Categoria: Produttività

1 year of intermittent fasting. And I’m feeling great.

Experimenting lead me to an extension of my fasting period.

I started this amazing 2012 with a 24h fast. Fasting this way, you set yourself free from the pressure of eating. You destroy habits. And this feels good. The result is incredible, because when everyone else is eating, I am getting things done, training, writing, experimenting, studying, reading, meditating or what I feel like doing. I do what I want to do. I just use better my time.

Freedom in lifestyle includes simplicity. When you simplify your eating, you have a saner life. You have time for what’s really important and valuable.

Even if I keep fasting again and again (in different ways) I had a weight gain, probably due to my weekly 3 or 4 archery training sessions.

In fasted mode, I mostly drink fresh water. I increased my intake of raw fruit, decreasing my intake of refined grain products. Extending the fasting period, meditation and its effectiveness are amplified. In addition to this, I’m getting used to:

• •.greater concentration for longer periods of time 

• •.higher creativity rates (to create stuff, think, study, etc) 

• •.higher quality of perceptions (sounds, colors, ability to move) 

• •.higher resistance to effort 

• •.Better resistance to insulin peaks 

• •.More long term thinking (which is good) 

• •.Clear thinking 

• •.Improved awareness  

• •.positive attitude towards life 

• •.Detachment from outcome  

• •.Time? irrelevant 

• •.Carelessness for what does not conform to my own standards 

I went completely cellphone-free during the weekend: I left it at home. I have experienced what it feels like to be disconnected from the digital world. And, the most important aspect of it…

being disconnected feels great

When I got home, I was curious to see if I had missed something important and.. well, relax folks: ahahah, nothing happened! Nobody wanted my attention during the last few days.

And it is good to see this, because when we disconnect from the digital side of our life it is far too easy to imagine the world as a distant place.  Apparently, our devices are just like passports to the digital world: ahaha, it is Life v.2.0. We can easily lose the perception of what’s real and what’s virtual. If we mistakenly exchange these two worlds in our lives, then we’re screwed.  Why? I think it is just a matter of emotions. When we get too emotionally attached to devices and technology, we get lost in an altered space/time continuum. The real problem is not the device itself; it is the digital reality we are projected into. Unlike real life, virtual reality has no space or time. That’s why it is soooooo easy to lose time perception during our connection and navigation

Digital Sabbatical to unclutter and declutter our mind

So, this makes me realize how important it is to go on digital vacation every now and then; if you can, shut your digital appliances off even for a few hours today. Shut them off during your working hours if you can, so it will be easier to concentrate on a single task. Think about it: If you keep doing this 1 hour every day, you have 7 hours of total disconnection in a week. And sure enough, you’d feel better. You can tell me at the end of the week if you want! 🙂

what you can do

Make this day count in a different way: get out of your comfort zone and get things done. If you get out of your comfort zone, you have an idea about where you are in the path of life and what you can do to better your lifestyle: you evaluate what’s working for you and what needs to be “deleted” from your life. It’s a really simple and straightforward process:

1. 1.You decide to make an experience 

2. 2.You evaluate the results, accepting them,  

3. 3.You reapply the experience process or change it 

There is one thing I love: getting things done and then wonder at the beauty of the material I have created.

some practical ideas:

You can:

• •.create music,  

• •.write a blog post or an ebook 

• •.do whatever you feel like doing  

• •.read a good book  

• •.meet your friends 

• •.get to know new people 

• •.meet strangers and talk to them  

• •.exchange emotions 

• •.play an instrument  

• •.go training with your buddies 

• •.exchange points of view and start creating something new.  

This weekend, for example, I am working on Ubuntulook’s content, to make it simpler to read, condensing it to few stuff, editing some html code to make it simpler to navigate in it, etc. Well, do something different from what you do every single day of what you call “a boring life”.

Life is not boring: it is just the way you make it.

A better-lived week is composed of better-lived days.

