right, So you there are a
myriad of different opportunities for healing, but that healing is

(24:18):
solely based on the individual's story. So my life trajectory
is completely different than my sister's life trajectory, even though
we grew up in the same home, even though we
did so many of the same things, same thing with
my husband and my children. And you know you've said
this word constitution. It's this idea that everyone is a

(24:39):
true individual and so your treatment plan should never look
like somebody else's treatment plan. And I think that that
is one of the things that strikes me every single time.
You know, I've referred people to you and I you know,
we talk about IRA beta is what you are getting

(25:00):
from a trained practitioner is a deep dive look into
what is ailing you, and the outcome of that long,
as you mentioned, lengthy conversation is one that is going
to shift for you specifically, And it really takes this
idea of the individual into a whole different account. You

(25:22):
mentioned herbs, and you mentioned different things for different seasons.
Can you talk a little bit more about that, and
then also ways that people can engage with you, you know,
through your numerous videos, through different different ways to connect
with you over the course of a year. Yeah, And

(25:42):
as we talk about, you know, the individual aspect of
working with a practitioner, there's also a lot of the
preventive methods in ira Veda are general general things that
we can all do. So if you're not working with
a disease, you know, you just want to kind of
prevent disease and maintain good health. There are a lot

(26:04):
of seasonal practices in Araveda. So I started to feel
that I was reaching a lot more people with education
than with clinical practice. So I have moved into a
lot more sort of community programming events and the writing.
You know, so someone could, for example, pick up the
Everyday Are Beta cookbook and I in that book coach

(26:28):
you to begin to understand your body's cues. Right, So
you can open to the spring section and I'll say,
because spring is like it's a damp time of year, right,
are you experiencing dampness? Like in your sinuses or in
your lungs. Do you feel a little like puffy? You know,
do you have the bags under the eyes, Like are
those things happening for you? Or maybe you're feeling, you know,

(26:51):
really gassy and dry, you know, like your eyes are dry,
your skin is dry, your hair is dry, so you know,
or your waking up. Yes, And those are the three
different things that we're going to talk more about. Because
what's nice about ironbtia is you actually do get to
be put into some sort of category if you will.
And I remember when I learned about these categories, I

(27:12):
felt like, oh, I finally understand myself. You've touched upon
it a little bit, but we'll dive deeper into it.
We have more with Cat O'Donnell. In just a minute.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Sale in Waterfront Hotel and Suites.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Okay, a couple of times you've referenced sort of these
trots for people to consider, both from a seasonal perspective
and from an individual perspective. Can you dive a little
bit deeper and give folks sort of that thing that
I received after learning about these certain characteristics that made
me feel like I really was going to be able
to understand myself a little bit more. Well, the great

(27:53):
news is that there's really only three three types, right,
three body types, and they response to the season, which
is why my first book is organized according to season.
So like you're either an airy person, a fiery person,
or a watery, earthy person, right, And understanding that about

(28:16):
yourself is that that's what you want to know because
then you know sort of how to eat accordingly, you
know what you need to be keeping an eye on.
So the airiness, that's what we experience in like the
fall in the winter where it's dry. The main characteristic
of that body type is to be dry. So those
are people who will kind of never have problems of

(28:39):
being to feeling heavy, you know. They're the ones who
will like kind of lose weight and have a hard
time keeping it on or gaining it back. And that's
where you get gas, bloating, you know, the dry skin,
cold hands and feet, maybe some difficulty with circulation or
keeping warm. So those are the kind of things we're
looking for, right, I'll say, oh, you do get gas

(29:02):
when you eat beans? You know? Do you run cold?
Because a person sitting next to you might run hot,
you know, and they might have more heat in their digestion,
so they're you know, they eat pickles of fay, and
they they're more likely to get kind of hyper acidity
or an acid reflux situation. And they're running hot, they're

(29:23):
in a tank top while the other person's in a sweater, right,
and they'll tend to be sort of more fiery, let's say,
in terms of their personality as well, so maybe a
little bit intense. And then are earthy types, you know,
they are the grounded ones that got the sort of
stronger body type, great immune system. But the tendency there

(29:45):
is to gain weight or to feel kind of slow
and heavy and maybe puffy. You get that excess moisture,
which can also lead to like the congestion, whether it's
in the lung or the sinus. But there's more of
a tendency be there for that person to kind of
get congested, especially when they eat like dairy for example, right,

(30:06):
Like they if ice cream is not great for that person,
where a fiery type might be okay to have some
ice cream. Right, So we can look at sort of
the what we could call the wintery body body type,
the summery body type, and then there's the spring when
it's kind of damp and cool. Yeah, I was gonna say,
for the people who have heard you on this show before,

