Day Twenty Nine - Exercise & Undereating

How many days was I supposed to do this, 30 days, one month? Well, Happy St. Paddy's! I was up coughing and congested all night last night but managed to get to the gym this morning. I feel better after working out even when I'm sick so I make a point of doing that. I had a very good workout, moved up in weight on everything and felt pretty good about it. Deadlifted 300 pounds for the first time evah, so that was nice and that was after squats. I'd like to be able to do twice my bodyweight 360 pounds doesn't seem that far off for deadlifts but every pound feels heavier when you get up there. One thing's for certain, there's no need to worry about muscle loss on the Warrior Diet, at least not if you're an amateur. Eat the right foods and you'll be fine. Although this morning I did have some walnuts and some apple/raisin/couscous salad for breakfast as an experiment and I felt that was a pretty good thing to do. I don't normally eat breakfast at all but when I did before trying the Warrior Diet, it was a Pop-Tart or Granola bar, something with a lot of sugar and probably very high Glycemic Index. Even with the banana I'll have later and the post-workout protein shake it'll still be less than 600 calories during the undereating phase.

I feel bad that it wasn't a proper experiment in that I bailed out on the losing fat portion of the diet somewhat. I'm a little curious to see what would have happened had I continued how I started the first week, which resulted in the 6 pound weight loss. But I got scared that maybe a lot of that was muscle and it didn't make sense to sacrifice muscle with fat loss in the middle of winter. I think it might be a good idea to try that in a month or so before summer comes.

I guess I still need to take some final measurements and probably post some final photos. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I won't look as ripped as in the first week photo (certainly not in the midsection), but I may have added more muscle. I haven't made measurements in a while and with being sick my weight/bodyfat readings are all over the place. I'll try to post something this week sometime.

Will I continue? Probably not as strict a undereating/overeating dichotomy. I think mostly what I learned is to control the carb crash that I really didn't think I was experiencing. I touted many times that carbs don't effect me when it's apparent to me now that garbage carbs do. They're responsible for poor morning energy and afternoon sleepies. At least that's what I figured out because I suffered from none of that on the Warrior Diet. I also enjoyed not having to eat lunch or prepare something to take with me. It was very freeing to know that I can go 20+ hours without eating and feel nothing but increased energy and focus. It's funny now to hear people say at like 1:00 P.M. "OMG, I'm so hungry, I haven't had anything since breakfast." Really? Do you think you'll survive? I'm no conspiracy theorist but it certainly seems better for the food industry to keep you eating 4-5 times a day rather than once. Yeah, you may eat the same amount but on the Warrior Diet, I find I like wholesome food that I can buy in bulk a lot better. If you don't eat for 20 hours, when you final get to it, you don't want potato chips. You want a whole chicken, avocados, apples, nuts, bulk steel cut oatmeal, carrots, err, I need to stop, making myself hungry. That was the best part of the Warrior Diet, re-learning the delicate flavors of natural food. Eating processed food blows out all your taste buds making fruits and vegetable sugar bland and unflavorful. Try it yourself, take a bite of apple then eat a fruit-roll-up, then take another bite of apple. The second bite will probably taste like bland mush.

I'll probably post occasionally in the meantime, but not 3-4 times a day anymore, that gets old quick. Hopefully what I've put up here can inform others thinking about trying the diet. I'll still monitor and try to answer any questions. There's only one way to know if something will work for you.

Day Twenty Seven - Exercise and Undereating

Today I had coffee, a vitamin and two apples during the undereating phase. In the afternoon I decided to workout. I wanted to do something longer than normal and something that would really get me sweating and sucking wind. After a warm I tried my hand at the 300 Workout:

Pullups - 25 reps
Deadlifts with 135lbs - 50 reps
Pushups - 50 reps
24-inch Box jumps - 50 reps
Floor wipers - 50 reps
1-arm 36lbs Kettlebell Clean n Press - 50 reps
Pullups - 25 reps

I had to do some modifying because I was at home and I don't have all the equipment necessary. For the deadlifts I put a 53-pound kettlebell on top of the 80-pound sandbag and deadlifted that 50 times. That took longer than I would have on the bar because I had to keep readjusting the kettlebell but it worked reasonably well. Instead of box jumps I just jumped up and touched my knees to my chest. For the floor wipers, I couldn't use the kettlbell/sandbag combination without the kettlebell smashing my face so I only used the sandbag. I have 16 kg. kettlebell so the clean-n-press was not an issue.