Intermittent fasting works. I also believe it is the best way to correctly feed our body, getting rid of traditions, bad habits and other worthless cultural concepts. To me, Intermittent fasting is productivity applied to the mental and physical well being.

On the quality of my old dieting habits
As you probably know, during the last months I have been fasting intermittently. I am living without breakfast since last January. My abs have been goodlooking and I have been feeling great. Now, during the past 2-3 weeks, it happened to me to eat meals (every sort of meal, from raw fruit to pasta, to sweets), every day breaking the daily 16-18h fasting window I used to respect during the past months.

What I found out

even if I was eating whole and unprocessed foods the whole time, moving around and, as doctors say “with an active lifestyle”, I was getting fat again, regaining every single kilogram (you prefer the term pound?) I had previously lost since January 2011.

That is to say, to also confirm what I have always thought to be right, not only it is what we eat that makes the difference between  weight loss and gain: it is the time between our meals which makes the whole difference.

This confirms the ideas I have been advocating to since last January: healthy living is not meant to be complicated. Health is simple. At least 18 hours fast between our daily intake of food can completely change our life, enhancing our health and boosting our immunity.

The basic rule is: If it is complicated, it is not healthy. Eating less frees up lots of time in your day you can devote to the pursuit of meaningful activities and goals.

Eating less = more space for what really must exist in your life. Enables you to create space and silence in your life.

It enabled me to write Life, my first free eBook in just 3 days.

What am I doing now, to restablish the situation?

I started respecting strictly my diet plan again. No need to bloat myself with things I don’t need in hours I don’t feel like eating. I feel more concentrated; my energy lasts longer and my resistance is improved, especially when I am moving around town. I can focus way better on study material; I love to feel satiated at night, but I also love to respect my body for what it is: it is just a body. If I am expending time and energy on stuff I don’t need, it just makes me feel bad about what I do to my body and what I do to my mind.

For those of you who are interested in the technical details of my diet, click this way.

Hey! This is the second part of last week’s article! Be sure to check it out if you haven’t yet! Simplicity is the core of nutrition I advocate to. Well being and being good-looking is the direct result. No supplements, vitamins, minerals, no junk information.

I’m just a human. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want.

What I Did

I restricted my feeding window to few hours every day: this is not always possible, due to external factors and events, but I generally eat from 4 – 5 PM till when I go sleeping, at night. If I feel like eating, I will eat something whenever I want, between the eating window.

While you don’t eat, try to get something done.

Activities, writings, whatever you could be interested in. Play you guitar, do whatever the hell you want to do. Just keep moving. Even if you keep your ass glued to a chair, make sure you are doing something. Get things done. Make this time an opportunity to improve yourself and your life.

Move more by walking

There’s no need for weights, bodybuilding trainings, high interval stuff, supplements, anabolic and low fat nutrition. Simply WALK.

Burn the fat, walking. That’s what will give you nice looking abs. A simple walk is the best way to get abs. This is the real truth. If it has worked for me it can work for everybody.

The general idea is to understand if your hunger is just an impulse to stress, or it is real hunger. Make sure you are able to tell this, before you eat something. If you eat too much during a day, you can eat less on the following one. If you are at a special event, you can also eat what you want, the amount of stuff you want to eat. The choice is basically yours.

That is to say: eat whenever you are really hungry.

Eat real meals. Stop eating (too much?) pasta, refined grains and processed foods. Load on vegetable carbohydrates, proteins and fat. Lots of proteins and fats will make you happy, sane and balanced. Lots of vegetables, fruits. Keep your body hydrated with lots of water. No juices, no cola, no diet sodas. Forget about cholesterol, low fat or low carb diets.

Nothing will actually stop you from losing weight because if you live in a fastened state you are always keeping your weight under balance. Moreover, your abs will uncover in a matter of few weeks.

