The Time is Going to Pass Anyway…

I don’t think I’m the only parent in America that gave their child a hundred more hugs and kisses this week than usual. My little guy turned 8 months old today. He depends on me for everything, and still, I have him to thank for almost everything good in my life. He is my reason to make healthy choices. He’s my license to play, laugh, and generally be less serious. He is also my living reminder that time is flying by. With each day, I’m either working towards my goals, or I’m just getting older.

Thanks, Leland. I feel like we’re learning to walk together.

A Less Sweet Two Weeks

I have read countless articles and listened to endless dogmatic advice about cutting out artificial sweeteners from my diet.  I tend to think there is no major health implication to adding a packet of Sweet n’ Low to my coffee or drinking Crystal Light.  These sweeteners make my life more enjoyable, and they make it easier to stay compliant with my diet.

However, I’m results driven.  If I could lose weight faster by giving up or reducing artificial sweeteners from my diet, I would do it.  I’m going to be trying this out for the next two weeks.  On Sunday, I gave up my faux sugar until at least Saturday, June 1st.  If I see an increase in the pace of my weight loss then I’ll place sugar free sweeteners in the category of “occasional treat” instead of “diet crutch.”  However, if my sweet-less suffering makes no difference at all then it will be pink packets for me whenever I want it.

 

Weigh In Friday: 2 lbs more down

This post is a little late, but with a rambunctious and impatient 7 month old, I can’t always stick to my own schedule.  I weighed in yesterday, and I’m down two more pounds for the week.  That brings my grand progress total to 24 gloriously gone pounds.

I also took my measurements yesterday, and they made me want to weep.  I’ll preface this by saying that I went shopping with my mother as a Mother’s Day outing, and I couldn’t believe I was wearing clothing that was two sizes smaller in shirts and three sizes smaller in pants.  I didn’t think my weight loss had been so profound.  I quantified that loss yesterday to the tune of 27″ in 6 weeks.  It really makes me wish I took measurements at the beginning of the year when I started losing weight.

Let’s review the individual changes:

Weight: 284 lbs —> 260 lbs —> headed towards a goal of 175 lbs (5′ 9″ / 135lbs of lean muscle mass)

Chest: 48.9″ —> 44.1″

Bicep: 16.6″ —> 13.6″

Thigh: 31.7″ —> 27.6″

Waist: 45.2″ —> 42.3″

Calf: 18.7″ —> 15.7″

Hips: 54.2″ —> 50.1″

Shoulders: 52.2 —>49.6

Neck: 16.2″ —>13.6

Not to mention, I’ve defeated pre-diabetes.  I haven’t had a blood sugar over 100 mg/dl in over two weeks!It is embarrassing to put these figures out to the world to see even though I feel I have a lot to be proud of so far.  However, I think embarrassment can be a fabulous motivator.  It’s just one more thing sending me sailing towards my goal.

Strategies for Success: Photo Logging Your Diet

Everyone knows at least one person that annoyingly takes pictures of everything that they eat and blasts it over social media like its newsworthy.  Recently, a Canadian researcher told the Huffington Post that dedication to creating so called “food porn” is a sign of mental illness.  Well, brace yourselves.  I’m going to suggest you trample deep into lameness and psychopathy.  It’s time to start photo logging your diet.

I’ve been reading The Four Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss , and he had a tip for losing weight that made sense to me: keeping a photo diary of your meals.  I already use MyFitnessPal to track calories, but its easy to fool yourself into thinking you ate less or better than you actually did.  This is particularly true if you need to log your intake well after your meal, which frequently happens to me sense my 7 month old can be quite demanding at times.  A picture keeps you honest, “Oh I did add cheddar to that salad,” or “hey- I forgot about the almonds I had on the side.”

Beyond making it crystal clear about the quantity and quality of what you have eaten, a photo journal of your meals also requires that you log before you eat.  This provides you with a moment of reckoning.  It’s just you with your camera pointing down at a heap of food you are about to consume.  Are you happy with what you see?  Is it in line with your goals?

Finally, Ferriss recommends that the log be public record.  The threat of embarrassment can do wonders to dedication to your goals.  In that spirit, you can find my freshly started photo log here: http://imgur.com/vynHGqc

A Victory in Biohacking

After a couple weeks of testing my blood, I feel like I have successfully conquered my pre-diabetes with diet.  I have not recorded a blood sugar reading over 100 this month.

I realized my blood sugar was a problem while pregnant with my son last year.  I developed gestational diabetes, and my blood sugars were still elevated several months after birth.  A taste of diabetic life, with its injections and medications, was enough for me to realize that I had to do something before I reached the tipping point of type 2 diabetes.

From my experience with the Atkins diet ten years ago, I knew that some people had used low-carb dieting to reverse type 2 diabetes.  I did more research, and I decided I might benefit from a high-fat, low carb approach, also known as keto, more than a high protein, low carb method.  I chose this path because protein can still be converted to glucose by the liver, and it made sense that eating fat would have a high satiety level.  I assumed this would be essential to reducing my weight.

