How I was recovering from a cold virus

So today was my first workout in the gym during last two weeks when I was recovering from a cold virus.

During these two weeks I have done two weight workouts at home, and it was my big mistake. My fever become worse and just after that I gave my body the rest.

During this time I was laying on the bed full two days, but mostly I begun my morning with light and short yoga. During last week I felt I could increase the time for yoga from half an hour to one hour. And I finish my day with walking for 30 minutes.

My food dairy was the same as every time: with a lot of vegetables and greens, with some fruits and nuts every day, with a little fish or sea food, with quinoa, buckwheat blended flax seeds, chia seeds and berries. I was drinking a lot warm water with ginger and lime juice. I was using a lot of fresh ginger, onion and garlic in many dishes. I even ate dark chocolate, goat cheese and some cake.

The results are the same weight and measurements, the same abs and muscles are on the place!

How to reach a regular fitness?

1. Push yourself to go to the gym or do other sports during first 6-12 months;
2. Keep a strong discipline and willpower;
3. Enjoy small results and love yourself more and more;
4. Remember about the future and the quality of your life which increases by proper fitness and health food;
5. Make photos of yourself in an underwear every two weeks in the same day and compare these in different periods. Enjoy results or be honest and correct your nutrition plan or/and workouts;
6. Listen and feel yourself. Have a rest;
7. Finally enjoy fitness as your lifestyle habit.

Food and activities in the travel: Israel

Photo by http://yuliyamazilova.com/

They said Israel is a second home of start-ups after Silicon Valley now. This place definitely inspired me a lot by fresh ideas, new plans and challenging tasks. But what I liked most was people’s ability to live life here and now: just being yourself, walking, socializing, dancing, smiling and enjoying tasty food.

Food in the travel

•  Mediterranean cuisine is famous for its long positive impact on life expectancy. I could easily find both delicious and healthy food (fresh vegetable salads seasoned with local olive oil, fish and seafood) in any local cafe.
• But... I had to abstain from eating up, even the most delicious and healthy dishes! I have discovered that food helpings tend to be really hospitable in Israel: three times larger than the average ones in Russian and European restaurants.  Here I experienced my first cheating day of not finishing the ice cream, as one scoop turned out to be much bigger than I had been used to.
• I was really pleased by beverages variety. For instance, this is possible everywhere in Israel to select from coconut water smoothie, soymilk coffee, mint and lemon tea, or fresh juice. Actually, I encountered lots of fruit shops in every city I visited: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Bat Yam and Haifa. 

This is just one scoop of ice cream with one flavor in my cup, and two flavors on the cup of my friend 

Activities

• The trip was rich with strolls about Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. My mobile pedometer would register approximately 18 000 steps daily for three days running.
• I took my time to practice in-home yoga before breakfast.
• My friend suggested our cycling tour along Tel Aviv shoreline. To tell you the truth, bicycles were not the most comfortable ever, but cycling truly accelerated our movements, contributed to diversity of sights seen and filled our day up with brand new emotions and experiences. 

• When planning my trips, I always google good gyms and yoga classes or ask my friends and acquaintances about such places. It was my friend Katya this time, who took me to the Russian-speaking morning yoga meditation class, which took place at a sea view classroom.
• I had spare time for gym on Shabbat. But Shabbos, or Shabbat is a holy day when Jews refrain from work activities. That’s why I quickly designed a training program for the open-air workout. In the morning Katya and me had one-hour boot camp in front of the sea. It is noteworthy that there is plenty of space for those who want to train at the seaside. 

You will be able to find out more about that training program of mine in one of the following posts.

No to Arthritis: Instruction Sheet

If you are familiar with my fitness record, you know that I had come to gym for health, not for beauty. The problem was solved and I created a muscular girdle in the core to support kidneys and not let them shift down. But soon life called me to the next challenge. The knee joint pains lead me to doctors who diagnosed a case of genetic knee arthritis.

It hurt to tears during inflammation of the knee.

I started studying the arthritis subject with innate systematic approach: discovered other people’s experience, searched for sportsmen’s recommendations, and consulted with orthopedists and rheumatologists.

In the course of treatment I formed the following habits.

