Monthly Archives: April 2015

Travel and food

Lesson learned

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Since my last post I’ve spent 5 days in New Orleans, followed by 3 days in Austin.  I returned home Tuesday night and have been completely exhausted ever since!  I haven’t been on a bike since Saturday.  And, in 2 days I’ll be riding the Breathless Agony ride.  Yikes.

I was able to stay in ketosis during my travels, but had a strange experience after returning from Austin.  Even though I was very careful with my food, my ketosis levels were very low the day after I got home (.4).  The levels continued to fall to .2 the next morning, and I was not even in ketosis last night when I did a final test.  The only difference was the consumption of some “Life Change Fat Burners” capsules that my aunt gave me.  The ingredients included Choline, Inositol, Lecithin, L-Methionine, Phosphatidyl  Serine.

Based on some limited research online, it appears that L-Methionine may have been the culprit.  See Toxicity of Methionine in Humans and an excellent blog post, https://fatboymuscleman.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/how-to-keep-yourself-out-of-ketosis/ for more information.

Lesson learned:  Never take supplements without doing the research FIRST!  (Head slap.)

 

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Remembering dad

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It’s been 23 years since I saw my dad.  He fought heart and kidney disease throughout most of his life, but lost his battle at age 59 on April 20, 1992, the day after Easter.

I was 19 when he died, the youngest of 3 girls.  My sisters are 5 and 10 years older than me.  My mom became a widow at age 49.  She has done an amazing job serving as mom and dad for all 3 of us as we move through adulthood.  Below is a picture of us 2 years before he died (my senior prom):

Senior prom pic

My dad was a Lutheran minister with the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met.  As a minister he often had to make difficult decisions that others disagreed with, but he did so with such grace and kindness that he was always loved and respected.

My dad fought high blood pressure starting in his 20s.  This later caused his kidneys to fail and he was on dialysis for the last several years of his life.  He would do his dialysis at home, and I still remember him yelling at us to get the cat out of the room because he needed a sterile environment.  Our cat at the time, Chuckie, loved my dad and even though dad had been in the hospital for 6 months before his death, that cat knew the day he died.  He was in mourning with the rest of us.

I have to wonder if a different diet would have improved his high blood pressure and overall health.  His mind was always sharp, but his heart was the problem.  Although my dad never had a heart attack, his dad died of a heart attack at age 45.  While I will never know, it does help motivate me to continue my journey of a healthy lifestyle.

Rarely does a day go by that I don’t think of dad, and I often fight regrets that I didn’t spend more time with him when I had the chance.  As a teenager, I always had more “important” things to do than sit with him and talk while he did his dialysis.  Instead I try to focus on the positive memories I have of him, to be thankful for the positive values he instilled in me and my sisters, and to look forward to the day we will be reunited in heaven.

Travel and food

5 days on the road

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Tonight I’m in New Orleans and will be here until Thursday.  Tomorrow many of the wonderful people I work with will arrive for Director’s meetings, and on Tuesday the whole ElderCounsel team will arrive for our company retreat.  I’m very excited to be here, but packing sure was a challenge!

I’m determined to stay in ketosis this week, which meant packing a lot of my own stuff, and hoping for a little luck when eating out.  There are certain things I don’t want to be without, in particular, coffee blended with butter!  So, I packed the following:

Blender, kettle to boil water, ground coffee beans, french press, cooler, Super Starch snack bars, Atkins shakes, coconut oil, tea bags, lots of nuts, and all of the supplements I take daily:

Packing for 5 days

Thank you to my wonderful friend and colleague, Melissa, who took time today to find me grass-fed butter and heavy cream!  I should be set now, even if there’s not much for me to eat in the catered meals.

We’ll be working outside most of Wednesday helping to repair homes that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.  No, that’s not a typo.  There are still many homes that have not yet been rebuilt.  I was here in 2011 for an ElderCounsel retreat and was amazed by how much work there was to do.  Now, 4 years later, there is still so much to be done.  The ElderCounsel team will be out in full force doing our part Wednesday!

Now if I could just find a bike to ride…

Training Rides

Saturday 4-18 ride: longer, higher, faster

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Saturday was a great day on the bike.  We road Glendora Mountain Road again (with a little extra climbing after).  I had a little score to settle since I had such a horrible time that same road a few weeks ago.  But first, we had to make sure the bikes were clean!

The “before” picture.

