- September 22, 2018
- Life style
- Darina Sakharova
Working at the barre, a ballerina develops plasticity and flexibility. And to maintain your beautiful and slender body, physical activity alone will not be enough; discipline in nutrition is also necessary.
That is why all ballerinas must follow certain rules when eating.
So, how do ballerinas eat?
Basic rules for eating
1. Of any serving of food, you must eat exactly half.
If you can’t do this right away, you can eat a little first, for example, while you are at home, and finish it a little later, for example, when you are already at work.
2. Breakfast must be very hearty, since it is in the first half of the day that the most active metabolism occurs in the body.
3. Soup must be eaten separately from other foods, consumed as an independent dish.
Soup is a separate dish. Since it is a liquid food, it has a very positive effect on metabolism and accelerates the process of burning fat.
It takes 2-3 hours to digest the soup. Therefore, the next meal should be no earlier than this time.
4. Fish and meat cannot be combined at one time; this is primarily due to the fact that at the same time they are very difficult for the stomach to digest.
5. Under no circumstances should you drink food with water. You can drink it either 30 minutes before meals or an hour after meals. You need to consume up to 2 liters of water per day.
Thanks to water, the body's digestion processes improve, and everything eaten is absorbed much faster.
Let's look at some of the subtleties of how ballerinas eat.
Diana Vishneva
photo: Neville Elder / Corbis Entertainment / Getty Images
At first, they didn’t even want to take a girl with a beautiful name and expressive eyes to the Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg, and a few years later she was invited to dance at the Mariinsky Theater even before Vishneva received her diploma. Soloist of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters, star of the world stage, recognized prima, and since 2013, also the creator of first a creative laboratory, and then her own international festival of contemporary dance CONTEXT. Diana Vishneva is now 43 years old and in amazing shape. What's the secret? There are several of them.
Stable mode. Getting up in the morning is not early, at 9 o’clock. But lights out is late, at 2 am. It turns out 7 hours of sleep, at the same time as usual for the body.
Breakfast is required. Diana never misses this meal. The ideal version of breakfast is oatmeal with water, an egg or a sandwich with red fish.
Lunch for two. Favorite soups, fish, meat, a whole bowl of salad... During heavy physical activity, a hearty lunch is a necessity, and calories are burned in the ballet hall. The exception is days when there is a performance ahead. In this case, meat helps to gain the necessary energy, but it should be eaten no later than 12 hours before going on stage.
Avoid snacking on the run. What Vishneva categorically avoids is fast food and other quick ways to satisfy hunger. Even if rehearsals go on for many hours in a row and there is no time for a full lunch, he will prefer to wait for dinner. The maximum you can have as a snack is some fruit or a piece of dark chocolate. And drinks water, of course.
Mom's favorite dishes. When possible, the ballerina is pampered by her mother. Sometimes he even goes on tour with her. And then fish, steamed cutlets, and stewed vegetables appear on the table. And the only thing Diana treats herself to is curd cheese, a childhood addiction.
Great physical activity. Vishneva has been accustomed to them since her school years. Usually classes in the ballet hall start at 11 o'clock and last until the evening. So there is no need for diets, the excess goes away thanks to the usual training regimen.
Secrets of proper nutrition
1. Water.
To properly maintain the body's metabolism and natural processes associated with the release of waste from the body, it is recommended to drink large amounts of water.
You should also remember that if you want to eat, you should drink first. Since in most cases we perceive thirst as hunger, 1 glass of water can thus save you from unconscious gluttony.
In order not to forget about the water, you can pour it into glasses in advance and place them in the most visible places. For example, on the kitchen table, near the mirror, etc. This way they will catch your eye faster, and you won’t be able to forget about the water.
2. You should eat regularly.
Nutrition for ballerinas - what should it be like?
Meals should be no more than 5 times a day. Small snacks are allowed between meals. Nuts, dried fruits, fruits such as apples, bananas are allowed, and low-fat yoghurts are also allowed.
Complex carbohydrates are recommended for breakfast: muesli, various cereals. Carbohydrates will provide energy until lunch. If you really want, you can allow yourself a little sweet, but only until 12:00.