A quick word about artificial junk, flavors, fast foods, fake meats, etc

You can eat and drink junk stuff whenever you want, and that’s OK. But that stuff is really harmful to your body. Artificial stuff is poison for our natural body. So, try to stick to natural alternatives and REAL meals

With intermittent fasting…

You will also be more focused; concentration improves. Creativity will boost tremendously. I have nothing more to tell you about Intermittent fasting except..

Start it NOW!

If you don’t believe me, that’s great, because you should believe your body. I have decided to give IF a try: I listened to my body. I have decided to stick with it because I felt OK with it. If I hadn’t walked this way, I would probably still be wondering if there is a better diet out there!

The best diet you can choose is the one which makes you feel better.

This way of eating respects the way humans have been living.

We’re animals, don’t forget about it. Eating this way is how humanity has been eating for its long existence on this planet. This is how our evolutionary traits are. By eating intermittently we are respecting our nature, instead of destroying it.

This is how we can have the best from our body and mind. This will give full potential to what we really are. Deprogramming, this is what is all about. Discover forgotten eating patterns. In this society we have everything, from the best to the worst stuff we can find around. Be wise on what you choose to feed on.

That’s only a matter of good sense and equilibrium.

I made my choice.

Yours is only up to you.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress

– Frederick Douglass

I think it is important to step back and analyze our habits and our life, sometimes. It’s natural: we need to recharge our batteries, clear our mind and focus the right way towards what we’re really meant to BE.

To me, personal development, stepping back, reflecting on my life means experimenting, analyzing things on my own, while enjoying life for what it is. Life is the result of how much we’ve been able to evolve and to stretch, to change habits, paradigms, mental patterns during our time. The more we can stretch, the more we grow strong and our consciousness about our lives expands. I love keeping myself on the edge, because when you understand you have nothing to lose, that’s the exact moment in which you understand you have everything you may ever need (even if you don’t realize it at first). You are already perfect, and this is why you’re here, walking and breathing on this planet.

Our reality is made of what we introduce in our lives. That’s what lifestyle development, is all about to me.

• •.Learning new stuff  

• •.living differently  

• •.changing our habits 

• •.putting down a bad habit to ingrain a good one  

because everything is a byproduct of HOW we let our lives and our deepest selves evolve. In order to create a balance between our physical and mental realities, we need to stretch, discover, wonder about things and try out new things.
Opening our mind to a new, unexpected experience is the first step we have to take.  Then, all you have to do is removing the junk from yourself and your life, while enjoying the present moment. Moreover, in this process, try telling what’s good from what is bad for you.

It takes time to tell what is good from what is bad for us.
Stop looking for easy shortcuts: they lead nowhere.

Don’t settle for what doesn’t make you shiver and smile.

Start living up to your own standards.

Words, if not turned into actions, lead nowhere.
To me, life is an opportunity to challenge myself. To test where my best self is; when I need to stretch my limits, work and rework, create and destroy what I sense to be a “game”.  Experiments are an opportunity to strenghten bonds or to loosen them with what requires your attention. They are a way to interact with my highest and lowest self, to see what my reality is all about.

Now, getting down to business, let’s call this a reality check paragraph: I have something to tell you about the new things I’ve been living with or without, during the last 2 weeks:

• •.my mobile phone is quasi-always turned off (thanks to the email, I know when someone is going to call me). I think I will recharge my phone battery once or twice a month. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? 

• •.I know I don’t need shaving foam neither, because water and razor work perfectly on my skin. So, after having said goodbye to electric shaving, I can also trash my shaving foam. 

To me, these results speak out loud
I can perfectly live with Less,  effortlessly. We can perfectly live with Less, effortlessly. Yes, we can.

What is this week about?

• •.Dieting: mostly Seeds, Raw fruit and vegetables  

It is about diet, dieting and feeding my body the right way. Intermittent Fasting has been following me since January 2011. Now, I want to hack this diet a bit, by removing excess refined sugars and junk food with seeds, raw fruit and vegetables. Sure, I eat lots of different meals (pasta, sweets, etc) every once in a while. But I am including Raw fruit, vegetables and seeds in order to make them a big percentage of  my daily caloric intake.

