My Warrior Diet

[Renegade]

I'll write a bit more in my regular log at the weekend, but just wanted to mention how things went with the water fasting. The day I wanted to do it (Saturday) didn't pan out as planned, so I ended up doing it on the Sunday instead, a non-workout day. Although I felt fine up until the late afternoon, things then went pretty much the same way as they always seem to, with the anxiety and strung out feelings returning. The next day (Monday) I went back to the doctor, and again one of the things he talked to me about was what and how often I'm eating. Again, I skirted around telling him exactly, but decided to look more into the way fasting can affect the mind when I got back home. What I could find from various sources all seemed to add up:

"Daily Fasting (15-19 hours) can increase anxiety, depression or other emotional feelings. If you have a history of these you need to start SLOW and see how you feel. Once you start to feel too much anxiety, depression or other emotional response, STOP your fasting and go back to normal all day eating."

So, for the sake of my mental health, I've made a few changes this week. "Normal all day eating" will never appeal to me again, so I'm sticking with fasting for now, but have lengthened the window of eating so that it starts earlier in the day. I'll elaborate more in my next post, but these last few days I've felt better than I can remember in a long time. Looks like this could be the answer I've been searching for!!

[Renegade]

Week 26

It's now 6 months since I started the Warrior Diet, although it hasn't been easy. I've been busy reading a lot recently about different intermittent fasting (IF) methods, about the effects of fasting on the mind, and reading through this log. Reading my Warrior Log just makes me confused! Things I tried one week didn't work the next, things that didn't work at first were fine later on, a lot of contradictory stuff.

I mentioned in my last short post that getting over my current anxiety problems is at the top of my list of priorities, and from what I've been researching, the Warrior Diet might not be a good idea for doing that. However, with all the stuff I've read on IF, I'm still going to use it (and The Anti-Estrogenic Diet) as my template for daily eating, with a few modifications. The obvious biggy is that I'm having my main meal during the day. Yes, I tried this back in Week 22 with little success, so I've also made the overeating phase last longer to allow me to eat more without rushing and making myself stuffed all in one sitting. As badly as it went before, this past 8 days have probably been the best I've had since I started! Undereating is now a water fast with some black coffee or tea in the morning and at night. I'll give you an example of how it looks:

08:00  Wake up, drink 500ml water, have a cup of tea/coffee and take multivitamin
09:30  Training - usually around 1 hour, sometimes as little as 20 minutes depending on the day
10:30  Finish training, take a shower
11:00  Recovery meal - 25g oats, 35g whey concentrate, 5g honey 500ml water, morning medication
12:00  Main meal - At the moment I'm following the food guide from AED Phase 1, so salad, soup, veggies, beans, fish, eggs and rice. This meal lasts anywhere from 1-2 hours, depending on what time I have to start work.
15:30  250ml yoghurt, 25g whey concentrate, 15g flax oil, handfull of berries (frozen blueberries or fresh strawberries)
18:00  A small piece of fish with some greens - this really helps keep hunger at bay for the rest of the night.
Rest of night: Water, chamomile tea, evening medication

Obviously every day has its differences. Some days I start work at 10:30am, others 3pm. I might finish at 8:15pm or 9:30pm, so I have to be flexible. Most of the time I start around 1pm and finish at 9pm, so it's okay. This means I'm water fasting from around 7pm in the evening to 11am the next morning (or later when I don't need a recovery meal) so around 16-17 hours. I try to drink 3-4 litres of water throughout the day.

And how do I feel? Fantastic! I'm getting a big meal right after I work out, not stuffing my face to fit everything into a 4 hour window, loads of energy throughout the day and I actually feel happy again . The sooner I can get off this medication the better, and if eating this way will help, I'm sticking with it. Yes, there are disadvantages. I get sleepy sometimes, but I'm finding that it tends to be more what I eat than how much I eat that has this effect. Also, gas can be a problem (especially with eating beans!), but this has been far less of a problem as when I was eating muesli. In fact, I no longer eat muesli at all any more since trying to avoid nut/grain combinations.

