4 week retreat. Advice please!

[okulele]

August is my solo retreat month! Finally! There is still a bit to think about in terms of organization.

One thing that bugs me is feeding myself. The organized retreats that I attended offered breakfast, lunch and no dinner really. Do you think that's a good set up? I thought about just having some roasted grain drink in the evening, but I am not sure how well I'll be doing for a month will so little food. Any ideas?

About the techniques, I presume it's good to set up a precise schedule kind of like Vipassana retreats offer. Any ideas here?

So the question is, how do you recommend to deal with food and schedule on this kind of retreat?

General advice is welcome too.

Edited July 2, 2019 by okulele

[molosku]

Would you be able to experiment with intermitten fasting type of diet before you go? You can easily manage with eating only once or twice a day without hunger or cravings. 

[SunnyNewDay]

I would prepack and precook food so all your meals just require heating something up or scooping something out of a bowl or chopping up a piece of fruit. Might be daunting to prepare meals every day the deeper you go. Maybe take Sunday as a rest day and use it to prep for the week?

[Chi_]

2 hours ago, SunnyNewDay said:

I would prepack and precook food so all your meals just require heating something up or scooping something out of a bowl or chopping up a piece of fruit. Might be daunting to prepare meals every day the deeper you go. Maybe take Sunday as a rest day and use it to prep for the week?

Eventhough this is a very convenient method, it is not the healthiest and it is a concern when the main work is consciousness work.

 

In the yogic traditions, leaving a cooked meal for longer than 1.5 hours causes it to gain a certain inertia and thus lengthen the amount you sleep for example.

 

I know it's hard to do otherwise on a solo retreat but I think this should be taken into consideration. 

[okulele]

9 hours ago, molosku said:

Would you be able to experiment with intermitten fasting type of diet before you go? You can easily manage with eating only once or twice a day without hunger or cravings. 

It would be hard for me now, as I work manually and perform quite hard physical labor. I tried it in the past though, and I think in a retreat setting it would make sense.

8 hours ago, SunnyNewDay said:

I would prepack and precook food so all your meals just require heating something up or scooping something out of a bowl or chopping up a piece of fruit. Might be daunting to prepare meals every day the deeper you go. Maybe take Sunday as a rest day and use it to prep for the week?

The thing is that the hut I'll be living in has no fridge no electricity in fact. I'll be cooking mostly from dry stuff like oats and porridge + will be getting the fruit and veggies from a small restaurant nearby.

5 hours ago, Chi_ said:

Eventhough this is a very convenient method, it is not the healthiest and it is a concern when the main work is consciousness work.

 

In the yogic traditions, leaving a cooked meal for longer than 1.5 hours causes it to gain a certain inertia and thus lengthen the amount you sleep for example.

 

I know it's hard to do otherwise on a solo retreat but I think this should be taken into consideration. 

Yes, I agree. I'd love healthy and fresh stuff to back me up.