On Fasting

I recently watched a bbc documentary on fasting.  I was intrigued.  Lately I have been eating like a weight lifter which is great because I lift weights.  But also making bad choices and drinking (probably too much).  I sprained an ankle on 4 June to add to my situation.  At the end of the summer I was 160#.  That is 11 or 9 # over what I am allowed.  With that came a 215# PR on my deadlift and I hit my 120 on the bench and even 3 sets of 10 reps at 100#.  So basically strength wins totally happening.  But I know that although I have a lot of muscle I also have a lot of fat.  Now to find balance or refocus my goals or something.  I have a new short term goal to drop excess weight in the form of fat so I will be experimenting with my diet for the next few months clearly what I am doing is good for my strength but I need to adjust to drop weight.  

Some of these thoughts occurred to me while on my fast.  See my fast made me think. That is probably a good thing.  

So why fast.  I felt puffy, full, lethargic, gassy, and my body wasn't processing food correctly.  I rapidly gained the last 5 lbs of that weight during a cruise.  I decided I needed a cleanse.  Then I had to decide what kind of cleanse.  I tried a juice fast once a few years ago and weight came off for like 5 minutes.  I decided I could modify that to get some additional nutrients.  

I watched the documentary eat, fast, and live (I think) it's on YouTube and I decided it's worth a shot.  I need something dramatic.  I eat lots of veggies good meat not much bread or dairy already maybe I just need to do something dramatic to get my body to respond.  

2 plus day liquid fast it is.  Modified juice fast.  I drank water, detox tea, not senna tea though, juice (that I made one green and one red a day), juice plus shakes with coconut water, and broth both bone broth (I made) and organ stock (also homemade).  I fasted 62 hours or so.  I am about to break my fast but really not hungry. I walked, cleaned house, and stretched during this first fast and took detox baths both with a seaweed powder and rosemary essential oil.

I feel incredible.  I expected lethargy and hanger.  I got just good.  I feel really good.  I drank slowly and usually my meal would take about a half hour to an hour to finish.  

I will do this again.  I plan to incorporate several fast days into my week (2-3) and I think a couple vegetarian days and a couple paleo days.  I will have at least one day where I can just eat the type of foods I want at will but I want to play with the rest a bit and see how I feel.  

I thought fasting was nuts.  I love how I feel right now.  At one point I thought paleo and vegetarian diets were nuts.  I think it all has possibly a time and place in my diet.  I want to check it all out.  

Kombucha

Years ago (8 I think) I tried what I still think was Kombucha.  I was at s health food store on South Congress in Austin, TX.  I took a sip and what looked and felt like a jellyfish as it appears on the beach went down my throat.  I gagged and tossed it out.  I vowed never again would I partake of this disgusting product.  

Ha ha.  Fast forward to 2015.  I am doing all these things that are improving my fitness level dietary and physical training changes.  I feel amazing.  

A couple weeks ago I tried Kombucha again.  I liked it.  No jellyfish down my throat.  An enjoyable experience with an interesting flavor.  I have had digestive issues from gas to sluggishness over the years so probiotics are definitely a good thing for me.  Eating clean really does a lot all on its own, but probiotics can't hurt in addition to dietary choices.  

I guess my point is, I said never again then changed my mind as my physical needs and tastes changed.  

If there is something you tried in the past and thought never again, maybe try it again as your tastes and experiences change.  

March Madness Fitness Challenge

My coworkers and I decided to have a team fitness challenge for the month of March.  31 days.  31 points possible.  We get a point each day we participate in at least 30 minutes of physical activity.  

It's pretty cool.  

The activity can be pretty much anything.  Cardio, strength, flexibility you just have to move for 30 minutes.  The intent is to hold one another accountable and improve our physical fitness.  It's great to have people to encourage and motivate you to do better and to be better.  At the end of March the winner gets to display a super cool trophy on his or her desk for the month of April.  We'll start a new challenge April first.  I love it!  At this point my peers just want to beat me since I am already active on a regular basis and that's cool.  I enjoy motivating people to want to do better, even just to beat me.  

