You don’t need much to make it, just raid the fridge of what ever is left over.

Add the spinach and cheese

Ingredients

• Left over roast vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots etc)
• 3 whole eggs
• Spinach leaves
• Cheese

Directions

1. Grab a good quality non stick fry pan
2. Toss a small amount of roast veggies in the pan and heat. You want a small enough amount that the egg will be able to run in between the veggies.
3. Break 3 eggs into a bowl and whisk
4. Turn over the veggies in the pan
5. Pour the eggs into to the pan and wait for the omelette to nearly fully cook
6. Add some sliced cheese and the spinach leaves
7. Fold the omelette in half and wait for it to finish cooking
8. Put it in your mouth and chew

Kyle's Potato And Spinach Omelette

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Eggs and milk are my friends

I could in no way to Vegan. Being able to add a few eggs or a glass of milk to my meals makes eating a balanced diet so much easier. I really recommend going laco-ovo vegetarian if you are planning on trying the Weekday Vegetarian.

If I could do it over again

Next time around I would probably start out with just a couple days a week. This would also be a great way to try out some recipes before going the full 5 days a week.

Anyway, last week coming up. So far today I’ve had veggie stir fry with chopped up omelette and spinach quiche. I must admit, I have been eating well over the past 3 weeks.

Stay tuned for the final wrap up next week.

Potato and Spinach Pizza

Being a weekday veggie causes you to take a look at some new recipes.

I went out for dinner to a pizza place the other week for my brothers birthday. It was during the week, so I had to order a vegetarian dish. I went for a potato and herb based pizza, I’d never had anything like it before so I had them add some mozzarella and parmesan. It was awesome!

Here is my own version of it.

Ingredients

• Mini wholemeal pita
• Basil pesto
• Three cheese blend (cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan)
• Potato
• Spinach leaves
• Herbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius
   

   Step 3

2. Thinly slice a medium sized potato
3. Prepare some olive oil in a pan and add the potato slices
4. Start steaming the spinach leaves.
5. Add your favourite herb mix to the top of the potatoes and cook until the potatoes are soft (Cook a little longer if you want it crispy)
6. While the potato is cooking, base the mini pita’s with the basil pesto (I used a regular sized Pita in this one, the store was sold out)
7. ADD THE CHEESE NOW
8. Once the potato and spinach is cooked to your liking add it to your pizza

9. 

   Step 9

   Top with a little more cheese and herbs

10. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes (or until cheese is starting to brown)

I put on weight

If you remember last week I mentioned that I lost a kilo so I was going to up my calories. Well I put that back on this week and then some (around 1.5 kgs total). This may have been because I seemed to have kept being offered cake this week and I just couldn’t say no. Overall this is not a bad thing as I’m pretty happy with my current weight.

Not tired so much

My energy levels seemed much more stable over the past week despite only having around 5 hours sleep on Thursday night. I have been eating more complex vegetables like rice and potato. I have also been including more omelettes and nuts to bulk up the protein intake.

The balanced energy could also be because I have taken up Eat Stop Eat again, I just feel a lot better with a 24 hour fast these days. Then again I did ESE on Thursday so that would only account for part of the week.

I went against the high GI nonsense and ate more of these

Back to 3 days a week training

I’m currently in week 2 of the Book of Muscle advanced workout. I’ve never done the advanced workout before and I wanted to try out some of the strength techniques. Having 3 set workouts a week also means that during these next few busy months I will continue to weight train at least 3 times a week.

Cross country running. For bad asses only.

This week I’m going to start running, but not on a treadmill, running track or even a footpath. I’m going to tackle the mountain bike trails that wind along the edge of the Yarra River. The reason I’m choosing to go off-road is because I find uneven ground and bushland much more stimulating. You have to pay attention to where you place your feet and the run feels a lot more like an adventure rather then boring exercise to make my heart stronger.

I’m just gonna start off with one run per week. Previously, when I have started a running routines I’ve tried running several times a week and have burnt out too quickly. This time around I just want to enjoy it so I’ll ease into a lot slower.

Until next time, peace!

Image: FotoosVanRobin

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My next goal is to do something that I have also wanted to do for a long time, a one arm push up. Just one good solid repetition and I would be happy.

