My Intermittent Fast Low-Carb Menu

Last week was something else with my experimentation with intermittent fasting as recommended by low-carb expert Dr. Mike Eades. As you know, I didn't do so well on it and was only able to last five days on it.

I guess it did SOME good for my body since I lost another 4 1/2 pounds with it. Who knows if it was that or the continued Omega Diet I am on. Regardless, I'll take the weight loss and am happy to share my menu with you today. If you have been following my menus over the past few weeks, then you will notice something quite different in THIS week's menu!

As always, here are my supplements:

3 teaspoons of liquid multivitamin (no iron)
1 brick men's multivitamin (no iron)
200mg Co Q-10
200mcg Chromium Picolinate
250mg Acetyl L-Carnitine
1 brick B Complex Vitamins
6 tablets Shaklee Super Calcium Magnesium Plus
2 caplets Fibercon
2 softgels 1000mg each Flax Oil
2 softgels 1000mg each Fish Oil Concentrate

I drank lots of water and Diet Rite soft drinks. I have avoided all Nutrasweet-sweetened sodas for a month now as well as caffeine. Here was my menu and exercise routine from last week:

MONDAY
5:15AM - Atkins Shake
6:15PM - 8oz steak w/A-1, 3 grilled chicken tenderloins w/cheese & mayo
6:30PM - Sugar-free 1.1 oz dark chocolate bar (no maltitol)
6:45PM - 1 tablespoon of Naturally More Peanut Butter

EXERCISE: 80 minutes elliptical

TUESDAY
7:00AM - Atkins Shake
9:30AM - 4 organic eggs with cheese
12:30PM - La Tortilla wrap w/4 eggs and mayo
5:30PM - 4 small grilled chicken tenderloins w/cheese and mayo
5:45PM - Sugar-free 1.1 oz milk chocolate bar (no maltitol)

EXERCISE: 40 minutes elliptical

WEDNESDAY
6:00PM - 30 oz prime rib w/horseradish, 1 1/2 cups greens w/eggs, cheese, bacon, sunflower seeds, and Ranch
9:15PM - Atkins shake

EXERCISE: 40 minutes elliptical

THURSDAY
7:45AM - Atkins Shake
10:45AM - 4 organic eggs with cheese
11:45AM - ChocoPerfection dark chocolate bar
1:00PM - La Tortilla wrap with turkey, cheese and mayo
3:15PM - 3/4 cups almonds
5:30PM - 12oz prime rib w/A-1, 3 chicken tenderloins w/cheese and mayo
5:45PM - ChocoPerfection dark chocolate bar

EXERCISE: 50 minutes elliptical, 75 minutes volleyball

FRIDAY
1:15PM - Grilled chicken salad w/greens, cheese, tomatoes, Ranch
2:45PM - Whole rotisserie chicken
3:30PM - 3/4 cup vanilla caramel pudding w/coconut oil and ChocoPerfection bar
9:15PM - 3/4 cup vanilla caramel pudding w/coconut oil and ChocoPerfection bar

EXERCISE: 35 minutes elliptical

SATURDAY
7:30AM - 2 eggs, 3 sausage patties, 1 smoked sausage
2:15PM - 4 chicken tenderloins w/Feta cheese
3:15PM - ChocoPerfection bar
7:15PM - La Tortilla Factory wrap w/turkey, cheese, mayo
8:15PM - Heavy whipping cream, DaVinci caramel syrup and ChocoPerfection bar melted together

EXERCISE: None

SUNDAY
8:15AM - Atkins Shake
11:45AM - 1 pound of BBQ w/no sauce
12:00PM - ChocoPerfection bar
4:00PM - Atkins Advantage Granola bar
6:45PM - 4 grilled chicken tenderloins w/Feta cheese and mayo
8:00PM - Sugar-free 1.1 oz chocolate mint bar (no maltitol)

EXERCISE: None

Did you notice what I did differently this past week? That's right, I added back more of the low-carb "products" that some low-carb purists turn their nose up at. I happen to LOVE my low-carb chocolates, peanut butter, Atkins bars and more. As long as it's not adversely affecting my weight loss, then what's the harm? That's my philosophy.

Interestingly, there was very little weight loss during the fasting part of my week. But once I got off of the intermittent fasting on Friday afternoon and over the weekend, I noticed the scale begin to drop even without any exercise on Saturday or Sunday (I had previous time commitments that prevented me from sneaking in my workouts). Even still, I was stoked about my weight loss and expect it to continue as I eat the way I have outlined in this menu...sans the fasting part! :D

Feel free to post your comments or questions and I'll be happy to address them.

Terminating The Intermittent Fast At Last

The time came for me to put a STOP to my intermittent fast...AT LAST!

It lasted exactly 4 long days, 19 hours, and 15 minutes.

BUT IT FELT LIKE AN ETERNITY! Remember that intermittent fasting (IF) experiment I started this past Sunday night at 6:00pm? You know, the one that respected low-carb author and expert Dr. Mike Eades had suggested at his blog last week? Being the nothing's-too-hard adventurer that I am, I decided to try it. Boy oh boy, what was I getting myself into!