I finished in 30:16. Truthfully, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be the 100-burpee challenge makes me sweat more but I can do that in 9:47. I think I'll try the 300 Workout and try to get that time around 20 minutes. I had to take rests here and there for water and to catch my breath.

After that I did:
ring dips 3x5
ring push-ups 4x8
Full squat cleans with 53 lbs kettlebell: 3x5 each arm
Hanging leg L holds: 4 sets to failure
20 minutes of heavy bag work
Oblique work with 53lbs kettlebell 4x15 each side
Figure 8 with 53lbs kettle 3x20
Tabata Squats: Score 13 (bad, I was tired)

Total workout time about an hour and a half.

Just letting my body know what's up if it ever decides to get sick again.

Day Twenty Six - Exercise

So yesterday I felt pretty crappy all day long and I felt the same way this morning but made sure to get to the gym, even if I only did a light workout. Once I got started though I felt much better. I stayed at the same weight with the squats because I had some trouble on the later reps with form and I think I improved that this workout. I improved in number of reps on the bench press. I improved form on the barbell row. I Dropped down 20 pounds on the overhead press to start over. That's no big surprise, the overhead press is likely going to be the first place you stall out. I sat myself in the sauna for 20 minutes to try and help my cold. I had a protein shake after working out.

Day Twenty Five - Sick

I didn't do any exercise this morning. I had to take some NyQuil last night before bed and couldn't wake up this morning. I'll probably so some light workout when I get home. This stupid cold has an on/off cycle that is really frustrating. I wish it would just run its course so I can move on.

Day Twenty Four - Exercise

I'd be a liar if I said I felt great this morning. I did move up in weight on the squats and barbell rows but bench press stayed the same as did the overhead press. I was still sore from Monday's workout and the only exercise that I enjoyed doing was the squats. After that it was pretty much just doing it to get it over with and I think that's a result of still being a bit sick. My throat is still a little swollen and through last night and this morning I seem to have developed symptoms involved with the common cold. Not enough to refrain from working out but apparently enough to effect the performance. Just have to battle through it. I'm going to have a protein shake and a banana. I do much better now that I've worked out though.

Day Twenty Three - Exercise and Overeating

I did a bit of heavy bag work and then some core exercises and finished off with a few sets of kettlebell swings. Nothing too demanding.

I found a good deal on some shrimp so after my salad, I cooked those up and ate a couple dozen for a healthy dose of protein. I then had some walnuts, a meatloaf sandwich, an apple, and some oatmeal with cranberries and a glass of milk.

Around 2200 calories this evening. If I weren't doing a 30 day experiment, I wouldn't even be counting calroies.

Day Twenty Two

I slept straight through until 10:00 A.M. this morning. I felt much better. I didn't really track what I ate and drank yesterday. I couldn't stay hydrated yesterday. I think I drank a gallon of gatorade and didn't have to go to the bathroom all day. I guess my body was definitely fighting something. A little after I woke up I ate a hamburger then I went to the gym and had a great workout. Again, I improved in either weight or repetition. I had a banana and a protein shake after the workout. Later in the evening I had a meatloaf sandwich, apple, taco and some oatmeal with cranberries. I think I'll probably get about 2400 calories in total today.

Day Twenty - All in One

Today was tough because I started to feel sore from an intense workout yesterday so I was pretty lazy all day which made me want to snack and watch TV. But I was good and only had coffe, blackberries, strawberries and some carrots during the undereating phase. I managed to hit the heavybag for a while and do some ab exercises in the afternoon and followd that with a protein shake. A couple of hours later I had a salad to start the overeating phase. I had about 2500 calories during the overeating phase.

