Slow Carb Diet and Colorado Experiment Week 3

It’s been three weeks following the slow carb diet suggested by Tim Ferriss. I have to thank Eugene Thong because his breathing advice cured the exercise induced headaches I’d been getting. This is very important to learn for anyone who isn’t experienced weight training with the 5-5 cadence (5 seconds up and 5 seconds down for each repetition).

The problem was that I was only taking one breath for each repetition. This worked fine at my old pace, but the 5-5 cadence makes repetitions much longer. Although I was breathing deeply, pressure built up and caused the headaches. This is the correct breathing technique that I’ve started using as Eugene described it:

Overbreathe – Rather than use the “exhale when you exert, inhale when you relax” standard, breathe with a steady repeating pattern, increasing your rate of breathing as the effort increases. At the end of the set when you’re giving your best efforts, your breathing should almost resemble Lamaze or hyperventilating.

Now that I’m breathing right I’ve gotten back into the weight training. I’m optimistic it will compliment the diet and lead to some nice results in the next few weeks.

Slow Carb Diet

A couple observations on the diet:

• It’s easy to stick to the diet when you’re in a weekly routine. I’ve been eating the same combinations of vegetables, legumes, and meats for nearly every meal. I eat good portions and haven’t felt deprived at all.
• It gets difficult when you’re pulled out of your controlled environment and eat in a social setting. It’s not very fun going to a restaurant and not being able to order anything but a salad. It’s amazing how much white carbs and sugar are a part of our cultural diet.
• I’ve been very liberal on my “free” days. A couple times I’ve eaten a tremendous amount of junk and I think it’s negated some of my fat loss. For the rest of the month I plan to stick to healthier carbs for the most part.

I’m looking forward to seeing my actual weight change at the end of the 4 weeks. I don’t think it will be too large, but the diet and workout routine has been an interesting experience and I can see myself sticking to it.

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