The Battle of the belly!
My journey through new popular diets and nutritional practices. Put into motion!
So, the story begins at the start of December. I went to my gym and thought I’d try one of those jazzy weighing machines which you stand barefoot on and hold out prongs to your side like a weird alien checkup. Minus the probe, thankfully! The results were pretty good. I’m still unclear if this machine is 100%. accurate but I was always told, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you!”… Anyways it told me that I was 73.7 kg! 18.7% body fat. Not bad I thought. My goal weight is around 70kg or just over 11 stone. Ideal for my age and height, 172cm and 33. I don’t think I’ve been that weight for 10 years!!
Christmas approached, and so did the indulging and the boozing. After a heavy Christmas week, my girlfriend and I went away to Hong Kong and Taiwan. We had grand plans of going on long island hikes and being active… This was fairly true and started off well. Lots of walking around and scenic strolls. However, catching up with old friends and taking her to my favourite eating places meant that we were constantly sipping on beers and having cheeky bites. Who can resist dim sum for breakfast, right?! The Sichuan salt and pepper squid and spicy grouper on Lamma Island is impossible to resist!! We then flew to Taiwan and stayed in Taipei! This has been on my hit list for street food for years now! To cut a long story short, the food was incredible - everything we tried was good! We basically walked around eating, burning off the calories and then putting them right back on again! What a holiday!
Fast track to 6th Jan our return and the dreaded weigh in! 79.2 kg, 20.2% body fat!! SHIT!!!!! Time to get my ass back into the gym. So, the usual New Year’s rituals started: stop smoking, boozing and eating crap. I knew smoking was going to be the hardest one, but I also knew for previous attempts that this went hand-in-hand with drinking. To be fair, we eat mostly cooked-from-scratch foods so that was the easy part. Living in Asia does make cutting down on dairy pretty easy. It’s not that easily available here and is pretty bloody expensive.
Anyway, I planned our meals and went to the fresh fruit/veg market to buy all of our foods. Focusing on whole grains and whole foods, everything was made from scratch and around 90% fruit, veg and seeds and 10% meat. I was not too concerned about eating carbs as we were eating natural carbs. I felt great and was having smoothies and 3 meals per day. I felt clean and my head was really clear and focused. I think after not smoking I regained my appetite so ate a bit more than usual.
The first week I lost 3kg. So, I was pretty happy. I did however injure my wrist on a deadlift so sprained the tendon. This meant I had to focus more on my cardio.
The second week was going well. We won a free weekend trip away which included a swanky prosecco breakfast, so obviously the dry Jan effort was put on hold! I did manage 12 days, which I was pretty happy about! I also managed to cut my foot on the beach so was unable to train when we got back. It was pretty frustrating being out of action. I did the 3rd week weigh in and was not too happy about putting the 3kg back on. Right back to square one.
Currently, I am writing the recipe section for the website. My friend at Functional Coaching Sam Stables has just taken on the Keto Diet regime for the month of Jan with good results. I was keen to give it a go for the remaining 10 days of the month to see how easy it was to follow, in comparison to eating healthy and logging the process - in terms of accessibility, functionality, training and results. There has been a lot of mention on this diet. Some good, some bad. Some say it’s a rehash of the Atkins. I still don’t think that filling your body with high saturated meats and cheeses is a good thing so I’m going to try a different approach and try and do it with low dairy, low red meat but more fish, white meat, cricket protein and plant-based foods. I will also keep the best recipes I find and add them to the Keto section of the website.
Day 1
So the basic principles of keto is getting your body to a state of ketosis why makes the liver produce ketones which allows your body to burn stored fat as its energy stores. You need to cut sugars and carbohydrates to enable your body to do this. You can speed up the process of ketosis by intimating fasting and eating your foods at certain points in the day.
