What are you taking during the fast @DarkPhilosopher?
It looks like I’m finally at the end of my little longer-than-expected adventure with COVID. Nothing hurts anymore (that didn’t hurt before) and my brain can function at full speed again. Still have a bit of mucus in my throat and if I try and fill the last 5% of my lungs it’ll end in a coughing fit because it kind of dries my throat. But it’s effectively over.
Part of me didn’t want it to end. I know it sounds strange, but being sick shifted my priorities, made me want to curl up with a warm drink and a good book under a warm blanket in a dark room. That feeling of comfortable warmth and coziness is so seductive. Now that I’m better I have no excuse left to not get back to being productive. So… all “good” things come to an end I guess.
I have to wonder if those minor things will stick around for a long time like many people report. It’s quite annoying not being able to fill my lungs to the limit. I guess I’ll find out over the coming week.
On the plus side, I noticed Emperor Fitness ZP has been released, I’ll be able to set my Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday stack to Emperor Fitness & Spartan ZP while keeping my Monday/Wednesday/Friday stack on Paragon and GLM. I may also see if the Beasts have a place in either one of the stacks. As my stack starts on a Sunday, I can start it tomorrow.
Now, as expected this disease-forced fasting caused me to lose about 5k/10lbs and a noticeable reduction in the waist. However, my body really didn’t care where it got the energy from while healing and so it appears I definitely lost more lean body mass than I normally would when fasting while healthy.
Having spent so much time in bed made me lose my almost 500 day streak on Duolingo, that was very demoralizing. The intimidating amount of unread mails as well.
Anyways, I’ll see about discovering my groove again tomorrow.
If you mean supplements, I generally don’t take any. The body (when in balance) should have enough vitamins and minerals to last at least a month. Taking normal supplements have never had much effect on me except to once make me feel good for too long resulting in an electrolyte imbalance.
4 Likes
Electrolytes are one of the most important things on an EF.
Yesterday
- Pranayama (15 minutes)
- Vibration Plate (10 minutes)
- Neck Mobility (3 minutes)
- Yoga (15 minutes)
- Italian (20 minutes)
Still a bit on the sick side even though I feel okay. There’s something nagging in the back of my head which makes me feel less than optimal. Inhaling that last 5% is getting better though.
During my breathing my nose and sinuses were so clean it felt like a vacuum. Was a really nice experience. Likely won’t last. The exercises caused no negative effects though, that’s a good sign as they are quite energizing and demanding on the body.
Vibration plate and yoga also went fine, although it was yin yoga so I was basically lying around for a bit.
Really need to get back to the IQ stuff.
I redid my playlist for the time being. Probably still a bit on the large side, with ZP I’m able to fit Emperor Fitness, Spartan, Legacy, GLM, both Beasts and Paragon in a 2-day stack. Which is probably a bit more than I’m supposed to run.
The hard part is going to be tomorrow, throwing that kettlebell around again. But today was a decent day.
Q&A
And I’ve never had an electrolyte scare until I started supplementing. Once I started supplementing it became confusing to the body and it stopped working efficiently with what it had. Tried it twice and twice it was a less than optimal fast.
The human body, provided you did nutrition well before the fast, keeps everything it needs to survive a while stored. When it comes to the electrolytes during a fast sodium is flushed and replaced with another for basic water retention. Which supposedly is why we lose so much water in the beginning.
There is mentioning of supplementation in the almost year-long medically supervised fast, but it is balanced supplementation only taken after several months and taken intravenously. Generally the over-the-counter stuff won’t work well enough and when I was learning how to fast I was even told to stay away from mineralized water.
I’m inclined to go back to the old-school no-fuss basic fast sometime, without all the measuring and timing.
1 Like
Are you listening to everything in ZP format?
Yesterday
- Pranayama (15 minutes)
- Neck Mobility (6 minutes)
- Italian (20 minutes)
- KB24 Tabata (4 minutes)
- Yoga Mobility (15 minutes)
- Meditation (5 minutes)
Feeling a bit sick again. Just the mental feeling, no real physical symptoms.
Did my breathing exercises and neck mobility. Neck mobility is actually kind of exhausting when I do all 6 minutes in a row. I can really feel the muscles warming up.
And just as I was about to drag myself to my kettlebell my new computer monitor arrived. A single dead pixel all the way in the top left unfortunately but with nearly 5 million pixels I’ll count myself lucky and keep it. Provided it stays with that one.
