Fasting? Really?

I'm trying a new approach based on intermittent fasting and an underfeeding/overfeeding cycle (books I'd recommend include The Warrior Diet and Eat Stop Eat). The switch to a plant-based diet caused some problems with fueling and recovering from training; I did a bad job initially of replacing the calories lost from removing the majority of meat from my diet. Also my new(ish) job doesn't work all that well with eating meals throughout the day as I'm busy straight through the day. My answer has been to fast/eat lightly during the day, snack pre/during/post-workout and then gorge at night. I'm attracted to the simplicity and not having to concern myself with packing meals for work and checking out the clock for timing meals. This feels much more intuitive and natural; much like it felt to switch to a plant-based diet.

It goes against basically every bit of data I was taught in school but there are some very interesting studies that have emerged in the past few years regarding intermittent fasting (overview article in LA Times here). There have been a number of endurance athletes that have successfully used this practice but I'm unaware of very many strength athletes that use this approach (admittedly I got the idea from Michael Keck at Elitefts so that's one). I'll detail my workouts and eating once I get it a little more fleshed out.

I'm thoroughly surprised by how much I'm enjoying not having to write my own programming. I've discussed here that I'm currently following a Russian weightlifting plan for the majority of my training.  I do make some alterations here and there (additional upper body work//Highland games and strongman-specific events/less bar work on GPP days/band work) but I'd say 80-90% of my work is specifically from the manual. Part of this is time management (not a lot of free time to program) and part of it is a lack of expertise (or laziness depending on whom you ask). My background in physical prep is for rugby, football and track; I would call my knowledge of specific training for Olympic weightlifting mediocre at best. In looking at what I've been doing, it's clear that I never would've thought to do this much lower body work and certainly not squat 3-5 days/week! It's been a struggle to keep my upper body "caught up" with my lower body but it's coming around.

Link of the Week
Mobility WOD
-I got this one from Dr Lisa at Lifesport Chiropractic in Boulder. If you have any kind of issues with mobility, flexibility or any other kind of sport-related "ility" issues then I encourage you to check out the Mobility WOD blog. I'm working through these in an effort to help with some general mobility issues as well as improving specific mobility at the thoracic spine/ankles/hips for Olympic weightlifting.