I’ve done a bit of research and so far I’ve found 3 good methods for learning the one arm push up.

The days of 2 arm pushups are numbered

Method 1: Pavel Tsatsouline

The Naked Warrior is one of my favourite books in my fitness book arsenal. It’s very simply laid out with plenty of pictures and great exercise descriptions. Pavel’s witty sense of humour about Soviet training techniques also make this book a good read.

Inside this book Pavel shares his technique on the one arm push up. He suggests adjusting the inline of the pushup. So start off doing a one arm pushup on the wall, then a desk, then a bench, then a low step and then the ground.

Each time you increase the difficulty start by just performing the exercise through the eccentric (or negative/lowering) portion. Include isometric holds at regular intervals. For example, on the way from the top of the motion to the bottom, stop at five sticking points and hold for 10-20 seconds. Relax, reposition yourself at the beginning again and repeat. Check out The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline if you’re interested in learning more bodyweight resistance exercises.

Method 2: Rusty Moore

I’m not sure if Rusty came up with this method of progressing to the one arm push up himself or if he found it elsewhere. Either way it looks like a solid technique.

Rusty recommends first being able to master close grip push ups. This gives you the tricep strength to be able to begin learning one arm push ups. For the next step I’ll quote him directly:

One Arm Assisted Push Ups With Basketball: You can use a medicine ball if you have that available as well. What you are going to do here is put as much weight as possible on the hand that is on the ground and another hand on a basketball. Use the had on the basketball to assist you on the way up and the way down. As you get stronger, place that basketball further out to the side of your body away from the center. The further out the ball gets from your body, the less you can assist that working arm. Once you can do 2 sets of 15 reps per arm with very little assistance, it is time to move on to one arm push ups unassisted.

That is without a doubt one of the more clever exercise progressions that I have seen. You can always swap out the basketball for a medicine ball or even something as simple as a step.

Method 3: Peter Carvell

I’m pretty sure this guy is selling something, but this quick 2 minute video gives you full progressive exercises on your way to one arm pushups. Definitely worth a look.

Here is another video I found on Youtube that made me laugh. The guy is in great shape but he spends the full 3 minute video catching his breath from a few 1 arm pushups. This is not how we want to be guys!

I think I’ll use a combo of all three to take small yet often progressions to my ultimate goal. Can you do a one hand pushup? How did you get there?

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Dungeons & Dragons: Constitution (or CON) effects how many Hit Points you have, your Fortitude save which is used to resist poisons and the like and the Concentration skill which is often used by spellcasters.

Dictionary:

con·sti·tu·tion –noun
2. the physical character of the body as to strength, health, etc.: He has a strong constitution.

In real life constitution also refers to your healthiness, well being and fortitude. So as you can imagine improving you constitution is a multi-pronged task.

Taking a leaf out of the Dwarven books

The Dwarves short, stout stature naturally gives them a more robust frame, although I’m not really sure what makes them anymore healthy then say an Elf. One thing that Dwarves do have from centuries of mining is Stamina.

The way we build stamina is by repeating an exercise over and over again. High repetition sets, running, swimming and even console gaming (think cramping fingers) all build stamina in that specific task. What we are aiming for however is a general stamina that will allow you to have a great constitution over a range of activities. We do this through a thing called cross-training.

Learn how to build up your Constitution

What I am going to set you up with is a very basic cross-training workout designed to build up your stamina and constitution.

Go to an oval or soccer field to do this workout. Complete all exercises with minimal rest times until you are done. Repeat.

• Run 1000m
• 5 pushups
• Run 500m
• 10 pushups
• Run 250m
• 20 pushups

Feel free to mix up the running with shorter distance sprints (200m, 100m, 50m) or stair runs and change the pushups to body rows, mountains climbers or anything else of your choosing.

Here’s a drill I came up with that’s a little more advanced. Do it once a month to gauge your progress.

Super 7 drill:

Complete as many rounds of the circuit as you can in seven minutes. Complete each exercise for seven reps unless it is a unilateral (one sided) exercise. Then do 14 reps total (7 each side).

