Food and the Methods

Whether this is a drink, a fast, a meal or a cleansing.

Which of the thirty days this one belongs to. It can shift from month to month.

The amount for one person, for one day.

The steps, in order.

At what hour of the day, and how many times.

What change to expect in the body.

The reason behind it. Understand this and you can adapt the method to your own situation.

Who should not do it; what to watch for. Never skip this line.

Day 9 (coconut milk). The descending season, before the fast.

Fresh coconut milk — 300 to 500 ml.

Sabja (basil seed) — 2 teaspoons.

Almond gum — 3 to 5 pieces.

Palm candy or palm jaggery — to taste.

Soaking water — 200 ml

1. Soak the sabja seed and the almond gum together in 200 ml of water for 12 hours. Soak them at night and they are ready in the morning.

2. The seeds should have swollen into a soft jelly. Unsoaked seed draws water in the gut and causes discomfort.

3. Grate fresh coconut, pour on hot water and press out the first milk and the second.

4. Mix the soaked seed and gum into the coconut milk.

5. Stir in palm candy or palm jaggery and keep it in a clay pot or a glass jar.

From 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening, a glass every hour and a half. Sip it slowly rather than drinking it down in one go.

It cools the body and nourishes it. It soothes the gut. Though the calories are low, hunger does not bite. The medium-chain fatty acids in coconut give energy without raising insulin.

Sabja and almond gum soak up water and swell in the stomach, sending the brain the message that the stomach is full. At the same time the calories are very low. This is not tricking hunger — it is practice in learning the language of hunger again.

Use fresh coconut milk wherever you can; tinned milk carries stabilisers. If it smells sour, throw it away. Anyone troubled by phlegm should take less of this and more of the warm herbal waters.

Day 7 and day 22 (tender coconut). Once on the way down and once on the way up.

Tender coconut water — 800 ml (about two coconuts).

Sabja — 2 teaspoons.

Almond gum — 3 to 5 pieces.

Palm jaggery or palm candy — to taste

1. Soak the sabja and the almond gum in water for 12 hours until soft.

2. Open the tender coconuts the same day and take 800 ml.

3. Add the soaked seeds and stir in palm jaggery or palm candy.

4. You may scrape in the soft flesh of the coconut as well — it carries good fat.

All through the day; finish by 5 PM.

Gives the body deep hydration and mineral salts. Being rich in potassium, it steadies blood pressure. It cools the body and keeps hunger in check.

The mix of mineral salts in tender coconut water is very close to that of human blood plasma. So it prevents the salt loss and the dizziness that follow on fast days. It is safer than a plain water fast.

Use the tender coconut the same day you open it. Anyone with kidney disease should ask their doctor, as the potassium is high.

Day 23 (sugarcane). The climbing season, after the fast.

Fresh sugarcane juice — 500 ml to 1 litre.

Lemon and ginger can be added at the mill.

1. Buy juice pressed fresh that morning. Not juice pressed the day before.

2. Ask for lemon and ginger to be pressed in with it — they balance the sweetness and slow the oxidation.

3. Keep it in a cooler or a flask.

4. Do not drink it all at once; take it a little at a time through the day.

All through the day until 5 PM, a small glass every hour and a half.

Immediate natural energy. It helps the liver and works as a mild diuretic. Traditional medicine prescribes it for jaundice.

Sugarcane juice is unrefined sugar — the iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium are all still in it. In white sugar these have been stripped out and only the calories remain. The same sweetness, a different result.

Drink only the freshest juice; left in the air it spoils quickly. Anyone with diabetes should skip this method and use the cumin and pepper water instead.

Day 12 (beetroot). Three days before the new moon.

Beetroot — 300 g.

Ginger — a small piece.

Water — 100 ml (for grinding) + 900 ml.

Lemon — 1.

Pepper — 1 teaspoon.

Cumin powder — 2 teaspoons.

