Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

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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Knowledge Hungry

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My brother called me the other day just to check in. Although the journey has been different for each of us, the family has been a lot closer since the bulk of us transitioned to living a ketogenic lifestyle. We share tips, recipes, good podcasts, success stories, and the latest medical research article of interest.

My brother called to report how his latest appointment with his primary care physician (PCP) went. After losing 40 pounds, improving his cholesterol, and lowering his blood pressure (among other positive shifts), it’s not surprising that his appointment went well. Yay! He also mentioned that he was going to watch a documentary on the ketogenic diet but wanted to watch when his wife wasn’t around. He shared that, although she has also gone keto, she thinks that his continual thirst for information is a little “obsessive.” I laughed out loud (literally) in hearing this for he isn’t the only one who is knowledge hungry.

One podcasts leads to another, and that leads to a research paper, which leads to something else. It’s as if these tidbits of knowledge have been engineered for craveability much like the food in the American diet has been specifically designed for “conditioned hypereating.“ No matter how much I listen/read, my hunger for knowledge never seems to satiated. My current commute entertainment is by far the most fascinating – even though 50-60% of the information is over my head. Still, I love it. What’s more, only a small component of it is on nutritional ketosis.

To my brother’s thirst for knowledge to understand (1) how his body works, (2) why eating certain foods make him feel physically better and others don’t, and (3) what do the various biomarkers in his latest laboratory tests mean, I say “Keep up the good work, Bro.” In my not-so-humble opinion, everyone should take an initiative to learn as much as they can on whatever stimulates and motivates them to live a happier and healthier life.

To Bro’s wife, I could point out that she is equally as obsessed, only her obsession is in finding different recipes that keep her creative cooking juices flowing. I could’ve reminded my brother that he once wanted to stop her in this respect for the amazing foods she was masterminding challenged him in his early keto days – but the thought didn’t enter my mind during our conversation. Simple and boring was his tactic for being in control but, with such amazing meals, he had to learn to stop at satiation. Back then, I reminded him that it was her diet too and, more importantly, finding his stopping point was a very good skill for him to learn.

As for my own relationship, I notice that I would do well to not flood theMAN with all of my newly-discovered keto info. Just because I am fascinated with it, doesn’t mean he will be. For the record, although I am fully married to ketosis, he is deciding not.  Even if he were, he doesn’t need my latest discoveries shoved down his throat (so-to-speak). #notetoself

Had enough puns? I just couldn’t stop myself.

Medal Monday

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When I first heard about the Spartan Trifecta, I brushed it off as something for OCR maniacs. However… now that I have 2 of the 3 pieces to complete my Trifecta, I am eager to collect the final piece and complete my puzzle.

It was Spartan Monterey +1 day and theMAN and I were in line for coffee near the hotel. There were two young ladies in line behind me, they looked energized for a day of racing. As it turns out, one of them had run the Super and was taking on the Sprint. The other had raced the Hurricane Heat during the night and was off to the Sprint as well.

I expressed my admiration and told them that I had just done my first Super when they asked me what race I was going to do to complete my Trifecta. I said, “next year.” To which they asked me why I would wait when I was nearly there and could build upon my current level of fitness.

So…I am now registered for another race. Two actually, but the second is a race for fun that I’m doing with my siblings and our kids.

Just Plain “Super”

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The Spartan Super in Monterey was super fun, super tough, and super special. How could it not be? Taking on this course with both BoBo, YaYa, and a whole lot of other cool people was such a fantastic experience. BoBo stayed by my side for the first 3 miles. YaYa and his friend Nicco waited for us (me and Nicco’s mom) at each obstacle before moving on.

Having had researched the tutorials for the obstacles listed on the course map which I was unfamiliar with ahead of time helped me out tremendously. This was especially true for the Bender since I could barely reach the bottom rung. There were other obstacles (such as the walls and hurdles) that, no matter how much research I’d done, I simply didn’t have the strength and agility yet to master without help. But I did what I could on my own and asked for help at the points where I needed it. Sometimes, just having a spotter there just in case was all the help I needed.

Other times, I needed a huge boost to get my hands to a place where I could take over the effort. Of course on obstacles, like Stairway to Sparta, getting up the first portion isn’t the worrisome part. As you climb to the top of the obstacle, the world is seen from such a different perspective. You face your fear of heights while taking in the amazing scenery from the landscape below as well as the community of racers who are taking on the course with you.

It’s a truly amazing sight to behold. The people you meet along the way are some of the coolest people you’ll meet. Everyone is willing to offer a hand to a stranger when needed. And if you need help, all you have do is ask for it. We are Spartan — and this is how we roll.

Personally, my goal was just to finish the race and complete as many obstacles as I could. I paced myself, careful not to go out too strong and risk bonking, especially because I’d never raced being fat-fueled (instead of fueled on carbohydrates). I surprised even myself at places. The strength and confidence I felt on the rope was priceless. This was the one place where the boys looked to me for guidance on the foothold technique. We ALL rang the bell successfully!

By mile 3, the gang was itching to keep moving and I felt more at ease not worrying about how long they were waiting for me. We regrouped with Robby (theMAN’s son) around mile 4 where we took in the view from the top of world. Of course, I knew we’d return to the top of the world a bit later, but not without going down first.

I was solo for a good portion of the second half of the course. We descended and then ascended to an even higher place. Here was where the hurdles got the best of me when I nearly hoisted myself to the top before rotating to the bottom of the hurdle again. My right inner knee and back of my thigh have the bruises to remind me of my need to further build upon this skill.

Fortunately, it was all downhill from here. Oh yeah, except for the steep but short hill  just as you return to the festival area for the last half dozen obstacles. Much to my surprise, BoBo, YaYa, Nicco and Robby were all waiting to take on the mud pits and dunk with me. They’d been waiting for a while already and we waited for about 30 minutes more before we moved on without Nicco and his momma (who was battling some awful cramps). The four of us emerged from the dunk wall together and continued to the finish together.

There were successes and there was failure as well. But I took on each obstacle as best as I could. Even when I failed, I noted the improvement that others might not note. For instance, I was able to grasp a second item on the more complex multi-rig before falling off. I wished I hadn’t taken of my gloves as my hands felt the ripping as I lost hold of the little rope. I’ll know better…NEXT TIME! [Read more…]

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