Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Hitting the Wall

After 10 days of successful IF with the Fast-5 program, I hit the wall yesterday. Big time.

Had an early morning workout at 5 am that went extremely well. Felt I could have eaten something afterwards, but I wasn't in my "eating window", so food was not an option. I brushed the feeling aside and went off to work. However, as the day went on I began feeling depleted, headachy and even nauseous. When my eating window came up at 4:30 pm, I gobbled down my meager ration of an apple and a small piece of cheese. It clearly wasn't enough.

That night I didn't exactly binge, but ate things I normally have no taste for: chocolates, jelly beans and a chocolate spread. And hour later I had two big servings of pasta, a thick hamburger patty slathered with mayo and a large salad. Although I was full, I still didn't feel quite normal.

Went to bed very early and woke up hungry this morning. Plus a headache and nausea. This time I didn't put off eating and had a light breakfast. Felt immediately better. At lunch, I had a normal meal and finally felt like myself again.

I don't know exactly why I hit the wall, but it probably has something to do with my weight workout. It was demanding like all my workouts, but within my capacity. Still, I'd been noticing my energy dropping bit by bit after exercise. Since I don't stuff myself at mealtime, apparently fasting every day was keeping me from eating enough to workout hard.

So fasting every day is out. . .maybe. I have no desire to pass out in front of my computer at work, or under a heavy weight during a workout. However, I'm not giving up on fasting. I've lost weight and generally feel good, but just can't cut heavy exercise for the moment.

The originator of Eat Stop Eat has gotten around that problem by recommending a 24-hour fast once or twice a week. He successfully lifts weights in combination with fasting. I'll experiment with his plan this week.

As I've found once again, there's no secret to fat/weight loss. You just have to consistently eat less and the weight will come off. Determining just how much less is the tricky part, but a day or two of fasting a week would certainly help.

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