I decided why not share this cool experiment with more friends.  I opened a Facebook Group March Madness Fitness Challenge to do just that.  I am pumped, excited and super motivated to see the great results we will all have with consistency, accountability, and encouragement!  

Let's do this!

Whole30 Round Two

Round two of Whole30 has been so easy.  I am almost halfway through my 30 days without really thinking bout it.  Day 13.  I think I got some headaches from sugar or caffeine the first week, coconut butter is a great solution and I keep it close all the time.  I sleep great.  I am not missing my wine.  Full transparency, I think about wine occasionally and had at least one night where I was dealing with something that upset me and I thought for a minute this is when I want wine, Alfredo, and chocolate.  But I knew it wasn't what I really needed.  I needed to stretch, accept the comfort friends and family offered, pray and rest.  

I am doing 2 a days this round.  Before work on work days I stretch, walk or run and after work I lift or stretch.  I am taking time to rest as well, I need balance.  Yesterday I got my first massage in months.  It was amazing.  I needed the massage and full rest day.  Today and for the next 2 days I go pretty hard in the gym.  Tuesday I will run in the morning and rest in the afternoon.  

My body puffed up during the last week or two that I was off Whole30.  I was making poor nutrition choices, drinking wine and beer daily, enjoying cheese every day, and my veggie consumption was way down.  I also wasn't in the gym much for that whole month.  A couple times a week vice a couple rest days a week.  

For me, bread and cheese makes me lethargic.  I don't know how it affects you, but I have to listen to my body.  I cannot say that I won't make a deliberate choice to have dairy and bread in my life.  I mean come on, really.  But it'll be a treat I will deliberately make in order to enjoy the taste not like the last week or two before I went Whole30 this time, I was out to binge on baked goods, chocolate, dairy, bread, and wine or beer.  I don't understand why I wanted to do that.  It was a week and a half or two weeks of poor choices.  

The aftermath was terrible I did not like looking in the mirror.  I put on 3-5 pounds but that doesn't really give the complete picture.  I went from lean and pretty smooth in my clothes and without them to very puffy and fleshy.  I had rolls where they hadn't been before my binge.  It is shocking how fast my body swells when I make those choices.  It is back to normal after about an equal amount of time making choices that fuel instead of fill.  I want to see where I can take my body before my next Birthday.  

I want to continue 2 a days and primarily feed myself paleo until then.  But I won't do another challenge for a while.  I just want to maintain a consistent clean diet and exercise routine.  I have my first half marathon of the running season on March 1st.  

Another 17 days of my January Whole30 challenge and I am stoked.  I love broccolini, just tried it yesterday for the first time.  I also incorporated smoked oysters for a light meal in a pinch.  I re-discovered sauerkraut.  I am very excited about how this challenge wakes up my tastebuds introduces me to new foods and challenges my imagination and helps me to open up to options I hadn't considered for my diet.  There is so much you can do with your foods interesting flavor and color combinations, it's divine.  

I also feel so liberated from counting calories.  It's exhausting to always worry about calories in versus calories out.  How many calories are in the pizza and beer I just consumed and what do I have to do to work it off.  Booh!  I don't want to think of my food that way and I don't want my exercise to be punishment for eating.  Exercise is fun.  It makes me feel good.  It wakes me up in the morning better than coffee and transitions my day from MAJ Dufour to Bettye.  Exercise is its own pleasure, reward, therapy not a punishment.  Food is not something to feel guilty about.  Even *GASP* a cupcake or cookie with no redeeming qualities is not something to regret or feel guilty about.  It kind of ruins your enjoyment of the treat if afterward if you are going to feel guilty and bad about yourself.

I don't mean to come off preachy.  I am just learning about food and exercise using my body, hormones, emotions, feelings, sleep cycle, and energy level as my new scale for what to put in my body and how to exercise to get the best I can out of me.  

I am incredibly blessed to have the time, financial resouces, energy, and health to be able to conduct this science experiment on myself.