We did a very slow, easy ride around the area today to give our legs a break.  Tomorrow will be another epic day of riding, so we needed to have an easy day.  We took some pictures along the ride, then finished with a fantastic dinner in Venosc.

From today’s ride:

And from the village of Venosc where we had a wonderful ketogenic dinner of meat and cheese fondue!

And the church cat!

Tuesday was our greatest challenge yet – Mont Ventoux, “The Giant of Provence.”  What makes it tough are 2 things:  It is long, and it is steep.  The best way to describe it is relentless.  The Tour de France riders have claimed it is the toughest ride in the Tour.

To add to the fun, Monday night Jonathan and I were up all night with stomach aches.  We got up at  5:45 as we wanted to ride early to escape the heat.  Instead we  were greeted with rain.  After checking the forecast we decided to wait a few hours to see if the showers would clear, as the forecast indicated.  We weren’t able to eat our usual breakfast, so instead we had a low carb protein bar, some KetoCaNa and coffee at 5:45 am, and we did not eat again until we were on the bike, and even then I couldn’t eat because my stomach was still doing flip flops!

The ride itself was as described – relentless.  To add to it, we were greeted with thunderstorms near the top and rode the last few miles in pouring rain.  My husband had done this ride several times before but I hadn’t, and come rain or shine, I was going to finish it!  I did, and below is a picture from the summit, and an “after” picture when we were back down in the town of Borg d’Oisans.

For the day we climbed about 6000 feet in just under 40 miles.  Doing it under such adverse conditions really made the sense of accomplishment seem much deeper!  I believe we truly are going to have an easy ride today, 20 miles of mostly flat rode, and I hear talk of another “epic” ride tomorrow.  Yikes.

We woke up with sore muscles after Sunday’s ride, but were soon back at it again climbing up to a charming hilltop village named La Berarde.  To get there we had to pass through another charming hilltop village named St.  Christophe – both are discussed in the link above.

I was here in a car years ago and was blown away by the scenery.  Seeing it by bike is beyond words.  There was some pain along the way, as we climbed 3800 feet and covered just over 50 miles from our gite to La Berarde with sustained parts at over 10%.  But the views and the crepes we had at the top were worth it!!

The pictures don’t begin to do this area justice, but the ones below are from the creperie in La Berarde. (No, crepes are not low carb, but these were worth making an exception for!)

Today we had a free day so we decided to drive up Mont Ventoux.  I’ve been up this mountain before in a car, and I hiked up it in 2009 to watch a stage of the Tour de France.  But Tuesday I’ll be tackling it on a bike so I needed to get a look at it one more time.

Yeah, it’s imtimidating.  The picture below is from the top of Ventoux.

The good news is I’m now pretty excited about it.  Jonathan, who has ridden it multiple times, has been great at pointing out that we’ve ridden routes that are as hard, if not harder in SoCal.  So I’m ready to go, but have to tackle “L’Alpe” and its 21 switchbacks first on Sunday.

OK, so on to food.  Breakfast was a challenge, as we are at a B&B and today’s choices were:  baguettes, croissants, toast, yogurt, hard boiled eggs and an assortment of cheese and fruit (no berries).  Jonathan and I shared a croissant with some amazing jam, but stuck with the eggs and cheese otherwise.  We left the table hungry!  Yesterday I mis-ordered and ended up with about 5 flecks of salmon (yes, flecks) among an enormous dish of pasta.  Darn language barrier.

But thankfully I packed 229 bars and UCan snacks so we were fine throughout the day, just hungry!  We bought salami and cheese at the market today, and snacked on that throughout most of the day.  When we were back at the B&B we had tea and coconut oil.  I have really missed my coco-butter coffee, though.  Tomorrow we check into our gite and all will be well – we will be cooking most of our meals and will have a full kitchen and a blender! It’s probably best I left my ketone meter at home…

Tomorrow is a short ride, then the punishing Alpe d’Huez on Sunday.  Just typing it out makes me tired, so I am off to bed.  Bon nuit!

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I’m pretty sure today was the longest I’ve had.  Ever.  We left So.Cal. Wednesday morning at 8:45 am, flew to Minneapolis, then Amsterdam, then Lyon, France.  By the time we rented a car and drove to Seguret (in the Provence region), we had been up over 24 hours.  We had to pull over an hour in to the drive to take a nap because neither of us could stay awake!  We were both very much on edge  but we held it together because we were in France!  What better reason to be tired than traveling here?  I also got to see the Giant of Provence, Mt. Ventoux, on our drive in.  It  has been described as the toughest climb in the Tour de France and I have no doubt it will be a suffer-fest on Tuesday when we ride it.

But we made it here, still happily married, and the bed and breakfast where we are staying for 2 nights is absolutely adorable.  And, it has a ping pong table so I have alreay challenged Jonathan to a match.  In our history of ping pong, I have dominated (he will tell you diferently, don’t listen) and I intend to keep my winning streak alive.