After a month of keto dieting, I dropped 16 lbs, which brought my overall weight loss for the year to 22 lbs.  More importantly, my blood sugars became normal. 

In this quest to fix my own looming health crisis, I implemented a well-know ‘biohack’- to use a low-carb diet to reduce my blood sugar readings during fasting and post-meals.  As a side note, I won’t say that this has ‘cured’ my insulin resistance because I have a distinct feeling if I ate a high-carb meal, I would experience blood sugars that are slightly elevated from normal.  I haven’t tested this though.  Instead, I have gamed my system into yielding the results I want to have, the results that preserve my organs from the damage done by high blood sugar levels.

I believe that modern medicine had done many great things, but it has much further to go before it unlocks the mysterious of human body.  I experienced this first hand during my complicated pregnancy.  I had twelve doctors over the course of my pregnancy, but they seemed to chronically be on different pages.  While I did have a healthy baby born at 36 weeks, I began to understand that my health and the health of my family is ultimately my responsibility.  I can not wait for these people to show me the answers.  They are influenced by politics, insurance companies, the corporation they work for, and most of all, our deep lack of understanding on how infinitesimal changes in our biochemistry interact to promote or degrade our health.

These experiences have left me hooked on biohacking.  There is an entire community of people researching and testing theories on themselves to see if they can improve everything from their sex lives to their cholesterol levels to their mental function.  I’ve been diving head first into the information others have collected.  I’m also very interested to conduct some experiments on myself.  In my early searching, I have yet to find a good source of female biohackers.  I’m sure there are some out there.  I’m very interested to know what they’ve learned given that feminine biology is so unique.

I have a feeling my blog is about to be repleat with biohacking.

For the Love of Ketosis… Ketostixs

When I first started my keto diet, I fell in love with the ketostix.  For those of you who are unfamilar, ketostix are test strips that identify ketones in your urine.  You pee on the stick and wait to see the color change from neutral, “no ketones here” all the way to deep purple, “whoa, you’ve got alot of ketones.”  The test can reassure a newbie keto dieter that they are doing the diet right because they are in ketosis.  Through food logging and testing frequently, they can also help you understand your carb-load limits.

I wanted to talk about ketostixs because I recently learned a couple bits of new information about them that I thought others might find useful:

1)  Darker is not better:  I lost over 100 lbs on Atkins about a decade ago.  I lived and died on seeing a ketostix reading almost every pee, and it had to be dark purple!  i usually got my wish.  Now, I’m dieting using LCHF, I couldn’t seem to get the sticks color to breech past trace or small on most occassions.  I thought I was doing something wrong.

In reality, I was doing something right.  There is no such thing as being “more in ketosis.”  Ketosis is a state that you are either in or you are out.  Thus, a darker strip reading only indicates that your urine is repleat with waste, and you are probably dehydrated- a big diet no-no.  If you only log small or trace amounts of ketones, you are drinking enough water to dilute your pee. 

2)  Don’t use ketostix all the time–  There is no reason to test every single urine stream you produce.  If you need to use these sticks to kick off your diet and understand your body, go for it!  I understand completely.  However, you will someday graduate from a keto newbie to a keto veteran.  When that day happens, trust that you understand your body and only fuss with these if you cheat.  People pay lip service to saying, “its a lifestyle change, not a diet.”  Well, act like it and build up your confidence.  Don’t look for validation from something you pissed on.

Fat Bombing Hot Cocoa

Last month, my sweet tooth overwhelmed me.  I went to the grocery store and came back with three bags of sugar-free candy.  I knew sugar-free candy works as a laxative.  I wasn’t going to indulge in it all at once.  However, after three days of picking at it here and there, I was still bumped out of ketosis.  I was so irritated that it took me a week to re-enter ketosis and start logging weight loss again.  Thus, the sugar-free candy met the sugar-free trash can.

Today, I ventured into satisfying my sweet tooth again.  Last time at the grocery store, I noticed that a brick of unsweetened 100% dark baking chocolate has only 3 net carbs per huge block.  I purchased it, and tonight I attempted a fat-loaded hot chocolate.

It went as follows:

1 cup coconut milk [1 net carb]

1 tablespoon of heavy cream (for a fuller body)

1/4 cup whole milk (for texture) [3 net carbs]

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

1 block of 100% dark cocoa [3 net carbs]

1 tablespoon of Hersey’s Baking cocoa [1 net  carb]

I steamed the coconut milk, whole milk, and cream with my espresso machine.  Then, I broke the chocolate block up in my mug and poured in the Hersey’s cocoa and coconut oil.  I poured my steamed milk over the chocolate and mixed it with milk frother.

That comes up to 8 net carbs, and it tasted really great.  Next time, I might try omitting the whole milk since it contributes to 3 net carbs alone.  I just wanted to mask the coconut milk, which I’m not particularly fond of (this was my first time purchasing it, too).

