The Art of Subterfuge - Depletion - Day 3

Subterfuge: That to which one resorts for escape or concealment; an artifice employed to escape censure or the force of an argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an evasion.

I've come to the realisation that depletion is really an art form.

On the whole it seems simple enough. And everybody says "it's only 1 week!". To me, it's 8 days (if you include the morning of photo shoot), and that can seem like weeks!

It's nearly the end of Day 3, and so far I've started to employ some little things to trick my taste buds. One of those tricks is to use every bit of information you can glean from the IBO library, the IBO forum, and your feedback coach to formulate a meal-by-meal survival plan. And to survive depletion, you have to plan ahead, but think only about the day ahead, and then you only think about the next meal. So instead of thinking about what I can't have, I've started to think more about what I can have to eat.

So, one of the things I've discovered is that chicken tastes like cardboard without salt, or anything added. It's also very dry and is difficult to eat by itself. Things that I have worked for me so far are:

1. Use pepper, garlic, chives (herbs) to change the taste of chicken or fish.
2. Eat your protein with a mouthful of vegetables to make it easier to chew and swallow.
3. Grill it (chicken), but make sure you don't overcook it, otherwise it's way too dry and chewy.
4. Use different vegetables like broccolini, cabbage, beans, bok choi, wombuk, mushrooms, dried mushrooms, snow peas, and brussel sprouts (yes...I have to admit...I love them!) if you're having a straight vege dish.
5. Use salad vegetables for a couple of your vege meals, instead of your 'standard' vegetables, to give your taste buds a change. And use salad veges like snow peas, capsicum, red onion, carrot (only a little) which have different and interesting flavours.
6. Use your fat allowances to further enhance (or hide altogether) the flavour of your meals...peanut butter with chicken or veges; sprinkle your almonds in with your salad; flax oil on a salad is nice (if you like flax oil that is). Don't forget, you can have other 'nut' spreads, not just natural peanut butter.
7. You can have protein powder (hope I'm allowed to say that...maybe check with your feedback coach first) in the first 3 days.

And in discovering all that, today I didn't feel like heaving my breakfast (just a couple of gags), and my next meal didn't seem so insurmountable. In fact, I was rather looking forward to the next meal to see how creative I could be!

Training went well, though I woke up this morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck. I managed to drag myself out of bed, and after breakfast toddled off to the gym. At first, all I could think about was how tired and sore I was. But once I got into it, like thinking about the food, I just took it one body part, and one exercise at a time. This morning I did chest/back/abs, and by the end of it I was pretty knackered. My abs were still hurting from yesterday, so I know I do have them.

Your head is definitely in a different space, as I was rather focused and tried not to make eye contact. Firstly, because I really wasn't in any mood to talk to anyone, and secondly, there's not alot of time between sets to talk anyway. I just wanted to get through it and get out.

So tomorrow is my last workout day, and the longest...shoulders/biceps/triceps/abs. But it's only one more day, and then I can just concentrate on the food, relaxing and getting last minute things organised for Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will really test my resolve...NO VEGES, however I'm looking forward to the introduction of carbs!

Thank goodness for fat allowances....that's all I can say!

Ciao for now...Kerry :)