Ayurvedic eating - help please

Can anyone help with insight, understanding, recommendations...

I have recently been guided to alter my food intake, and rebalance it to embrace the six tastes. According to my dosha/s it is best to eat primarily astringent, pungent and bitter, and minimise sweet, sour and salty flavours. As a vegetarian this now means I probably should favour legumes over my twice daily love of tofu. And damn ;-) I may only get a stir fry once a week, instead of once a day.

Can anyone explain why you need to do this changeover slowly - not all at once (I got quite ill)? But doing it slowly I am getting good results with many physical symptoms lessening.

Does anyone have some favourite easy (ayurvedically inspired) recipes which include any one of the following: lentils, chick peas, spinach, aubergines (or eggplants for Australians), and minimises the use of tomatoes and cheese. And any breakfast recipes that fall into the predominantly pungent/bitter/astringent flavour would help too. Vegemite is probably sweet and salty predominantly - so that can be saved for special occasions;-). I love curries and Thai dishes best, but as rice is sweet, this may need to change as well, at least a little.

I'd appreciate hearing any other stories of how people have successfully made this type of change. What personal and kitchen strategies did you use? Gathering some lovely new recipes may help curb the tendency to fall back on old (symptom producing) favourites.

What are the best books, with user friendly recipes and food charts, and stuff? I have borrowed "The Chopra Centre Cookbook" by Ginna Bell Bragg and David Simon from a library. Its a great book but its not available to buy in Australia at the moment.

Thankyou so much in advance for any help anyone can give.

rainbow blessings
**Magic**