As many people know, human physiology and psychology has evolved over several million years, resulting in the wondrous evolutionary achievement known as Homo Sapien. In the past ~10,000 years, agriculture and industry have created an environment that our bodies were not designed by evolution to live in. Behavioral flexibility has allowed us to adapt, but the rapidly changing world in which we live leaves us susceptible to unhealthy lifestyles. Prior to the agricultural boom of ~10,000 BCE, our ancestors were eating only meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and some fruit. They remained mobile throughout a majority the day, with short periods of intense physical activity. There was no wheat, oats, or dairy available. There was no television, internet, video games, etc. As a result, our bodies have not evolved to digest processed foods such as bread, oatmeal, cookies, etc., or cheese, butter, milk, etc. We have not evolved to be sedentary day in and day out. By excluding these foods from our diet and increasing manual labor, general mental and physical health should improve. The purpose of this Blog is to document my journey that is modern Ancestral Living.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Eating days

Anytime I use the phrase "eating days" to describe the days that I am not fasting, I get strange looks. SP usually pokes fun at me, Holly thinks I am crazy...so goes life. I can understand that it must sound weird, and I will admit: I think it's cool to be able to use phrases like "fasting day" and "eating day." It's like being a part of some strange culture that few are privy of (or want to be privy of, for that matter).

On to more or less important things. I have taken these past three days as eating days, having breakfast around 9am. I figured since I went 3 on IF, might as well go 3 off. I also don't want to keep the same routine each week of when I fast and when I eat. Keep the body confused for the best results. Our Ancestors would not have had scheduled days where they decided to eat or decided not to, if a meal provided itself (rather, if they were able to hunt/fish/find carrion, etc. to provide one) then a feast was had. If not, some grazing probably occurred on grass, bark, roots and tubers, berries if they were lucky. To more closely parallel Ancestral eating habits, it's best to mix things up.

SP and I have been wondering about the effects of fasting on training. Willing to email the Queen of England about what she takes in her tea, SP emailed Martin Berkhan, author of the leangains.com website (the very site that got me interested in IF), asking him what he knew about IF+training. He responded with not much more than this link, which answers the question quite nicely. The post is based almost entirely on research, which is great. Read the post, it is interesting. If you don't want to, then I will sum it up: Exercising while in a fasted state is more beneficial than while in a fed state. Now, the study this post is based on was focusing on endurance and muscle glycogen, two aspects of exercise that, as Martin points out, CrossFit utilizes regularly. What does this mean? Martin suggests, and I agree, that CrossFitting while in a fasted state is beneficial.

Why do I agree? I have anecdotal evidence, of course (the best kind!!). The Saturday prior to my foray into IF, I tried on some pants that I had purchased last year, but were too small for me to fit into (I was rapidly gaining weight at that time. These are Aeropastle jeans, size 36. Brand doesn't matter to me except in the sense that these size 36 Aero pants were cut smaller than some size 36 pants I had from other retailers, which were getting tight as well, but that I could still squeeze into [before having to bump up to size 38...these then began to get snug, at which point I began CF]. The Aeros...not a chance. I could barely touch the button side to the hole side when trying to fasten them, and on one pair, I couldn't.). So when I tried them on 2 weeks ago, I was able to button each pair :) a very happy moment for me. One pair fit alright, but the other two were still pretty tight. After 2 weeks of IF, CF, and maintaining a Paleo diet 80% of the time, I am currently typing this post in the previously too-tight-to-touch-button-to-hole pants, and they fit perfectly! Just two weeks of eating (or not eating, lol) healthy and busting ass. On top of it all, I weighed myself on my mom's scale that same Saturday two weeks ago and it read 116. I reweighed yesterday and it read 112. Very cool stuff in my opinion.

That's enough good news for today. Have a pleasant Sunday!

Adios.

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