Free The Animal

I’m pleased to announce a new resource for all you palo / primal / evolutionary fitness "hacks" & self-experimenters out there. Always remember that you are your own chief authority in health matters and it’s up to you in the end to find your way. Of course, all the blogs, including this one, are here [...]

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A reader sent a link this morning to an interesting study of alternate day fasting for obese adults.

Even though the study participants ate whatever they wanted on their non-fasting days, they lost an average of 5.6 kilograms (about 12 pounds) after eight weeks, Dr. Krista A. Varady of the University of Illinois at Chicago and [...]

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I fist made mention of Brad Pilon’s excellent work, EatStopEat way back nearly two years ago. And since then, I have blogged a whole bunch about intermittent fasting in general and have mentioned Brad and ESE many, many times. And, because I was so pleased with the results, I even gave Brad a testimonial which [...]

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Yesterday I tweeted that I was 24 hours into a fast and had yet to experience any hunger. How did that happen? Well, I can’t be sure, due too many variables, but what’s interesting is that I began the fast about 11 AM day before yesterday, and with only one meal instead of a breakfast & lunch. Eggs & bacon it was. Then I decided to do something I’ve not done before. I did this high-volume workout at 4 PM, 5 hours into the fast. Then I did 6-7 minutes in the cold cold water. I had no problem with hunger before bed, slept for a good 6-7 hours, woke up refreshed and waited to get hungry. It just didn’t happen. The plan was to head over to the gym when the hunger came, and do a cold-water plunge again, as I’ve used that before to rid myself of hunger. But, I was fixing a big braised pot roast for family guests and I needed to get that started 4 hours ahead of time. So, I never did the second dip and broke the fast without really being hungry at about the 27 hour mark, munching on some nuts as…

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I don’t post a lot about the specifics of my workouts. Why? Well, whereas all the diet & fasting stuff was very accessible and could be put into practice quickly — with quick results to verify, repeat, verify, and so on — workouts never struck me like that. I’m a neophyte (still) but that’s changing. Also, I have a trainer and he’s proven himself to be unconventional and actually willing to listen to me. Right off the bat, he said all I need is two 30-minute session per week of high intensity. That told me he had a lot right. Now, he often sports my Free the Animal T-shirt. That’s pretty cool. There’s a new book out there I may have mentioned. It’s by reader and sometimes commenter Dr. Doug McGuff, Body by Science, which is soon coming up in my reading stack. In the meantime, workout guru extraordinaire, Keith Norris, has reviewed it in multiple parts here, here, and here. [Added later: Chris Highcock interviewed Dr. McGuff here, and here's another interview on video.] There’s a bit of a coincidence. When I first began this journey two years ago, I went to the bookstore to pick up a book…

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