Month 1 Review

Month 1 Review

Ok so I am now on day 32 of my 26 day experiment, this fact alone should tell you everything you need to know! I have been converted, so far I am a huge advocate of this lifestyle. So much so that I now would feel confident to recommend it to others. After 1 month my energy levels are up, I feel fit and healthy, I rarely get hungry, my gym regime has been largely unaffected, I’m loving the food and getting into cooking and trying new recipes and last but not least my body fat is down!

 

Let’s see my results:

 

Start weight = 77kg

Starting Body Fat = 11%

 

Current weight = 74kg

Current Body Fat = 9%

 

My weight has been bouncing around at the 74kg mark for the last few weeks which is great as I never wanted to lose too much. My body fat I think is decreasing slowly, it’s sometimes hard to be entirely accurate with the callipers. I definitely feel like I’m started to see more definition in my stomach although I don’t really see it in my pictures. Other people have commented on how healthy I look and have started asking me what I am doing so something must be going right.

 

The biggest thing for me though has been the energy and just generally feeling good. I can’t explain it, I just feel healthy. I used to get hungry and grumpy and tired and now I don’t get that at all. I find with the cyclical carb loading I sometimes feel a little run down on the Monday/Tuesday as my body recalibrates but nothing too major.

 

My top keto tips:

 

1. Drink lots of water
2. Download a macros app like MyFitnessPal
3. Try to hit your macros for each meal individually not overall for the day

 

My most useful keto food discoveries:

 

1. Philadelphia cream cheese
2. Bulletproof coffee
3. Sugarfree Jelly and Cream
4. Corn thins
5. Well Naturally dark chocolate bars

Useful resources:

1. Keto Calculator website
2. Abel James podcast - Fatburning Man (The Wild Diet)
3. "What the Fat" book
4.  Google :)

I am going to keep this up for February at least however I am going to take a step back from macro counting and try to go a bit more off my gut as I feel like I have a solid understanding of what is in each of my foods. I won’t be posting every day but I will try to give regular updates.

Day 30 – Wednesday 3.2.16

Day 30 – Wednesday 3.2.16

 

I woke up feeling pretty good and went to the gym for legs and triceps. I did my usual breakfast, lunch and bulletproof coffee then played football after work. For dinner I finished the leftover taco mince and then also made some homemade burgers and had 2 of them. Finished off with jelly and cream.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2355

Carbs = 35g (5%)

Fat = 201g (70%)

Protein 151g (25%)

Day 29 – Tuesday 2.2.16

Day 29 – Tuesday 2.2.16

 

Back to work today after the long weekend was tough and my body was sore from the kayaking. I got up and went to the gym though for chest and biceps and happily was able to get back up to my normal reps and weights. Carbs must have helped over the weekend. Standard scrambled eggs, bulletproof coffee then corn thins with cream cheese and salami. I did tacos again after work and finished it off with some jelly and cream.

 

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2355

Carbs = 35g (5%)

Fat = 192g (76%)

Protein 110g (19%)

Day 28 – Monday 1.2.16

Day 28 – Monday 1.2.16

 

Today was a public holiday so I didn’t have to work J I went to the gym and did some legs and triceps. I made some bacon, eggs and cheese for breakfast. I went on a kayak trip and they made us a BBQ so I had some steak and veges. When I got home I also had a couple of sausages and a bit of left over cauliflower mash.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 1555

Carbs = 12g (3%)

Fat = 115g (67%)

Protein 114g (30%)

Day 27 – Sunday 31.1.16

Day 27 – Sunday 31.1.16

 

Yes – Day 27!!! I have decided to keep going for another month so back on the wagon today. I didn’t go to the gym as I was feeling the vodka a little bit. Bacon and cheese for breakfast. Dinner I made some pork sausages and then made some Cauliflower mash with cream cheese and blue cheese. It was nice but I definitely think I can improve the recipe for next time. I also has a mint crisp well naturally bar.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 1396

Carbs = 14g (4%)

Fat = 119g (77%)

Protein 64g (18%)

 

I need to sort out bulletproof coffee ingredients for the house!

