Sunday, April 6, 2014

Basic Physiology, Etiquette and Culture

In case you missed my Facebook post after this morning's class, or if you're not a Facebook friend or follower, I wanted to reiterate my words of gratitude, posting: "Thank you everyone for the hugely positive response to my new blog. I came out of yoga to some very supportive comments. Namaste."

I was, and still am, feeling very thankful for all the wonderful support and encouragement that my friends and family have offered as I have begun this endeavor, and I just wanted everyone to know how much the outpouring has meant to me.  Thank you.



Waking up the first morning at 3 am may have been a fluke, but I have learned rising early is going to be vitally important for my month of daily double yoga.

The breakdown is pretty simple:  Food is energy.  Yoga requires energy.  No yoga on a full stomach.

Good food is fuel for the body, and eating right can lower inflammation in the body and help the body recover and repair itself faster than if you were eating poorly.  The yoga class is an hour and a half of intense effort, sweating from the first breathing exercise to the last savasana.  And, eating just before you twist and contort your body every which way in 105 degree heat is ill advised.

That leaves me with the option of either eating two hours before the 6 am class, or skip eating and just go straight to class on an empty stomach.  The second option might be fine if you're not attempting to do doubles of yoga every day for thirty days, but I found out yesterday the hard way that not eating is not going to be an option.  Yesterday morning when I skipped breakfast was when I could barely stay in the room the full ninety minutes.

What do I eat at 4 am?  In trying to stick with the outline in the book "It Starts with Food" I've been trying to have an appropriate portion of protein, good fats, and then filling the rest of my plate with vegetables, like so:
This is my breakfast from this morning, straight from my instagram: "Starting the day off right. #nofilter Yam, onion, banana, chia seeds, ghee and three eggs scrambled. Yum! :)"

Remember yesterday how I said I love good food?  Paleo food is good food, and about half of my instagram posts in recent months have been of the food I've been cooking.  For example:
This is Nom Nom Paleo's Cracklin' Chicken.  It is one of the easiest, most delicious chicken recipes I have ever had, and it almost feels like cheating every time I have it.  The recipe can be found here: Cracklin Chicken.

The topic of cheating actually brings me back to where I was meaning to go with this.  In addition to finding out the hard way that I really need to eat before my morning classes, I also decided to twice put to the test the effect of cheating on my new eating lifestyle while doing a month of daily double yoga.

I don't regret either meal, and for the first one I was actually trying to be good.  I went out to Halibut's in Portland on Friday night after dancing for a couple of hours, glanced at the menu and ordered the Alaskan salmon with sweet potato fries.  I didn't happen to notice I was ordering fish and chips, which should have been obvious in retrospect, but a lot of things seem obvious in retrospect, so who knows?  The food was fantastic, as was the live music.

Then, today for lunch I was over to the west side in Beaverton and stopped by one of my favorite places to eat, Roxy's Island Grill, where I had my usual, orange chicken with two scoops of mac and a scoop of rice.  I'll add that I have never liked macaroni salad, and Roxy's mac salad is the singular exception to that rule.

Both meals were fantastic, and I don't regret the cheating, but I felt a difference in the classes after each meal.  In both subsequent classes I found that I had a more difficult time just staying in the room.  I'm not going to say I won't cheat again this month, because I might, but I'll certainly think twice, and then a third time before I do.

Even after the poor decision and effects of the lunch I chose, I still managed a "first" this afternoon, writing in check in: "I was able to attempt every set of every pose in both classes today."  I came out of class feeling confident that I was making improvements, and that this thirty days might not be so crazy as it had first seemed.  This is a thing I'm doing.

Eating right is just one half of the intake equation.  The other half is hydration.

I've always been prone to cramping, and that was knowledge I took very seriously when thinking about the basic physiology of this endeavor.  I was going to have to get ahead and stay ahead of replacing electrolytes in my body.  To this end I started using Elete, a liquid supplement my parents have been using, and I have also been drinking plenty of coconut water everyday.  The coconut water is delicious, but the supplement in my water took a little getting used to.

The cramps I have had have only been minor twinges for the most part, unavoidable and to be expected.  I would quantify my hydration efforts as a glowing success, though there was one day that my abs cramped up in class, when I couldn't even manage to lay in savasana at the end, and then struck again that night when I was trying to go to bed.

Lastly, I knew this morning that I would touch briefly on etiquette when I sat down to write my blog post today.  I knew it the moment class began and I stood up from laying in savasana on my mat to find that someone in the front row had put down their mat directly in front of me.  The minor annoyance caused me to have to move so that I was lined up at a break in the mirror on the front wall, which I find distracting, and distractions are the enemy to a ninety minute class of intense yoga.  It also caused me to start thinking about the etiquette and culture of Bikram yoga that I have experienced.

I had a very poor experience when I first attempted to start doing yoga a couple of years ago at a different local studio.  I won't go into that here, because I want to keep this blog generally positive, and it was a very un-positive experience.  However, it was an important experience, as most poor experiences are, in this case because it gives me a huge appreciation for the etiquette and culture cultivated at the West Linn studio where I practice.

The morning's one minor annoyance was easily forgiven, an oversight by a lovely woman who I chatted with after class.  Teachers at the studio have made it a point to learn my name, which has had an immeasurable effect on the feeling of community at the studio.  In addition, other students have taken interest in what I'm attempting, and have been encouraging me in my efforts, congratulating me on my successes, and commiserating in those first few moments right after class when I feel completely exhausted.

The exhaustion quickly fades, I've found, where the efforts and successes are lasting.  I am enthused, I am excited, and I feel like I can not wait for the rest of this awesome journey!

Namaste.

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