• The WOW Diet: Going Vegan on the Warrior Diet

    edited by Alexander Becker on September 06, 2006 | Link

    The Warrior Diet is about undereating for 20 hours of the day and overeating for the remaining four. The objective is mimicking the ancient warrior's eating schedule. Please refer to the WOW Review: The Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler and Eat as Much as You Want: Experiences with the Warrior Diet.

    While the original diet is omnivorous -- the book provides recipes for meat and fish dishes and recommends lean meat and eggs and skim milk -- the WOW Diet leaves out any animal products and feeds the herbivorous vegans equally successful. The WOW Diet applies the principles of the Warrior Diet to a vegan style of cooking and eating.

    During the undereating phase, I consistently achieve the best, most satisfying results -- in terms of alertness and overall well-being -- when eating nothing at all. Drinking water with multivitamin supplements, a cup of black coffee before noon, one in the afternoon, fresh juices, and green tea.

    Occasionally, I eat almonds or some peanuts without salt in the early evening hours. Walnuts are delicious as well but they are too fatty for the undereating cycle. I prefer to eat them after the main meal, if at all.

    Exercising on a nearly empty stomach feels surprisingly well. I regularly exercise last thing before preparing the evening meal. It seems like the body releases an extra boost of energy, it is probably anticipating the end of the undereating phase and gratefully provides resources for the hunt. That state of mind and body after 16-18 hours of undereating is the most interesting part of the diet, your alertness is at peak levels, ready to manifest the compensation.

    During the overeating phase of the warrior diet and especially on the vegan version you just can't eat too much, as long as you follow the prescription for the sequence of food groups. Start with a rich green salad complete with onions and flaxseed or olive oil as a base on an empty stomach. It seems to help and promote the proper digestion of the foods that go on top. The fibrous carbohydrates from the cooked, or even better, steamed vegetables can be eaten before or after the protein-rich foods but I personally prefer eating the proteins -- especially when they come as nuts -- after the hot dishes. The key to fatloss is that you eat the starchy carbohydrates as in potatoes, rice, bread, or beans near the end of the meal and thus reduce them to a minimum. A variant is to leave out the starchy carbs for five days of seven, if you're after fatloss.

    I usually cycle between high protein, high fat days with very little carbs -- eating only the carbs that come with veggies while avoiding the starchy stuff, and high carb days with rice and sweet potatoes, beans, lentils, quinoa, and chocolate... Please note that there are no restrictions or counting calories or measuring amounts, you just eat according to the sequence and you will be automatically satisfied when it is enough. The starchy carbohydrates are not forbidden nor are they tagged as bad.

    Chinese Cabbage, Rice and Peanuts, Cilantro

    It's all about eating sensibly and eating in cycles. When you crave starchy foods, eat them and eat them consciously. One exception -- refined sugar is forbidden, also try to eat as naturally as possible while avoiding processed, refined foods as much as you can. I eat almost no bread at all and no cake or pastries.

    Good fats are important, you practically can't get enough essential fatty acids -- within the boundaries of reason of course. There is tahini and almond butter and peanut cream and walnuts and all the flaxseed and olive and non-olive oils that provide the valuable fats.

    You will be amazed by the insane amounts of food you eat during the overeating cycle, your metabolism demands huge piles of fruits and vegetables. One to two dishes of appetizing salads, two to three dishes of steamed vegetables, still hungry? Sesame crackers with organic peanut butter anyone? Some more Kohlrabi? Dark chocolate, the one with at least 70% cocoa, ... 100% delicious.

    Trust your cravings during the overeating cycle. Once you get used to it you can rely on your body's call for specific foods and nutrients. The mechanics are similar to the craving for sweets when you are on a low carb diet or the craving for salty foods when you lack minerals, yet the requests your body makes are more specific and much broader.

    Even and particularly when you intend to lose some excess body fat, you should eat big. The body is easily adjusted to eating not enough but what you want to do on the WOW Diet is overeating in order to lose fat. Eat big according to the rules and eat some more and you will feel good and better and the fat will fly off of you.

    What about breaking the cycle? Once in a while, you may not have the time or the schedule or the setting to correctly follow the cycle of under- and overeating. I recommend to deliberately break the cycle on these days. Do it not more than once every week or every two weeks and you will prevent boredom and the body from getting used to the fixed phases. A metabolism that keeps guessing responds to what it actually gets and not to what it expects -- since it repeats every single day. While you're at it, breaking the cycle, that is, make sure to include some starchy carbs, for good measure.

    A sample day on the WOW Diet from undereating through exercises to overeating.

    Undereating phase: Breakfast at 5:50am
    • Water, multivitamin (B6, B12, C, E)
    Good morning exercises at 6:10am
    • Deep breathing, stretching, yoga-style ab and back-work
    The juicy morning at 9:30am
    • Fresh carrot-ginger juice
    Before noon at around 11:00am
    • Coffee, water, an apple
    • Minerals (Magnesium, Calcium)
    After noon at around 2:30pm
    • Kohlrabi, water
    Late afternoon at around 5:00pm
    • Coffee, water
    Early evening at 7:00pm
    • Water, multivitamin (B6, B12, C, E)
    • Green or white tea (for the antioxidant effects)
    Exercises at 7:30pm
    Overeating phase: 8:30pm until 11:00pm
    • Small coffee (Avoid drinking coffee on top of -- especially fatty -- food, instead drink it as an aperitif)
    • Green salad with beetroot or red cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, flaxseed oil, balsamico -- 1-2 dishes
    • Spicy veggies; garlic, potatoes, onions, olives, and carrots, hot steamed in olive oil; cucumber, zucchini, cauliflower, sweet pepper, and tomatoes added later and only lightly steamed -- 2-3 dishes
    • Red, kidney beans with cilantro and asian mint leafs, lemon juice, hot pepper, and flaxseed oil -- 1 dish; alternatively, kim chi, spicy chinese cabbage with rice and cilantro and peanuts -- 1 dish; or alternatively, raw almonds -- 200g / 7oz
    • Swedish style crackers with organic peanut cream or pesto -- 2 pieces
    • Dark chocolate -- 40g / 1.4oz (for the antioxidant effects and to satisfy the addiction...)
    • Green tea, water
    Ideally two hours after the feast at 11:30pm
    • Chocolate flavored soy milk -- 1 cup
    • Good night

    Note: The term WOW Diet describes the modification and adaptation of parts of the Warrior Diet to a vegan lifestyle as well as the addition of new elements based on and according to personal experiences of the author. There is no affiliation nor any kind of relation between Alexander Becker's WOW Diet and the original Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler.

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