Day 26 – Saturday 30.1.16

Day 26 – Saturday 30.1.16

 

I didn’t count at all today. I had a bit of Hawaiian pizza for breakfast and then played a 90 minute football game in the scorching heat. I then did an hour in the gym for back and shoulders. I was going out for a meal so went to Korean BBQ and ate an ungodly amount of meat. I then went to a party and decided I wanted to have a few drinks so had vodka and soda.

Day 25 – Friday 29.1.16

Day 25 – Friday 29.1.16

 

I woke up feeling pretty good today and went to the gym to do chest and biceps. Today was the first time that I have seen an impact on the gym, I wasn’t able to finish all my reps on my usual weight, I just felt so drained. I would assume this is due to being carb depleted since the last carb load at the weekend. It could also have something to do with messing up my macros the last two days and having even lower carbs than normal. I didn’t feel bad but just couldn’t push the reps out. I did bacon and cheese for breakfast (I’ve been getting sick of the eggs). I had my bulletproof coffee then corn thins with cream cheese and a couple of sausages for lunch. At night time I went to the pub and had some butter chicken with a big plate of rice and some garlic bread to start my carb load.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 3130

Carbs = 153g (20%)

Fat = 216g (62%)

Protein 141g (18%)

 

Day 24 – Thursday 28.1.16

 

Day 24 – Thursday 28.1.16

I woke up feeling fine today and went to the gym for legs and triceps. I decided to go into work late so made myself some bacon and cheese for breakfast. I did the usual corn thins with cream cheese and salami for lunch and also had my bulletproof coffee. At dinner time I made the Lebanese chicken again, unfortunately I didn’t make it as well this time but it was still good.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2351

Carbs = 13g (2%)

Fat = 181g (70%)

Protein 162g (28%)

Day 23 – Wednesday 27.1.16

Day 23 – Wednesday 27.1.16

 

I woke up feeling a bit better today so hopefully I am adapting again after the weekend. I did back and shoulders at the gym then had my usual breakfast and bulletproof coffee. At lunch I didn’t have much time so just grabbed a 2 sausages and a burger patty from the café up the road. I don’t want to make too much of a habit of this though as I’m not sure which kind of oil they use when cooking. I think I missed the carbs from lunch so I was feeling a bit tired and decided to have second bulletproof coffee. I played a game of football after work then I finished off the leftover tacos for dinner. I finished off with jelly and cream again after because it is awesome.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2871

Carbs = 22g (3%)

Fat = 257g (81%)

Protein 118g (16%)

 

The second bulletproof coffee caused me to go over calories for the first time. Macros are pretty poor today.

Day 22 – Tuesday 26.1.16

Day 22 – Tuesday 26.1.16

 

I was still feeling pretty tired when I woke up this morning but did chest and biceps in the gym. I did normal work breakfast, lunch and bulletproof coffee. For dinner I made mince tacos and then finished off with jelly and cream. I also ran 3.5km after work.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2719

Carbs = 35g (5%)

Fat = 227g (75%)

Protein 127g (20%)

Day 21 – Monday 25.1.16

Day 21 – Monday 25.1.16

I woke up today feeling pretty rough again. I went to the gym and trained legs and triceps. I was back to work so I had my usual breakfast and lunch but I substituted sausage in for the salami again. I also had my bulletproof coffee. For most of the afternoon I was feeling a little off and I assume it was me transitioning back into keto after the weekend. After work I went a 6km run which strangely made me feel much better and my energy levels came up. For dinner I cooked up some chorizo sausages and had them with some green salad. I also had another Well Naturally mint bar.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2636

Carbs = 26g (4%)

Fat = 221g (76%)

Protein 131g (20%)

Day 20 – Sunday 24.1.16

Day 20 – Sunday 24.1.16

 

I woke up feeling pretty lousy this morning which I can only attribute to the drastic change in food over the last 36 hours. I dragged myself to the gym anyway and did a good session for back, shoulders and abs and then felt better afterwards. I was in a rush and also wasn’t feeling hungry so just had around 50g of cheese for breakfast then for lunch I had corn thins, cream cheese and salami. At dinner time I had bacon, fried eggs and cheese. I also had another Well Naturally choc mint bar.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2113

Carbs = 15g (3%)

Fat = 180g (78%)

Protein 99g (19%)

Day 19 – Saturday 23.1.16

Day 19 – Saturday 23.1.16

 

I was going out caving today and I wasn’t able to keep track of my macros unfortunately. I just had in the back of my head to aim for carbs so went for the carb option at every choice. Lasagne for breakfast, cheese and ham toastie for lunch and then a curry with rice for dinner. I also cheated and had a normal chocolate bar after dinner as well as a bit of shortbread after lunch. No idea what my end of day results would have been.