All I have to say about IF in retrospect is UGH, UGH, and UGH!

Perhaps it would be completely unfair of me to not tell you the lessons (yes, there was something good that came out of this experience) I learned about myself in the context of my diet and health.

Here is a recap of a few things I discovered:

1. I noticed I was pretty addicted to caffeine still. That first day of fasting was painful because of the massive headache I had for most of the day. Once I got to Tuesday, though, the headaches had subsided and I changed my diet soft drink choice to Diet Rite since it has both Splenda and ZERO caffeine. This is a change that will remain permanent until I decide the time has come to give up all diet sodas. I'm not there quite yet.

2. I felt what it was like to be truly hungry again. My philosophy has been to NEVER allow myself to get hungry so I don't slip back into those old habits I used to endure, especially during my low-fat diet experience when all I did was have hunger pangs. But listening to my body is something beneficial to me now that I am at the stage where food temptation does not befall me anymore.

3. I realized just how important eating enough food to fuel my daily high-powered cardiovascular workouts really is. While I tried to keep up the same resistance and speed of my elliptical workout on day one when I was fasting, it just didn't happen. While I usually have a 13 resistance at 8.5mph, I had to back off to 7 resistance at 7.0mph to make it through the same amount of time I usually do. Of course, I burned less calories as well. What was worse was even on the days I COULD eat, the very noticeable LACK of energy persisted and did not come back until I ended my IF experiment. I'm still trying to regain my strength and endurance.

4. I found out what being ravenously hungry was again. After my second fasting day on Wednesday, I told my wife Christine that we would be going out to Steak & Ale for their all-you-can-eat Prime Rib special. When we have gone there before, they haven't been as busy as they were this week. So the steaks took longer to come to the table than they usually do. I was so hungry that I ate a whole plate of salad in just minutes, devoured the first prime rib, waited 20 minutes for my second and killed that one, too. Then my server brought me another one about 30 minutes later (after my food had settled a bit in my stomach) and I started to eat it when I got halfway done and...WHOA NELLY, I was full! Not just full, but REALLY REALLY FULL! As in, it hurt so much I had to take some Tum-ta-Tum-Tums and lie down for a bit when we got home. I was quite the ravenous beast!

5. Going without food for 24 hours for me is not realistic. My head was hurting so much on the first day from the caffeine withdrawals that I barely noticed how hungry and light-headed I felt. But by my second fasting day on Wednesday with the headaches gone, I felt like I was floating around my office ready to tip over at any moment. My body was lethargic and walking around was so surreal as if I wasn't in the living world. As hungry as I was, my co-workers kept asking me if I was okay because I wasn't my normal chipper self. And it's true. All I wanted to do was have some food and it would even be low-carb at that. But it was not permitted on my fasting days.

Call me a wimp for not making it through even one whole week on this intermittent fast experiment, but it was just not for me. Like Dr. Mike, I think the biggest lesson I will take from this experience is that I don't necessarily have to eat when I'm "scheduled" to. Our bodies are quite complex mechanisms and know when to give us the signal for providing nourishment. The fact is that our stomach can remain quite satisfied even when everyone else around us is chowing down on food because it's "time to eat." Check out this follow-up post about the intermittent fasting versus Protein Power that Dr. Mike addressed at his blog a few days ago for some additional thoughts about this.

Will I do an intermittent fast again? If you ask me right now, then the answer is a resounding NO! But perhaps I'll rework it some in the future and maybe move it from 6:00pm to 12:00pm which may work better for my life. I'm always open to trying something a little different like this in the context of livin' la vida low-carb to see if it makes a difference. And that's the final lesson I think we can all benefit from. Never get so comfortable in what you are doing that you lull yourself into a false sense of security about your weight. We are all susceptible to putting on some weight when we least expect it even when we have been doing our low-carb diet perfectly. Believe me, it happens, so be ready for it!

So, THANK YOU Dr. Eades for reminding me that livin' la vida low-carb is an ever-evolving concept that should be continually worked on to help lose and maintain weight while always striving to improve our health. For now, I will be returning to my omega-based diet plan again exclusively for seven days a week and NO MORE FASTING! Hee hee!

Another day of this would have had me screaming from the top of my lungs, "CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!" Or even worse, "TO THE FUNNY FARM, THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY, HA HA, THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY, HO HO, HEE HEE, HA HA..." Yikeseroo!

9-23-06 UPDATE: It seems I'm not the only one who didn't think too much of the IF diet--read another person's take on it at detoxify this!

Intermittent Fasting To Reduce Calories, Hmm?

Have you seen the latest blog post from Protein Power author Dr. Mike Eades on a subject known as "intermittent fasting" (IF)? It has generated the most comments that he has ever received on any subject he has previously written about at his blog. If you haven't seen it for yourself yet, then click here to go read it right now and come back. Go on, I'll wait for you...