Salt — to taste

1. Grind the beetroot and ginger with 100 ml of water and take the juice.

2. Set the pulp aside — that is the evening meal.

3. Add 900 ml of water, the juice of one lemon, pepper, cumin powder and salt, and mix well.

4. Sip it slowly all through the day.

5. At 5 PM make a soup, a cutlet or a stir-fry from the pulp and eat it.

Juice all through the day; at 5 PM a solid meal made from the pulp.

Cleans the liver; helps build the blood; reduces the waste that has settled in the body. The nitrate in beetroot turns into nitric oxide in the body and widens the blood vessels.

The liver is the body's chief organ of cleansing — between ten at night and two in the morning it carries out more than five hundred tasks. Give it simple, fibre-rich food during the day and lighten its load, and it will do its work better at night.

Beetroot can turn urine and stool red — that is harmless. Anyone with kidney stones should avoid it, as the oxalate is high.

Day 19 (ash gourd). The fourth day after the new moon.

White pumpkin — 1 kg.

Pepper — 1 teaspoon.

Cumin — 2 teaspoons.

Lemon — 1.

Salt — to taste.

Water — 1 litre

1. Remove the skin and the seeds of the pumpkin and take only the flesh.

2. Grind it and press out the juice.

3. Add pepper, cumin, the juice of one lemon, salt and 1 litre of water.

4. Make it fresh twice a day — once in the morning and once at midday.

All through the day, until 5 PM.

A strong cooling and cleansing. It settles acid and helps the kidney. Siddha medicine prescribes it for low mood and nervous exhaustion.

Pumpkin is 96 per cent water. The rest is fibre and mineral salts. Which is to say there is bulk enough to fill the stomach, but almost no calories at all. It works as a bridge between a fast day and an ordinary one.

Best drunk fresh; pumpkin juice oxidises quickly. If the body feels too cold, increase the pepper.

Day 21 (bottle gourd). There is an oil bath on this day too (WO).

Bottle gourd — 1 kg.

Lemon — 1.

Pepper — 1 teaspoon.

Cumin powder — 2 teaspoons

1. Peel the bottle gourd and cut it into small pieces.

2. Bite a piece and taste it. If it is bitter, throw the whole gourd away at once.

3. If it is not bitter, grind it and take the juice.

4. Stir in lemon juice, pepper and cumin powder.

All through the day, until 5 PM.

Light, cooling, full of water. It helps digestion and weight loss. It settles a burning stomach.

Bottle gourd carries just 14 calories per hundred grams. At the same time it is full of water and fibre. A litre of the juice will keep the stomach full all day, while the body burns its own stored fat.

Very important: bitter bottle gourd juice is toxic — it can cause vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, even death. Taste it every single time before you make the juice. There is no compromise on this.

Day 10 and day 18 (gooseberry). Once on either side of the new moon.

Large gooseberries — 4 (stones removed).

Ginger — a finger's length.

Water — 800 ml.

Pepper — 1 teaspoon.

Cumin — 2 teaspoons.

Salt — to taste

1. Remove the stones from the gooseberries.

2. Grind them with the ginger, or press out the juice.

3. Add 800 ml of water, pepper, cumin and salt, and mix well.

4. Do not strain it — let the fibre stay in.

5. Sip it slowly, right through the day.

Finish by 5 PM.

A method on which hunger never bites. It holds off ageing; it reduces hair fall; it keeps you brisk; it clears wind and waste from the blood; it eases body ache and joint pain; it helps correct conditions such as PCOD.

Gooseberry carries twenty times the vitamin C of an orange. And it is in a form not easily destroyed by heat or air — because the tannin in the gooseberry protects it. In Ayurveda's rasayana class of anti-ageing preparations, this one stands first.

Because it cools strongly, a mild loosening of the bowels is normal; do not worry. Anyone with a cold or a cough should increase the pepper.

Day 20 (betel leaf). The fifth day after the new moon.

Betel leaf — 3.

Water — 500 ml (reduced down to 300 ml).

Pepper — 1 teaspoon.

