Day 2: Eat, Train, Eat, then Sleep?

Last night was a really enjoyable first Iftar for me! 

I cannot stress enough how precious the water felt when I was drinking it for the first time after 18.5 hours without consuming anything at all. The dates, yoghurt and fruit were obviously a sweet benefit, although I did feel slightly high after I'd snaffled four dates back-to-back. I even struggled to eat much of my main meal of roast duck to start with! It was weird, I'd expected myself (someone who'd happily order '2 For Tuesday' and eat both myself) to be ravenous and just devour everything in sight. But, I didn't. I felt really calm. Unusually calm for someone of my appetite.

My training came next and it was my second Handstand workout of the week. I normally do these workouts in the mornings, starting as early as 5AM on school days. It's fair to say that I was lacking a bit of motivation and then developed a touch of anxiety that I'd take too long and not get enough sleep.

I'm umm'd and err'd and struggled through the first couple of movements. But eventually, I was able to get myself geared up and actually held a good shape in a Bent Arm Handstand. 

After training finished at 1130PM I really had to force myself to finish the rest of my half roast duck and keep hydrating myself before bed just after midnight. Again, eating and drinking wasn't as easy as I thought it would be after fasting for such a long time. I'd aimed to drink six pints of water before the end of Sehri and I managed five, and I haven't felt dehydrated today which is a relief.

What I have found today is that when I'm choosing to do nothing, or resting, I do become more enfatuated by the idea of eating and drinking something. By 4/5PM I was chilling on the sofa listening to a podcast and definitely spent time fantasising over the food I was going to eat after breaking fast!

Thankfully I was super busy between 530PM and 930PM delivering sessions and getting my pullup bar workout done. I don't think I was affected from fasting during this workout. I definitely took my time between the most challenging movements, but overall I completed the workout as quick as I would on any leisurely evening. I certainly preferred working out in the run up to Iftar, compared to after. Last night I felt it was such a squeeze to eat, train, eat then get off to bed at a reasonable time!

Thank you to my client Fiona who didn't mind me enjoying Iftar at the start of her session and then continuing to eat and drink throughout our Zoom call!

Tomorrow I am very excited to say that I will be using Instagram Live to speak amateur MMA fighter Jasim (Jas) Beg. Jas has been very kind in agreeing to speak to me about Ramadan and how it impacts his training in and out of competition training periods. If you're on Instagram, you can find this interview tomorrow afternoon on my main page, @JCDCoaching.