Everyday Ayurveda with Kate

An hour shouldn't rock your boat, but it does. If you live where the clocks change in spring and fall, you've probably felt the dread of the early dark. In this solo episode, Kate answers the question she hears every year: what does Ayurveda say about managing the time change and the move into the darkest months?

Kate draws on more than 25 years of Ayurveda practice and her own experience of staying put in a northern climate through November, December and January. She shares what surprised her: a stretch of deep sleepiness each November right as the clocks change, why she stopped fighting it, and what happened when she let herself rest. From there she walks through simple, practical tools for easing the transition and brightening the season.

In this episode

Why the fall time change hits so hard, and why moving into the darker months is natural no matter what the clocks say

Ayurveda's gentle approach to shifting your schedule: 15 minutes at a time, and wait until it feels like "no biggie" before the next shift

Why meal times are one of your most important circadian rhythms, and why to eat earlier and load food into midday

Why it's okay (and healthy) to want more sleep in winter, and why going to bed earlier beats sleeping in late

Lights down and screens off earlier, and why low lamps work better than overhead lighting in the evening

Foot and ear massage with sesame oil as a sleepy-time ritual

Where to find the best sun this time of year, and how to stalk the sunshine, even through a window

Walking in the dark: headlamps, reflective clothing and ice cleats

Brightening your world with color, sparkle and fresh herbs

Lemon, ginger, pickled and spicy foods, and a pomegranate mocktail for the late-afternoon slump

A recap of the tools, and why the early sunset heralds the winter solstice

Take-home practices

Shift bedtime, wake time or dinner by 15 minutes, and wait until it feels easy before shifting again

Eat dinner earlier and make midday your biggest meal

Dim the lights and power down screens at least an hour before bed

Massage the soles of your feet and your ears with sesame oil, then put on socks

Get outside in the sunniest part of the day, even for 10 minutes, or sit at a sunny window

Add color, a little sparkle, fresh herbs, lemon and ginger to your days

If this episode helps you, subscribe, and share it with a friend who dreads the early dark. [LINK]

Health disclaimer: The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Culinary Training in India
https://ayurvedicliving.institute/ayurvedic-culinary-nutrition-training

Ayurvedic Living Institute Membership: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/membership

Women's Health Collection: https://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/collections/womens-healthhttps://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/products/courses/copy-of-fall-community-cleanse-2024

Panchakarma in India: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/panchakarma-in-india

Thanks to our Sponsors:
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When was the last time anyone gave you a trophy for resting? Nobody does, and that's part of the problem. In this episode, Kate sits down with her colleague Lizzie Lasater, daughter of restorative yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasater and co-author of Savasana: The Practice of Radical Rest, just as the Northern Hemisphere heads into its season of long nights.

Lizzie is honest about why she wrote the book: not because rest comes easily, but because she is a self-described high-achieving workaholic who finds it hard. Together, she and Kate explore why teachers and students sign up for restorative training and then don't practice, why rest feels frightening, and how rest can be a stand-alone practice rather than the five minutes at the end of class.

In this episode:

Why Savasana is described as yoga's most powerful pose, and why the book calls rest "radical"

Restorative yoga in two minutes: comfort, props, and supporting the body's own intelligence for rest

You don't need props or training: resting on the floor or in a side-lying couch Savasana

Hindrance one: "I'm too busy to rest," and what busyness protects us from feeling

Hindrance two: "Resting is selfish," and the case that our nervous systems co-regulate each other

Hindrance three: "I'm afraid of the dark," including fear of the void, of what might surface, and of death

Hindrance four: "Resting means I'm lazy," and Lizzie's "inner Protestant voice"

The shift from "I don't have time" to "I'm not making time"

Why a spacious life needs a spacious calendar

Strength and recovery as partners, not competitors

How rest has become slippery in the age of phones, scrolling and AI

The Savasana Summit, a five-day event starting in December

Rapid-fire: Lizzie's morning, first drink of the day, and wind-down routine

Take-home practices:

Pause at the "I could do, do, do, or I could not" moment, and try choosing not-doing as an experiment

Swap "I don't have time" for "I'm not making time" and notice what changes

Protect one boundary this weekend (no email, no posting) and see what happens

Try a side-lying Savasana on the couch with the pillows you already have

Remember that 15 to 20 minutes of Savasana can be your whole practice for a day

About Lizzie Lasater: Lizzie grew up in a yoga household (her mother has taught since 1971), began her own practice at 18, and now leads retreats and teacher trainings and an online yoga community with her mother. She studied architecture and has a master's in design, and she lives in Austria. Savasana: The Practice of Radical Rest is her first book and her mother's twelfth.