Cumin — 2 teaspoons

1. Remove the stalk and the central vein of the betel leaf — they are too pungent.

2. Cut the leaf into small pieces.

3. Put it with the pepper and cumin into 500 ml of water and boil it down to 300 ml.

4. Do not strain it — drink it as it is.

5. Read your body: if you feel cold, vegetables or soup for the evening meal; if you feel hot, fruit.

All through the day; adjust the 5 PM meal to suit your body's warmth.

Warms the body and stirs digestion. It clears phlegm and quickens the metabolism. It clears bad breath.

Most of the other juices in this book are cooling. Eat only cooling food continuously and the digestive fire goes out. Betel leaf water is the day that restores the balance. The rule of the cycle is that not every day should run in the same direction.

Betel leaf is heating; if you feel too much heat, mouth ulcers or heartburn, reduce the amount. Tobacco must never be added.

Day 6 (cumin and pepper) and day 25 (cumin).

Water — 1 litre.

Pepper — 1 teaspoon.

Cumin — 2 teaspoons

1. Bring the water to a good boil.

2. Roast the pepper and the cumin lightly and put them in — roasting increases both the aroma and the benefit.

3. Cover it and let it steep in the hot water for 12 hours.

4. Strain it the next morning and use it through the day.

Make it at night and use it the next day. It is best drunk hot or warm.

A gentle cleansing that can be done every day. It clears wind and bloating and lights the digestive fire. For nursing mothers it increases the flow of milk.

Cumin prompts the digestive enzymes to flow; the piperine in pepper increases the absorption of everything else. Together they help the body draw more nourishment out of the little it eats on a light day.

Keep it covered while it steeps. This is the safest method of all — anyone may do it, pregnant women included.

Day 11 (lemon). Four days before the new moon.

Lemon — 1.

Palm candy — to taste.

Water — 1 litre.

Salt — a pinch

1. Squeeze one lemon and take the juice; remove the seeds.

2. Dissolve the palm candy in 1 litre of water.

3. Stir in the lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

4. Read your body: if you feel hot, fruit in the evening; if you feel cold, vegetables, soup or trotter soup.

All through the day, until 5 PM.

Gives freshness and hydration; lowers the body's acidity; gives steady, light energy.

Though lemon is sour, once digested in the body it gives an alkaline effect. A mixture of sugar, salt and water — this is the home form of the rehydration solution (ORS) given in hospitals. It replaces the salt the body loses on fast days.

Adjust the sweetness to taste; keep it light. Anyone with a stomach ulcer should reduce the lemon.

Day 5 and day 26 (sugar sabja). On both of these days the evening drink is dried grape (DG).

Water — 1 litre.

Country sugar — to taste.

Sabja — 2 teaspoons.

Almond gum — 3 to 5 pieces.

Lemon — 1.

Salt — 3 pinches.

Soaking water — 200 ml

1. Soak the sabja and the almond gum in 200 ml of water for 12 hours.

2. Add 1 litre of water and dissolve the country sugar in it.

3. Stir in the soaked seeds and gum.

4. Add the juice of one lemon and 3 pinches of salt.

Sip it slowly all through the day, until 5 PM.

Gives cooling and energy; replaces mineral salts; keeps hunger at bay. It also settles the mouth ulcers and burning urine that come from heat in the body.

This is the stronger form of method 10 — the same salt-sugar-water mixture, with the addition of seeds that fill the stomach. On a day when hunger is unbearable, switching to this method is better than breaking the plan. This is what "flexibility" means in the cycle method.

Only if the seeds are well soaked will they digest easily. Unsoaked sabja can cause a blockage in the gut.

Day 24 (sugar). In the middle of the climbing season.

Water — 1 litre.

Country sugar — to taste.

Salt — 3 pinches

1. Dissolve the country sugar in 1 litre of water.

2. Add 3 pinches of salt and stir.

3. Keep it at room temperature, neither hot nor cold.

All through the day, until 5 PM.

A simple energy-and-salts drink for low-calorie days and fast days. It prevents cramp and dizziness.

