Sorry guys. I haven't had enough discipline to update my blog. I will try to do it a bit better because I think it could be useful for many, but again if I have to choose between my kids or writing I will choose my kids. :)

Anyway. Everything is well and I'm really enjoying this little experiment. I have really been diving into the concept of eating starch, like Dr. McDougall recommends and in many ways it makes sense. I still believe the optimal diet would be based on fruits but when you live in a climate like this and in a country where also the imported fruit is quite bad, eating high carb and low fat starches is a very good option. Especially when countless studies have shown that it is extremely beneficial for human health. I will soon put together a post with several different YouTube videos where you can find answers to many of your questions and you get some hard facts of why you don't have to listen to the "milk is healthy" or "where do you get your proteins from" or "but you need these essential fatty acids and you can't get them from plant foods" statements. These videos are from doctors who have studied nutrition for decades and reversed illnesses that are labeled irreversible.

Here are couple of videos from this past weekend. I mostly ate high carb cooked food and some raw smoothies. Enjoyed them all. One thing I really liked was the morning porridge with banana-date smoothie.

Morning porridge
https://twitter.com/jockesalokorpi/status/333159789167263744

Burrito breakfast :)
https://twitter.com/jockesalokorpi/status/332730261643079682

By the way... I was a little tired when I stopped drinking coffee. :)
https://twitter.com/jockesalokorpi/status/332021896998690817

27 more days to go. :) Not really a problem though. My goal is to become 100% vegan for life. Why? Because it just makes sense. Being 100% raw for a long time is a challenge when living up north where the fruit is not very good, but high carb vegan is easy.

This was my breakfast. Very simple. Muesli with banana-date smoothie. First blend the dates with small amount of water (or some juice if you want, like grape fruit or sweet pineapple juice), then add more water and add bananas. Blend shortly. I use 4-8 bananas in a smoothie like this, depending of what I'm looking for.

For lunch I just had a simple tomato soup in a cafeteria, which was a bit pointless. It's low carb and low calorie. If I would try to survive with foods like that it would be a disaster. That is the reason we need to eat the cakes and other crap we know we shouldn't. I'm not saying it's bad to eat cakes, if you do it consciously. I'm just saying that my goal (at the moment) is to eat food that is beneficial to physical health.

In the evening I ate burritos! I made my own version of them. :) I know it looks disgusting.

It has beans, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and mashed potatoes. Yummy! :)

This video summarizes the day nicely. :)

So if you are a heavy coffee drinker, you will have some withdrawals. It's all worth it though because you will start to sleep better and the energy level will become more stable.

I was watching some great Youtube videos about the vegan diet. Here are a couple of them. Real science not just opinions.

Dr. McDougall
http://youtu.be/ACRv05NiCTE

Dr. Neal Barnard
http://youtu.be/TDgA3T_JF2A

I will try to post once during every day of this experiment. It's in the middle of day 1 so I will actually update this post later in the evening.

Today started a bit lousy because I had only about two hours of sleep. Our daughter has a strong opinion about the fact that Terje doesn't want to breast feed her anymore. :)

The first thing I do after only two hours of sleep. Coffee! :)

After the practice I taught and the pranayama I did (no asana practice because I was so disconnected) I went to the store. I couldn't find good fruits so this is the next option.

Now Terje and the kids left to Haapsalu. I will join them tomorrow night, but now I will go hunt for some dates and bananas. Wish me luck. I will update this post one more time today... hopefully with a banana smoothie video. :)

I found some fruit.

I made a sweet smoothie,

Ok so now I feel like it's time for me to adjust my diet a bit. I'm going to do a 30-day challenge of eating high carb (reasonable low fat), 100% vegan diet with as much of raw food as possible. It's not going to be a "ninja diet" meaning a very hard core experiment of only certain types of raw foods, but a fun challenge that maybe you want to take part of.

I will be posting short videos to Vine with the #HCVC (High Carb Vegan Challenge) hashtag and photos to Instagram.

I will also update this blog daily with my thoughts and experiences about the challenge.

https://vine.co/v/b2qDwhUHALg

Are you with me?