Proteins, fats and carbohydrates cannot be completely excluded. Firstly, all of them are needed for our body, and secondly, when we very much limit ourselves in something, we risk losing our minds and eating much more.
Proteins should be eaten in the afternoon. And you shouldn’t combine several proteins at once in one meal. That is, either meat, fish, or dairy products (example: milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese), eggs. If you combine them, the digestive system is thus greatly overloaded.
And in the evening you can add plant foods and fiber to the proteins.
If desired, it is quite acceptable to swap lunch and dinner, as well as afternoon tea and second breakfast.
This is the answer to the main question about how ballerinas eat every day, what foods are recommended in the first half of the day, and which in the second.
3. It is recommended to eat slowly.
You need to chew everything thoroughly. This will allow you to better enjoy the taste of food and quickly realize that you are already full.
4. Diary.
For more control, you can keep a special diary. He disciplines. And write down in this diary the amount of food you eat, the number of kilocalories.
So what do ballerinas really eat?
Pros and cons of the diet
Gentle nutrition options for ballerinas have many advantages besides rapid weight loss. The main advantages of the dancers' diet:
- normalizes appetite and stomach volumes - the absence of sweet and starchy foods in the diet does not provoke surges in blood glucose, and small portions help contract the stomach;
- does not allow the feeling of hunger to develop;
- improves well-being, improves the functioning of internal organs, normalizes the functionality of the gastrointestinal tract - removes excess load from the digestive system, eliminates flatulence;
- ensures complete cleansing of the body from harmful substances;
- The diet cannot be called expensive - all products are affordable.
When her career is at stake, the ballerina does not pay attention to the disadvantages. In everyday life, people should remember the disadvantages of strict diet options:
- It is very difficult to endure fasting days. They are not recommended for girls and teenagers.
- Every day you need to prepare fresh food, you don’t always have time for this.
- It is important to stick to the regime. For busy people, it’s not so easy to organize meals according to the hour.
- Without regular exercise, the muscles and skin will become flabby, and the plumb line will not be as large.
- The diet is low in plant foods and grains, which can cause constipation.
- Without taking multivitamins, the musculoskeletal system, skin, and hair suffer.
- Due to the low calorie content of the menu, weight loss first occurs through muscles and water, and only then does fat disappear.
Products that are allowed
1. It is best to choose low-calorie products.
Meat and cottage cheese – 0%, kefir – no more than 1%. The fat content of other products should be no more than 2.5%.
2. Complex and some easily digestible carbohydrates should be included in your diet. These include rice, river, oatmeal, vegetables, fruits and bread.
3. The most desirable foods are those rich in omega-3 acids.
Foods containing the highest amounts of omega-3 acids include nuts, avocados, and fish (eg, sardines, salmon).
They are able to charge the entire body with more energy, and thanks to them, the muscles of the body become stronger. In the case of ballet art, omega-3 acids are simply necessary to avoid any injury.
3. Water must be purified, mineral and always non-carbonated.
Indications and contraindications
The indication for the diet is excess weight, not caused by disorders of the body or diseases. It is important to consult a doctor to avoid health risks.
Contraindications:
- pregnancy and lactation;
- gastrointestinal diseases;
- period of active growth;
- retirement age;
- period of treatment or rehabilitation after illness;
- anorexia or obesity;
- endocrine diseases;
- liver diseases;
- oncological diseases.
Products to exclude
1. Salt and sugar should be eliminated completely, since salts cause water retention in the body, and sugar is one of the useless carbohydrates. Therefore, to prevent your food from seeming too bland, you can use honey instead of sugar, and seasonings, onions, garlic and soy sauce instead of salt. However, they should be added only before meals.
This will allow you to eat not only healthy, but also tasty.
2. You should absolutely completely exclude smoked foods, fast food, sweets, various semi-finished products, everything salty, spicy and fatty, as well as marinades, carbonated and alcoholic drinks from your diet.
3. Sauces and mayonnaise should also be excluded from the diet.
Note: even if mayonnaise is included in the base of any sauce.
