Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Stupid Brain a.k.a. Dammit, I am gonna learn to lift!

So I've been reading about StrongLifts, Starting Strength and New Rules of Lifting for Women. I've been reading a whole whack of posts about people adding lifting to a keto diet and thinking "Man, I should try that!"

But my stupid brain kept saying fun things like, "You can't go to the gym and try that, you'll do it wrong and look like an idiot", or "trying that yourself is going to result in pain/injury because you are too inexperienced to try this."

Stupid Brain.

Hiring a trainer is not a possibilty money wise, so I had to keep thinking about how I was going to get this done. Then it hit me. I can ask someone I know for help. (I am not great at this, I love to do for other people, but have this 'I can do it all myself!' thing going on.)

I asked a coworker if we could meet up so that he could show me what to do and check my form. And he said absolutely, AND came to the Goodlife closest to my house on a Saturday afternoon.

Turns out I was able to follow instruction well, and my form is fine for a beginner. (I can't go to low in my squats yet, but I can work on this.) After a few sets, I was confident enough to do the rest of my sets on my own. Aaaaallllright! I am going to have to work my way up in weights, but I think I am ready to go!


Monday, October 21, 2013

Day 2 - So far, so good.

I'm enjoying the end of my day, and although there have been a few hiccups, I think the pre-cooking and pre-planning helped to move things along.  I kept my meals really simple, with some cream cheese cupcakes for 2 of my meals, and some Shirataki Chicken Carbonara for the other two meals. Hop over to www.nuttyabouthealth.com for the cupcake recipe.

Try the cream cheese cupcake recipe from Nutty About Health!

The shirataki noodles are a great find for me. In Toronto, you can get them at T & T Supermarket, or in Kensington Market at Essence of Life. They have 20 calories and 3g carbs per 1/2 bag, last a really long time in your fridge, and cook up really well.  They do have a few drawbacks, the first and most obvious being that they smell like old socks when you first open the bag. 

For the love of FSM, rinse and boil your Shirataki noodles!

 I rinse and drain the noodles 3 times, then boil for 3 minutes before adding the sauce and eating. (Trust me, this makes a difference.)  The other drawback is that the noodles have a little more "chew" on them than regular noodles, which I think for most people will not be a big problem.

For the sauce I was lazy. I cooked up and shredding some chicken breasts on Sunday to keep in the fridge and use for the next few days. I threw 1/2 a breast into President's Choice Carbonara Sauce, covered it an nuked it for 2 minutes while I finished cooking the noodles, then mixed it all together and fell into a bacony/chickeny/cheesy coma. It was pretty delicious, so much so that I went out and bought more chicken for this week so I could have it a few more times.

Now I am sitting at my desk trying to type for as long as I can, as I am trying to not work out. I really, really don't want to at this point in the evening, so I am fighting the guilt of not going to the gym for almost 2 weeks, and the exhaustion that is racking my brain and body. (And I wonder why I am so unhealthy! Whether or not I realize it every time, I am pretty sure I do things like this a lot!!)

I will have to post tomorrow so you can find out which way my brain and I decided to go...

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Poor Life Decisions

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays, mostly because I get drunk on turkey and stuffing. This year I was a "turkey orphan" as my family cancelled the big family shindig, so I cooked up a feast for some friends and I to enjoy together.

I've been struggling to eat keto consistently, mostly because for NO REASON AT ALL I stopped meal planning and shopping on a regular basis. So since I was struggling I thought, "Screw it. Doing a carby thanksgiving!"

And I did. Pork sausage stuffing, jalapeno citrus cranberry sauce, maple buttercup squash. It was a delicious meal (and series of leftovers.)  But then I couldn't get back into eating keto and I have been sugar and wheat binging for over a week, and MAN does my body feel it. Oh, and I have also discovered that when I eat larger amounts of wheat my stomach goes apeshit. And yet what was I eating all week? Yeah. Poor life decisions.

Anyway I spent this morning looking up recipes and will be meal planning for the week. No one is going to do it for me!

I am also thinking of getting back to lifting weights again, but I am having a huge amount of anxiety around going to the gym and teaching myself. I am not in a position to pay a trainer either. I will have to keep lurking /r/xxfitness until I can get my head right.

I'm going to do a quick 3-day fat fast to kick myself back into ketosis. Hell if I add a little cardio in I can get there in a day and a half. My body likes keto I don't know why I keep sabotaging or failing to plan.

