Fasting is dumb if you are a runner

ORN: Today, I did something I wouldn't have done six months ago. I ran without my Polar RS200. I can see where it is, next to my wife's computer in her office. It wasn't in my bag. Six months ago, I would have seen my mistake, zipped my bag back up, and headed to White Castles. Today, though, I ran like an animal. No watch. Fortunately, I have run this route a dozen or so times, so I knew when to turn around. I did five-ish miles in 48 minutes or so. I raced a barge and smoked it. I also saw a nesting pair of Canadian geese.

Folks, you might have been reading about my recent diet madness. Maybe you follow me on Twitter and saw that I was fasting on Sunday. Let me lay it all down for you. Last week, I did a quack detox diet followed by a dumb juice fast on Sunday. It was dumb dumb dumb and almost a total waste of time. I say almost because I did lose five pounds.

Let me say at the outset, I will probably incorporate much of the diet into my regular eating from now on. The diet eliminated all sweeteners [except stevia], gluten, anything with flour, caffeine, and alcohol. I took supplements -- a liver cleanser and a colon cleanser. So my diet consisted entirely of fresh fruit and vegetables, a couple eggs, a little brown rice, a small portion of lean meat, and a small amount of healthy oils, like flax seed or olive. The actual food part was good, except for being woefully light on carbohydrates. Stupidly low for a runner.

So going forward, I think I will mostly eat the way I ate last week, except with more whole grains in the mix. Ideally, I'll eat something like this:

Breakfast - Oatmeal with fresh berries and milled flax seed
Mid-morning Snack - Cheese, and whole grain crackers
Lunch - Entree salad with lots of different greens and veggies, perhaps some nuts/seeds, fruit, and grilled chicken or salmon + bulgur or wheat berries
Afternoon snack - Fruit and a hard boiled egg
Dinner - Grilled lean meat, steamed veggies, brown rice, fruit
Dessert/evening snack - Smoothie with yogurt, milled flax seed, and fruit

I think I can eat that way forever. With a diet like that for 80%-90% of my meals, allowing for the occasional pizza or trip to the Mexican restaurant, I think I will do fine. It surely won't cause me to gain weight. We shall see.

Oh, and the fast was a total waste of time. I faithfully followed the plan for 20 hours and quit when the thought "THIS IS STUPID" wouldn't stop running through my head. I did not experience any great purging of toxins. I didn't feel any better afterward. I just felt dumb; hoodwinked; bamboozled. I made a bowl of popcorn, ordered a pizza, and if there was a beer in the house, it would have been the last 0.5% that would have made the night perfect. I gained back three of the five pounds I lost, and I am not sorry at all.