My bik

And, getting my bike shined up (I have to do all I can to compete with Jonathan’s S Works with American Classic wheels!):

Cleaning bike

 

Jonathan shining up bike

It was a gorgeous day on Glendora Mountain Road.  We had planned to try and make it up to Mt. Baldy, but about 1/3 of the way up Jonathan’s hamstring was really bothering him so I made us stop.  Not worth an injury when we still have plenty of time to train.

The good news is, we went further, climbed more, and did it faster than our ride a few weeks ago.  I climbed Glendora Mountain Road 21 minutes faster than I did it March 28th.  Stats below.

Seems like this nutritional ketosis thing is working out ok for us!

4-18 states

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Pizza is back in my life – and just in time

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No, we haven’t gone off of our ketogenic diet.  I found a fantastic low carb pizza crust recipe online and decided to give it a try.  The crust is where the majority of the carbs in regular pizza are – the sauce, cheese and meat you put on it aren’t high in carbs (just don’t overdo the pizza sauce).

Because I wanted to start small, I used 2 cups of cheese (mozzarella and a little parmesan) and 2 eggs, along with garlic powder, oregano and basil.  It did stick to the pan, but was still really, really good.  I took it off of the first pan, got out a new pan and added the sauce and toppings before broiling it.

I guess I was in the mood to cook, because I also made broccoli and cheese soup (always good to have on hand in case you need something quick), pork chops with mushrooms and green beans, and a cheesecake is currently in the oven!

Tomorrow we face the 22-mile climb that nearly killed me a few weeks ago (yes, I’m exaggerating, but I felt terrible during it).  But we won’t be stopping there.  The plan is to continue up to Mt. Baldy, and to say it’s a steep climb isn’t doing it justice.   Stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California will finish on Mt. Baldy and will most likely be the deciding stage.  Good thing I had pizza tonight.

 

FAQs

Frequently Asked Question: What do I eat?

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First of all, I am hungry all the time so I eat often. I have read a lot of blogs where people in nutritional ketosis talk about rarely being hungry and how little they eat. All I can tell you is that is not me!

A typical day for me might look like this:

Breakfast (6:45 am)

Coffee blended with 2 TB of grass-fed better and 1 TB of MCT oil

1-2 eggs (scrambled with a tablespoon of cream) with 2 slices of bacon

Around 11:00 am I am getting hungry and will often have a second cup of coffee blended with butter and MCT oil. I’ll usually grab a handful of almonds, too.

Lunch

If I am short on time, I’ll have a cup of coffee with butter and anything else I can get my hands on – cheese, leftover piece of chicken, avocado slices, etc.

If I have time, I will make a salad with lots of avocado, and have a piece of meat, like chicken, or a hamburger patty.

A handful of blackberries or strawberries with heavy cream or a spoonful of peanut butter with some whipped cream (great for a quick salty and sweet treat).

Afternoon snack

Nuts (almonds, macadamia nuts)

Cheese

Cup of tea with coconut oil and heavy cream

Dinner

Fish, chicken or beef

Broccoli with butter

If I didn’t have berries earlier in the day, then berries and cream for dessert.  Or cheesecake (I have a great cheesecake recipe that is low carb).

Before bed

Almost every night I have a cup of chamomile tea with coconut oil and cream.  This helps me go to sleep and not wake up in the middle of the night hungry.

Even on heavy training rides, my meals stay pretty much the same.  This is one of the many things I love about a nutritional ketosis lifestyle!

Training Rides

Why would I pay money for “Breathless Agony”?

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“Because it will a good training ride,” says my husband.

“Because I’m an idiot,” says the voice in my head – and my mom.   Yes, she has said this after some of my rides.

At any rate, it’s done: Breathless agony

The Breathless Agony ride is 114 miles with 12,000 feet of climbing.  If you complete all 4 passes, you are eligible to purchase a Breathless Agony jersey.  You can also do the 75 mile option with 3 passes and 7,500 feet of climbing (I’m lobbying for that option).  Oh, and the Grim Reaper makes an appearance.  Seems fitting.

Training Rides, Uncategorized

Relief!

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I tested my blood this morning with a nervous stomach. After my dismal test on Sunday morning I had no idea what to expect today. I had my regular breakfast of coffee blended with butter and MCT oil, one egg and 2 slices of bacon. I tested at about 10:30 am, and was pleased to register my highest reading yet – 2.2! Mental crisis averted.