Monday, May 27, 2013

A Slight Stall, a Gain, a Major Refocus

As per my usual way of operating, I got really frustrated getting stalled at the same 5 lbs. lost and regained, and my stress response to bad news was to stop any and all routine that I had around keto. Couple this with my love of stress eating and penchant for self-destruction, I have been less than stellar with eating keto.

And while I gained some of the weight back, I'm not feeling terrible or guilty about it. I *am* finding it interesting that I can eat the same amount of calories a day (1600-1800), but if I eat lots of wheat, I gain pretty consistently. What the hell is that all about?

Gym wise, I am going several times a week on my lunch break. I need the stress relief and there are 5 that are fairly close to where I work. I particularly love BodyCombat, and have discovered the addictiveness that is Zumba.  I am mosdef not a fan of BodyAttack because it is too much jumping for my legs to handle.

Anyway, I had a number in my head that once I hit the scale, no more slacking on my weekdays, back to Keto Business.  I hit that number last week, so I planned out my meals for the rest of the month, and decided to do a 3 day Fat Fast to kick my ass back into ketosis.  I started today. This morning I was not in  ketosis, this evening, I am. I did a light workout at the gym as well, just to help kickstart the process a little faster, but I did not expect to switch up within the first 12 hours!!

I didn't relish the idea of macadamia nuts and cream cheese for the next three days, so I am trying several foods out. I am especially excited to try Keto Alfredo meal idea, but with some Shiratake noodles. I don't eat a huge amount of cheese day to day, but I do like it. Shove 3 types of cheese and make it into keto pasta sauce? Yes please!

Today I did:

4 slices bacon
Cream cheese and Cucumbers
Coffee with Heavy Cream and Almonds
Another coffee with heavy cream

I haven't managed to get home and make dinner yet, but I will definitely eat. I'm not hungry despite sitting at 800 calories for the day so far, but the aim of the game is 1000, so I am going to go for it.

I will update after the fat fast to share the results. Also, to bitch and complain if I hate doing a fat fast.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Sabotage

Just an angsty check in.  Keto rocks my world, it's been incredible how easy this has been.

I am with 4 lbs. of my lowest body fat % in years. I can run for the bus and not feel like I'm going to die. I'm wearing clothes that I haven't fit into for years.

So last week I got some good news/bad news about a friend. The good news is that he was not angry at me and ignoring my phone calls/emails. The bad news is that he's dead.

This has thrown me for a loop. Completely.  The reason keto has been working is in part, because of the routine I have in place for things like grocery shopping, making food ahead, planning, and a few workouts a week. That is all out the door, along with my sleeping schedule, so I'm up 4 lbs. and having trouble with all of it.

But this too shall pass.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Down over 7% Body Fat since Nov!

So as I mentioned before, I have been eating a Keto diet, which is a high fat/mid protein meal plan. I typically aim for 65% fat, 30% protein and 5% carbs, although there are certain days where I might be a few percentage points, overall I've been within the ballpark. I get most of my carbs from vegetables, nuts, cottage cheese and berries. To meet my fat content, I've been cooking with butter and coconut oil, and eating lots of bacon and sausage. It's not hard to do, as my brekkie is almost always bacon and eggs, and my lunches a huge salad with protein and dressing. On the weekends I tend to get a little more adventurous with recipes, and have found several great sites with keto-friendly fare. When I'm itching for noodles, I've discovered that T&T Supermarket carries Shirataki noodles, which are made from tofu. They smell like socks when you first open the package and drain the water, but I rinse several times before boiling them for 6 minutes or so. They can also be dry-fried instead of boiled, and there is macaroni, spaghetti and fettuccine shape noodles to choose from.



I've dropped over 7% body fat since late fall, which is a huge shift for me. I'm eating the same amount of calories as before, but for some reason my body is happy to continue dropping fat. I've even put on a few pounds of muscle, although it must be noted that I am not killing myself with exercise, just walking and some short Turbo Jam workouts.



Drinking and Keto, I have discovered, do NOT go well together, or they really do depending on how you look at it.  I can drink. I can drink a boatload. But since November, I have had 3 incidents of "lost time" after drinking the same amount that I normally would when not eating keto. Since that scares the crap out of me, I have been cutting my consumption WAY WAY DOWN. This is good for my calories for the day, my aching liver, not blacking out, my wallet, and staying in ketosis, so I am okay with it.

