Day Thirty - Finale

Technically yes. I was originally interested in the Warrior Diet and my belief is that you need to try something to find out if it will work for you. So I promised to try it out for 30 days and see what it was like. One problem was that I've been sick for the past two weeks or so which led to a weak finish. I switched from a goal of fat loss to one of muscle gain halfway through. But I'm not looking to go "off" the diet. There's a lot of good things I learned. I don't plan to count calories anymore and I don't plan to post what I ate when and a daily diary of experiences. I'll post occasionally as I learn new things and probably more during a planned phase to cut down for summer where I think I'm going to follow Crossfit workouts and get out of the weight room more. I find I get depressed when I workout indoors during nice weather.

Below is a list of things I learned about the Warrior Diet that pertain to me only. That is, I'm not saying that you'll experience the same thing, maybe you will but it's also quite possible you won't.

1. Quality is important. The quality of my diet increased tenfold with the Warrior Diet. It was very difficult to gain fat eating high quality foods. Even eating 3000 calories of high quality foods resulted in some fat loss. It seemed that when I slipped up and ate processed sugars/cereals/breads the fat went back on quick.

2. Energy is not a problem. I had more energy while fasting than I ever had eating breakfast. I hit several personal records in Simplefit and Crossfit-type workouts and weight lifting. My deadlift 5 rep-work went from 205 to 275 and I 1-repped 300 yesterday. Working out on a empty stomach was a little weird the first two days but the energy was always there and I just kept telling myself that my body could do this. That there was no reason I needed to eat something to accomplish work. My body has a designed system to deal with these circumstances and I'm exercising that system.

3. Focus is enhanced. I had a class during this experiment and that papers had to write were much easier to focus on. A couple hours of work would go by in a snap. It was just easier to focus on things.

4. No hunger pangs. I can count on one hand the number of times I said, "Damn, I'm hungry." It may have been my mental state in that I readily accepted the fact that there's absolutely no need for me to be "hungry" 3-4 times per day. People can go 30+ days without food and yet I should think that because I didn't have breakfast that I'm unable to function? That's B.S.

5. Processed foods burn out your taste buds and make fruits and veggies taste bland. Stay away from processed foods and sugar. The flavor of fruits and veggies will increase many times. Many people say they do not like fruits or especially veggies. You need to train your taste buds to savor the delicate flavors once again. When I was eating processed foods I never had salads at night. Now, I find carrots very sweet and parsnips too. Berries taste like candy apples taste candy-coated.

6. It's fun to be actually hungry. While I don't feel hungry during the day, when I start putting my salad together to break my fast I get really hungry and can't wait to tear into it. Eating is much more satisfying when you're really ready for it. Plus, speaking of quality, I think I ate about 6 bags of spinach over the last month. I'd eat 3-4 cups (chopped) in a salad every night. I ate more spinach this month than probably over the past 3 years.

7. Stay away from foods with a high Gycemix Index during the day. Nearly all processed foods have high GI but natural foods do as well. But you need to experiment. The Warrior Diet book says apples are bad and bananas are good but GI tables show bananas rank higher in GI than apples. I crashed once after an apple but never after a banana. You need to experiment and find things that don't raise your insulin levels.

8. I may have had some trouble sleeping when I ate too soon before going to bed. I seem to remember several days where I just couldn't seem to fall asleep. I wasn't able to put the circumstances together though. If I had to guess, it was a combination of eating too much, too soon before bed. The second week I really over ate like a pig and I think that may have had something to do with it.

9. I can't really get all that enthused about all the minute details about the Warrior Diet that Ori recommends. All these freaking supplements (deer antler velvet? milk thistle?) and people asking if it's OK to boil broccoli instead of steaming it and whether 1% milk is better than 2%. None of those specifics is going to magically make you drop 20 pounds. You need to eat well and exercise to lose weight. Supplementing with Ori's Special Warrior Milk or Warrior Protein made from the protein of special cows isn't going to increase your health exponentially. Eat good quality foods, the more they look as God made them, the better. Strawberries=good, Strawberry Flavored Skittles = Bad.

10. Exercise. I like the Stronglifts 5x5 as a strength-building program and I recommend it to everyone that asks. I'm using it now and have been for a while. My strength has increased dramatically. You can easily do this for a year without needing to change. I also like Simplefit and Crossfit type workouts and throw those in every once in a while, on weekends, or if I can't get to the gym. In the summer I like to get outside for my workouts and so the strength training usually suffers although I manage to fit in benches, squats, and deadlifts in some fashion. I think you should always fit those into a workout routine, even if it's only to maintain a certain level of strength until you get serious again. Once again, you need to experiment. You can't go expect to go through a program on autopilot without recording and evaluating results.

11. Counting Calories. For most of my life, I didn't believe one had to do it. However, I tried DietPower and it opened my eyes to the way I was eating. I had a lot of saturated fat in my diet and the quality of my calories was pretty poor. After nearly a year of using the software, I no longer use it on a daily basis. I have a pretty good idea of when I'm eating well and when I'm not. Same thing with the Warrior Diet, I can tell between a good day of eating and a bad one and I can tell the different between a sub-2000 calories day a 2500 calorie day and a day above 2500 calories just by how I feel at the end of it. I would say that if you have trouble losing weight, you should at least try counting calories so you know for sure how things are going. Measure everything. If you don't get results then at least you've eliminated a variable and getting fit and healthy is mostly about eliminating variables.

12. I think there is something to the benefits of intermittent fasting but I'm no scientist. I think the idea that humans evolved to make the best use of foods in that manner makes a lot of sense. You'd nibble here and there on what you found as you hunted and when you finally made the kill, you ate as much as possible. This doesn't work with the modern foods available though, you can't nibble on Pop-Tarts and candy and Raisin Bran and Frosted Flakes and bagels and then eat a BK Broiler and fries. You need to imagine yourself hunting in the wild, maybe you get a handful of berries, maybe find an apple tree or walnuts.

13. Bored Eating. I found on the weekends that I would open the fridge just because I was bored and looking for something to do. Then I'd shut the door remembering I was fasting. I wonder how many people who eat 4-5 meals a day engage in bored eating. Like, I'm bored, I guess I'll go find something to eat. Even if it's a healthy choice of food the idea that you're eating because you're bored and not really hungry is kind of unhealthy in itself. I did this quite a bit in the first few days of the Warrior Diet. I'd eat carrots or apples or bananas because it was "lunch time" and I was looking for a break instead of actually feeling like I needed a snack. I really learned how to identify when I really needed a little something.

14. Alcohol: I didn't drink any beer on this diet. I had a a few glasses of wine one Sunday but I really couldn't fit beer in and I love beer. There just didn't seem to be a place for it. I generally like beer with a meal or without a lot of food in my stomach. But I didn't want it after a 20 hour fast and I was too stuffed after the overeating phase to want any beer. Just what I experienced.

15. Supplements I did take: Multivitamin daily and a post-workout why protein shake.

16. Oh yeah, Ori recommends working out right before the overeating phase. That's great but I can't do that because I have to work out in the morning. I didn't find it that big of a deal although on the days I was able to workout in the late afternoon, it was enjoyable to have the overeating phase right after it.

17. I also have a suspicion that my reduced carbohydrate intake during the first week played a large role in the rapid weight loss. Perhaps the same thing would have happened without the intermittent fasting. I do happen to think it's easier to reduce carbs and calories eating once a day rather than 5-6 meals a day, at least for me.

Like I said, I'll still post things as I learn them. I still need to post my final measurements and a photo. If you have questions, I'll do my best to answer them.