T H R E E

FASTING

_{Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. Please consult with your doctor before starting any new diet.}

I am fortunate enough to have grown up in a healthy lifestyle household. There were always vegetables that I had to force down my throat to the point of throwing up, literally. I remember it like it was yesterday; squash was on the menu, and I DESPISED squash.

  I had my little tricks to get through dinner. I would spit my bites into my napkin, plug my nose, slip most of my food to our dog, or take bathroom breaks to throw away whatever hadn’t decomposed in my mouth for the past 10 minutes. But those tricks weren’t working with the squash. There was a lot of it, and my dad had a long day of work, so I wasn’t able to leave the table until my plate was clean. After plugging my nose to work through some of the squash, I couldn’t take it anymore, and on my next bite, I had to get up and run to the bathroom to throw up. 

While that technique got me out of dinner that night, it wasn’t something that I was trying to add to my repertoire of dinner tricks. I know how jealous you must be of my childhood. While it was highly miserable at times, especially once I tasted Hamburger Helper, it created healthy choices that carried into adulthood.

I’ve always been interested in the human physique, or shortsique in my case because I saw it as a way to become more manly as a short guy. I worked out a lot in college and bulked up enough to become known as the short buff guy. I never was into counting calories or being super strict on my diet. I would try to eat as clean as a 20-year-old does in college, top roman and pizza with veggies, of course. 

I got my genes from my beautiful and very muscular mother, who was always extremely lean due to eating healthy and running almost every day. Thanks, ma! I always had a six-pack, even if I never worked out. It was natural. As I got into my late 20s, I began to notice that my six-pack would still be there, but it would be more of a gut six-pack. 

Now, healthwise, I have quite a few issues with my body, and my joints don’t take kindly to the weight lifting regimen I used to put it through, so I had to come up with an alternative to getting the desired physique. 

What Is Fasting?

It was on an episode of the Tim Ferris podcast, where he was talking about intermittent fasting. So I decided to try it out. I did the 16/8 fast, where you have an 8-hour window to eat whatever you want (mine is 12 pm to 8 pm), and then 16 hours of no food. 

You can still drink any beverage without calories all day. Mine is always green tea in the morning and then water throughout the rest of the day. If you are a coffee drinker, you have to go to the dark side and drink your coffee without anything added. 

Be aware there is a little challenge, in the beginning, to not overeat with your first meal because you will be starving–that goes away with time. For my meals, I get the best results from a plant-based diet. Another diet that I’ve seen recommended from my research is the Mediterranian diet. From a set it and forget it type of diet, the results are impressive. 

How It Works

Broken down into very simple terms, after a certain amount of time without food, the body starts burning fat because it doesn’t have any more calories to burn. So not only does it aid in weight loss, but there is a bunch of research done on other positive health impacts that I suggest researching.  

Weight Lifting While Fasting

Once you start adding in daily exercise with your intermittent fasting routine, the results I’ve had are crazy! I would exercise while fasting with the mindset that I was enhancing the burning of fat that my body was already doing naturally. I also get an endorphin high when I force myself to work out on an empty stomach. It makes me feel like I’m out working my imaginary competition. 

I get the best physique from weight lifting, not cardio. Cardio burns more calories at the moment, but weight lifting continues to burn calories after you complete your workout, where cardio does not. Calories can continue burning for hours after lifting weights and sometimes even days because your metabolism may stay elevated after lifting. So when you are looking for the best physique, go with weights as your main course and cardio as an appetizer. 

A Word of Caution

I have noticed that with my body type, when I’m doing intermittent fasting for a long time, and if I don’t lift weights, my physique appears pudgier than I would predict. Fasting will get you to a certain point without exercise, but once you reach a specific body type, you won’t notice any more results without more effort exerted through weight lifting. 

Just Start

As with all scenarios in life, everything seems difficult until you start, then you realize just how capable your brain and body are. Start a diet, start a workout and then see what happens next because all anxiety is in the future and past, but not in the present. You will never accomplish anything without starting. Once you get going, then it turns into a domino effect of action. 

You have to get the idea of a healthy lifestyle to conscious thought–something fasting does exceptionally well! For example, you don’t notice you have a pinky toe unless you stub that toe. The pain from the toe pours into your conscious thoughts, and then it’s the only thing you focus on. 

I’ve noticed that when I am intermittent fasting, it triggers my brain to start thinking healthy. I want to work out more often. I pick healthier food to eat. As a result, my willpower against junk food is stronger. It also helps to know that I get the physique I’m looking for whenever I combine intermittent fasting with working out. It’s important to take notes on which diet or exercise program produces the body you want because you can refer back to that regimen whenever you want to get back to that physique. 

While fasting may not be the best healthy lifestyle for you, pick one that’s easy to incorporate into your life. Something you can keep in your conscious thoughts continuously without any interruptions. 

F O U R

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