An Exercise in Motivation

It's interesting watching other people train, it's also interesting watching other people train other people. You know I mentioned the push up thingummy earlier, well the way I was doing them is exactly the way the fitness instructors were telling their clients to train. Exercising the shoulders and not the arms and chest. The way that Andy told me to train is as I expected a damn sight harder to do, but I suppose if I want the right kind of results, then it should stand to reason that I actually exercise properly.

It was also interesting that there were a lot of new starters in the gym tonight. Obviously the new year's resolutions are still working for some people. But one gym session does not make a fitness plan so it will be interesting to see how many last the distance!

But that's not what's really interesting about tonight. I've been having heart burn all day, so I called at a chemist on the way home to buy some relief. The pharmacist recommended not eating or drinking ANYTHING for 2 hours before going to bed. Simply because it takes that long for the stomach contents to empty and thus stopping the reflux back into the oesophagus. Might explain why I've been getting heart burn then. It might also explain why some nights are better than others....do you sleep better if your body isn't busy processing the late night snacks?

It's interesting - last Friday night I didn't eat anything after 6pm and didn't drink much beyond 9pm and what i did have was a cup of black tea and some soda water...and I slept the best I have slept in a long time (Which as you know is saying something)  Now - the following night - Saturday - late night snacking (cheese and bikkies) and a fair bit of alcohol - and sure enough - awake half the night.

So taking the pharmacists advise tonight - I ate dinner at 7.45 (that's the trouble with going to the gym) and have not had anything to drink since 8.30 which means that it's almost time for bed.

But seriously is this another case of circumventing the body's natural rythmns and cycles? Like artificial light we don't need to go to bed when the sun goes down, and it is constant feast times. Our bodies don't remember fasting or famine - most of us can't remember when we last felt really and truthfully hungry. And the sum total of our hunting and gathering is a quick trip to the supermarket. Yet our bodies and our minds remember, and they happily run around mopping up the excess foods we have consumed, stuffing it into the vast caverns of our fat stores. Just in case we can't get out of our homes to get bread and milk.

I wonder if it is healthy to fast? I also wonder how long it would be before we succumbed to the temptation to eat? Would we still need to diet if we actually followed the bodies natural rhythms?