Welcome! My name is Kurtis Bednarcyk, and I am a warrior. And deep down you are too. Not in a literal sense, of course, but as I share my thoughts with you through this blog I think you'll develop an understanding of what I'm referring to.
I received my B.S. in Clinical Exercise Science from Ithaca College in 2009 and I am a Certified Personal Trainer by National Academy of Sports Medicine. I'm no expert but as you can see my passion lies in the realm fitness and nutrition. Someday I will get paid to do what I love, though my current job is unrelated. People always say, "well, it's a paycheck." And that's true, I guess. Facing tasks with gumption and vigor, whether you enjoy them or not is part of being a warrior.
Since I have no clients to use as guinea pigs I am a little crazy in my own application of fitness and nutrition. Everywhere you look there is a new strategy. HIIT, volume training, prolonged cardio, 5-3-1, "The Zone," Paleo, Low-carb, Low-fat...it seems like over the past couple years I've tried them all. My goal is just to be the best Kurt I can be, for myself and for the sake of my future clients. For the first time I seem to be nearing that goal, and the purpose of this blog is to chronicle my daily thoughts, crazy ideas, and progressions toward becoming, ultimately, a warrior.
For the past year or so I have been following a fairly strict intermittent fasting protocol. Props to Martin Berkhan of Leangains; I love to stuff myself so I was hooked on his philosophy of fasting and overeating immediately. This led to my reading "The Warrior Diet" by Ori Hofmekler, which is based on similar principles (Hofmekler prefers to "undereat" rather than fast, and his typical overeating phases last around 4 hours, to Berkhan's 8). Both of these under/overeating strategies are based more on the timing of meals and controlling levels of insulin and other hormones throughout the undereating phase than about the actual foods you are "allowed" to eat. In that respect I feel they are less strict than most typical "diets." If you fancy yourself a food lover, I suggest you check them out. Personally I have found that I am able to adhere to my own combination of the two with very little effort; the first few weeks took some getting used to, but hunger during the day is no longer an issue. Most days I work out in a fasted state (16-24hr) and feel great.
Generally during my overeating phase I stick to a natural, unprocessed and fairly low carbohydrate diet, with the majority of my carbs coming from all types of non-starchy vegetables and other incidentals from nuts, seeds and dairy products. I try to consume at least 150g of high quality protein and plenty of naturally occurring fat (dietary fat is my main source of fuel and contrary to popular belief, it has NOT been proven hazardous, saturated or otherwise. Bring on the nuts, oils, avocados, beef, egg yolks, and full-fat dairy!). I cheat/refeed/carb-up/downright binge when I feel my body needs it or my willpower grows weak (as you'll see, this happens fairly often - we're all human, afterall).
From an exercise standpoint I have found that an overall approach to fitness is the most effective and enjoyable. I guess you can say I create my own "crossfit-type" workout of the day. I rarely repeat workouts, and I train everything from maximal Olympic lifts to cardiovascular endurance (my least favorite, but a warrior has to run).
So that's me in a nutshell. Feel free to post questions or comments to the page or email me directly at klbednarcyk@gmail.com. Happy reading!
