This week’s weigh in is up on YouTube. Great gains (or losses I guess) made this week. Last week my weight had gone up quite a bit, and I did manage to lose most of it again this week. Made some gains in happiness, too. Figured some issues out I was having with exercise. All around a pretty good week. Let me know what you think of it with a comment here or there. If you enjoyed the video please leave a Like. Subscribe and click the notification bell if you want to be immediately notified every time I post a video to YouTube. Thanks for all the support. I hope you’re having a great week. Peace.
Here is this week’s weigh in. Numbers are a bit up. I did decide to go off keto for the tail end of the class and that did result in a bit of weight gain. And I’m ok with that. I made a decision and I’m willing to live with the consequences. There were some lessons learned as well. Leave a Like if you enjoy the video. Subscribe and click the bell if you want to be immediately notified every time I post a video to YouTube. Leave a comment here or there letting me know what you think about this week’s weigh in. Hope you’re having a great week. Peace.
I’m 48 years old. In less than half a year I turn 49. By conventional wisdom I’m supposed to be too old for a lot of things. Statistically speaking the better part of my life, time wise, is over. I’m heading into the period of winding down and accepting what life has given me.
At the beginning of last year, when I was 47, I started my ketogenic journey. Now I haven’t been able to weigh myself in the last two Mondays because I’m away on training. But as of my last weigh in two weeks ago I was just shy of 100 pounds lighter than when I started. But I’m supposed to be too old to lose weight. It’s just too hard at my age.
Up until last year I spoke only one language. Ok, technically speaking that’s still true. I’m only fluent in English. But I’m working on learning Portuguese, German, and Spanish. Saturday morning I took an Uber ride with a woman who is a native Spanish speaker and she complimented me on my pronunciation skills. I’m not fluent by any stretch of the imagination. In fact I’d say I have a long ways to go to get that level in any of the three languages. But I’m clearly able to take in a new language and do it correctly. But I’m not supposed to because I’m too old to learn new things. In fact it’s at this point that they say I should expect my faculties to start declining.
And job wise I just started a new career. I’m here doing my training as we speak. At a time when I’m supposed to be on the glide slope toward retirement at a career, I’m just taking off. But I’m supposed to be too old to be considering starting over in a job. I don’t have the years left in me to have a full career if I start over today.
But I’m choosing to get into shape. I’m choosing to learn new tricks. I’m choosing to start over. Why? I don’t know how much longer I have on this planet. None of us does. I could be half my age right now and still could be gone tomorrow. So I choose not to plan based off of a predetermined schedule that’s been arbitrarily foisted on me. I don’t worry if I have enough time to complete the tasks. I just worry about today.
And today I’ve decided I’d like to go to bed tonight a little bit better a person than I started this morning. Today I’ve decided that I don’t want to waste any of the time I have left on silly things that don’t make me better. After all I don’t know how much more of that time I have. Today I’ve decided I’ll start walking down paths that make me happier, including career paths. I don’t know how far I’ll get down the path before my time comes up, but who cares. I’d rather spend however much time I do have left on a happy path than I would being given twice as much time to walk down a miserable path.
Wake up each day with one mission. Be happy today. It doesn’t matter where you are in life. The beginning, the middle, or supposedly near the end. Take whatever time you have left, long or short, and just use it to be happy. Even if you’re supposed to be too old to start over, do it anyway if you aren’t happy with the way things are. Better to go out smiling not reaching your new goal than to go out sad living up to the expectations of acting your age.
Here’s to a new and brighter future at any age. Have a great day. Peace.
This week’s vlog is up and running. It’s on fasting. It covers the different ways to fast and the different time frames for a fast. Let me know what you think. If you enjoyed the video please leave a Like on YouTube for me. If you have an agreement, or disagreement, with the video, please leave a comment here or there. Subscribe and click the bell on YouTube if you want to be immediately notified every time I post a video to YouTube. Have a great week. Peace.
Here is my weekly weigh in video. Very happy with this week’s results. Also happy with a new product I’m trying. Watch the video to get the low down on how things went this past week. If you enjoy the video please leave a Like. Subscribe and click the notification bell on YouTube if you’re interested in being immediately notified every time I upload a video to YouTube. Hope you’re having a great day and a great week. Peace.
Here is this week’s weigh in. Gained a smidge this week. I know why, and I’m ok with the why. I explain in the video. Also an employment update. Check it out. Like the video if enjoy it. Leave a comment here or there letting me know what you think or how I can be better. Subscribe and click the bell if you want to be immediately notified every time I post a video to YouTube. Have a great week. Peace
Having a rainy day is ok if you can see the silver lining. Take today for example, was a literally rainy day. I had decided earlier in the day that I would do a jump rope workout today. I was getting ready to do it when I heard the sound of pitter patter on the roof. It was raining outside. It would have been easy to decide to do an easier indoor workout. In fact I had contemplated the idea. And then I realized it’s just a little rain. I had decided to do a jump rope workout for a reason. It burns more calories and strengthens the body due to the impact from jumping.
The downside of not working out with the jump rope was fewer calories burned and less progress in my fitness program. The downside of doing the jump rope workout was I’d get wet. Getting wet seemed the lesser evil so I grabbed the rope and went outside. It was a better workout than I had imagined. That was the silver lining.
For one, going out in the rain to work out showed willpower. And willpower is a muscle all its own. The more you work it out the stronger it gets. And with it the positive mindset and happiness of knowing you did the right thing.
Second, I had to learn to adapt with the jump rope. The rope I use outside is a leather jump rope. And the thing I learned today using the rope in the rain is that the leather jump rope absorbs water really well. And that throws off the timing because the rope got heavier as the workout moved forward. It was fun having to mindfully adjust to the changes as the rope got heavier.