Links:

Lizzie Lasater: Instagram @lizzie.lasater

Lasater Yoga online community and Savasana Summit registration: lasater.yoga 

Savasana: The Practice of Radical Rest

 

Health disclaimer: The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, movement, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Culinary Training in India
https://ayurvedicliving.institute/ayurvedic-culinary-nutrition-training

Ayurvedic Living Institute Membership: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/membership

Women's Health Collection: https://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/collections/womens-healthhttps://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/products/courses/copy-of-fall-community-cleanse-2024

Panchakarma in India: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/panchakarma-in-india

Thanks to our Sponsors:
 Osi Oils: www.osioils.com 
Use code RITUAL15 for 15% off your order.

When the weather turns dry and cold, the bowl-of-salad habit stops working. Your digestion starts asking for food that is warm, cooked, soft, and a little moist. In this solo episode, Kate answers the question “what do I actually eat?” with the quick, repeatable go-tos she uses every fall.

Kate explains why fall calls for warm and moist qualities to balance the dryness and coldness of the season, and how that dryness can show up in hair, skin, nails, thirst, and sluggish elimination. Then she gets practical: three kitchen tools, three breakfasts, a prep-ahead routine, soups, pickles, protein, and simple sides, all designed for people who like homemade food but don’t want to spend hours at the stove.

What we cover

Why fall eating shifts toward warm, cooked, and moist foods, and what dryness can look like in the body

Kate’s three fall kitchen tools: immersion blender, toaster oven, and Instant Pot (including the delay-start trick and why hers lives on the porch)

The warm smoothie method: warmed milk, a rotating seed, a touch of sweetness, vanilla, ghee, and warming spices

Kate’s warming spice mix: equal parts ginger and cinnamon with about a quarter part cardamom

Pumpkin cacao: the variation with pumpkin puree and raw cacao (plus where protein powder fits)

Why a teaspoon of ghee in breakfast keeps Kate satisfied longer

Morning prep: cooking small beans (split mung or red lentils) for later

Baking winter squash and sweet potatoes in batches, and the many ways to use them

A hearty soup of squash, lentils or mung beans, coconut milk, and fresh ginger (stovetop or Instant Pot)

Condiments that make soup satisfying: toasted pumpkin seeds with tamari, seaweed, and the wasabi pea trick

Beets: pressure-cook, peel easily, and pickle in apple cider vinegar for a quick digestive-friendly condiment

Baked tofu with ghee, tamari, nutritional yeast, or tahini, and the ramekin trick for softening cold ghee

Baby kale and spinach as the “when I don’t know what to eat” grab-and-wilt green

Seared Brussels sprouts with tamari and fresh Parmesan

Swapping the water bottle for a thermos of warm, spiced cumin-coriander-fennel water

Health disclaimer

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Culinary Training in India
https://ayurvedicliving.institute/ayurvedic-culinary-nutrition-training

Ayurvedic Living Institute Membership: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/membership

Women's Health Collection: https://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/collections/womens-healthhttps://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/products/courses/copy-of-fall-community-cleanse-2024

Panchakarma in India: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/panchakarma-in-india

Thanks to our Sponsors:
 Osi Oils: www.osioils.com 
Use code RITUAL15 for 15% off your order.

If our food isn't "full power," will we feel full power? In this conversation, Kate talks with Pat Miletich, a UFC champion, martial arts coach, and Hall of Famer whose life mission is now soil health. Pat shares how a childhood of respiratory illness set him on a lifelong search for answers, and how that search led from human performance to the soil that grows our food and our herbal medicines.

Kate and Pat explore why they see soil as a living ecosystem, how they see the diversity of microbes in soil mirroring the microbiome in our gut, and why Pat believes mineral diversity in soil matters for the plants, animals, and people who depend on it. They talk about what organic and regenerative labels may leave out, what to ask the grower at your farmers market, and what you can do whether you have a backyard, a tiny plot, or no garden at all.

 

What We Cover

Why Kate keeps coming back to the soil, and how it connects to Ayurveda's "you are what you eat"

Pat's journey from childhood illness to UFC champion to soil advocate

What soil health actually means: minerals, microorganisms, and the web of relationships beneath your food

How Pat compares soil biology and the human microbiome

Weeds and medicinal herbs as signals of what the soil is missing

Why the questions "organic?" and "regenerative?" may not be the whole story

Grounding and walking barefoot: why Pat says to know your soil first

Starting or renewing a backyard garden, including small plots

Why Pat says flavor is a clue to nutrient density

Planting a food forest of berries and fruit trees instead of purely ornamentals

What to do if you don't grow your own food

The farmers market question: "What was used to grow this?"

