Debauchery

Todays Workout (still yet to be done): Ab Ripper X + Big 3 Workout + Pull Ups

I haven’t written in a while and there’s  a good reason for that. I haven’t been feeling very well since I got back from Singapore. I did pretty well at first – after no sleep and a big night of rum/vodka debauchery and chain smoking ;I have smoked maybe a handful of cigarettes in my 30 years. A few in Japan when I was 24 just to see what all the fuss was about, I was too ADD to get through a whole one before losing attention span and needing to talk with my hands (I’m Italian). Other then that I’ve had a few here or there when I’m drinking with smoking friends. Trying to light my own was embarassing! So arriving home in Melbourne with 2 days of no sleep, air travel, drunken fun and I was able to get up the next morning for a dancing gig, I powered through like a pro and then crashed.

I thought a good nights sleep would do the trick…but I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I felt like a train hit me for the past week – fatigued, listless but endlessly hungry. I am chowing through 2k calories like they’re nothing but to no affect on my energy. I’ve managed my workouts – including a 3 mile run yesterday- but that’s it. I’m pretty much in bed all day with a massive headache and utter exhaustion.

I have been overcome by the fatigue I described form before my diet change.

The reason I haven’t written is that I was thinking mutinous thoughts about keto.  Things like “my weight loss has stalled, it must not be working anymore. It must have been a fad diet, flash in the pan. If’ I’m going to feel like shit, I’d rather eat sugar and feel like shit.  What a fraud I am! One month and the benefits backfire! Maybe I should do a carb refeed, maybe I should just go back to my old habits – I don’t feel much different now”

BUT I didn’t quit keto and here’s why:

1. Maybe I just got sick – no way of eating can keep you from EVER feeling sick or fatigued

2. I cheated. The day after my rum/vodka party (which technically wasn’t cheating hoy hoy!) I arrived at the airport hungover, staring down 12 hours of travel on 0 hours of sleep. I figured, I’d been on Keto for a month, it was time I deserved a cheat day! I had: 1 bag of jelly belly’s, 1/2 a cheese sandwhich on white bread and 9 mini lowfat oatmeal raisin cookies.  I felt so sick. and none of it even tasted that great – not even the jelly beans. I decided then that keto really was my thing and went the rest of the day (yes I ate more) with my normal foods – albeit with a bar of dark chocolate.

NOW eating that stuff did nothing for me. In fact I got “sick” in the bathroom of the airport in Kuala Lumpur (fun fun fun) and felt awful the whole trip. I jumped right back into normal Keto on Saturday. But was still blaming keto for feeling like crap. In hindsight I am probably recovering from essentially 3 days of no sleep and 1 full day of crappy carbs, not to mention a drinking bender and a smoking fest – just writing it out makes me want to face palm.

Fortunately today I’m feeling much better! My energy is 100% back. I got to meet a good friend of mine in the city and she asked me about my diet – as I was explaining my hesitancy of continuing with keto, the light bulb flicked on. She actually suggested that I was probably just recovering from travel and not to blame the diet – and I didn’t just travel, I had a blowout. DUR

Now I am fully committed to continuing keto. I really had never felt as good as I did keeping my carbs under 50grams. But I don’t think I have it down just right yet. I am eating a butt-ton of cheese because I’m only eating meat on occassion. There’s not a whole lot else to fill in the calories with but eggs,cheese and jello with protein powder and yes, dark chocolate. Not the ideal nutritional choices to stand alone. My goal this week is to buy some meat that I can make quickly –  a few chicken breasts, beef strips… they shouldn’t take any longer then scrambled eggs and I eat THOSE everyday. I need to drop jello and whey powder down to occasional desserts or post workout instead of the 2x’s a day I’m eating it now. I’ve made a good habit of having 2 eggs with a salad dressed in olive oil and a sprinkling of seeds, it’s amazing. I can get away with 5+ cups of salad greens without going near my carb limit!!! I’m loving that! Plus I’ve found, just yesterday, that the tofu at Safeway is only 6 grams of carbs for the whole container and I can scramble it like eggs with spinach – fabulous! I love cheese, and I’ll keep eating it, I just don’t want it making up 600 calories of my daily diet.

One more finding. Eating 2000+ calories a day has not made me gain weight at all. BUT I don’t think I actually need that many calories, most days. I feel like I’m just eating past my need most days. I think I’m safe between 15-1800 except for those days when I physically feel hunger after that much has been eaten. Then I see no reason not to keep eating, but I think I’ve just been eating out of boredom or wanting dessert and knowing I’m trying to eat 2000 calories. It was a totally worthwhile experiment and I imagine when I am more active I’ll need those calories again. It’s taught me to listen to my body.  I am usually quite happy around 1600 calories and then there’s one or two days a week I am really much hungrier and then I need somewhere between 2000 and 2300.  I’m pretty lucky as other then my workouts I’m sedentary and I still need that many calories, just imagine how much I have to eat when I am working again AND working out! I cant believe I thought I had crap genetics – smack me for complaining!

So, all of that being said this weeks goals are:

1. Buy, cook, eat meat (or fish, tuna from a can counts) for at least 1 meal a day

2. find new snacks that are whole foods and not sugar free jello, protein powder, or chocolate – cheese is okay but not ALL the time

3. Don’t eat past hunger. Aim for no less then 1500 but unless actually hungry, no need to push the calories up higher.

If you’ve stuck with me so far and are curious, know that I’ll keep you in the loop. I’m going to be posting less frequently as I’m not focusing so much on diet and exercise. I’m hoping to post more on my wedding/relationship blog as I hope to focus more on career and relationship and less on diet and exercise. However I think it’s important to have this information, even if it’s just my personal, un-scientific research on myself, out for people who are searching.  And it helps me when I have health issues or changes in energy to be able to look back and assess what I’ve been doing.