Svetlana Zakharova
photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images Entertainment
The name of this prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater is already part of the brand of the country's main theater. In addition, Svetlana is the etiquette of the La Scala theater and a guest star of all the main ballet stages of the world, the organizer and main inspirer of the Svetlana charity children's dance festival. In the music world, she is also known as the wife of the famous violinist Vadim Repin, with whom they have a creative union and work on joint projects. The family has a daughter, Anya, which means that her mother was not afraid to lose shape due to childbirth. And she really recovered quickly; three months after the birth of her daughter, she returned to the stage. Here are the basic nutritional principles of a ballerina.
Minimum salt. Not adding enough salt or not adding salt at all is a simple and healthy habit that helps you stay slim.
Healthy breakfast. The morning meal is usually porridge with water and green tea.
Fish instead of meat. Svetlana does not strive to go on a strict diet, otherwise where will she get her strength? But she doesn't eat meat or poultry. But fish and seafood - with pleasure.
The slice is twice as thin. Deny yourself your favorite foods? It’s possible, but the body will still take its toll. Therefore, if Zakharova happens to gain a little weight, for example, after a vacation, she simply reduces the pieces and slices. Not 100 g of chocolate a day, but 50. And your favorite cheese - thinly sliced. She also loves herring with potatoes.
Labels for control . An important point: you should always check the expiration date of products indicated on the packaging. Svetlana is sure that the body is greatly hindered by microtoxins that form in expired products.
The balance is not in favor of fats. If restrictions are introduced, then due to a reasonable ratio of the components of the diet: there should be a sufficient amount of proteins and carbohydrates, but fats can be reduced to a minimum. This allows you to get rid of extra pounds if necessary.
Fasting days that ballerinas should follow
How do ballerinas eat on fasting days?
In order to start losing weight, ballerinas need to spend literally 2-3 days fasting.
Approximate food menu for the very first fasting day.
For breakfast you will need: any vegetable juice, tomato juice is recommended, as it is more nutritious. You need to drink 1 glass.
For lunch: rye bread - one small piece + two glasses of tomato juice.
For dinner: it will be enough to drink one glass of vegetable juice.
Diet of ballerinas on the second day.
On the second day of fasting, you need to drink milk or any fermented milk products. However, you should also remember about fat content; its percentage should be either 0 or 1%, but not more.
For breakfast: it is recommended to drink either milk or kefir - one glass.
For lunch: rye bread - one piece + kefir - one glass.
And for dinner: it will be enough to drink one glass of milk or kefir.
To maintain physical fitness, dancers require special fasting days. No more than once a week.
So, let's get down to the most important thing.
Diet menu for ballerinas
So, what do ballerinas eat? The daily menu consists of 5 main meals.
For your first breakfast: drink one glass of warm milk and eat 60 grams of cottage cheese with 0% fat content.
For second breakfast. One piece of black bread, spread with butter (you can use honey instead of butter), and one cup of coffee.
For lunch you need to eat either fish (up to 40 g) or meat (up to 100 g) + stewed vegetables (note: you can use cabbage, zucchini, pumpkin, eggplant, peppers, etc. for this).
Afternoon snack: it will be enough to eat just 1 fruit. You can treat yourself to an apple, orange or grapefruit.
As for dinner, it must be at least two hours before the night's rest. It will be enough to drink milk - one glass is enough, or low-fat kefir - also one glass, you can add honey - one teaspoon.
Joy Womack: “I weighed 36 kilograms on the exam”
Joy can be called a unique ballerina. She studied both in the USA and in Russia - at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Womack became the first American woman to graduate from our school and be accepted into the Bolshoi Theater troupe. But the path the girl took to success in the theater field gives me goosebumps.
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In the second year of study at Moscow State Academy of Arts, the teacher who promoted Joy was forced to leave their course. A teacher came to replace her, who saw too much sport in the girl and believed that she did not have ballet skills. Therefore, Womack had to prove with all her might that she was a promising student. And the ways in which she tried to become a better person were extremely exhausting.
Joy says that in the academy there was a general tendency to strive for thinness. Especially those who did not have outstanding abilities. It was believed that the thinner the better. Therefore, in the last year of study, a real struggle began among female graduates for the right to dance in the ballet “Paquito”. The artists began to lose weight even more diligently. Joy was so afraid of competition that she took additional classes from another teacher. She attended classes at 6 am, worked there for two hours and then went to school, where she continued to study diligently until the evening. It was a colossal load.