Day Nineteen - Exercise (and some philosophy)

You know, I try to search the internet for other people's experiences on the Warrior Diet and there's a wide range, like everything else I guess. That's why when people ask my advice, I always tell them what I like to do and then explain that nothing works for everyone. That's why you need to try different things. Find what works for you. If you love carbs and eating low carbs makes you feel miserable, then it's probably not a long-term solution for you. You'll eat a pizza one night and you'll gain 20 pounds of fat over the next 3 months.

The top complaints about the Warrior Diet include: constantly hungry, no energy for training (or fear of same), and getting sick eating so much in 4 hours.

Constantly Hungry - Nope, not even close for me. I rarely even think about food during the day. The only effect I experience during the day might be a slight signal from my stomach requesting a little bit of something to tide me over. That's usually a handful of berries, a banana, a protein shake on workout days, etc. I rarely eat over 400 calories during the day. Many days I eat nothing at all.

No Energy for Workout - I feared this, especially working out in the morning. How could I expect to do so on an empty stomach? Well, it hasn't been a factor for me. I actually have more energy in the morning if I don't eat. Today I lifted weights for an hour and 20 minutes and I bested my previous workouts in either weight or reps completed. Then afterwards, just for the heck of it I did weighted dips AND pull-ups in a super-set fashion. Doing HIIT sprinting feels a bit different but it's not a lack of energy. There's almost a feeling that the body is burning a fuel that it's not used to burning. It feels sort of like being in the "zone". There's a good interview with Ori over at T-Nation. Ori explains:

T: But to be a true warrior — someone who needs to endure physical hardship, or even an athlete who needs to compete — you need some sort of glycogen storage, right? And that's hard to do when you eat only once a day.

OH: You're reaching a very important point. You've got to eat in such a way that you're capable of fighting for two hours straight, or wrestling or marching for hours on end, or being without food, or whatever. When I was a Navy SEAL(* - ed.), that's what we trained to do. By not eating, we learned to stretch our glycogen reserves. Those who train on empty, more and more and more, will find out that they have more and more glycogen reserve ability in their muscles and liver. The last time I looked up the research — I think it was a year ago — sedentary persons with what was thought to be about 200 or 300 calories of available glycogen reserve could stretch it up to 2,000-3,000. Some people even had 5,000 calories of glycogen reserve. There's a whole area of science about the situation of a body under glycogen depletion, and it's so relative. But one thing's for sure, as long as you are glycogen depleted — what I call fasting — your insulin sensitivity gets higher and higher, as does your protein efficiency. Sometimes, it goes 30-50% higher. That means that, after fasting, your protein efficiency could be 30-50% higher. You can eat less than 30% and still digest as much protein.

* = Apparently Ori wasn't a U.S. Navy Seal as claimed in the interview, but a special-ops in the Israeli army or something like that. Of course people are upset about that, and rightly so, that's pretty lame if he claims that. I've said it before, there's a lot about Ori and the Warrior Diet that I find to be B.S. but I don't throw the wheat out with the chaff.

Can't Eat So Much at Once - I eat until I don't want to eat anymore. Over four hours it's not that difficult. I often finish up in 3 and have a little dessert before bed. I don't feel sick at all, I feel satisfied. I also rarely crave junk food. When I get home, I immediately start putting my salad together and that's REALLY what I want to eat, it's so good. I sometimes add avocados. I've got this great olive oil and Pomegranate-Infused Red Wine Vinegar that I use as a dressing. The salad is as big as a football and it's delicious. You know how many times I've come home from work and put a salad together for myself before I started this diet? How about never. Of course, I've always been a big eater. I guess that's why it works for me.

So there you have it. If you're going to ask me if the Warrior Diet will work for you, well, I can't answer that. You might be hungry all the time, you might have zero energy for working out and you might not be able to eat so much in 4 hours. What can I say? Find another diet.

