Saturday, August 18, 2012

Reflection: Training, diet..and more this Ramadan.

I am sitting here, staring at this blank page wondering what I should write. A lot has happened in the past four weeks, and as we are in our last day of Ramadan today, there is a lot to reflect on.

I am a planner. I plan things. Want things to happen in a certain order as long as it's something I can control myself. Especially when it comes to my training, diet...etc.

The first two weeks and a half of Ramadan everything was great. On point. On plan. Great results training and diet wise. Set 5 personal records, if not more. But, this last week and a half, has been anything but planned.

Due to circumstances, which I wish not to discuss at this point in time, everything changed. I stopped training regularly, my diet went outside the window (well, partially! Ehm.) An incident threw me off my trail and the path I was planning to take during and after Ramadan.

There are a lot of decisions that I realized I have to make, some of which I haven't made yet completely - hence the vagueness. Soon, I promise! - These decisions will change the course of my short-term, long-term, and future goals.

Since everything has worked in a way I didn't anticipate, I decided the best thing to do is prescribe myself a de-load week (which means less intensity in training or completely off, but with light everyday activity.) I am no where near needing a de-load week physically. But mentally, I am in a place where taking a week off away from the gym, is much needed. As a result, I have stepped away from the gym completely the past few days, and will return training by middle of next week with a clearer thought on the next step.

Aside from this big bump on the road, everything I have planned training and diet wise has given me the results I aimed for. Strength gains, a bit of fat loss, and good energy during training sessions after a day of complete fast.

Focusing on high protein, high fat, low carb Fatoor and Sahoor, has worked to my favor, there was no sense of feeling tired, bloated, sleepy. I trained after finishing prayers, around 10pm as it was the optimal time to exercise as I've had the energy and hydration to do so.

A previous post has a great detail on my diet and training HERE and I wrote a general guide on the matter for local sports newspaper HERE.

All I have to say to end this post is there are a lot of uncertainties right now at the moment, but soon everything will be clear and make sense. Also, stay tuned as I have exciting news that I will announce in a few weeks!

Over, and Out.



 

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