Breaking the fast with a run

This morning following a fasting day I knew I couldn't wait a long time before going for a planned morning run, and when I saw rain was predicted by TWC within 30 minutes, I took off around 6:45.  The first couple of miles were tough.  I was going to work intervals into the run, but that plan quickly passed when it took all my strength just to go for an aerobic run.

The most crazy thing happened after a few miles.  I noticed I was feeling pretty good.  I had been lost in thought (in the runner's zone) and when I came to around Jefferson Middle School, the run felt a lot better than when I first began.  It is amazing what the body can do.  Something activated in my body to make running a whole lot better, and I'm very thankful for whatever happened!

I focused on having a breakfast following the run with low Glycemic load foods.  Beans, milk, oats (medium Glycemic load), nuts and nut butters, and lots of veggies.  The ripe banana I had is a notable exception with a high Glycemic load.  I definitely feel more satisfied through the morning, and am not eating everything in the house like I do following a run normally.

Trina and I still like the alternate-day diet a great deal.  It fits our lifestyle well, and it is meeting our health goals so far.  Fasting is definitely tough, and the discipline it requires appeals to me.  Life should have hard times to help make me grateful for the good times.  

I need to make a soup this afternoon.  I will make a soup with some mackerel and lentils, and also a pure veggie soup, also.  This will provide meals for the next several fasting days, and some feasting days since it tastes good!

Glycemic Load and Glycemic Index may be important

Trina bought a book years ago on the P.A.C.E. workout.  I had skimmed it before, and never used it.  We watched a another great BBC show on exercise recently called "The Truth About Exercise".  Trina mentioned that the high intensity interval training (HIIT) concepts that researchers talked about working well in that show are similar to P.A.C.E concepts written by Dr. Sears.  I decided to get that book out and give it a browse/read yesterday.  I'm definitely convinced now that HIIT needs to be part of my fitness training.  P.A.C.E. has some great ideas on how to implement and keep fitness fresh using different intervals and calisthenics.  I think it will work nicely with the Alternate-Day Diet. 

Dr. Sears writes a chapter or two on nutrition, and likes the combination of low Glycemic Index (GI below 40) and low Glycemic Load ( GL below 10).  As Dr. Sears explains, Glycemic Index tells how fast a food will spike your blood sugar, and Glycemic Load goes a step further to say how much carbohydrate is in the food.  The book has a great table listing GI and GL values of different foods.  Foods that fall into these categories are most veggies, meat, nuts, most legumes, dairy, eggs (he calls the perfect protein source), and some fruit.

The low Glycemic Load and low Glycemic Index concept I believe complement the Alternate-Day Diet well.  I believe that I do better on fasting days when I have foods that are lower in Glycemic Load and Glycemic Index.  I will be focusing on this more in the weeks ahead to test if these ideas work as well together as I think they will.

On a separate subject, I weighed in this morning per Dr. Johnson's recommendation of the morning after a fasting day once per week, and lost a pound to 189 pounds.  I believe the body fat reading was 14.2%, which is down from 14.5%.  More importantly since weight loss is not a goal is that I feel pretty good on the diet.  My energy levels seem to be up, and some lingering aches seem to be improving.  Trina is happy, too.  We continue on with another fast day tomorrow.  

Good feast day, not much delay for breakfast

It is amazing to me how much energy was coming from my meals yesterday.  I tried waiting until lunch for my first meal on the feast day, but that wasn't happening.  After a few hours of liquids not cutting it, I decided to break my fast by going running before having breakfast.  I am wondering if my ability to fast through breakfast following a feast day is different than following a fast day?  I realized after pondering a bit that I have read that breakfast is a requirement following the 36 hour fast, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised by needing breakfast yesterday.  It is fun to experiment and see what works and what doesn't work.

The run was great.  I felt light and fast.  Breakfast following the run was awesome!  I tried upping my oatmeal from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup to help fill the void, which worked well.  I used Equal to sweeten the oatmeal, and it was really good.  I had a banana in oatmeal with Splenda, and was pleasantly surprised it was really good.  I used to not like artificial sweeteners, and I'm glad to find that has changed.  Last night, I had a packet of Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade in a bottled water that was really good.  The sugar-free sweetener substitutes are a God send on fasting days.

I ate a late lunch around 2:00 that was awesome and gave an incredible amount of energy.  I did strength training afterwards that was surprisingly good.  Our family went to an event with friends from church last night that was potluck and ate lots of good food.  Didn't even try recording food in myfitnesspal.com as it would be a large effort to record the assortment of foods I tried.  It was a great way to end a feast day.

I'm ready to begin a fast day.  More learning about myself coming up!  

First day fasting breakfast and fast day highlights

This day has gone extremely well so far.  I didn't eat until lunch today, and it was a good experience.  Biked to work and then home for lunch with a stop at Kroger.  Biked back to work after lunch and came home around 4:30.  I expected to eat when I became hungry since I missed breakfast, but the hunger was manageable until lunch.

Lifted weights tonight (part before supper and part after supper), with supper being around 6:45.  Ended up eating a little under 1000 calories today, but burned most of those between biking and lifting weights.  Feel good tonight.  Will try the same tomorrow, and maybe not run until just before lunch.

Challenging day

The disclaimer is that sickness has been all around my family, both immediate and extended.  So starting to feel sluggish and tired last evening was not a big surprise as I figured at a minimum I was fighting off a virus.  Sucked that it had to be on a feast day that should be filled with energy!  I went to bed by 10:00 and slept well last night.  I do feel better this morning, so I'm guessing I was just fighting something off.

I woke up this morning with my stomach growling, which again should not be happening following a feast day.  I started drinking a ton of water and coffee to tame the hunger, which helped a little.  After about an hour I was still hungry so I ate earlier than planned.  Interesting experience.

What if I've been eating too often?

Today is a feast day.  I had water and coffee when I woke up, and went running a few hours later.  I had a large meal (~1300 calories according to myfitnesspal) following my run as I was hungry.  I had read a few times lately that Westerners eat too often and the effect is over-stressing our digestive systems.  It reminded me of what Dr. Johnson said in the Alternate-Day Diet book about only eating on feast days when hungry, not just to eat.  So, I decided to see how long it would take to become hungry if I kept well hydrated.  I've done some weight lifting and rode bicycle to work, and it is now just before supper time and I'm starting to become hungry.

I think one of the great benefits of the first two weeks of fasting was experiencing hunger and how to see if I really am hungry versus needing something else.  This is the first feast-day that I've paid attention to hunger rather than eating three meals at the standard times.  It has been a great experience.  Based on my first day experience, I think I really have been eating too often.  My digestive system seemed to smile on my lack of eating today.  I will be focusing more on this in the future on both feast and fast days.  I'm happy with the first day, and looking forward to continuing to learn about my body and how I can do things better.

Good feast day start

Going supper-free last night went well.  Woke up a little hungry this morning, but not starving like a few days ago.  Gets me excited at trying a food-free day, maybe tomorrow?  It was fun going into Myfitnesspal and deleting the entries I made for planning my supper last night that didn't materialize.

Being hungry, I ate breakfast immediately upon rising along with morning coffee.  It was great and energizing!   I'm glad I stopped and entered food into myfitnesspal after my bowl of oatmeal and two pieces of toast as it gave my stomach time to catch-up.  I was about ready to add a bowl of cereal to the mix since my brain and belly hadn't connected that I was full already. I am starting to think my digestion may work better on fewer meals and more food-free fasting, also.  Time will tell if I'm correct.