Going 'Keto' and why it's the best thing since erm sliced bread

If you know anything about the Ketogenic 'Keto' lifestyle you'll know I was trying to be funny with that Post Title.. we don't eat sliced bread on Keto, it's full of nasty carbs and things 🤨

Anyway, my attempt at humour is rubbish, so best I stick to riding bikes than telling jokes!



For the last couple of years I have hated myself every time I look in the mirror, I see a short, fat, flabby middle aged woman, unhappy at her shape, unhappy at her level of fitness. 😢

I've been plagued with injuries during that time, both shoulders giving me problems from falling off the mountain bike and falling off walls (at an obstacle race), broken ribs from the latter, lower back problems... all amounting to having long periods of being pretty sedentary, eating the wrong foods, comfort eating, drinking wine and beer at weekends and all because I hated being injured, hated not being able to ride my bike and hated being overweight (I was tipping the scales at 11st 5 at my heaviest) and yep, its a vicious cycle which is hard to break but something had to give and this photo taken in July where I was at my heaviest, the day I got my Intense Primer, made me realise to my horror and embarrassment that I needed to do something about my weight, my diet and my fitness!

I had heard about the Keto diet on social media and started reading up about it, I just happened to be sitting at the dining table one Sunday with my laptop open looking at a website called Diet Doctor and my husband asked "are you thinking of going Keto?" to which I replied "erm, maybe, why?" 

Well it turns out my hubby knew more about Keto than me, he had first heard about it on the HKT Podcast after listening to an interview with World Champion BMX rider Josh Perry who is a huge advocate of the Ketogenic lifestyle.  His story is quite simply amazing and inspiring and even if you don't agree with the idea of Keto, I urge you to visit his website and find out a bit more about his story.

I read some more, lots more actually and we discussed what it could potentially do for both of us with regards to weight loss, and potential improved energy levels on the bikes etc and we decided to take the plunge together and the rest as they say is history!

So what is involved in the process of going Keto?

Before I started Keto I had never looked at my carb intake before, I was always counting calories and believing the way to loose weight was to always be in a calorie deficit. I couldn't understand why I wasn't losing weight when I was regularly burning 3000+ calories a day by doing cardio (indoor bike training, riding my mtb to and from work etc) and only eating 1800 calories a day.  I was always tired and I put that down to exercising.

Since going Keto I've cut most processed foods from my diet, stopped eating bread, potatoes, rice, couscous, pasta, porridge etc all of which used to be consumed on a daily basis even when I thought I was eating healthily.  Eating a huge bowl of porridge for breakfast with blueberries and honey, taking a couscous salad to work for lunch, eating a pasta bake for dinner with vegetables, not realising I was consuming approx 200g carbs a day, no wonder my energy levels were suffering and I was feeling bloated all the time and not losing weight 😕

Keto has made me really scrutinise my diet and I actually eat more healthily now as I can't take shortcuts eating ready meals etc. I have to plan a weeks menu in advance, I cook everything from scratch now, I batch cook and freeze food and whatever we have for dinner in the evening, we have for lunch the next day so we are eating 2-3 balanced meals a day with lots of green veg.

The best thing about Keto is there are alternatives for pretty much everything we have cut out, Celeriac is great for chips, mash and roasties, there's Fathead Pizza made with almond flour and cheese, we eat loads of steak, bacon, pork, cheese, homemade curries etc, there's even Keto bread rolls, naan bread, garlic bread, I've even made Keto bagels.. the possibilities are endless and all low carb!

I have been on the Keto lifestyle for 5 months now, I've shed a total of 23lbs, taking me from 11st 5 to 9st 10, from a dress size 14+ to size 10, losing 4 inches off my bust and 8" off my waist!  Not to mention I no longer feel and look bloated, my mind feels clearer, I no longer feel tired all the time, my joints have stopped aching and the best bit I have so much energy riding my bike, I'm not craving sugary, high carb foods for fuel when I ride and most of my rides will consist of 4+ hours, 30+ miles of cross country mountain biking on nothing more than a Bullet Proof Coffee... amazing!

In the space of 20 weeks I have gone from this ⬇

           

  

To this ⬇

 

I've still got a way to go but I've stopped looking at the scales now and go by how my clothes feel, I'm in desperate need of a new wardrobe but as I am weight training now and building muscle I'm holding off buying too many new clothes.

