How to achieve the benefits of fasting without “starving” yourself

What I do is called intermittent fasting (IF). I do not starve myself! People have different methods of doing IF, some people do every other day, which is one day of little or no food and one day of eating. Others do one day a week or one day every other week, and some may even do one day a month. There is no magic method –it is all preference.

The goal of IF is not to starve yourself, but go for an extended period of time without food. As we evolved we did not always have access to food like we do today,there were periods of feast and famine. There is a lot of research that says during a fasting period our body heals itself and makes necessary repairs. This makes since from an evolutionary standpoint, our main goal in life is to survive and in order to survive we must eat! When we become hungry our body starts to focus energy on healing damaged cells and making necessary repairs to our body because we need to be at our best in order to find food, it is a matter of life or death. If you are constantly full or you constantly have access to food your body has no real incentive to repair damaged cells.

My goal is

Workout week 9

Since I began training for my upcoming triathlon season I have had my first setback (this year). So this week of training was fairly light. This is not my first setback and will probably not be my last. Remember no matter what your training goals you will always have setbacks and never use a setback as an excuse to quit training. It is overcoming setbacks that makes you a stronger person!

Sunday (February 13, 2011): – 0930 heavy weight session in fasted state, also wearing 5-finger shoes. 10-min warm-up jog. 1-hr total time

• Bench press – 215-lbs, 4 sets, 4 reps
• weighted step-ups (about 2 feet high) –  holding 35-lbs in each hand did 4-sets each one minuet long
• 4 sets pull-ups till exhaustion
• Deadlifts – 185-lbs 4-sets, 6-reps
• 3sets kettle-bell swings heavy till exhaustion
• Push press 105-lbs 4sets 6reps
• Dips 3 sets till exhaustion

Monday (February 14, 2011): – 0530 spin class (I teach at Define Fitness Juan Tabo Gym, come to the class and join the workout).

Workout week 8

Feeling refreshed after having an east week last week.

Sunday (February 6, 2011): – 0930 heavy weight session in fasted state, also wearing 5-finger shoes. 10-min warm-up jog. 1-hr total time

• Bench press – 205-lbs, 4 sets, 4 to 6 reps
• weighted step-ups (about 2 feet high) –  holding 35-lbs in each hand did 4-sets each one minuet long
• 4 sets pull-ups/weighted push-up combo (45-lbs plate on back) till exhaustion
• 3sets kettle-bell swings heavy till exhaustion
• Push press 100-lbs 4sets 6reps
• Dips 3 sets till exhaustion

Monday (February 7, 2011): – 0530 spin class (I teach at Define Fitness Juan Tabo Gym, come to the class and join the workout).

11:00 lunch workout 3-mile easy run

Tuesday (February 8, 2011): – 1100 swim session in a fasted state.

• 200-meter warm-up
• 6, 50-meter (25 drill, 25 swim)
• 4, 50-meter kick drills (with fins)
• 4, 50-meter sprints
• 100-meter cool down
• Total = 1000-meters

1850 Bootcamp (I teach at Define Fitness Juan Tabo Gym, come to the class and join the workout)

Workout week 7

After 6-weeks of good training and completing Tough Mudder (definitely the hardest thing I have done in the past three months!) I thought this week would be a good rest week. It is crucial to have lighter weeks every now and then to re-charge your body, prevent over-training, and avoid burnout. This week was minimal training and I used the extra time to make some necessary house repairs!

Monday (January 31, 2011): – 0530 spin class (I teach at Define Fitness Juan Tabo Gym, come to the class and join the workout).

Tuesday (February 1, 2011): –  1850 Bootcamp (I teach at Define Fitness Juan Tabo Gym, come to the class and join the workout)

Wednesday (February 2, 2011): -11:00 20-minuet easy walk on treadmill

Friday (February 4, 2011): – Repair fence. 2-hrs. This was more of a natural workout. Digging holes, basically I was constantly moving.

Saturday (February 5, 2011): – Finished up the fence repair 4-hr of constant movement.

Workout Log Week 6

Monday (January 24, 2011): – 0530 spin class (I teach at Define Fitness Juan Tabo Gym, come to the class and join the workout).

11:00 lunch workout swim

• 3, 400-meter swim.
• 4, 50-meter sprints
• Total = 1400-meters

Tuesday (January 25, 2011): – 1100 sprint session in a fasted state and wearing 5 finger shoes.

• 4, 400-meter sprints all out effort
• 4, 100-meter sprints all out effort
• Total = 2000-meters max effort

1850 Bootcamp (I teach at Define Fitness Juan Tabo Gym, come to the class and join the workout)

Workout Log Week 4

Sunday( January 9, 2011): – 0930 fasted state heavy weight workout about 1 hr total

• 10-min brisk walk on treadmill to warm up
• Bench press – 4 sets total
  • 1st set – 195-lbs 6 reps
  • 2nd set – 195-lbs 6reps
  • 3rd set – 195-lbs 4 reps
  • 4th set – 185-lbs 4 reps
• Deadlifts – 4 sets total
  • 175-lbs – 6 reps
• Pull-ups/push up combo 4 sets total
  • Pull-up till exhaustion then push-ups till exhaustion with 25-lb plate on back

1500 – Spin session on bike trainer 45-min total

• Average HR 68%

Workout Log Week 3

First workout of the new year.
Day 1 Monday (January 3, 2011): Taught my 0530 spin class. Average HR for class 73%. 70% effort for 40 % of class, Sprints for 40%, and hills for 20%

1100 Lunch workout – 10 min jog. Quick weight workout. Total workout 30 min total

• Dumbbell bench press 3sets/8-12 reps using 55-lb dumbbells
• Dips 4 sets until exhaustion
• Incline crunches 4 sets until exhaustion
• Push-ups 4 sets until exhaustion

Day 2 Tuesday (January 4, 2011): 1100 Lunch workout (in a fasted state) 30-min light jog 6.5MPH

1850 bootcamp class – High Intensity Training (HIT) workout. Great workout! Some highlights are:

90 push-ups
90 Squat jumps
90 Kettle bell swings
Shoulder press (3 sets about 10 to 12 reps)
Upright rows (3 sets about 10 to 12 reps)
Squats (3 sets about 10 to 12 reps)
Clean and Jerks (these are lighter weight and conducted much faster than Olympic style lifting)

Day 3 Wednesday (January 5, 2011) – 1100 Lunch workout (in a fasted state) Swim workout. This was my first swim workout in about 2 ½ months. The good thing about not being a great swimmer is you don’t have much to loose:)

• Warm-up  100 meters
• 400-meters about  8:30 total
• 300 – meters of various technique drills

Thursday (January 6, 2011) – rest
Friday ad Saturday – Play, snowboarding at Wolf Creek

Working out in a Fasted State

It is always good to see when the mainstream media comes around and publishes a story helping to debunk many of the flawed conventional  methods for working out. For whatever reason most people believe whatever the mainstream media tells them, however this article is good and it is Divine Proportion approved! I came across this article in the New York Times Health section, which talks about working out in a fasted state.

I have been researching this topic (working out in a fasted state) for sometime now, and have been recently self-experimenting and thus far the results have been great!

Conventional fitness wisdom tells us to eat six small meals a day to regulate our blood sugar, keep us feeling full thus helping to prevent food binges, and helps to speed up our metabolism. The problem with this methodology is it is flawed! First of all, have you ever tried to eat 6 small meals a day? I have, and it sucks!