Intermittent Feasting

As the Hobbits destroyed The Ring in the molten pits of Mordor or as Luke had finally overcome the temptations of the Dark Side, we must all arrive at the end of our journey at some point in our lives. For me, this week’s Intermittent Fasting meal plan should have marked the scheduled termination point for my diet and exercise plans. However, I have discovered over the course of this simple experiment for my English class that this lifestyle has become far more important than I had ever imagined.

            This week’s meal plan was supposed to be my attempt at Intermittent Fasting, where one consumes their daily intake of calories and nutrients within a 7-9 hour window, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. My mother had just recently traveled from Hawaii to Santa Clara on a business trip, and I could not pass up that opportunity to spend time with her for all the riches in the world. This week was going to be one of quality time spent with one of my best friends.

            During my mother’s visit, I abandoned all memories of my diet and enjoyed delicious food trips to places such as Red Robins and Cheesecake Factory. Such delicacies could not be held to a 7-9 hour period or even reasonable portion sizes, for that matter. Cheesecakes, omelets, burgers, and clogged arteries were plentiful during this wonderful vacation away from school, stress, and worries. For once in the past few months, I felt at home and at peace with myself. This journey went on for a few days, and finally ended when I saw my mother off at the airport while tears slowly formed in the corners of my eyes. While I was not focused on my diet project, I do believe that those few days of joy were far more important than any experiment could ever be.

            With only a few days to actually experiment with the diet, I found it quite difficult to accomplish any type of results. I found that the hardest thing to accomplish during the remaining days of dieting was limiting myself to a 7-9 hour window of eating – which I chose to designate from 2-9 pm. I thought that I couldn’t handle drinking only water or tea for the other 15+ hours; I was wrong. I miraculously accomplished this feat, albeit under extreme stress resulting from a lack of mental preparation and physical satisfaction. Though, it was hard waking up every morning only to remember that I would have to replace my exciting breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, and potatoes with dreadfully boring cups of water.

            I surprisingly found this meal plan to be somewhat effective when it came to cardio exercise because I had assumed the lack of a continuous intake of food would result in a loss of energy – much like the low-carb diet proved to do. During my first run in the blistering cold, I traversed a mile in under 10 minutes – a personal best. However, almost exactly during the midway point of my first nightly run, I felt something was wrong with my left foot. It felt way too tight for comfort, so I immediately investigated further.  I sadly found out that I had twisted my ankle, leaving me to limp all the way back to my dorm room with my head down in shame. Not only have I wanted to get skinnier for my health, but I also wanted to impress a girl that I have been in love with for quite a while. I wanted to appear my best when she visited me from Canada, so this hitch in my physical appearance is truly disheartening.

            However, this ailment could not stop me from bettering myself in the muscle department. I ventured to the gym angry, depressed, and focused on making myself the best that I can be aesthetically. However, as I rest for two days in between heavy workouts, I only had time for one workout this week. I hoped that this would somehow make up for my injured ankle and depressing relationship problems, but sadly neither would heal quickly enough. Here are my results: one set of tricep pulldowns (10 reps at 50Ib), one set of tricep pulldowns (8 reps at 50Ib), one set of tricep pulldowns (10 reps at 40Ib), two sets of shoulder press (12 reps at 15Ib), one set of overhead tricep extensions (20 reps at 7.5Ib), two sets of shoulder raises (10 reps at 12.5Ib), two sets of deltoid raises (7 reps at 7.5Ib), and two sets of reverse flys (10 reps at 7.5Ib).

            Through tumultuous hardships and a rocky start, I’m proud of where I am today physically and mentally. I have lost over 3 net pounds and have gained much more definition in my muscle tones. I have also gained the knowledge of what true health actually is and what bodybuilding can be used for other than pleasing one’s own ego. I find that this experiment to be a success and will hopefully attempt to create a new lifestyle from my results.

Works Cited

·      Berkhan, Martin. The Leangains Guide. “The Leangains Guide | Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health” April 14, 2010. May 31, 2013 http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

No Rice? That's a Low Blow.

Robin Williams had argued with Matt Damon in the brilliant and thought-provoking film “Good Will Hunting” and declared, “You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself.” Now, while this might seem like a preposterous or perhaps even asinine attempt to correlate such a solemn moment in movie history with a low-carb diet, it is not that far of a stretch. I was born in Hawaii, and therefore I was born with a bowl of rice in my hand. Without that savory and steaming mound of white gold to brighten up my day, I was left to struggle against the elements battered and broken – but mostly hungry.