Next, along with the rain was the wind. That throws the motion of the rope off a bit, too. Unlike the rain which slowly made the rope consistently heavier the wind picks up and recedes so the effect was erratic. Again, it taught me to be more mindful of how the rope was swinging and how I was controlling it. Bonus.
And finally, the rope wasn’t the only thing getting heavier. I was. As the rain soaked my clothes I was getting a little heavier. Not a lot mind you. It wasn’t like the rain added 20 pounds or anything. But as the workout went on and I was naturally getting more tired it did make it a little more taxing then if I had jump roped on a dry day. So it took the workout up a notch.
So there you have it. A rainy day didn’t have to be a bad day. In fact it was a great day because it made me a little stronger and a little better. The silver lining in the rain cloud. Hope you had a great day, rain or shine. See you soon. Peace.
The weekly weigh in video is up on YouTube. Good results this week and some great news to get to share with you all. Watch the video to find out. Leave a comment here or there telling me what you think or if you have suggestions on how I can improve the videos or myself. Leave a Like if you enjoyed the video. Subscribe and click the notification bell if you’d like to be immediately notified every time I put up a video. Have a great week. Peace.
So I’m on a 24 hour fast. It’s not the first one I’ve done. It’s not even the longest I’ve done. I’ve made it over 48 hours fasting. Being fully keto adapted I can go a day or two without food easily. And I do so regularly to promote autophagy (your body killing off unnecessary cells) and weight loss.
When I first started fasting as part of my ketogenic lifestyle, though, it wasn’t so easy. I was keto adapted and used fat as my primary fuel source. I had plenty of fuel on board. So going without food intake wasn’t a physiological issue, it was a psychological one.
In our society we’re used to having food available at all times. Which means we’re used to eating any time we want. The idea of willfully going without food just went against my mental programming. And that’s not even counting the way our brains are hardwired.
Your brain fears scarcity. And there’s a good reason for that. Way back in the day, food wasn’t available 24/7. So when you had a chance to eat your body sent you signals to make sure you didn’t miss out. Who knew when the next available meal would come along. It’s a survival mechanism. The first time you fast, and probably the second and third, you’re going to be fighting some pretty strong urges to stop fasting. So here are a few suggestions on how to start fasting in a way that’ll be easier on you.
First, eat a big meal right before your first fast. I know this seems a little counterproductive but the idea is to make the first fast easy so that you lessen the urges and get your mind comfortable with fasting. If you start out on a nice, full stomach your brain is less likely to panic and you’ll last longer before it becomes concerned about the lack of food heading its way.
Second, and it goes hand in hand with the first step, make the big meal breakfast or early lunch. This is all about timing. Have the meal timed so that by the time you’re starting to waver on your commitment you’re about to go to bed. Sleeping gives you eight easy hours of fasting. If you started the fast around 8am or 9am and go to bed at 10pm you’re only having to hang in there for 13-14 hours, a little over half a day. Then you add the 8 hours of sleep in and you just fasted 21-22 hours. Even if you go with the early lunch plan because you’re a little wary, and eat the meal at 10am or 11am, your first fast would be 19-20 hours. You’ve taught your brain you can go nearly a day without food and be fine.
Third, have distractions ready. If you’re just sitting there thinking about how you’re fasting you’re thinking about food. And that’s just making it harder on yourself. So have pre-planned distractions. Like a book to read to keep your mind off of things. Maybe have a Sudoku app on your phone to play if a hunger pang arrives. Play a round or two to get yourself past the urge. Just make sure that whatever your distraction is it doesn’t play into the desire to have food. Like if you must have popcorn when watching a movie at the theater, that would clearly be a bad choice. Or hanging out with someone who you usually only meet for meals would be a problem because you’ll focuse on the food you aren’t having this time. Also, avoid strenuous activities like hiking or other sports as that will increase your bodies desire for food making things rougher. On a side note, once you’re used to fasting you’ll be able to exercise during a fast but I’d still avoid heavy resistance exercises.
Fourth, stay hydrated and keep your belly full of acceptable liquids. Water is fine on a fast and won’t end it. Coffee and tea, so long as you don’t add anything to them, can also be consumed on a fast. And they have the added benefit of encouraging fat burning. So drink enough to give your belly the sensation of fullness.
The final step is to be mentally prepared in advance. Tell yourself to expect the hunger, and remind yourself that it’ll be more psychological than physical. If you’ve mentally prepared it won’t be as much of a smack in the face. It’ll be part of the plan. When the hunger hits, and your brain is demanding food, you’ll remind yourself that you expected this. You just need to be patient and the hunger pang will go away because you know you have plenty of fuel on board. Even someone of lower body fat who has keto adapted for the health benefits has way more fat on their body then they could go through in a day. So just know in advance that you’ve got this and you will muscle through.
Those are my go to suggestions for handling your first fast. And probably the next couple of fasts as well. After I had fasted a few times and built my time up I stopped having issues sticking with the fast. And now I just fast for as long as I choose no problems. Give it time and you’ll get there too. And don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t make it all the way on your first few attempts. Go as long as you can and know you’ll go a little longer the next time.
I hope this has been helpful. If you have any other suggestions for making a fast easy please leave a comment below. I hope you’re having a great day. Peace.
Here are the results of this week’s weigh in. Let me know what you think. Like if you enjoy the video. Leave a comment letting me know how I did, or how I could do better. Subscribe and click the bell if you want to be immediately notified every time I upload a video to my YouTube channel. Have a great week. Peace.
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