I'd like to eat with my baby tonight

[venta]

So, having got all those bank holidays out the way I figured it was time to give the Hot Yoga another go.

My first venture, last week, was to a Hot Flow Yoga class, which is a relentless 90 minutes of one pose after another. Admittedly, the last half hour or so is mostly lying-down stuff, but even so, it's hard going, and hard to follow along if you don't know the postures. Add in that the class was rammed full of people, and I was feeling pretty good about having managed to keep up (mostly) for the full time.

Last night, it was a Hot Yoga class with a different instructor whose class seemed much slower-paced and gentler. Each posture, or series of moves, was repeated twice making it much easier for a newbie to follow along. There are also short rest periods between each set. The class was also barely half full, giving me plenty of space to flail around in and clear views both of the instructor and of myself in the mirror. And I felt like shit on a stick for pretty much the entire 90 minutes :(

Almost from the start I felt light-headed, dizzy and really nauseous. My muscles seemed to want to go into cramp in almost any position. In fact, I felt exactly how I might have predicted I'd feel if attempting to spend an hour and a half exercising in a stupidly hot room. I stayed in the class, but spent protracted periods sitting or lying on my mat, and by the end of it all was very shaky and strongly inclined to burst into tears.

So, not a roaring success. Had this been my first experience, I think I'd be saying "well, I always thought hanging out at 42° was a stupid idea" and never going back. However, at present it's sort of 1-all and I have most of 3 weeks of my paid-for trial-period left to use up, so I guess I'll risk it at least once more.

Before anyone notes the reference to muscle cramp and says ha! you were dehydrated, I don't think that's the problem. Knowing I was taking myself off for a toasting in the evening, I'd had my nose firmly in the water trough all afternoon.

My current speculation is actually that I may not have eaten enough. It's not like I'd been skipping meals (having had my usual breakfast-at-7, lunch-at-1), but I hadn't had a mid-afternoon smackerel of anything and the class is at 6:15. And on reflection, yesterday's bento box was perhaps not as substantial as it might have been. I didn't feel underfed, but on the way home I realised I recognised the sort of shaky, panicky feeling. I hoovered up an M&S chicken sandwich as I passed through the station, and felt quite a lot better.

(Incidentally, in view of my suspicions, I went for something from M&S's "Fuller Longer[*]" range, which advertises itself as "high protein, balanced carbs". Maybe someone with some actual knowledge of actual nutrition can tell me whether that was a sensible course of action.)

So, yes. New exercise regime not an unqualified success thus far :)

[*] If only the adverts were done by Radiohead ;)

Comments

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Cramp = imbalanced electrolytes. Eat a banana. Win!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should keep a banana on my bedside table :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

For extra comedy value you can throw the skin on the floor, and fall over again when you get up in the morning.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'd have to throw it quite far to make sure it didn't land in the bucket I keep by my bedside for similar early-morning stuck-foot slapstick reasons :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

If you judge the banana-skin-slip just right, you might even be able to end up with your head weddged in the bucket. Then stagger around blindly and fall out of the open window.

There's profitable YouTube careers been made out of less!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Then stagger around blindly and fall out of the open window.

For safety reasons, my flat never has open windows - I always ensure each window is carefully blocked by two men carrying a large pane of plate glass...

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Haven't you had trouble before with cramp/salt intake difficulties? It does sound like you were out if sorts.

We're told not to eat anything for 2 hours before our classes - my suspicion is that this is to stop people throwing up!
I've actually been on a diet during the bikram, fish and fruit smoothies - which means for a couple of the early morning sessions I've been turning up having had nothing but a mug of smoothie for brekky and I was fine - this might be because I suspect I am a bit fatter than you - with considerably more "reserves." (Mind you, after bikram I crave meat, so I've been eating extra meat doses - no carbs though.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, me and cramp are old friends. I have discovered that the best way of getting rid of cramp in calves (when in bed) is leaping out of bed, and standing on the afflicted leg. Unfortunately, the other night, said leg gave way totally dumping me unceremoniously on the floor (one bruised arse from the radiator, one carpet-burnt elbow). And it was the third time I'd had to do it that night, too :(

This may be caused by my having run out of vitamin (+mineral) tablets the other day and not got round to getting any more. Or not. I don't know.

fish and fruit smoothies

I read that rather too literally, and thought holy crap, you are taking this dieting business seriously! Is this a muscle-building diet, or weight-loss (or other)? I thought you'd decided the you-must-lose-weight medical person was wrong...

