Ten days of juices and sports
With sports fasting you train your fat burning in ten days. Your stamina improves, you feel less craving for sweets and you also lose a few pounds, at least that’s what the organization predicts. One athlete swears by it, the other thinks it is nonsense. HealthNet wanted to try it for itself.
Sportfasting is a tough training course and is therefore only suitable for healthy people with a decent basic condition. After an intake interview with my coach, I turned out to be a good candidate. I run about three times a week and may not be 100 percent bikini proof yet, but my BMI is fine. Since I am not overweight, the expected weight loss is a few kilograms. Because of my vegetarian eating habits, the coach fears that the cure will not work for me, but after some extra vitamin supplements I can start.
Honestly I’m not looking forward to it sport fasting. Everything I love is taken off the menu for ten days. No cheese sandwiches, cappuccino, pasta, chocolate or elaborate dinners for me for a while. Halfway through the treatment, you can only live on juices for three days, while you do have to exercise for half an hour every day. So I mentally prepare myself for a tough week, filled with headaches, hunger and apple bland, and enjoy a slice of apple pie and a delicious cheese fondue with mountains of baguette the day before I start.
phasing out
The first three days are all about winding down. Breakfast with fruit, in the afternoon a salad and in the evening vegetables with some rice. Against hunger I can gnaw a handful of pistachios after dinner. It takes some getting used to not eating anything in between. Around ten my stomach is growling again and then it takes a long time before lunch time.
The mandatory half hour of sport is getting heavier by the day. Normally I walk comfortably for an hour, but now such a small round is already a challenge. On the corner of the street I am already out of breath and sweat is streaming down my back.
On the third reduction day I get up nauseated and shivering. I try to work in the supplements and a little orange juice, but it comes out just as quickly. My body doesn’t seem to like such a juice on an empty stomach. During the day I will recover, but I am now starting to worry about the real juice fast days.
fasting
For the next three days, my breakfast, lunch and dinner will consist of 150 millimeters of juice. Not a pleasant prospect. After my miserable last reduction day, I decide to start the day with a cup from now on teaMy stomach tolerates that a lot better. The first juice will come later. The first fast day I am free and I take it easy, but the next day I just have to get back to work. It’s starting to take its toll at work. Concentrating is impossible, I have to read each text five times before the content sinks in and I can’t bring myself to walk out for lunch shopping. The good news is that according to the urine test I made the metabolic switch.
The last juice day is smoother. I never thought I’d get used to just drinking juice all day. Knowing that this is the last juice day, it’s easy to keep up. In the evening I have a party where the hostess has prepared a table full of cake, chocolate, tapenade sandwiches and wine. I stick to tea and smuggle four olives for the first time.
rebuilding
Finally something to eat for breakfast. No juices, but an apple and a kiwi. I was really looking forward to it, but it wasn’t particularly tasty. I’m much more in the mood for a hearty cheese sandwich. Today I can skip sports for a day, but I had already registered for the Utrecht girls’ run. Normally I would run 10 kilometers, but because that is really not feasible after all those days of barely eating, I participate in the 5. It feels like a marathon. I can’t control my breathing. Maybe that would work by going for a walk, but that’s really too much for me. Between chatting runners for whom this is probably their very first running event, I trudge frustrated at my snail’s pace through the city center of Utrecht. After more than 32 minutes I drag myself across the finish line, all the way up. The next day I email my coach that I am out of breath so quickly and she advises me to take a day off.
Now that I can eat again, I notice that my metabolism is being revived. Where I didn’t really feel hungry on the fast days, it is now rearing its head again. In the middle of the morning my stomach is growling and around four o’clock again. I’m writing an article about bread and can almost smell the delicious sandwiches. Fortunately I feel a lot fitter and I no longer suffer from a messy head. Exercising is also easier.
Conclusion
For inspiration I have followed a lot of weblogs of fellow sports enthusiasts. Some experience it as a very heavy task, others cycle through it in no time. Fortunately, I rather belong to the second category. Cutting back on food and even fasting was not that bad for me. During the juice fast days I was a bit limp and I noticed that my concentration was not too good, but apart from that I have had few complaints: none headache, hunger or dizziness. I did suffer from a somewhat rushed feeling, so I slept badly during the treatment.
Because you are prescribed exactly what you can eat and drink, I was not tempted to secretly eat more. You don’t have to dub whether or not you take another snack, it’s simply not allowed. Taking supplements three times a day was a problem for me. You dissolve one of the supplements in water, which you then have to drink for three hours. Such a sticky drink all day long is not very pleasant.
I don’t know yet whether I have benefited from the sports fasting cure. According to the coach, it will take one to two weeks before you have recovered and will notice an improvement in your sports performance. So wait a little longer. I have lost four kilograms and I already feel very fit. The first longer endurance run, a week after the cure, went almost automatically. Could that be because of the cure or because I took it easy for over a week?
In any case, with sports fasting I have broken through all kinds of ingrained eating habits and I am extra motivated to do something healthier in the coming period. I really didn’t think I could live without my daily bread meal, but I actually like it very much. I also seem to be able to do without something tasty after dinner. Sports fasting seems to me to be a good start for people who want to eat healthier.
You can find a sports fasting coach via sportvasten.nl. Sportfasting is available from 235 euros. This includes 2 hours individual guidance and all supplements. The price depends on the amount of guidance and the rate of the coach.
