You need good data and fair representations of that data. It helps if you like n=1 experiments. You’re the best one to conduct the experiments and the one to benefit the most.
Exercise
Sure. Do what you do. Add something as distraction. Or don’t. Start with dietary change first. The rest will come as energy goes up and brain functions improve. To some extent, less is more here too. A consistent habit of vigorous walking 20-min a day is better than weekend warrior-ing.
Bouts of High Intensity are great for stimulating your natural HGH, reducing insulin and using up your glycogen stores (among other benefits), but most of us poorly understand what High Intensity means. Escalating from 70% to 90% effort for 8 sprints should leave you spent. If you can go again, that is not a testament to how awesome you are. It indicates that you didn’t actually go 90%.
Once you are keto adapted aka fat-adapted your recovery times will improve remarkably. Expect 3 weeks of less awesome exertion as you get fully adapted. But reap the benefits thereafter.
What about grains?
There are no “essential” carbohydrates. There’s some speculation that we started agriculture to make booze not to eat grains. So what about grains? Why not drink them. After fermentation. Here are more thoughts on grains and fiber.
Min 24: when you eat carbs, you crave carbs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlHPmJTihBc
Min 40: Phinney’s take on Wine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYXYfxmQV2A and alcohol in general. No spoilers here. But if you do enjoy adult beverages, watch at least min 40-44.
Shortcuts
Master Spreadsheet of Low Carb Studies
Equipment
Pricks or Sticks my friend!
Pricks
- ForaCare (one of the docs swears by this one as being the most accurate, but supplies can be a bitch as you may have to order from the company website – check them out, they may have a bundle deal, but this is NOT the one I use because no hassle is my preferred MO.)
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0789G8KTG/ref=psdc_3777171_t1_B07BBL8H7Q (i have this one, it works well and easy to get supplies on amazon – you’ll need more testing strips as you use it. I have 2 actual blood check machines because I wanted to see if the accuracy was different. I did not get a measurable difference. #GoodEnough)
Sticks
If you’re really freaked about the blood thing, start with Keto strips. Fair warning, there’s no “level” of accuracy with these despite claims (by every company who makes them). Just treat a pink – any color of pink – as a Yes. Don’t worry about .5, 1.5, 4, 8, 16. You’re either making ketones or not. That’s good enough to start. If you want info beyond Yes/No, you’ll need to do the finger pricks.
Seasonality
Rather than the same diet 24/7/365, consider the natural variations. This is what I hope people mean by eating local, but given the number of greenhouses that have sprung up in NYC . . . we seem to be missing the point. So consider cycling your day-to-day magic on a seasonal basis.
While you’re switching up your veggies, consider shaking up your daily routine as well. Pick a time to give yourself a 30-day or 60-day challenge like a 1% daily bump in daily energy expenditure. You don’t have to stay at the new level once you finish, you use challenges like this to push your normal so you can choose what you want your normal to be. Or when or how you want your new normal to be.
Example 1% 60-day challenge:
Start with your base caloric expenditure on a normal day, for our example 400 Move calories as calculated by apple watch.
Each day your target is 1% greater than day before. 400, 404, 408, 412, 416 . . . compounding is great . . . 712, 719, 727 and done.
If the 400/day was working well for you, go back to it day 61. You may discover an activity level that works even better for you. Or you may realize that the higher activity level really revs you but is only possible July-September because October-April is your busy season. And you need to sleep through May. #TaxAccountants! And June is weddings and family chaos.
Hey, you be you.
If you’ve been in a rut or seem out of synch with yourself, this is a good way to distract your brilliant but overthinking mind to get your awareness back. You’ll find what works for you. And my jazz hands will still be waving vigorously.
Lady bits
Blood glucose response to your lady hormones is explained a bit better here: Cycles.
Your hormones are changing every single day of the month, and those hormones impact your sensitivity to insulin which will impact your ketone levels and your blood glucose levels. It’s complicated but for many women, getting away from carb rich diets leads to better cycles. Who knew?!
For those who have “Dieted” before
Okay, so this is not at all the intention of this experiment, but many of you have expressed interest in losing weight and or have dieted so you come to the table with baggage. There are a ton of good and less good resources on keto for weight loss. I’ll stock the better scientific ones here.
Suffice to say, if you need to drop pounds, you are are very likely at least a bit insulin resistant. Which means, you actually need to get insulin levels into normal range before you’ll see great results. The super good news is, getting your insulin under control will lead to weight loss and will reduce all sorts of inflammatory markers that cause such nasty things as cardiovascular disease, cancers, dementia, alzheimer’s, parkinson’s, arthritis, etc.
High fat, low carb and low(ish) protein will bring that insulin to normal levels very efficiently.
Dr Mason developed an interest in low carbohydrate diets in 2011. Since then he has spent hundreds of hours reading and analysing the scientific literature.
For the last two years, Dr. Mason has been applying this knowledge in treating metabolic and arthritis patients who have achieved dramatic and sustained weight loss and reductions in joint pain.
Here’s my basic take on weight loss:
The first 7 min of this are helpful. https://youtu.be/cBlsZMtQdd4 The real deal is insulin. He gets into it with point 2. This is just a book review, but gets to the point faster than most of the other stuff I have. If you get really interested in the science, I can HOOK YOU UP.