With the transition from a high-carb diet to a low-carb diet, my emotional state had also changed like that of autumn to winter. I had become slightly depressed that my favorite side dish – rice – would become an unavailable option for a week and that I would have to adapt to a new meal plan without my partner in crime. In Hawai’i, rice is eaten with almost every meal imaginable; can you see my predicament now? What will I eat with my meat? I had always known the answer, yet I tried to push the thought of it with almost every meal further from reality: a dreadfully dull “salad”. I have now developed the utmost respect and admiration for vegetarians, as having a salad just as a side dish was painful for me to adapt to. There were some benefits to this diet, though. For instance, protein and eggs were a must, entitling me to daily omelets and gratuitous amounts of meat. I was also allowed to eat high-fat dairy, so I became a real-world Willy Wonka and made myself chocolate milk every day of the week to celebrate this meal plan. Oddly enough, this influx of food did not hamper my real-world health. In fact, I felt a bit more energetic when performing simple, routine activities. I assumed that this feeling would carry over to my exercise routines – I was wrong.

There was some good news and bad news when speaking on the benefits of this diet. As stated in my previous blog post, high-carb diets are meant to help develop muscle while low-carb diets are meant to help shed fat. The good news is that I lost 1½ pounds this week; the bad news is that this specific data is unusable. I had developed flu-like symptoms during the first 3 days of this diet plan, and therefore drank soups and lots of water. It was not until the last 4 days that I could work out normally and eat normally, and so I am unsure whether the weight loss was due to the food choices or health problems. No matter which one it was, I am happy that I could lose the weight I had gained from the high-carb diet that made me so physically ill.

The nightly jogs were slightly odd this week in terms of outcome, as it actually confused and surprised me. I had assumed that without a source of energy (carbohydrates), I would drastically increase my time when running my average 1.8 miles. This just so happened to be somewhat correct. Surprisingly, I only increased my time by 2 minutes in comparison to the high-carb week, resulting in an average time of 22 minutes. However, I felt so defeated after about 3 minutes of my cardio workout that I actually began to have existential debates with myself over the purpose of exercise and life. My legs began to morph into iron rods, where dragging them across the sidewalk for more than a few minutes felt absolutely miserable. Even though I finished it fairly quickly, the journey was the worst I’ve felt in a long time. In addition, my strength workouts fared no better.

I might not have mentioned this in previous blog posts, but venturing to the gym is a bit intimidating for me. Seeing other students carrying with one arm what I can barely carry with all of my physical strength is pretty demoralizing, and in turn makes me feel inadequate to almost everyone there (sympathy card is being pulled). However, I felt good going into my lone workout (as you can recall, I was sick for most of the week), and I actually did believe that I could do better than the previous weeks. I lifted the first pair of weights above my head, and I suddenly realized that it would be a very long night. I immediately felt a lack of energy and muscle explosiveness, which inhibited me from surpassing or even coming close to my previous results. Midway through the first set, I could feel my arms were giving out and all I could think of was how difficult it must be to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Here are the results of my workout to compare with previous training sessions: one set of shoulder press (16 reps at 15Ib), one set of shoulder press (12 reps at 15Ib), one set of deltoid raises (6 reps at 12.5Ib), one set of lateral shoulder raises (12 reps at 12.5Ib), two sets of tricep pulldowns (8 reps at 50Ib), one set of overhead tricep extensions (20 reps at 7.5Ib), one set of tricep kickbacks (12 reps at 7.5Ib), and one set of reverse flys (6 reps at 7.5Ib). Even as I am sorely writing this blog entry, my muscles are crying out in agony and shame for a sub-par workout session.

Although the results could not be conclusive due to health complications, one thing can be known for certain: every workout becomes unbearable without carbohydrates. To go along with the physical strain, my temptations to devour rice and potatoes have grown to exponential proportions. Next week, I will attempt my final diet experiment: intermittent fasting.

Works Cited

·      Mayo Clinic Staff. Weight Loss. “Low-carb diet: Could it help you lose weight? – MayoClinic.com” 2010. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. May 29, 2013 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/low-carb-diet/NU00279

Ouch, I'm Dieting Over Here!

I’m doubled over in agony. Why? What could make me feel like throwing away all of my objectives for the week and becoming best friends with the Porcelain Pony? Was it my diet, or was it my workout routines? I wasn’t sure what was causing it, but one thing was clear to me: this was not going to be a good week.

            My class had taken a week of vacation due to our professor’s crammed schedule, and I therefore attempted to have a cleansing process occur during the break.  To elaborate further, I tried to bring my diet back to equilibrium while detracting workouts from my daily routine so as to not affect my future progress or potential degradation. Now, I’m assuming that you are thinking this cleansing process was an excuse to be lazy - you aren’t totally wrong. As much as this was a chance to stabilize my body, it was also a chance to escape the gym and its painful repercussions such as pain, fear, and the occasional inability to pick up small objects. I had thrown my diet plan towards the wind and I regret absolutely nothing.

