So the WildFit Challenge has become quite a thing lately, it seems interesting so I thought I’d dive in and give it a try. I’ve done multiple other things before including following the slow carb diet from 4 Hour Body (which was difficult, impractical and unpleasant), I’ve completed the entire Insanity program without missing a day (man that was hardcore) and I’ve tried Couch-to-5K.
And I’m still overweight, although reasonably fit I could be much healthier. And with the results I’ve seen from WildFit (my CEO went from 22% to 15% body fat, and another guy lost 7KG from about 80+ which is great).
It’s an interesting program as it doesn’t advocate exercise, not for weight loss anyway, how much you weigh and how your body looks is 95% your diet – which I’ve had personal experience with. Insanity lost basically zero weight for me, it did drop my BF% but that’s all.
It’s more about psychology and the thoughts, emotions and habits you have surrounding food. Adjusting and resetting those, rather than cutting out a bunch of stuff and relying on willpower (which WILL fail).
WildFit is a powerful, effective and new health and Fitness methodology, a methodology that draws its inspiration from evolutionary and functional medicine and nutritional anthropology.
Humans evolved in a process that took millions of years and took place almost entirely in nature. Today, even as we have removed the perils of living in the wild, we have created a lethal lifestyle that is sweeping the planet and causing a wide variety of diseases, weight problems and, sadly, massively reduced quality of life and lifespan.
As we face the reality of a generation growing up processed food and without regular exercise, we are beginning to wake up to the reality that we are off-course. That the human and financial cost of our current way of life is far too great. Inspired by Eric Edmeades’ 2003 Essay The Human Diet, WildFit is a fitness methodology informed by evolution and human history. Today, most people know what to eat, what not to eat and that they should exercises. And still, most people are over fed, under nourished and lack the most basic levels of physical fitness that will lead to a long, healthy and enjoyable life.
WildFit address the five primary reasons that so many people have yet to make the changes their bodies so badly want them to make and then guides you through an easy program to make lasting changes without ever feeling hungry and always having a feeling of abundant freedom.
It has interesting concepts like the 6 human hungers, which we all get trapped by – many people eat emotionally (I drink), most people are dehydrated and don’t know so they eat when they are actually just thirsty. There’s also “Code Red” or low blood sugar hunger which we call HANGRY, which you should never let yourself get to.
Week 1 of The WildFit Challenge
So this first week of the challenge really isn’t a challenge – there are no required changes. Nope, nothing to cut out or cut back on.
Basically, the only instruction is – drink AT LEAST 6-8 glasses of water a day – as most people are dehydrated many already feel changes after just this small change.
Other than that, the instructions are centred around internal dialogue and how to think about food, how we justify treats to yourself (oh it’s the weekend, I had a good day, I had a bad day) or rules that you have attached to food (Oh it’s Thursday, that’s pizza/kfc night).
And how you feel before/during choosing what to eat, during eating it, immediately after and how it physically makes you feel 30-40 minutes later or even the next morning.
It’s pretty interesting to try and consciously listen in to the devil/angel dialogue when you are reaching for that biscuit/snack, and when you realise you can eat more than you thought unconsciously (pop-corn in the cinema is the best example of this).
Or eating because you think you want to, or you should, or you deserve a treat (dessert after a great dinner when you are already full and satisfied).
Plus some interesting insights into things around food and food marketing, like why restaurants serve bread BEFORE the meal (bread actually slows your digestion + spikes your blood sugar which then increases your insulin and makes you want to eat more). Basically, the more sugar you eat, the more food you desire.
And other things like you should never eat fruit AFTER eating other foods, it will cause wind and will putrefy in your stomach as it’s designed to digested very quickly to protect the seeds from your stomach acid, so only eat fruits on an empty stomach (first thing in the morning).
The First Enhancement
Towards the end of the first week, the challenge started talking about a green smoothie called the Alkagizer Mild – which was introduced on Friday. So an enhancement was introduced on the Friday of the first week (day 5) which was to eat 3 pieces of fruit when you first wake-up and 16oz (about a pint) of Alkagizer.
The pieces of fruit can be anything, and they are whole pieces (like 3 bananas, 3 apples or 3 different fruits say an apple, a banana and a pear) before eating anything else.
Followed by the smoothie, which is spinach, apples, celery, avocado and cucumber.
The weekend is a buffer zone, so you can choose to start the enhancement early, or do them on Monday – we didn’t have easy access to the stuff so we decided to start on Monday and buy the things on Sunday.
We went to NSK in Selayang to buy the stuff thinking it might be cheaper, but it really wasn’t any cheaper than Tesco and it was chaotic, packed and parking was terrible. We won’t be going back (the fruit is from MBG so it’s not cheap) and some things were even cheaper at Jaya Grocer.
So Sunday night we diligently got ready for Week 2.
More on that soon!
Week 1 Summary
– Drink more water (at least 6-8 large glasses a day)
– Examine your internal dialogue around food
– Look at the emotions you have attached to food and food choices
– Make sure to be concious of any rules you have around food and eating
Interesting stuff.
All my WildFit posts are here:
WildFit Challenge – Week 2 – Alkagizer Mild
WildFit Challenge – Week 3 – NO SUGAR!
WildFit Challenge – Week 4 – NO CARBS Or Dairy
WildFit Challenge – Week 5 – No Alcohol or Caffeine
WildFit Challenge – Week 6 – Entering Ketosis AKA Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 7 & 8 – Staying In Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 9 & 10 – Yah Still Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 11 & 12 – A Small Break
And you can find out more and buy WildFit here: Join the WildFit 90 Day Challenge
keep it up! ???