My weight rose 0.4kg to 68.3kg. My body fat rose 0.2% to 17.7%. My Body Water dropped to 56.5% and my Body Muscle dropped 0.1% to 42.8%.
Quinoa, soy milk, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and agave nectar
For breakfast I had hot lemon juice followed by quinoa with soy milk, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries with a drizzle of agave nectar.
Channa dal, wholegrain basmati rice, salad and vegetable juice
For lunch I had whole grain Basmati rice with a Channa dal, red kidney beans, corn and green peas curry and salad accompanied with a glass of vegetable juice.
I had a really good resistance workout, beating most previous rep records. By the time I did my laps around the park, my body decided to take it easy and I decided not to challenge its decision, hence completing my laps in 1 hour 2 min and 57 sec. I finished my workout with a 10 min HIIT session on the cross trainer.
A box of Anwar Retol mangoes from Pakistan set me back £4.99
Anwar Retol mango, fresh dates and watermelon: a delicious post-workout high GI treat!
Post workout I treated myself to a high GI treat of a Pakistani Anwar Ratol mango (GI 80), water melon (GI 103) and fresh dates (GI 103). I also had a glass of soy milk and a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter for protein.
As meat and dairy have been eliminated from my diet for this detox, naturally I looked for protein and milk alternatives. In my search, products made from the soy bean like tofu and soy milk came up top. As a plant source, not only are they high in protein but the protein is a complete protein (a source of protein that contains adequate amounts of all essential amino acids required by humans). On top of this, the pro-soy camp claim many other health benefits of soy: promoting a healthy heart; stronger bones; prevention of cancer; and alleviating menopausal symptoms.
Unfermented soy may get on your tits... but does it make men gay?
Contrary to these claims there is a growing number of soy research suggesting dangers of using unfermented soy products like tofu and soy milk. While fermented soy products like tempeh, miso and soy sauce are considered safe due to the fermenting process eliminating the chemicals deemed dangerous, unfermented soy products have been found to: block absorption of essential minerals as a result of the phytic acid in them; increase the phytoestrogen levels in a person which can change women’s menstrual cycles; suppress thyroid and endocrine function; lead to growth inhibition; promote kidney stones; weaken the immune system; interfere with protein digestion; and possibly cause infertility. Interesting soy fact: according to the Evangelical Right, unfermented soy makes men grow up to be gay.
As with any subject there are always alternative perspectives. And quite often the different perspectives are promoted by industries that benefit commercially from that particular viewpoint. This is also true with the food industry. It is said by pro-soy vegans that the anti-soy research and conclusions are often funded by the dairy industry. While others claim that the healthy claims of soy is promoted by the soy industry.
For me there is enough doubt in my mind to avoid unfermented soy products. Once I’ve finished this carton of soy milk, I will experiment with other vegan milk alternatives. As for Tofu, I have a couple of cartons in my cupboard and it seems unlikely I will use them during the rest of this detox. If I can get hold of tempeh, I will certainly try it, as it is a fermented source of soy. However it doesn’t seem that easy to get hold of in the UK. The supermarkets don’t stock it, and I’ve checked my local health shops, no tempeh there. Next stop will probably be a Chinese shop, if I can find one that is. Perhaps this gap in the UK tempeh market is a potential business opportunity for somebody?
Compared to my readings on the morning of day 14 following my HIIT session on an empty stomach the day before (weight stayed the same while my fat went down 0.1% to 18.1% and my other readings both went up 0.1%) it seems as though I got more results from doing HIIT on a fuelled stomach compared to an empty stomach. Therefore I will henceforth incorporate HIIT into my training schedule on a fuelled stomach.
Quinoa, soy milk, banana, blueberries and Agave Nectar
For breakfast I had my hot lemon juice followed by soy milk with quinoa, banana and blueberries.
Mixed seeds
During the morning I snacked on a handful of mixed seeds.
For lunch I had the Channa Dal with brown rice.
