Definitely back in ketosis this morning

Saturday, December 22, 2012

I'm sure glad it did not take very long. The problem is that I still don't know exactly how low my carbs need to be to stay there. I will limit my exercise to some long walks this afternoon with the dogs and maybe do a few upper body and core exercises.
We still don't have any sunshine but at least it's not too cold and not raining.
Hope everyone is having a peaceful and fun-filled weekend.

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12/21/12, Day 2 and winter solstice

Saturday, December 22, 2012

I'm really looking forward to the days getting longer again.

I'm hoping that after this second day of less than 20 grams of carbs that my energy will gradually start to improve. Today was what I hope to have been the all-time low in my running, which was expected after lowering my carbs further but it was still somewhat of a shock. After one mile of uphill walking for warmup I ran only two miles, my pulse was 135 bpm and my average tempo was 3.84 mph.
I was soaked in sweat and cut my strength training down to only about 15 minutes.
I am wondering if I was actually producing any significant number of ketones on 50 grams of carbs/day. I still won't bother measuring ketones because my energy level and/or weight loss will tell me how I'm doing and the blood ketone meter plus test strips is more money than I can spend right now.

Things went better on the eating front. I have to say right now it helps to know that I'm only planning on doing this for 2 weeks. The funny thing is that I'm not having a hard time giving up chocolate or Xylitol but fruit so right now I'm planning on introducing small amounts of fruit again first. But I'm also keeping the possibility open to continue longer if I get used to eating only veggies instead of fruit (with the exception of avocados and some lemon slices in my water).
I'm making progress in the sleep department, mostly by going to bed earlier. This is fortunately easier over the holidays.

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Back to ultra-low carb

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Today was a rest day. I spent the morning at the dentist's office after only a cup of decaf with cream.
Lunch was a big piece of brie cheese and a plain full-fat yogurt with another cup of decaf with cream.
Dinner was a large portion of ground beef with red cabbage cooked in coconut oil.
I don't think my net carbs went over 20 g so this was a good start.
I talked with my doctor's nurse about te results of my blood work today and she confirmed that everything looks great and LDL is not a concern at all. She said they could do a particle test for the LDL if I wanted one but it seemed more to reassure me rather than because it is important. So I think I'll wait 3 months to find out if any more blood work is advisable.

Tomorrow I'm planning on running and a little strength training.

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Surprising bloodwork results - but feeling quite optimistic

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

There are only 3 tests that I had done.

Vitamin D level, which is at goal after 6 weeks on 5000 mg/day so I may cut this down a little to 2000-3000 mg/day.

Hemoglobin A1c was just a tiny bit lower than last time down from 5.9 to 5.8, technically still in the pre-diabetic range, nowhere near the level of 5.0 that I would like to see.
Given that I did not lose any more body fat and have gained a little weight since I started exercising more again I have to assume that I am still insulin resistant to some degree. I may have no choice but to cut the carbs down even more if I want to lose more body fat. I will give it a try for a little while, maybe 2 weeks, to see if I can keep my net carbs under 20. My hope is that if this works that I can maintain on more than that.

The biggest surprise (for me, not my doctor) was the result from my cholesterol levels.
My total cholesterol went up from 243 in June 2009 (before low-carb) to 361.
LDL went up from 146 to 227
HDL went up from 89 to 124
Triglycerides went down from 52 to 51

This puts my TG/HDL-C ratio at 0.41.
Let me at this point share a short excerpt from Peter Attia's blog, who has described the significance of cholesterol in his post "How a low-carb diet reduced my risk of heart disease (Part 3)":
"Combining HDL-C and TG into a ratio (i.e., TG/HDL-C) is probably the single best predictor of cardiac risk you can derive from a standard cholesterol test. The lower the ratio, the lower your chances of having an “adverse cardiac event,” as the medical community describes it (e.g., a heart attack). Despite what doctors tell you, LDL-C is pretty much useless for predicting your risk of heart disease. In fact, it’s not even part of the risk assessment for metabolic syndrome, which everyone agrees is the central link to heart disease (and virtually all other chronic diseases we’re afflicted with)."
He then goes on to explain that there are better tests to determine risk, including a test that measures particle size, something I may look at having done at some point.

I have to say that high LDL cholesterol levels run in my mother's side of the family so I don't know if the cause is a low-carb diet. Either way, I have not had a chance to talk with my doctor yet but from her remarks she does not seem to be concerned (she is fully on board with low-carb eating). Her comment was "Continue as you are (with low-carb) and I 'll see you in 3 months (to check body fat percentage)". I am so thankful I found this physician because I know that most physicians would have immediately insisted that I start taking statin drugs and go on a low-fat, low cholesterol diet. Thankfully I had plenty of time to do my research and know that the cause of heart disease is not high cholesterol levels but inflammation, which is caused by too many carbs.
Just in case I needed some extra information on the topic, a book that I ordered just a few days ago came in the mail a week earlier than expected:

www.amazon.com/Great-Cholesterol-Myt
h-Disease--Statin-Free/dp/1592335217/r
ef=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=13559762
47&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+cholesterol+myth

Please take a quick look at the reviews for this book. I'm very happy with my purchase so far.

So overall I feel I'm moving towards better health, even though I feel a little like pouting because I have to give up my little Xylitol and fruit treats, at least for a while.
I am also beginning to realize that the fact I had to take 2 months off from running late in the summer because of surgery means that my cardio fitness went in the tank a little. My resting pulse was up from about 60 what it was in August to about 70 now. But I know what to do to fix it, running 5-6 times/week at an easy pace. At least I'm carrying a few pounds less than I did a year ago when I was preparing for the same Half marathon.

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Top 10 movers and shakers in the low-carb world 2012

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

This is Jimmy Moore's list, and he knows what he's talking about:

livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/top-10-l
ow-carb-movers-shakers-of-2012/16830?u
tm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&
utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LivinLaVidaLowCar
bBlog+%28Jimmy+Moore%27s+Livin%27+La+V
ida+Low+Carb+Blog%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

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