Healthy Simple Living » Fasting

It Hurts to Drive My Car

lilla — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:50:57 +0000

I’m now on Day 3 of the RTP-Transformation system and boy, are my muscles SORE! Wow – I have a serious case of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) that make even turning my car’s steering wheel an incredible feat. But I LOVE it because it means things are changing. I’m breaking down muscle tissue and rebuilding stronger, leaner, meaner muscle fibers. I had forgotten how much I really do like working out. It’s a rush pushing my muscles hard, getting the blood circulating, working up a sweat and feeling a sense of accomplishment after a good session.

Today was my first cardio day after two days of weight training. I seriously didn’t think I would be able to do 30-minutes of steady state when I struggled to get out of bed this morning. The DOMS was so intense, I tried to roll out of bed and stand up without bending any limbs. Not easy – lol. But after puttering around a bit, I knew I could push my way through 30-minutes of running.

So I opted for the treadmill instead of an outdoor run just to make my first cardio day a bit easier on a cushiony surface. Treadmill running is SO much easier that outdoor running! I ran 5k in 45 minutes including a 5 minute warm-up walk. Definitely room for improvement. My goal is to do a 5k in 30 minutes by the end of April. Also want to do some beach running. Now that’s tough stuff!

Tomorrow is a new weight training workout and I got to say, I love the way the RTP System is laid out. The workouts are varied so your muscles never get “used to” it, which allows you to keep getting results. Same principle as in Turbulence Training – muscle “confusion” prevents adaptation and promotes increases in strength. The best part is the downloadable Excel file of all the workout sheets! In fear of shattering my cool image and revealing my tech geekiness, I love having everything organized and the training worksheets are perfect – one for every workout AND it will auto-populate my info the next time the workout is repeated 7 days later! So easy to keep track and review my progress in one place.

The accountability log also REMEMBERS my foods in a drop-down list AND calculate my daily accountability score. So smart. Adam thought of everything. The only little thing I would change is placing the whole day’s workout on one sheet instead of a separate sheet for the day’s ab workout. No biggie – just a paper saver.

I just posted my day one photo in the private RTP forum. I think I like that much better than placing pictures on my public blog. I still get a big dose of accountability by sharing it with the other members, without all the crazies sharing my photos as “girls in bikinis” (yes this actually happened to me – haha.)

E-Book Review and Free Eat Stop Eat Bonus

lilla — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:26:00 +0000

While living there, I learned a lot about the benefits of fasting firsthand. I know this is a “far-out” topic for some people, but I do believe that occasional short-term intermittent fasting can be helpful and healthy. There are many cultures and religions that practice fasting without ill effects – it’s not a “new” trend by any means. “Eat Stop Eat” is a simple explanation and method for incorporating fasting into one’s lifestyle.

IN THE BEGINNING
But before I go on, let me tell you a bit about my past experience. About 10 years ago, I became very interested in natural, healthy living. I was a certified yoga teacher, opened my own studio and progressed from being vegetarian to vegan to a raw foodist. My health improved dramatically, my skin cleared for the first time in years and I lost excess fat. I felt great, alive and light! I though since I feel this good, more is better, right? So I took it to the extreme and repeatedly did cleanses and fasts in excess – parasite cleanse, colon cleanse, liver cleanse, kidney cleanse, EJUVA fast, master cleanse, green juice fast – you name it, I did it! Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying these are bad, I actually think they “saved” me, BUT I did them continuously back to back. Not a good idea! Then when I came off of a long fast, I would binge and gain weight immediately, which led to another fast and a vicious cycle. Eventually, my body was stronger than my will and I just gave up. The urge to eat was uncontrollable and I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I quickly regained weight and felt unhealthy.

THE BREAKING POINT
I had gone from the most extreme level of “clean” eating to the most extreme level of SAD (standard American diet.) I finally reached a breaking point and decided this had to stop! I began designing my own healthy meals that incorporated a balance of protein, carbs and fat but were still high in raw food. The weight started to come off and I felt better.

ENTER “EAT STOP EAT”
Although I missed the health benefits of fasting and the way it made me feel, I was scared to try it again in fear that I would awaken the fast-binge-faster in me until I bought the Turbulence Training package and read the bonus e-book “Eat Stop Eat” (ESE) by Brad Pilon that was being offered at the time.

Eat Stop Eat reminded me of the benefits of fasting. It assuaged my fears that my metabolism would not come to a screeching halt with intermittent breaks from eating. From experience I KNEW the benefits of fasting were real, but I never really thought of it as a short-term thing. To me fasting was a 3, 7, 10, 21-day marathon. I considered myself hardcore and ironically after all my years of pursuing optimum health, the thought of a short 24-hour fast NEVER crossed my mind.

After reading about people’s experience with ESE on the TT forum and how easy and amazed they were by it, I decided to try it again.

LIGHT FASTING
I planned my first ESE day on a Sunday. This was a day after my Saturday carb refeed and my day off from strenuous workouts. I followed the ESE plan except I added in a double shot of fresh wheatgrass juice from my local cafe and I sipped on kombucha tea throughout the day. The hunger pangs came, I acknowledged it and told myself it was a temporary reaction to set eating pattern and sure enough it faded. If it came again, I would just have some tea or water.
Eventually I forgot about eating and my preoccupation with eating 6 meals a day and getting my protein in every 2.5 hours like clockwork passed. I felt great and got a lot of computer work done. Then as ESE prescribed, I broke my fast in the evening.

