Keto experiment — week 2: Bye dairy, hello sleep
This is the second weekly update of my six month experiment with the ketogenic diet, in a bid to obtain mental and physical health, and to do away with fluctuating energy levels. Catch my daily updates on Instagram and Twitter. Am again limited for time with this update. The irony of having had no energy this weekend to update you on my battle with fatigue is not lost on me.
Right, diving straight in, week 2 updates and observations:
- It sounded to good to be true! As covered last week, the ketogenic diet has been incredibly easy to follow so far. I anticipated a battle, a struggle to put meals together, an acceptance of not being able to eat out, difficultly in socialising etc. Truth is, I have the reverse sentiment: that eating keto tastes so darn good that rather than feel like you’re comprising — it’s more that you’re specifically taking the best that the food world has to offer, and deciding that’s all you shall consume. This, coupled with the significantly reduced hunger levels has these baby steps a joy to pull off.
- … it was, damn you dairy! On my travels, in the battle of the brain fog, I had noticed a pattern of feeling foggy the day after eating dairy. Problem is: I love cheese. And milkshakes. But time and time again I’d suffer within 24 hours. So I parked dairy completely for a couple of years. As I began this ketogenic experiment, I brought it all back — cheese with almost every meal and double cream almost every evening. After consuming plenty of the milk-made goodies this weekend, it really hit me — enough to leave little doubt that it’s a culprit. Admittedly, with a little gardening over the weekend (mowing down brambles with a petrol trimmer), I had a bout of hayfever which had me sleeping poorly — but the symptoms of brain fog had kicked in before then. Butter itself does not appear to cause me a problem — which is likely due to butter containing minimal amounts of the milk proteins that I believe to be the problem. There’s other reports of eliminating dairy to cure fatigue, and an article on reversing hashimotos (hypothyroidism) by going dairy free. Particularly relevant to me as my recent blood test revealed I may have an under-active thyroid. So for the next few weeks, no dairy. Mooooo. I mean, booooo.
- Productivity tracking! The personal goal of this experiment is all day energy, in a bid to boost my productivity, my mental performance, and to generally get the most of out every moment. Tracking this was always going to be difficult, but this week I introduced the use of Pomodoro timers and RescueTime tracking. Pomodoro is a productivity technique, where you focus on a task for timed durations, taking regular breaks. RescueTime allows you to monitor your productivity, by automatically tracking which software and websites are taking up your time during the working day. During episodes of brain fog or low energy, I take more frequent breaks — which will now be tracked as less time in Vim (a code editor) and more time on HackerNews let’s say. Have you found other means to track cognitive function and productivity? Let me know!
- Tonight we dine! The original plan was to consume around 1800 calories daily, which is approximately what I felt I had been eating for much of the previous few weeks. With intermittent fasting, and a diet of fats, hunger hasn’t been much of an issue. Despite this, I’ve found that I have been frequently meeting or exceeding 2000 calories, particularly on weekends where I do have breakfast. I put this partly down to now doing three consistent workouts a week, and listening to my body, where I’ve found that I’m finding myself more satisfied on higher calories. Although how much of this is simply down to a keto hot chocolate being so darn comforting remains to be seen.
- All we need is now I’ve long dabbled with meditation. I’m more than convinced of the benefits. A library of self help books would likely lead you to the same message: that the present moment is all that matters. A pleasant surprise of having gone strict keto, is how much calmer I am, and the significant effect it has had on my mood. Frustration from fatigue aside, I’ve already noticed a real difference — and have none of increased heart rate I’d be aware of, none of the lost-in-thought over-thinking. Interestingly, Fitbit appears to show a similar progression from when I started tracking on Day 4. Although I imagine the initial 48 hours are more likely due to the device calibrating itself. I’ve read of how stress levels are as significant a factor on inflammation, so it’s crucial to keep it in check. With this, I’m adding 10 minutes of daily meditation as part of the 6 month experiment, currently enjoying the use of the Calm app, preferring it to Headspace for reasons I can’t quite pinpoint yet.
- website live, data made public! The keto coder project has quickly spread itself out over various social media platforms and services. In a bid to bring some cohesion to the project and make it easier to follow — I present: http://ketocoder.co.uk. With this, I’ve also made my FitnessPal, my Fitbit Profile and my Google sheet of workout and blood data public. Follow along, point out what I can improve, fire a question my way. I’m all ears.
Energy
After a rocky start due to a few nights of little sleep over the previous weekend, the working week got progressively better. By mid-week, I felt pretty amazing. The end of the week in particular had me feeling so good, I took a blood sugar and ketone test mid-morning and saw that I was: 80mg/dL and 2.5mmol — which sure enough appears to be a pretty optimal reading. Note that although this appears to correspond with a higher energy, it’s clearly not the only factor that determines my energy levels. I know sleeping too little has a real negative effect on me, and as described above, dairy.
Speaking of sleep, my Fitbit data states that I’m not getting as much deep sleep as I should be getting. I’m averaging around 13% a night in deep sleep, which is around 40 minutes. I have managed up to 1.5 hours on a day or two last week, and did feel noticeably more rested the next day. Reading up when I can on the topic of sleep stages, it’s got me immediately taking steps to improve the quality of my sleep.