            Let’s get back on track, shall we? Fast forward one week, and I’m back in the dreaded diet phase. This time around, it was a high-carb diet aided with constant exercise to aid in the development of this little experimental blog project. My first few thoughts could be summed up as “high-carbs? Does that mean more rice and tater-tots? I love this diet already!” What type of person would hate to eat more carbohydrates and starches everyday? As a past resident of Hawai’i, my lifestyle consisted of having rice and macaroni salad with almost anything you can imagine. Therefore, don’t think for a minute that I was in any way against this meal plan. However, I soon came to find that my happiness would turn into despair – starchy, delicious despair.

            The first few days went very smoothly in terms of my happiness and energy levels. Carbohydrates are known to store energy for daily usage and are a major source for developing metabolism. However, in a 1996 study conducted by Dr. Meena Shah and Dr. Abhimanyu Garg for the American Diabetes Association, they found that “a high-carbohydrate hypocaloric (low calorie) diet does not favor weight loss compared with a hypocaloric high-fat diet as shown by the numerous inpatient and outpatient weight lose intervention studies.” This study made me feel somewhat pessimistic of my goals for the week, but I pressed on against the odds.

            After about two or three days of high carbs, I began to feel a strange feeling in the depths of my stomach. It almost felt as if nausea and guilt had created a warm, cozy home within my body; in other words, the bathroom became my closest acquaintance. I knew it was the diet, as working out has never made me feel this way – excluding the time I had to run miles upon miles for soccer conditioning. The intense waves of fear and nausea scared me at first, but I knew that it would pass after a week’s worth of the diet. To take my mind off of this odd occurrence, I wanted to run and I wanted to run hard.

            This meal plan was designated for energy storage, and that’s exactly what it helped to accomplish. I had more energy this week than I had ever imagined I could gain from such a fattening diet - as in +1 pound fattening. Still, I was astounded to find that my runs were so efficient and short. Normally, I would alternate between jogging, walking, and crying while on my daily routes. However, I was now jogging pretty much most of the way and decreasing my average of 26 minutes per 1.9 miles to 20 minutes per 1.9 miles. Not only was I running faster, I felt better doing it. I was cutting through the wind faster than an icebreaker cuts through tension. It was simply unbelievable.

            On the other end of the spectrum, I eventually found out from a friend that high-carb diets are meant to help build muscle while low-carb diets are meant to help burn fat. Therefore, I decided to test this theory in the recreational center. I always feel intimidated when going to the gym, but even more so when everyone around me is lifting way more than I am. Keeping to my training regiment, I found that I had indeed lasted longer and lifted more weight than I had previously done. As I previously mentioned, I had gone through a cleansing week where I did not workout. Therefore, my muscles were somewhat new and were not as trained if I had worked out every week leading to this diet change.  Here are my biceps and lats results for the week: one set of Bicep curls (16 reps at 15Ib), two sets of seated Bicep curls (10 reps at 20Ib), two sets of lat pulldowns (16 reps at 60Ib), two sets of seated lat rows (12 reps at 15Ib), two sets of overhead tricep extensions (10 reps at 10Ib), two sets of Bicep curls (9 reps at 15Ib), and one set of seated Bicep curls (8 reps at 15Ib). Here are my shoulder and tricep results for the week: four sets of Shoulder Press (10 reps at 15Ib), two sets of Side Shoulder Raises (10 reps at 12.5Ib), two sets of Tricep Kickbacks (12 reps at 12.5Ib), two sets of Overhead Tricep Extensions (10 reps at 7.5 Ib), three sets of alternating Deltoid Raises (6 reps at 10Ib), one set of Reverse Deltoid Flys (8 reps at 7.5Ib), and two sets of Arnold Shoulder Raises (6 reps at 10Ib). Though this week was exhausting both physically and mentally, I can’t totally call this diet beneficial or detrimental simply because both sides were so balanced. Next week, I’ll be comparing this to the low-carb diet approach. Wish me luck, and I hope that I won’t break down.

Works Cited

·      Shah, Meena and Garg, Abhimanyu. “High Fat and High-Carbohydrate Diets and Energy Balance.” October 1996, American Diabetes Association. May 17, 2013 < http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/19/10/1142.full.pdf>

Fab Five Meals

Welcome back to my wonderful journey. Let me explain something that I believe all people realize at some point in their lives: diets are hard to maintain. This lifestyle change has been one of the most challenging habits to fulfill other than trying to finish all of my homework before 2 A.M. In all seriousness, I put in a lot of effort, but external and internal (pun intended) forces changed the outcome of this experiment. I’ve been exposed to such glorious and gargantuan amounts of different foods in the past week that I’m surprised I did not gain a few pounds. However, the experiment is still valid – I hope - because I only cheated twice concerning my diet limitations.