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Next to where Womack took private lessons, there was a dried fruit and nut stand. Joy still remembers that already at 8 am she felt terrible hunger. Every day she waited until she could buy 100 grams of peanuts in sugar and stretch this handful throughout the day. And if a girl allowed herself chocolate, then only a small square piece. After class, Womack would go home and buy some jelly. She drank it until 6 pm, and after that - no food.
Because of such a meager diet, Joy at one point weighed 36 kilograms - this was the lowest figure in her conscious life. The girl became so thin that Marina Konstantinovna Leonova, rector of the Moscow State Academy of Arts, called her to her and said that she urgently needed to get better. The ballerina admitted that after critical weight loss it is very difficult to gain kilograms back. And besides, she received excellent marks in the exams, she was selected to dance at the Bolshoi Theater, and all the teachers praised Womack, talking about her beauty and diligence. This, willy-nilly, motivated me to stay skinny.
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And only after graduating from the academy and after some time of real work in the theater, Joy began to gradually gain weight.
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Question of the day: is ballet for everyone or not?
Some myths about the nutrition of ballerinas
The opinion that ballerinas do not eat anything at all is wrong. After all, artists are the most ordinary people.
So, how do ballerinas eat?
To maintain their physical shape, ballerinas adhere to the principles of proper nutrition - eat in small portions, and most importantly - rehearsals, which are very good exercise.
Each serving should be no more than 300 g.
Smoothies, juices, soups are a separate dish. And it is not recommended to dilute them with solid food.
Fast carbohydrates, such as sugar, are completely removed. The exception is sweets such as marmalade and marshmallows. They are low-fat, so you can eat them, but in limited quantities.
Fruits are allowed. However, it is worth excluding those fruits that cause bloating. And you can eat them some time after the main meal.
Elizaveta Taranda tells the whole truth about what and how ballerinas eat.
Having met slender dancers in a cafe, devouring pasta or a burger, casual spectators avert their eyes and whisper: “And then two fingers in the mouth, no less,” they summarize.
There are no fat ballerinas - that's true. But the three-hour “Swan Lake” cannot be sustained on the water, and from 10 am before the performance there are many rehearsals, the day is filled with dance and enormous emotional stress. It's time for the sylphs to reveal how they manage to be fluffy and at the same time post photos of all sorts of goodies and delicacies on social networks.
Are you lucky with your figure? Or hard work?
Traditionally, ballerinas eat whatever they want and whenever they have time - the theater schedule is busy, there is simply no time to eat, and in the evening there is no strength to overeat. You shouldn’t immediately lament: “How is it possible, someone is lucky with their figure.”
Ballet is a serious art, and becoming a ballerina is extremely difficult. They are accepted into ballet like astronauts - the healthiest ones who meet the parameters and standards.
When girls are selected for a choreographic school, they go through three rounds. The first round is an assessment of physical data, body structure, the second round is a medical examination, the third is musicality, dancing, artistry.
The school is attended by the most capable people from the beginning, whom nature has endowed with long arms, legs, necks, thin bones, and ideal proportions. Almost always, even at an early age, it is clear how the figure of the future dancer will develop, and most often children predisposed to obesity are not taken, for their own good.
Dress,
Dior .
Photo: @stepanstepansky. Style: Tatyana Shevarenkova. Hairstyle: Alena Gerasimenko. Makeup: Alena Moiseeva for Giorgio Armani. Manicure: Olga Ankaeva for L'Oreal Paris Essie. Stylist assistant: Ekaterina Savinkova. Producer: Elena Serova Girls who, over 10 years of training, have become accustomed to exercise, discipline, and light food, do not experience difficulties maintaining weight. If an ordinary person goes to the gym three times a week, then a ballerina dances six days a week for at least five hours, that is, physical activity is extremely high, so the ballerina’s figure is always toned.
But there is no smoke without fire. Sometimes nature intervenes: during the period of girls’ development, there are often cases when a slender doe suddenly changes dramatically, and diets become the only way out of the situation.
