aramis on his home straight... again ;)

[aramis]

Whoah! It's already next challenge round? 

 

That means my OCR debut will be in a month from now  (on July 11th)... if it don't get postponed/cancelled again. But I'm being optimistic about it. 

 

About the current goals:

 

I feel quite well prepared training-wise, so I won't add any extra training - just keep doing what I'm already doing. I do 56 pull-ups (7 sets of 8 in a GtG manner) 5 x week, train with kettlebells (S&S protocol with 24kg at the moment) 3 x week, do some fun activity on my off-days (handstands progression, rope climbing, inline skating) and run 5K weekly (with occasional 10K or longer skating session instead). I think I'm good.

 

To fuck with myself a bit, I decided to go keto. I started yesterday, so next two weeks may be "funny". We'll see. In case the adaptation would go wrong in first two weeks, I will consider going back to carb based nutrition for the time before OCR and try again after it. But I hope all will go well.

 

As my Icelandic language course gets harder, lessons are longer and carry more information. I think I need to lower the goal to three full lessons a week instead of five (earlier lessons were easier).

 

That's all for now I think.

 

Happy and successful Challenge everybody!

[Salinger]

Heyyyy! What exactly do you eat on keto? 

 

Good luck, you are doing so well with workouts 😮 

 

have fun!!xx

[foxinthenorth]

Good luck! I know a couple people who have gone keto and really like it. I also know someone who had a really bad reaction to it and like broke out in hives or something weird. 😅Here's hoping you're in the "this agrees with my body" category. 😁

[aramis]

8 hours ago, Salinger said:

What exactly do you eat

I'm just starting so no fancy stuff, but for this week it's:

Lunch:

- fried pork belly

- hardboiled eggs

- spinach or cabbage stewed on coconut oil

 

Dinner:

- fried eggs on onions, with slice of cheese on top

- napa cabbage salad with tomatoes or tomato+cucumber salad (with bit of mayo as a dressing)

 

Supper:

- whey concentrate / quark

- cocoa powder

- coconut oil

- peamuts/peanut butter

in form of chocolate creme.

 

8 hours ago, foxinthenorth said:

Here's hoping you're in the "this agrees with my body" category

Oh yes, I highly hope so. Genetically everything should be fine, as my Mom and Sis both are doing keto for some time now and feel okay.

[Salinger]

Thanks! so its very low carbs? is that the point? 

Hope your first day of the challenge is great xx

[aramis]

31 minutes ago, Salinger said:

its very low carbs? is that the point?

Yes, exactly. Keto is all about teaching the body to use fats as an energy source (via ketones - hence the name). Carbs being body's preferred fuel can block this fat usage, so in short it's all about inducing carb deficit to force body to use fat as a fuel. Ketosis (the state of being fueled by ketones from fat) has list of beneficial "side effects" and it's the reason I try this. 

[fearless 2.0]

following as a fellow ketarian who loves this way of eating. Have a great challenge!!!! I will join your guild today later...

[aramis]

Hello @fearless 2.0! Thanks, and have a great one yourself

1 hour ago, fearless 2.0 said:

as a fellow ketarian

I think it's hugely exaggerated, as I'm on keto like... two days? 

If anything I do seems stupid,  feel free to call me so. I mean keto-wise - I do lots of stupid stuff, often on purpose   

And have fun with Rangers' Guild  

[fearless 2.0]

41 minutes ago, aramis said:

Hello @fearless 2.0! Thanks, and have a great one yourself

I think it's hugely exaggerated, as I'm on keto like... two days? 

If anything I do seems stupid,  feel free to call me so. I mean keto-wise - I do lots of stupid stuff, often on purpose   

And have fun with Rangers' Guild  

thanks! will let you be stupid but holler at you if you f*uck up ketowise!

 

[TGP]

Woot! 

 

so finally, FINALLY your debut  is coming?  awesome!

 

I think your very prepared for it and I'd love to hear of your experience.  In regards to KETO; I've never tried it.  you'll have to let us know how it goes.

[aramis]

17 hours ago, TGP said:

you'll have to let us know how it goes.

It's only three days in, and already some changes start. 

Not good ones sadly.

Yesterday I had mild cramps in one calf early in the morning, today it got both calves, and was much stronger. Gotta get some potassium and magnesium supplement. I know it's common issue so I don't freak out. It's not a bug, it's a feature. 

And on top of that I see massive weight loss - two kilos over last two days. I know it's water (with electrolytes, duh!) from depleting glycogen stores, but I wonder how far it'll go... @fearless 2.0, do you have any insight on this? 

I know I need to keep myself hydrated - I have at least 3 liters of drinks daily. Mostly tea and coffee, as I don't fancy plain water. 

 

No strength issues so far, but I'm extra cautious with my trainings - I don't want any injury. I might be a bit more sleepy/dizzy during the day, but it could be caused by sleep issues (waking up to leg cramps) as well. Nothing severe though. 

 

P.S.

As a clarification:

Weight loss isn't my goal, quite the opposite - it's unwelcomed side effect. Being 193cm tall my "healthy weight" should be around 82kg. I was already bit below that (78-80 range). I'm fine with wiry posture with some muscle I have now, but I'm concerned (both health-wise and performance-wise) about dropping lower. Will the water retention be back to normal (carb diet - level) after adaptation phase, or it will be constantly lower than earlier? 