Day 18 – Friday 22.1.16

Day 18 – Friday 22.1.16

 

Chest, biceps and abs in the gym this morning. Usual breakfast and bulletproof coffee but then I changed lunch twice having a couple of Kransky sausages in place of the salami. As after 6pm Friday is carb load a made a big spag bol with garlic bread which was awesome. I also had another one of the Well Naturally bars, Almond Chip this time.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2444

Carbs = 227g (37%)

Fat = 122g (45%)

Protein 107g (18%)

Day 17 – Thursday 21.1.16

Day 17 – Thursday 21.1.16

 

I woke up and did some legs, triceps and abs before work. Usual breakfast and lunch and bulletproof coffee at work. After work I got adventurous and made some Lebanese Chicken with green bean, I got the recipe here: http://www.free-workout-plans-for-busy-people.com/ketogenic-diet-recipes-lebanese-chicken.html It was absolutely amazing! So tasty, definitely recommend it. I also discovered “Well Naturally” chocolate bars which have no sugar and only 1.8g of carbs in a bar! I had the mint crisp one and it was beautiful.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2484

Carbs = 25g (4%)

Fat = 186g (72%)

Protein 156g (26%)

Day 16 – Wednesday 20.1.16

Day 16 – Wednesday 20.1.16

 

I was back into my normal routine today so did shoulders and back before work then had my usual breakfast, lunch and bulletproof coffee during the day. I did some abs and 20 minutes on the cross trainer after work then had homemade burgers with salsa and cheese then a bit more of my lovely ice cream to finish it off. Not the most interesting day diet wise, although I did make a google discovery of sugar free jelly having no carbs in it so bowls of jelly and cream will be happening soon.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2548

Carbs = 31g (5%)

Fat = 203g (72%)

Protein 143g (23%)

Day 15 – Tuesday 19.1.16

Day 15 – Tuesday 19.1.16

 

I was scheduled to work late today so did a gym session in the morning for chest and biceps. I did the opposite of yesterday and skipped breakfast but had lunch. The usual work lunch of rice thins, cream cheese and salami. Bulletproof coffee in work then some homemade burgers for dinner. I also forced myself to eat some more of the ice cream I made just to get rid of it.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2204

Carbs = 26g (5%)

Fat = 178g (73%)

Protein 121g (22%)

 

I should be back into routine tomorrow to get my 3 meals in and hit my calories.

Week 2 Review

Week 2 Review

 

After 2 weeks I am still enjoying the diet. It all just seems very easy, I feel like I have a lot of food options and I am definitely starting to see the results (even though I can’t see it in the pictures). I have even started to get compliments of friends and colleagues so it must be working. I was fearing the “keto flu” but I am yet to see it. Either I have just been lucky or it wasn’t as extreme as some people online made out and I just didn’t notice it.

 

Let’s see my results:

 

Start weight = 77kg

Starting Body Fat = 11%

 

Current weight = 73.7kg

Current Body Fat = 9.5%

 

My weight loss has slowed which is good as I really don’t want to keep losing weight. I think 74kg is probably closer to wear I would naturally sit pre-Christmas so I am adjusting my goals to reflect maintaining current weight.

 

New daily goal:

 

Calories – 2711

Carbs – < 35g

Protein – 147 g

Fat – 220 g

 

Here’s some more info:

 

Energy levels – Still up, no fatigue or tiredness.

Weight Training – No impact on weight training so far, still doing the same weights or increasing.

