Last night was my sister's birthday and I had a couple of glasses of wine times three. Yeah, about that. Maybe a bit more. Times four? No! Couldn't have been...
Anyway I am not disallowing alcohol in my life at this time; rather I am making hydration a must at all times. After spending last Sunday lying on the beach all day without any water, sweating litres in class later that day, and then not properly hydrating, I REALLY paid for that on the Monday. Not repeating that. So in a way I'm glad I had that experience because I never want to feel that way again, and I won't.
My body is very sensitive right now. I am practicing food combining (for the most part) meaning that I either have a carb like rice or yam or squash with veggies, OR a protein like meat, chicken, fish, etc with veggies, but not a carb and a protein together at the same meal, (and sometimes I just have veggies with no carb or protein), AND I only eat fruit on an empty stomach. I don't know to what degree food combining is necessary or effective for me, but as I've mentioned I am trying to drop a few more pounds and I want to maximize digestive efficiency in order to utilize all the nutrients I consume the best way I can, and save energy. Anyway, I threw caution to the wind this weekend - for instance last night we ate at the Keg, and I had bread, cheese (which I'm not really having right now), tons of butter, steak, crab, potatoes...and ice cream cake for dessert Whew! (That is NOT a typical meal for me but needless to say: amazingly yummy). Ordinarily my stomach would actually be fine with all that as I'm not that food sensitive, but that certainly affected my stomach and energy levels last night and today, especially with all that wine. I haven't felt that FULL in a long time, and I must say that feeling about that full was a very regular, almost daily fact of life for me in the past. How could I have lived like that?! It was so unpleasant.
Oh but it didn't stop there. Today I had a mini burger at Mother's Day lunch (alongside chicken salad) and then a relatively small piece of cake with whipped cream and strawberries about two hours later. It really wasn't that much food, but again: I felt it. In fact I conked out for about an hour and a half, even though I'd slept 8.5 hours last night! When I woke up I could still feel that cake sitting there, and it took yoga to move all that food through my system. To be honest, I didn't eat again today. I'm not sure if that's bad, but I just didn't feel the need or desire. After yoga I prepared a very delicious lunch for myself tomorrow consisting of a Thai veggie soup and steamed squash with all kinds of delightful seasonings, but I didn't feel the slightest inkling to eat any of it. There have been quite a few days on this challenge where I have not eaten dinner. The paleo crowd says that this is fine, and from an evolutionary perspective and looking at different groups around the world, it is and has been VERY normal to skip a meal. But it was always so ingrained in us never to do that, and generally as a society we're still quite hooked on the 3 square meals a day thing. Also there's the blood sugar thing. If I feel hungry and I don't eat, I turn illogical and emotional (something my ex could see coming a mile away, and would call "bonking"). So, who knows. Some say "listen to your body", others say "what about when your body tells you to eat a whole box of cookies?! No, definitely do not listen to your body in fact that term doesn't even mean anything."
Anyway, since Day 1 (20 days ago) I have dropped 3-5 pounds (it goes up and down depending on the day). I guess that is quite significant, it just doesn't feel like it because I am still not at my slimmest.
Moving along, I had the strongest class of my challenge today! I judge a class by many things, but one is the way I feel during the 20 second savasanas of the floor series. if I feel restless and heatstroked and exhausted, that's bot a great class. today I felt deep calm and even a kind of euphoria. So great! the classes that keep you going. My back was almost pain free and I haven't yet mentioned that I have seen big improvements with my flexibility. My body is healing! It is no longer the case that I feel the need to modify my postures just to stay out of pain.
During class the teacher mentioned that during her teacher training the attendees would drink pickle juice to get the salts back in their body. (By the way, I have been consuming more salt than usual and feeling that it has been a benefit. Miso soup feels like an especially nutrifying and helpful food at this time.) So a girl piped up and said that pickle juice was the cure for hangovers in Russia.
Well, that was all I needed to hear. I was sold. When I got home - without thinkng about it, without ANY hesitation - I had my very first cold, refreshing glass of pickle juice ... and it tasted DIVINE!
Try it!
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