Fasting. Just the word puts me off. I have images of imaciated yogis and sexually repressed monks weakly shuffling around, muttering religious mumbo jumbo to distract themselves from their groaning bellies. And yet this is the all new diet/lifestyle that will cure us all from obesity, cancer and death. Oh really?
Well let's ignore that isn't new at all. The Spartan Health Regime has been advocating fasting for over a decade. The Warrior Diet, Eat Stop Eat and most of the various Primal/Paleo diet's have advocated fasting of some variation for years now. However, the trails blazed by these fringe dieters have led scientists to stop investigating the mysteries of dunking biscuits in tea (oh no wait, they have they taxed me again to pay for more biscuit science) and discover just what effects fasting has.
Well obviously the most apparant effect is weight loss. A calorie deficit will always lead to weight loss, period. It can be done in constructive healthy ways and it can be done to strip away your muscle, starve your organs and kill you, but all will produce a lower number on the scale. We'll go into the alternatives in a future post in this series.
More and more evidence is being found to show that fasting, when done in certain fashions, has a range of additional benefits besides weight loss. I said I'd keep these posts short I'm going to simply point you to Dr. Mike Moseley's investigation on BBC iPlayer for those who have access and his article for those who don't. Besides, I am not going to put it as well as he does so why badly reinvent the wheel.
Good, now read his article/watched his program? Great, I won't have to explain it all to you again.
This was enough to peak my interest in intermittant fasting. Enough that I have been doing IF since early January. With highly positive results.
Tomorrow - IF diet options
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
From the beer sodden ashes
Whaddya know, another reboot. This time....I promise nothing. I do not have the patience nor the time to be a proper blogger. I am highly capricious in my interests, two weeks ago I was learning Latin, this week I'm wondering whether Mandarin might make more sense. Unless it's work or family, my consistency has been historically nigh on none existent.
With that in mind, I would like to attempt to restart this. I will keep my posts short if I can to spare me the time in writing and you the life in reading.
So, over this week and next I will write about my venture a new diet I've been using, how I've applied it and how successful it's been.
So, fingers crossed I'm still here tomorrow, or this will be yet further prove of my continuing flakiness.
The Fyrdman
With that in mind, I would like to attempt to restart this. I will keep my posts short if I can to spare me the time in writing and you the life in reading.
So, over this week and next I will write about my venture a new diet I've been using, how I've applied it and how successful it's been.
So, fingers crossed I'm still here tomorrow, or this will be yet further prove of my continuing flakiness.
The Fyrdman
Monday, 21 November 2011
Catch up
Didn't get a chance to post on Friday so jotting this down now. Hit the gym on Thursday evening for a reasonably light session. 15 mins running, 20 mins on the bike. We'd left it too late when we set off for the gym to put the 10-20 additional minutes we'd have like to but that's life.
The new trainers were great on the treadmill. No slippage, brilliantly comfortable, good feel through the material. My calves and tendon felt fine at the time but I was feeling an ache kick into the toes. From what I've read this is normal as you develop strength to these areas, so I'm not worried. The following day or so my calves were very noticeably bust up in the best of ways, so that's good. Ate clean for the rest of the day.
Friday to Sunday I had off, though we did a fair share of trooping around shops on Saturday. On Friday it was nothing but fruit and yoghurt for me till dinner, so far so good. Then my first sweet, sweet beer of the weekend. Following that was maybe 4 more beers, glass of white wine, half a bottle of red, drop of brandy. Oh dear.
Saturday was more restrained on the booze, but as it's coming into Christmas season I had a couple of mince pies with cream, approx 300 calories a pop. Ouch.
Sunday slipped a little on the booze (1 glasses of red, 2 glasses of mulled wine, glass of home made high strength cider, yum). More mince pies.
So today will be clear execept I will be having a mince pie today and tomorrow. I'm not tossing em out, not a chance in hell. But otherwise diet will clean up. I suspect I won't have time for the gym today so I'll look to do it tomorrow, hopefully go for a short run in the morning if we don't go to the gym till after work.
I will post stats later today if I remember.
