Another experiment

this time with intermittent fasting.

I usually do Brad Pillon's Eat Stop Eat plan. Two days a week I fast from dinner to dinner the next day. Two 24 hour fasts.

I decided to switch things up and do a 16 hour daily fast. I've been doing some research on this type of fasting and am interested to see how it will work for me. I'm going to eat from around 11am to 7pm.

Before I eat my first meal, I'll check my blood. I'll be very curious to see how this type of fasting affects my ketones. My schedule has been eating breakfast around 9am, skipping lunch because I'm not hungry, then testing my blood around 3pm. My ketones have ranged from .8 to 1.4. I'll be interested to see if a daily fast changes my numbers.

I plan to do this experiment for 6 weeks. I'll post my numbers on a daily basis.

Today is Day 1. I finished eating dinner last night around 6:45. It's 10:40am, just coffee until 11. Time to prick my finger...

Fasting Glucose  63
Ketones  .3

Aaarghh...my ketones suck.
Let's see what this daily fasting does to them.

My 24 hour experiment

Inspired by Jimmy Moore, I decided to test my ketones and glucose several times over a 24 hour period. Here's the numbers..

9pm   Glucose  77  Ketones 1.0    Dinner was about 3 hours earlier
7am   Glucose  68  Ketones  .2     Before breakfast
6pm   Glucose  71  Ketones  1.7   Last meal was breakfast at 9am

In about 2 hours I'll check my numbers before I go to bed.

UPDATE...about 2 hours after dinner my glucose was 87 and ketones were .6
My numbers bounce all over the place!

One week of no baking

and one week of staying in Nutritional Ketosis.

Coincidence? I don't think so!

My blood ketones have stayed in the mid 1's for most of the week. Yesterday I dipped to .8.

My NK mentor, Jimmy Moore, recently tested his blood ketones every hour for one day. It was really interesting to see the fluctuations, depending on the time of day. I don't think I could do an hourly experiment but I may do a 3 times in a day one.

It's time for another race! Actually a couple of them. In March I'm doing a half marathon in Las Vegas. A couple weeks after that, I think I'll be heading to Moab, Utah to do a 12 hour one.

Time to get off the couch!

UPDATE...I just signed up for kettlebell classes....ACK!!

Day 1 done

Having a low ketone number yesterday gave me the resolve to say no to making keto-cheesecakes. I did spend some reading keto-chocolate mousse recipes...

LATER THAT DAY...ketones are up from .4 to 1.0. I'm moving on up!

It's Groundhog Day!

A perfect day to begin my no sugar-like substitute challenge.

I changed the rules a bit. My challenge will be No Dessert Baking for 4 weeks. That's where I get into trouble. Too much tasting batter and licking bowls.

If I don't bake, my sugar substitute consumption plummets. The only dessert I buy is these petit-fores. I'll still have an afternoon fat bomb. The ones I make are with 100% chocolate, no sugar substitutes.

I packed away my muffin tins and moved the Swerve and Xylitol to the back of the pantry. Maybe I'll go for walks instead of baking...

UPDATE..I tested my blood for the first time in a`week. I was braced for a bad reading and I got one. I was .4, just a measly .1 above being out of ketosis. I'm determined to get the number back up.

No sugar-like stuff

I quit eating sugar last July 4th.

So I said good-bye to sugar and all it's cousins like honey and agave. I replaced all that sweetness with the low carb ones. I started using stuff like xylitol and stevia. My favorite has been this one...

Swerve doesn't have any bitter after taste or give me stomach troubles like some alternative sweeteners.

I've been baking cookies and brownies and cheesecake with Swerve. Baking and then eating them.

I'm developing a low carb dessert habit just like I had when I was eating high carb ones.

Time to get this low carb cookie monkey off my back.

For 28 days I'm not eating any low carb desserts. If I want something (I know I'll want something) after dinner, I can have a piece of my 100% chocolate bar with some coconut oil or a few nuts. Or maybe a small bowl of berries with whipped cream.

I'll keep checking my blood stuff too. When I eat too many low carb desserts, I stay in NK but my numbers drop. Yesterday I was at .9.

This won't be easy although I'm confident it won't be as bad as kicking the real sugar habit. That was tough!

Since Feb has 28 days, it's a no-brainer to start on the 1st. I'll use the days leading up to Feb 1 to wean off of the sugar-like substitutions that I've been (kind of) abusing.

Rocky is getting big