Day Eighteen - Exercise

I did 10 intervals on the elliptical machine this morning 1 minute sprint followed by 2 minute normal pace. I took my heart rate from 130 during the "rest" phase to 170 in the sprint phase. This is the first time I monitored heart rate. I was just curious but you can see the benefit as it took a little over a minute for my heart rate to drop from the peak to around 130 again. So instead of a 30 minute workout at 130 BPM, I'm getting a 30 minute workout with about 10 minutes at 130 BPM and 20 minutes between 130 and 170 BPM. Big difference.

Then, just for the heck of it I did some Hang Clean sets. For some reason the trapezius is one of my favorite muscles and hang cleans are a good exercise for it, better than shrugs.

Day Seventeen - Exercise

Nothing but an hour of weightlifting today. Squats, bench press, barbell row, overhead press, and pull-ups. David recommended the 20-rep squat routine. I've seen that before and I'll probably try it at some point, maybe when I decide to cut down for summer, like mid-May or something. I just went through a high-rep workout routine and I'm looking for something a bit different at the moment. I've had good results messing around with the Stronglifts 5X5 so I'm basically doing those exercises in that manner with a little modification to suit my needs. I had a lot of energy this morning and moved up in weight in all the lifts, except the bench press but I did more reps at that weight than last time so it's good.

Day Sixteen - Exercise

I've kind of made a temporary change in my workout program. Over the past 7 months, the Simplefit formed the core of my workout program and I would do that first above all else. At the higher levels though, it's exhausting and I just don't have as much energy to hit the free weights afterwards. So, I'm thinking I'm going to focus on weightlifting for a couple of months here and fit the Simplefit workout in-between when I feel it's appropriate. The plan is full-body workouts 3 times a week focusing on dead lifts, squats, overhead presses, bench presses, barbell rows and weighted dips and pull-ups. I'll have one day off on the weekend and the other three days will be wildcard days where I'll do whatever I feel like doing on that day, maybe Simplefit, maybe Crossfit, maybe heavy bag work, or like today, HIIT sprinting. I did 8 rounds then some ab exercises.

Day Fifteen - Back on the Wagon

I feel so much better today, early as it may be, than I did yesterday. I had absolutely no energy after I had a bagel for lunch after those cookies. In the morning , I sprinted up the stairs noting how effortless it was but in the afternoon I plodded up the stairs and even stumbled once banging my elbow. The odd thing was that it wasn't an unfamiliar feeling. It was the same kind of feeling you get when you crash in the afternoon and would pay $100 for a 15 minute nap. Maybe it was so much more noticeable because of the seeming extra energy I've had since starting on the Warrior Diet and intermittent fasting.

This morning I did dead lifts, bench presses, barbell rows, overhead presses, and dips. Last week @ 255lbs. I did 5 sets of 4-4-3-3-3. This morning @ 255lbs. I hit 5-5-5-5-3. Much better, I should be able to hit all 5 on Friday when I dead lift again.

I'll have a protein shake as soon as I feel it's necessary, I can usually tell.

Day Thirteen

I had some coffee with milk and my multi-vitamin during the undereating phase and a bite of apple. No problems. Later in the afternoon I worked out for about an hour using my kettlebells and then I hit the heavy bag for about 4 rounds. I can tell my shoulders are going to be sore tomorrow from pressing that 53 lb. kettlebell. I had plenty of energy all day today, even when I work up. I definitely need to limit carbs before bed, at least the more processed types.