Bowel Movements – All good

Concentration Levels – No issues

Day 14 – Monday 18.1.16

Day 14 – Monday 18.1.16

I managed to totally sleep through my alarm this morning so woke up late for the gym. Luckily I was able to do my morning calls from home so I still managed to go to the gym and do legs and triceps. As I was at home I just had some bacon and cheese for breakfast. When I got to the office I had my bulletproof coffee and didn’t have any lunch due to the late breakfast. After work I went for a 5km run which was a terrible idea, I felt horrible after the run and realised that it was probably due to the fact that I had had less than a gram of carbs all day before the run – another lesson learned! After the run I finished off the remaining taco stuff from the previous night having another 3 tacos but used grated cheese this time. I then had some of the homemade ice cream which I made last week, which was not the greatest, definitely need to tweak that recipe!

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2808

Carbs = 32g (5%)

Fat = 232g (74%)

Protein 144g (21%)

 

I learned today that cardio after no carbs is not a great idea. It’s amazing the difference the small amount I’m usually eating must make.

Day 13 – Sunday 17.1.16

Day 13 – Sunday 17.1.16

 

I woke up feeling good so I went to the gym and trained back, shoulders and abs. After the gym, at about midday, I fuelled up on a big plate of bacon, eggs and cheese which kept me feeling full for most of the day. At dinner time I cooked up some mince with a red and green capsicum, burrito spice mix and olive oil. I discovered that taco shells are only 6g carbs each so I had 3 shells with the mince and some cream cheese.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2219

Carbs = 35g (6%)

Fat = 170g (70%)

Protein 132g (24%)

 

Calories obviously down today but I didn’t wake up as early so found it more difficult to get them in. I also didn’t have the bulletproof coffee ingredients at home which would have put me nearer the mark.

Day 12 – Saturday 16.1.16

Day 12 – Saturday 16.1.16

I woke up with a lot of energy from the carbs so did a good session at the gym training biceps and chest. I had the leftover carbonara from the night before for breakfast in order to get in some more carbs. I then went surfing with friends in the afternoon so got a good bit of cardio in.

 

After surfing I had a lamb wrap from a place called Pita Pit which was full of veges and then had a side of potato wedges to try and get more carbs in. On the way home we stopped off at this pick your own strawberry place which does insane ice creams with freash fruit so I decided to treat myself and have the biggest ice cream they had with whipped cream, chocolate and nuts. In the evening I went to a BBQ so had a few burgers with rolls. Gotta love a cheat day!

 

Very approximate end of day result:

 

Calories = 2518

Carbs = 407 (57%)

Fat = 85g (27%)

Protein 113g (16%)

Day 11 – Friday 15.1.16

Day 11 – Friday 15.1.16

 

I woke up feeling good and thankfully my bowels hadn’t been “broomed” too badly so there were no traumatic bathroom experiences. I did some legs, triceps and abs at the gym then did my standard breakfast, lunch and bulletfproof coffee. As I am following the cyclical ketogenic diet after 6pm I was obliged to eat as many carbs as possible. With this in mind I whipped up a huge pot of Fettucine Carbonara and had that with some garlic bread. I worked out that my dinner had around 470 grams of carbs which is more than I had the more than 4 times what I had the rest of the week combined!

End of day result:

 

Calories = 3781

Carbs =481 (48%)

Fat = 153g (35%)

Protein 171g (17%)

 

It was nice to have the carbs for dinner, looking forward to a cheat day tomorrow.

Day 10 – Thursday 14.1.16

Day 10 – Thursday 14.1.16

 

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good and hit the gym for some back and shoulder training. During the day I had my usual breakfast, lunch and bulletproof coffee. I feel like I’m in a good routine and I am finding the eating pretty easy to do. I don’t get hungry or crave other foods at all. I am used to eating the same breakfast and lunch every day so lack of variety is not an issue for me. Previously I would have oats and a protein shake for breakfast then a quarter chicken for lunch every day so I am actually enjoying the keto options more. Also I know there are limitless options available to me if I do get bored.