I am still avoiding the gym and all the New Year's Resolutioners. One of my coworkers is still going and has been infuriated at the lack of equipment from the influx, so I am waiting for another few weeks before I resume. I am going to try the spinning classes again. Wonder how different it will be with the fat/weight that I have taken off since the last time I went? (Thank you, Keto!)

Here's a new webseries by a dude that has switched to keto, in case you want to check it out:




Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Treadmill Desk - Phase 1 Complete!

There is something different about this post...I am typing it while walking on the deck of a treadmill. That's right, I was able to find a treadmill to take apart for phase 1 of building my walking desk.

I started by trawling on Craigslist for used treadmills. I looked. I looked and I looked and I looked. There were lots of big machines with big decks, but nothing that seemed just right. Then I did a search for what other people used, and found models I could not get up here in the Great White North, or that cost a bundle AND had huge shipping costs.

Finally I figured I would just go for a new, cheap and cheerful model. I ended up with an Exerpeutic Walking treadmill, which only goes up to 4.0 (fine by me, I get pain at 2.8 or above!) with a really small deck, perfect for my small desk area.



It was also a bonus, as they only delivered to my front door and I had to drag it up the stairs and to my bedroom by myself.  Thank spaghettimonster for the nifty white packing straps that I was able to use to do this.


Unpacking was fairly easy to do. Those little short arms are for the bottom of the stand to help stabilize it. Since that's not the game I was playing, I just chucked these out of the way.


One of the reasons that I chose this treadmill is because the connector from the arms and the deck looked fairly simple. I was not completely wrong about this, but it took more than a wrench to undo the side bolts.


I had to undo the screws holding the plastic paneling over the motor, but overall it only took a few minutes. I was then able to undo the bolts holding the arms to the deck.


Easy peasy!


Next I took off the bar that raises and lowers the platform, as I had no further need for this.


The wires were not hard to locate, as they were not down in the tubes of the arms as you might expect from a finished product. But then again I cheaped out, so...I really should be making snarky remarks.


Some of the wiring needed to be disconnected and reconnected later. There are only 3 connections, all which appear different, so my super-anal "label them with masking tape" was a little overkill.


There was a small screw on the underside of both arms that I had to undo to be able to thread the additional controls out of the stand arms. One side is the speed control, the other is "On/Off" and "Mode".


Finally I had to add a few blocks of wood to the bottom to accommodate a small metal tab left of the underside of the deck, from the arm that allowed you to store it standing. I guess I could have sourced a metal grinder and taken it off, but well, gluing wood to the bottom and getting a bit of an incline was just as easy.

I haven't yet made a new housing for the controls, so they are floating around my desk, but I am a busy girl and won't do that for the next while. So there you have it, phase 1 of my tread desk.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy 2013!

Though I would check in for the beginning of the month.

I continue to eat Keto for the most part. I am pretty quickly getting the idea that cheating always shows up within 3 days on the scale, except if I only have a few Vitamin V's (Voda/Soda) once a week. Breads/Pastas/Rice carbs show up, vodka does not. I can live with this.

I'm down over 16 lbs. of fat and up just over 3 lbs. of muscle, which I understand is pretty hard to do (lose fat and gain muscle at the same time) so I will take it with a grin on my face.

Did a lot more walking in December, and threw in 6 cardio workouts. I think for January I will aim to do 8 workouts, as a way to complement Keto eating, and to kick my ass back into ketosis when I've cheated. Basically I can do 2 workouts over 2 days and get back into ketosis, as long as I am really focused on sticking to the food.

Food wise, I have to mix vegetables into the mix to be able to lose. For some strange reason if I do nothing but meat/eggs/bacon/cream/coconut oil, my loss slows, but if I throw in a salad for lunch and some veggies in my stir-fry, my body responds. This is good, as a keto newb I was nervous that I would not be able to have my veggies!





That being said, I am a very happy girl to be able to eat bacon and eggs every day. (And yes, I pretty much do this every day for breakfast or lunch. Yum!)  If I know I will not be near a kitchen, I will do hardboiled eggs and some bacon in a ziplock. Portable, and delicious hot or cold.

I am also still using Nexercise, which is an app that lets you earn points for working out, and competing with your friends. They have also started letting people earn rewards from different sponsors, such as free eyeglasses, amazon credits etc.