Hey there, hi there, ho there!
Happy Monday, ya’ll. People get so upset when Monday comes but, for the most
part, I love it! The start of a new week presents an opportunity to start a new
routine, a new challenge, a new anything! I love it. J And, what do you know? I have some new things starting this week!
I start a new (awesome!) job with a great catering company, a new fasting plan
(I’ll go into further detail in a minute) and I’m preparing for a new semester
at school (starting next week)! My body feels great, my brain (though slightly
tired) feels great – and it feels great.
Let’s talk fasting, shall we?
Intermittent Fasting (IF), to be specific. Basically, the idea behind IF is
that for a period of time, rather than feeding your body energy through food,
you force your body to utilize the energy that it is storing, thus burning
glycogen, fat etc. The idea is that it will help you slim down and/or maintain
leanness. A friend of mine does a 24 hour fast once every two weeks, so I gave
it a shot. I did my first fast this past Wednesday and, well, I lived.
Apparently I was pretty mean towards the end of the day (I have a hard time
remembering?) and I know I was miserable. However, I woke up the next morning,
ate ½ of a banana and then went and had a great workout! My body felt great, my
brain felt great and I was in a fantastic mood! Furthermore, even after only
one round of fasting, I looked at food differently… almost more as a privilege
than anything else, thus making me be more conscious of and respect what I was
putting into my body even more than normal. Since the first round, I’ve done
more reading on the subject. I’ve seen various suggestions and timing plans
that people have used and I have decided to try a different approach. For the
time being, I will be fasting for 16 hours twice per week and 24 hours once
every two weeks. So – on Sunday and Thursday, I will stop eating at 4pm and not
start again until 8am. Then, once every two weeks I will go a full 24 hours
without food. Within this time frame I drink a detox water (see below) and
additional plain water. Some people call me crazy, (well, a lot of people call
me crazy) but for some reason I enjoy the restriction and the challenge to my
mind and my body. I’m also hoping that by training my brain to see the fasting
as a benefit, it will help to curb my tendency to over eat and to actually STOP
eating when I know that I need to. Only time will tell. J
Detox Water
6 lemons, sliced
½ cucumber, sliced
Handful of mint leaves
1 gallon of water
In a pitcher, combine all of
these things and put in the fridge overnight. Drink this throughout the day to
help clean out your body during the fast, in addition to regular water… and don’t
choke on the mint leaves J
Seeing as how today is Monday,
that means yesterday was Meal Prep Sunday! I took about three hours (I was taking
my time) and prepped my meals for this week. Here’s the menu:
Breakfast:
½ c cooked quinoa w/ 1tbs raisins
and pinch cinnamon. Microwave for 1-2 minutes then add 1tbs of fresh berries.
1 sprouted grain tortilla, 1
banana and 1-2 tbs PB2. Spread the PB2, lay down the banana and wrap. Then eat.
Lunch/Dinner:
Quinoa and Grilled Veg
½ c cooked Quinoa, 2 portabello
mushroom caps (medium, ribs, stem and skin removed) and broccoli grilled with
onion and blackberries. Seriously. Delish.
Mexi Salad
Handful of Mixed Spring Greens, ½
c black beans, 1/2 – 3/4c grilled tomato/onion/mushroom/bell pepper/poblano
pepper with 2tbs pico de gallo
Tempeh and Chickpeas
1 c sautéed tempeh and chickpeas
with ½ c tomato and cucumber salad and 2tbs homemade hummus
Snacks:
Snap Peas w/ hummus
Cucumber Sticks w/ Hummus
Sliced apple (skinless) with
almond butter
Oh it’s gonna be a yummy week!
I’ve noticed my body starting to
change again and I am PUMPED! I feel like it’s getting back to progressing
toward a more firm and attractive shell, and that makes me feel great. I may or
may not have been checking out my butt in the reflection of a window as I was
walking down a hallway at school today and dammit if it didn’t look good! I’ve
been lifting a lot but I’m trying to add more cardio back into my life. I know
I need to cardio, I would just rather lift.. like all the time. So I’m trying
to focus more on the HIIT cardio that I’ve mentioned previously. Today, I did
the stair mill: 1 minute at level 15 and 2 minutes at level 3, repeating for 15
minutes. I’m not going to lie, I almost threw up. BUT I loved the burn and I’ll
be doing it 2-3 times per week so I can get better and decrease the amount of
down time J
Anyway, I’m going to keep on
keepin on with my goals and my mission of developing the best me I can be!
Thanks again for either continuing to follow me or making the decision to read
for the first time, it’s certainly appreciated!!
Keep it fresh, keep it healthy,
keep it clean. J
Until next time, folks!
No comments:
Post a Comment