Intermittent Fasting - The Discipline

I'm a bit of a fan of Discipline really. Its the backbone of a successful life. 

My decision to overeat happened in my early thirties due to an obsession with bodybuilding. I read an article about gaining size, naturally without drugs. The downside to this was it started the journey of yoyo weight for the next 20 years. I never went over a stone in weight gain.

Each year I would slim down and get into a decent shape but lose the bulk of the muscle I'd gained. The whole thing eventually became time to decide whether I want to be lean, slim and scrawny, or a bit more chunky and muscular looking more like a out of season bodybuilder. 

I'd usually be one end of the spectrum or the other for a few months at a time. 

One of my primary fat-burning exercises was running. However, I unfortunately developed what a call chicken leg syndrome. This is where the knee feels unsupported and wants to keep extending back like a chicken. Plus a lack of support down the side. So after many failed attempts to cure it I gave up for about 9 years(see my barefoot running blog about over-coming this). During this same period I developed a problem with a muscle that attached to the forearm and bicep. It became a re-occurring injury. With additional injuries to shoulder, chest and lower back, my weight training took a big dive too. 

The upside to this downside was I poured a lot of my energy into Tai Chi. Which resulted in some new discoveries and methods for teaching from a beginner level.

So getting back to the discipline of Intermittent fasting. 

There can be no doubt that anyone who undertakes this restricted eating day will need to get re-acquainted with their own self-discipline.

Firstly, one will discover just how often we reach for food in a given day. Or it could be tea or coffee with sugar and milk. Or some alcoholic beverage. Or a sugary fizzy drink.

On this day that's pretty much all gone. As a guy 600-650 calories are reached very quickly. 500-550 cal for a women is also reached very quickly. 

So firstly one needs to be aware of everything that passes into your body. We do this extra eating with limited awareness during our normal eating days. Up to the point of never having to restrict your food, awareness is very limited. 

You'll get back in touch with your hunger. If you pace it right usually that can be managed till around 11 at night. I found my rhythm requires a second top up around 17.00. I then have to have something at 19.00. 

I switched to black coffee. Mainly decaf. I went down to half a spoon with instant decaf and one shot at Costa. I also went with sparkling water. I now add more still water. 

Once you've had several weeks of doing this amount of Discipline you are building up a new skill. During the eating days you'll see that you could tighten up between meals and go for 4-5 hour stretches of having nothing between meals. Even milk in the drinks stops the fat-burning process. I've switched to black coffee between meals and no extras. If I want a sweet it is included in the main meal.

What I am looking for in my changes is a willingness to change. Its always more permanent if one is drawn to making the change. That's what I believe is the great thing about this type of diet. You are not thrashing yourself trying to do it day in day out. That's not natural. But if you decide that actually that regular Friday end of day cake treat at Costa(guilty) is not only almost a days calories from a fasting day, but you really now feel its empty calories you don't need. That's a positive self-driven change.

The other observation I made is I have a gorging and snacking on the Internet, or TV programs, when I should rather concentrate on finishing some business work. So I have introduced Internet fasting hours too. 

I recently purchased an ACUS 15.6" laptop icore 5, 1 terabyte storage, 6 gig memory, aluminum casing, at 2.3kg in weight. So now its become more portable. With its 4 hour battery range its like a giant netbook only weighing 1kg more. I can do my video editing on it without a problem. So those downtimes between appointments I can catch up on my editing work.

To be honest my existing laptop of 18.3 " was next to useless to do video editing of HD Files. But at a weight of 4.5kg and its size it was more like a desktop than a laptop. Totally unportable. It was really by chance that I introduced the taking it everywhere policy on the new ASUS laptop. But it makes sense. Those little 90 minutes here and there soon add up.

So to conclude the Discipline you learn from your IF days carry over to other areas of your life. Awareness is really heightened. I can understand why in religion it is a chosen method to heighten focus and discipline. One day a week is really possible to do. I find on my IF days that I get a lot of work done. Snacking is distracting, and one can lose the flow of what you're doing. Taking proper, limited meals a day improves that working flow. Also to say no in a cafe is much easier now. You've developed an inner strength and also an increased awareness of your decisions.