I was very tired today. My body was screaming out for protein. I had recently banned dairy products and had run out of protein shake. It feels as though, on a restricted non-animal based diet, protein sources are diluted with carbs. It feels as though I need to consume more food in order to get enough protein. I’m not sure this is a good way to go in the long run. I’m not sure what this will do for my body fat content. Is it possible I may end up putting on more fat as I try and feed my body enough protein?
Where do vegans get their protein?
I was very hungry today too. I ate lunch twice.
I took a rest from my resistance training today and just did 2 laps around the park which took me 57 min 04 sec. When I got to the cross trainer, someone was using it. I listened to the fat guy within and decided to go home.
This is me with my wife a few years ago, fatter than I am now
I Beat Anorexia - LMBFAO - Laugh My Big Fat Ass Off
Over the last few days I have developed my own prep talk. If I ever feel like quitting I tell myself: “Don’t listen to the fat guy!” The fat guy is me, or an aspect of me. The fat guy is the guy who wants to binge on chocolate and sugary foods. The fat guy prefers to stay in bed rather than get up and do something about his health. The fat guy is the couch potato who’d rather watch TV all day. The fat guy is the one who makes pragmatic excuses to avoid exercise. He is the one who tells me to stop pushing myself harder and give up before my muscles cave in. The fat guy is the one who complains that it’s too hard, give me a break! The fat guy is the one whose eyes are bigger than his stomach, who fills his plate with too much food and then forces himself to finish it because he doesn’t like wasting food. The fat guy is the one who loves eating buckets full of KFC and loves chomping down his Big Macs. The fat guy is the one who eats like a pig. The fat guy is weak, he is pathetic, he is a wussy, and today he won my heart.
Tomorrow morning I am sure that I will have to pay for listening to the fat guy.
Being fat is a choice.
Life is all about choice. Isn't it?
Hold up! Do you really think I would throw a cheesy line like that at you? Do I look like a personal development guy who thinks he knows it all, but doesn’t have the brain to understand that his philosophical view of the world is completely contradictory and utterly flawed? Most personal development and self help gurus go on about positive thinking and how life is a choice. Shut the F$%* up! Then they will say “Aha! But do you choose to live at cause or effect?” Sit down before I bitch slap you into place. What on earth are you talking about? We are living in cause AND effect and we are never free from that chain. First of all, their approach to helping people is based on one major assumption that they take for granted… namely that we have free will.
Free what? Free will. I can tell how deep a person currently thinks simply by asking them their perspective on free will. If they start responding with how we have freedom in society and don’t live in a dictatorship and generally talk about free will as if it is a social class issue, then their depth of thinking is projected outward at society. They do not understand what is meant by free will. If they talk about how of course we have free will because we make choices all the time, then they are thinking slightly more deeply, but not deep enough to realise that their perception of making a choice is just an illusion of what is really happening. Not choice. Rather a calculation. That’s right ladies and gentlemen if we live in a world governed by the law of cause and effect how are we exceptions to this rule? We’re not. Free will is a myth spread by those who wish to make the task of controlling us simpler. We are not free, never have been and never will be… I think.
Free will
Rebel without a cause? Wrong. There are causes that make you rebellious.
So being fat is not a choice. Being fat is the direct result of a chain of causes that have led you and me to the effect of being fat. We all have different causes that have led to your and my fatness. If you “choose” to do something about it, you’re not freely choosing to do so; rather your mind calculates that is the way forward. It’s not a choice. It’s a calculation. Just as you would input certain variables into a computer and it will come out with exactly the same output every single time if you repeated the procedure with exactly the same variables and exactly the same software kept identical, we will continue to calculate to do the things that aggravate our fatness if neither the variables or the programming changes. Perhaps reading this blog post will be the trigger cause in having the effect on your mind where you calculate that being fat is not good for you and you will do whatever you can to do something about. Maybe it will have the opposite effect and you will react with rebellion and feel who the hell is this guy to criticise me for being fat? I love being fat. Fat is a good shape. Why does it matter? It’s my personality that counts etc.
That's right. You're a rebel with a cause.
How you react will also have many causes for it.
