DAY 8: The Fat Annihilating Diet and "Om"

 DAY 8 didn't start up in the most elegant of ways. I had gotten extremely sore these past days and fought through it. But now was the time for my body to stop me. Have you seen these tween and teenage shows on the Disney channel? Hannah Montana and whatnot? Well I fell down the bed as caricature like as one of these shows would film it: my legs could't hold me. It was obviously a repercussion of the Plyometrics X training that I did 2 days ago. Muscle growing equals PAIN. And from experience, my soreness kicks in Two days after a hard workout. By the way, Hannah Montana rules! I didn't know till I watched it by mistake one day. Friggin' hilarious! She's very jerdiyyeh believe it or not... So as you guessed it, I couldn't walk Karly per-say, which is why I decided to let him do all the running while I took a break for today ... pause for drama ... TREADMILL!!!! ... No actually, not treadmill – although I'm gonna teach him to do that in winter for the crazy rainy days. (here s a link on how to do it if you're interested)  I just took him to the USJ parking lot and played fetch with him. Very fun and great exercise for him and the amazing break I needed; and that's that.

I was happy to know that you guys were interested in the diet I'm using. So I decided to give you an overview on what I'm doing and I might actually consider posting what I'm eating daily, so you can have examples while trace my nutritional progress as I go along and maybe get some feedback and pointers from you.

OK! Here goes: I'm basing the diet on a book called "Je ne sais pas maigrir" written by Dukan (got it from Librairie Antoine) and adding to it what I've learned in nutrition from my years in bodybuilding. So because of the intensity of my workout, I'm forced to compensate by eating bigger portions, supplement and follow some other techniques to help muscle and tissue recovery and to be ready for the next bout. At the end of the day, you have to see how active you are, set your goals and work accordingly.

What I've known from before is that when you want to drop some weight and conserve muscle mass, you usually cut down on your carbs and heighten your protein intake. However, you keep eating a bit more fat (I used cod-liver and olive oil) to keep your fat-burning enzymes active. The muscle tissue contains appoximately 2/3 of the glycogen in your body and your liver stores the rest so you can't stop their intake completely. Plus, when eating carbs, I would eat ones that contain a lot of fiber like sweet potato, brown bread, rice and pasta so that it wouldn't create a peak in your insulin and force your body to consume/store huge amounts of sugars in one go but to keep you going and digest them slowly so you would feel full and wouldn't gain weight.

However, to drop down the weight, Dukan focuses more on removing the carbs AND the fat section of the diet completely and relies on the protein not only to build tissue, but to transform into glucose that your body needs for energy – a job which is usually covered by the carbs. Protein takes more time to get digested so you're fuller and spends more calories. Your body obviously is shaken up at first, but after 3 days of following the diet, you don't feel tired anymore; your body has gotten used to getting the energy from the protein.

His diet is cut down in 4 phases:
1. the high intensity Attack phase – up to 10 days, should make you drop up to 7kgs:
you only consume high protein foods like low fat meats (beef, veal), poultry (chicken, turkey – no skin), low fat ham, fish and seafood and fat free dairy products. The best thing is you can eat as much as you want, whenever you want!

2. The Cruise period – should make you drop around 1kg per week till your desired weight: 
Consists to add vegetables to the protein and alternating 5 days of only protein and 5 days of both. He is using the vegetables for the vitamins and the fiber. Vegetables shouldn't have too much sugar in them don't forget, he wants to cut down the carbs for a while.

3. The Consolidation period, to keep up for 10 days per 1kgs lost:
In this step you are permited to add fruit, bread, cheese and some starchy foods, and indulge in two celebration meals a week.

4. Stabilisation (so you wouldn't regain the weight):
you are allowed to eat anything you want provided you follow 3 basic rules:
- you have one day of full protein a week (which is actually fun for a meat lover like myself)
- you eat 3 spoons of oat bran (that you can cook in cakes or bread or whatever you want)
- you use the stairs instead of elevators

Also, you should drink more than 1.5 liters of water and liquids with no sugars, like coffee and tea and anything that has aspartame like Diet Coke. I was concerned about the aspartame part but think about it, you're doing it for a short period of time so in my opinion it's not that big of a deal. You can also chew gum which can keep your mouth moving.

MIAM MIAM! Karly would have to share his favorite food with me now!!

By the way, you should divide the day in 5 small meals so you wouldn't get hungry and force your body to retain the fat. I eat caseine protein type foods before I sleep like dairy, which helps for better muscle recovery at night. My water bottle is always with me so I keep hydrated. Plus I supplement the diet by taking a multi-vitamin designed for hard competition sports (Animal Pack–not Stack!), a pre-workout energy drink (can be anything from a simple espresso, to a Red Bull, to NO-XPLOD – which I very much recommend for extreme high intensity workouts), then protein shake directly after the workout for recovery.

Et voila! I hope that helped. I'd love to hear your feedback and comments on the matter. Maybe there's something I'm missing... And here's his website for more information: LINK

TIP OF THE DAY: Get to know what your body digests and what it doesn't. That will help you keep energetic and not get annoying cramps, loose stools and burp all day long. I can't have garlic for instance, so when crazy LALA Chicken friends decide to conquer 5 sandwiches, each stuffed with gut wrenching "TOUM", I simply say no – and prevent DAYS of stomach ache and people complaining about my breath. Other foods I can't digest that easily are: chicken, thym, olive, mushroom, chocolate, onions, tomato, orange, yeast (so no white bread, doe, beer), gin etc...  An easy way to check that out is to go get a test at Ricardo Yunis, it takes 10 minutes and tells you a whole lot about what your body works with best. His diet is very strict and effective as I've lost a lot with him and saw people drop up to 30kgs. But you need to be completely dedicated and uncompromising about it or he'll throw you out! :)
The only risk there is in any diet in general though is to stuff your face as soon as you're done to compensate the hunger and restriction. I think it's the same thing for fitness and sports. As soon as you get to your ideal weight, you automatically let yourself go, which is the stupidest thing one can do because he'll just regain the weight in a couple of months. I guess it's all about considering healthy food and fitness as a lifestyle and changing your way of thinking about food and your body. Some people believe that the body is a temple for your soul so you have to treat it right, others just believe that being fit gives you ultimate energy which consequently changes you as a person ... I for instance always have Leonidas in mind...  You gotta have a compelling reason to shift. Also, you need to eliminate the associations that you have that make you automatically rush to eat.  I need to learn like Monica in Friends that "food is not LOVE"! Hehe! No, I'm just kidding. Actually, I see junk food as a sweet release when I'm pissed off, kinda like a cigarette for some people. Maybe I should just try to breathe instead and find something else that's gratifying, that I can channel my anger toward.

ARGH!  I typed too much today! Gotta get back to work! LOTS O' MEETINGGGS TODAYYYY!
One other thing that I wanted to add: I ended up doing Yoga as training, part of the P90X program and it was grand! Pretty tiring but my body tightened and I felt so comfortable later. My soreness went away and it really calmed me down.

Slept like a baby.
Talk to you tomorrow.

HAOUUUU!!