Day 3 Of My Journey Into Ketosos with – I’ve Arrived Safely

Today is day three of my journey into ketosis along with intermittent fasting. You can see yesterday’s post here. This is when you burn ketone bodies derived from stored fat (or dietary fat) instead of glucose from carbohydrates as your principle energy source. Normally our brain fuels off glucose as its primary source. For physical energy too, we normally burn glucose. It takes several days to get into ketosis and these transitional days normally involve hunger pangs, headaches, mood swings, a lack of energy and a general feeling of wobbliness. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever used that word.

Here’s what I did:

When I first woke up I did some meditation and breathing exercises to get my brain working and to alleviate stress and tension. (It’s a new thing, this meditation malarkey. I dig it.) Normally I go for a 30 minute run or do some kind of work out. Since I’m also intermittent fasting, I choose to work out just before I eat, so I can feed my muscles with protein when they need them. Since there is no insulin (or very mild amounts) it’s harder to become Arnold Schwarzenegger – namely, build lots of muscle. However, the very act of strength and conditioning training alongside any kind of new nutrition regime / fat-burning regiment, whatever you want to call it, is very powerful. (Notice I didn’t say “weight loss” plan, except I did just – it’s possibly the worst term as your weight is everything inside your skin. It can be excess water retention, muscle, fat, even what’s in your lower intestines! It’s the excess body fat we care about, and the best measure of that is body fat percentage.) Anyhoo. As your body goes through damage and repair, you expend a ton of calories so you increase your BMR – your basal metabolic rate – your metabolism. This can last for days after your workout. You turn your body into a fat burning machine, raise your metabolism, and your testosterone – great for both men and women.

For intermittent fasting, I’m using the 16:8 regime. This is 16 hours of fasting and an 8 hour eating window. I hear you can turn into Wolverine like this, so I’m giving it a shot. The fasting means you release more growth hormone which is secreted most during REM sleep. This is your fountain of youth hormone. During this fasted state, your body, particularly when it is used to it, undergoes some very cool processes, like hormonal regulation, excretion of toxins, it reduces oxidative damage to cells, improves insulin (your fat storing hormone) sensitivity and leptin sensitivity (your “I’m full” hormone).

I actually didn’t eat until about 5pm today. I aimed for 2.30pm since I ate late last night didn’t finish until 10.30. (That would have meant a 16 hour fast).  I had a lot of work to get done all morning and I seemed to hyper focus for a solid 5 hours…Interesting. I drank several pints of water, a cup of green tea (as I normally do to start the day) and a cup of black organic coffee made in a French Press. For “lunch” I met a friend at Urth Caffe at 5pm. I ate a salad that comprised leafy greens, nuts, avocado, organic chicken breast, artichoke hearts and a few other non-sugary vegetables. I swapped the vinaigrette over for olive oil as I didn’t trust the vinaigrette (you can never trust those blighters) and had an organic Americano coffee afterwards (black). 

I worked out late at 8.30 pm. This comprised 4 sets of push ups – 50, 25, 15, 15 and in between those, I
did 150 lunges, one side at a time, 50 each time. I then did a plank for 2 minutes. This is such a killer but man you feel good afterwards. I then wobbled around the apartment on my newly found wobbly legs and made my dinner which looked like this:

This was 3 whole organic eggs hard/softly boiled, spinach, kale, organic vine tomatoes, cucumber, half an avocado, broccoli and broccoli stems (so good for you). I used Mark Sisson’s Primal Mayonnaise which is made from organic everything and avocado oil. It’s so tasty. (You can buy it here at Thrive Market. I recommend joining if you haven’t – you’ll save on organic produce and lots of other tasty stuff).

Side effects: No headaches today. I just felt hungry when I had time to think about it. The best time to do ketosis and/or intermittent fasting is when you’re so busy that you have no time to think about food. Set yourself lots of deadlines and work like a beast and you won’t notice you’re hungry!

I also peed on ketone sticks to see my progress. This was my first time doing such thing. I can safely say I’ve arrived as my urine is showing small levels of ketones. I’d like for there to be more. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow.

If you want to see the replay of the live feed, it’s here: https://www.facebook.com/NeilCannonHealth/