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I came back from Bruges looking weirdly swollen, I didn't think I'd eaten or drunk that much FFS! That's all gone now.
I'm trying to tone up, never doing poxy calorie counting again, but eating stuff my body seems to like (fruit and protein, no carb.) Going to try alternating strict weeks with not so strict but still low carb weeks. I'm on less strict week at the mo, with a table booked at a hungarian restaurant with a chum tomorrow and possibly curry with workmates tonight, so fainting from hunger is unlikely.
I crave salty foods anyway, and took bikram as an excuse to liberably salt my fish dinners even more than usual. Seems to be working as I'm cramp free and ok with the bikram so far.
Your cramp seems excessive, has a doctor not managed to get to the bottom of the issue?

[venta.livejournal.com]

No/low carb eating has really never appealed to me at all, but if your body is doing well on it then go for it :) I often find salty food quite unappealing, but cooking more Japanese stuff has effectively upped my salt intake as I'm now motoring through the soy sauce.

I've never asked a doctor about cramp - mostly because it's only recently I've realised maybe other people regard it as excessive. If you've had something all your life - like being able to deliberately induce cramp at will, any time, in your legs and feet - you don't realise it's at all unusual :)

I guess I might ask about it, but my experience of doctors is that if it isn't actually life-threatening, they don't tend to put much effort into finding things out. I seem to have gone to the doctors over the years with so many weird issues that have ultimately been abandoned undiagnosed that I'm sure they think I'm a total hypochondriac.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

The cramp by itself might not be an issue, but if its connected to something that makes you feel so ill when exercising, it might be worth checking it out. From reading your lj you come across as pretty fit (rapper and clogs) and you eat well (bento.) Bikram is fiendish, but it shouldn't be effecting you that much.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Last night's toasty yoga class went fine without me feeling ill once, so I think I'm sticking to the idea that last week was a one off. If it happens again I'll take myself off to the doctor :)

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you're thinking about salt. As you know, I've recently increased my salt intake quite a lot and it makes a real difference to my digestion and hence to my sleep. Not to mention getting me off the drink-pee yoyo that I'd been on for many years. Yet whenever I talk to a healthcare professional about it, they give disapproving looks. Imo the advice to 'eat less salt' has got quite out of hand.

I think salt it likely to be esp relevant when doing Hot Yoga because sweat contains salt (that's why it tastes salty!) and when you're sweating out salt, you need to take in salt.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Last year, in some hot weather, I was having real issues with cramp and experimented with increasing salt but it didn't seem to do anything for me. I ended up mixing up a pint of a zero-cal sports drink and having that before bed each night, which seemed to fix it. (Zero-cal because I didn't need the "energy" part of the drink when going to sleep, just the electrolytes and such).

I should probably lay in a new stock of the drink powder in case we ever decide to have a proper summer this year.

I do agree about the salt (at least in theory), I've just never managed to notice any difference in myself if I put more/less in my diet.

(Out of interest, I headed to Wikipedia to see what it said the risks of a high-salt diet are. And it seems that they are rather less certain than I think we're usually led to believe (assuming Wikipedia is correct, etc, etc). I also got distracted reading about Dysautonomia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysautonomia), which can be treated with a high-salt diet... )

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Recently while working with medical students, I learned why the standard rehydration mix includes sugar as well as salt. I'd have to look it up to remember why it is, but it's not just about making it taste nicer. I don't know what's in the zero-cal sports drinks.