I had a moment after drinking it where I just thought about how my body feels.  The treat felt sweet and decadent, yet my body wasn’t responding like it usually would if I had consumed sugar.  I felt so… normal.  Is this what non-insulin resistant people feel like all the time?

 

Would You Like Some Butter in Your Coffee?

Yesterday, I posted about Bulletproof Coffee (BC), but I didn’t explain what it is.  BC is coffee that has been mixed with either coconut oil, MCT oil, butter, or a combination of any of those three.  Fattened coffee or tea is not uncommon in the Eastern world, but Dave Asprey popularized it for Westerners.  He sells his coffee under the brand Bulletproof, but around the internet, people have dubbed all fattened coffee BC.

Asprey recommends carefully sourcing your coffee beans to make sure you are getting a product that hasn’t been molded over before roasting.  I use locally roasted beans.  At some point, I might give Bulletproof beans a whirl, but I’m happy with the taste of my coffee.  Thus, I’m not overly anxious to pay extra for Asprey’s “Upgraded” beans.  The underlying point is to get some good quality coffee beans that will be low in toxicity.

Next, consider your fats.  Asprey recommends MCT oil and grass-fed butter.  He sells his own MCT oil on his website, and he recommends purchasing Kerrygold unsalted butter.  I haven’t used MCT oil because I haven’t been able to source it locally.  I’ll buy some off the internet soon.  In its place, I use coconut oil.  You must make sure that you buy the non-hydrogenated coconut oil.  Otherwise, your coconut oil will be highly processed expensive crap.

I do love Kerrygold butter though.  I get it at my local grocery, but I noticed on the Kerrygold website that they are sold at Sam’s Club, too.  The difference in taste between typical grocery store butter and grass-fed butter is shocking.  Your taste buds deserve a high quality butter.  Besides, the point of BC is for the ingredients to be as pure as possible.  That’s how it works half of its magic!  The other benefit to quality butter is that it has a natural sweetness.  I use to be a diehard sweet n’ low user, especially with my coffee.  Now, I let the butter naturally sweeten my brew.

I actually make a bulletproof espresso each morning.  My recipe is simple.  I brew the espresso.  I add one tablespoon of coconut oil, and I add one or two tablespoons of Kerrygold butter.  Afterwards, I take my milk frother, and I mix the ingredients together.  This step is important!  Otherwise you’ll have gelatinous blobs in your coffee.  Yuck!  You don’t have to use a milk frother though.  You can use a handheld or tabletop blender.  I like my milk frother because it’s small and quiet.

Your beverage is ready to drink after blending.  It may take some getting use to at first. The fat content might make your stomach queasy if you are use to eating a low-fat diet.  However, when your body becomes accustomed to BC, you will notice how satiated you feel for hours after drinking it.  I never would have believed that drinking 300-400 calorie coffee would actually benefit my diet, but it does.  I eat less all day long because of it.

You should also feel a distinct boost of mental and physical energy, too.  I compare it to taking an Aderall.  It feels like your entire brain is fired up.

I’m a newbie to the BC world, so I’m going to pass along a link to Asprey’s blog about it, too.  He makes regular coffee Bulletproof.  I would recommend checking out the keto subreddit, too.  They are often talking about BC.

 

The Miracle of Miracle Noodles

Earlier this week at the grocery store, I ran across something dubbed Miracle Noodles.  These spinach angel hair noodles purported to be 15 calories per serving with only 2 net carbs.  I was excited yet dubious.  I bought one package expecting them to taste like garbage.  To my satisfaction, I thought they tasted fine with my spaghetti sauce.  The texture is a little more springy than traditional angel hair, but it is pretty much flavorless.  This allows it to absorb the flavors of the sauce or soup.

They have Miracle Rice on the website, too.  I’m going to order some soon, and I’ll report back about how they taste.

Dave Asprey YouTube Clip about Bulletproof Coffee

Honestly, I don’t know if this guy is shoving shit or not.  I drink my own version of bulletproof coffee though.  My experience with it has been life changing.  Here is how its affects differ from regular coffee.

1)  It’s filling.  I use a tablespoon of coconut oil in my brew, which Asprey slams in this clip.  I typically have a cup of BC when I first wake with my son around 7am, and I refill my coffers around noon.  It makes it easy to maintain my intermittent fast until my feeding window.

2)  I feel on fire mentally.  My brain feels acutely aware for the day after drinking a single cup of BC.  Its like taking an aderall.

3)  I feel energized.  Like the mental clarity, my energy doesn’t abate until the day is done.

4)  It tastes great.  Get online and follow someone’s instructions to a tee when you try it for the first time.  Afterwards, you can experiment.  I actually drink mine as an expresso most of the time.  It’s so delightfully.  My second cup around noon is more for my own enjoyment than needing another ‘pick me up.’

Here’s the Youtube clip of Asprey talking about BC, which I located thanks to the Keto subreddit.  This guy is out to sell a product, so you have to take everything he says with that “let the buyer beware” attitude.  However, you can drink BC without paying him a dime, and I feel like the benefits sing to me every morning.