For the New Year: Officially Starting the 5:2 Intermittent Fast (and returning to my bad-ass ninja training)

Today is my first ever 5:2 Intermittent Fasting day.  I’d decided during the holidays that I would give this at least 3 months.  As I’m typing this I am aware of a feeling of lightheadedness.  I’ve been feeling it all day.  I don’t recall ever having gone this long without food – not while I am awake that is.  I have had several cups of tea throughout the day to add to my two cups of black brewed coffee earlier this morning.  The lightheadedness comes and goes.  The Filipino phrase nalipasan ng gutom (literally, passed-over by hunger) comes to mind.  The feelings of hunger have definitely passed me over today – lots of times.

I’m pretty much okay, though.  My wife and I were concerned that I’d be cranky the whole day (something that tends to happen when I’m hungry), but so far so good.  Or maybe it’s because I’ve been psyching myself up for this for almost a week now, ever since my brother and his life partner gave me a copy of Mosley and Spencer’s The Fast Diet.  I guess there is a difference between feeling hunger as a result of purposefully and enthusiastically skipping a meal, and being hungry and just wanting to eat already but not being able to immediately do so.  There is a sense of control and purpose in the former, and maybe that’s why I haven’t snapped at anyone yet.  Don’t get me wrong: it is not the most comfortable feeling in the world.  But it’s not as unpleasant as I thought it would be.  It also helps that I have dinner to look forward to, which should be about an hour from now.

Anyway, below is my basic fitness and nutritional plan for the first quarter of 2015.  The nutritional plan is meant to help with my physical training in two ways: first, less excess weight makes for easier movement and less strain on the joints; second, less excess fat will help me fit back into my clothes.  I actually still fit in my training clothes, but I don’t wanna wait until I’m too big to fit in them before I take action.  Most of my pants are really tight now.

Nutritional plan:

Mondays and Fridays are fast days, the rest of the week I can eat normally.  I’m mulling over having Wednesday as an added fast day every other week, making it a 5:2, 5:3 fast plan but we’ll see how it goes.

Bad-ass ninja training plan:

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: yoga in the morning.  Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays: alternate between bodyweight circuit training (my Workout A) and tumbling supersets (my Workout B).  Tumbling supersets is performing cartwheels, parkour rolls, and working on floor kips in supersets.  Tuesday evenings is for Kali class.  Thursday afternoon is for parkour/freerunning practice.  Saturday afternoons is for solo Kali practice.  Sundays are rest days, though I may sneak in a few minutes of jump rope Tabatas if I’m feeling energetic.

That’s pretty much it for the first three months of 2015.  We’ll see how it goes.  Happy New Year everyone!

Back from a Trip (My Pants are Getting Tighter!)

Yes.  Despite my fairly active lifestyle I’ve put on a few kilos, which is to be expected because I’ve let my nutrition habits fall by the wayside.  I’ve taken to having at least one beer every night for the past few weeks, have had little success stopping myself from taking a few small pieces off the dessert table at the resort’s restaurant during lunch, and just this week went to Palawan (it was work-related, but highly enjoyable) where I ate and drank.  A.  Lot.  Comes with the job actually.  We were there to observe the tourism industry and see if we can learn something useful.  That meant going to recommended restaurants and bars, visiting tourist attractions, sampling the exotic foods.  And getting drunk.  Okay that last part wasn’t really part of the task, but it sure made it more fun.

So I wasn’t surprised to find my pants to be just a bit tighter, my torso to be just a bit flabbier, and my weight to be just a few kilos higher than it was earlier this year.  I’m trying not to freak out, but it is a sobering thought that were I to gain back too large a fraction of the weight I’ve lost – and I have lost a lot – not only would I have a hard time finding clothes that fit me (because I’ve already gotten rid of most of them), I’d also encounter the same problem I had when I first started training in Aikido: KNEE PAIN.  I do not like knee pain.  ‘Nuff said.

Henceforth, as I told my wife, beer shall be reserved for weekends and birthdays/anniversaries only.  At least for several weeks.  Same with all manner of desserts and snacks that didn’t come directly from a tree or bush.  Cookies, ice cream, brownies and the like: weekend food.  And sparingly at that.  That ought to shave off some pounds.  It won’t likely get me a six pack but then I’m not in this for a six pack.