Wed: 90 min guided class; Thurs: 30 min personal
Yesterday I was cleansing. I was juicing and souping all day--eating and drinking all of those liquids seemed to take most of my energy. I felt more tired than usual, but I went to a yoga class yesterday afternoon that I had been wanting to go to. It was a "progressive" class, which means that it was for more advanced yoginis (and yogis, I suppose).
The class was a good choice. The instructor was from Canada, and I felt like I was at home as I listened to her voice. I enjoyed the class and felt appropriately challenged. But I did begin to get a little frustrated as I felt like I wanted to go into deeper backbends or inversions. But then, to my surprise, she allowed us to do both of those things. Either she read my frustration or she was very in tune with the class. I don't know that others in the class were dying for a bigger backbend than floor bow or dying to do a bigger inversion than shoulder stand... but I really appreciated the freedom within the class to do what my body was craving. I felt like I had a little more trouble with balancing than usual, and I was thinking that could be due to the fasting effects.
And then, upon arriving home, I began to think that after one day, I'm not so sure the juice/soup fast thing is for me. I felt good, I felt full (which I didn't think I would), I didn't crave anything... but I didn't really like it either. I didn't feel like I was doing something super special for my body. I felt more like I was forcing myself to down these juices and soups that I didn't really enjoy, which is the opposite of how I had just felt in my yoga practice. It was a lot of effort to eat each one, and I felt like I was forcing myself to do it just for the sake of saying I did it.
I decided last night that I would put Days 2 and 3 of the fast in the freezer and use them as single day fasts over the next several weeks. I didn't feel like forcing myself to finish the fast was what my body needed. I was proud of what I was able to do on Day 1 and that I didn't cheat at all.
However, just about 30 minutes before I was planning to go to bed last night, I started seeing flashes of lights and my head felt like it was being jackhammered. Billy said "I think that's a migraine..." and I dashed under the covers to sleep before the pain intensified.
When I woke up, I felt like I had a hangover. My head had a dull ache that seemed like the memory of a much more extreme ache. I wanted to practice yoga before work, so I went into the living room to see what I could manage. I couldn't do any flow because of the pounding in my head, so I went and had a half cup of diet coke (what? no caffeine for 36 hours?!). And then I began again. I started with some static holds and gradually began working a little harder, as I began to feel better. By the end of the half hour, I was able to go up into handstands and feel ok.
As I showered and got ready this morning, I had to admit that I did feel like I was glowing a little bit. Whether it was the day of fasting, or the excitement over my approaching morning cup of coffee, I'm not sure. But I felt good. So I won't hesitate to do the one day fasting again... but it may be awhile before I want to do a 3 day fast.
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