I spent most of last Sunday with an enormous book in my hands, The Four Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Tim Ferriss http://amzn.to/e17o1s. I eat pretty clean except when I don’t. Whether it’s diving into my Rawtella, breaking off hunks of dark chocolate, making banana & cacao shakes- you get the idea, I have my vices. Yummy, delicious vices. And I exercise almost everyday so I didn’t feel odd using last Saturday as my “cheat” (or binge) day even though I officially hadn’t read Tim’s book yet but rather a few very thoughtful reviews & interviews. And so it begins, here are a few of my takeaway points so far:

Photograph your food: I like this. I often keep a journal when I feel I’m not eating as well as I’d like too, this takes it to another level and I always have my iphone on me to take a pic.

MED: Minimum Effective Dose: Love this & if it works I may marry it. You have to read the book to get it.

Recreational activities separate from exercise: For sure, for fun, for stress release. In January I began the Tracy Anderson Method which is cardio-dancing and her massive reps to target accessory muscles. I love it & the dancing is a blast. The reps get a little boring (sorry!) but they are effective! So there it is, some things are boring but effective. Make your choice peeps.

5 minutes of daily exercise: Seriously? S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y?  I’ll let you know what happens for me- but you’ve got to read the book.

No white carbs, drinking calories or fruit.: Ugh! I love bananas & cherries & blueberries & mangoes & I don’t drink juice & I don’t eat white stuff- except on binge day- oopsie. More on that below.

One day a week is binge day. Eat out. Eat pastries. Go nuts. My thoughts & experience after trying this day once: Kinda fun, kinda weird, Tim says it’s important- I kinda agree (read the book!). The problem for me was after spending my Saturday eating vegan pizza, vegan bread, a vegan ice cream sammie, few bites of vegan banana bread, and the top of a vegan cupcake I wanted to hurl & my chin broke out in little white pimples the following 2 days. ugh. ***Sorry, I’ll stop with the vegan in front of everything. ;)***

Eat the same few meals over & over again: Totally doable for me, not for everyone but there’s loads of wiggle room here.

Measure your body: I’ve had this down so many times & charted & graphed & it is very useful but right now all that stuff is in storage and it’s not coming out until we move… stay tuned. 🙂

Eat: (this is more my list based on what Tim lays out in the book & because I do eat a vegan diet which is high raw I made this list mostly as a reminder for myself) avocados, black beans, lentils, lima beans, chard, spinach, broccoli, pinto beans, mushrooms, collards, black-eyed peas, tempeh, pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, pine nuts, almond butter, peanut butter, carrots, cauliflower, sauerkraut, peas, asparagus, green beans, red beans, Yves veggie hot dogs, salsa, refried beans, chia seeds, bee pollen, green tea, Sun Warrior Chocolate raw vegan protein powder (Ferriss sort of suggests it in the book), veggies veggies veggies, greens greens greens. I would think quinoa would be acceptable too- plus I love it & me & my piles of bananas can’t be stopped so we’ll see what kind of results I can get while still eating ONE banana a day.

In conclusion there is a lot more for me to read & experience before I can say if this works for me but the concepts are very interesting. And I’ll still be doing yoga, some dance & some Tracy Anderson Method reps for sure; because I like to. And that’s that.

XO

Ami