Monday Moron Medical Monitoring Session 8

Well, I've got nothing much to report on my end. I'm still technically stalled.

Given that I was in a stall for a while, I began doing what I always do: I started cheating, pretending that these Onion Rings don't have carbs, and oh, neither does this Garlic Bread.

Well, I'm out of ketosis and have been for a week.

The whole point of this thread was to make sure I didn't do t his just because I encountered resistance. The whole point was to try to be accountable to myself and not Quit, As Usual just because things aren't going the way I'd like.

Oh by the way, last week, Thursday maybe, I forgot to eat until 8pm. At that point, taking inspiration from moviequique's 60 (!) hour fasts, I thought I'd try my first 30+ hour fast. I thought I'd just go through the night without eating, go to bed, and then be in super-ketosis by morning.

Well, it was hell. I don't know how some of you are doing fasts longer than 24 hours, but when I hit 24 hours, man, does my body tell me it's hungry, and it won't shut up about it.

I had a bunch of tea with butter and coconut oil in it and vinegar (to reduce appetite) and I was still hungry, and I don't think I slept well, either.

The next morning, I was so proud of having done the 38 hour fast I went out and had a lunch of carby Indian food including nan and rice.

Shockingly, I went out of ketosis immediately afterwards.

Well, whatever, Dummy (I'm saying this to myself): if you deliberately sabotage yourself your entire life, what the hell do you expect is going to happen?

You're logical. When every step you take is a step calculated to bring you to the failure state, where do you think you'll end up?

I don't know if I'm going to try another 30+ hour fast. I think maybe I'm just too weak-willed for that.

I may try the Fat Fast if I don't start losing again soon, but for now, I'm sticking with the basic plan. Or rather -- actually sticking to it, instead of playing stupid "bread in a cheesesteak doesn't count as bread because there's so much grease in it" games with myself.

One thing, though: Even though I'm stalled on actual weight gain, I am looking thinner, and I am dropping some waist circumference. My bodyfat has, supposedly, dropped 1% in the past couple of weeks, which is good, but then, I rely on those electronic gadgets that are completely unreliable.

Still -- if you look thinner, you are thinner. Right? It's no as if the weight can just scurry around your back to hide, I don't think.

Oh: And I've recovered from my injuries and am back to exercising. I've gone back to doing some walking again, now that it's gotten cooler, which is really a nice habit to be in.

Walking in a park near sundown? Really, something nice about that.

I've said this before, but it's a very scalable exercise. You can amble at first - which isn't terrific exercise per se, but it does get your lesser muscles habituated to walking, you know, the little ones that turn your ankle and keep your knee straight and stuff. The ones that cause major problems if they're left to atrophy.

As you get to be a stronger walker, you can punctuate your walking with bursts of a higher-speed athletic gait. Athletic walking is tough -- and probably too tough for anyone but serious walkers. But you can of course temporarily shift into high gear for a minute or so every five minutes or something like that. It keeps walking from being too boring (which, okay, it kinda is).

One thing about walking: Walking uphill is of course more demanding on your muscles and cardiovascular system. It's good for you.

A caution, though, on walking downhill: You may be tempted to make up time by walking as fast as possible downhill, opening up your strides to a running sort of length.

Watch it -- walking quickly downhill is kinda a dangerous thing for your knee. You can hyperextend it. Maybe not seriously, but enough to give you a limp for the week or two and to reduce your activity level generally.

Better to go downhill at a normal pace, keeping steps short and controlled, I think.

If you're timing yourself and shooting for a certain time (like 15 minutes per mile, or the super-fast very athletic 12 minutes per mile), yes, this means that any hill is going to ruin your time, as walking uphill will slow you down and walking downhill will not allow you to pick up any speed.

But just factor that in-- 15 minutes per mile with hills is basically 14 minutes per mile on flat terrain.

So: Tell me if you've had any GAINZ.

posted by Ace at 05:54 PM

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