Losing so much weight and feeling so much more energised has transformed my biking, it's given me confidence and I just feel so much better for reducing my carb intake, cutting out sugars and processed foods and I can't wait to see how much of an impact this has on my racing next year! 😊

What ya' been up to?

Quite a lot actually, training, on the bike, a little bit of running and swimming... not too much, little and often mainly and once a week a long ride on the bike, and I'm definitely feeling the benefits!

Hubby and I joined our local fitness centre a few weeks ago which has a 25m indoor pool, gym and various fitness suites and classes, everything you could possibly want.

I've been swimming 3 times a week and getting up at silly o'clock to do it!  In a weird way I've actually enjoyed swimming first thing in the morning and my husband has been joining me.  It really sets you up for the day and once I get over the initial shock of having to get up at 6am, eat some breakfast (my trusty overnight oats) and trudge off down the road, I'm usually buzzing by the time I'm dried off and done.

Many many moons ago, way back in the days when we didn't have t'internet or blogs, I was a very good swimmer, representing my county and holding all sorts of records.  And although I haven't been a regular swimmer since I moved to Nottingham 6 years ago, it's a bit like riding a bike for me, I've got good form and get back into it really quickly.

So for my triathlon next month I have to swim 200 metres indoors; 8 lengths of our pool, although on the day the pool for the triathlon is 33m so it will be 6 lengths.

First time I went swimming I managed 400m (16 lengths), that was a surprise! :o)

But, I can only swim breast stroke at the moment cos I've got a painful left shoulder, which has taken some abuse over the years from crashing motorbikes on trackday's and a nasty road crash in 2002 and then recently a couple of off's on the mountain bike, the last in March when the front end washed out on a left hand berm and boy did I go down hard, so hard I bruised my jaw! 

I've tried front crawl and back stroke and it really hurt for a couple of days thereafter so I'm being sensible and every session I've done has been breast stroke, slow and steady, not my favourite style but it's exercise at the end of the day and I can do 200m -8 mins, not brilliant but I don't want to wreck my shoulder so I can't ride my bike!

My last swimming session was nearly 2 weeks ago but the shoulder was being problematic so I decided to rest it and get myself booked in with physio.  Luckily for me, a member of my bike club is a newly qualified physio and she was offering a members discount at her clinic so I went to see her this week and she's diagnosed neurological and muscular problems and joint scarring (I already have thickening of the AC joint from the m/b crash in 2002) so the shoulder is weak so I've got exercises to do twice a day and I'm going back to see her next week.

She says I can continues swimming but only breast stroke, oh joy!

The good news is the shoulder isn't affecting my riding, so I've been out on the mountain bike 3 times a week, lots of sessions at my local TC hitting the blue and red routes and really enjoying it and I've bought myself a lovely little cyclocross/touring bike to play on and to use for the triathlon.

I'm not gonna lie, riding a road bike is the weirdest thing ever!  Firstly there's the riding position, not just one but a choice of 3 different positions! The saddle feels like an ironing board and as for those skinny tyres... I was quite literally terrified the first time I rode this as I was convinced I wouldn't stay upright! 

This photo was from the advert so I have removed the reflectors (lol) and I've fitted some spd's so it looks the biz now!

With 2 weeks until Torq in your sleep, I'm feeling the pressure to up my game a little bit and get out on some longer rides, so I'm done with work for the rest of this month (joys of being self employed!) and I'm gonna focus on cardio and stamina for the next week and a half and resting for a couple of days before the bank holiday weekend so I feel nice and relaxed for the weekend.

Get it right or set yourself up for a BIG fail woman!

So I've entered the 6 hour race at Torq in your sleep, and now the reality is that I have to train for this, properly train cos if I don't do this right I'm going to set myself up for a BIG fail!

Thing is I'm crap, in fact if they gave out prizes for being crap, I'd sweep the board, big time! All hail the Queen of being crap!

OK, I probably shouldn't be so hard on myself, afterall it's not like I've entered the Elite class is it! No, I'm just a middle aged, menopausal, slightly mad woman who is doing this for no one else but me, so if I don't do this properly who am I letting down, me right? 

Well no, actually all the people who love and support me will be let down, my Husband Leigh for a start who despite his piss taking a lot of the time (He suggested the name Team Tena Lady) I think he's quite proud I've booked in and appear to be taking this quite seriously!

