Exercise and fasting and my bony self

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So, an idea of doing a short juice cleanse/fast type of thing was bantered around by a few friends. None of us have done anything like this and were thinking of trying it out. This is solely in the "hey, maybe we should try that" stage- no specific plan or start date has been suggested, so I'm just starting to research.

While this is an interesting idea to me, because I've never done it and because of a few other things, I'd be a little worried about it.
I take yoga once a week and train with derby, sometimes pretty hard, for two hours usually three other days a week. This means I'm exercising quite a bit- more than the other people who'd be doing this with me, at least. In addition to that, I have a pretty really naturally high metabolism and I've always been really thin; I'm at least mildly hungry a lot of the time as it is and can be pretty sensitive to when my blood sugar levels drop. I worry that if I fasted, it would be easy for my caloric intake to not be high enough for me to be healthy. Or maybe it wouldn't be that big of a deal if we only did this for three days and I took it easy for those three days? I'm not sure.

Because the girls on my derby team are generally more athletic and knowledgeable about this kind of thing than I am (my captain is a yoga instructor, others play or have played other sports, etc.), I asked them via an email list if they had any thoughts on this. The one response I got was that in her opinion, I should definitely *not* fast and that I should, in fact, do the opposite, and drink protein shakes and work on building muscle.

Hmm. While I have no desire to be a beefcake, this is also an interesting idea. Left to my own devices, my diet is probably really weighted on the carb end.

What do you think, livejournal?


Oh, man. I'm not becoming one of those crazy exercise/health people, am I?

Shit.

Comments

[springbok1.livejournal.com]

I have problems with blood sugar levels too, and I've actually found a diet with higher protein and lower carb levels to keep my levels in check for longer. I do fast for religious reasons once a year, and I always do better when I have plenty of proteins going into the fast. But everyone's body is different.

I do recommend protein shakes/smoothies though. Not the kind you buy in stores, but the kind that you make yourself. You can get yogurt and protein powder at the grocery store/co-op, and then play around with the types of frozen fruits, veggies, flavorings, and other supplements you want to throw in. For a sweetener, I use honey. All of the commercial protein shakes I've tried have been way too sweet, in a sort of aspartame-y way, so I really like being able to control the level of sweetness myself, and I don't mind the extra calories from the honey.