Salt alone without sugar, or sugar alone without salt — neither is absorbed properly in the gut. Glucose and sodium cross the gut wall together. That is why this simple mixture works so well.

Keep the sugar moderate; this is a supporting drink, not a meal. Anyone with diabetes should avoid it.

The evening drink for day 5 and day 26 (7 PM — DG).

Dried grapes — 100 g.

Water — 2 cups

1. Soak the dried grapes in 2 cups of water for two hours.

2. Grind them together with the soaking water — do not throw that water away.

3. Drink it as it is, without straining.

After 5 PM, either in place of that day's meal or alongside it.

Natural iron and energy; it eases constipation gently; it soothes the throat; it builds the blood.

Dried grapes carry soluble fibre and tartaric acid. These draw water into the gut and soften the stool. Unlike a laxative tablet, they do not force the gut to work — they add water and move things along naturally.

If the blender is weak, soak the grapes for longer. Anyone with diabetes should cut the quantity to 50 g.

At 12 noon on days 1–4 and 27–30; at 5 PM on days 9–12 and 18–22 (SM).

Chia seed — 1 teaspoon.

Cucumber — 1.

Tomato — 1.

Mixed greens — 1 bunch (no drumstick leaves).

Mint, coriander, curry leaf — a little of each.

Garlic — 2 cloves.

Ginger — a small piece.

Lemon — 1.

Gooseberry — 1, if you like

1. Soak the chia seed in warm water for 20 minutes.

2. Wash the greens well and take off the stalks.

3. Grind together the cucumber, tomato, greens, mint, coriander, curry leaf, garlic, ginger and the soaked chia.

4. Grind it to a smooth paste. If it is too thick, add a little water.

5. Add lemon juice; for extra cooling and vitamin C you may add a gooseberry.

6. Drink it as soon as it is ground — the longer it stands, the less nourishment it keeps.

12 noon — the hour when the day's digestive fire stands at its peak.

Full of nourishment; it lowers the body's acidity. The fibre and the chia keep the stomach full; they help both the cleansing and the digestion.

Grinding the greens breaks the cell walls, so the minerals and vitamins inside are available at once — which is something many of us cannot manage by chewing. Add ghee or coconut and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K are absorbed better still.

Do not add drumstick leaves to this. Use only fresh greens. Anyone taking thyroid medication should reduce the amount of raw greens.

At 6 in the morning on almost every day (GLD). Not on fast days.

Ginger — 10 g (finely chopped).

Water — 200 ml (reduced down to 150 ml).

Small lemon — 1

1. Put the chopped ginger into 200 ml of water and boil it down to 150 ml.

2. Take it off the heat and let it cool until it is warm.

3. Add the juice of one small lemon and drink it.

4. Eat nothing else for twenty minutes afterwards.

Around 6 in the morning, on an empty stomach — at the close of the Vata hour, the time when waste leaves.

It lights the digestive fire for the whole day; clears phlegm; warms the body gently; helps the morning waste to pass.

The body has been without water all night. In the early morning the Vata energy is ready to clear the waste. At that hour warm water stirs the gut and sets the movement going. The ginger lights the digestive fire. This is the switch for the day.

Drink it warm, not hot — a very hot drink harms the food pipe. Avoid it on dry fast days. Anyone with a stomach ulcer should reduce the ginger.

Day 6, 5 in the morning (PS — Prayer, Stomach Clean). Once a cycle.

Water — 2.5 litres (for the salt water) + 3 litres (plain).

Salt — 2.5 teaspoons.

Lemon — 1

1. A light meal the night before; finish by seven. Take the dried grape drink (DG).

2. In the morning mix 2.5 litres of water, 2.5 teaspoons of salt and the juice of one lemon, and warm it.

3. Drink all of that salt water within 30 minutes. Get up and walk about in between.

4. Then drink a further 3 litres of warm water.

5. The stool will come away in this order: solid, then half-solid, then water, and at last clear water. When clear water comes, the cleansing is finished.