During the week, there was an offer from one of the moderators on the infamous "Farewell" thread (you all know the one!) to help whenever we were having problems. I wrote a mail outlining what I've been going through and asking for advice, but so far haven't heard anything back. If the Defense Nutriton team (or anyone else out there) can give me any advice on how to manage my situation any better, that'll be great. Until then, this is the way I'll be doing things.

[aleks]

i can help you with the nut/grain combination.if you find yourself wanting or having nuts and grain carbs in the same night just make sure you have a bananna in between each.that way you wont get the reaction you normally would when you have them together.see if it works for you.im sure it will.

[TheUsurper]

That makes sense.  Nuts/grains don't combine well, so add sugar and go for the complete trio! can you post a link or a research book where you got that from so I can understand how that works please?

[Renegade]

i can help you with the nut/grain combination.if you find yourself wanting or having nuts and grain carbs in the same night just make sure you have a bananna in between each.that way you wont get the reaction you normally would when you have them together.see if it works for you.im sure it will.

I've never had a problem or reaction from eating nuts and grains together, but stopped combining them when I started reading the Anti-Estrogenic Diet. Ori's argument against the combination makes enough sense for me to at least try it for now. I hope to get to the point where I only eat strchy carbs once or twice a week, but at the moment this is financially a bit difficult (almonds being so expensive and rice being free from my wife's family!). My problem with muesli was the oats, I really don't do well on them if eaten in large amounts (note that the amount I use postworkout has no ill effects).

As for bananas, I don't usually eat them as I think other less glycemic fruits are better suited to fasting/overeating. This is just a personal choice, thanks for making the suggestion (although I have to agree with TheUsurper on this one ).

P.S. If you like bananas, check out the following post by alwaysbelieve1:

http://www.defensenutrition.com/forum/index.php/topic,1094.0.html

[TheUsurper]

go with justalmonds.com and get them in bulk, much cheaper.  Rice for FREE? lol, thats pretty lucky/unlucky depending on how often you have carb meals lol.  jw, any particular kind, or whatever you want?

  I just want aleks to explain how, if grains and nuts are a bad combo, adding fruit, which theoretically shouldn't combine with either, makes everything ok...

I can attest personally to whole wheat bread/banana/natural PB sandwich not sitting well with me before wrestling a match on the suggestion of a friend before any knowledge of food combos or the WD.  Bananas are definitely an awesome food,  but they are better suited for the beginning of a meal or PWO.

[Ró-fhéinní]

I can attest personally to whole wheat bread/banana/natural PB sandwich not sitting well with me before wrestling a match on the suggestion of a friend before any knowledge of food combos or the WD.

Don't you just love those friendly recommendations? I had a coach back when I played peewee football who gave me a milkshake after weigh-ins so I had energy before the game, it removed itself from my stomach during warmups.  I think I could write an encyclopedia on foods that don't sit well before competitions/games/etc.

[Renegade]

go with justalmonds.com and get them in bulk, much cheaper.  Rice for FREE? lol, thats pretty lucky/unlucky depending on how often you have carb meals lol.  jw, any particular kind, or whatever you want?

Ah, the benefits and disadvantages of living in a foreign country. I checked the justalmonds.com site, it looks like they don't sell to overseas addresses, and even if they did, the postage cost would probably double the price. I buy all my vitamins and whey concentrate from the states, but that actually works out about half the price of buying them here in Japan even with the additional postage!

I've found a place here selling Californian almonds online, and they're probably the best value I'm going to find (2.2lbs for approx. $13.00 including postage, so not too bad). The rice we get sent is always raw brown short grain rice. Japanese people generally never eat it in this state as it's seen as inferior due to the strong taste. Due to this, it can be very difficult and expensive to find in the shops, so I guess I'm very lucky. We usually get it sent in 65lbs sacks, I put about half of that aside in it's raw state for myself and then take the rest to the "polishing machine" down the road and pay a dollar to have it stripped of all it's goodness (but that's how the wife and kids like it ).