So day one I had 3 boiled eggs and a few cups of black coffee. For lunch, I decided on making a pea and ham soup, I added Kale, peas, and courgettes with some smoked bacon. I also added a heap of cricket flour to it. Some of the veg I set aside and used to make a frittata with just veg, and eggs. This is handy for a high protein snack which you can keep in the fridge. So, I had a bowl of soup and a few slices of the frittata. A few more ice teas, (just cold green tea). Then went to the gym. Started on the lite weights due to the gammy wrist and then finished on a run. It felt like I was wearing led!! My mind was clear but my body was crashing hard! This normally happens when your body is transitioning and it is using up it sugars and carbs. I got home and had some stir-fry courgette, mushrooms and lemon grass as a snack with crispy shallots, then has another bowl of soup, this time I added some mixed nuts and chia seeds. Later I had a few more nuts.
Day 2
Sore!! Got up early and had some scrambled egg, chopped tomato and mixed seeds and a black coffee. Went to the gym and did an incline fast walk with interval sprints for the last 2 k of a total 5k distance. Feeling pretty good think the energy levels are sorting themselves out.
Lunch: sneaked a bit of chicken that the GF had hiding in the fridge. Then had last night leftover courgette mushroom thing with a bit of soup as sauce. I then had some sardines with tomato sauce mixed with chia, flax and pumpkin seeds and cricket flour. Pretty bloody tasty. Not sure how well it will go down later if I get the trumps… calves are sore as F now but off to do some more weights. Went shopping and made a catfish yellow curry loaded with greens. Also did a side dish of greens with soy and crispy shallots.
Had a gift of some spicy biltong so have been snacking on that.
Day 3
Did my morning walk/run 5k. Then made a chicken, mushroom and mix greens turmeric omelet. Had a few ice teas. For lunch, I made up a Thai green curry with chia and cricket as the sauce base and only added a small tin of coconut cream. Added a few chicken breasts.
Really tasty and easy to add move veg and stretch it out.
Just had the yellow curry from the day before. Craving bread pretty badly, that and ice pops for some reason!?
Day 4
Daily 5 k went down ok. Increased my time so pretty happy with that. Went to go for a swim but they had bloody closed it for TET holiday! Went home and had some mushrooms and seeds.
Went out for lunch and had a we Greek salad. Energy levels are good now. Feel pretty clean but it’s frustrating how much thinking of meals are involved. You get sick of eating the same thing so often.
Went to the gym and did an hour on the punch bag and some weights. Feeling a bit stronger. Feels good to be lifting again after an injury.
For dinner, I had the Thai green soup curry and some nuts.
Day 5
Only managed 3 k this morning did it fast so all good. Popped out and had a cup of tea. Skipped breakfast and had lunch at 12. Was a bit of a mish-mash of Thai chicken soup, aubergine pork and black bean, frittata and prawns with courgette spaghetti. Went back to the gym and did an hour on the bag and an hour on the weights. Feeling pretty hungry now though. Dinner consisted of a simple jerk chicken and tomato salad.
Day 6
Straight to the gym for my usual 3-5k. Then had cold frittata for breakfast.
For lunch, I had some lamb mince with okra and some nuts. Popped to the gym and did 15 mins on the bag, then focused on triceps only did an hour as feeling a bit swore from yesterday
Generally feeling good. No energy dips like in the first few days.
Dinner consisted of courgette pasta with poached king prawns with a drizzle of nước chấm dressing.
Day 7
Made a cheeky omelet for breakfast then went to see the new year’s flowers in the park. TET is a big new year’s festival and they go ape shit for it. The festivities last a week and you can’t avoid the bad karaoke on the streets and new year’s songs resonating everywhere.
I had some left-over okra and mince lamb for lunch then went to the gym for an hour.
We then met friends for dinner. They were on the beers so I opted for a whisky and soda. We went to an Arabic restaurant so I went for a mixed grill, with salad and sneaked a pita and some hummus.
Day 8
Got up stupid early 3.30 and headed to the airport. Got to the lounge and all they had which was low carb was boiled eggs of which I had 4, some lunch ham, and fatty salami. Probably helped my hangover from the 6 whisky sodas I had a few hours previous.
We arrived in Phu Quoc island. We checked in then beached. For lunch, we had a papaya salad with squid and prawns, then had a stuffed squid with pork mince.