Actually, it appears to be healing itself? Still there, but smaller and even more into the corner some hours later.
This screen is massive by the way. I went from a what must be over 10 years old 21" screen to a 34" ultrawide. Actually need to turn my head while working behind my computer now. Good thing I’ve been doing all that neck mobility. 
In other news, happy 22-2-22 people! Well, at the time of writing this anyway.
The KB Swings were not as hard as I would have thought after the past few weeks. Afterwards, instead of yin yoga I figured I would do a mobility flow. Definitely made my heart work.
I’ve been thinking about adding one of those basic pushup challenges to it, like the 100-a-day-for-30-days or the 6-weeks-to-100 things. Very inefficient, but it’s better than nothing and easy enough to do. Alternatively, I could put on my 50k/110lbs vest and see how many good form pushups and pullups I can manage. Can already feel the ouch.
My phone seems to agree:
What do you guys think I should do? I need something that’s easy enough to do but should my basic strength a bit more.
I did a short Twosday meditation, but I’m too tired to stay awake unfortunately. Should go to bed earlier today.
In the productivity department, I’m looking for a good way to convert some of my emails to PDF. The usual print layout doesn’t always work and I really wish I knew something to easily format email in a more PDF native format. Any ideas?
Went to bed somewhat after midnight.
Q&A
Yup, it’s all been ZP’d so I can finally divide them nicely. Even though it’s still a bit too much per stack, my exercise days are now Legacy, Beast Unleashed, Emperor Fitness Stage 2 (x2) and Spartan (x2). My recovery days are Beast Within, Godlike Masculinity and Paragon (x2). And Saturday I relax.
2 Likes
I see. Thank you.
2 Likes
So I haven’t written in a while. Neither has Shakespeare.
They talk about post-COVID brain fog. Honestly, I have no clue what it is/was, but that Thursday started out great and then I lost all motivation to do anything. Could be that brain fog, could be recon from switching to a full-ZP stack. Could be something else. All I know is that I didn’t feel like anything anymore, not even eating. All I did was play computer games, letting Kenshi magically absorb my time. I don’t even have a clue what’s going on in Ukraine. It’s a surprise I’ve even heard something is going on.
As a result, doing a retrospective about the past month wouldn’t have much of a point. Very little happened.
My body composition has gone all over the map. While I was sick my body forced me into fasting but didn’t care as much about preserving muscles. Then afterwards it first replenished its water and fat before switching it all around and creating more lean body mass. Running Emperor Fitness Stage 2 for the duration might have contributed to it all. In the end, I improved a little bit over February, but nothing dramatic.
I’m running Stage 2 for the second month in a row, will do Stage 3 in April. Been taking more rest days when I felt like it. I’ve been off the forum for weeks now (first time I didn’t even check in every day I think) so I don’t know what’s new. If there’s ZP Customs yet I will have to start thinking about that again.
I think I’ll try to consider the 4-minute Tabata kettlebell swings as not part of the exercise regime but rather a morning ritual. Then I will do them shortly after getting out of bed on both exercise and recovery days, enjoying the metabolism benefits more and leaving room to do other stuff later in the day.
It’ll be a big change for me, but I think my conditioning is at the point where I can handle it. Getting out of bed and doing them before work is the hardest part. Especially now that going back to the office is becoming mandatory again. Alas, poor COVID, I knew him once.
I’ve started becoming more consistent with my listening every day this week, only started exercising again today. I can feel that flow-state somewhere in the back of my mind, just out of reach.
Catching up my history, a quick congrats to @SubliminalUser for completing his fast. Mine was a mess unfortunately, will have to wait for May for another one I think. Gained some of that water weight back yet? 
I’ll need to get back into the IQ stuff as my test is in 2.5 weeks. To be honest, I dread the long train ride the most. Although if I just happen to have an off-day I have to wait a full year before I can take one again.
Since I still don’t know what else to do on the exercise days I figured I would start doing pushups at least, sets of 10 throughout the day, targeting a specific area. I came up with the idea in the evening so only did 5 sets total. Still, it’s 50 good form pushups. Better than nothing.
So, here’s what I did yesterday between writing the above:
- Pranayama
- KB24 Tabata (4 minutes)
- Neck mobility (2x3 minutes)
- Pushup variations targeting shoulders (5x10)
Not very impressive, but movement is the hardest part for me. The cerebral parts will come by themselves once I find my groove again.
2 Likes