So what to do? First of all lets accept ourselves for who we are. Let’s accept that we are perfect just the way we are. There is nothing wrong with us. There is no point in blaming ourselves. Blame implies that we have free will. We don’t possess free will. So blame is nonsensical. So let’s instead try to understand the individual causes that have led us to being fat. Is it poor diet? Is it our beliefs (programming)? Is it poor exercise? Is it a genetic handicap that makes us more prone towards obesity? Is our body misbehaving and not working properly? If any of these things are true, lets try to understand them and in a way empower ourselves with this information, upgrade the software in our brains, and act accordingly to help our bodies to be more healthy.
Black man abs
Sure I’d love to have the genetic make up of many Black men who seem to be born with abs, or Slovenian men who can eat what they like and still stay slim. But I don’t have those advantages. My body does not react with the same generosity as other peoples bodies do. My relatives come in one package. Short and round. I’d like to change that. I want to work with my body and try to understand it so that I don’t have to be round. Short maybe, but not round!
For my evening meal I had a fresh carrot juice, Channa Dal and salad, followed by some water melon.
Despite me cutting out: 1) all forms of meat – including fish and eggs; 2) alcohol; 3) tobacco; 4) caffeine; 5) granulated sugar; 6) artificial sweeteners; 7) white carbohydrates; and 8) drugs; I am not finding the diet side of things particularly challenging. I have had to learn about food as I’ve gone along and have been discovering which foods are good to eat when and what their nutritional value is. However since the beginning, I have had a niggling in the back of my mind based on what other detox diets recommend, that I should remove wheat and dairy products from my diet and I should only be drinking filtered water. So from this day forth 9) wheat products (e.g. bread and pasta), 10) dairy products (e.g. milk, yogurt, fromage frais, and cottage cheese) and 11) tap water are also being banned from my diet for the rest of this detox. The diet I am now following is similar to the one called the Whole Food Diet:
“Whole food diet: This type of detox programme is based on the intake of fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and their cold pressed oils, legumes, sprouts and whole grains with the avoidance of caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, meat, fish, dairy produce, wheat and other gluten-containing grains, refined foods, fried foods, sugar and salt. Drinks may include filtered/bottled water, fruit and vegetable juices, and herbal teas. Eating a whole food diet is the gentlest way of detoxifying the system and can be continued for a longer period of time without depleting the body or encouraging it to detoxify too quickly.”
I started my morning with my usual lemon in hot water drink. For breakfast I needed something new. My usual muesli with fromage frais were now out (no wheat and no dairy allowed). I wanted something high in protein for breakfast. I looked for vegan alternatives to milk. The options were: hemp milk, almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk, soy milk, and oat milk.
Protein per 100ml:
Soy milk 3.7g
Hemp milk: 2g
Coconut Milk: 1g
Oat Milk: 1g
Almond Milk: 0.4g
Rice milk: 0.1g
Quinoa, soy milk, blueberries, raspberries and Agave Nector
I will try all alternatives to milk. It seems this detox is a good opportunity to come out of my comfort zone and explore food I have never tried before. As I have also just run out of protein shake I will start by consuming the highest protein value milk, which is Soy Milk. I bought 1L of organic unsweetened Soy Milk from Holland and Barrett for £1. Seems reasonable. Instead of muesli I mixed the soy milk with quinoa, raspberries, blueberries and a drizzle of agave nectar. Not bad, not bad at all. It was a bit like rice pudding.
In the morning I did the second part of my HIIT experiment. A couple of days ago I did it on an empty stomach. This time I went fueled on a banana and some almonds. My readings before the 20 min High Intensity Interval Training on the cross trainer were: Weight: 68.8kg; Body Fat: 17.8%; Body Water: 56.5%; Body Muscle: 42.8%. After the training session my readings were: Weight: 69.3kg; Body Fat: 17.7%; Body Water: 56.5%; Body Muscle: 42.8%. My fat decreased by 0.1%. I’m not sure how the scale managed to show an increase in weight of 0.5kg, whilst not showing an increase in Body Water percentage. It makes me wonder how reliable these scales are after all! The immediate decrease in Body Fat does not compare to the 0.5% decrease in Body Fat following HIIT session on an empty stomach. However a better comparison will be made tomorrow morning when I can see my morning after results too.