Did have a cheeky cocktail on the beach at sunset but then no more drinks at dinner, just some grilled corn, water spinach with garlic, 2 bbq prawns, 1 squid and a fish to share. We did finish the night with a fresh coconut ice cream which was pretty epic and worth it.
Day 9
Had free breakfast so had an omelet and 2 fried eggs. The hotel was full of Germans and Russians so the spread was mostly catered to their tastes, meat, cabbage, pasta, some sort of warm root soup, French fries etc. didn’t fancy chicken wings that early so opted for some small meat balls in tomato sauce. Wasn’t sure what the miscellaneous other meat was so played it safe.
Lunch consisted of a nice prawn and pomelo a (kind of grapefruit) salad. That was banging. Sara has tofu and mushroom noodle dish. I had a few bites of the chewy shroom’s and the tofu.
Had a poke bowl to share in the arvo as a snack. She had most of the rice.
Was excited for more bbq seafood but found out they were closed for new year’s!! Gutted. This didn’t leave us with much options as down our road half the stuff was closed. The ones that were open were not exactly the places you’d expect to find keto friendly dishes, more pizza and burgers, spaghetti etc.
Finally found a place, ordered some crispy pork belly bits, papaya salad and some wings. 45 mins later the salad arrived. 1 hour later wings turned up. Dry…. 1 h 5 mins after I left and cancelled the order. Hangry Hados was out. So, went to the next place and ordered a Caesar salad and a pizza for the Mrs.
45 mins later… we were the only ones there eating ten 15 mins after we arrived a group of 3 turned up. To my horror there’s came before ours. Then after 50 mins the salad turned up. I say salad as calling by its true name would not do the name justice. Caesar salad is known worldwide for its creamy sauce, egg, parmesan and anchovy normally in cos or iceberg lettuce. Maybe a few bits of bacon, and crotons and chicken or salmon. Wheat I received was some bits of chicken, onion, tomato, boiled egg and balsamic.!!! From a Vietnamese, I would maybe let them off but for a fat French man expat it was not on. He said sorry about the wait “a mix up” eh we were the only people to order… any-ways 15 mins later pizza turned up. Dough RAW…… 2 hours into our eating debacle still hungry and not looking like improving within the year of the dog! At this point it turned into a bit of a joke. Had I offended my fellow sprit chefs? Looks like it! Maybe the re-cooked pizza will come out before midnight. 2 hours to go. Fingers crossed. Anyway, it came out but was rank. Didn’t pay for it so decided to go drink prosecco on the beach and try to salvage our night.
Day 10
Hungry!!! Went for another scabby Russian breakfast. Today was worse I don’t even know what the fried meat balls where they looked like balls of expandable foam which you see bursting out of walls on a building site. Fried eggs thanks!
On the way to the airport. Not much apart from burger king there. Felt like hangry Haydos would continue to reign over this day but the tables turned when I found a street vendor selling BBQ chicken. Praise the Lord!
So, the final weigh in approached. 76.5kg. so, a loss of 3.4kg. Pretty good I guess I know I didn’t stick fully to the plan but I doubt people really do. Truth is this diet is pretty hard to fit alongside life. I think that if you can cut down the amount of carbs and maybe do carb loading (lots of information online) every few days then you can beat the cravings and it allows your body not to go in the survival mode. You can do this for 3 days and then have carbs or can do it for 5 days and have a cheat day. It is not recommended to do this for long periods. Keto is rather a pain and unless you have real willpower it may not be for you. You can see good results if you stick to your diet, and training schedule.
For a long term eating plan I would advise eating more fruit and veg but low sugar fruit where possible. Eat more whole grains and seeds, drink more water, and eat more complex carbs after heavy weights and cardio sessions. If you’re really craving something then just have a small amount but then do some additional exercise to counter act it. Food and exercise is supposed to be fun and make you feel good. Just try and eat healthy and keep a good balance. Find something that works for you and your lifestyle and adapt it when you see how your body responds. Try doing (HIIT) High intensity interval training. This will cut down your cardio times per week, burn more fat and keep your body burning energy to replace oxygen cell dept. For up to 48 hours after exercising!! Try different stuff to keep your body guessing and avoid plateauing.