[fearless 2.0]

hi aramis, if you don't want to lose, maybe just up your fat intake although it seems unhealthy for all of us new to keto. If you stick to "good fats" like olive oil, lard or coconut fat you should be fine. Its great that you drink so much! my dr. says its the most important thing on keto. also you might want to look into fat bombs, treats you can make for yourself if you don't wanna lose.

the keto flu will be over soon and later, if you are lucky, not return even if you switch between keto and high carb food. hang in there! the best thing as you said are electrolytes and lots of hydration.! 

 

ps. the weight loss slows down a bit after the first week! 

hope you are feeling better soon! ❤️

 

[fearless 2.0]

pps. if you keep feeling bad or losing too much you might want to think about carbing up for your competition and starting keto afterwards... 

 

also: nuts are your friend if you wanna gain.

 

hugs: fearless

[aramis]

19 minutes ago, fearless 2.0 said:

if you don't want to lose, maybe just up your fat intake

I don't want to do this, because I eat at my caloric maintenance level already. And it's clear I lose water, nothing else.

19 minutes ago, fearless 2.0 said:

ps. the weight loss slows down a bit after the first week!

Thanks - that's the info I needed. 

Knowing this, I might consider going into little caloric surplus after weight becomes stable.

 

And this:

15 minutes ago, fearless 2.0 said:

carbing up for your competition and starting keto afterwards

Yes. I have this option in the back of my head. But I hope I can adapt earlier. I think I will go with adaptation till end of the month. If it'll work - great. If not - I will have still two weeks to (as you called it) carb up  

 

All in all, I don't aim for deep ketosis anyway. I don't need it for medical reasons - it's just an experiment and way to devour more yummy, yummy fat food  

 

Long term I want to achieve state of some sort of a hybrid - most of the time on keto, but with ability to occasionally eat more carbs, burn them and get back to ketosis. Some time ago I tried to get there from carb-diet side and failed, so maybe going full-keto and approaching this goal from the other side will work  I know people can do this, so why couldn't I?

[fearless 2.0]

you are spot on! and the hybrid thing works for me too. I do keto for mental heath and weightloss and am very happy with being a hybrid too.

[Quirky Quinn]

Here's hoping your event goes ahead Aramis, looking forward to seeing how your training goes in the buildup!

[aramis]

Training starts to feel more difficult. Muscles ache a bit, I'm short of breath etc. Guess my body runs low on glucose. YAY!

Got some potassium supplement, no leg cramps today morning. YAY again  

I'm bit scared to step on a scale...  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

And now off to do some handstands  

[Wild Wolf]

On 6/14/2020 at 2:29 PM, aramis said:

I think I'm good.

 

Love your training protocols! GtG is such an easy way to get stronger!

 

On 6/14/2020 at 2:29 PM, aramis said:

But I hope all will go well.

 

Keto can be beneficial as an endurance based athlete. Check out stuff like, Fat for Fuel as well. I remember when I was training for OCR stuff and looking into marathons, I stumbled upon articles on fat for fuel that helped my nutrition. 

 

Anyways, following along, Aramis! 

 

Wolf

[fearless 2.0]

couldn't resist to hop into your thread an spam a little

 

[aramis]

I tried wall walking to a wall HS and then rotating myself to get in position witf face away from the wall. NOPE. Too scared to shift my center of mass to the other side. 

But, one way or another,  I'll get to face-away-from-the-wall position. That means kick-ups  It will be long and tough fight with my fear of falling down. But I will fight it anyway  

[Salinger]

How is your weekend going Aramis?xx

[aramis]

Hey. 

 

Busy as always, maybe even more. Saturday I spent mostly under/around the car fixing several things (CV joint cover, fuel filters, fuel lines etc). On some free time I cooked my lunch food - slowcooked pork neck with onions and tomatoes. Meat turned great, but sauce was way too watery - I reduced it in a pan and thickened with heavy cream. 

 

Today I planned 5K run (after the rain it's too wet for skating), but weather is crappy, I have a headache (didn't slept enough) and overall aversion to do anything. Hope I can get myself together... 

[fearless 2.0]

6 hours ago, aramis said:

Hey. 

 

Busy as always, maybe even more. Saturday I spent mostly under/around the car fixing several things (CV joint cover, fuel filters, fuel lines etc). On some free time I cooked my lunch food - slowcooked pork neck with onions and tomatoes. Meat turned great, but sauce was way too watery - I reduced it in a pan and thickened with heavy cream. 

 

Today I planned 5K run (after the rain it's too wet for skating), but weather is crappy, I have a headache (didn't slept enough) and overall aversion to do anything. Hope I can get myself together... 

sounds to me like the fucking keto flu... at least I felt like that too! Hang in there and have a great week!

[aramis]

Okay, the (keto adaptation) struggle is real. 

I ran my ~5K with pretty nice conditions (around 20*C, no rain nor scorching sun), yet time turned out awful (compared to my previous times). 

5.3 km done in 30:33 gives me pace of 5:46/km (9:17/mi), which is worst time since January. 

 

But I realize it's only a week since I switched to keto and my body still needs time to adapt. Gotta be patient and consistent. 

 

P.S.

In the evening, I tried some kick-ups to Wall Handstand. It didn't went well. First I was kicking too weak, and when I finally kicked stronger, I hit the wall with legs and hips, lost my balance and crashed down on my head... It was HILARIOUS  

But now I know I need different place for this - I was doing this in narrow spot between wardrobe and a bookshelf and I don't have much place to bail out if I botch. I need to find some place with more free space on the sides. 

[Quirky Quinn]

15 hours ago, aramis said:

 Gotta be patient and consistent.