Mind over Body, Fat over Carbs (Part I)

The story I’m about to share with you blew my mind and I have serious reasons to believe that it will blow your mind too. I decided to call it
“Mind Over Body and Fat Over Carbs” and if you make it all the way to the end you’ll understand why. This is Part I” Mind over Body. Part II is Fat over Carbs.

In October 2015, I completed an eighty-five mile bike ride on behalf of the MS Foundation, part of the MS 150 ride in North Florida (Jacksonville area). You’re probably familiar with this ride, perhaps you had participated in the MS ride yourself, or you know someone who did.

I’ve done the MS 150 before and I’ve done a century ride as well, so it was not my first long distance ride, but it was my first long distance ride done like this. (You’ll understand later what I mean by “like this”). In fact, I’ve been doing long distance bike rides for a good number of years, on and off.

However, this time the ride was a bit different, quite different from the average cyclist or weekend warrior (like me) would do it. Let me tell you the story of the ride first.

Grab a “cuppa”, sit down and enjoy the “ride”, I mean the story.

On the morning of the ride I had a bulletproof coffee, got my bike, two bottles of water and joined the rest of about 2000 other people who signed up for the ride. I got on the bike at 8 am and started riding, full of joy and excitement. I kept riding, passing by several rest stops, with no need to stop to refuel, use the restroom or refill water. I passed the 35 mile rest stop and the 50 mile one.

I rode eighty-five miles without taking a break, without eating any glucose gels or whatever banana and peanut butter/jelly sandwich would have been available at the rest stops.

From my training, I already expected to ride 50 miles without the need to stop for water or a restroom break. After mile 50, I became curious and interested in how the rest of the ride would go, almost like an outside observer.

When will I get tired?

When will I need to stop to refuel?

How long will I be able to ride without taking a break to rest and to refresh my legs?

All those questions started to pop into my mind. I became my own case study. Is it possible for a human, to ride 85 miles in a fasted state without taking any break? Will I be able to do that? I started to think that it was possible, but I had to prove it.

Four hours and forty-five minutes later, I got the answer to all of my questions.

Yes it was. I finished the ride, in one straight shot and in a fasted state. The only thing I took the entire ride was 1.5 liters of water.

I had so much fun during the ride. I was in the “zone” or in the “flow”, riding like a champ, singing in my head one of Queen’s songs: “Don’t stop me now, I’m having a good time, I’m having a good time…” I’m sure you know that song, if not, you can listen to it here. https://youtu.be/HgzGwKwLmgM

I had incredible physical and mental energy. A lot of it was mind over body. I believe I created my reality with my thoughts. I told myself all the time, before and during the ride: “I can do this, it’s easy and it’s fun.” I tuned into what I call it “the flow,” the zone of unlimited potential.

When I got off the bike I felt fresh, incredibly fresh. I was high from excitement, such an incredible experience. I couldn’t believe I’d done it!

I did an average of 18 miles an hour so I finished the 84.64 miles in four hours and forty-four minutes and again, I felt fantastic. I wasn’t tired. I felt like I wasn’t human.

Anyway, it was fantastic! I’m blown away by the energy I had. I could never believe that a human can have that much endurance, again, on a fasted state and that human was me!

That’s what blew my mind. I did this all without the carb loading the week or the night before and without any glucose gel or stuff like that during the ride.

When I finished the ride, I went to get water from the Red Cross table. I asked them if they had a glucometer. I really wanted to know what my blood sugar level was. They didn’t have one. Uh, what a shame. I really wanted to know my blood sugar level. Next time I will carry one with me. I will test the sugar before and after the ride. I suspect it was within normal limits, as I felt good. I didn’t have any hypoglycemic symptoms.

That’s why I’m calling this ride “Mind over Body and Fat over Carbs”, I did it while fasting. I did not have fuel in my body, except for the bulletproof coffee, (coffee, butter and coconut oil). That kept me in a fasted state. The only time you’re leaving the fasted state, metabolically speaking, is when you eat carbohydrates, because carbohydrates require insulin for absorption. Insulin is an anabolic hormone and facilitates not only glucose metabolism, but fat storage as well.
Fasting is catabolic , eating/fueling is anabolic.

How was this possible?

On part two of “Fat Over Carbs” I’ll explain how this is physiologically possible. It will get a bit technical (biochemistry like technical), but never the less, I think it is important for you to know and understand how the body uses food as fuel, so you can make the best food choices to support maximum energy production, both for physical, as well as, for mental performance.

Before doing that, I just want to clarify something. I’m not trying to say that this is “the way” and the “only way” to tap in to your maximum physical (and mental) performance. No. This is one of the many ways and one of the ways that works for me. In the end, it’s entirely up to you to research and test it on yourself and discover what works for you.
For me clearly is mind over body and fat over carbs. I’ll go in-depth into the meaning of “fat over carbs” on part II, but I don’t want to leave you thinking that all I do is “think that I can ride 85 miles”, and I don’t train for it.

With regards to the physical training this is more or less what I do:

• spring-summer-fall season once a week a long distance ride of 25-50 miles (not necessarily every week, but often enough around a race like this),
• 3-4 times a week I do HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training. My favorite are 30/60 split X 8 also known as Sprint 8 and Tabatha (20/10 X 8) X 6.
• another workout I also do once or twice a month is illustrated In the video below,
• weekly spinning (X2) and weight training (X2)
• while sitting and working at my desk, every 20-30 min I get my but off the chair and for 1 min I do some movement. An example will be 10 push-ups, 25 bicycles and 10 air-jax or jump squats, then I go back to work.

If you’d like to incorporate any of those tactics into your busy, awesome life get on the FREE Online Program 3 things you’ve got to change…. and join my FREE Private Facebook Group for ongoing support, accountability, recipes, exercise routines and wellness challenges. You’ll get the start-up of the mindset, movement and food work, the very things I use and you can use it too, to start seeing results such as this.

What I’m describing here and I’m teaching in the 3 things program is what I’ve been doing for the past 3 + years. It works like magic (with lots of sweat and tears). That’s not to say that before I was a couch potato eating junk food. No, I always worked out and ate healthy. I experimented with many ways of eating from raw vegan, vegetarian and lacto-ovo vegetarian, to eating a whole foods diet that incorporates a nice bland of plants and animal foods, with inclusion of traditional dishes, like ferments, and organ meats, while keeping high glycemic, index/load carbohydrates at a minimum. More about the food on part two: Fat over Carbs!

If you made it all the way here, you’re a warrior and I look forward to welcoming you on the 3 things program and on the Private FB Group. 

I hope my story will inspire you to take action, to change the way you eat, think and move so you can live your best life possible. 

With love, good food, happy thoughts and constant movement,
Mihaela