[TheUsurper]

You are getting a pretty good deal. $13 dollars for 2.2 lbs is really good.  Justalmonds is my best price.  The whole foods nearby sells raw organic for close to $20 PER lb!

I can't even imagine what 65 lbs of rice looks like lol.  I can attest to washing the rice before using it making a moderate to significant difference in the taste of rice, so you might want to try that if you already haven't the next time the "wife and kids" feel up to giving brown rice a try.  A lot of people, and I'm not saying specifically you or anything, have a difficult time realizing that things like rice didn't grow in a clean room into a bag/sack under sterile conditions; they grew in fields with dirt.  Washing grains in a strainer can remove a lot of dirt and grime, which can give it a "cleaner," but still a bit "nutty," taste, while still retaining all the valuable minerals and vitamins of the germ.  When you "polish" it, obviously the dirt goes with the good stuff, which is why it tastes so plain.  Just a bit of advice, I've also heard soaking grains in an acidic medium like lemon juice or vinegar overnight is good for removing "phytates" which bind to minerals and can deplete them.  Tried it a few times, twice with green tea(saw it in a recipe online and had to try it) and lemon juice(1/2 a lemon), doesn't change the flavor too much, but does produce a nice aroma.

[Renegade]

Thanks, it's reassuring to know that I won't be paying over the odds for the almonds.

I always wash my rice thoroughly, even the polished stuff that supposedly only needs a quick rinse. And now that you mention soaking brown rice in vinegar, I seem to remember trying something like that before. I know a lady who's in her 60s and only eats brown rice which comes from an organic farm, I think it was her who suggested I try it before (she was also the person who told me about the only organic shop in the area, just a shame it's so expensive!).

She uses a special cooker for brown rice which cooks it over a period of days. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I think it's basically divided up into a number of trays. You use a days worth of rice and then refill that tray with new rice, then the next day move on to the next tray and do the same, etc, etc, until you cycle your way back to the beginning. I guess it's a bit like sprouting seeds and nuts and the like, and is supposed to have loads of health benefits.

Again, I can't afford one of those, or fit one into my tiny kitchen . The best thing I've found is to really grind the brown rice together when you're washing it. Spend a little more time than you usually would when just washing rice and try and crack open the outer surface. That way, when you cook it in a conventional rice cooker or pan it absorbs more water and turns out a lot fluffier. Well worth the extra effort .

[aleks]

no worries.ill explain it to you both.insted of knocking it why dont you try it.food is all about trial and error.i never said to have them the TRIO  together.i said if you have nuts then later on you want grain carbs just have a banana in between.it helps so you dont get a reaction that you normally would have.ro-fhennii to bad your wrestling coach didnt know more about brazillian jiu-jitsu training, train on an empty stomach no water at all during training.

[Renegade]

Week 27

I just have time to say that last week went very well using the daily template I laid out last time, and I'll be shifting from carb fuels to fats from this week (AED Phase 2). Oh, and after eating rice and beans 50/50 for 2 weeks, I'll be happy if I never eat another kidney bean again!

[Renegade]

Friday 13th

I guess I couldn't have chosen a better day than Friday 13th to give myself a totally avoidable but debilitating injury! In the kitchen after washing up, I decided to use a sharp knife to cut away the plastic spout on the top of an empty flax oil bottle. You can guess what happened next. The knife slipped and found it's way deep into and around my left index finger, just above the first knuckle from the hand. After a trip to the emergency room to get stitched up I can barely tie my shoelaces, nevermind swing a kettlebell! Looks like all ballistic moves are out, so I'll have to come up with some sort of short term routine of squats, floor presses and other slower pace exercises that I've been neglecting recently .

[fotakou]

FAQ!I feel you renegade,when i dislocated my shoulder my workouts suffered a lot(not to mention my scale)

But now i can surely tell you to try something
Weighted walking.Simply put some plates in a bag and start walking in a brisk pace.It works wonders and its a good addition to any squat,pistol,knee tucks program that you might have.Make sure to utilize the tabata protocol to give yourself a nice and short workout.

Did the doctor tell you how much it will take to recover?

[Rachel421]

chicks dig scars