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 Eight - Rest Day

Today is a rest day from exercise. Undereating is some apples, a banana, some raisins, and a good healthy doughnut, whoops.

Overeating is going to be some chicken breast and broccoli and cheese couscous.

Looks like a high carb today.

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 - Undereating

I had a protein shake after working out and then a pear and some ginger slices at lunch. The ginger slices I had were low-sugar type made with raw sugar which I guess is better, by a fraction. But, I didn't experience any sugar rush and crash or anything like that. I only had two. Ginger may benefit heart disease and have anti-cancer properties along with being tasty and keeping you from throwing up if your stomach is upset.

Day Twenty Five - Undereating

I went through the day with only a few handful of blackberries. I had some coffee in the morning and some tea in the afternoon. I could probably manage to get a decent workout in but I'm going to rest today and make sure I get up early for tomorrow's workout. I hate missing a Friday workout because it makes me feel like I should get to the gym on the weekend, which is completely out of the way unless I'm going to work.

Day Twenty Four - Undereating

One thing the Warrior Diet has done for me is increased the amount of quality foods I'm eating. My intake of fruits and vegetables has increased many 2-3 times as much per day than before. I tend to shop more on periphery of the grocery store focusing on the fresh produce and fish and meats. I'm wary of the highly processed foods as they not only wreak havoc on your blood sugar/insulin levels but also complete destroy the ability to enjoy the natural sugars in fruits and vegetables. The other day I listened to an interview with Michael Pollan at Democracy Now. Pollan is the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and there was point made that really upset me.

MICHAEL POLLAN: Yeah, it’s a literary scientific experience now going shopping in the supermarket, because basically the food has gotten more complex. It’s—for the food industry—see, to understand the economics of the food industry, you can’t really make money selling things like, oh, oatmeal, you know, plain rolled oats. And if you go to the store, you can buy a pound of oats, organic oats, for seventy-nine cents. There’s no money in that, because it doesn’t have any brand identification. It’s a commodity, and the prices of commodity are constantly falling over time.

So you make money by processing it, adding value to it. So you take those oats, and you turn them into Cheerios, and then you can charge four bucks for that seventy-nine cents—and actually even less than that, a few pennies of oats. And then after a few years, Cheerios become a commodity. You know, everyone’s ripping off your little circles. And so, you have to move to the next thing, which are like cereal bars. And now there’s cereal straws, you know, that your kids are supposed to suck milk through, and then they eat the straw. It’s made out of the cereal material. It’s extruded.

So, you see, every level of further complication gives you some intellectual property, a product no one else has, and the ability to charge a whole lot more for these very cheap raw ingredients. And as you make the food more complicated, you need all these chemicals to make it last, to make it taste good, to make—and because, you know, food really isn’t designed to last a year on the shelf in a supermarket. And so, it takes a lot of chemistry to make that happen.

I thought about that some more and it started to piss me off that it was so obviously true. Nobody makes money selling bulk items, they've got to process it somehow, most often reducing and nutritional value and then selling it back to you at 10 times the bulk value. I don't think I want to be a major part of that anymore. It just seems so stupid. You're paying more for less and getting sick because of it. I'm not against people making money and I think they should be able to sell whatever they want but I don't have to buy it and I've already started buying fresh and bulk.

Today I got a 5.5+ pound bag of steel-cut oats for $4.40. That comes to 79 cents a pound! Do you know how many servings of oatmeal 5.5 pounds of oats makes? The comparison would probably be a 55-count Quaker-Instant Oats box retailing at $16.00. Even if you're adding sugar to your oats you'd still be saving money not to mention the loads more nutrition you'd be getting. So I'm slowly building up some bulk grains in the pantry and I've been buying fresh meats at the grocery store to bring home and cook, like the shrimp yesterday.

Also, for the past several years I've entered into an agreement with a local farm that delivers fresh produce/bread/milk/grass-fed beef to my door once a week. I found them through Local Harvest. There's a whole slew of different agreements out there depending on the farm. Mine has several options but I rarely need to go produce shopping during the season and I'll probably make better use of it this year thanks to what I learned on the Warrior Diet. Not to mention it supports local small family farms over polluting corporate feed lots. Nice to have local small farms in the areas, big factory feed lots stink, both literally and figuratively.