The new trainers were great on the treadmill. No slippage, brilliantly comfortable, good feel through the material. My calves and tendon felt fine at the time but I was feeling an ache kick into the toes. From what I've read this is normal as you develop strength to these areas, so I'm not worried. The following day or so my calves were very noticeably bust up in the best of ways, so that's good. Ate clean for the rest of the day.
Friday to Sunday I had off, though we did a fair share of trooping around shops on Saturday. On Friday it was nothing but fruit and yoghurt for me till dinner, so far so good. Then my first sweet, sweet beer of the weekend. Following that was maybe 4 more beers, glass of white wine, half a bottle of red, drop of brandy. Oh dear.
Saturday was more restrained on the booze, but as it's coming into Christmas season I had a couple of mince pies with cream, approx 300 calories a pop. Ouch.
Sunday slipped a little on the booze (1 glasses of red, 2 glasses of mulled wine, glass of home made high strength cider, yum). More mince pies.
So today will be clear execept I will be having a mince pie today and tomorrow. I'm not tossing em out, not a chance in hell. But otherwise diet will clean up. I suspect I won't have time for the gym today so I'll look to do it tomorrow, hopefully go for a short run in the morning if we don't go to the gym till after work.
I will post stats later today if I remember.
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Three days in a row
Three days in a row, impressive no? No, right.
Went to the gym last night, 45 mins endurance training on the bike. I'm guessing 400kcals but as the bike stopped registering kcal burn for 20 mins I'm not sure. DW, fix your equipment!
Eating wasn't bad. Yogurt and honey, cherry juice, grapefruit, protein shake for breakfast. Tuna sandwich for lunch. Apple and banana in the afternoon. Slice of bread with peanut butter pre-workout, protein shake after. Dinner was a spag bol (home made, of course. Heavy on carrots and mushrooms) with a glass of pomegranate juice.
Calorie wise it'll only be a small deficit, but as I'm also looking to improve all round strength slowly it's the trade off. With the heightened metabolism to handle the rebuilding of muscle as well as the burn while working out, it should keep it on the right side of intake to keep a slow drop in weight.
As I'm having two protein shakes per workout day, one per none workout day if I'm still aching, I'll go to water as the base for the whey. It's not nearly as tasty as with milk and it also cuts the nutrient content, but as I am looking to cut the weight, it's something I can do for now. When (if..) the weight approaches my target region I'll swap back in with the milk.
No gym this morning but I'll try go this evening.
The new trainers, Merrel Barefoot Trail Gloves, are feeling great when on foot but they don't have a thick enough base to make standing on the pedals of the spin bike comfortable. I might mix it up a bit and hit the treadmill again to see what they're like there. I did intend to do that last night, but my pecs hurt like buggery when they bounce due to the dips earlier this week. I know it's sad, but I'll get better if I can keep up this level of attendance.
Went to the gym last night, 45 mins endurance training on the bike. I'm guessing 400kcals but as the bike stopped registering kcal burn for 20 mins I'm not sure. DW, fix your equipment!
Eating wasn't bad. Yogurt and honey, cherry juice, grapefruit, protein shake for breakfast. Tuna sandwich for lunch. Apple and banana in the afternoon. Slice of bread with peanut butter pre-workout, protein shake after. Dinner was a spag bol (home made, of course. Heavy on carrots and mushrooms) with a glass of pomegranate juice.
Calorie wise it'll only be a small deficit, but as I'm also looking to improve all round strength slowly it's the trade off. With the heightened metabolism to handle the rebuilding of muscle as well as the burn while working out, it should keep it on the right side of intake to keep a slow drop in weight.
As I'm having two protein shakes per workout day, one per none workout day if I'm still aching, I'll go to water as the base for the whey. It's not nearly as tasty as with milk and it also cuts the nutrient content, but as I am looking to cut the weight, it's something I can do for now. When (if..) the weight approaches my target region I'll swap back in with the milk.
No gym this morning but I'll try go this evening.
The new trainers, Merrel Barefoot Trail Gloves, are feeling great when on foot but they don't have a thick enough base to make standing on the pedals of the spin bike comfortable. I might mix it up a bit and hit the treadmill again to see what they're like there. I did intend to do that last night, but my pecs hurt like buggery when they bounce due to the dips earlier this week. I know it's sad, but I'll get better if I can keep up this level of attendance.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Good day
Yesterday I had the day off, as BT were supposed to be installing a new line to my house (they previously had activated someone else down the street - stupid new build address). But it did mean that a) I could go to the gym for a decent session, b) eat fairly well and c) sign for my new Merrel Barefoot Trail Gloves...