New Addition - 53 lbs, 0 ounces

Since I don't eat lunch anymore, I use that time to get errands done. This afternoon I stopped by a local fitness place and picked up a new kettle bell for the home gym. This is approximately 1.5 poods (24kg or 53lbs). They were out of the 20kg. I probably would have gotten that one if they had it but the one I got will be effective. $70 cash out the door for the 24kg. I've seen them cheaper online, but not by much and certainly not when you factor in shipping. I might go back and get another 1 pood (16kg) to have matching bells to use at the same time. A pair of 16kg, a 20kg, and a 24kg would be nice for just about anything I wanted to do.I can't imagine needing less than 16kg. The 24kg will be too heavy for some exercises but will allow me to reduce reps on others and it'll really be fun with swings. With two 16kg, and a 20kg added, I can work with weights 16kg, 20kg, 24kg, 32kg, 36kg, 40kg, and 44kg. Couple that with the 80 pound sandbag I made and I've got some fun weight to throw around.

Some people say that you can do the same things with regular old dumbbells that you can do with kettle bells, and that's true, I won't argue it. But kettle bells do feel different when you're doing the exercises, the way the weight hangs and moves is much more fluid. Does it benefit? I dunno, but they're fun and they look hella cooler than dumbbells. What exercises can you do with kettle bells?

Swings
Turkish Getups
Clean and Press
Snatch

eh, you know what? Let's just say every exercise plus some unique to kettle bells can be done with kettle bells, no need to link them all here.

Day Twelve - Exercise (a little about carbs too)

I have to admit that I'm not eating as well as I did the first week. I'm not eating entirely bad but I've been taking advantage of the advice to eat carbs at the end of the evening meal while ignoring the fact that they should still be limited. I'm not even hungry but I still want to enjoy some carbs at the end of the day. I lied in the previous post and omitted the half cup of gelato I had before bed. Oops, and the yogurt was probably the full-of-sugar kind. The dried cranberries are pretty much sugar too if I'm being honest, I mean, it takes a lot of sugar to make cranberries palatable, even the dried kind, but they're so good in oatmeal. I also didn't count the spoon I dipped in the marshmallow fluff and then had to clean off with my mouth. But I did count everything in the calorie total and macro nutrient breakdown. I didn't go hog wild on these foods but I should be enjoying one or two of them, not all of them in one night.

The reason I relay the above information is because this week I've been having trouble waking up in the morning. Not waking up, but physically getting out of bed. I'm 75% awake at 5:00 A.M. but my body feels like I have no energy whatsoever. I don't know if I'm explaining it properly but it's not a feeling I've ever had before. I didn't have it last week when doing a better job of limiting the late night carbs so that's my culprit. I need to do better on that. I should substitute a protein shake for a last snack and maybe one of the foods I mentioned above.

Anyway, once I warm up in the gym I feel a lot better. Today I did Level 7 Day 3 of the basic Simplefit program. How fast can you do 40 pull-ups, 80 push-ups, and 80 squats. I did it in 9:47. That's almost 2 minutes off my previous attempt. The program suggests that once you can do a Day 3 in under 5 minutes you can go to the next level. Shaving almost five minutes off this workout seems nigh impossible but I've said that before. Just gotta keep at it.

I didn't have a lot of time because I got to the gym late (sleepy feeling, remember) so I did some deadlifts next. I usually like to lift heavy on Fridays so I don't feel the need to go to the gym on the weekend. I went up 5 pounds this workout to 255 and didn't get the 5 sets of 5 reps in, I got 4-4-3-3-3. Seems weird that I could do 250 and hit all reps, then move up 5 pounds and not get it but that's how it goes. If I don't get all reps by the next 2 workouts, I'll drop down to 200 or so and start over. Incidentally, when is it OK to use straps during deadlifts? I feel like I'm close to the point where my grip is beginning to be an issue. I don't use straps because I want to train my grip as well but at some point the grip will fail. Also, I don't want to be a girlie man. Maybe I could alternate, one workout with straps, one without. I hate using gloves too but my hands get so sore, mainly the callouses. I probably need to do a better job of reducing them before I puss out and wear gloves.

I then finished up with machines bench presses. I won't bother to mention the weight, it's a machine, they're all different. But I like these because they're the kind of machines that use regular plates so it's a bit more realistic then cable machines. I don't have any way of bench pressing heavy with free weights. All the people in the gym when I get there are retirees so I can't ask for a spot. But whatever, improvise and overcome. Total workout time was probably 45 minutes, not including warm-up.