1. Mountain climbers
2. DB Clean and Press
3. Renegade rows
4. Burpees
5. Butt drops
6. Pushups
7. Pullups

Here is an alternate set of seven exercises for beginners:

1. Mountain climbers
2. BW Squats
3. Thigh slaps
4. Burpees
5. Russian twist
6. Pushups on knees
7. Body rows

7 reasons to improve your CON

1. Improved circulation
2. Less chance of heart conditions
3. Improved lung capacity
4. More stamina in bed
5. This kind of training usually also leads to weight loss
6. Improvement at any sport you play (yes, you will notice improvements, even at chess)
7. You can throw footballs over mountains… repeatedly

Stay tuned for Part 4: Intelligence.

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I’ll start off by covering the good things.

Lost 1kg of bodyweight

Well if you want to lose some weight, apparently vegetarian is a great way to go. I ate some many fibrous vegetables last week that my digestive system went into overdrive. The weight loss was also probably related a little to less calories, although as I said at the start of last week I did not follow Eat Stop Eat this week so there alone is around 2000 extra calories.

Back into cooking

One of the things I loved this week was that I started cooking again. I hit up Dave’s site for some recipes and made the vegetarian pizza’s, the Eggplant Parmesan (which was amazing) and an egg version of his Shrimp Stir Fry.

And the one bad thing so far:

Not enough protein and not enough calories = lack of energy

I felt a little fatigued this week, and although it may have just been my early starts, I think it might also have been that I didn’t eat enough high calorie meals. This week I am aiming to eat more rice, quinoa, sweet potato and other complex carbs.

I will try to follow this rough guide:

Breakfast

• Cereal (weet-bix/oatmeal)
• Fruit
• Milk
• Yogurt

Morning Tea

• Toast with Peanut Butter, Jam, Vegemite, Nutella
• Milk with Milo

Lunch

• Gourmet omelette with toast
• Vegetable stir fry
• Vegetable burritos
• Maybe some extra fruit and nuts

Dinner

• Sweet potato/quinoa/rice
• Salad/steamed vegetables
• Cheese mmm

OR

• Soup
• Vegetable casserole

Snack

• Yogurt and fruit/nuts

Stay tuned for next weeks update.

I’ve always wanted to try out eating vegetarian or vegan so when I saw this video I thought that this looked like a great way to ease into it.

I’ve decided as of this weekend (24/07/2010) I will be starting a 4 week trial of eating vegetarian during the week days and normal on the weekend. I will be eating lacto-ovo vegetarian which means I can still eat dairy and eggs so the change should be fairly small.

To ensure that I can get an accurate idea of how this change in diet will effect me I will be stopping Eat Stop Eat for the duration of the 4 weeks. If I hadn’t just come back from holiday where I wasn’t practicing Eat Stop Eat then I would definitely keep it going. However, seeing as I’m just starting back up again I’ve decided to stop for now.

Now, you might be asking ‘Why am I doing this?‘

Like I said already, I’ve been wanting to try being a vegetarian for some time. This is because I’ve heard reports online and from friends of increased levels of energy from eating vegetarian and vegan.

Secondly, our meat processing industry is pretty horrific in terms of cruelty to animals. By eating vegetarian 5 days a week I reduce my meat consumption by 71%. This will also mean though that I risk consuming too little protein, iron and other minerals found in meat.

I will be spending the next few days doing a little food research to ensure I do not get any deficiencies during my 4 week trial. I will be hitting up the Pro at Cooking website to try out some of their vegetarian recipes, especially Dave’s vegetarian pizza recipe.

Back to why I’m doing this… Thirdly, not eating all that meat also reduces my carbon footprint which is something we all need to think about.

Image: ConstructionDealMkting

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Eat Stop Eat is the work of Canadian nutritionist Brad Pilon. Brad has been working in nutrition since 2000 and in that time has become concerned with what is being given as diet advice.

Through his own and others research Brad has rediscovered the benefits of fasting. Not only in giving your body a break from digesting food, but also other benefits like increased hormone release.

You can read more about it on the Eat Stop Eat website.

My Experience

When I first stumbled across Eat Stop Eat on the Fitness Black Book site I was pretty skeptical. At the time I was just realising that the 6 meals a day diet was rubbish and was starting to eat larger servings but in less meals.

