Edgar and his son Martín enjoy a hamburger on a nightstand.. /
The new intermittent fasting guru is captivated by ‘trail running’ and climbing, his mother-in-law’s apple cake and walking his dog ‘Kira’ through the Garraf. «When you forget to lose weight and look for health, the rest comes by itself»
I confess that you interview a nutritionist and you feel a mad desire to subject him to the third grade. Let him confess if what he really likes are the pig’s trotters that his grandmother prepared, raiding the cupboard where his mother keeps the white chocolate or if he has never plunged the spoon into the pot of condensed milk as if there were no tomorrow. Anyway, there is life beyond broccoli. Edgar Barrionuevo, 41 years old, has just published ‘Ayunízate’ (Grijalbo, 2022), a book where he talks about the benefits of intermittent fasting, a philosophy – of life, he maintains – whose followers include Mercedes Milá, Lydia Bosch or Nuria Rock. This Catalan from Castelldefels – who is a new father, goes to bed at nine at night, runs marathons and skips breakfast – swears and perjures that having “good habits” allows him to mark a length from time to time, which translated into roman paladino means a blonde beer here, some cannelloni there… even some churros with chocolate and cream on Three Kings Day. How not to ingratiate yourself with him?
Monday
05.00 hours. Some time ago I read a book, ‘The Club at 5 in the morning’, and I confess that it came in very handy, especially now that the boy –Martín, his 2-year-old son– has come into our lives. I wash my face, my teeth… first of all I take ‘Kira’, an 8-year-old Australian Shepherd, out for a walk. It accompanies me all day, I carry it stuck like a shadow.
5:30 a.m. A quick coffee and go to work. For me, it is the most fruitful time of the day. There are no whatsapps, no emails, no calls… nobody bothers you. It is a time that I dedicate to study, to expand the knowledge of my profession. Now, for example, I’m focused on a course on advanced analytics and biochemical parameters, which comes in handy for delving into aspects that leave a diagnosis lacking when not addressed. The typical “but how is everything fine if I feel bad?”.
08.00 hours. I’m not going to have breakfast like a king and dinner like a pauper. I don’t take anything until noon. My wife and I are with the little one for a little while. Gloria is a model, physical trainer and promoter on health and beauty issues. We are very much in tune, you just have to see what we dedicate ourselves to. Well, the thing is, we all go to the nursery together by car, even though it’s three minutes from home.
Tuesday
09.00 hours. I’m going to run with ‘Kira’; it is to cross two streets and I am already stepping on the Garraf natural park. My sport is ‘trail running’: I do mountain marathons and on Saturdays I go out to race with my friends. In October we did the Salomon Ultra Pyrenees (94 kilometers and a positive drop of 6,200 meters), then we will go to the Montseny marathon, to Cap Creus…
11:00 a.m. I begin to consult with patients, either online or in person at my center, a beachfront clinic called Pure Corpore. We do both fasting retreats and health therapies, personal training, nutrition, psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology (PNIE)… yes, I know, how does it fit into the business card? [Risas].
2:00 p.m. I’ve always been a big cook, but now I reserve it for the weekends. I eat alone, because Gloria is still at work and my son is with his grandmothers. I prepare a vegetable wok with broccoli, peppers, zucchini, and then some good quality protein, like salmon or some sardines that I left ahead the day before. I really like salads, with carrots, cucumbers, some chickpeas, seeds, turmeric… avocados are never lacking. Nor olive oil, why not if my family is from Jaén.
Wednesday
11.40 a.m. Fasting doesn’t mean just stop eating, it’s a lifestyle; not only subtract, but add. Depriving yourself of food forces the body to draw on its reserves, which it is not always accumulating; a natural process to which we have been exposed as a species throughout our evolution. And that is so because our ancestors never lived in a world of overabundance like the one that has touched us. It raises another metabolic, physiological and digestive scenario. For what purpose? Improve health and regenerate the body.
3:30 p.m. The computer has become the essential tool, especially when it comes to recording and you have to prepare content for social networks. I have the YouTube channel, the Instagram channel… the other day I interviewed Marcos Vázquez, the creator of ‘Revolutionary Fitness’, for a podcast. I form a team with an editor and a community manager, who are in charge of segmenting the material and then uploading it to the different platforms.
5:30 p.m. Enough of work. I go to look for the boy and we take advantage of the good weather to go to the swing park, to play with his friends or his cousins, who are the same age and live three blocks away. Back home, we do a little shopping, better if it is in organic line establishments. From that moment on, a combat scramble with the child: preparing the bath, putting on his pajamas, making him dinner… and the story that is not lacking. He loves ‘Peter Pan’. With this life plan, how are we going to go out there?
Thursday
09.00 hours. I’m going climbing today. I practice at the newly opened Chris Sharma indoor climbing wall in Gavá. It’s giant.
2:30 p.m. For me, the fact of having good habits in my day to day allows me from time to time to take the occasional license. For example, on Kings Day I breakfast churros with chocolate and cream. And when I go to eat at my mother-in-law’s house, she makes me an apple cake that is spectacular. And the same goes for some cannelloni, a seafood paella or aubergines au gratin. What happens is that I also enjoy eating a plate of salmon with broccoli, a little avocado and some nuts. So regrets, none.
Friday
12.30. We live in a stage of excessive body worship, when the key should be to accept ourselves as we are. And that looks great in eating disorders, where fasting is a red flag. I don’t even know how many times I’ve advised against losing weight. Whoever chooses this route should always do so with the advice of professionals and in a calm atmosphere: if one becomes obsessed with losing weight, any benefit that may be obtained in return evaporates. When you forget to lose weight and look for health, the rest comes by itself.
8:00 p.m. Protein should not be missing from the table: organic eggs, chicken burgers, a turbot, a good steak… the problem is that meat that is produced intensively and that harms both sustainability and animal welfare.
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