Fast 5-Diet Experiment (Copyright 2009 - All Rights Reserved)

Pizza

2010-01-23T06:06:00.000-08:00

We had company last night, so we ordered pizza. After you've gone all day without eating, it's important to eat food that satisfies. Some days, that can be fruits and vegetables (I find I crave these every day, and the more of them I eat, within reason, the better I feel), and sometimes you get stuck eating pizza.

Don't get me wrong, at times a pizza is great. But last night, the pizza merely took up some space in my stomach, didn't taste all that good, and left me feeling like my body was patiently wanting / waiting for me to feed it something else, something it wasn't getting from pizza.

The problem is that, you only know if your body is satisfied by your food choices after you've eaten, and once you've eaten, if you made an unsatisfying choice, you are full, so it's a sort of game over situation, at least until the next day.

Are all Fasting Hours Equal in Terms of Calories Burned?

2010-01-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Dinner started at 6:15 PM. I wonder if all fasting hours are equal, or if, for example, the the last fasting hour burns more fat calories than all the others? I don't know, but I would guess this is the case. For example, the first hour of fasting is not likely to burn much in the way of fat calories, as the body is still digesting and circulating sugars from eating. But at the end of the 19 hour period, I should be burning mostly fat calories. Thus, it may be of critical importance to hit the 19 hours per day of fasting....

Falling into a routine...?

2010-01-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm falling into a routine. Eat at 5 PM, done with eating by 8 or 8:30 PM. Have some vegetables (at minimum V8) and two servings of fruit (blueberries and a banana) along with some orange juice. If it is a routine that I'm slipping into, its not a bad routine.

Sunday

2010-01-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

5 PM could not come fast enough today. I felt like I was starving. This occasionally happens, and when it does, it's not fun. I did some chi kung to pass the time, and then when 5 PM hit, I had some salami. On days like today, I find something greasy and full of protein seems to calm the stomach down. Pepperoni also works well, and can be bought pre-sliced. Time to go eat some blue berries.

Saturday

2010-01-16T17:44:00.000-08:00

It's the weekend. The diet seems tougher on weekends. So I read in the early afternoon and then took a nap. When I woke up, it was 5 PM, and time to eat. Now I feel rested and full. Woot!

Convict Conditioning

2010-01-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

Didn't eat dinner until 6 - steamed vegetables tasted especially good tonight along with the V8 juice and steak. Before dinner, I did some stage 1 pushups and leg raises from the book Convict Conditioning. Stage 1 is deceptively easy, so it builds confidence and the ability to enjoy and savor the exercises, in a moment by moment, in the moment, way. I was surprised the last time I did these exercises that I had some residual soreness the next day. Convict Conditioning will be an interesting experiment in the months ahead.

Back on the Wagon

2010-01-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

Jumped back on the diet today. 3PM was tough, so I went for a walk, and bought some V8 and a sandwich so that I'd have food when the window opened. At 5 PM, I wasn't that hungry. So I went until 6:30 pm before eating. Distraction, coupled with a smidgen of will power, can work wonders.

Break

2010-01-12T22:38:00.000-08:00

Made a conscious decision to take one day off from the diet and eat lunch. Went out with co-workers and felt like it was the right choice, so I ate both lunch and dinner. No guilt on a conscious decision. Tomorrow, back on the diet.

Delaying Desert

2010-01-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

At 3 PM, we celebrated a co-worker's birthday. I had a piece of cake cut and set it aside in my Office until 5 PM, when I chowed down. Great thing about Fast 5: on occasion, you can have desert first.

Stretching

2010-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

I found I was really sore in the calves and hamstrings - post PACE workout fallout. So I went through a lower body stretching routine. My legs are feeling much better and thanking me.

Chinese Food

2010-01-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight, at 5:30 PM, I had Chinese food for dinner.

Before dinner, I was really hungry and cold. Some days, in the end hours of the fasting period, I get cold and hungry. These are both signs my body is burning fat, so I welcome them. The coldness arises from a deficiency of heat that would otherwise be present from metabolizing food. Having not eaten for at least 19 hours, there is no food to metabolize: no food = no metabolizing food = no metabolic heat. The hunger is a more intense form of somatic hunger that arises, for example, when I've previously worked out and my body is really pushing for a nutrient intake.

Two great things about Fast-5. You can eat as much as you want during your eating window, and you can eat what you want (Chinese food, for example).

'Till Tomorrow.

