Meat & Nuts

This might seem a bit bizarre for a breakfast food but it works, meat & nuts. After Kat Eden's food seminar last month I have been trying to clean up my diet. Christmas saw me well & truly fall off the wagon head first into the bowl of chips whilst riding the dessert trolley. 

I gave the meat for breakfast a good two week go before the festive mayhem kicked in and it worked. I was fuller for a lot longer in the morning than when I have my usual carb based breakfast. It did mean preparing and pre cooking my meat for the mornings I was teaching. Cooking eggs at 4:15am wasn't too much of a drama. Making a big veggie frittata is perfect. It's lasts a few days, can be eaten hot or cold and on the run. Here's the link, via Kat, to the blog post by Charles Poliquin all about the meat & nuts breakfast....

Now Christmas is over & the damage is done I'm back to it. Some of my friends are trying detox diets; raw, vegan, juice, vitamin cleansing type things. I fully support their decisions but I need some energy to get me through my busy day. I've tried the detox cleanse thing before. I got really sick and spent a lot of time sleeping. Side effect of that type of diet. I was recently reading that the cold turkey approach doesn't actually do you that much good either. Steady, sensible lifestyle changes are better to avoid the withdrawal symptoms than suddenly stopping everything 'bad' for a few weeks. It's like the 'diet's don't work' theory, they don't, you have to change your eating habits for life. No good watching what you eat for six weeks, losing weight then go back to your old eating habits. What happens? The weight comes back. 80% clean foods, 20% not so clean is the best way so not to be deprived and risk the binge eating fall out. 

Bikram Yoga is the perfect detox. Sweat it out, whilst getting a full body workout. When I'm practicing hard and serious I automatically cut back on crappy foods. Sugar and muscles don't mix. When I eat rubbish my practice suffers. I watch my hydration more carefully so I'm getting enough liquids too. The past few weeks because I wasn't practicing as much I let that slip & felt horrible for it. So here I go, new year, new me, back into shape. Not so much for vanity reasons but for optimal health, energy & a stronger yoga practice.