April changes

 Well as things moved into April I found myself completely devoid of motivation for the night time exercise routine. I stopped doing it and just didn’t seem to build up any energy or motivation to continue. I’m sure I’ll get back to it but as of yet no. My experiment in reducing my artificial sweeteners was a bust for the most part, I did cut the amount in coffee to half but that’s about it. I don’t really feel like it’s a problem since I don’t have any real craving for them and I have given up any sort of Keto desserts so I I don’t feel like they are a problem.

I developed some pain in my right leg but decided it was caused by my shoes falling apart and making me walk funny. Just two days in a more substantial pair of shoes and the pain has all but disappeared. 

My weight dipped down to 212lbs but was 215lbs on Monday. I guess we’ll see next Monday how it stacks up. 

For the last week or so I have moved into a 20% protein to 80% fat way of eating, hoping to move my metabolism into a fat burning state yet maintaining the adequate amount of protein. I’ll continue at least till the end of the month before I re-access.

Weight loss and a new experiment

 Now it’s the middle of March and a few changes have taken effect. Firstly I’m now down to 217 lbs. so the weight loss is continuing. Secondly I have stuck with my evening exercise routine only interrupting it for one week, mainly because I knew it needed to be tweaked to make it more effective. As it was it wasn’t enough actual work involved, it needs to be strong enough that you feel it the next day and need that day of recovery before you go again. I upped up the number of springs and modified some of the exercises. I definitely felt it the next day but was recovered by the next evening to go again. I feel that I can go with it as it is and periodically increase the volume of exercises by either more reps or more sets until some time in the future when I can add another spring. 

My Sunday fast is now working fine. In fact I kinda find it relaxing getting up and not even thinking about food the entire day, till I eat that evening meal. At first I feared I might over compensate and end the day with a oversized meal and stuff my self , but I just eat a regular meal and stop when I feel satiated then get up the next day to my usual routine. 

I am going to make a change to my lifestyle by giving up all artificial sweeteners. It has been on my mind for some time that it was still feeding that need for a serotonin release. Yes it’s not the same as sugar it doesn’t have the insulin release but your brain still release the serotonin and the only reason your having it, so your still using as a crutch. So in a way it’s an experiment to see how I will respond going with no food related serotonin release. I’ll have to have my coffee with just butter and a touch of milk and either get used to the taste or drop it entirely. I’ll also have to drop all the artificial flavored and sweetened powders and squirts that i drink and replace them with only water or lemon water. I’m interested on not only how my psyche will respond to this change but also if it has any effect on my metabolism. It might turn out I have been hamstring my self all along, kidding my self that it didn’t matter since it doesn’t affect your insulin levels. I guess my next post in a week or so will tell the response and where I’ll go from there.

February, starting a exercise routine and weekly fast

 It’s now the middle of February and I’ve made a few changes to my way of life. I finally started an upper body routine to complement my morning stretching routine. Just like my morning routine I do it every day. It consists of about thirty minutes of exercises with my chest expander set of springs. Right now the routine involves several exercise to target different muscles. I’m sure I’ll be making some changes as time progresses, in fact I’ve already made a few and will continue to improve it till I have worked all the kinks. I have some muscle soreness, so I know it’s doing something in a positive way. It’s beginning to warm up enough to add some walking to my weekly schedule as well. 

Last Sunday I tried an experiment in fasting for twenty four hours. After my meal on Saturday night I didn’t eat again till about the same time on Sunday evening. It wasn’t difficult but I was pretty hungry for the last couple of hours. I did have morning coffee but I left out the small amount of milk as I didn’t want any protein in my system at all. I did have butter as usual but since it has no protein it won’t break your fast. I think this could be a regular thing, sort of a end of week reset.

I’ve seen a slow loss of weight now down to 222 lbs. from 255 lbs. where I started. I’ve also seen a shift in body composition which leads me to believe there has been a gain of muscle accompanying the fat loss which doesn’t manifest itself in a change on the scale. I think by the end of February I’ll be back to a 34inch size in jeans which is a 10 inch loss from where I started.

Now in January

 My last post was in December but I evidently forgot to publish it till January. Since the last post I have lost a couple more pounds even though I’m eating two full meals. I haven’t yet started on the new exercise routine but will do so starting tomorrow. I’m also ready to start walking. I have been using google maps to come up with several different locations to go walk and by using the measure distance feature I can create different patterns for different distances. The weather is always a factor which will limit me to when I can do it, but March is only six weeks away so the situation is improving every week. 

Back again and the start of the new year.

 Well since my last post in the middle of November my situation sort of stabilized. I didn’t drop any poundage but I felt some changes in body composition. My morning exercise routine became easier and I felt like I was actually improving in terms of flexibility. Before I sort felt like I was just trying to keep from losing ground I feel like I’m gaining mobility and strength. 