Anyway, I had my protein shake and banana this morning and then a nectarine and some blackberries for lunch. I'll probably have an apple this afternoon sometime. This is one thing I don't see me changing too much after this experiment, the under-eating phase. I'll probably stick with fruits and vegetable during the day as I find it so freeing and energizing. I may experiment with eating something as soon as I wake up for workout fuel but I haven't felt the need for it much at all.

Day Twenty Three - Undereating

I was wiped out this morning again and my throat was sore. A few hours later I felt fine though. I don't know what the heck kind of bug I have but it apparently attacks at night. Remember how I said I couldn't seem to drink enough liquids the past couple of days? Well, I weighed myself yesterday and I was up to 186 pounds! Then last night I had to get up to use the bathroom 4 or 5 times. I weighed in this morning at 179 pounds. I don't know what that means but it's pretty crazy.

Today I just had some coffee and then some blackberries and a banana for lunch. I'll probably have an apples in the afternoon and then do some heavy bag work before dinner for my exercise. Keeping it light today.

Getting sick has a way of derailing us from our fitness plans, schedules and goals. Our minds as well as our bodies weaken and comfort is our main priority. I don't think anything is wrong with "giving in" for a short period of time. I like to take one day and do whatever it is that will make me the most comfortable, sleep in, eat a pizza, take a hot bath, whatever. My plan is that I take one day to not worry about the sickness interrupting my schedule. One day of total rest is better than three days of semi-rest. Then after that I like to add things in gradually. Like this past weekend I spent 20 minutes at the heavy bag, still woozy from NyQuil, just working on combination forms, barely hitting the bag. I didn't even break a sweat but just moving around made me feel better. So it's better to take the time to rest then push yourself through sick days and end up getting worse and giving up for good.

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 - Undereating Phase

I had a protein shake this morning after working out. Then a banana and some blackberries in the afternoon. Also had my usual coffee in the morning but today I took my multi-vitamin after working out. Doubt it makes much of a difference.

Day Eighteen - Undereating

I had coffee with milk, my multivitamin, and a latte for lunch. In the afternoon, I had one banana. I find that mostly during the day I am very thirsty. More thirsty than hungry. I've read in several places that the body sometimes sends hunger signals when feeling thirsty. I wonder if my body has adapted to the fact that I eat very little during the day and has foregone the hunger signals for those of thirst. Because I honestly can't tell you the last time I felt an uncomfortable attack of the "hungries". Even before I eat my evening meal I'm not really ravenous, I'm just pleasantly hungry and content in the fact that I can eat as much as I need to in order to satisfy my hunger.

I know I'm not dehydrated. I drink between 32-64 ounces of water during every workout plus another 32 ounces of iced tea throughout the day. Lipton's Cold Brew tea bags are pretty cool. I don't want to know why they work so don't find out for me or tell me. It'll ruin it for me if they get tea to brew in cold water by, say, feeding it to third-world goats and having young children pick the semi-digested leaves out the dried goat turds.

Day Seventeen - Undereating

Coffee, bit of milk, multi-vitamin, protein shake w/Skim Plus milk, 1 banana and 3 ounces of blackberries. How odd that this seems like a great deal of food to me now. It's perfect though on days when I lift heavy weights. I feel strong everyday and not even a bit overworked.

Day Sixteen - Undereating

Today I had my usual multi-vitamin and coffee in the morning. Later I ate a few handfuls of blackberries that tasted like candy and provided a burst of energy with no crash. It's very enjoyable how fasting brings out the tastes in fruits and vegetables that processed foods destroy. I remember when I first read the book The Warrior Diet. There's a part that describes what the Roman soldiers would typically eat and one part mentioned they would snack on onions. When I first read that I thought, eww, how can someone "snack" on an onion? I like onions but I don't snack on them. But now that I'm intermittently fasting, onions taste sweet, not like an apple but in a different way and I would welcome eating one during the day.

Day Fourteen - Undereating

Well, I didn't really undereat. There were these homemade cookies you see, and I just licked the batter and then I got hungry and I tried an apple but I still had to have a cookie. I ate one. Then, I ate two more. Then I was still hungry so I had a sandwich and some cheese and crackers.

