Monday, May 19, 2008

The Third Day of the Rest of Your (Exercise) Life

Today was the third day of working out with my spiffy, new exercise bike, but the first day of waking up early to do so. Mr. Andrew Smith, my personal trainer, turned me on to something called Bonk Training whereby you get up at the crack of dawn, pound some black coffee or caffeine pills, bike for 20 - 90 minutes at about 60% of your max heart rate and then don't eat for about 30 minutes while your stomach starts to digest your liver.

The idea is that your metabolism gets a kick-start from the caffeine and then starts eating all of those tasty, tasty fat cells while you work out. Work out too hard and your body starts looking to your muscle cells for energy, don't work out hard enough and your just sweaty, tired and with a serious case of the jitters. By not eating, you keep the fat burning until you can replenish it with real food.

So far I've learned a few things. First, I can't do black coffee on an empty stomach. It makes me somewhat queasy. This is ok as I'm not planning on getting up early enough for the caffeine to kick in any way and I'm so used to being up at that time, that I don't need the extra jolt. My metabolism will just have to get motivated like the rest of me, through boundless amounts of shame. The second thing I've learned is that when you work out in this manner, you are ravenously hungry all day long. I've been doing the small meal thing throughout the day to keep the metabolic fires going, but man, I am starving all of the time. I've been eating a little less to help things along, which doesn't help matters, but I wouldn't think it would make me this hungry. I can only hope that the burning hunger means that my metabolism is going, even when I'm not. If so, then feast my hungry metabolism! Feast on fat until you are sated!

My goal is to get down to 175, which was my weight when we moved here. That means a loss of about 16 pounds, a tall order indeed, but one I think I can attain. I have a room full of movies I've never watched, a comfy bike to ride and an insatiable hunger to harness. How can I fail?

1 comment:

CatSpit said...

Hunger is a natural consequence of adjusting to your new lifestyle. Remember; you are eating right AND working out so the body has a double whammy to contend with. After a week or so it should begin to settle into the new routine. Don't live by the scales, only week to week measurements matter in losing weight. I'm watching you!