The diet at the Shaolin temple is strictly vegetarian in keeping with Buddhist principles. Academies throughout China however will serve meat (although often not great meat). This page is simply to put forward ideas of diet and training.
If you are training in an academy in China, you will likely be training anything from 5-10 hours per day. Most people know that the majority of the population eat far too much. This becomes very apparent when your days is spent training. In my opinion, to get the most out of your training you should try to cut as much meat as possible from your diet and aim to eat far less than you usually do, while trying to eat as much raw food as possible. Why? There are many reasons.
Eat less
Training can be very strenuous, using a lot of energy. When you eat, your body uses energy to process the food. When you overeat, the energy from the food is wasted, although you are still weighed down by the sheer bulk of the food, plus your body is still using energy to process the food. If any of you have ever had a lot of beers, eaten a bunch of food, and the next day, thrown up half of it, you know what I’m talking about. The more you eat, the longer your body takes to process it. We’re constantly overeating and therefore, constantly processing food. We’re actually addicted to food. When you get hungry, it is not your body telling you that you have to eat, but rather, your body’s addiction to food panging for its next hit. Have you also noticed how after a meal, you often feel tired, feel like sitting down or having a nap? Again, that is because your body is using a lot of energy to process the food.
So, the less you eat, the more energy you will actually have and the better you will feel.
Cut meat and simple carbohydrates
Meat will stay in your system for a long time and I mean a looong time. Reportedly we have a lot of meat just sitting in our guts hanging out. After cooking meat as we do, a lot of the benefits are lost. On top of that, meat these days has so much crap in it that you’re putting a lot of stuff you don’t know about, including antibiotics into your system. My qigong master stresses that cutting meat is a very positive step for improving your clarity of mind and qigong practice, which is an essential part of achieving very high levels of Shaolin Kung Fu.
If you’re training in China you will likely be fed a load of white rice. Rice, while not awful for you, will fill you up and make you sleepy. It also releases its energy relatively quickly so if you are having a two or three hour break, a lot of the energy will already have been released before you resume your training.
In China I had opted for a diet solely consisting of vegetables. I was able to eat and go for a 10km run straight away, while others were sleeping. Trust me, you have more energy, not less.
Eat Raw Food
This one is for the hardcores. At least aim for one raw food meal a day, preferably the last meal. It is great for qigong and raw food reportedly aids in boosting flexibility.