After work I was in a culinary experimentation mode so I decided to make homemade pizza and homemade ice cream. I found the pizza recipe here http://www.ruled.me/keto-bbq-chicken-pizza-dairy-free-crust/ The recipe involved making a pizza base from coconut flour and something called Psyllium Husk which appears to just be a bag of fibre. I was a little alarmed when I read the back of the packet and it claimed to be “nature’s internal broom”. The pizza was successful enough although the doh is really sticky so I ended up spending a good bit of time trying to pry if off the baking paper without wrecking it, I would recommend greasing the paper with butter or oil maybe to prevent this. The base basically tasted exactly like bread then I topped with pepperoni, chopped tomato and cheese. It was pretty decent but the preparation took me a long time so I don’t know if it’s worth the investment. I only ate a little of the ice cream as it hadn’t set properly yet by the time I was wanting to eat it.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2720

Carbs =24 (4%)

Fat = 213g (75%)

Protein 137g (21%)

Day 9 – Wednesday 13.1.16

 

Day 9 – Wednesday 13.1.16

 

I woke up pretty average today I wasn’t overly energetic or overly tired. I just did some cardio on the cross trainer and some ab training before work. I had the same breakfast and lunch and a bulletproof coffee during work. After work I went to the gym and trained chest and biceps. I was going out again so just quickly made some burgers with cheese for dinner. Easy day.

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2352

Carbs =27g (4%)

Fat = 178g (69%)

Protein 156g (26%)

 

I didn’t put much effort in today, I should really have had some dessert or cream cheese to up my calories and fat but I didn’t have anything in the house or time to go to the shop so I missed out. Thankfully I had the bulletproof coffee or my calories would have been way too low. I’ll put more effort in tomorrow.

Week 1 Review

Week 1 Review

I have to say after 1 week of this diet I am actually really enjoying it and not finding it difficult at all. If anything I am enjoying my food more and feel like I have so many more options. I definitely want to start looking up some more cool recipes and trying them out. I feel like I have much more passion for food now, previously my food was really boring….chicken, fish, steak, chicken, fish, steak…..!

 

Let’s see my results:

 

Start weight = 77kg

Starting Body Fat = 11%

 

Current weight = 74kg

Current Body Fat = 10%

 

Before anyone gets carried away, I am still not convinced this is the result of the diet. These results could either be because of or in spite of the diet. We have to keep in mind that I just spent a week over Christmas doing no exercise and eating whatever I wanted. As someone who trains regularly year round it is not difficult for me usually to drop back to my normal weight which is basically what has happened in the last week. These results could be a result of the training rather than the diet, we need to keep an open mind.

 

Here’s some more info:

 

Energy levels – Definitely up, no fatigue or tiredness.

Weight Training – No impact on weight training so far, still doing the same weights as before

Bowel Movements – All good

Concentration Levels – No issues

 

In the interest of full disclosure I feel like I should elaborate on concentration levels. First a bit of background, I have been known to have the odd “moment” which my friends nickname “princess moments” as I am sometimes a bit special. Last week I had two of these moments, I went to the shop one lunchtime in the car, then walked back to work leading me to have to walk all the way back to the shop. I also managed to leave the gym without grabbing my keys which let me into the gym, luckily I had a friend who could go in and get them for me. I am not sure if any of these moments are related to the diet or if it’s just my usual stupidity. I will keep track going forward.

Day 8 – Tuesday 12.1.16

Day 8 – Tuesday 12.1.16

 

I totally jinxed it!!! All this bragging about waking up fresh and bouncing out of bed and then I somehow managed to sleep in this morning and woke up pretty tired. I still managed to get to the gym before work and did some leg training. Same breakfast then same lunch as yesterday. After doing some research on how to up my calories and fat though I made the discovery of Dave Asprey’s “Bulletproof Coffee”. So I headed off to the shop to find grass fed unsalted butter and coconut oil. After a decent amount of time wandering the aisles trying to find where the coconut oil might live I finally found it, shockingly beside the other cooking oils. I then went for the butter, the unsalted part was easy but none of the butter said whether it was grass fed or not. After some googling mid shop I realised that pretty much all New Zealand butter is grass fed so I was good to go.