1.  Appropriate doctors are essential

You have to surround yourself with professional medical support: that of orthopedist, rheumatologist, ultra sonographer and radiographer. I found the right doctors on recommendations of acquaintances. I would arrange an appointment with a doctor, prepare a list of questions, visit the doctor and realize if he met my requirements and if I could trust him. You’d better also do ultrasonography and radiography in recommended clinics and undergo re-examinations at the same places with the same doctors.

 2. Tolerating pain is forbidden

Knee pain is the first stroke of joint inflammation. In case of arthritis, the cartilage deteriorates and the bones start rubbing directly against each other. That’ s why I agreed to take medicines prescribed by my orthopedist. I was on non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and cartilage protectors.

3. Daily exercising is a must

Your physical therapy should be on a daily basis. There are no capillaries in knee joints and important nutrients are provided by synovial fluid, which is transported into the joint space from cartilage only when the joint is active, i.e. during movement. Moreover, it is necessary to build leg muscles to create a muscular girdle for your knees. But it is not recommended to do weight exercises, such as squats, lunges and jumps at inflammatory state.

I relocated my lower body workout from the gym to home mat. I performed light 45-minute leg and butt workouts every day. My orthopedist had provided illustrated instruction sheet to those exercises.

I kept on working out my upper body in a gym with sitting position exercises prevailing. In that way, weight is distributed on hips, not on legs. I always warmed up by cycling only.

I added regular swimming to my training schedule for general joint support and my overall muscular tone maintenance.

4. Eating avocado and cottage cheese is good for you

In case of knee arthritis, nutrition should be focused on cartilage repair. Firstly, your diet should be healthy and balanced. Take lots of vegetables, fruits, green-stuff and safe drinking water. I had refused meat, gluten, roasted and junk food long ago and this point was no hard task.

Secondly, I increased the quantity of fatty fish, avocado, olive oil, prawns and other rich in healthy fats products consumed.

Thirdly, I added casein protein to my evening menu. I found out from several articles that growth hormone in human organism is produced naturally throughout the whole life, however, its level drops over the years. Protein tends to double up the growth hormone production, which facilitates cartilage repair. Casein protein is digested within few hours, which, in its turn, raises the chance of growth hormone production. I tasted casein protein powder but was preoccupied with body response. That was why I replaced it with 100-gram portion of skim cheese and used to have it two hours before bedtime. At the time it was the only dairy product on my menu. And currently there are no dairy foods at all. Collagen, which is contained within aspic, is considered to be beneficial for arthritis treatment. But I refrained from this experiment, as I didn’t feel like eating meat products back then.

5. Taking care of your knees, by all means

I ordered special orthopedic insoles, as proper foot fixation is another foundation for knee joints. And my personal experience proves it well. At least, now, that I have new footwear and insoles, I don’t get tired from long time walking, as I previously did. And you can easily displace your insoles from these or those shoes to the other ones. Now I choose to buy new footwear only if my insoles fit well in it.

Happy end

I have no bum knees any more. The doctors have noted significant improvements. I have gradually added leg workouts to my training and displaced my in-home physical drills to the gym. I have built my muscles scrupulously and successively. Now all kinds of exercises, seated or stand up, lunges or squats, are included into my regular training programme. But I still tend to listen to my body and to focus more on sets quantity and quality, than muscle mass gain.

My body reveals and health strengthens.

To tell you the truth, this is a great piece of luck to prove first-hand that recuperating your health is possible at any age. 

My rules for cheating day

There is some food, which I do not eat: sugar, sweets and juices from a shop, bread, meat and chicken, saturated fats (butter, sunflower oil), alcohol. In spite of that I enjoy every time when I eat! If I want something sweet I can always find a home-made replacement: mix bananas and cocoa in blender, make healthy candies with nuts, dried apricots or raisins, bake a banana bread or buckwheat flour muffins. Or I can just eat a fresh fruit. There are always some options.

But sometimes I do want to eat dessert in my favorite cafe.

So there are some rules, which provide harmony and balance between healthy diet and endorphin level:

1.      Choose one day in a week when you are going to let yourself eat food from your unhealthy list (that list may differ). It is better to choose a day off for that. Have a rest and enjoy a chocolate or an ice-cream, or chocolate ice-cream :).