I had already come across fasting style diets when I read about the Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler. I had considered trying it out but was a little too scared because

it was so different from my then bodybuilding diet.

However, being that this was the second book on the matter of fasting I had come across I began to think that maybe there was something to it. So I went ahead and bought it, after all what’s $40 for a book right?

As I read through the book I was surprised that I was not finding any sort of diet plan or meal guide. That was when I realised just how easy following Eat Stop Eat is. There is no diet plan or meal guide!

After 2 weeks on Eat Stop Eat I noticed that I had more energy, I also noticed that in the mirror I looked a lot better. My abs and arms became a lot more defined..My quality of sleep was even better. I don’t know if this has anything to do with Eat Stop Eat, these are just the benifits I noticed.

Now I didn’t lose much weight, but that wasn’t my goal. My goal was to still be able to have a couple beers with friends or get a burger and fries for lunch. I was able to introduce these food items, which previously I would have called ‘holiday food’ or ‘cheat meals’, much more often and still look and feel good.

If I had wanted to lose weight I could have done so easily just by reducing the number of these h

igher calorie meals.

Pros

• No need to follow any complicated diet.
• No need to spend hours pre-preparing food.
• No need to count calories or measure food.
• You can do it any place, any time, anywhere.
• You are eating less food, so you save money!

Cons

• No guidance as to what to eat on the other days.
• Could be dangerous if you are not eating reasonably healthy already. Although this is highlighted in the book.
• First few fasting days do result in a real lack of energy. You need to be able to sacrifice these few days at the start or really enjoy drinking black coffee. After you adjust though you will find yourself full of beans as your body is not weighed down with processing food.

Is this book right for you?

I do not recommend Eat Stop Eat to you if:

• You currently do not have healthy eating habits.
• You are pregnant or lactating.
• You have no interest in sticking with it for at least 30 days.

Conclusions

I’m surprised Eat Stop Eat isn’t a bigger deal because it’s so effective. I guess it’s because the health and fitness market is so flooded with products that only the ones with the biggest marketing budgets get heard.

I really enjoy following Eat Stop Eat. It’s convenient, easy and makes me feel great.

If you want to take a step in the healthy direction, take the time to check out Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat site.

Eat Stop Eat is so easy and effective that I have to give it a 4.5 out of 5. It loses 0.5 because, well, nothing is perfect is it?

I’ve reached Day 27 of my Eat Stop Eat case study. Tomorrow I fly up to Alice Springs for my trip and will therefore be stopping any fasting until the end of my trip. Between the hiking and swimming I believe I’ll be doing plenty of exercise.

Eat Stop Eat results

Lifestyle and diet

Over the past 4 weeks my diet has not been awesome. I’m positive I could have gotten leaner by sticking to a much cleaner diet during the time period.

Due to exams and being out of the house I ate more Grill’d and Roll-a-Day then normal. And of course along with that you can’t go past Grill’d's fries or those awesome deserts Roll-a-Day make.

However, this is what makes Eat Stop Eat so awesome. You do not have to do any special diets! You simply stick to a well rounded and balanced diet that ensures you get all of your daily vitamins and minerals.

Workouts

In terms of resistance training I’ve just been sticking to my old favourite, the Upper/Lower split. The workouts have been about 30-45 mins including warmups and stretching.

I have also been fairly active just with my job. Lots of short distance running and just being on my feet. Trying to stand and walk around more throughout the day makes a big difference in your weight loss goals.

Photos

So after 27 days with 5 fasting days I have lost… 0kgs. I started around 94.8kgs and weighed myself this morning at 94.7kgs. Which is a good thing! If you can remember my goal was to look more muscular while getting leaner for my trip.

Here is the final photo next to the beginning photo.

Other changes I noticed

Other than physical changes I have also noticed a reasonable increase in energy on my non-fasting days enabling me to get a lot of work done. It also means that I am performing better with my evening clients, even after a 6am start.

Will I continue Eat Stop Eat (aff link) when I return from my trip?

Hell yes! It’s so ridiculously easy and makes me feel better rather than worse like most diets. It also does not effect my day to day life. I am in the process of writing a full detailed review on the Pros and Cons of ESE.

On another note, I’m planning something new and exciting with the site when I return from my trip. Stay tuned for more.