            This week was all about the stereotypical bodybuilder’s diet: the 5 meals per day meal plan. The same rules applied: I was to eat nutritious and small meals during the day in order to stage off hunger and provide more energy. I was excited to complete this diet because of last week’s somewhat tiring day-to-day activities in which it was a burden to walk around campus. Fortunately for me, this diet helped to boost not only my alertness and energy, but it also helped my strength and stamina grow. As proof of my newfound vigor, I had only taken one nap the entire week! That’s four less naps than I usually take during a regular week consisting of a dull diet. So what could I have done with this extra energy, you ask? As fictional southern mascot Forrest Gump would say, “I was running.”

            Beads of sweat hit the ground. The cement quakes under the intense power of each passing step. The wind curves around me faster and faster until an eventual tornado would awake me from this utterly silly hyperbole. However exaggerated as my previous descriptions might have appeared, I did feel great while running compared to the hellish week of exercise that preceded this. I zipped around corners, dashed across crosswalks, and made it to my destination. 25 minutes. 25 minutes had become my new average for a 1.8-mile trek around the Santa Clara campus. That may not like much of an improvement, but I take into consideration that the journey is far more important and pivotal than the arrival could ever be. Boy, I felt great jogging on the harsh cement-covered sidewalks at a chilly 9 P.M. at night, every night. Well, maybe not every night.

            This past week could be summed up in one word: drama. Whether it was good or bad, it was still quite chaotic. On Saturday, I had been invited – of all places - to an L&L BBQ. This restaurant can be found in many places throughout Oahu, so it’s a disgrace that I hadn’t made the journey to this beautiful and luscious restaurant sooner in the school year.  When we arrived, I automatically ordered my favorite dish: Chicken Katsu Curry and Rice. At that point, I didn’t care about my health, and I certainly forgot about my diet plan. I was hapless in my resistance to these deep-fried, battered, and mayonnaise covered death warrants. All I really cared about was enjoying my first Hawaiian meal in months, and that proved to be the case. Later that night, I had a deep existential discussion with myself concerning my diet and the ramifications of skipping a cardio day; I stopped thinking after a few minutes. I was so full, I felt that the only place I would be running towards would be the bathroom. That’s one day of losing weight that I will never get back (but it was oh so worth it).

            The second of my cheat days was a more depressing one. If there were any reason to skip a workout other than sickness or death, this would be it. Due to this blog being about dieting, I will attempt to avoid a lengthy discussion about my life and its shortcomings. In short, I lost a friendship that I held so dearly to my heart. Some people might go to the gym to relieve their anger, or fuel their runs with rage. I, on the other hand, could do neither. I sat in my room, dumbfounded and stricken with a sense of sadness and shock that I had never experienced before. At this point, I didn’t think about jogging, dieting, or even my own physical health. I just wanted to lie down in my bed and think about what had happened to my relationship. Over the next few days, I attempted to exercise and work out, but the latter had no such luck. I was able to jog around campus, but I had lost that zest for bettering my body. Instead, my mind was filled with sadness, anger, and regrets that would eventually slow my running to that of a walking pace. I tried to complete the experiment this week, guys. I really did try. However, I just couldn’t and wouldn’t heal from life’s beatings during the last two days.

            The least I could offer you would be the lone day of improved statistics. Try to compare these weights and sets to that of last week and make your own judgment on whether this meal plan aided my muscle efficiency. The lone trip to the gym consisted of a Bicep and Lat workout: one set of Bicep curls (10 reps at 15Ib), two sets of seated Bicep curls (10 reps at 20Ib), three sets of seated Lat rows (12 reps at 15Ib), one set of Bicep curls (8 reps at 15Ib), one set of seated Bicep curls (8 reps at 20Ib), one set of Bicep curls (5 reps at 12.5Ib), and finally one set of seated Bicep curls (5 reps at 15Ib). I can honestly say that due to the extended meals that the diet provides, my DOMS did not noticeably affect me as much as I thought it would have. My arms were spared of the spaghetti-noodle-itis that had plagued me during the first week of working out.

            All in all, I believe that this meal plan was far more successful than the last, excluding a few factors that might have played a role in the reduction of efficiency. Hopefully, my next diet consisting of high carbs will benefit me even further than the previous two combined. Come along with me, and wish me luck on another chapter of my life.