Prana, vitality, and stewardship of the land

Rapid-fire questions: morning prayer, first drink of the day, and a very non-standard wind-down

 

Take-Home Practices

Ask your grower how the food was grown: herbicides, fungicides, synthetic NPK fertilizer, or truly organic

If you have any space at all, plant edibles (berries, fruit trees, bushes) in place of purely ornamental plants

If you practice grounding, learn what is in the soil you're standing on

Notice flavor. Pat says real nutrient density tastes like something.

Visit soilsaviors.org to explore Pat's Art and Science of Soil course.

 

About Pat Miletich Pat Miletich is a UFC champion, martial arts coach, and Hall of Famer who grew up in Bettendorf, Iowa. Following a childhood shaped by respiratory illness, he spent decades researching health, performance, and nutrition. Today his mission is soil health: regenerating the soil that grows our food and our herbal medicines.

Links

Soil Saviors: soilsaviors.org

Cell Saviors: cellsaviors.org

Health Disclaimer: The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Culinary Training in India
https://ayurvedicliving.institute/ayurvedic-culinary-nutrition-training

Ayurvedic Living Institute Membership: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/membership

Women's Health Collection: https://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/collections/womens-healthhttps://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/products/courses/copy-of-fall-community-cleanse-2024

Panchakarma in India: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/panchakarma-in-india

Thanks to our Sponsors:
 Osi Oils: www.osioils.com 
Use code RITUAL15 for 15% off your order.

Are apples good for you according to Ayurveda? It depends on your digestion, and on how you prepare them. In this solo episode, Kate O'Donnell explains why apples are one of the best fall foods for cooling excess heat (pitta), why a raw, crisp apple can feel hard on a cold or sensitive gut, and how to cook apples so you get all of the medicine and none of the bloat.

 

Kate starts with the Ayurvedic qualities of apples: cold, hard, juicy and fibrous. She explains why those qualities calm pitta and move the bowels, and why they can aggravate vata and kapha when the apple is eaten raw. Then she shares the principle behind her "Apple Madness" recipes. Knowing a food's qualities is step one. Step two is how you process it: raw or cooked, pureed, warm or cold, with or without digestive spices.

 

From there, it's a tour of her fall kitchen: gingered applesauce with the skins left on (pink is a feature), stewed apple compote, stuffed baked apples with cider and dried fruit, apples stir-fried in ghee, apple crisp with an oat and almond flour topping, grated-apple overnight oats and gingerbread chia pudding, a curried apple butternut squash soup, and a simple apple cup filled with nut butter and spice.

 

In this episode:

 

Why apples are a pitta-balancing fall fruit (and when they aggravate vata and kapha)

The Ayurvedic qualities of apples: cold, hard, juicy, fibrous

Why cooking, pureeing and warming spices change how apples digest

Apple skin, pectin and the prebiotic fiber that supports gut health

Why moisture and fiber make apples a gentle fall "get things moving" food

Pears vs. apples, plus cooling fruits from India: custard apple, chikoo (sapote) and melons

Why bananas are tricky: cool, heavy and moist (and why ripeness matters)

Gingered applesauce: why cinnamon and ginger are non-negotiable

Stewed apple compote and the baked apple with cider and dried fruit

Ghee-sautéed apples, apple crisp, apple overnight oats and gingerbread apple chia pudding

Curried apple butternut squash soup

The easy "apple cup" snack, from Laura Olson

A simple tip for food combining: cook fruit with spices and serve it warm

 

Take-home tip: If a raw apple feels cold and hard on your belly, don't skip it. Cook it, puree it, or warm it with ginger and cinnamon.

 

Mentioned in this episode:

 

Ayurveda Fall Community Cleanse, October 17–26 — 10 days of nourishing meals, daily routines and mindful practices, all online with Kate (dates are flexible if needed). Learn more and save your spot at ayurvedicliving.institute

Kate's cookbooks (gingered apple butter and ghee-sautéed apples)

The earlier episode on fruit digestion (search "fruit" in your podcast app)

 

Share your Apple Madness: Tag Kate on Instagram at @kateodonnell.ayurveda, leave a comment on your podcast platform, or email hello@ayurvedicliving.institute.

 

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before changing your diet or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Culinary Training in India
https://ayurvedicliving.institute/ayurvedic-culinary-nutrition-training

Ayurvedic Living Institute Membership: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/membership

Women's Health Collection: https://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/collections/womens-healthhttps://courses.ayurvedicliving.institute/products/courses/copy-of-fall-community-cleanse-2024

Panchakarma in India: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/panchakarma-in-india

Thanks to our Sponsors:
 Osi Oils: www.osioils.com 
Use code RITUAL15 for 15% off your order.