I've created this illusion on Instagram of being a healthy eater, great cook, sharing pictures of all these amazing healthy, colourful meals and yes I do make this food pretty much every day but I'm going about it all wrong!

It's all well and good preparing meals with healthy ingredients but if you don't know when to eat, what to eat and why you should eat certain food pre and post workout, it's all rather pointless and I might as well go back to ready meals and burgers and chips!

I do have breakfast, I didn't eat breakfast for many years and only started doing so when I started my health kick back in March 2016.  But to be honest I eat my breakfast at the wrong time of day! Instead of having it in the morning when I get up, before I exert myself walking/running the dogs, I have it when I get home AFTER walking/running 3 miles... eeeeeeer plonker!

So that's thing number 1 to change from now!

I quite often have no lunch, in fact I quite often eat nothing between my breakfast and evening meal, then wonder why I'm so hungry when I get to the evening.

I kind of know why I do this, CALORIES, I obsess about calories and in fact I don't need to anymore... I did a year ago when I was entering every morsel that came within 10 yards of my gob into MyFitnessPal, when I was a chunky monkey desperate to loose that huge muffin hanging over the top of my trousers!

But that's gone now, and I am slimmer, and with the amount of exercise I do, there's not much chance of Mrs Chubby Nuts returning so why am I still obsessing about how many calories I eat in a day?

If I am to train for Torq in your sleep properly, I need to be eating properly, not worrying about calories instead making sure I eat appropriately for the amount of exercise I am doing each day and that includes walking/running the dogs.

I've had a bit of a wake up call this last couple of days, after a week of exercise/training I am tired as hell and I'm wondering why?  Hence the blog, I'm the only one reading this but if I give myself a good bollocking on here, where I can come back and read it at anytime, then maybe it will sink in?

I sat in bed this morning feeling absolutely knackered! I had told my husband last night I would get up with him at 6.30am and take the dogs for a gentle 3 mile jog round the park/lake.. well I felt so crap this morning it didn't happen.  Well actually it did happen but not til 9am and it was more like 1.5 miles as one of the dogs decided he didn't want to join in!

Anyway, I'm sat in bed at 6.30am with a mug of coffee my husband had brought me, and I decided to Google 'Why am I so tired after exercising?'

I expected Google to say 'Your old and unfit my dear, get off your arse and sort yourself out!' well actually it didn't say that but the jist of various websites did say this...

Stolen from the interweb (from here actually)

Eat or Feel Beat

When blood sugar levels drop too low, exhaustion may occur. Pre-workout meals prevent this by stabilizing blood sugar levels. Eat a high-carbohydrate, moderate-protein and low-fat snack between one and three hours before working out. This can be a banana, oatmeal, juice or low-fat yogurt. After-workout meals eaten within 20 minutes also help. A snack with a 3-to-1 ratio of carbohydrates and protein will restore glycogen and replenish tired muscles, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Good post-workout snacks include trail mix, yogurt with granola and chocolate milk.

Not Drinking Enough

Dehydration can lead to muscle fatigue, heat exhaustion and diminished energy levels, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. To monitor hydration levels, weigh yourself before and after each workout. Also monitor the color of your urine, which should be light. Drink eight to 12 ounces of fluid 15 minutes before working out. Drink at least 3 ounces of water every 15 minutes during your workout -- make that a sports drink if you exercise longer than an hour. Within two hours after working out, drink enough water to replenish each pound lost. The rule of thumb is 20 to 24 ounces for each pound, according to the American College of Sports Medicine

Outpacing the Body

Post-workout tiredness may simply be a case of “too much, too soon.” The body needs rest not only to repair itself but also to grow stronger. Not allowing for sufficient rest may lead to fatigue and future injury. In addition to fatigue, over-training causes moodiness, confusion and impaired immune reactions, according to the American Council on Exercise. Incorporate at least one rest day after vigorous exercise.

So taking all that on board I am back on the Lean in 15 meals, I love the Joe Wickes recipes, they're yummy and easy to cook!  And I've read up about hydration and after seeing a post on Facebook from Steve Day (single speed 24 hour World Champion who I happen to be friends with on FB) I've bought some amazing hydration products from Precision Hydration, which I hope will help me as well.

Hopefully if I can get this right, I won't feel so groggy after exercise, I can push myself harder and training will be easier, well as easy as it can be for a middle aged, menopausal, mad mountain biker!