The thing about being injured is being able to adapt, not only with exercise but with diet also.

The first question I always ask the physio is “what can I do” rather than “what can’t I do” – if I can’t run maybe I can use the cross trainer, if I can’t kick maybe I can swim with a pool bouy – any adaptions that can be made to keep going.

However it’s hard to adjust your appetite (well it is for me).

I like routines and plans, if it’s not written down then I’m likely to go off piste, turn up to the gym with no plan then i will fall back on my normal weight training routine and a 45 min watt bike blast.

Same goes with food so in a bid to keep the weight under control I thought I would give intermittent fasting a go. I won’t go in to the details and explain the different options when it comes to fasting as there is a wealth of information online which will explain it just as well – however one piece of advice that I found was make it fit your own lifestyle and adapt it how you wish – there is no one size fits all. The most common method (which I adapted) is the 16:8 method.

So I set a short term goal, 5 weeks of intermittent fasting (pre holiday), see if I can maintain my current fitness regime, make it fit shift work, loose a few pounds and reduce body fat percentage – to measure this I used the gym body fat scales (#tanita) – whilst there may be some differing results between scales if use the same set of scales in the same conditions then any loss is going to be real – so starting results were.

83.9 kg and 19.5% body fat were the main measurements used to compare.

So my adapted technique was as follows –

12:12 method (12 hr fast, 12 hr eating window)

Followed from Sun night through to Fri night taking sat and sun off

No effort made to change diet

The 12 hour timeframe was dependant on my shift – on a day shift I would fast 10pm to 10am and on night shifts 3am to 3pm.

So how did it go . . . Pretty Well – ok so 12 hours might not seem a difficult fasting period and on the whole it wasn’t to bad, the difficult times were day shifts which generally meant a 4:45am get up and an hour cycle commute to work and having to wait until 10am for food but it was good mental strength development (a topic for another time).

The benefits I found were

* As someone who snacks this cut down my ability to do so mid morning and between 10pm and midnight when working were my weak points – however I could no longer snack at night as I was fasting – and mid morning was now my breakfast time.

* Phasing in with 12 hours meant it was relatively easy to stick to and I made no major changes to my diet.

And the results –

So the results after 5 weeks

79.9 kg (4kg loss)

17.1% body fat (2.1% loss)

Pretty chuffed with the results although I need to take in to account that I was training 5 to 6 days a week, the type of training and focus/intensity was a little different as it’s all based around having fun and maintaining fitness throughout injury but it shows that it can work.

So if you feel you have a few pounds to lose or want to drop a body fat I would recommend giving it a go – and like I say make it fit your lifestyle – go to extreme and you are unlikely to keep it going.

So a 2 week break whilst-on holiday (lets see what the scales say when I return) and then I will return to the method above for a few weeks before looking to make further adaptions.

So why blog – well I’m not not an elite athlete however I am hoping there may be something those that do read this can take from it to aid there own training or inspire you to keep up your sporting journey.

I read others who blog and always manage to find some idea, piece of knowledge or bit of motivation to push me on. If nothing else then it’s a good personal diary for me to reflect on.

THE MOTIVATION

I wasn’t born sporty and certainly not blessed with good genes, a slightly chubby teenager with a lack of footballing ability and at that time it was all about football. However at 15 I discovered cricket and found out I was pretty good, this motivated me to pick up fitness as a career and started to dabble in various sports and gym work and from that point on it became a real passion, this was aided by an addictive personality however I also like food . . . A lot, hence why a chiselled six pack has never made an appearance 😂😂😂

A badly prolapsed disc at 21 started the epidemic of my glass body continuously breaking, this put me out for 18 months and marked the end of my cricket career, however I took the positive approach and rather than dwell on what I couldn’t do and focussed on what I could. Initial rehab saw me doing various amounts of strength and conditioning and ended up dabbling in various activities, gym work, Running, tennis, golf, Rock Climbing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – I have always been competitive but became a jack of all trades, master of non.

DO AS I SAY

As a personal trainer and coach I was great at giving out advice, not so good at listening to it myself though. My training was never focussed enough and was probably guilty of doing to much, however I was having fun doing it, the one piece of advice I always give is to enjoy keeping fit, if it becomes a chore you are less likely to keep going. You need to find your own motivation and set your goals accordingly whether that be lose weight, run a certain distance or qualify for a certain event.

My keenness was my downfall as I took up new sporting challenges with very little recoup time built in and relied on a pattern of train hard, break body, fix body, start again – never any major broken bones (apart from fingers and toes) but ligament, cartilage, sprains and strains all followed.

TRIATHLON

Having completed my first triathlon in 2012 I never looked back and got the bug, a few minor blips in the first 2 years whilst trying to combine other sports I then started a clear injury free run and managed to tick off some challenges off the list, 24 hour non stop 320 mile bike ride, first marathon, half ironman tri, however the past 2 years have seen a drop back in to the injury days which cumulated in the latest injury which began in May 2018.

(One of my early triathlons and still my favourite event, the Snowdonia slateman)

LATEST INJURY

A knock on the knee getting out of the pool in a sprint Aquathlon triggered something, a bit of physio and I thought I was ok however having to pull up on the run at the next middle distance race proved otherwise. And that’s where it began, 6 months of physio,scans and appointments saw a brief return with a sprint triathlon but then the knee went again, so I’m now awaiting a specialist appointment to discuss surgery. Currently unable to run, swimming is ok and biking to a certain point the plan is

Do what I can to stay as fit and strong as possible before surgery

Enjoy training for fun

Try new methods of training/dieting

Keep the weight down !!!!!

So I’m going to chart the journey from now to (hopefully) race return including any new methods starting with intermittent fasting.

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