If you eat a piece of chocolate every morning you should try to do it once a week. The taste of food from your forbidden list becomes richer and brighter if you eat it rarely. This fact was proved by me and my friends and relatives!

Fix the day you chose. In some nourishing programs it is called “cheating day”. It should be the same day every week. My choice is Saturday.

2.      Plan your cheating day in advance. If you don't, Saturday or Sunday can become a day of gluttony with heaviness in your stomach. You should enjoy your favorite sweets during this day.

If I want to eat some dessert during the week I make a promise to myself that I will slowly enjoy this dessert on Saturday. If I'm not in a mood and still want to eat it, I can replace it with home-made healthy sweets.

3.      Try to eat sweets and complex carbohydrates in the first half of your cheating day. You can have them on breakfast, lunch or as a bite. Even on cheating days I do not eat fruits or carbohydrates in the evening as they can quickly influence on fat accumulation. I always eat vegetables and fish or seafood in the evenings.

The main thing as always is balance. Having a cheating day, I don't hurry to eat a lot from my forbidden list. I am prolonging the pleasure. Usually I have some sweet dessert and coffee in the first part of day and some ice-cream later. Next week I can have a dark chocolate. Mostly I don't eat anything from that list. Just because I don't want to. I try to listen to myself and understand the true wishes of my body.

Everything happens for a reason

Photo: Alexey Tulenkov by Pressfoto Production Studio

Natalia and I studied together. We were both television journalism students with prior TV work experience. You might expect something interesting with such a background, right? Natalia, now 29 years old, first worked as a translator and then as a PR-manager in a foreign company before eventually ending up as a yoga instructor.

In Natalia’s words, everything in her life has flowed naturally: twice living and working in the USA, a second higher education degree at the Department of Oriental Studies, teaching yoga, studying Japanese in Tokyo for three years and working in a show business. But I don’t think people’s lives are determined by luck. Natalia knows how to dream, and perhaps more importantly, how to make her dreams a reality.

Me: Why did you go to the East, to the origins of yoga?

It had always been my dream. After living in America I could speak English pretty well at the age of 22 and I decided that one foreign language was not enough for me. I had always wanted to visit Japan that is why I chose Japanese. This language is interesting and pretty hard to learn. Plus, three years of living in Japan is a fantastic experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I’ve experienced and compared European, American and Asian ways of thinking. And it’s been fascinating in speaking of our perceptions of the world.

The photo is a personal archive of Natalia. Model's work in Tokyo

Me: Did yoga change you?

Yes, it did. Nothing would have happened without it; I couldn’t have earned enough money for my education and I wouldn’t have had the strength to change my life so radically.  I feel it gave me the belief that no matter what I chose to do everything would be fine.

Me: So how did it happen?

My plan was to learn Japanese and to get to know the country but sometimes things do not go according to a plan. So I first worked as a translator, then as a model, and then finally found my place in show business. I met many famous people and went to the gigs of rock bands that I’d been listening to since I was a teenager. I never thought I would see them perform live!

Natalia and Paul Stanly in Tokyo 

Me: Wow, how do you combine yoga and rock music?

Easily! I’ve loved rock music since I was 14 years old. This is one of the reasons why I was so lucky to be able to work with rock musicians in Japan. When you’re able to tell Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit: “Hey dude, I was listening to your songs when I was a teen, thank you for your music!”,  you can understand each other pretty well. By the way, there is a popular American yoga instructor with black eyeliner and leather bracelets whose motto is, “Rock your pose! Rock your body!”

Me: Does she practice with rock music?

No (laughing). I'm also true to my temperament and I prefer dynamic yoga - ashtanga vinyasa. This yoga is for energetic people; it suits better to people with western cost of mind. Madonna, Sting and many other successful people do practice it. Yoga helps them to balance their eventful life and prevents them from getting bored during practice.

The photo is a personal archive of Natalia

Me: When you just getting started, which way is better - to practice yoga with instructor or to do it by yourself?

I recommend to practice with professional instructor for the first months. As soon as you get the basics and learn how to feel your body you can try to do it by yourself. Goes without saying that practice with instructor cannot be compared to practice with videotape.

