Recovery.

Last week I went to a workplace welfare training sessions that my office offered. They had a range of welfare related trainings, like mind, physical, recovery and career trainings but I decided to take nutrition training because I felt like I needed to check if I'm eating well and balanced enough taking into account that I do dance quite a lot. When I go dancing I don't want a lack of energy to keep me from going on, and that is not always easy thing to achieve. For example, it is hard to follow a rule like "eat every 3-4 hours" when a dance practice lasts four hours (like last Thursday) or when I go dancing to a dance party for the whole night. What I also find challenging is to find healthy and nutritious snacks to have during a busy day when I don't have time to eat properly before dancing.

I don't think of dancing as a form of doing sports. Before I started dancing I used to go to gym or aerobic classes many times a week and I loved doing hard work outs where I could push my body to its limits. I gave up my gym membership last summer when I noticed that dancing is taking so much of my time it didn't leave time for working out. Right, dancing has replaced the work outs as a form of doing sports, but my approach is totally different: I used to work out to keep fit, but I dance because I love dancing and also because dancing is a big part of my social life nowadays. However, there is no denying that dancing can consume a lot of energy and thats where proper nutrition steps in.

When I go dancing the time can fly and before I notice I have been dancing non-stop for three hours. The best parties are the ones where I don't leave the dance floor before I realize I need to take a short break to drink some water and check if my make up is still in the right place. If someone wanted to lose weight I could say s/he should start dancing because it just takes you with it. I am not the only one whose body had changed since I started dancing.

My friend suggested that I should take a heart rate monitor with me when I go to a dance party. Not a bad idea at all! I have no idea how much energy I am actually consuming or how high my pulse raises. I always have a feeling that I am not doing that much but there must be something behind those wet t-shirts I find wearing after dancing. Maybe it is because I got used to hard work outs and sore muscles that it is hard to think dancing as something I should also give my body time to recover from. If I think the last couple of moths, I have been dancing at least 4-5 times per week on average and I don't even want to count the total hours I've spent dancing! It was a good eye-opener when the coach in the nutrition training was calling dancing a physical training from where my body needs to recover from. After all, I want to keep good care of my body so that I can keep on doing what I love - dancing.

Well, I was happy to hear that my eating habits are pretty good and that I am having a balanced diet. What I should pay attention to is to have a good source of protein and carbohydrate in the meals I'm having before and after dancing. So no more crashing straight into my bed after coming home late from a dance party but first some energy for my body to start recovering and to get ready for the next dancing session.