Bulletproof coffee sounds disgusting, it’s a standard pressed black coffee then blended with a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of coconut oil. I gave it a go and it was actually not bad tasting at all, the consistency is a bit strange as it kind of glides down your throat but the taste was fine. I am also not usually a coffee drinker so I was pretty happy with this discovery. It’s an easy way to add an extra 240 calories and 27 grams of fat with less than a gram of protein or carbs. I was worried I would crash or be bouncing off the walls after it but I was pretty unaffected and was still able to eat my lunch an hour later too which was great. I will be incorporating this into the daily routine going forward.

I was going out to meet friends and didn’t have much time for cooking so just fried up some leftover homemade burgers with bacon and then added cheese. I also had a snack of some almonds in the evening.

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2705

Carbs =19g (3%)

Fat = 241g (78%)

Protein 134g (19%)

Day 7 – Monday 11.1.16

Day 7 – Monday 11.1.16

 

After getting hooked and watching one too many episodes of the “Making a Murderer” documentary last night I ended up not getting to bed until after midnight. To my surprise at 6:20 this morning when the alarm went off I was immediately awake and ready to go. I am finding this really weird as I seem to need less sleep yet still have energy throughout the day. I went to the gym and did some biceps and triceps. I then had the standard scrambled egg breakfast and cunningly hid my eggs in a cupboard in an attempt to foil the egg burglar. Lunch I had 2 corn thins again, topped with cream cheese and the dutch salami. This is much cheaper than the blue cheese and prosciutto and still almost as tasty, I think this will be a winner for most workday lunches going forward. We have a friend staying at the house who offered to cook us a meal for dinner, I wasn’t going to turn down that offer. She cooked us chicken breast stuffed with bacon and cheese which was beautiful. I had this with some spinach and tomato. It put my protein over for the day slightly but there’s more to life than counting macros. I figure one day won’t hurt. After dinner I did another dessert experiment and made home-made keto ice cream. While I was witing for it to freeze I went out for a 4km run. Even though I got impatient and didn’t quite let it freeze properly it was amazing and I think I have found another winner. I whisked up cream, cocoa powder, stevia and a bit of peanut butter then froze it. Simple yet effective, I will definitely do it again soon.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2401

Carbs =29g (5%)

Fat = 171g (66%)

Protein 173g (29%)

 

I know I messed up my macros a bit today however my bigger concern is my calories. My target is 2758 per day and I have only met that 2 of the last 7 days, including carb load day. If I keep this up I am going to start losing muscle alongside my fat which isn’t good. I need to find a source of fat and calories which will not have much protein or carbs so I can preserve my macros. I will hunt around tomorrow.

Day 6 – Sunday 10.1.16

Day 6 – Sunday 10.1.16

Sunday, the day of rest – literally! Today I did absolutely no exercise, mainly as my body was in bits after paintball yesterday. I slept in pretty late so had a breakfast/lunch of bacon and eggs. I finished off the rest of my avocado chocolate mousse experiment, which was in the fridge, as a snack in the afternoon. At night-time I polished off some leftover Bolognese (no spaghetti) and also cooked up some homemade burger patties and threw them together with some cheese.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2753

Carbs =30g (4%)

Fat = 220g (74%)

Protein 146g (22%)

 

All in all a successful lazy Sunday as I still managed to do keto with minimal effort.

Day 5 – Saturday 9.1.16

Day 5 – Saturday 9.1.16

 

Today is carb loading day. After reading up online I found targets for my weight of approx. 800g of carbs, 76 grams of fat and 172 grams of protein. I decided that today was basically my day off and I wasn’t going to measure and just eat whatever I wanted whilst keeping in the back of my mind that I wanted as much carbs as possible. 800g seems insane and unachievable to me though after having only 35g per day for the last week.

I was going paintballing today with friends from work so we stopped off at McDonald’s for breakfast on the way. I have two bacon and egg McMuffins and a hash brown. After running around shooting people all morning I had a chicken and camembert pizza for lunch and then at night time I cooked up a big spaghetti bolognese and shovelled in plenty of pasta.

According to very rough estimates on pasta intake this is my end of day:

 

Calories = 4388

Carbs = 528g (47%)

Fat = 155g (31%)

Protein 237g (22%)

 

I don’t really care about the results for today, I think it’s healthy to have a day of not caring. According to the research the carb load should last 36 hours and most people do it from Friday evening however as I only started on Tuesday I have decided to just do 24 hours carb load and will go back to keto tomorrow.

