Experimenting during your postseason.
Let’s break down these terms: Omad & Nomad.
Omad: One meal a day
Nomad: a person who does not stay long in the same place; a wanderer.
During your training season, there are so many rules to follow, workouts to execute, structure to put in place, and micro/macro splits to study. You must be structured, disciplined, and stable. A nomad is NOT this way. This may be completely opposite to eating routines during a normal training season, but OMAD works. During training, I like to eat six meals a day which contradicts many theories. It’s nice to switch things up and experiment with habits like a nomad.
Why Omad Nomad?
Because I need some time to do things differently. I like to wander throughout my day without timing my workouts. Maybe I’ll run as hard as I can at lunchtime, or sleep in and do a weight workout during a rest day. I let the metrics and planning rest before I plan to train more effectively and efficiently than in the previous season. Personal experience has taught me, if I fail to let go of structure for a controlled period, then there are consequences. More on this thought, below. Overall, this is why OMAD is a great decision for my post-season lifestyle. It allows rest for my body by scaling back the training, in effect, means scaling back my eating.
Personal Experience Defines this Lifestyle Choice
This is a temporary lifestyle change that benefits my overall training. The first result is, I will perform great at the beginning of the training season only to be followed by an extended period of lackluster performance. The second result is, I will not get another opportunity to indulge, relax, and have a loose schedule once the pre-season and race season starts. I will try to find opportunities to indulge and lack structure which then creates a rubber band effect in my schedule.
Something different and beneficial.
I cannot do this lifestyle, OMAD nomad, once the heavy lifting of the preseason training begins. It involves, rest, relaxation, and the unknown! Many studies and great athletes have reported that the central nervous system (CNS) will become tired with extended durations of training, high-intensity training, and overtraining if NOT given proper rest.
Lack of Rest
I have experienced this ‘tired’ result in the form of loss of motivation, lack of physical adaptation, and poorly executed workouts. At the time of this realization, it was week number 6 that I had been on the couch watching TV, enjoying a few adult beverages each day paired with extra-large portions of authentic Mexican food. I started my season 4 levels behind my target, 10 lbs. overweight and working harder than I can remember. I asked myself, “Why didn’t I rest more in the postseason?” and, “Why not become an Omad Nomad?”
OMAD Metaphor
I have also concluded through experience, scientific study, and interviews with world-class coaches that your physical body will not cease to move at a high level regardless of the state of the CNS. I compare the response of OMAD to your car breaking down 100 miles from your destination, and with no way to get help. You will walk, walk, and continue to walk regardless of hunger, dehydration, fatigue, or mood until you find help. The physical body keeps moving. Just like the body will keep moving until it arrives at its next mealtime.
How is it possible?
One meal a day?? I have studied and practiced this method extensively and I promise you that you will not just survive, but you will thrive with OMAD. Here are some things I consume that help me get through the day till my one big meal:
- Bulletproof coffee
- Hot tea
- Seltzer
- A plant-based protein shake before that one meal.
Then the fast is broken with dinner at 6:00 pm (OMAD) and back to fasting again for 16 hours.
THE MEAL
1lb of broccoli+ cauliflower
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 eggs
8 oz of 80/20 ground beef
4 oz salmon
Some salad
1 small avocado
Many doctors agree that most of your daily energy comes from the meal you ate the day before, which supports OMAD at 6 pm. Some electrolytes and carbs can aid in immediate energy, but most are being drawn from energy stores in the body. If you have acquired more than 8% body fat (I’m guilty), you have plenty of stored energy! That means you will make it through your day until the next meal without a problem. If you have only one meal in which you get all of your calories something happens in your physical body during its fasted state: autophagy.
AUTOPHAGY
Let’s define autophagy. The consumption of the body’s own tissue is a metabolic process occurring in starvation and certain diseases. The process of starvation-induced autophagy has been extensively researched. Autophagy is the destruction of damaged or redundant cellular components occurring in vacuoles within the cell. This is an amazing way to restore your body naturally. OMAD can help you achieve this state of starvation and ultimately see the results. It will take a few days to feel the effects, but it is truly amazing. Terry Crews shares his experience with autophagy.
In Conclusion
Your postseason is a time to take the training chains off! DO NOT STOP what you’re doing, just do it differently aka OMAD. What is the best way we discussed to retore your body? Rest!
- Give your brain a rest.
- Give your physical body a rest.
- Give your digestive system a rest from the constant process of churning, creating enzymes, assimilating nutrients, and evacuation.
Rest now before the season so that you are refreshed, excited, and hungry to do your best this season! Do your research with reputable resources to gain their knowledge on OMAD, intermittent fasting, and Keto-type diets.
If you have questions or need help with what you should do this season, give us a call or book an appointment to talk with me today!
