Sorry I have been a bit slack writing any posts this week. I have just started a new job and have not been around very much but here I am!
Firstly, I have been water fasting all day every day and feeling great. Very productive and focused. Hopefully my new bosses will be impressed by my productivity :-) I also managed to do some exercise classes every day and my recovery is much better then I ever remember it.
One of the people I told about the Warrior Diet reckoned that my muscles will waste away and I will store what I eat as fat if I don't eat enough and regularly during the day. Now, I have heard his before and I used to believe it, or at least the science apparently made sense, I never questioned it.
But when you think about it...... "they" are saying is that if we eat too much; too many calories we get fat. OK, in that case I'll eat less during the day but no! If I eat too little in the day or skip meals, my body will burn my precious muscle tissue and store all my food as fat.
If this was the case, then surely when we ate too much our muscles would grow and we would end up like Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn't we?
If you think about it, when we were living in paleo times, we would have gone without food for a while, and if our bodies then catabolised our muscles it would become more and more difficult to catch our food and we would have died out!
I'm not a scientist, but I reckon our muscles will be fine without food for a bit.
By the way the class I did was called Body Attack and it was brilliant but I was knackered!!!
Friday 26 June 2009
Sunday 21 June 2009
What a difference a breakfast makes......
Jesus! This morning I picked up a Maccy Ds breakfast for my wife and as I was very hungry I grabbed a couple of bagels and a coffee.
Now since I have been doing the Warrior Way I have felt brilliant in the daytime when I don't eat too much and stuffing my little face at night.
After the breakfast today, I didn't feel too sluggish physically but I had a bout of anxiety around lunchtime. I had a racing heart and I was very restless, quite dramatic. I went to work around 2 and I was struggling mentally and I did feel strangely nervous. Very, very strange.
It was like my body was afraid of what I was eating!
Running with Fasting
A big hello to everyone!
I'm not a massive fan of running longer distances, as I find it a little tedious but occasionally I like to get out and go for a longer jaunt. So yesterday, I donned the old trainers, vest and schoolboy socks :-)
For the first time in my life I did it after a 20ish hour fast. Now, my legs felt a bit sore/tired before I started due to a tough circuit train 2 days previously. So after about 4 minutes into it I am thinking too bloody hard, I wanna go home! But after this point I felt great and thought, hey I could continue here with no problem.
Anyway I just ended up running for about 40 minutes. I only stopped and went home because my hip muscles were getting sore as I am not used to the constant impact.
What is interesting is that normally my legs give up after about 10-15 minutes and feel drained. I believe that this is because after fasting, my body is forced to use fat as a fuel and there is lots of it!
So I personally think every now and again you should train in a fasted state as your body will adapt to it. At first it does feel weird and your legs can feel a bit wobbly and you may have to do less than you are used to but I believe it is worth it.
Wednesday 17 June 2009
Everybody Say Yeah!
If you haven't seen GMTV this week, then you're missing a treat. They are presenting"the bikini diet" with the host being Mr Motivator and a personal trainer called Deanne on a cruise ship with lots of overweight women.
Now, Mr Motivator has been around for a long time and he basically does very low impact aerobics whilst shouting "everyone say yeah" intermittently every few minutes. Deanne Berry is a PT who has trained some celebrities in the UK.
OK, so the big gimmick with this diet is that they have categorised the women's into 3 groups, depending on their body shapes, pear, apple and toffy?!? Then there is supposed to be different guidelines on nutrition and exercise to effect each shape.
Now I have several issues that made my blood pressure rise.
1) Deanne is a VERY good looking woman in great shape. Although the show never actually says "this diet will make your body like Deannes", this is what is implied and why she is on the show. But, she is either naturally small OR she does not eat, or she trains bloody well hard like an athlete. Whichever it is I am pretty sure it is not doing the bikini diet.
2) The apple shape is described as being excess storage around the tummy, with increased chance of diabetes in later life. Fair enough me thinks. So obviously they will be eliminating sugar wherever it may appear right? WRONG. Apparently, as well as 3 meals a day and 2 pieces of fruit thy can have a KIT KAT as a snack. Genius.
3) Although it says you cannot spot reduce in one part of the instructions, it then goes on to give specific exercises depending on the body part. You would think the same exercises would be given to all candidates no?