My scales always seem to be telling me to Go Run
Apple and carrot juice
I came home to a fresh apple and carrot juice. I didn’t have any protein shake so I tried improvising by stirring in peanut butter into Soy milk. I tried, but the peanut butter refused to mix with the Soy milk. I ended up eating peanut butter off a tablespoon instead. In the quinoa, the soy milk tasted fine. On its own it might be white like cows milk but tastes like water. It does not compare to cows milk at all. Soon after I ate my lunch which was an Urid Whole Dal curry with red kidney beans, peas, almonds and lemon zest. It was the first time I ate this dal. And what can I say?! It was absolutely delicious. It had a creamy texture to it. So! So! Good!
Soy Milk doesn't taste so good on its own
I extended my resistance training to include squats, lunges and a military shoulder press. I did these exercises at home before going to the park to do the rest of my training. I thought they would be easy as I’m used to doing squats with weights in the gym. However I was quite surprised how hard I actually found them. After about 30 squats I was done. For my shoulders I improvised as I have no machine or any free weights. I used a case full of CDs instead. I’d like to see if I can get fit without spending a penny on gym membership or equipment.
This is the silver CD case I use to do my military press shoulder exercise
In the park it seemed the additional exercises I did at home, the HIIT session I did earlier in the morning, plus the brand new diet were now taking their toll on me. I was very tired. My performance during the resistance training in the park reflected this. My sets were not so good. I completed the laps around the park in 56 min 36 sec. When I returned to the gym to do the cross trainer, I found someone was using it. I was tired and felt I had done enough for the day and went home.
I had a fresh pear and carrot juice as soon as I got home and had my evening meal which was the Urid Whole Dal curry with some salad.
Its day 14 and it’s my one day out of every 7 days off. I’m not exercising today, nor am I writing a blog post. I’ve been writing everyday for the last 13 days. I need a day off!
I had a hot lemon juice in the morning and muesli with fromage frais.
Orange Wednesdays
I wanted to have a day out and relax. I decided to go to the cinema and watch Toy Story 3 with my wife. As it was Orange Wednesdays, I text Film to 241, queued up at Cineworld in Ilford and waited for my code to allow me to buy one ticket and get another one free. We had missed the 2D showings of the film and so the only option was to watch it in 3D. By the time we got to the front of the queue I had not received my code. I spoke to the ticket issuer and told her what the problem was. I asked her if she’d let us come straight to the front of the queue if it did arrive, as we didn’t want to queue all over again. She agreed. We went outside of the building. Still nothing. We walked into the High Street. Still nothing. I thought of what else to do. I text Orange two more times. Still nothing. Buying two 3D tickets was out of the question, it would have cost a fortune! I thought I’d get on Facebook and ask if someone had a spare Orange Wednesdays code. Such pleas have worked successfully in the past, thanks to some generous friends on my friends list. However it seemed there was a problem with reception in the area and I could not get online. It was getting quite frustrating. I switched my phone on and off. Still nothing. I started walking home to get online at home or maybe reception would be better at home, but then I checked my watched and realised that even if I went home, by the time I got back to the cinema with a code it would be too late and we would have missed the start of the film! I wanted to relax today, and instead felt stressed at not being able to get hold of an Orange Wednesdays code in time for the movie we wanted to watch.
Josie Lawrence from The Comedy Store Players
I decided to give up waiting for the Orange Wednesdays code, try and stay positive and do something else in the mean time, and perhaps watch the movie later on in the evening by which time the code would hopefully have arrived. I decided to go to the Comedy Store in Piccadily Circus. As it was a Wednesday it was improvisation night. These nights are always good. The comedians have to be comical on the spot in response to suggestions from the audience. If you go to watch someone doing stand up, they can be hit and miss. Sometimes the comedian isn’t that funny, or if he is famously funny you might have seen some of his routines before.
