Thursday, May 21, 2009

The downfall of Western civilization


Since my last update about two weeks ago, I've continued with intermittent fasting (IF) on Monday through Friday to fuel my body with food and eat like a normal person on Saturday and Sunday. Here’s my prior update in case you are interested: Intermittent fasting in Mexico City

For personal convenience, I’ve increased my daily eating window from the shorter 2 hour window (7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) that I followed during Lent. Now I generally begin my daily eating window at about 5:00 p.m. and end between 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. I’m not constantly eating during this window but only consider it the hours that the kitchen is open for business.

Here’s a great read of what another middle-age man recently shared on a fitness website about his IF experience (with two chief executive blogger parenthetical inserts for clarity):

“When I was in my late twenties I noticed that I was steadily gaining weight. Back then, I was doing everything mainstream medicine was recommending. I was eating three meals a day and doing lots of cardio work in addition to daily resistance exercises. To my surprise however, those pants just kept on getting tighter.

One morning I had a “road to Damascus experience”. A voice told me to skip breakfast. That same voice told me to work through lunch. I went home in the evening and had a huge dinner. I began doing this every day. I noticed two things: firstly, I quickly lost the unwanted kilos and secondly, I began to feel really good. The people around me were horrified. I was constantly being told that I was putting my health at risk. My metabolism will slow down. My stomach will be destroyed. My brain will shut down etc. But you know what? Nothing bad happened. In fact, I managed to remain thin and healthy while all those around me grew fat.

A few years later I read Ori's (Ori Hofmekler) Warrior Diet interview on T-Mag (a fitness website) and felt partly vindicated. I didn't buy the book because I thought that whole warrior gimmick was a tad silly. Nevertheless, it was good to know that I wasn't alone. I am now 45 and my cholesterol, blood pressure etc. are all O.K. I firmly believe if like me, you sit behind a desk all day - three square meals will make you fat. Three square meals will kill you. Three square meals a day may eventually lead to the downfall of Western civilization.”

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

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