On a lighter note, I discovered a new way to compete with my husband! Garmin Connect ranks how well you did on certain segments of rides so I spent a little time today tormenting him over a few segments where I had a higher ranking. I then made the mistake of telling him that I’m blogging about it and he pointed out that he checked 20 segments and I was ahead of him in 1 by “about 3 seconds.” And he calls me competitive.

I’m sure many of you reading this already knew about Garmin Connect, but I didn’t. I was never a numbers junkie until recently. Becoming keto-adapted has given me more energy and I’m now uploading my ride data, analyzing it carefully, and probably becoming a little obsessive about it. Accordingly, below are my stats from the same 93-mile ride, one week apart: 

4-4 Stats

Ave. HR: 148

Screenshot 4-4

4-11 Stats

Ave. HR: 146

4-11 stats

 

Training Rides, Uncategorized

Saturday training ride and puzzling ketone numbers

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Our Saturday training ride produced good news and not so good news.  We did the same 93 mile route that we did last Saturday, and we did it almost 10 minutes faster with fewer breaks.  We took 1 “refueling break” after 3 hours, 40 minutes, and after most of our climbing was finished.   We refueled with SuperStarch, did a lot of stretching, and gobbled down a SlimJim.  We took a shorter break with about 15 miles to go so I could stretch and try to get my leg pain under control – which worked for a short time.

The last 12 miles were excruciating for me – I had some of the worst leg cramps I’ve ever had.  Having a few days to reflect on it, I suspect it was a combination of a few things.  I flew from SoCal to Atlanta Thursday, then turned around and flew the same flight back on Friday.  Flying dehydrates you and I probably did not drink enough fluids to rehydrate.  I also had a glass of wine with dinner Thursday and Friday night, something I haven’t done much of the last 6 weeks.  We also forgot to take our Magnesium Saturday before riding.  All of those factors combined with riding faster with fewer breaks are most likely the cause of the intense leg cramping.

Fortunately, I recovered pretty fast from the leg pain – within 20 minutes – with a lot of stretching and fluids.  Sunday morning I did not feel great so I drank some chicken broth to try and rehydrate.  We went for a short recovery ride on Sunday and other than a persistent headache (which I think was again due to dehydration) my body felt pretty good.

The not so good news was my ketone levels on Sunday morning.  I checked them around 10:00 am, which is earlier than normal, but I wanted to do it before riding.  My levels were .08, which to me was disturbingly low.  I should be at 1.0 or higher every day, and after a hard day of exercise I expected a much higher number.  Morning ketone levels are always lower, but I was still surprised by the low reading.

I will check again today (Monday morning) and hopefully have better results, otherwise I’ll have to do a much more in depth analysis of what I ate and drank leading up to Sunday.

Travel and food

Staying in ketosis while traveling for work

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Staying in ketosis is hard enough when you’re at home and can fix all of your own meals.  This week I had a short trip for a speaking engagement in Louisville, KY.  I was only gone one night, but I still worried about my meals, especially given the long flights to Louisville from Orange County, CA.  It was a good “training trip” for future trips I have coming up that are much longer.

I woke up at 4:15 am Thursday morning so I would have time to make my regular breakfast, and coffee blended with butter and MCT oil.  It’s a good thing I did because besides some nuts, that was all I was able to eat until dinner.  I was asked to dinner by a group, but thankfully we went to a farm-to-table restaurant where all of the food was from a 100 mile radius from farmers who owned the restaurant.   I had “bone marrow butter” for the first time, which accompanied my steak.  The name freaked me out a little, but it wasn’t bad and I was grateful for the extra fat.  I passed on the au gratin potatoes and had extra arugula salad instead.

Unfortunately I was hungry a few hours later when I got to my hotel room!  I had packed coconut oil and tea bags with me, and that definitely saved me both that night and today as I’m traveling home.  Last night I had a cup of tea with half and half and a spoonful of coconut oil and that satisfied my hunger enough for me to get to sleep.  And coconut oil was no problem to get through security.

Breakfast this morning consisted of some of the worst scrambled eggs I’ve ever had, and a piece of sausage that was not much better! Needless to say I was hungry about an hour later.  I was able to grab a hamburger and steamed broccoli for lunch, though (Chili’s did not bat an eye at my order).  On my flight home tonight, I had some cheese, almonds with some dried apricot, and a cup of coffee with coconut oil and cream, and that took the edge off.   I will make sure to travel with coconut oil and tea bags in the future!  It’s much easier than trying to travel with butter…

I am almost home and looking forward to a nice ketogenic meal with my husband and a long bike ride tomorrow!