As we swiped our oyster cards in at Ilford station and got on the platform I finally received my Orange Wednesdays text! Grrr… the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Covent Garden Apple Market
We had some time to kill before the doors opened at 6.30pm so we stopped off at Covent Garden for a wonder. I vaguely remembered it had a few eco-friendly shops and hoped I might find something of interest there during this detox. There were lots of street entertainers doing their thing. We had about an hour or so. I wasn’t hungry but as we were in Covent Garden I imagined there might be a vegetarian or vegan restaurant about. I’ve never been to one and was looking for a new experience. As we walked about half looking for somewhere to eat, half looking for something interesting to pique my interest we walked past a Lush a fresh handmade cosmetics shop. I was on the hunt for a natural bubble bath that could make me feel as relaxed as Radox.
Lush Covent Garden
We walked in, downstairs and around. It was like an underground maze. Actually it was more like an underground science museum! There were lots of staff handy. There was a member of staff at each display and they were doing lots of demonstrations with their products. We went around sniffing the merchandise. They all looked colourful enough to eat, however upon smelling each cosmetic we noticed most of the products smelt very similar to each other. And they had a very soapy, dull fragrance to them. Nothing like The Body Shop, where each line has a very distinct fruity smell. Their cosmetics were really expensive as well. A bath bomb for example would be used for just one bath and would set you back £2.95. I hadn’t tried their bath products before, so maybe after trying one I would find that it was worth the money for treating myself on the odd occasion after all.
The Comforter from Lush
What I really loved was the energy and enthusiasm of the staff. They were all clearly very passionate about the company, the products and the ethical business model. I felt obliged to buy something just from the joyfulness of the staff. We found one Bubble Bar that had the aroma of a delicious fruity sweet. It is called The Comforter and has the scent of blackcurrants. Its fragrance made it seem good enough to eat. It set me back £3.95 but can be used four times. Its scent made every penny seem well spent.
At the till I asked the member of staff if there were any vegetarian restaurants around worth checking out. Whilst pointing out that most if not all Lush members of staff were either vegetarian or vegan she said there was a vegetarian/vegan restaurant called Food For Thought on Neal Street. I said thanks and we made our way there.
Food For Thought, Neal Street, Covent Garden, London
At first glance it didn’t seem like a posh restaurant. It looked more like a local café. To eat in we had to walk down into the basement area. It seemed quite busy. We looked through the limited menu and tried to figure out what was what. There was some food on display. I recognised a salad dish that was made from quinoa. I hadn’t tried quinoa as a salad dish before but had read somewhere that it was worth a try. I’ve been eating quinoa hot as a substitute for rice. I asked the lady behind the till what it was. I knew what it was. But I had never heard anyone say it before and I wanted to make sure I had the pronunciation correct. With the warm look of someone who imagines themselves to be more civilised sharing her knowledge and wisdom with a heathen she said: “That is keen-waaaaaaaah”. “Thanks” I replied. It sounded like an oriental food even though it is South American in origin. Fantastic. I had the pronunciation correct down to a tee. Whilst trying to discern what the different things on the menu were, a couple of customers ordered ratatouille. It may be a sign of me being uncultured, but I have to admit I wasn’t sure what it was. So I waited with anticipation to get a glimpse at what they had just ordered. It had vegetables in it, was grainy and seemed warm. It looked quite nice. But I also wanted to try the quinoa salad.
I ordered. My wife wanted stir fried vegetables and I ordered the ratatouille with a little bit of the quinoa. The lady looked at me, thought something, paused and then said: “Do you want all four salads or just the quinoa?” “All four salads!?” I thought. I just wanted to try some of the quinoa that’s all. Not two portions of food. But as it seemed she was going to charge me for the ratatouille and a full blown salad meal, I considered my options. I looked at the salads on offer. Quinoa salad – good. Lettuce salad – good. Beetroot salad – good. Pasta salad – bad. No white pasta for me as it is out for the purpose of the detox. “I’ll have the quinoa, beetroot and lettuce but no pasta thanks.” As she gathered our meals together I was gobsmacked by the large portions she gave me. I don’t like wasting food, however there was a whole day’s worth of food on my plate. I wasn’t even hungry. I had some time to kill so wanted to try something new. This was going to be a tough task ahead of me.
