I was still eating 3 meals a day, but I still found the first two months very difficult, and needed a lot of reassurance and guidance from my guru.
Some years later, I was still thinking about the yogic diet and began to practice properly under my guru, and under his direction I learnt many things. I was already vegetarian (including no eggs, as vegetarians are in India) when I began practicing, and had to cut out caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol and unfermented dairy. Together with special cleansing food and the supporting meditation and mental exercises, I began to clean my body gradually. I was still eating 3 meals a day, but I still found the first two months very difficult, and needed a lot of reassurance and guidance from my guru. After 2-3 months it became much easier, and by 4 months I had lost 15kg and my body was very lean, and my flexibility, fitness, and stamina were much improved. After this I reduced my food intake to two meals a day and I continued this for two months, after which I reduced to one meal a day. My aptitude for the technique was more advanced, and I wasn’t tired or hungry at all, and could still easily manage to teach, practice and massage in kalaripayattu, as well as fulfil all my farm and familial responsibilities.