Good luck to you, FallGirl! I really hope you enjoy your race!
All this talk about intermittent fasting type “diets”, 85%/15% “cheats”. Some really curious rationalizations going on.
First of all, intermittent fasting is not new. The concepts have been floating around for more than 50 years in one form or another. Every now and then, someone with a degree behind their name comes up with a new packaging of it, claims there is scientific evidence to support its superior efficacy compared to plain old daily nutrition management and then, lo and behold, starts hawking books on their newly formulated system to create a revenue stream. Can people lose weight on an intermittent fast diet? Sure they can if on a weekly basis there is an appropriate calorie deficit. Is it more effective than eating a sound nutrition plan 5 days per week? Absolutely no actual scientific evidence of that. Lots of anecdotal reporting, uncontrolled non-peer reviewed “studies”, but nothing that really establishes the superior efficacy of intermittent fasting. And along the way, there’s a whole load of risks and potential negatives. Fast today, overeat tomorrow. Medical risks to diabetics. Degradation of performance and loss of muscle tissue for athletes. Inadequate daily energy sources for those who work a physically demanding job. And perhaps worst of all, developing a negative relationship with food (fasting = consumption of food is “bad”). Here are some interesting articles :
http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/intermittent-fasting#bmb=1
http://theconversation.com/heres-the-skinny-on-fasting-for-weight-loss-the-5-2-diet-13820
And “Cheats”? The whole concept is fraught with mischief. “85/15”, “No Rules Days”, it all boils down to the same thing. Not having a mindful nutrition plan. With that comes the risk of over indulgence undoing the benefits of whatever else you are doing. That doesn’t mean you have to be an ascete denying yourself every little simple pleasure. But you must have a mindful nutritional plan with limits. Want some dessert at dinner? Plan it out in the context of the rest of your nutritional plan and be accountable for what you eat instead of just saying you are only going to be 85% compliant and then you eat out of control for the remaining 15% of your eating time. And there should be rules and limits, thought through in advance, on a “No Rules Day”. Anything less and you are just looking to fail.
No, you don’t have to be regimented and deny yourself with everything you consume but you do have to be mindful and accountable 100% of the time otherwise you are just looking for ways to rationalize self-sabotage.
Good luck dmd and fallgirl!!
So hot here today - did Pilates in the morning, then swam / sat by the pool with S who is here for the weekend, then yoga. Drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated.
Tomorrow I am doing a memorial mile run in memory of a young man my kids went to HS with. He suffered from schizophrenia and sadly took his own life. My S is volunteering and I am running, though I suspect the weather will still be brutal.
Have great races and fun, dmd and fallgirl!
So sorry, Pizzagirl. Your run will be a sadder occasion. Thoughts with you all and of the young man being memorialized.
I ran/walked 3:1 intervals for a total of 5.5 miles this morning, picking up the pace in the running to a speedy sub 10 min mile. Walked 2 more with H. Made a Caeasar salad dinner with the last of the NY strip slices, steamed green beans, and WW croutons. I resisted a call to donuts today, but enjoyed a tiny sampling of Callebaut bittersweet chocolate DH brought home.
Went to a new format Pilates class - 45 intense minutes, but then it’s done! It was actually quite fun - we used the circle, resistance bands and the box to do a variety of exercises.
You are getting very speedy, PlantMom!
Enjoy your races dmd and fallgirl!
Best of luck to the weekend racers and other fitness challenges. @dmd77, I haven’t run a 10K since…well, I don’t know when…sometime around 1985. I used to run them all the time. You might have inspired me to start racing “back to the future”
Just landed on the home soil! 
Good luck to you, dmd and FallGirl!
Pizzagirl, so sorry to hear about your kids’ schoolmate.
Pizzagirl- that’s sad.
Good luck, racers!
Welcome home, Bunsen.
Finally was able to workout outdoors this evening. Started the Rings training program and then did three circuits of my outdoor equipment. Monkey bars, cargo net, ladder climb with arms, chin ups and hanging leg lifts. Finished each circuit with a loop around my house pulling the push/pull sled I just got. It only weighs 65 lbs bare but pulling it using the chest harness on the lawn at speed was a beast. The drag resistence on the lawn was unreal. The best was when some neighbors taking a walk saw me pulling the sled and looked at me like I was an escapee from an institution, :). I already see the ruts forming, lol.
Adding my “have a great run!” to all the racers tomorrow!
And MK, I really like what you say about being accountable to yourself and your nutrition 100% of the time - which doesn’t mean eat perfectly 100% of the time, but to think, plan and make decisions with most all those bites that go in your mouth. Plan for the evening scoop of ice cream. Add in extra exercise for the plate of pasta you plan to cook. Carve out the 30 minutes of planned exercise for the day even though it’s hot and you’d rather watch the tube.
For those of you who enjoy suspension training, if your gym has rings, I urge you to try them with the same exercises that you follow with other body weight suspension equipment. The instability factor of 2 independent straps and 2 free moving handles (the rings) creates all sorts of stresses on smaller control muscles and your core. In addition, the load factor on your primary muscles is much more challenging than doing the same movement with a more static
base. When I do dips indoors on a fixed dip station, I can readily do 3 sets of 12 wearing a 40 lb weight vest. Outdoors on the rings, with just my body weight, I could only do sets descending from 12 reps to 7! And there’s all sorts of ways to scale the difficulty to your present fitness and strength levels. I thought the parallettes were tough? The rings make them seem like a cakewalk.
Michael, I just want to comment on the great advice you gave on diet. You’ve pretty much described my maintenance diet!
Weekends I am a bit more relaxed about eating - and I know I’m going to be ahead of time. Thursday and Saturday are the only nights I allow myself alcohol - I don’t run on Friday or Sunday, and I find any alcohol at all is very dehydrating. Great thoughts. I will pass, however, on the rings workout. I have visions of paramedics being called to untangle me from the equipment.
Well, I had a really nice walk this morning! It was a beautiful day to spend enjoying the early morning. Happily, Garmin tells me my cardio fitness is now improving. Good thing, because my pace sure isn’t! It will come.
Eager to hear all the race reports - I’ll be enjoying my Barre class a bit later.
Thank you both, abasket and sabaray. I went back and read the post and had to laugh about the typo in the middle of the first full paragraph. Where I said “5”, I of course meant “7 days per week”. The vagaries of typing on an iPad!
Felt like Plantmom this morning. 80 degrees already at 8am. Went out for a run/walk combo - was planning on just walking but once I got out there the intervals felt right. Hoping the weather holds for a little pool lounging (and some laps) at my brothers pool and then hoping the thunderstorms don’t get in the way of an outdoor concert tonight!
Michael- I also really appreciate your posts. I also will pass on the rings. That just sounds like a bad idea for me!
8.3 miles. Got a early start and had a lot of shade, so even though it is going to be brutally hot today, I did OK. Tried to keep HR down, and did pretty well with that. I might float in the pool a little bit today.
Thanks for all the support.
The race was fun. I ran with my interval group (more running than walking) and finished under my goal time. D of course finished way ahead of me. We actually passed each other on one of the loops.
Tired but happy
Congrats, FallGirl! So happy for you!
Congrats FallGirl! I hope you feel a huge sense of accomplishment because you should!
FallGirl, I was thinking of you this morning when I was out - happy for you and great job meeting (and exceeding!) your goal time!
How was the atmosphere??