WLC Day 3: The Whole Life Challenge is in full swing! 23 people make up our team: MVMNT For Life!! First and foremost, don’t forget to log your points everyday to stay in the game.
It’s day three, and you might not be feeling quite so bright and shiny today. Remember we said the first week is full of ups and downs? Today, we want to talk about some potential downs you may be experiencing, and give you some light at the end of your tired, cranky, rumbly-tummy tunnel.
Tired: You’re probably more tired and lethargic today. This is your body adapting to its new fuel source – fat – and transitioning out of your old “sugar-burner” days. (We’ll talk about this more on Day 6, when you’ve had some more time to adjust.) This is normal, and will resolve quickly, as long as you do your part to help. Sleep lots. Take naps. Take time off from the gym, or make it a “half-intensity” week. Don’t lean too heavily on caffeine or sugar from fruit to see you through mid-afternoon slumps. Basically, be patient, accept this is a normal part of your transition, and don’t expect any personal bests in the gym, or miraculous energy highs this week. Those things will come in due time, we assure you.
Cranky/Moody: At this point, you may be kind of cranky about the foods you “can’t” eat. Your brain is probably throwing tantrums; missing sugar, cookies, cheese, or wine. The fact that you’re tired isn’t helping your mood, either. We have just one word of advice— patience! This passes within just a few days, as much of it is blood-sugar-regulation related. As your hormones start to get back into balance, your mood will regulate too – and once your energy picks up, your brain stops fighting your efforts, and you start feeling the magic, you’ll be brighter and shinier than ever.
Detoxin’: You may be experiencing some physical symptoms; the result of your body starting to heal from the damage done by your old less-healthy food choices. Acne and rashes, worsening allergies, and digestive distress are common during this first week. Sometimes, things get worse before they get better, but know this is a common, even healthy stage as your body starts to heal. Be patient—by the second week, these should be largely resolved.
Something to consider:
Legumes are a botanical family of plants that include dozens of varieties of beans, lentils, garbanzos, peas, soybeans, and peanuts. (Note, the coffee, cocoa, and vanilla “beans” are not, botanically speaking, legumes, and thus are excluded from this particular discussion.) While eating plants would generally be thought of as healthy, the part of the legume that we eat is actually the seed of the legume plant. As with grains, the seeds of legumes store a large amount of energy in the form of carbohydrate, which may or may not support healthy metabolic function (pending your individual context and health history).
Legumes are often recommended as a healthy dietary choice, based on their fiber, vitamins and minerals, and “high” protein content. But legumes aren’t really a dense protein source (most contain two to three times as much carbohydrate as protein), and they’re nowhere near as dense (or complete) as the protein found in meat, seafood, or eggs. In addition, when compared to vegetables and fruit, legumes pale in comparison in both micronutrient density and fiber.
Some legumes also contain considerable amounts of phytates — anti-nutrients which bind to minerals in the legumes, rendering them unavailable to our bodies. (This means some of the minerals technically present in the legumes aren’t able to be accessed by our bodies — and means that legumes aren’t as micronutrient-dense as nutrition data might suggest.*)
*Ancient cultures figured out that rinsing, prolonged soaking, cooking, and fermenting legumes reduces the anti-nutrient content. If you choose to eat legumes, we highly recommend you also take these steps to mitigate some of the potential downsides.
In addition, because some of the short-chain carbohydrates (sugars) found in legumes aren’t properly digested and absorbed in the digestive tract, they can act as food for bacteria living in the intestines. These bacteria then “ferment” these carbohydrates, which can create unpleasant symptoms like gas and bloating, and potentially contribute to gut dysbiosis – an inherently inflammatory condition.
Read the Legume Manifesto. This includes a discussion on soy and peanuts. Most of us have chosen Kick Start which allows for soy and legumes. I will not be eating either and I suggest you do the same for at least 30 days to allow your body to reset. Then sample them (one at a time) to see how your body reacts. Most people find that their bodies aren’t huge fans. That’s an indication that maybe you should steer clear all of the time.
“If you see distraction externally, you end up creating an internally distracted state.” – Tim Ferriss
Warmup
Dynamic Athletic Movement
10 Minutes
10 yd Downdog Walk
10 yd Frog Hop
10 yd Lateral Ape Walk
10 yd Reverse Downdog Walk
10 yd Reverse Frog Hop
10 yd Lateral Monkey Walk
Start to increase speed in the movements we’ve been practicing for several weeks: don’t sacrifice the basic movement quality, but see how moving a little faster feels.
For the Monkey, rather than keeping the hips low as in the Ape walk, let your hips come up high–even over your shoulders if you can–as you swing your legs up and bring them down softly with control.
Skill
10 Minutes Pull-up/Crow + Somersault Practice
L4 – 3-5 unbroken sets of 2/3/5 – 2 strict chest to bar/ 3 strict/ 5 kipping
L3 – kipping technique practice – swing/drive/kip/return
L2 – strict pull-up practice – sub-maximal sets/chin-ups/negatives/partial reps/scap-retractions
L0/1 – same as L2, and ring rows
***between sets of Pull-ups, practice finding your balance in the Crow pose, and then overbalance toward your fingertips, tucking your chin and rolling through a somersault into a squat stance. It should go without saying that if you can’t get into the Crow pose yet, work on that rather than the somersault.
Lift
5 x 5
Squat @ 75%
Levels 0/1
5 x 5
Goblet or Double Kettlebell Squat
Conditioning
10 Minutes EMOM
Wall Balls
Box Jumps
One minute perform one of the exercises, the next minute do the other, alternating back and forth for 10 minutes. Rep schemes as follows:
L4 – 20/14, 16 reps Wall Balls/14 Box Jumps
L3 – 20/14, 14WB/12BJ
L2 – any weight, 12WB/8BJ
L0/1 – any weight, 10WB/6BJ