Oh yeah, one more thing. I will also be doing this caffeine free, trying to get rid of stimulants. That is the first challenge for most of us.

You can win a 10x training card to our school... Easily! Go check it out http://www.ashtanga.ee/ashtangaestonia/the-first-number-ashtangaestonia-contest

So you might have seen my posts on Facebook. Am I back?

Yes and No.

I guess it was about four months ago when I just had enough of Facebook and left. I have been using twitter since and I like it more. Now I've been posting a little to FB and am reminded again how much more powerful it is, because it reaches so many more people. (In my case)

So I'm back sharing stuff but because I converted my profile into a page, I won't have all the normal FB features, which is very nice. :) Actually that is the reason why I like using FB again. I planned to have at least a year off, but because I'm only using my page, the noise ("müra" in Estonian, "meteli" in Finnish) is gone and the experience is a lot better. :)

I won't see any of your posts, I think the messaging system works though, so drop me a line if you want to contact me personally. You can also post to my page and I will be able to see that.

See you!
My twitter www.twitter.com/jockesalokorpi
My Facebook www.facebook.com/jsalokorpi

Just trying how to embed Vine videos. See you in practice!

I'm often being contacted with people who want to learn more about Ashtanga Yoga or yoga in general. As I have been creating YOGAFUNC and starting with the new YOGIFIT programs (check funcitup.com), there are a lot of new people feeling they want to learn more.

So what to do?
The answer is very simple. If you want to learn more of YOGAFUNC, then book a personal training with me. You get two meetings and a home practice DVD for the price of 50€ (this is a discounted price).

If you want to move deeper into yoga and the mind practice, then you have two options. 1) Come to my YOGIFIT classes and start moving towards a more traditional way of practicing yoga, but without the philosophical aspect that traditional yoga offers. 2) Come to my yoga school and start learning the traditional Ashtanga Yoga system.

If you really want to go deeper into yoga then the best option is the traditional practice and especially the mysore style practice. In the mysore classes everyone learns to practice in their own pace and the teacher is there to support the practice. I recommend everyone to move into the mysore classes as soon as possible. Even if you are just starting. How to do it? Join my workshop. The next possibility is today (Fri 22.3) at 17:30. We will do a short lecture and then learn the standing sequence in the mysore style. The workshop continues tomorrow morning at 8:00 with a mysore class.

Those are the options. There is nothing more you need to search for. The ONLY way you learn yoga, is by practicing it. Gradually you move deeper into it and many interesting things (like the ego) will come up.

Yoga is, in my opinion, the best way to train the physical body and the mind. The fun thing is that in addition to that you will work with many other levels as well, like the emotional and spiritual levels.

See you in practice!
Jocke

Ps. I'm always thankful when you share my posts with your social circles. Thank you.

Now this was a real marathon for me. I got sick Tuesday night when I was in Haapsalu. I had a high fever until Friday morning.. when I stopped measuring it and started medicating. I took a morning train to Tartu and started teaching...

Friday 12:00 YOGIFIT 60 (MyFitness)
Friday 17:00-19:00 Mysore (FitLife)
Friday 19:30-21:00 YOGAFUNC 8 (MyFitness)
Saturday 7:00-9:00 Mysore (MyFitness)
Saturday 9:30-10:45 YOGIFIT 75 (MyFitness)
Saturday 13:00-15:30 YOGIFIT workshop with trainers (MyFitness)
Saturday 16:00-17:30 Lecture about yoga, death and the impermanence of this all. :) (MyFitness)
Saturday 17:30-18:45 Pranayama and relaxation. (MyFitness)
Sunday 7:00-9:00 Mysore (MyFitness)
Sunday 9:30-11:00 YOGIFIT 75 (MyFitness)
Sunday 12:30-13:30 Yoga Playground (Arctic Sport Club)
Sunday 13:30-14:30 YOGAFUNC 8 (Arctic Sport Club)
Sunday 16:00-17:00 Yoga Playground (MyFitness)
Sunday 17:15-18:30 YOGAFUNC 8 (MyFitness)

That's a marathon when you are not sick... I was.

Thank you Tartu! You are amazing! :)