We took our seats. I sat with my back to the stairs whilst facing the rest of the room. I don’t like facing the wall when eating or in any situation I guess. I like to be fully aware of my surroundings. I guess it’s partly a security-conscious thing. I looked at the food on my plate, thought here it goes and dug in. First the ratatouille. It was warm, grainy, quite nice. I’d give it a 6.5 out of 10. Next quinoa salad. Nothing special to be fair. 6 out of 10. Lettuce, well lettuce is lettuce, 6 out of 10. Beetroot salad. Now this was good. It had a creamy texture and tasted lovely. 8 out of 10. I tried my wife’s stir fried vegetables. Had more flavour than my ratatouille. 7.5 out of 10. To me good food is amazing, if it’s capable of momentarily making a theist out of an atheist. When you look at it, when you taste it, feel it, and indulge in its aroma, if it doesn’t make you thank God or sing praises to Allah – even though you’re not necessarily a believer at other times then it hasn’t quite hit the spot. Overall I thought the food we tried at Food for Thought was so, so. Nothing special. And frankly I believe over the last few weeks I have really enjoyed the food both I and my wife have been making. Many times a day, the food we have been eating has made a believer out of me for those few moments.
One thing that stood out for me at Food for Thought was the punters. At Lush the staff were young and looked healthy, with smooth skin, good complexion and just had a great vibe about them. However in Food for Thought the customers were generally an older crowd. To my eyes most of them seemed very pale and they also looked as if they might be a little bit neurotic, like grumpy, stern. I started to wonder… does a vegetarian or vegan diet over the long term have that effect on people? Do you become more neurotic? Does it make you pale and make you look like a zombie? It seems I may well be onto something.
Michael Cera at the Premiere of Scot Pilgrim Vs the World in Leicester Square
After eating, we made our way to Leicester Square. Scot Pilgrim Vs the World was premiering at the Odeon cinema and the stars of the movie were given the red carpet treatment. We were walking by just as Michael Cera, the lead playing Scot Pilgrim came out to greet his young pubescent screaming fans. I wasn’t sure who is was at the time; he just looked like any old regular nerd. It turns out he was in Superbad, which I vaguely remember was pretty funny. Oh yeh! How could I ever forget McLovin!?
The Comedy Store Players Line Up for Wednesday 18th August 2010
We queued outside The Comedy Store. My wife pointed out how one of the bouncers was quite rude to me on a previous visit. He was tall, stocky, black, shaved head with a beard. I have to admit, I think I pull off the shaved head and beard look much better myself. It was very strange… as she mentioned him; he came over to us and asked me if I was paying by cash. I said yes. But then he carried on checking and explaining that the credit card machines were not working downstairs and I needed cash to pay. I’m not sure why he took his time emphasising this to me rather than the other people in the queue. I wondered if it had something to do with my apparent race or class. We were the only Asian/Black people in the queue. I was wearing a white blingy t-shirt with a silver necklace. Most other people were white middle-class in suits that had clearly come from work. Throughout the evening we communicated with each other and overall it seemed he was really polite to us this time compared to his poor attitude last time we had seen him working there.
We took our seats at the front. I was in the middle seat on the front row. On a stand up night people on the front row get picked on by the comedians. This was less likely to happen in this case as it was improvisation night. I wanted to laugh hard tonight, and thought if something happened by sitting at the front it be something interesting to blog about. Nothing of the sort happened. Overall it was an ok night. I didn’t laugh as hard as I have done in the past. Maybe it was because I was sober. Or maybe we were sat too close. Or maybe I just didn’t find it that funny anymore. The comedians looked stressed and warn out prior to starting their performance. Maybe it had become a job to them and it had lost its spontaneity? Or maybe I am the one who is too stressed at the moment?!
On the way home we stopped off at a few cinemas but by then it was too late as they were all closed.
Moong Dal Chilka, Lemon Zest and Almonds
For my evening meal I ate Moong Dal Chilka with a sprinkle of lemon zest and almonds.