Thanks to the proprietor, we had an amazing meal tonight in Seguret, one of the quaintest hilltop villages I have ever seen.  Cars aren’t allowed in so we had to park below and walk in.  I’ve posted some pictures below, but they definitely don’t do this village justice.  If you are ever in Provence, you have to come to Seguret.

It is past midnight here so I am off to bed and will end by saying, “bon nuit.”

I’ve been testing my blood for about 4 months now.  After learning of a breath testing analyzer available for sale through Ketonix, I took the leap and ordered one for myself all the way from Sweden.

I ordered the sport version, which is red.  You can read about the difference on the Ketonix website as they explain it far better than I could!

I have continued to test my blood, then use the Ketonix immediately after to see whether the two are consistent.  The breath analyzer does not provide a numbered result, but instead flashes different colors to tell you whether you are have little to no acetone in your breath (blue), a small amount (green), moderate amount (yellow), or high levels (red).  When my ketone levels as measured by my blood are hovering around 1.0 – 1.4 mmol, the breath analyzer flashes yellow.  Yesterday I had a 3.9 mmol result from testing my blood (my highest ever and I’m still not sure why), the breath analyzer registered red, signaling a high level of acetone in my breath.

For me, the correlation is good enough between breath and blood.  They are measuring different things (beta hydroxybutyrate vs. acetone in your breath) so the results aren’t going to be exactly the same – it’s like comparing apples to oranges.  The best part is how easy it is to use.  You simply exhale into the analyzer and wait for a color to register.

I’ll probably continue to test my blood periodically as that is one way I gauge how different foods affect my ketone levels, but the Ketonix will be my daily tester.  Aside from the high up front cost ($149 plus shipping), you will save a  lot of money in the long run as compared to purchasing ketone blood testing strips that cost close to $5/piece and are very sensitive to error (I’ve ruined about $50 worth  inadvertently over the last few months).  Plus you don’t have the unpleasant experience of having to poke your finger and squeeze out as much blood as possible to get a good test result and avoid an error and ruined stick.

If you want a really detailed review of the Ketonix breath analyzer vs. blood testing, there is a good one here.  Be sure to see the updated review at the end of the Ketonix sport model.

Jonathan and I received notice today that we have been accepted to ride in Lotoja, a 213 mile ride covering 4 states and lots of climbing – in one day!

We’re both a little nervous about doing this long of a ride (12+ hours on the bike) with nothing more to eat than some eggs and bacon, coffee with butter, beef sticks with a handful of nuts here and there.  But I’m committed to staying in a state of nutritional ketosis and for me it’s just a matter of building confidence that I can do a ride that long without running out of fuel.  We’ve done 6 hour rides several times already while in ketosis, so I should be fine.

I am, however, frustrated over my own ketone levels lately.  Unless I’m doing a “fat fast” where I only drink fluids with butter or coconut oil, my levels are staying very low, around .4.  I’m now keeping a food log to try and figure out what I’m eating that is negatively affecting my levels so much.  When I fast overnight and wait until early afternoon to take on any food, my levels rise to 1.4.  But when I eat something for breakfast, and a beef stick for lunch, I am reading low levels.

There are so many things that can affect ketone levels outside of just food – hormones, supplements, and your body’s natural tolerance of carbs.  Apparently I have a very low tolerance and may have to stay under 20 grams/day to see if that will keep me in ketosis.   I can’t prove this  yet, but “commercial” bars like the Atkins bars and Quest bars may be negatively affecting my levels.  This could mean an intolerance to sugar alcohols (a substitute for real sugar that has minimal effect on insulin levels).

I think the food log will help me figure out what the problem foods are, although I may just need to limit myself to 2 meals  per day, and drink liquids mixed with butter or coconut oil the rest of the time.  The good news is I now know when my ketone levels are low.  I really don’t like the feeling as I’m usually very sluggish.   The feeling of being in ketosis is FAR better and worth the extra effort!

I was in Florida from Tuesday through Friday for work.   Thanks to a good friend, I was able to have coffee with butter and MCT oil each day, and decided to just eat 2 meals and do some intermittent fasting during the week.

While I was able to manage my food, I couldn’t manage getting dehydrated, unfortunately.  I arrived home late Friday night after a 4:45 hour flight from Tampa to LAX.  I drank as much water as I could stand all day Friday, and drank some chicken broth Saturday morning before going out for a ride.  This worked well for me for the Breathless Agony ride and hoped it would work this time, too

We decided to do hill repeats on Saturday.  That way, if I really felt bad we could quit and go home and not be committed to 80+ miles.  I felt great on the hill repeats, but on the way home, after about 2 hours and 30 minutes on the bike, my quads started cramping and it was a miserable  45 minutes home after that.  Once off the bike, I was ok although my legs are still pretty sore today.

I am guessing it was from lack of fluids, or potassium, or magnesium…or all three.  I have read that nutritional ketosis can leave you somewhat dehydrated, but I’m not sure what I could have done differently (other than not fly across the country) to avoid the cramping.   I’ll keep researching to see what has worked for others. I’ve had more leg cramps since sticking to a ketogenic diet which leads me to believe I’m not getting something I need in the foods I’m eating.

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):

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.