Received the above question in my comment box yesterday, so here goes.
As it happens I've been quite interested in the question of diet lately. I've been wondering what everyone else is eating the evening before the mornings practice. What do people find to be the best thing, you don't want to feel heavy but you want to have enough energy, pasta?
Here's a link to an earlier post this month that has some pictures of me when I first started the practice in March 07, as well as something more recent
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/2009/06/developing-practice-part-23-then-and.html
I was about 94 kilo then and now seem to have leveled out at around 77 Kilo.
To be honest, I haven't tried that hard to lose weight. I think before I started the practice I'd been eating pretty badly. A couple of slices of toast for breakfast, A large lunch, a bar, possibly two, of chocolate and/or crisps at work, half a bottle of wine or so with a large
dinner, plus desert.
Once I started to practice Ashtanga every morning, I found myself feeling heavy and uncomfortable. I cut down on the size of the portions I was eating at dinner and cut the wine down to half a glass or so, I cut out deserts altogether. Lunch ended up being half a mini box of Dorset cereal ( a kind of muesli ) with a banana, for breakfast a slice of toast and half a grapefruit. That plus the hour and a half practice every morning caused the weight to just drop off. I think I leveled out at 85 kilo around Easter 08 and it was about then I decided to become a vegetarian. One reason was a growing disgust with the extent of the meat industry that I really didn't want to buy into anymore and the other reason was to cut back on the protein intake.
I used to be a veggie back in my teens before traveling pretty much forced me to eat anything on offer. I didn't tend to cook meat that much anyway so it was an easy transition. I started to lose some weight again and ended up around 80 kilo and then following a trip to Paris where I walked from one end of the city to the other everyday on top of a morning practice,I lost a couple more Kilo. I must be the only person to Lose weight on vacation in Paris.
So there wasn't really any calorie counting or weird diets, just eating more sensibly and 90 minutes of Ashtanga every morning.
So what do I eat now.
Breakfast
Half a grapefruit and some Harvest crunch cereal or a slice of toast
Lunch
Still eating half a mini box of Dorset cereal with a banana
Most days a Waitrose toffee sundea (addicted)
Around 6pm
A couple of Tuc crackers with a little cheese if it's in the house (today there wasn't so i had half a tin or rice pudding instead)
Dinner
I used to cook a lot more but been very lazy lately, an average week might be...
Roast Vegetable couscous salad
Pasta, Arabiata perhaps, or some tag with roast vegetables or pesto
Jacket potato with Gruyere or Spanish omelet
Pizza
Cesar salad
A little wine in a glass topped up with ice cold fizzy water
Every weekend is the same
Loads of nice biscuits in bed with the paper
Scrambled or poached eggs for lunch
Saturday, Okonomiyaki ( a kind of Japanese cabbage pizza from the great city of Osaka or some Yakisoba
Some Sake
Sunday, Ishiyaki bibimba (Korean rice dish)
some Sake
Posts
6 comments:
Grimm, you've said that you tend toward being muscley. Did you find that your muscle mass (and subsequently, your caloric requirements) was reduced, when you cut back on the protein?
Have been told off, the weekend isn't ALWAYS the same : D
Hey Joy, I think so yes. My weight goes up a little when I'm doing a lot of handstands, arm balances etc That seems to be muscle. It's not too bad, but I wonder if I was still eating meat if my back and shoulders would bulk up a lot more. I kind of think I'd like to lose a couple more kilos. get down to, say 75 and be a leaner Ashtangi but suspect it's not my body type. I might lose a little weight naturally over the summer but am not too concerned about it, kind of curious and amused about the whole weight thing.
I used to think that the muscle in my back and shoulders might get in the way of the practice but it probably doesn't. I can still bind at the wrist in the Marichi's and it would probably show up there if anywhere. Though I do wonder sometimes about titibhasana.
Perhaps if you were still protein-loading and doing a lot of handstands/arm balances, you'd get bulky enough to make some binding difficult. But no need to be scrawny, either! Balance in all things, yes? ;)
Indeed yes.
Though now I come to think of it, I remember Touchdown Ted, I think his name was, on The Rocket DVD. Ex American Football player, seemed to be binding easily enough. We give ourselves so many excuses no? Arms too short, too much muscle or not enough, backside too big.... toes too short. Most of the time we seem to compensate and manage whatever pose we're after sooner or later.
hi Grimmly
thanks, how interesting that the practice makes you eat more moderately so that you don't feel bloated.
cheers,
Arturo
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