Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

In with the New (HNY)

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A year ago, I wrote about how 2020 was not a year that needed a my year-in-review post. Twenty twenty-one was no different. I mean, the year was slightly different, but the year as a whole is not one in need of highlighting. Seriously, the fact that I have written less than a handful of posts should be telling enough.

You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? It’s got a 10-second memory.” – Ted Lasso

Now, let’s all be a goldfish and forget 2020 and 2021. [Read more…]

No more excuses

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I’ve been in denial about my back-slide in my fitness for a few months now. I’d noticed the change in how my body feels. I have also noticed a change in how my clothing fits. And while I kept trying to convince myself that the change *could* be due to muscle gain, I knew full well that I hadn’t been putting in that level of strength training.

After months of avoidance, I finally took measurements and plugged them into my Progress app. The inner voice that lies to my psyche, in the face of the numbers, still tried to convince me that it might still be muscle. I finally told her to shut up and decided that it was time for me to face the truth. I scheduled another DXA scan…

While my weight was only 0.6 lbs off, the scan showed that my body fat had increased by 2.6% (3.4 lbs). I might have been okay with this, except that the scan also showed a 3.1% (2.8 lbs) loss in lean muscle. I am NOT OK with the coupling of muscle loss.

There isn’t any shame in getting off track. There is only regret when you stay off track.” -author unknown

It’s time to get my arse in gear and undo the damage of lazy keto, pitty-party-piss-poor-eating-and-couch-potatoeing. No more lies, excuses, or head games from myself or others. It’s time to live my best life. I deserve it!

Success

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Successes come in a colors, sizes, and styles. Sometimes we recognize our successes, and other times they pass unnoticed. Successfully doing a 72 hour fast is, in my book, a big success.

Until you’ve tried to pull off this task, you have no real idea what it takes. In doing so, I was surprised at how easily my body took to it. The strength of my mind, however, was what was really being tested. Of course the nursing side of me monitored my glucose and ketone levels, blood pressure, and urine output for signs that I should end the attempt. I did my best to keep busy but not overdue it. I kept to my regular routine (minus the eating) as much as possible.

On Day 3, after weights and yoga, I packed up a few snacks to use for reintroducing food at the end of the day. The day was just beginning but, in the back of mind, already I was considering the possibility of extending past 72 hours. I tucked the snacks in my glove compartment as I drove to work.

That evening, just 30 minutes before hitting the 72 hour mark, I seriously wondered if I should just continue. I felt FABULOUS. I joked with my brother and Lil Sis that I was high on ketones. I had plenty of chores to keep my evening occupied and food was the farthest thing from my mind. Until… it wasn’t.

I realized that I had no idea what I would eat if I were to break my fast then and there. What? What would I eat? 

Before long, I had decided that a good steak was in order. Yes, that’s it. A rib eye steak would be nice. Ahhh, but we are out of propane. I should pick some up tonight so I have it when I am ready to eat again. While I am at it, I might as well get the steak too.

Well you can see where this was going. Right? All of that thinking and planning what I was going to eat (when I was to eat again) got my salivary glands flowing, my stomach grumbling, and my ghrelin levels rising. By then, it was a done deal. The fast was ended.

So… I ate.

And it was good. Oh, so good.

Biohacking, Birthdays, and Byes

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I’ve been hearing a lot about prolonged fasting on various podcasts I follow. Recently, I discovered The Keto Hacking MD podcast that is hosted by Jimmy Moore featuring Dr. John Limansky. I started with the first episodes covering intermittent and prolonged fasting as biohacks. I was immediately convinced that even I could survive an extended fast. To this point, I’ve only don’t intermittent fasts ranging from 18 to 24 hours. Apparently the autophagic benefits are only gleaned from fasts 3 days or longer.

Although this topic has intrigued me for some time, I was a little fearful of going there. I felt able to brave my own prolonged fast after listening to the data presentation of Jimmy, Dr. L’s, and even
Mrs. L’day fast where they described the experience in addition to their blood glucose (BG), Ketones (K), insulin, and other numbers

Originally, I wanted to start on Monday but I deferred after theMAN asked to have lunch with me. He has been out of town for several days so it seemed like a good idea. The following day was my son’s 20th birthday. He took the day off and was cooking up plans to meet with as many friends as he could since he’s been working nearly every day (across his 3 jobs) for several weeks now. We had tentative dinner plans so it seemed that Wednesday would be the day to jump on board. I wanted to shoot for 3 days, with the option to extend beyond if I was feeling amazing (as Jimmy and Dr. L had described – post
Day 2). The hurdle was the weekend with theMAN as we generally eat dinner together on Friday and Saturday night every weekend.

As it turned out, the availability of YaYa’s friends left lunch as the best available meal for me to share with him. Not only did he want to have lunch with me, he also wanted to bring our oldest dog, Ronin, along for the experience. I tried to nix that idea but ended up caving when my boss said that I could take an extended lunch break. So we all had a lovely lunch on the dog-friendly patio at the restaurant where YaYa works. I wish I’d taken a photo of all of us together as the outing was more precious than I could possibly know.

Once I returned to work, I began thinking about my fast again. If YaYa was going to be busy the rest of the day, I figured that I might as well begin my fast then. In doing so, I would hit the 3 day mark around 12:30 pm Friday which would allow me to enjoy dinner with theMAN (unless I felt compelled to keep going). I set my mind to it and decided not to change the plan unless I had to for physical/health reasons.

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PLAN A, B, C, D…. ?

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It’s been five days since our return from the wilderness. Thankfully, we were smart enough to leave a day in between our return to civilization and returning to work. This forethought has made our re-entry into everyday life a lot smoother. Even with that cushion, I found myself exhausted from my first couple of work days. I’d barely swallowed my last bite of dinner before passing out on Monday. With these five days having had passed,  the trip now feels far away and I am a little lost on what to write about it. So, please bear with me.  There are so many aspects of this trip that I wanted to share with you. I just don’t know where to start.

Some of these topics include:

  • Details of where we trekked.
  • The impact of the ongoing California fires on the journey.
  • Ketogenic nutrition in the backcountry.
  • The cool people you met on the path less traveled.

If I don’t get to a topic in this post, you can expect it to be covered in a separate post which I will write later on. Today, I am simply going to begin writing and see what transpires…

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