6. Urine will pass within 2–3 hours. Then lie down and rest for an hour.

7. Three hours after the cleansing is finished, eat the ven pongal in method 26. Nothing at all before that.

Early morning on an empty stomach; stay at home for the whole of that day.

It washes the digestive tract from end to end and resets the gut. The skin brightens; the white coating on the tongue clears; the sense of hunger becomes distinct.

Because the concentration of the salt water is close to that of the blood, the gut does not absorb it but passes it straight through. Drink plain water and it mixes into the blood and leaves as urine; salt water travels along the gut and washes out everything in its path.

Do it only if you can rest that day. Anyone with blood pressure, heart or kidney trouble, or a stomach ulcer, should not do it without a doctor's permission. Because it is salt water, it is dangerous for anyone with high blood pressure. Pregnant women should not do it.

Day 8 (ENT cleansing). The evening meal is coconut milk (CM).

Shallots or onion — 50 g (in slices).

Raw banana, nendran or potato chips fried in coconut oil — 100 g.

Coconut milk — 300 ml.

Palm jaggery — to taste

1. Slice the onion thinly.

2. Make or buy chips fried in coconut oil.

3. Put two chips between slices of onion and chew it well.

4. Carry on this way until the quantity is finished. The eyes will water and the nose will run — that is the effect you want.

5. When it is done, drink coconut milk with palm jaggery to settle the heat in the mouth.

As the main act of that day, at midday; then stay light for the rest of the day.

Helps clear the waste that has settled in the ears, nose and throat; soothes mouth ulcers; brings back the sense of taste.

The sulphur compounds in onion stimulate the tear glands and the lining of the nose, thinning the phlegm that has settled there. At the same time the coconut oil keeps that lining from drying out. This is the Tamil form of the nasal cleansing Gandhi described.

Use only chips fried in coconut oil; no refined oil. Anyone with a stomach ulcer or heartburn should avoid it.

Day 13 and day 17 (honey fasting). On either side of the new moon.

Pure, unprocessed honey — 40 g (5 g at a time).

Orange juice — if it is needed to break the fast

1. 40 g of honey for the whole day; 5 g at a time, once every one to two hours.

2. Each time, hold the honey in the mouth for 5 minutes and swallow it only once it has mixed with saliva.

3. Take an enema in the morning; clean the eyes with an eye cup.

4. Bathe in cold water morning and evening.

5. You may drink water in between.

6. If you need to break the fast at the end of the day, drink orange juice.

From 6 in the morning until night, at intervals of one to two hours.

A gentle cleansing fast that rests the digestion; it holds blood sugar steady and prevents dizziness.

The fructose in honey is digested directly in the liver; it does not raise insulin much. Forty grams across a whole day is only about 120 calories — the body will begin to burn its own stores, while the glucose the brain needs is never interrupted.

Use only unprocessed honey of good quality. Honey must not be heated or stirred into hot water — heat turns it into a poison. Honey must never be given to a child under one year old. If you feel weak, stop.

Day 14 and day 16 (water fasting). The two days either side of the new moon.

Clean water — as much as is needed.

Orange juice — to break the fast (optional)

1. A light meal the night before.

2. Drink only plain water until 5 PM. Warm water is best.

3. No food at all during the fast; no milk, no tea, no coffee.

4. Keep the day's work light; no hard exercise.

5. If you need to, break the fast gently in the evening with orange juice.

From 6 in the morning until 5 in the evening.

Complete rest for the digestive system; it deepens the cleansing. The state in which cells begin to consume their own waste (autophagy) sets in.

After twelve hours with no food coming in, the body finishes its stored sugar and begins to burn fat. At the same time the system that clears out damaged parts of the cell starts working. For both of these to happen, digestion has to have stopped completely.

If dizziness, trembling or blurred vision come, stop at once and drink juice. Anyone on diabetes medication, pregnant women and nursing mothers should not do this.

Day 15 — the new moon (new moon dry fast). The centre of the cycle. The calories going in that day are zero.

Sesame oil — for the morning oil bath.

