diet, fluctuating practice

[Guest guest]

To Betty or anyone out there who is knowlegeable

about this: Is it true that eating any kind of refined

sugar affects one's flexibility in a negative way?

Also, is it common in ashtanga practice to have wildly

fluctuating energy levels?(I've been practicing for nearly a

year.) For example, over the last few days I had two

days in a row that I was able to do the whole standing

section of the primary series and get started on a bunch

of floor exercises, but yesterday I could not even

do the sun salutations. My health is good. Any

response would be appreciated, as I am a solitary

practitioner; my husband isn't even into this, so I'm doing

this all by myself without benefit of regular

instruction as I live out in a rural area. What's the best

book with lots of photos and detailed instruction out

there about Ashtanga. Can't do videos as I don't own a

TV and have no plans to purchase one. Thanx.

[Guest guest]

David Swenson has just finished his book, which

contains many pictures, detailed descriptions and options,

1st and 2nd series and a "floating part"<br>with the

series "in one piece".<br>Can be ordered at :

www.ashtangayoganet.com<br>For beginners the book "power yoga" from Beryl-Bender

Birch is not bad.<br>I dont' now any others.<br>For

example there is the book of Lino Miele. I think you

could refer to Betti's page.

[Guest guest]

I don't know about the effect on

flexibility,<br>but refined sugar intake could certainly

have<br>something to do with fluctuating energy levels.<br>It can

also be normal for energy levels and<br>flexibility to

vary from day to day - it may<br>be more noticeable to

someone practicing yoga.<br>Although refined sugar is a

standard part of<br>the modern American diet, it is very

unhealthy.<br>A lot of people will modify their diets

to<br>become vegetarian but don't look far enough<br>into diet

to learn that they should eliminate<br>or greatly

reduce refined sugar intake. An<br>excellent book about

sugar is Sugar Blues by<br>William Dufty. An excellent

book about all<br>aspects of diet is Food And Healing

by<br>Annemarie Colbin. Of course, caffeine and<br>other drugs

can have great effects on energy<br>levels. <br><br>I

haven't yet seen it (I have ordered it), but<br>there is

a new book on Ashtanga Yoga by David<br>Swenson. I

expect it to be the best book so far<br>on Ashtanga

Yoga. It is called Ashtanga Yoga - <br>The Practice

Manual. It has 263 pages, 650 photos,<br>and covers first

and second series. You can order<br>it directly from

David Swenson at 800-684-6927 or<br>it can be ordered

from Amazon. It may be useful<br>to have more than one

book on Ashtanga yoga and<br>there are a bunch of good

ones. For more info on<br>other Ashtanga yoga books,

see this

page:<br><a href=http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/yogabook.htm

target=new>http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/yogabook.htm</a><br><br>Good luck with

everything.

[Guest guest]

My diet is pretty healthy, near-vegetarian, and

the only sugar I take is in the form of a small

amount of dark chocolate; the rest of my diet is natural

unrefined foods, no packaged or processed items. I just

wondered if the little bit of sugar that I do take is

harmful.

[Guest guest]

I would think that for most people with

a<br>healthy diet, a little sugar now and then<br>shouldn't be

a problem. I don't keep much sugar<br>around, but I

do eat some ice cream almost every day. Human bodies

are certainly very complex<br>and everyone is

different. At least we are lucky<br>enough to have found one

of the best ways to<br>improve physical health.

Keeping at the yoga<br>should gradually help with

everything. A lot of people report being extra stiff in the

mornings<br>and sometimes you may be extra stiff the day

after<br>a good workout. Most teachers recommend do

some<br>yoga everyday. Many people go through times

of<br>seeming to make little progress or even

going<br>backwards. So I would say it is normal for<br>energy and

flexibility to fluctuate from day to day.<br><br>Just some

opinions. Good luck.

[Guest guest]

Thanks everybody a whole lot for responding, as

I'm the only person I know in my immediate area doing

ashtanga yoga it's great to hear some feedback, even if

it's not face to face. I'm going to look into David

Swenson's new book - I got an e-mail from the

ashtangayoga.net site that the book just came out. Hope to see

this club keep going, as it's perfect for isolated

practitioners like myself. Is there anyone else around my

age(52)or older who is doing ashtanga? Would love to hear

from you for further encouragement.

[Guest guest]

I just went through a "learning experience" with

food last week. I'd let my diet go quite a bit, and

the effects on my practice were dramatic, i.e., my

flexibility was really set back.<br><br>What I mainly mean by

letting my diet go is that I overate.<br><br>I've come

across two references to diet in my yoga books. BKS

Iyengar in LOY notes that (I'll paraphrase here) the

Siddha's say that of all the yamas, moderate diet is the

most important. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika says

"overeating destroys yoga." Yup.<br><br>I'm not sure if sugar

per se makes me less flexible, but I do know that

when I eat sugar I'm prone to overeat over the course

of the day. <br><br>I'm very interested on this

topic of diet and how it relates to flexibility. A

number of yogi friends (way more advanced than me) have

been telling me lately that they mostly eat a raw

foods diet and this has greatly aided their

flexibility, particularly in backbends. So, I've been trying

to eat raw foods more and more. The more I eat of

the raw foods the lighter I get, where by the same

token eating sugar leads to gaining weight.<br><br>My

friends also tell me that Guruji has been known to

comment "food problem" in reference to some people having

trouble getting into asanas.<br><br>Be that as it

may...<br><br>I've never really been successful at totally omitting

certain items from my diet. Right now I'm trying to keep

a ceiling on calories and eating a certain

percentage of raw foods daily, increasing that as I'm able.

[Guest guest]

I think the ashtanga practice really puts you in

touch with your body. Through regular practice, you

develop a great sense of what makes your body feel good

and what makes your body feel stiff and slow. This

has over time lead me to give up many former staples

of my diet (like meat), which make me feel just

awful. This is all part of the process, your diet will

change and develop with your practice.

<br><br>Namaste,<br>michael

[Guest guest]

Regarding the raw foods diet, it is interesting

to note that most Ayurvedic books recomend eating

COOKED food as it is easier on the digestive system and

thus not requiring as much internal heat to

process.<br><br>This whole issue of food is a difficult one as there

seem to be so many different viewpoints, all which

work. This leads me to think that perhaps FAITH in the

diet system is as important as the system itself. (Of

course if one belives that a diet of beer and chips is

going to lead to fitness, well...)