(30:27):
you can you know, we call that airy type vata,
we call that fiery type TITSA, and we call that
sort of watery type casa. And you in your book,
your first book, which is I can't believe celebrating it's
ten year anniversary, you break this down and you actually
give people an opportunity to have a quiz about it.
So continue on telling us about that. Yeah. So one

(30:50):
of the things you can do is sort of like
run down the line and check the boxes. You know,
do I get gassy? Do I get hyper acidity? Do
I run cold? Do I run hot? And that can
that's a great way to help you get a get
a handle on it, you know, and understand your your
body for sure. The other thing you can do is
open to the seasonal section, like you open to the

(31:11):
summer section, and there's a lot a list right there
of signs and symptoms of pitta or of that fiery
body type, and you can just check off, you know,
how many of these do I experience? So you can
just go through the seasonal signs and symptoms and just
checkboxes and then you know whichever one you tend to
have more of, that's probably your your primary dosha as

(31:33):
we call it, or your primary body type. Right, and
so and and I want to talk more about the
book because you know, having Billie and I just completed
the book process, it has given me so much more
of a perspective on sort of how to storytell and
why it's been so beautiful for you to be able
to tell this story in a variety of different ways,

(31:55):
with a variety of different focuses. As you guys are
hearing and listening to this hour, there's so much to
uncover in this practice, in this way of life and
this form of healing. And you've done such a beautiful job.
But you know, in anticipation of this tenure, you made
some changes with the book, and I'd love to share
them with folks. Yes, So one of the things about

(32:19):
this book is that we needed to be like beautiful,
the fun to look at, and really simple. Right, So
we went through the book and took anything that might
confuse anyone out of the book so that everything is
really simple, easy to take in, easy to digest, the navigation.
We made some changes to sort of how the recipes

(32:39):
are organized, how you can find what you're looking for
inside the book, and of course those new forwards and
new artwork, so we did a whole new cover, which
is great. So I think one of the things we
noticed about books, right is that is how they catch
your eye? How do they catch your attention? So we
wanted to keep this book really eye catching, it beautiful, colorful,

(33:02):
and we definitely were able to do that. So I'm excited.
I'm excited about and ten years I was able to
sort of write to like where is Ireveda and where
is the food story? How has it changed, you know,
in ten years. So the new forward of the new
reader's note are my reflections on that. That's awesome, And

(33:22):
I would start there, like people say, where do you start?
I love that book. Start when folks are interested in
in sort of taking back their health and taking sort
of a front seat of their healing journey. And so yes,
the cookbooks are a great way to connect with you.
But I want to touch upon the cleanses because that's
something that you're going to be offering this spring as well,

(33:44):
and you do every year. Yeah, this is great timing actually, Jenny,
because we'll start the spring cleanse on April fifth. So
a seasonal cleansed, especially in the spring, is one of
Ireveda's preventive recommendations because it helps a body to get
rid of winter excess, which I think, you know, anyone

(34:05):
in New England knows what I'm talking about. How in
the spraying starts to feel like I'd like to lose
a few pounds, or I'd like to clear this congestion,
or I'd really like these allergies to be less this year.
So when we do the clans together, it's a community process.
It's a ten day experience. It all happens online now,

(34:25):
so we can those people from all over the world
who come together, and I kind of think of it
like an irvate of boot camp. It's really an ideal
way to like jump right in and have an experience.
There's a lot of recipes. It's a food driven program,
so we don't use any kind of like hills or
boxes of things. You know, it's it's all about your food.

(34:47):
So you really learn how to prepare healing food, digestive teas,
and you use that stuff for ten days and then
you can sort of look again at how is my
digestion now, like how does my body feel? How to
any my health concerns feel? Ten days later, it's very
motivating because most people get great results, and that's that's

(35:08):
going to motivate you to continue to make these healthy choices. God,
and these choices are so important in the In the end,
I also think it's worth noting like small incremental changes
can make a difference. Is that is that something that
you've experienced throughout you know, throughout this twenty five year

(35:28):
process for you? Oh? Absolutely, I mean Iravida has this
saying that the more complicated the disease, the more simple
the treatment. So it is amazing to see how a
simple thing So someone's like, oh, I don't really need
attendate overhaul or this is not the right time. I mean,
just even to pick up the book. And if one

(35:50):
thing speaks to you, or you gravitate towards one practice
or one recipe just to be consistent with that one thing.
It's like your your system, your body, mind, spirit is
a matrix of interconnected factors. So of course if you
change one thing, it's like the ripple effect. Is it's moving,

(36:12):
so you will see great results with consistency with even
one change. Yeah. And so even if this is feeling
so overwhelming to people and hearing you know, so many
different possibilities and options there, you know, there's ways to
start really small, and then ways to sort of educate
yourself about the small steps that you've taken and sort
of then take the next one. And I think that's