4) Lots of "healthy" whole grains! arghhhhhh
I feel really sorry for the women on this show. This diet is pretty much identical to all of the ones they would have done before. They are middle aged and really enthusiastic, but you just know they will maybe lose a couple of pounds but nothing major will change. Everybody say Bullshit. :-)
While we are on the subject of GMTV (I'm not out to get them honest) they were also talking about heart disease. The good doctor, Hilary Jones is in Iceland where they have much lower heart disease incidence compared to the UK.
Why is this the case according to the doctor? They eat more heart health fruit and veg and less saturated fat. That's it is it? How about the fact that the natives of Iceland like to eat pickled rams testicles, purified shark and singed sheeps heads.
How about the fact that they eat much less processed crap and sugar than we do?
Now, Mr Motivator has been around for a long time and he basically does very low impact aerobics whilst shouting "everyone say yeah" intermittently every few minutes. Deanne Berry is a PT who has trained some celebrities in the UK.
OK, so the big gimmick with this diet is that they have categorised the women's into 3 groups, depending on their body shapes, pear, apple and toffy?!? Then there is supposed to be different guidelines on nutrition and exercise to effect each shape.
Now I have several issues that made my blood pressure rise.
1) Deanne is a VERY good looking woman in great shape. Although the show never actually says "this diet will make your body like Deannes", this is what is implied and why she is on the show. But, she is either naturally small OR she does not eat, or she trains bloody well hard like an athlete. Whichever it is I am pretty sure it is not doing the bikini diet.
2) The apple shape is described as being excess storage around the tummy, with increased chance of diabetes in later life. Fair enough me thinks. So obviously they will be eliminating sugar wherever it may appear right? WRONG. Apparently, as well as 3 meals a day and 2 pieces of fruit thy can have a KIT KAT as a snack. Genius.
3) Although it says you cannot spot reduce in one part of the instructions, it then goes on to give specific exercises depending on the body part. You would think the same exercises would be given to all candidates no?
4) Lots of "healthy" whole grains! arghhhhhh
I feel really sorry for the women on this show. This diet is pretty much identical to all of the ones they would have done before. They are middle aged and really enthusiastic, but you just know they will maybe lose a couple of pounds but nothing major will change. Everybody say Bullshit. :-)
While we are on the subject of GMTV (I'm not out to get them honest) they were also talking about heart disease. The good doctor, Hilary Jones is in Iceland where they have much lower heart disease incidence compared to the UK.
Why is this the case according to the doctor? They eat more heart health fruit and veg and less saturated fat. That's it is it? How about the fact that the natives of Iceland like to eat pickled rams testicles, purified shark and singed sheeps heads.
How about the fact that they eat much less processed crap and sugar than we do?
Monday 15 June 2009
Studies on Insulin
I was down in Derby last week visiting relatives, and I went out for a meal with my lovely Nan. She is a very sprightly 92 and very independent apart from breaking her hip recently and she is very slim.
But my God can that woman can EAT! She had a massive starter and a steak pie for a main course. The rest of s skipped the starter and had salads for our main courses and we were full. She also managed to polish off 90% of a "sharing" dessert that we had ordered "erm that's for all of us I think Nan" :-).
She has always been really slim, even now as she approaches the mid 90s. And when you think about it, do you ever see an overweight 80+ yr old? Probably not.
According to research done on Centenarians, they all come from different backgrounds, races, sexes, smokers or non, exercise history, class. But the one thing they all had in common was very high Insulin sensitivity.
So it is theoretically possible that Insulin is the master hormone responsible for helping us to live longer and better.
Hmmmm and the best way to control insulin sensitivity is to control the bad carbs you ingest and fast!
In the meantime Nan can eat all she wants- but next time she can have her own bloody dessert :-)
But my God can that woman can EAT! She had a massive starter and a steak pie for a main course. The rest of s skipped the starter and had salads for our main courses and we were full. She also managed to polish off 90% of a "sharing" dessert that we had ordered "erm that's for all of us I think Nan" :-).
She has always been really slim, even now as she approaches the mid 90s. And when you think about it, do you ever see an overweight 80+ yr old? Probably not.
According to research done on Centenarians, they all come from different backgrounds, races, sexes, smokers or non, exercise history, class. But the one thing they all had in common was very high Insulin sensitivity.
So it is theoretically possible that Insulin is the master hormone responsible for helping us to live longer and better.
Hmmmm and the best way to control insulin sensitivity is to control the bad carbs you ingest and fast!