Day 4 – Friday 8.1.16

Day 4 – Friday 8.1.16

 

I again woke up feeling good and hit the gym for back, shoulders and abs. My legs were working again this morning which was wonderful. I repeated yesterday’s scrambled eggs and cream cheese breakfast, I reckon this will be the same every day going forward as it’s easy and I can just leave eggs in work and then cook them up when I get in. Worrying though there seems to be an egg thief in our midst as I have noticed an egg going missing out my box each day, I will be vigilant going forward. At lunch I made a fantastic discovery of something called corn thins. They are large round cracker type things and they only have 4g of carbs in each one. I used these as a base and had blue cheese, salami and prosciutto, it was amazing and hit the macros nicely. After work I did 30 minutes of beginner yoga, I have never done yoga before so I almost died. I then made myself some burger patties and had them with spinach, tomato and a little cream cheese. As a dessert I decided to get creative and make an avocado chocolate mousse which I found online. I don’t think I added enough cream in my recipe so it worked out pretty average but it helped to up my fat for the day.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2347

Carbs = 35g (5%)

Fat = 180g (69%)

Protein 148g (27%)

 

I am not sure how accurate my results above are as it is difficult to enter the homemade mousse into the app and I’m not 100% how to manually calculate the nutritional info once all the ingredients are added together but above is a rough estimate.

Day 3 – Thursday 7.1.16

Day 3 – Thursday 7.1.16

 

I again woke up full of energy this morning, I usually snooze my alarm a couple of times but I didn’t this morning. I got straight up and headed to the gym for chest & biceps day. I have been walking like John Wayne all day unfortunately after my first leg session of 2016 yesterday. I think I may have overdone it a bit. After the gym I had the same scrambled egg breakfast as yesterday however I felt like a genius, and congratulated myself multiple times, as I substituted the cheese slices for 25g of cream cheese. The cream cheese has more fat and less protein and carbs so I felt this was a good switch so I would be able to have more carbs & protein for dinner later. At lunch I really didn’t know what to have so I wandered around the supermarket like a lost toddler looking for inspiration for a while. Inspiration appeared to be on strike so I ended up buying 2 packs of Dutch salami again. I also bought a 200g pack of crème fraiche as I noticed it was really high fat and very low in carbs and protein. I ate all the crème fraiche straight out the packet and this lunch proved to be a terrible idea, I think the fat content was way too high and my body didn’t appreciate having so much fat all at once. I felt pretty lousy for about 30 minutes after it – lesson learned! After work I hit the gym and did another 30 minutes on the cross trainer in an attempt to loosen my legs up a bit.

 

After the gym I cooked up fajitas without the wraps. I picked up an Old el Paso fajita kit, a red capsicum, lettuce and tomato. Cooked the chicken in the spice mix (be careful of the carbs in the mix) and olive oil then threw it all in between the lettuce wraps. The dinner was beautiful but in hindsight I overloaded my protein so would be better using mince or a more fatty meat in future.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2800

Carbs = 35g (5%)

Fat = 209g (68%)

Protein 183g (27%)

 

Obviously I went to heavy on protein today as the target is 150g. The main lesson today was to not try to think of the macros at a daily level but to instead try to balance them per meal. My lunch was too fat heavy and left me feeling sick. My dinner was too protein heavy and left me feeling a bit more hungry than I would have with more fat.

Day 2 – Wednesday 6.1.16

Day 2 – Wednesday 6.1.16

 

I woke up feeling good and full of energy after my bacon gorge last night and bounced myself to the gym for legs, triceps and abs. After spending quite a bit of time reading more on Keto yesterday and listening to some podcasts on the subject whilst training I was feeling more prepared. I decided to ditch the protein shake in the morning but had the same breakfast of two scrambled eggs with a bit of milk however this time I added in the remaining 3 mainland tasty cheese slices from the pack. At lunch I had two packets of Verkerks Dutch Salami and then I had 50g of roast almonds as an afternoon snack. I was feeling much better today with no hunger, the increased fat and decreased protein seemed to be working. The only drawback was I had a horrible taste in my mouth all day. After reading about “Keto breath” I have become very paranoid so am constantly chewing sugar free gum and am drinking copious amounts of water to cure my insatiable thirst.