I'll give them a review shortly. They came after my gym session and I couldn't persuade the wife into a second in a day session. So far though they seem like they will be good - plenty of room in the toe box while the heel to ball of foot section is so snug (but not constricting) it feels like a second skin, so I'm expecting near zero shearing.
So my day went like this -
Breakfast - Yoghurt and honey, small portion of cherry juice
Mid-morning snack - Apple
Pre-training - Slice of seeded wholemeal bread with peanut butter
Post-training - Whey protein (with water)
Lunch - Tuna sandwhich, same seedy wholemeal bread
Late Afternoon - More whey protein, this time with milk
Dinner - Roast sausage and winter veg (roast cumberland sausage, carrots, parsnips, onion and garlic all roasted in the juice and zest of one orange, served with mustard mash), followed my fresh mango and lemon juice.
Not bad at all for me.
Exercise - 30 min walk to the gym, 15 mins hard sweating on the exercise bike (emphasising speed over power, I use the spin bike for the latter), dips (8 free weight, 5 dips with 5kg add, 5 with 10kg added, then a decline of 2 at 10kg, 2 at 5kg, arms like jelly, good good), straight legged deadlifts (8 at 20kg, 8 at 30kg, two sets of 8 at 40kg) and finally lateral pulldowns (yeah yeah I'll work back to pull ups when I'm feeling a little stronger. 10 at 25kg, 8 at 35kg, 8 at 42.5kg, 8 at 42.5kg, 8 at 30kg), then back on the exercise bike for another 15 mins hard pedalling, then a 30 min walk back home.
Also went out for a walk in the evening. And actually was asleep by a little after 11.
If every day was like this I would be melting the fat off me in no time. Sadly, I have a job (shouldn't say that in this climate..) so day's like this are few and far between.
As for today, well I slept right through the alarm so I'll be hitting the gym after work but it does mean that the session can be longer than it would have been. Food wise doing fine now, but then it is only 10:30am.
Keep moving forward.
I'll give them a review shortly. They came after my gym session and I couldn't persuade the wife into a second in a day session. So far though they seem like they will be good - plenty of room in the toe box while the heel to ball of foot section is so snug (but not constricting) it feels like a second skin, so I'm expecting near zero shearing.
So my day went like this -
Breakfast - Yoghurt and honey, small portion of cherry juice
Mid-morning snack - Apple
Pre-training - Slice of seeded wholemeal bread with peanut butter
Post-training - Whey protein (with water)
Lunch - Tuna sandwhich, same seedy wholemeal bread
Late Afternoon - More whey protein, this time with milk
Dinner - Roast sausage and winter veg (roast cumberland sausage, carrots, parsnips, onion and garlic all roasted in the juice and zest of one orange, served with mustard mash), followed my fresh mango and lemon juice.
Not bad at all for me.
Exercise - 30 min walk to the gym, 15 mins hard sweating on the exercise bike (emphasising speed over power, I use the spin bike for the latter), dips (8 free weight, 5 dips with 5kg add, 5 with 10kg added, then a decline of 2 at 10kg, 2 at 5kg, arms like jelly, good good), straight legged deadlifts (8 at 20kg, 8 at 30kg, two sets of 8 at 40kg) and finally lateral pulldowns (yeah yeah I'll work back to pull ups when I'm feeling a little stronger. 10 at 25kg, 8 at 35kg, 8 at 42.5kg, 8 at 42.5kg, 8 at 30kg), then back on the exercise bike for another 15 mins hard pedalling, then a 30 min walk back home.
Also went out for a walk in the evening. And actually was asleep by a little after 11.
If every day was like this I would be melting the fat off me in no time. Sadly, I have a job (shouldn't say that in this climate..) so day's like this are few and far between.
As for today, well I slept right through the alarm so I'll be hitting the gym after work but it does mean that the session can be longer than it would have been. Food wise doing fine now, but then it is only 10:30am.
Keep moving forward.
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