(36:33):
a really beautiful way for it to for it to unfold.
But the cleanse is a really nice way to be
able to learn about this methodology, to be able to
connect with Kate, to be able to actually put your
cookbook to use. I think that's the best part of
it is you're not you know, you're you're not sitting there,

(36:53):
you know, reading about all the beautiful you know, all
the beautiful words you've written, all the beautiful pictures and
all that kind of thing, but you're actually putting it
to use. And then you have the opportunity to kind
of see, after a beautiful ten days, what you know,
what entering the world of yer Veda can look like.
And then you get the choice from all of your

(37:14):
different cookbooks and all of the other different ways to
engage that you can take it a step further. So, okay,
we're going to take a break. We have one more
break with kat O'Donnell. I'm going to make sure that
you guys have all of the information as to how
to connect with her and interest it if you're interested
in doing the cleanse or hearing more about the cookbook.

(37:34):
We're going to take a quick break and we'll be
back with more Food for Thought brought to you by
the amazing Box Center.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
In just a minute, you're listening to Food for Thought
brought to you by the Box Center and Sale and
Waterfront Hotel and Sweet.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Okay, it's been so nice to reconnect with you on
this show. We have our last break already. I can't
believe it. You know, even though we've talked a lot
about how this medical system is so customizable, there are
some sort of general things that you could share with
folks as we enter spring that should be things for
them to consider in trying to keep their health at

(38:10):
an optimal level. Yes, definitely, And as we said, spring
is that sort of heavy, damp, really moist time of year,
so we want to kind of mobilize waste in the
body and improve the metabolism. So one of the great
things we can do is drink ginger tea. The ginger
is my top substance, that's my toppie in the springtime

(38:35):
because it breaks up mucus. So if you have kind
of any of this excess winter mucus hanging around, it
also is going to help your body burn and get
rid of excess fat tissue. So sipping like a worm
top of ginger tea with meals is going to go
a long way to improve the digestion. My other number
one this time of the year is the tongue scraping,

(38:56):
which nowadays is not it's not a surprise actually, I
mean see tongue scrapers for sale at drugstores now. So
it's basically first thing in the morning that is when
your body wants to get rid of mucus. So it's
actually kind of traveling up the esophagus and it'll be
on your tongue and you can just scrape that off
with the copper stainless steel scraper and using a toothbrush.

(39:19):
Just if you're wondering, it won't remove it, it'll just
kind of move it around. So it's such an easy thing.
Just paying a tongue scraper where you can see it,
and then bring some ginger tea bags wherever you go
and have ginger teat with your meals. Those two things amazing.
I love. I love this. I love. One of the
things that I know I've heard you say repeatedly is

(39:42):
we hear this common thing. You are what you eat,
we are what we eat, and you actually talk about
it in a way that says we are what we digest,
so it takes it one step further. A part of
what creates the balance and the body is about how
we digest. And those are two great ways to get
the digestion going during the spring season. Okay, so yeah,

(40:04):
go grab a tongue scrape, grab some ginger tea so easy.
Grab the cookbook so that you make sure that you
can learn more. So, Kate, let's go back to people
connecting with you, how do they connect with you? Where
do they find you? And and give us a little
bit more information about the forthcoming tenure anniversary cookbook. Yeah,
you can find all the good stuff at my online school,

(40:26):
which is Iravedic Living Institute, Iravedic Living Institute, that's where
the Spring Cleanse live. You'll find links to my books,
all of them, so I can you know, I'll send
you right to the tent anniversary edition. And I also
have a podcast every Day ire Veda, so you can
link from the site there as well. So that's another
great way to learn more. And you know, we drop

(40:49):
new episodes every week and I'm teaching a lot. I
have guests, but I'm also teaching a lot on that podcast. Oh,
you have so many things going and the education is
great on the podcast. I'm sorry we didn't make to
talk more about that, but it's been so nice watching
your journey unfold and see you do more and more
things and connect with more and more people. You can
find Kate on Instagram at Kat O'Donnell so Kate O

(41:12):
d o n n e l l dot Iraveta. I
want to spell ira beta for everybody. A Y you
are v E d A and one more time on
your website Kate Iravedak Living Institute, Irevediclivinginstitute dot com. Check
her out, grab her book. Congratulations Kate, twenty five years

(41:33):
of study, ten years of this cookbook. You're truly amazing,
and you know, I'm so grateful to have you as
a mentor and as a friend and as a teacher
and all the things. Thank you so much, Jenny, I'm
so happy to celebrate the tenth anniversary together with you.
That's awesome. I can't wait to see the new artwork. Okay,
well that's it for food for thought This week brought
to you by the awesome Box Center. Make sure you

(41:54):
check out all the shows that they have coming up
this spring. There's some great ones. We'll see you next time. Thanks,