 

When I finished work I had 15g of peanut butter then went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the cross trainer. At dinner time I still wasn’t overly hungry however I knew I needed to eat. I made a small salad with spinach leaves and tomato which I topped with olive oil. I then chopped up 6 Angus beef, black pepper and red wine sausages from Countdown which I added to the bowl. Again the dinner was beautiful but it felt weird to be eating it. According the app I needed some more fat so I finished off the day by eating 100g of Philadelphia cream cheese.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2701

Carbs = 31g (4%)

Fat = 229g (74%)

Protein 153g (22%)

 

I feel like I did much better today and I wasn’t hungry at all. I am not sure if it’s in my head or not but I also feel like I’m starting to see more definition in my stomach which is crazy after only one day. I reckon the protein shakes need to stay ditched if I am going to make this work. The only drawback of the diet today was I felt like an absolute dick running around the supermarket scanning barcodes when trying to decide what to have for dinner.

Day 1 – Tuesday 5.1.16

Day 1 – Tuesday 5.1.16

First day back at work after the holidays, surprisingly I managed to wake up with my alarm at 6:20 and get myself to the gym to do Back, Shoulders & Abs. After the gym I had a protein shake with water then I scrambled 2 eggs with 50ml of milk for breakfast. At lunch I had a quarter lemon garlic and herb chicken and then 5 slices of mainland tasty cheese to up my fat. In the afternoon I had another protein shake and 2 more cheese slices. After work I went and did some flexibility training (this is another new year’s resolution after an embarrassing yoga fail on a beach recently) at the gym and the plan was to eat immediately afterwards however I got a phone call that a few mates were going indoor climbing so I decided to go along. I think my body was starting carb withdrawal so at 7pm I was starving and grumpy, I had 30g of peanut butter in the car to tide me over before the climbing which helped. After the climbing I went home and ate a whole packet of bacon which I fried in olive oil. It felt very strange to be eating bacon when trying to cut fat but man did it taste good. I also had 30g of Philadelphia cream cheese as a small dessert to increase my fat. My housemates all had a good laugh at me and warned me that my heart is going to explode.

 

End of day result:

 

Calories = 2644

Carbs = 28g (4%)

Fat = 204g (65%)

Protein 220g (31%)

 

Lesson for today is that I need to up my fat and reduce my protein, more drastic change from my normal diet is required tomorrow.

Intro

26 Day Keto Challenge

It’s January 5^th and like everyone else on the planet I am feeling the need to sort my body out after an incredible Christmas holiday which involved eating and drinking everything in sight. I have been hearing a lot about this new Keto diet and it sounds a bit too good to be true so I figure why not give it a go for Jan and see if I can shed that festive fat by eating lots of fat – makes sense right?

In general I am usually pretty healthy, I do weight training 5-6 times a week and cardio 3-4 times a week. I try to eat well but have never really got into the nutrition side of things, I didn’t know what a macro was until last week! My diet generally consists of high protein, low fat and limited carbs Monday – Thursday then binging at the weekend on beer and pizza. I have been reading up on Keto which is high fat, limited protein and low carbs so I figure I will give it a go and track the progress for the next 26 days until the end of Jan.

 

Current weight = 77kg

Current Body Fat = 11%

 

Goal – To maintain weight and muscle whilst shedding as much body fat as possible over the next few weeks.

 

After having a play on this online Keto calculator:

http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

 

I have decided on the following daily goals:

Calories – 2758

Carbs – < 40g

Protein – 150 g

Fat – 224 g

 

Macros:

 

Carbs = 5%

Protein = 22%

Fat = 73%

 

I will be tracking using the MyFitnessPal app from Under Armour, I only have the free version so my macros are slightly off which is a bit annoying but I can work with it.

 

On the app:

 

Carbs = 5% (34g)

Protein = 25% (172g)

Fat = 70% (215g)