Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Astanga

It was pleasant out in the early afternoon, so I was able to take my practice outside. This has a number of advantages: sunlight, air, a tree branch hovering just overhead that brushed my fingertips as I reached up in sun salutations (and the fact that I'm unlikely to burst into tears in a public place).

I went to the Little Park and set up near enough to the pine trees to enjoy the piney scent, but far enough away to avoid the pine cones on the ground. As I moved through the Primary Series and felt the breeze on my skin, I knew that I was in exactly the right place this time. I felt a sense of peace.

(No tears today. By the way, that was definitely my Lady's knocking on my emotional door. I feel better today, still funk-y, but better.)

Unfortunately, grey clouds moved across the sky as I practised and by the time I was in Savasana, tiny rain drops were falling. I was perfectly fine with this, but the dog was not; she equates any type of precipitation with thunder storms. As I tried to enjoy my rest, she shook like a leaf under my arm. Distracting.

So I came inside. I had intended to meditate right after my practice, but that will need to wait until later. For now, I'm drinking hot tea and putting off running errands for as long as possible!

This is Day 2 of my Back to Healthy Eating Campaign, made easier by the fact that my partner is out of town for a week. My greatest challenge will be avoiding goodies in the morning, since there's nothing unhealthy to be found in the apartment (but many, many donuts to be discovered in my morning hours; so far, I've resisted).

I'm mostly eating raw foods. The cooked items include egg white omeletes, seasoned tuna and those lavash crackers I'm so crazy about. The lavash crackers are the only wheat. No dairy and I'm trying my best to avoid sugar. I was breaking out in hives over the weekend, so I figure a little detox is in order.

Lots of water, fruit for snacks. And yes, logging my foods, a la CRON.

And avoiding the fridge.

4 comments:

Louise Kloster said...

Good luck with the new healthy eating scheme. After two weeks on holidays I am trying similar. My weakness however, is not donuts but a croissant in the morning. Very hard to give up!!

Please can you explain what CRON is. I have seen you mention it a few times but I have no idea what you are refering to!

Thanks

Funky Yoga Chicken

Arturo said...

hi Kai
i like how you find these vintage images. they are fun.

i could not figure out why you were crying. it reminds me of people who blog from India who say they experience crying after practice. maybe it's an emotional release.

hugs
Arturo

Kaivalya said...

@Mother Hen:
CRON stands for 'Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition'. I was very dedicated to a CRON diet up until last year. It did amazing things for my health and I'd like to get back to it. This link has a good overview of CRON: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRON-diet The Calorie Restriction Society is a good resource too: http://www.crsociety.org/

@Arturo:
I love the vintage images too. I've been collecting them to illustrate my posts, so you can look forward to more fun ones!

In hindsight, I believe I was crying because of hormonal fluctuations related to my monthly cycle (apologies if this is 'overshare'). My monthly cycle spurs all kinds of weird emotional responses, including fear, sadness, completely irrational anger/angst and (the most troubling) paranoia. This month was particularly awful, thus the tears.

It has been making meditation VERY interesting. ;-)

alfia said...

Hi, Kai:

We are a little synchronized with our hormones - I just stop writing alltogether, but totally relate to your tears. Feeling better, too, so might start writing again.

I was doing so good with my diet here, in Minnesota, untill today. The organizers of the course brought tubs of popcorn, and I splurged. Cheese-flavored popcorn will be the death of me.