• •.Create something right off the bat, at least once a day 

It’s not rocket science understanding the way we need to create stuff in our lives: let’s sit down and create something valuable, worth the time it takes to be read; worth the attention span of a modern sexy reader; worth precious minutes of your time. Read lots of nice books. Let amazing people’s words and actions inspire you (in the way you live and walk on this planet). I am writing every day, at least a simple line of valuable content. This has introduced lots of great experiences and ideas into my life so, I am wondering about how will I be able to keep this habit alive for many months to come.

This article is about reconnecting with the higher self, making change easier and possible for everyone of us. In the long run, to use Bruce Lee’s words, is good to “become water”. We need to adapt, ready to flow freely without worrying about where we’re going to go and where we’re going to end up.

How can we opt for saner and healthier habits?
Simply reconnecting with what’s the saner alternative of something. It is important to make space, breathe and to recharge our batteries every once in a while: it feels reinvigorating to opt for a slow version of a specific activity. I personally encourage you to try these new ideas out, and also trying out new things for yourself!

What am I including into my lifestyle?

• •.Subtract instead of adding 

That’s what Leo Babauta’s Effortless life is all about. I suggest you to read Leo’s wonderful new book by checking it out right now: I personally found it amazing. To me, the idea of subtracting is all about the idea of Enough, contentment, being able to live with less, by enjoying more of what we already have. I always try to subtract whenever I can reduce my consumption of something, from media news to the files I keep saved in my hard disk. Basically, it’s what we usually call “decluttering” and “downsizing” in Minimalism. I was already familiar with this kind of practice but the idea of Enough and subraction helped strenghtening my motivation. I need to save mental cycles for what really matters in life.

• •.Manual Shaving 

Instead of the classic electric shavers available out there. It may just be me, but It’s actually quite fun to shave manually, because it makes the act of shaving feel like a ceremony. It makes shaving like a ceremonial act to respect ourselves as men, as human beings and as amazing creatures. It’s like a return to what’s real, to what’s natural and healthy.

Why I do it:

I am stepping back from technology. I need a less technological life, in order to keep up with what’s really worth living and enjoying. Less electromagnetic emissions.

Enriching our experience with new things and activies makes us stronger, happier and more creative. Trying out new things is a common theme I talk about in Life, the free eBook I published on August.

To me, it is importat to try new things out.

• •.One, because I love to know things by direct experience.  

• •.Two, because I trust my instinct: we, as human beings, are made to feel better when we do new things refusing to settle down with what we already have.  

I love that adrenaline rush when you do something completely new. I love those moments. I also love doing new things, because I feel comfortable in my own skin. I simply love the idea of becoming more and more rooten in my own reality. The more experience you have, in every aspect of life, the more you can ask yourself to do. For example, the more time you work, the more time you want to work (and you can work). Being in the present moment is the key here: the concepts of past and future put a real burden on our existence. That’s why I delete my files periodically. That’s why I am editing my blog’s posts.

I delete what keeps me anchored to a past I will never live again. After all, it’s gone. I don’t need it again. Especially in the context of Lifestyle Design, making new experiences is important, so to replace your old bad habits with new positive ones. Plus, detaching from bad realities feels incredible. So, what’s new in my experience?

• •.cell phone shut off   

when I don’t use it. Last week, I’ve been carrying my cell phone completely shut off; I only checked for calls or messages once every 1-2 hours of complete disconnection. I also make sure to take the battery out of the phone (to keep up to date with the right time and date, the phone keeps emitting radiations if you leave the battery inserted), so I can be free from radiation and electromagnetic signals.

• •.Wifi’s off 

I prefer relying on cabled connection to surf the internet. I want to limit my exposure to unnecessary radiations.