I did slip off the wagon a little bit at thanksgiving and Christmas but didn’t have any deleterious effects the next day so I felt good about that. I have been trying to determine what I could do to get back on the fat reduction and hopefully some increase in muscular situation. What I decided to do is opposite what I’ve done in the past, it never worked before so why should I follow that same path. What I would have done in the past would be to cut the calories and fat, instead I’m upping the protein to a minimum of 140grans a day and fat to a minimum of 100 grams a day. This represents about a 1500 kcals a day. In addition I’m adding an additional exercise routine at the end of day, not a stretching routine but a weight training routine involving my chest expansion springs at first and then moving on to a dumbbell routine. I may alternate them from one day to the next or begin with chest expansion routine and finish with the weight training. What I think is crucial ,that I haven’t done before, is to do it like my stretching routine and do it everyday with out even thinking about it, unless I’m feeling unwell or something. I’m thinking what will work best for me is to do it every night from around ten PM to about 11:30, which is how long I think it will take. Then I’m sure I’ll be good and ready to go to sleep. I’m going to follow the routine for a month before a reassessment at the end of January to see what I need to modify. 

I also plan to post on this blog every week at least. By picking a day and just do it. Probably on Sunday’s but we’ll see. Not that I won’t post on some other day if I have something worth posting about, but at least one post a week.

Going from Keto to Carnivore

 In 2020 my weight pretty much stabilized at around 250lbs. I was still sugar free except for the occasional breakdown where I would allow sugar to sneak in but for the most part I stayed keto the problem seemed to be just consuming too much volume of food exceeding my expenditure. I tried various types and patterns of eating but in the end it pretty much stayed only plus or minus five lbs a never ending plateau.

I had for several years had this notion that when I got to 65 I wanted this problem done with but as 2023 arrived it was pretty self evident that by my birthday in August when I would turn 65 it wasn’t going to happen. In July I had a sort of breakdown of sorts, where I had bought a few illicit items and found myself trying to incorporate them in my diet. I would tell myself I’ll just have half a donut with my coffee and I’ll limit the cookies to just two a day and the like. Suddenly I said to hell with it and threw away the all illicit foods I had just bought. Breaking two lower middle class cardinal sins, wasting money and throwing away food. I also found myself feeling tired of the trying to find keto versions of recipes and just would eat only when I felt hungry of as simple a meal I could make and it seemed like I just didn’t care about it as much. I had been tracking my calories just trying to make sure I was getting enough protein and enough fat on top of that. As for the carbs it dropped to only about fifty to seventy a day and was pretty much all just from fajita sized tortillas. I thought if I give up these torts there won’t really be any need to count them and the protein rarely gets over 80 grams a day and the fat 70 grams a day so there was little point in counting them either. I threw away the remaining torts and said well I guess im carnivore since I’ve dropped everything else. I thought I would probably show some fat loss but was surprised it was ten lbs in a month. I felt like it was only because I was so burnt out and was eating only one minimal meal a day. I had not had a ten lb loss in so long it sort of  pulled me out of my blue funk and found myself hungrier than I had been and began eating more calories again expecting it to just plateau on me as it had so many times before. I kind of also had a feeling that I wanted to see where this was going and at two months I had lost another ten lbs I felt like okay somethings different about this. All the cravings were completely gone hadn’t had anything illicit since my birthday and seemingly no desire to have them at all. So far I have been staying the course and it continues to be working. I have to be careful that I don’t just snack on meat and cheese between meals and just limit myself to two full meals. My weight now is at 230 and would like to see it below 220 by the end of the year.

I guess that sort brings up to today and my blog post now will be less history and more day to day analysis of what’s going on and what works and what is a problem.

COVID to carnivore

 I have been only hitting the highlights of the past ten years of my Keto-carnivore journey because I want to get it up to more of a weekly or bi-weekly account of the present status and my transition to being a complete carnivore. I will from time to time flashback to what I went through to get here now and that will fill in some gaps. So let’s continue onward to the present day. 

When COVID came along I was glad that I was now self employed because working in retail I almost certainly would have got the virus. I know that because I dealt with heads colds three or four times a year probably from handling cash and being in a crowded environment eight hours a day. I went and got the vaccine when available and have had two boosters shots. So far I seemed to have either avoided it or had symptoms so slight I didn’t know. In any event I am still on an even keel.  

My main focus was on trying to not only maintain my weight but to get back under 200 lbs and try to build up some muscle to prevent sarcopenia (muscle loss)from setting in. I managed to stay sugar free 90% of the time but my daily carb load would vary between 50 too 100 carbs a day of non sugar carbs. Calorie wise it was about 15% of the total calories making me about 85% carnivore since that’s all that’s left. I had eliminated seed oils already, except when I went off the rails and gave in to something illicit. Since I had yet to deal with the craving of eating just for the serotonin high of eating my problem was consuming to many calories so that expenditure was the same as my intake. Partly it was because I felt that if I cut my calories my metabolism would drop and I would not be any better off and it would lead to frustration and falling off entirely and having to start over and get back on track. I tried all the different eating patterns and had some success with them but I found myself breaking my own rules and eating when I felt like it. 

One positive thing I accomplished was devising a morning exercise routine that I follow every morning without fail it sort of just starts the day off right  It’s mostly a stretching routine that has elements of calisthenics and Qigong, a type of Chinese calisthenics, along with some standing yoga exercises and Tai chi balance movements. It takes about an hour to do and I have been doing it for over a year and seen and felt the positive results of it. It probably is what made me stick to my way of eating and just kept looking for a path that would see me having the same success in my weight loss as I was having in my exercise routine.

How I finally came to carnivore and the results of that since about Labor Day, I’ll go into on the next post.