The theater season usually goes by in waves, sometimes there is a lot of work, sometimes there is little, everything always depends on the repertoire and new productions. During hours-long rehearsals, it is impossible to catch a bite out of boredom, but during quiet periods, dancers begin to “grab themselves by the hand” - and go on diets.
What is the diet of ballerinas?
Many follow their grandmother’s proven paths. Buckwheat is our everything! My friend, NOVAT soloist Anna Germizeeva, quite often struggles with being overweight for a dancer, which would be ideal for an ordinary girl, but is uncomfortable to dance with. Anna takes a five-day moratorium on any food except steamed buckwheat, calls sweets evil, dines with a cup of green tea and, by the time of the performance, gains a wasp waist. An effective diet, but it can’t be called healthy.
Polina Zayarnaya from the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater practices intermittent fasting: she does not eat after six and has breakfast no earlier than eight in the morning. During the busy rehearsal period, lunch rarely happens, sometimes at 10 pm, and the dancer survives on a bag of nuts all day. When there is time for lunch, he prefers boiled meat, pieces of hard cheese, spinach, and avocado. For dinner - the lightest possible salad with olive oil, stewed or steamed vegetables.
Vegan ballerinas? It happens!
Joy Annabelle Womack is a guest soloist in many theaters around the world, an adherent of sports and fitness for a long time and was a raw foodist. And recently I began to adhere to a vegan menu; I do not eat baked goods, oatmeal, rice, meat, fish, seafood, chocolate, potatoes, cheese, or dairy products.
The ballerina's diet includes vegetables - baked, boiled, stewed, raw, in the form of smoothies: broccoli, spinach, beans, pumpkin, radishes, zucchini, eggplant, cauliflower, carrots. And also chia seeds, and occasionally durum wheat pasta. Treats include nuts and dried fruits, as well as soy ice cream. No alcohol, soda, or sweet juice from a package.
To maintain the balance of nutrients in the body, Joy's diet regularly contains sports supplements, vitamin complexes for skin, nails, bones, and hair.
The girl’s energy remained at the same level due to the high content of correct, healthy carbohydrates. Of course, protein diets are effective, but lethargy, apathy and fatigue in the absence of carbohydrates always take their toll.
Even those ballerinas who do not follow such a radical path as Joy are increasingly abandoning meat in favor of fish, citing greater health benefits and a lack of heaviness inside.
For many, chips, soda, candied, sweetened, heavily seasoned, fried, oily, fast food are prohibited - everything that is not on the list of healthy foods is excluded from the diet of artists.
Almost everyone votes for small portions, vitamin complexes, and at least eight hours of sleep. However, each of the dancers I interviewed simply admitted: “On vacation I eat like I’m not myself.”
How do I personally solve the nutrition issue? Read my story about this on the Sportchic website.
4-day diet of ballerinas
Let's look at how ballerinas eat and their diet during the diet.
There is even a special diet for ballerinas. It consists of 4 days.
First day
Several pieces of black crackers + tomato juice, up to 1.5 liters.
Second day
Black crackers + 1.5 liters of milk.
The third day
You need to eat 5 servings of special soup. Each serving should consist of 200 ml of broth, 1 tsp. boiled rice, 1 tbsp. l. grated carrots and 50 g of any lean meat.
Fourth day
One of the most relaxing, as you are allowed to drink only mineral water. If you are really hungry, you can replace the water with kefir or milk.
Portions should be small, don’t forget about water, up to 2 liters per day.
Reviews of those who have lost weight on a diet
Here are typical reviews of the diet of ballerinas:
Natasha, 40 years old:
I found this diet on the Internet. At first I didn’t believe it because I tried many different methods and nothing helped. But I risked trying it, choosing the ballerina’s menu for the week. At first it was very difficult, but then things went well, in a week I managed to get rid of 5 kilograms.
Albina, 31 years old:
After giving birth, I spent a long time looking for a way to regain my prenatal weight. I took the risk of trying a 4-lane workout for ballerinas. My delight knows no bounds! Without a painful feeling of hunger, I easily lost 3 kilograms, after 2 weeks I tried again, and again minus 3. I recommend it to everyone.