Yay! I was so happy and felt great to know that I am not a slave to food! Since then, I’ve used ESE when I “feel” like I would benefit from giving my digestive system and mind a rest from food.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting:

Break obsessive preoccupation with food
Give digestive system a rest
Allow your body to use the energy it takes for digestion to be redirected to repair/restore other parts of our body
If you are dieting: try stopping for awhile, eat regularly and have 1-2 ESE days to create a calorie deficit instead
Your metabolism will not slow down if te fast period is a short duration (the author Brad Pilon discuss this in more detail)
Save time and money from preparing, eating and cleaning up after 5-6 meals

MAKE IT YOUR OWN
Although ESE suggest 1-2 days per week, you can apply the same principles to suit your schedule and goals. Right now, I like to schedule my ESE days after a carb refeed or reward day. I feel that it helps balance me out. Sometimes I use it twice per week and sometimes just twice per month. I also incorporate fresh wheatgrass or green juices with water and tea throughout the day. You can take the main principle and make it your own. Maybe you want to experiment with a shorter term fast and build up? That’s fine too.

FREE BONUS E-BOOK!
Dr. Herbert Shelton was a pioneer in the practice and benefits of fasting through his own trial and experience with hundreds of case studies including himself. His books were some of the first ones I read on the topic of fasting. “The Hygenic System” is a classic – hard to find in PDF format.

“The Hygenic System” pdf is a free bonus if you order a copy of “Eat Stop Eat“ through my website. To get your bonus, just come back to this blog post and enter your name, “Eat Stop Eat” Clickbank order number and e-mail address in the form below. I will then forward you a link to download this classic. Click here to order.

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Day 117 – Easy ESE

lilla — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:31:00 +0000

It’s late so I’ll make this a quickie. Got my scheduled resistance training in, but didn’t get to run today unfortunately. Dropping off my rental car and picking up the new car took longer than I thought. I got to see my little sister though after a year. She picked me up from the airport. She’s a doll! Love her.

Eats, or rather lack thereof, were great. I had a smooth-sailing Eat Stop Eat day and then broke my fast with homemade nori rolls. Food never tasted so good! I love, love, love how ESE days make me feel physically and mentally AND the fact that I don’t have to think about food and timing and cycling…yadda, yadda, yadda.

Tomorrow morning I’m meeting a NJ friend for wheatgrass juice at our old after-yoga brekkie hangout. Yum! Fresh-pressed wheatgrass juice! I know a lot of you are salivating right now. ;D

See ya tomorrow, shreddies!

Some E-Book Recommendations

lilla — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:14:00 +0000

Here are a few of my fave books and e-books!

WEIGHT TRAINING	NUTRITION & FASTING	HEALTHY RECIPES
Read My E-Book Review	Free PDF – Precision Nutrition Strategies	Free Dessert Recipes PDF
Read My E-Book Review	Fasting Basics from NutritionHelp	Free Sample Recipes

If you’re familiar with my blog, then you already know I’m a HUGE fan of Turbulence Training and Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle – not to mention the two awesome guys that wrote these books and manage active online forums based on the book material, Craig Ballantyne and Tom Venuto. I’m a member of both and highly recommend these forums to stay on top of the latest fitness, mindset and nutrition info:

Burn The Fat Inner Circle
Turbulence Training Forum

I also really dig all the nutrition info found in John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition book and the fantastic recipes in Gourmet Nutrition!

I used to work at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, AZ where all the food is 100% organic and raw. I lived there for a year and learned SO much about food, health, fasting and organic living during my time there. I still subscribe to a high raw food diet, although not 100% as I personally think the diet is lacking in protein.
However, while living there I learned a lot about the benefits of fasting. I know this is a “far-out” topic for some people, but I do believe that occasional short-term intermittent fasting can be helpful and healthy. There are many cultures and religions that practice fasting without ill effects – it’s not a “new” trend by any means. Eat Stop Eat is a simple explanation and method for incorporating fasting into one’s lifestyle. However, if you want something more in-depth, there are other books that I would recommend over this one.

While I lived in Kauai, I had the fortune of having access to a wonderful raw, organic restaurant called The Blossoming Lotus. There’s one in Portland, OR too. The food was amazing!! They came out with an e-recipe book recently. The recipes are vegetarian, vegan or raw so there is a nice mix with some how-to info. I found a couple of freebie recipes online. You can click the link above to access them.

Day 91- My Eats

lilla — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:20:00 +0000

Thank God the lower body blast is over with this morning! It’s a toughie! I also had a good HIIT on the treadmill and a bike ride this afternoon. Will this shredding madness never end!? :0

I managed to complete my Eat Stop Eat day yesterday afterall by distracting myself and letting the hunger subside. Yay! The day before ESE, I do look forward to it and equally so, the day after when I can eat. After this mission, I plan on doing one ESE day per week or maybe just on full and new moons. It feels healthy and light to give my digestive system a break and it’s also nice not to have to think about preparing meals.

So speaking of preparing meals, I uploaded all my food photos to Flickr and they are now visible in my sidebar. Eventually I plan on filling in the ingredients, macros and instructions.

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

I’ve been looking at the Gourmet Nutrition recipes by John Berardi (Valerie Waugaman’s nutritionist and coach) and they look mouthwatering scrumpdelicious! Right now, I don’t have time to experiment with new recipes but once I’m settled into my condo, I will be testing them out!

Healthy Simple Living » Fasting

It Hurts to Drive My Car

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E-Book Review and Free Eat Stop Eat Bonus

Day 117 – Easy ESE

Some E-Book Recommendations

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Day 91- My Eats

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