After 6 in the morning, no food and no water

1. A light meal the night before; finish by six. Drink plenty of water.

2. Rise in the morning and take an oil bath.

3. After 6 in the morning, a dry fast — no food and no water.

4. Keep a fast of silence for 3 to 24 hours in a quiet, closed room. No phone, no screen, no book.

5. Sit in meditation, or in padmasana with the chin mudra — right hand below, left hand above.

6. Watch the breath. If you feel tired, lie down in savasana and listen inwardly to the changes happening in the body from head to foot.

7. The next morning, a little warm water first; then fruit juice; and only then solid food.

Beginning after 6 in the morning on the new moon day, and lasting until the following morning.

The deepest reset of the cycle — it turns the senses inward, quietens the mind, and rests every system. The finest day there is for breaking a habit.

The new moon is like the moment of breathing out — a day on which the body is ready to clear its waste, says Moritz. The old saying that a good beginning is half the work applies to the new moon. Scientifically too, a state of complete water-fasting strongly stimulates the growth hormones and the cell's own cleaning.

This is the hardest day of all. If there is ill health, pregnancy, breastfeeding, diabetes, kidney trouble, or any medication — a dry fast must not be done. Do a water fast instead, or consult a doctor. A dry fast in hot weather is very dangerous. Anyone doing it for the first time should stop at 12 hours, not 24.

Day 1 and day 30 — the two full moons. The beginning and the end of the cycle.

Rice — half the usual amount.

Vegetable stir-fry — plenty.

Ghee — one teaspoon

1. Serve half the usual amount of rice.

2. Add enough vegetable stir-fry to fill the rest of the plate.

3. Pour on a teaspoon of ghee — it lowers the insulin rise from the rice.

4. No screen; sit down; take twenty minutes over it; chew well.

5. Stop when the stomach is three quarters full.

The main meal of the full moon day, between 12 and 1.

The peak of the cycle — a settling, satisfying meal after the light days. It gives the mind the message that there is no starvation here.

At the full moon the body tends to hold water, says Moritz — so it is not a day for hard cleansing. And besides, if every cycle began in scarcity the mind would resist it. Beginning in plenty and reducing slowly is the way that lasts.

Do not go beyond a half plate. The full moon is for nourishment, not for overeating. Fried food and sweets are out on this day too.

Day 2 and day 29 (quarter plate of rice).

Rice — a quarter measure.

Vegetable stir-fry — enough to fill the plate.

Rasam or buttermilk — one glass

1. Serve a quarter plate of rice.

2. Fill the whole of the rest of the plate with vegetables.

3. Do not start with the rice; eat the vegetables first. The rice only afterwards.

As the midday meal.

It cuts the starch down and keeps the vegetables plentiful. The rise in sugar stays gentle.

The stomach does not churn things about like a washing machine; it keeps them in layers, in the order they were eaten, says Moritz. So if you eat the fibre first, the rice that falls on top of it will enter the blood only slowly. The same food, a different order, a different result.

In place of the rice you have cut, add more vegetables, not more rice. Do not put two dense foods — rice and potato, say — together in one meal.

Day 3 and day 28 (a little rice). On day 28 there is an oil bath as well (WO).

Rice — a very small amount (one handful).

Vegetable stir-fry — plenty.

Soup — one bowl

1. Soup first; then vegetables; last, a handful of rice.

2. Chew well and eat slowly.

3. After eating, sit for ten minutes, then walk for fifteen.

As the midday meal.

Very little starch; the quantity of vegetables gives the sense of fullness.

In these days the body begins to burn its stored fat. But cut out starch altogether and the mind flags and the plan breaks. A handful of rice is not something the body needs — it is something the mind needs. The cycle method counts the mind as a factor too.

Chew well and eat slowly. Digestion begins in the mouth.

Day 4 and day 27 (vegetables only).

Vegetable stir-fry, vegetable soup or a fresh salad.

Good oil or ghee — one teaspoon.