Okay, so what did you think? I like it a lot better than the traditional fasting methods of one day on, one day off because you would go through a longer period of time between meals. But the IF plan that Dr. Eades suggests is more practical.

Here's the schedule:

Day 1 - Eat food anytime until 6:00PM and stop eating
Day 2 - Don't eat until 6:00PM
Day 3 - Eat food anytime until 6:00PM and stop eating
Day 4 - Don't eat until 6:00PM

So forth and so on. Of course, you aren't CONSTANTLY eating on the days you stop eating at 6:00PM, but rather you are eating as you normally would when you are hungry. And, for the sake of his experiment with IF, Dr. Eades even said feel free to eat WHATEVER you want. That's right, you can even eat chocolate cake if you wanted to. However, he did recommend people stick with low-carb foods and IF to maximize the impact of this way of eating, especially for weight loss.

I especially enjoyed this lesson from IF that Dr. Eades shared:

"One of the things MD (Mary Dan Eades) and I took away from our IF experience is the idea that we don't have to eat three meals per day. We now often skip lunch and don't seem any the worse for it. Sometimes we get up and get going with all our projects and don't eat breakfast. We try to skip a meal here and there because figure it's probably good for us. When you get used to it, you don't really even think about it. And it's good for you. Don't take my word for it--look at the medical literature."

Hmmm, interesting. I've been noticing lately on the weekends when my schedule is not as planned as it is during the week that I tend to eat fewer meals than on weekdays. Perhaps I should practice skipping meals, hunger notwithstanding, as well rather than eating simply because it is lunch or supper time.

For those of you who are people of faith and believe in God, fasting is actually something Christians are encouraged many times in the Bible to do from time to time. Aside from the obvious physical advantages to fasting, the spiritual implications of doing without food and other such necessities of life for a period to spend time praying on behalf of others in intercession is a sign of maturity in your walk with the Lord.

In fact, a few years back when I worked in a Christian bookstore, there were several books about fasting including one entitled "Fast Your Way To Health." This idea of fasting has been around for a while, but many are unwilling to give up food even for a day here and there. How sad.

What do you think about this? I for one think it is fantastic and am willing to do it myself once I get one question answered about it from Dr. Eades himself (who is responding to EVERY post about this, by the way!): What about my exercise routine? How can I get in my 30-45 minute workout on the days that I don't eat until 6:00PM? I can't exactly hop on the elliptical machine on an empty stomach now, can I? I'm awaiting his reply.

Has anyone tried this IF plan yet? If so, tell us about your experience. If the ultimate goal is to eat less calories, then perhaps implementing a fasting schedule like this one could enable you to reduce your caloric intake and you are still eating every single day. What a concept! Are you ready to start livin' la vida intermittent fasting? :D

9-18-06 UPDATE: Like I said in this post, Dr. Mike Eades is answering EVERY comment with a personal response and here's what he posted at his blog to me about my exercise concerns:

Hi Jimmy--

I would give it a try to see what happens. I doubt that you will run out of energy, but if you do, you might want to exercise only on eating days.

Keep me posted on your progress.

Best--

MRE

I had certainly thought about reserving exercise for the days I would be eating, but I may give it at least one or two times on the "off" days just to see how I feel. I workout pretty vigorously and burn upwards of 700-1000 calories during my cardio. Without a meal before doing exercise like this, I'm sure I would collapse. But we'll see.

What I did this morning was wake up very early in the morning and went to the YMCA to get a workout in before work and then I'll also do ANOTHER workout session this afternoon on my lunch break like I always do. Then when I am on day two of the IF tomorrow when I am not eating until 6:00PM, I don't have to push myself to get the exercise in since I'll have an extra session under my belt from the previous day.

So, yes, I am going to try IF for at least a week. I officially start my IF program today and will stop eating entirely at 6:00PM tonight. Then I will go without food until 6:00PM Tuesday night. We'll see what happens and I'll keep you and Dr. Mike posted. Anyone else gonna try this with me? :)

9-18-06 UPDATE: I had one more question for Dr. Eades regarding protein shakes.

Here's what I wrote to him:

Does a protein shake count as food or drink? In other words, can I drink an Atkins shake on the mornings I am supposed to be fasting or not?

Here was his speedy reply:

Hi Jimmy--

Since an Atkins shake contains calories, if you took it in you would not be fasting. Many people don't realize that caloric liquids--as far as the metabolic system is concerned--are no different that solid foods. One of the jobs of your teeth and your stomach acid is to convert solid foods into liquid foods.

So it doesn't matter whether it's a protein shake or a rib-eye steak when it goes in your mouth, by the time it reaches your small intestine where it is absorbed and kicks off all the metabolic processes it is a liquid.

Hope this helps.

MRE

Well, then, I ALMOST fasted the whole day sans my Atkins shake at 5:15 this morning. I was still plenty hungry by the time the fasting ended at 6:00PM. I took care of that problem in short order. :)