In the meantime Nan can eat all she wants- but next time she can have her own bloody dessert :-)
Thursday 11 June 2009
Low Carb vs Epilepsy
As well as shifting body fat and improving your mood it seems that high fat diets are now being used to successfully treat epilepsy in children.
Yesterday I was watching ITV and they were interviewing a four year old boy who, 2 years previously, was having around 70 fits a day. He was not responding to any conventional drugs so he was put on a strictly high fat low carb diet for 2 years.
After 2 days his fits stopped and he is now completely clear of epilepsy and living a normal life. Whats more, he is now back on a normal diet and eating like a normal child.
Apparently, this form of treatment was regularly used to treat epilepsy right up until the 1920's. After that drugs were introduced and these were used instead.
No one is sure exactly how it works, but it has something to do with the brain using ketones instead of glucose!
Amazing huh?
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Bits and Bobs
Conquering fear
I had Sushi for the first time ever in my life this week. It was fab! I have always had a weird fear of fish for most of my life. I am certain that during my youth I was force fed some kind of weird fish and have lingering memories. Also, I used to think fish naturally had a crispy batter AKA cod n chips :-) Nevertheless, I went to a sushi restaurant and had a mix of veg and fish dishes and it was deeeeelicios.
However I still have a problem with prawns, they look at me funny, its those eyes.
Blogging for truth
The media is considered Gospel Truth by so many people it is scary. Generally until something is written in a newspaper it is not believed.
For example within my family I have been banging on for a long time about food and the truth behind low fat diets etc. I would give balanced reasoning on the science behind fat gain and the years of research, and the books on the matter and the physical evidence of people losing weight on low carb diets. However, in the paper it will say, "breakfast cereals are good for you". No evidence but a statement. But this is good enough for most people to believe WITHOUT QUESTION.
So I think blogging is absolutely brilliant because it is possible to debate the truth. Whatever your point of view on something it is possible to make your mind up based on the opinions of as many people as you like.
So basically, all us bloggers are bloody brilliant!
I had Sushi for the first time ever in my life this week. It was fab! I have always had a weird fear of fish for most of my life. I am certain that during my youth I was force fed some kind of weird fish and have lingering memories. Also, I used to think fish naturally had a crispy batter AKA cod n chips :-) Nevertheless, I went to a sushi restaurant and had a mix of veg and fish dishes and it was deeeeelicios.
However I still have a problem with prawns, they look at me funny, its those eyes.
Blogging for truth
The media is considered Gospel Truth by so many people it is scary. Generally until something is written in a newspaper it is not believed.
For example within my family I have been banging on for a long time about food and the truth behind low fat diets etc. I would give balanced reasoning on the science behind fat gain and the years of research, and the books on the matter and the physical evidence of people losing weight on low carb diets. However, in the paper it will say, "breakfast cereals are good for you". No evidence but a statement. But this is good enough for most people to believe WITHOUT QUESTION.
So I think blogging is absolutely brilliant because it is possible to debate the truth. Whatever your point of view on something it is possible to make your mind up based on the opinions of as many people as you like.
So basically, all us bloggers are bloody brilliant!
Saturday 6 June 2009
Family Diet Success
Original Carb Junkie
I have mentioned before that I have insulin resistance and stubborn fat. In fact I am certain that it runs in my family as my Dad has been diagnosed with glucose intolerance, and my older brother has been overweight for a number of years (mainly in the belly). His belly is in fact abnormally large for the rest of his body.
He is 10 years older than me and weighs in excess of 20 stone (132kg) and I have been saying for ages that he needs to change his diet. Analysing what he was eating I found he was just like me and craved sugar, carbs, bread, biscuits etc another carb junkie!!
It was clear to me that he would experience great success followin an Atkins style diet. I had been explaining this and lending him books for the last 6 months but he had not taken the plunge until now!!
I am delighted to say that in almost 2 weeks he has lost almost 2stone (12kg) following this plan! Bloody brilliant! He also said he feels more energetic throughout the day and wakes up in the morning instantly without feeling groggy. I have to say I am delighted because I was becoming concerned about his long term health as he hits his fab 40s.
This series of events show that people need to be ready to change before they can . As desperate as I was to get him started on the Atkins, he needed to want to do it himself and make the first steps. All I did was show the facts, lend books and of course give support to his wife and now he is on the road to recovery.
Well done him!!!
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