“The way you eat is the way you live.”
What if I told you these 9 words transformed my life more deeply than 15 years of education? It’s not something my school teacher taught me, and definitely not my doctor. These words of wisdom were shared by my father. Words that I once took for granted. Little did I know the words I once took for granted would grant me my deepest wish one day – a disease-free, medicine-free, and limitation-free life.

Taking knowledge for granted 

When you sit down to solve a math problem, you crisscross, scratch and sweat your way through many paths until you finally reach the solution. Well, I had the solution sitting in front of me from the start, but it didn’t save me from the same intense struggle of hunting for it. When my struggle with thyroid started at the age of 17, my father who was highly influenced by Nature Cure philosophy insisted that I check out a few videos from the Satvic Movement channel right away.

From the raised eyebrows of my doctor’s dismissive glance, I felt like I shouldn’t take a chance. “Thyronorm is your only hope. It’s not a magic pill, but it will stop things from getting worse and keep you alive for the rest of your life.” – my doctor affirmed handing me a prescription slip with his best attempt at a comforting smile. While my friends were getting into their first committed relationships, I couldn’t believe I was getting forcibly married to Thyronorm for the rest of my life.

My 50 mg dose-escalated to 100 mg, and 100 mg escalated to 200 mg. But with every doubling dose, my thyroid symptoms only got more troubling. My anxiety wasn’t just limited to my architecture exams, but even for little things like getting anxious when I couldn’t find enough change in my pocket to pay the rickshaw as I reached college. It felt like the constipation of my stomach had climbed up to my head as reasonless stress invaded my mind 24/7.

My friends started joking that my absent-minded face resembled their video game characters whenever they left their game on pause. I would blank out randomly in class and look around at my neighbor’s notes to desperately catch up with the teacher all throughout the day. I started wondering how I would get through my architecture course as all my creative juices felt drained after my daily battle with Thyroid.

It was pretty clear that my faith in medication had failed me. I was tired of being a helpless ball caught in this endless ping-pong game between my doctor and my chemist.

Understanding the value of knowledge 

“The way you eat is the way you live.”

I reflected back on one of my father’s favorite pieces of advice for me. But this time, I could actually see it reflected as a piece of living wisdom. His eyes sparkled with clarity and focus that had been missing from my life. His face had a calm and caring youthful grace to it that I always attributed to good genes. But now I wondered – if that was true, why didn’t his good genes cross over to me? So maybe the Satvic lifestyle that he embraced did have something to do with his health and joyfulness.

I signed up for a Satvic Health Transformation workshop in May 2019 to dive deeper into this lifestyle and understand how it could help manage my thyroid. What I didn’t expect was to find a solution that didn’t care about managing the problem, but wiping it out completely. So I enthusiastically took the first step to dump processed dead foods and dairy products from my life. Quitting dead foods was easier than I expected. But asking a Gujarati to give up his daily chhaas is like asking a Punjabi to give up chhole bhature. It didn’t happen overnight, but I was willing to try it and let my body do the talking this time.

As my stomach started feeling lighter and my mind got clearer, I was motivated to embrace all the steps this time. My college would go on from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm. So I started my mornings with enema, sunbathing, and a refreshing glass of ash gourd juice at 8 am. By the end of it, I felt so light that I wasn’t walking towards my college gate anymore, but floating towards it. My mother teamed up to give me the best nurture Mother Nature could offer me to support my lifestyle switch. I couldn’t have done it without her tireless effort to prepare and pack delicious Satvic food for me every day. 

Jatan enjoying fresh carrot and tomato juice 

My 3-story lunchbox became the ultimate object of fascination for my architecture college mates – not for its design, but for the delights that were packed inside it. I have to admit they didn’t start out as fans. But when I explained bits and pieces of the philosophy that had worked for me and showed how there was no compromise on taste, they slowly started opening up. I even found a delicious dairy-free coconut chhaas recipe in the Satvic Food Book that made me feel like nothing was missing anymore.   

The top floor of my lunchbox was packed with some colourful seasonal fruits for my breakfast meal at 11 am. And as I moved onto its next floor during lunch at 2:30 pm, the crowd around me only got bigger. The Satvic rotis, broccoli soup and cheesy Satvic salad were always in popular demand. And fast forward to today, my mother packs lunches to feed up to 5 people every day. 

My food wasn’t just winning the hearts of my friends; it was winning the hearts of my teachers as well. No, I wasn’t bribing them with my lunch. But the creative juices that were flowing again in my toxin-free body were helping me to produce more inspiring building designs and blueprints in a week than I did in a year. Just like how you can’t redevelop an occupied building without vacating it, I finally understood that you can’t fully nourish your body without cleansing the toxins from your body first. 

Jatan giving his body a detox with wet packs 

4 months had passed by like 4 weeks. The joy on my face itself could tell you enough about my healing story. And my reports showed why – my thyroid levels had normalized from 8.36 TSH to 2.1 TSH. My anxiety and stress was history. I could laugh and make others laugh again. My focus was sharper than ever, which reflected in the depth of my notes and detail of my designs. Even my constipation disappeared as the dead weight of toxins parked in my intestines was totally flushed out. 

When knowledge transforms into wisdom  

I still remember how with every passing month, my faith in Mother Nature doubled and my medicine dosage halved. From 200 mg to 100 mg, and 100 mg to zero, I wasn’t worrying about giving up my medicine because I had given up what really mattered – my bad habits.

When I surprised my doctor with my results and asked him – “Can I have whatever I want now?” He delightfully exclaimed – “Yes! You can eat anything you want now.”

I politely declined saying – “I don’t need to. The way you eat is the way you live. I didn’t get healthy to indulge again. And I love what I eat and how it makes me feel now.”

When I finally acted upon my father’s words, I realized that only when you put knowledge into action does it transform into wisdom. I finally understand that the source of my father’s health wasn’t his genes, but Mother Nature’s grace. And if you’re willing to place your faith in her, she will pull you out of any disease that troubles you.

If you too suffer from any of these symptoms and wish to live a disease-free and a pain-free life, today is the day to give yourself that gift. Sign up for our Health Transformation Workshop and let joy return to your life. 

Click here to know more.