I’ve started with the darkness of my bedroom — which till now, with my blinds, has still let in plenty of light at night. I’ve immediately rectified this, by covering the window with cardboard underneath the blinds — which has made the room close to pitch black. Doing this brought my attention to the orange glow from the light on an extension lead, which I’ll be covering tonight with electrical tape. I’m also paying extra effort to following a before bed routine, with no computer screen usage, and only light reading in the 30 minutes before sleep. To remove potential disruptions, I have ordered the misses to take her pillow and our blanket, and to sleep in the bathroom. I’m joking of course. She’ll need to leave the blanket.
Diet
Very little change to my eating for week 2 — although I do need to keep an eye on my protein which has been slowly climbing. As discussed above, my calorie count has also begun to increase a little — but importantly: everything I’ve eaten has been keto friendly. On a social event this past Friday, I encouraged friends to bring snacks with them, as they won’t find conventional treats around these here parts. Sure enough, they turned up with peanut butter cookies, Haribo sweets and a chicken kebab. It smelt amazing, and in that moment, had it not been for the fact that I’m tracking everything and doing this in public to hold myself accountable — I may have just been tempted to give myself the evening off and indulge. Only to wake up hours later, in the bath, smothered in peanut butter. But I resisted, had a great night and it made one thing clear: the social element is in no way to be the hurdle I imagined it would be.
Slowly but surely, I’m getting my Jamie Oliver on, and I’m crazy excited about the potential here. I’ve never been one to cook much, and with each passing year, my meals got ever simpler in growing frustration at a lack of results, and increasing desire for convenience. As part of this concerted keto effort, and amazingly, with many of those closest to me making positive changes to their diet too — it’s got me ever motivated to demonstrate that eating healthy, in no way means eating bland.
An example? My lunches till now have frequently been salmon and avocado — and with the addition of a single tomato, some red onion, lime juice and coriander, you’ve got yourself an amazing tasting avocado salad. Mix it with a little more gusto and boom, you’ve got yourself a guacamole that goes with anything. So over the next two weeks I’ll be trying my hand at whipping up fat bombs, cauliflower rice, almond pancakes and more. All of which will be shared on Instagram. Which is more likely to resemble a blooper reel for the moment.
Amazingly, a few friends and relatives have decided to get in on the keto shenanigans. With this, we see the introduction of ‘Keto Mondays’ to my office — where we’ve agreed that at the start of each week, one of us will bring in a keto snack for others to enjoy. My buddy and boss Guy went first, bringing in a crazy tasty sea bass omelette. I’m up next, aiming to blow their minds with fat bombs next Monday. Tune in next week to find out how well it goes down! Wouldn’t expect much mind, don’t go cancelling plans for it.
Fitness
First week boditrax results are in! The result: a slight drop in weight, along with a very small drop in muscle mass and slight climb in body fat percentage. This would suggest that the calories I’ve been eating has been around maintenance. Although with the disrupted sleep, the transition into gradually become keto-adapted — and the fact that it takes more than a few days for lifestyle changes to reflect on the scales — it’s too early to read into this. Give it another two weeks and we can start drawling early conclusions.
I’ve settled into a schedule of three workouts a week. Currently alternating between Tabata workout sessions, and 5x5x5 weights workout, I’m expecting a gradual increase in strength the over the next week weeks, particularly with the increase in calories. I’ve noticed no difference with working out while eating Keto, feeling as strong as ever during workouts. The Tabata and 5x5x5 are great for quantifying workouts, and ensuring that you give all you can in every workout to better the previous session. Current workout stats, along with other measurements can be seen in my shared Google Sheet.
Tweaks for week 2
- Bump up calories to around 2,000 — up from the approx 1,800 I had been aiming for till now.
- 10 minutes of daily meditation added to the plan — what I believe to be a crucial aspect in achieving optimal mental health
Resources of the week
- Ben Greenfield podcast — super pleased to have come across this health and performance focussed podcast. The latest episode, on fasting with Dr Fung is a trove of detail on intermittent fasting, and in particular, the positive impact of extended fasts. I can certainly see myself experimenting with extended fasts in the coming weeks.
- Instagram — specifically the #keto and #lowcarb hashtags. An obvious choice perhaps, but being new to the Instagram world, I’ve been blown away by the inspiration available and the sense of community on offer. It’s reassuring to be surrounded by so many, all with their own battles and holding a mindset of growth.
Closing thoughts
Between a busy week with multiple projects due, and with the growing list of books and podcasts I’m trying to work through — my feet haven’t touched the ground. This makes any moments of fatigue all the more frustrating. The amount of education available from a whole host of incredibly passionate and intelligent people such as Dom D’Agostino and Rhonda Patrick have me fully confident that I’m onto something here. I can’t stress just how incredible it would be to be fully unrestrained and be able to attack each and every day in the manner I know to be possible.
With regards to the experimentation and the progress yet to be made on this journey — I know these are early but vital baby steps. I’m eager to connect with doctors and researchers with a keen interest in the ketogenic diet. Please pass this on if you feel you know someone who may be interested.
And finally, another Thriva kit has arrived, where I’m now taking the HbA1c test. This being, a test which gives a good indication of what the average blood sugar levels have been of the past few weeks and months. Being two weeks into this keto experiment, means it’s likely my average would already have been effected — nonetheless, the result should be interesting, especially compared to the subsequent follow up test three months from now.
Till next week! Or sooner, reach out to me on Twitter.
