Fat Burning Mode

There's an interesting concept out there that I've been trying out due to Unicity's Transformation program that I've been doing called 4-4-12.

You only eat 3 times per day.  

Now, as someone who for the past decade has eaten 4-6 small meals and snacks in a day this has been a particular challenge.

For example:

9 am: breakfast

1 pm: lunch

5 or 6 pm: dinner 

No snacks.

The idea is, your body is burning the food you ate for about the first 2 hours and then transitions into 'fat burning mode' for the next 2+ hours before your next meal.

This concept is similar to, although not quite as extreme as the ever popular intermittent fasting concept that has hit the health scene.

Transitioning to this new regimen has been a bit of a challenge because my body is like a clock.  I get hungry about every 2-3 hours.

Which is exactly the point-- according to Abel James, in his book The Wild Diet and on his blog, Fat Burning Man, we have literally trained our bodies to be hungry every 2-3 hours by eating so often.  Which I have found to be true in my own case.  

I'm not convinced this practice is for everyone.  Especially since I have really struggled with it - not just being hungry, but actually experiencing dizziness or a shakiness due to not eating.  So I did some reading and found that while intermittent fasting is extremely popular and effective for men, it might not be the best for women.  Stefani Ruper on her blog www.paleoforwomen.com says that 'women's metabolisms suffer from Intermittent Fasting'. You can read up on her study here.  

Often in a time crunch, I will do a cardio HIIT - where I run at a normal pace for about a minute and then sprint as fast as I can for a minute for 12 minutes. Killer! 

While 4-4-12 is not technically IF - I've found that when I eat every 4 hours, I often eat dinner around 5 pm and then do not have breakfast until 9 or 10 am the next morning - which,  can be up to 17 hours of without food.  Interestingly, I don't struggle much with not eating after dinner - it's not snacking before dinner.  Some days are definitely easier than others due to exercise and my cycle, etc.  Again, my approach after stressing about it, is to not stress about it . . . If I'm feeling shaky one day due to not eating, I will definitely eat.

More Tips to put your body in Fat Burning Mode:

1. Exercise before you eat

2. Weight lift 

3. Do a cardio HIIT (high intensity interval training)

Let me know what you think of Intermittent Fasting or the concept of 4-4-12 and if you've ever tried it. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

4 Reasons to Track Your Progress

For the first time in my life I am measuring my food, my workouts and tracking my progress.

I have always beens active or worked out. But, I've always done what I feel like when I feel like doing it and have never bothered to measure anything other than step on a scale every now and again.

I wear my Garmin pretty much every day and my heart rate monitor whenever I work out. I also measure my stats once a week.

What have I learned?

1. Progress is motivating!!  

2.5 months ago I could barely get out 10 pushups, I recently hit the 100 pushup mark (no, not all in a row). I recommend shooting for a measurable goal that can be tracked easily so that you're motivated to keep improving.

2. The scale is deceiving.

Pick a day once a week to measure and record your stats.  Seeing a half inch to an inch decrease is actually much more satisfying than seeing the scale drop (and a relief when the scale goes up!). Meeting with my coach once a week and reporting numbers to her forced me to measure my waist, butt, thigh and neck - not just step on a scale.   Both my waist and my thighs tightened and lost inches due to my resistance training. I don't know that I would've noticed that half inch to an inch difference around my thighs if I hadn't actually measured.

3. Accuracy.

If you're going to measure your fat mass percentage, get it done at the most accurate place you can.  At the beginning of my Transformation, I did two different fat percentage tests.  One was a calculation just based off of numbers versus a $20 BodPod test, (more on that here), which is one of the most accurate ways you can test your body fat.  Let's just say there was 6-7% discrepancy between the two tests.  Luckily, the BodPod which is more accurate was the lower of the two!!

4. You probably eat more than you think (and exercise less).

I'm also using my fitness pal -- don't get me wrong, I hate counting calories and I don't live or die by it - especially, because I believe the value of your calories counts way more than just the pure calorie count itself.  But, counting calories does have its place and my fitness pal is super simple, convenient and syncs to my Garmin (which tracks my steps as well as my heart rate).

My Post Independence Day Post!

Nothing screams freedom more than a summer road trip!  Driving for hours on end, blasting music, watching the road whizz by, switching drivers, watching the scenery change, watching the weirdos at rest stops, talking forever, not talking forever.  Just driving.

And then . . . reaching your destination . . . especially when your destination looks like this:

Hike up to Barney Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The beauty in this shot is my brother's one and only child, or um, dog, Evee.

and this:

Need I say more?  The scenery was unreal.  We backpacked for one night and two days and just existed.  No computers.  Cell phones out of range.  Fresh air . . . good for the mind, body and soul.

Like I said, ultimate freedom.

Yes, that's me with the yellow pirate bandana. Arrgh...