Rice, bread, anything made of flour — none at all

1. Choose four or five kinds of vegetable — let there be different colours among them.

2. Make it as a raw salad, or a well-cooked stir-fry, or a soup — any one of these.

3. Add a teaspoon of good oil or ghee.

4. The vegetables must be neither undercooked nor overcooked — cooked exactly right.

5. Eat until comfortably full; do not worry about the amount.

At 5 PM, as the only solid meal of that day.

Plenty of fibre and micronutrients, very few calories. It trains you to feel full without starch.

The fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K are not absorbed without oil. So an "oil-free salad" is a salad without nourishment. A teaspoon of good oil may add calories, but it triples what you actually take in.

Use many kinds of vegetable — not the same one day after day. Do not include pulses more than once or twice a week; they make digestion harder.

Day 31 — the day after the cycle ends (normal food).

Ordinary home cooking — in moderation.

Fried, processed or restaurant food — none

1. The first day after a fast: fruit juice, fruit, buttermilk and thin gruel only.

2. The second day: ven pongal, rice, vegetables — in moderation.

3. From the third day, ordinary home cooking.

4. At every meal, stop when the stomach is three quarters full.

The closing days of the cycle.

It helps the body return gently to normal food. It prepares the mind for the next cycle.

Breaking a fast is work that takes more care than the fast itself. If you eat heavy food suddenly after a long fast, the body's salt balance is thrown out — in medicine this is called refeeding syndrome. So a gradual three-day return is essential.

On the first day back, avoid heavy, fried and processed food. The thought "the fast is over, now anything goes" is exactly what wastes the cycle.

Day 6, at 12 noon and at 5 PM (SL1). The food of the stomach-cleansing day.

Rice — ½ cup.

Green gram dal — ½ cup.

Pepper — ½ teaspoon.

Cumin — 1 teaspoon.

Ginger — a small piece.

Ghee or sesame oil — 50 ml

1. Soak the green gram dal for thirty minutes — it makes it easier to digest.

2. Put the rice and the dal together with four times the water and cook it to a very soft ven pongal.

3. Temper pepper, cumin and ginger in ghee and stir them in.

4. Pour in the rest of the ghee just before taking it off the heat.

5. Eat it hot.

Three hours after the stomach cleansing is finished; or at midday after a fast.

Hot, soft and easy to digest — it restores the lining of the gut after a cleansing.

After a cleansing the gut will be empty and very sensitive. Rice and green gram together supply all eight essential amino acids — what is missing in the rice is in the dal, and what is missing in the dal is in the rice. Ghee nourishes the gut wall. In Ayurveda this is "kitchari" — the chief of all recovery foods.

Ghee or sesame oil only; no refined oil. Keep the quantity moderate — only half the stomach.

Every day, without exception (W). On days 21 and 28, with an oil bath as well (WO).

W — Water, 1 litre.

W — Walk, 20 minutes.

Y — Yoga, 10 minutes.

P — Prayer, a few minutes with the lamp lit

1. A glass of warm water on waking. A glass half an hour before each meal; a glass two and a half hours after a meal. In all, 6–8 glasses a day.

2. Walk twenty minutes in the morning sun. The Kapha window, 6–10 in the morning, is the best time.

3. Ten minutes of yoga including the sun salutation. Savasana at the end.

4. Light the lamp and sit quietly for a few minutes. It does not matter if you have nothing to ask for — saying thank you is enough.

Every morning, between 5 and 8 o'clock.

The daily floor of the plan — movement, water, quiet. These are what hold every other method up. Even if you did only these four and dropped all the rest, there would be a benefit.

When the morning light reaches the eye the brain secretes more serotonin — which gives cheer for the whole day, and at night turns into melatonin and gives sleep. Which is to say, if you want to sleep well tonight, you have to go outside this morning. Walking, water, breath, quiet — all four are links in one chain.

Fit the walk and the yoga to what your body can do. Drinking more than 3–4 litres of water a day harms the kidney; 6–8 glasses is enough. Anyone who has gone a long time without enough water must not suddenly drink a great deal — add one glass a day.