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The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › Weight Loss and Hot Yoga › Best food after yoga
Tagged: food
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I usually attend class after work which ends at 7pm. I feel as though I could possibly eat the entire contents of my refrigerator. :vampire: What foods do you find would be most beneficial after a Bikram yoga class? :bug:
looking forward to your suggestions, yoga-flo
Hi yoga-flo
Boy, don’t I know the feeling! Sometimes I can be so ravenous… Firstly I try to replenish some fluid, straight after class. That’s really a no-brainer :cheese:
On the way home or when I get home I want something instant. Raw foods work well as an appetizer. Munch on a carrot, an apple or some nuts while you are making your dinner!
Have something planned on hand, means you can make body-intuitive decisions and not instant fill-my-stomach-now decisions that you would not normally make. 😉
We often make miso soup with finely diced vegies, or spread miso paste on toast (yum) as snacks. I posted a great idea for what we call a Super Salad, on the blog. Super Salad Recipe
I know you hear it a lot but really listening to what your body wants is a skill worth both practicing and cultivating.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hello!
I know each person is different, but generally, how long does it take a person to develop this skill – of knowing what the body really wants? I started Bikram yoga two weeks ago and I still believe my body wants and needs chocolate and fried food 🙂
You mentioned cultivating the skill — I’d really like to know how I can do that.
Thank you for your comments Shopgirl1030!! I know a lot of my friends feel the same way we do. I have been practicing for 5 years and have been quite mindful of what I eat. If I had a choice, though, I would eat a greasy cheese burger and top it off with a fudge brownie.
:red: yoga-flo
Great questions shopgirl1030 and yoga-flo
Yoga-flo, do you ever go out and eat that greasy cheese burger topped off by a fudge brownie? I sincerely hope that you do – sometimes :cheese:
It is terrible to deny yourself or to make choices out of a sense of guilt. Shopgirl1030 that is a very good question: how do you cultivate that intuition about what is right for you to eat?
I am hoping that others come and chime in with their own experiences. How did you develop your body intuition?
As you intimate, it is a process that either happens with a bang or a whimper! Just so you know my experience, I once had a weight issue (probably was 30 pounds heavier at the most). I went on a ‘diet’ and as a result of this particular style of eating I learned how to listen to my body.
It was basically an eating plan I fashioned based on SIMPLIFICATION and COMBINATION. I think this was my key… In essence I spent weeks starting on one food type per meal, eating as much of it as I wanted. There were three meals per day and I was supposed to eat the three meals per day. There were certain rules about the timings between meals depending on the types of food I ate.
The first 10 or so days I only ate one type of food per meal and over the next couple of weeks I started to introduce different types of foods and then combinations of them.
What happened during that time was my body was actually able to discern how it felt because the foods were so simple. Contrast that with eating a heavy interesting complex meal. You may not know what it was that made you feel a certain way because it was harder to analyze the specific effects, but you remember, for example, that it was delicious, or even that you had too much of x or would have liked more of y.
After I ‘finished’ the plan that I had made I noticed that I could literally work out what I wanted or needed based on my feeling. I could literally say, what I really need is a stir fry, a salad or yes, even a pizza. I KNEW how I would feel afterwards by how I felt before.
That was my journey. For me the key was being able to have simple stuff going in, and naturally intuiting how it affected me (which happened largely unconsciously). Actually one of the great revelations I had was that my body didn’t like certain things: one of them was meat (my system shut down for over 3 whole days :gulp: . I am not espousing any type of doctrine here, it is up to the individual to decide what they eat.
Anyway, let me know if this is of help to you.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂It was a little hard for me to absorb what you said in your reply, Gabrielle. I was fixated on your encouraging yogaflo to get that greasy cheeseburger. Haha. 🙂
But yes, after reading your post again, I realized that what you were suggesting sounded very reasonable and doable. I’d like to try it! Maybe I’ll read up more on those concepts too. I’ll let you know how it feels.
I am four years recovered from an eating disorder that had me in hospital. so I KNOW what a journey it can be to relearn how to eat and what my body REALLY needs. today……. i can check in and find what my belly is asking for and …… feed it 😆
For me it was and is a lot about feelings. When I ‘m about to eat or craving something I have to stop and and breathe, feel my emotions and pay attention to my surroundings to put myself in the moment. once I’m present it’s like a gentle wave of knowledge that connects me to what I need.
I know how zen or silly that may sound but hey… it if it ‘ain’t broke don’t fix it!Hi blue
I really enjoyed your knowingness around your process and no, it doesn’t sound silly at all. For me, having that mindfulness and self-connection is a liberation and a welcome ‘gift’.
And shopgirl1030 (because I like to use your whole name ;)) feel free to email me and I can point you in a direction that may assist you… if you would like some help that is.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂I have to have a plan otherwise, all hell breaks lose once I am home!
I can tell I’ve been needing more protein since I began Bikram. To the point where I’ve been making hamburgers (bison!) at home and made bean enchiladas for dinner.
I definitely need protein for lunch the day I have Bikram – I go to class at night. If not, I am woozy. I almost need to eat a larger than normal lunch that day to sustain me or I get woozy.Totally agree with the protein desire – me too.
After 15 years of “doing sweet nothing” as well as a rather hard-livin’ past, my body took some battering when I first started hot yoga.
I found I really needed some corrective elements (stepped up B-vitamins – in fact general stress-supplements) and also the protein craving.
I personally suspect (I’m NOT an expert!) that the whole sugar craving is body-shock and with some re-balancing it goes away. I will testify to this as after having had pneumonia 7 weeks ago and now after my 4th class back, the rather large chocolate appetite I had developed while recovering (chocolate IS good for pneumonia no?) has vanished (after the first class actually).
So given that this style of yoga is a very hard workout, it is worth considering what any personal trainer may recommend for your body in terms of protein etc.
Fascinating stuff … now … where did I put that greasy cheeseburger?
😉
Robert
Hmm…Well I think what I crave changes almost daily, but I will say that it usually tends to be salty foods like rice crackers or something, sometimes protein, and of course tons of water.
I have been known though to come home and eyeball the entire fridge…now I just eyeballed it, didn’t say I ate the thing:)
I have a sensitive constitution which doesn’t tolerate gluten, dairy, coffee or alcohol. Prior to doing Bikram yoga, I would indulge regularly in all of these and go through the consequences which ranged from mild spaced-outness, nausea to migraines. However, since doing this yoga 2-4 times a week for 12 months, I have found that if I indulge in any of these even on a small scale, in class I invariably experience gastric reflux, nausea and weakness, even if it has been days since the indulgence. I therefore now make the choice to indulge very much less often in these things and the results are remarkable. I now no longer crave sugar and I feel much more in control of my body. I’m grateful for the yoga’s effect in increasing my dietary discipline. Now I feel great most of the time. And that is a real plus after years of on and off health issues that were diet related but I found difficult to do anything about.
I subscribe to InnerAthlete.
The problem with beginning any sport, or motion system, or yoga is that the beginner is bombarded with a lot of information and he/she does not have the experience to sort them. Sometimes not that important stuff gets priority, and important things are missed.
Any sudden change in your lifestyle will be doomed to fail. It is stressful and if you don’t give up willingly, the subconscious will find a way to get rid of this stressful situation.A beginner yoga student’s main task is to try to incorporate yoga to his/her lifestyle. This must be done in steps, and if your lifestyle is challenging, this might take a lot of time. So the focus, in the beginning is not in the class, but in your life to create the necessary “space”. The foundation of a healthy and sound practice is outside the class.
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