Day Eleven - Exercise

Rest day today. I haven't had a complete day off in over a week so I'm going to take that today. Plus I overslept so it all kind of works out. If I feel like I have some energy I could always work the heavy bag a little at home. But that's one of the drawbacks of the Warrior Diet, at least for me. I get home around 6 in the evening. That means the overeating window is from 6 to 10 (4 hours). That leaves an hour before I go to bed around 11 and by that time I'm too sleepy to do anything because I'm stuffed with food. That would be fine if I could spend part of the day doing things around the house, but alas, I've got to work.

Day Ten - Exercise

I felt pretty good this morning once I got warmed up. I completed Level 7 Day 2 of the Simplefit program in 9:48, that's almost 2 minutes better than my previous best of 11:39. Granted, I only tried that workout once before but still. I was still feeling good so I did some squats and bench presses. I know, deadlifts and squats in back-to-back days. That was probably stupid but if I didn't do it today, then I'd be off schedule for heavy lifting on Friday, which I like to do because I don't go to the gym on the weekends. I then finished up on some core work.

Because of the nearly 3000 calories I packed away last night, I don't feel the need for a protein shake right now. I think I ate too much last night, I was physically uncomfortable. We've got these little meatballs in tomato sauce, man, I could eat 3 dozen of them, easy, and they're about 500 calories per dozen. I ate too many carbs last night, 46% of my calories, I didn't need that bowl of cereal to top things off. That was all sugar and to be honest, I was a little groggy before my warm-up at the gym and I would guess it was because of all the carbs yesterday. I feel great now.

Day Nine - Exercise

I was a bit tired this morning. That happens sometimes when I follow an afternoon workout with a morning workout. One thing I notice is that once I start my warm-up my energy increases quite a bit, far more than usual. I did heavy deadlifting today 5 sets of 5 reps @ 250 pounds. I followed with some overhead presses and then some miscellaneous weightlifting. I really didn't feel like doing any cardio this morning, so I didn't. This could have easily been a rest day but I haven't done deadlifts for a few days so I wanted to make sure I got those in.

I don't have time to exercise!

Some cheese with that whine?

Oh, I know what you're thinking.

Mr. Chesthair, you are the very epitome of manliness. I would like to try and get in shape but I just don't have the countless hours you obviously devoted to your near-perfect physique. Nor do I have the funds to pay for some gym with the what I assume is some sort of super-technology that sculpted your mind-blowing physique.

Don't be embarassed. I get that a lot. Here's what I use in my "gym" (the unfinished basement):

Pull-up bar - Homemade
Heavy bag - (left over from when I was a kid, I wouldn't go out and buy one)
Sand-bag (80 lbs) - Homemade
Kettlebell - 1 pood - (Because they look neat and I use it often too I guess)
Gymnastic Rings - Homemade
6 foot PVC pipe - for warm up drills

The foundation for my workout regiment is bodyweight exercises. The reason for this is that I don't ever want an excuse for not working out. Keeping a foundation of bodyweight exercise allows me to get a great workout in at home or anywhere really. I can find a place to do pull-ups anywhere. I enjoy searching for them. "Isn't that sculpture beautiful?" "Yeah, and I bet you could do pull-ups on the end there."

Last summer I found Simplefit and it changed my entire outlook toward getting in shape. Sure, I life weights at the gym, but I do that because I like doing it, not because I feel I have to do it. If next week I didn't feel like going to the gym, I could manage to put together a workout routine I could do at home that would be just as effective and intense.

As far as time goes, the Simplefit program shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes a day and often much less. If that was the minimum you did, 3 times a week, you'd be seeing results in less than 1.5 hours per week. Anyone that can't find 1.5 hours per week in which to exercise probably isn't out of shape to begin with since they're so busy. So remember, I don't have money or time is not an excuse.