I woke up this morning feeling fatter. My stomach felt as though it was protruding a bit more. Ahh man… was it a mistake eating the houmous and coleslaw the night before? Time to check. I got on the scales. Damn. It was a mistake. Though my weight dropped 0.4kg to 68.8kg my fat content had increased 0.3% to 18.2%. My body water dropped to 56.2% and my muscle dropped 0.2% to 42.5%. Was it the coleslaw and houmous responsible? Was I over doing it with the Bertolli on the corn on the cob? Was I overdoing the walnut oil in my salad? Or was this a consistent response to working out in the morning on an empty stomach? So many questions and possibilities and no definitive answers yet.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
Despite the doubt I continued with my experimentation and decided to see what would happen if I did a 20 min High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session on the cross trainer on an empty stomach. HIIT is a strategy of doing cardio that burns fat in a short space of time, compared to hour-long workouts at a slower pace (e.g. walking). If you’re pressed for time, have a busy lifestyle and don’t have time to do cardio for more than 20 minutes then HIIT is the way to go if you wish to burn fat and boost performance. You can do any cardio exercise: running, cycling, rowing, cross training, whatever suits you. There are a few approaches to HIIT, however, in essence, the philosophy is the same: cycles of an intense workout period followed by a moderate period. For example a runner could run for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of jogging and so on. The benefits of HIIT include: improved endurance; improved athletic performance; an increased resting metabolic rate, which leads to burning fat long after you’ve stopped working out; and improved insulin action which means it could lead to prevention of type-2 diabetes.
I exercised on the cross trainer at moderate levels for 1 min 15 sec and then 45 sec as hard as I could, followed by 1 min 15 sec at moderate and so on until 20 min was up. I weighed myself immediately before and after the session. My weight stayed the same; however, my fat dropped 0.5% to 17.7%. My body water increased to 56.5% and my body muscle increased 0.3% to 42.8%. This is what my initial readings are. The effect the empty morning HIIT cardio training had on my body throughout the day will be more evident when I weigh myself tomorrow morning.
Coleslaw
After my workout I had a hot lemon juice. I was planning on having muesli, but then I saw my wife having a coleslaw sandwich and the temptation got the better of me (despite my doubts concerning my fat increase this morning) and I ended up having two slices of wholemeal bread, one with houmous and one with coleslaw spread on top. Whether they was healthy or not, they were both tasty. And if there was anytime I was likely to get away with eating either item it would be in the morning rather than the evening. In hindsight it seems one of the problems of working out on an empty stomach is that you end up feeling very hungry straight after which can lead to binging on whatever one fancies regardless of the consequences. After that I had my protein shake with a teaspoon of hemp seed oil.
Moong Dal Chilka
For lunch I ate Moong Dal Chilka for the first time. It was really, really nice. My wife made it as a curry and we ate it with brown rice.
I did my second training session close to dusk. Up till now I’ve opted to listen to a couple of Armin Van Buuren A State Of Trance (ASOT) sets. They are great as I love trance music and they make me feel good. I’ve only got three of his sets on my phone and started to get bored listening to the same thing again and again. Sometimes I prefer not to listen to anything so that I can aurally appreciate my surroundings, like the sound of the wind blowing or the sound of birds chirping as I walk through the park. For a change today I thought I’d put on some tracks of The Prodigy while doing my walk. The Prodigy are awesome to listen to whilst working out. The beat is fast, and the music gives me a boost of energy and a sense of aggressive confidence. Whilst listening to them it’s not surprising when I find myself walking to their beat. I’m not sure how this looks from a third person perspective, but it certainly feels like my walk has a bit of rhythm to it. Thanks to The Prodigy I completed today’s two laps in 55 min 45 sec! I couldn’t believe it when I saw my stopwatch. I wondered if I had made a mistake, or if the stopwatch had stopped working. After the walk I did 30 minutes on the cross trainer. As usual, as the sun set, a bat flew past me into the tree in front of me. It seems like clockwork, this bat makes an appearance everyday at the same time.
The Prodigy
On my way home I avoided the bus stop by crossing over the street. I’m not keen on playing hopscotch with these rats everyday. Besides it felt as if I had worked out enough for the night! Once I got home I had a fresh apple and carrot juice and protein shake, followed by my evening meal which was corn on the cob, salad and cottage cheese.