Me: Some beginners have health problems after yoga. What do you think about that?

It happens, and it is quite normal. When you are doing yoga all your muscles are working really hard. Some of them cannot actually be trained on any gym machines. So when you touch some previously stabilized old problems you can feel some pain. Your old injuries can "wake up". You can even feel something than have never bothered you before. Do not panic. Just tell your instructor about it and he or she will help you to deal with it. You should not endure the pain or give up doing yoga. Your task is to find your optimal load. After that the pain will be gone and will never disturb you again. It applies to musculoskeletal system. But if you have some problems with your blood pressure or headaches, it is better to see a doctor and find a cause.

Me: Who comes to practice yoga?

Yoga is intellectual training. It is usually the choice of educated and successful people. Some people are doing yoga for muscle stretching or because of health problems and they are getting more than expected. Yoga means strength and flexibility of your body, balance and calmness of your mind. If your spine is healthy, you are healthy. Many people cannot live without final shavasana relaxation. It is an ideal asana for having rest after a workday.

Me: That's right! I'm ready to see my Vietnamese instructor anytime only because of shavasana with stroking and head massage!

Yeah, I use this technique too. And I learnt it in Asia. It is not actually "stroking" (laughing). It is the way your instructor can help you to relax and take more comfortable position. Sometimes you cannot lie down comfortably by yourself, and it is very important. And also an energetic aspect should not be excepted.

Photo: Alexey Tulenkov by Pressfoto Production Studio

Me: Can yoga be combined with gym workouts?

Yes, but not at the same day. You should not underestimate the exercise stress of yoga. If you combine them, you will just be tired. It is really cool to do yoga with run or any other cardio exercises.

Me: What about your nutrition?

My basic principle is to listen to the body. If you want to eat some cake: find a reason why. And then let yourself to eat this cake easily and with pleasure. If you want to eat cakes every day, you should definitely find a reason. Maybe it is lack of glucose. You should check it with a dietician. Do not eat something that makes you feel heaviness; eat the food, which you are enjoying to eat. My diet is based on a principle of inverted pyramid: I eat most of the food in the morning and noon. In the afternoon I eat less, proteins prevail, and I exclude carbohydrates and floury food.

Me: Do you eat meat?

I used to eat a lot of meat. In the last six months I eat only white meat and it is not because any ethical issues. I realized that red meat makes my body heavier. Sometimes I have up to 5 workouts a day so I need proteins. That is why I prefer to eat fish and chicken. My only weakness is Korean cuisine.

Me: How did you come to love Korean cuisine while living in Japan?

It happened accidentally. My language school was in a Korean district of Tokyo.

Me: What is the conception of your life?

I like yoga principles in respect to modern life. In every period of life things should happen when they are supposed to be happening. You should not give up your youth for enlightenment. If you like to drink with your friends, do it even if you practice yoga. Do stupid things, gain some life experience. There are many limitations in our life, don't make more. Practice yoga and try to feel your body. Do no harm. Give more than you take. Don't wait for anything in return. "Practice yoga and you'll have everything". I am the best example of this saying.

Photo: Alexey Tulenkov by Pressfoto Production Studio

Me: What is your ideal of beauty?

It is when everything is real and natural. You have to do a lot to look naturally beautiful. I mean sport and healthy nutrition. It is much easier to do make up.

Me: What is the freedom?

In my opinion, freedom is wrong idea. What kind of happiness can be found in the freedom? For example, it is so good to be depending on your beloved person! Or find your place in society. Friends and job are limiting our freedom but give us a lot more instead

Me: Why did you come back to Russia?

I decided that it was time to progress in yoga. Neon lights of Tokyo led me a bit away from my main goal. I have just passed through selection into international fitness holding company "Citrus" fitness-club. So now intensive training is in process. Now I'm on the way that I'm going to be on for all my life. I had to change something. It is always a regress without a progress.

Me: What's next? What are your plans for the future?

I'm going to go to California soon to have a 200-hours class of yoga instructor and get an international level certificate. In my greater plans I'm going to create my own unique approach of yoga practice.

That is so awesome! Will you come to our production studio for some pictures and videos before you go?

Yes, with pleasure!