PACE Workout

2010-01-09T13:48:00.000-08:00

Did a PACE workout - who knew jumping jacks could be so tough? I did a warmup set for a minute, then took a 2 minute rest, then another minute of jumping jacks. Heart rate topped out at 132 beats per minute. Another 2 minute rest. Another minute of jumping jacks - heart rate reached 143 beats per minute. Another 2 minute rest. Final 1 minute of jumping jacks - heart rate hit 154 beats per minute. 4 sets, 10 minutes. My quads and calves were burning at the end of the last set. It's now 4:52 PM. I can eat at 5 PM if I want - but I'm not really all that hungry, even after the PACE workout. More tomorrow.

V8

2010-01-08T23:44:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to 6:05 PM without eating. When I got home, I popped open a can of V8 juice. I like to break fast with V8. It's healthy, only 70 calories, does not promote a huge insulin spike after being deprived of carbs (and everything else) all day, and is available year round.

Leaning Out

2010-01-07T20:52:00.001-08:00

I'm starting to "lean out." I seem to drop weight in areas of my body other than my waist first. I can see the difference in my face, my shoulders, my chest. That said, I've dropped an inch from my waist - I know this because I'm now on belt hole number 4, having previously regressed to belt hole number 3 when I took approximately 3 weeks off. That's good, and encouraging.

Small victories are helpful...little morale boosters on the long road to 202 pounds.

Success

2010-01-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

Another day successfully completed. I like the sound and feel of that. We live in a complex world, where success and failure are often not clear, and where tasks don't always have a defined beginning and end. Fast-5 is refreshing, because if you make it until 5 (today I went until 6:15 PM), and stay within your eating window, which I did, then you succeed. Success reinforces success, and over time, patterns of success string together to become a habit. Woot!

PACE

2010-01-05T05:04:00.000-08:00

I've started to integrate exercise into FAST-5. This morning I did intervals. Three of them. First interval took my heart rate to 130. Second interval to heart rate 140. Third interval to heart rate 150. This workout is based on Al Sear's PACE workout and / or Irving Dardik's Lifewaves workout. The idea is that at the peak of exercise (e.g., at higher heart rates), you build reserve lung and cardiovascular capacity, and create "waves of health." Dardik postulates that the common variable across all chronic diseases is diminished maximum heart rate and decreased difference between resting heart rate and maximum heart rate. Thus, a way to attenuate or stave off chronic dis-ease is to continually work at boosting max heart rate and boosting the difference between max heart rate and resting heart rate. What I like about these workouts is that: 1) I feel good at the end of the workout, and 2) that the workouts are short. More tomorrow.

Understanding is Easy

2010-01-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Understanding the concept behind Fast-5 is easy. You don't eat until 5 or 6 PM, and then you have a 5 hour window to eat what you will. Executing, day after day, is the hard(er) part. For me, it's not so much about being hungry, although sometimes I am, but it's about variety and boredom. The idea of having some variety in my eating schedule is, at times, appealing. Also, sometimes I want to eat because I'm bored. When I run into a day when I'm tempted to not execute, I sit down in a chair, pinch my "love handles" around my waist, take a good long look, and resolve to lose these by continuing on the diet.

It's 4 PM

2010-01-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

It's 4 PM. I'll break fast sometime between 5 PM and 6 PM. This is the challenging part of the day. The last couple of hours before eating. I find its good to do distracting tasks in the late afternoon. At work, this is not a problem because I'm always busy. But today, we're visiting my wife's parents and I needed something to do. So I went to the grocery store and bought some food to make for dinner. Getting out is a welcome distraction, as is being mindful and selective about what I intend to eat when I break fast.

New Year Morning

2010-01-01T07:35:00.000-08:00

When I get up in the morning, I like to have several cups of warm water with lime or lemon juice. The lime or lemon juice has no calories, but imparts taste, and the warm water is comforting and re-hydrating after a night's sleep. This is the year I'll drop to 202 pounds.

My Experiment With Fast-5

2009-12-31T17:49:00.000-08:00

I recently finished evening law school. It was a 4 year experiment in sitting.

I'd get in the car, sit, and drive to work. At work, a law firm, I'd sit in front of my computer. Then back in the car, sit, and drive to law school. Evening law school: more sitting. Then the commute home, again, more sitting.

After 4 years of sitting, and eating crap, my weight went from 202 pounds to 256 pounds.

I clearly needed to change my eating habits, or end up spherical, with all the attendant health risks and a significantly decreased quality of life.

After doing some research, I ordered the Fast-5 Diet book from Amazon (it's available for free, in electronic format, from www.fast-5.org). Three months ago, I went on the diet. My weight dropped from 256 to 232 pounds. Not bad.

But final exams came along and for about 3 weeks, I went off the diet. Result: my weight jumped from 232 to 244 pounds.

I've restarted the diet and been on it for the last 5 days.

My goal is to hit 202 pounds.

This blog will track my experiment, both objectively (e.g., weight loss) and subjectively (thoughts, feelings).

Happy New Year!