Some years ago, during a safari in the Australian Outback, my travel companion got a UTI. Until we got her to hospital in Alice Springs (where she got intravenous rehydration and antibiotics, then made a full recovery) the only things she could take were isotonic sports drinks.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think the sugar is present because (for reasons I am not clear on) it makes the body more able to absorb the salt. Although I think that is something I read on the internet once, so proper medical students may have a different and more correct answer :)

Before starting on the sports drinks, I did try drinking the home-made WHO-recommended water/sugar/salt mixture, because I'd always rather not spend money :) Sadly, I found it so vile to drink that I decided I was willing to spend the money. I mean, I'm sure I'd choose drinking it over dying of cholera, but in less extreme circumstances it'll be sports drinks all the way!

[sammason.livejournal.com]

PS I followed your link about dysautonomia and had to ward off my inner hypochondriac! It's an interesting link, and who knows why it doesn't mention MS. It does mention several conditions suffered by people on friendly_crips so feel free to post the link there if you wish.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't currently read friendly_crips, because as part of my strategy of wasting less time on the internet I decided a while back to stay away from communities (as distinct from personal journals). I don't know if not being a member means I can't post, but regardless I'd feel a little rude turning up, posting, and leaving :)

If you think the link would be of interest to people there then please do mention it next time you're posting, if you'd like to.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Anybody can comment on that comm but only members can post. It's the way I set the settings wot dunnit. So if you ever decide that you'd like to post there just go ahead and join us. I'm completely partisan as you'll have noticed! always delighted when anybody joins and when anybody posts or comments.

But I do respect your decision to stay away from comms. They can eat your life, can't they? Several comms of which I'm a member aren't in my Default View filter so I don't see them automatically on my Friends page.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I had not heard of M&S's "Fuller Longer" range. (And would have assumed it was skirts or something, rather than food, if you hadn't said.) Interesting idea, and good pitch.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've never seen it advertised specifically, just M&S is a default choice for food-purchase in the railway station and I've noticed it on the shelves. It seems that the things they consider suitable seem to coincide neatly with things that appeal to me, so I've bought them on a few occasions. And, er, being an inveterate reader of all things printed, have also imbibed the information on the packets.

It would be a nice name for a range of summer skirts, though, you're right :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If I was getting cramp and feeling faint and dizzy it would be because I hadn't eaten enough before I set off from work. In fact that is what those doughnuts right there are for <---

[venta.livejournal.com]

Disappointingly, the yoga studio's instructions were "bring mat, towel and water", not "bring mat, towel, water and doughnuts" :(

I used to run out of go quite quickly when I was underweight, but it hasn't happened to me in such a long time that I'd kind of forgotten what it feels like and didn't recognise it. I suspect it was exacerbated by being in a hot room, but not fundamentally caused by it (if you see what I mean).

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Yes I see exactly what you mean.

Bring mat, towel, water, doughnuts, cup of tea, intestines, brain, heart, lungs, bones, ...gets a bit long if you count the things you're supposed to bring inside you! So they must have stopped at water.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes! In fact, now I come to think of it, yesterday's weekly meeting at work was shamefully devoid of the usual doughnuts (due to management-level failure). I shall tell the boss that he is risking my health and wellbeing with his doughnut-provision-failure.

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

Sickness in class is usually caused by:
* Eating too near to class time (your body trying to digest food while you are doing all that stretching = hard. general recommendation is "Stop eating heavy food at least three to four hours before class begins. If you eat anything in this time period, limit yourself to a very light snack in the hour or two before class")
* Too little water (you say this is not the case, so no help here)
* Drinking too much water just before class or in class (sits in your stomach and sloshes around while you are doing all those poses)
* imbalanced electrolytes as suggested by ar_gemlad - I have coconut water straight after class as its a good healthy source of electrolytes (and I don't like bananas).

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, last night's class went really well! I mean, I was crap at everything and can't fold up in the middle, but at least I didn't feel poorly or even really stop to think that it was too hot :)

I had an extra-large lunch, and a tactical 4pm flapjack, so am currently running with my theory that last time I was underfed...

(Last night it was "Hot Dynamic Yoga", which was a completely different kind of class again. And involved actually saying "om" at one point which made me happy!)