I noticed I got a little dizzy one I stood up after eating those cookies. I guess my body's not used to that rush of sugar, especially on an empty stomach.

I'm not the type to linger on mistakes so I'll just get back on the wagon tomorrow. It's actually easier during the week. It's just a matter of not eating breakfast and lunch. It's not like there's a big plate of homemade cookies just sitting there begging to be tasted.

I feel like I need a nap though, ugh.

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.

Day Twelve - Undereating

I didn't have anything to eat today during the undereating phase. I had a vitamin this morning, some coffee with a bit of milk and then a latte, no sugar, a little milk at lunch and some tea with a little milk in the afternoon. Not eating during the day isn't even a problem. Rarely do a I feel hungry or light headed or have any discomfort at all. I really do enjoy being hungry in the evening. It really reduces the desire for any processed foods as I find their taste too strong after I've been fasting. I do tend to get a desire for carbs before I go to bed but that likely has a large psychological basis. If I have a little high-glycemic carbs like raisins or something similar or some kind of processed sugar, I immediately want more. That's probably why fast food restaurants put a little sugar in their hamburger patties, gets you wanting more.

Day Eleven - Undereating

I was looking for something to snack on today but since I didn't have anything here besides an avocado I'm saving for my salad tonight, I didn't get anything to eat. I was quite thirsty throughout the day and managed 4 cups of water plus 2 cups of tea, no milk. I realized I was thirsty when I wrote that last sentence and filled my water bottle up again, so make that 8 cups of water. I noticed that when I wanted to eat something it wasn't because I was hungry but more like I was looking for a break and getting something to eat was more legitimate than just getting up and walking around. Must be a social thing. I was prepared to eat a big lunch at a Thai restaurant this afternoon as I was invited out but plans were canceled at the last moment. I was prepared to be sleepy this afternoon as I don't think any meal comes without white rice and I'm sure I would have ordered it and eaten the entire thing.

Day Ten - Undereating

I had some coffee and tea with a splash of milk. Jealous? After everything I ate yesterday, I just didn't feel very hungry for anything today, and didn't desire a protein shake after working out either. I will probably have one later tonight though. I'm all out of leafy greens though so I'll have to forgo my spinach salad for the first time in 10 days. I was going to but some during lunch but forgot and getting through the supermarket right before dinnertime and at rush hour is a pain. I'll just munch some veggies. It'll be good. Inflexible diets are never a success. If the success of the Warrior Diet is hinged on the need to eat leafy greens every night, then it's not something I will be following. I will say that I've had that clear focus all day today. Probably finally burned off those excess carbs. I'm beginning to think that grain carbohydrates are the worst, the more processed, the worse they are. I'm fine when I eat bananas or apples (except that one time) or any fruit and veggie carbs but when I loaded up on pasta and ate that bowl of cereal, I felt like garbage. But steel-cut oats don't seem to bother me, probably because they are less processed and harder to digest. I don't know. That's why I experiment.

Day Nine - Undereating

I felt pretty wiped out today, probably because of the good workouts I've had over the last two days and this morning. It was a combination of things as well. It was cold and wet and the first day back at work and my muscles were sore all over. I had a protein shake in the morning and 4 carrots in the afternoon. Nothing spectacular about the undereasting phase to report today. The whole day was kind of blah. It's nice to be home in fuzzy slippers, getting ready to eat.

Day Seven - Undereating & Exercise

If anyone reading this decides is trying this diet and gives up a few days in because it's too difficult, I promise you it gets easier, much easier. It was past noon before I even remembered I was trying the Warrior Method of Eating (I don't like saying "diet", it sounds weak). Around 3:00 P.M. I had a handful of blueberries and an iced coffee (no sugar) for a little pick me up and then washed the car and re-hung my heavy bag. I am working on a final paper for an MBA class that nearly 40 pages long and I finished 75% of it between yesterday and today. I had an outline all finished but the focus that this method of eating produces is intense. Hours of work can go by quick.

After finishin up for the day on the research paper, I did some sprint intervals outdoors on hills, 9 intervals of 1 minute sprints followed by 2 minute jogs. Then I did 5, 3-minute rounds on the heavy bag and then 50 leg lifts.

I've earned my meal.