If you are actually in a state of ketosis, then the poison is in the dosage. You could have beans and stay in ketosis, but you probably can’t have a lot of them.
But if “break keto” is used more in the sense of “break kosher” here, I don’t know of any places that consider beans keto, for the reasons you mention. For the amount of protein they have, the bring a lot of carbs alongside.
@ChongLordUno I’m so excited for you being in this state where you can see the day to day changes in physique. It’s too much fun, and also addicting. It’s why I say getting lean is easy. Once you’re in the place you’re in, you can see the changes happening daily, and you get almost instant gratification for dietary changes.
Though not in this run, I DID want to brag that I’ve finally become a man according to Mark Rippetoe: stepped on the scale this morning after my post-workout shower and saw “201.0”. First time I’ve weighed myself since June, where I saw 185.0, so that’s pretty awesome. Go Super Squats.
I realize I just celebrated my scale victory, but this is also a demonstration on why the scale is really just such a terrible tool. So many things impact bodyweight. But you also demonstrate why I dig low carb living: carbs become a “cheat code” when you need them. If you’re always eating them, your body is used to them, but when you go without for a while and bring them in, it’s like rocket fuel. If you were a strength athlete, just imagine the advantage you’d gain by being able to add that much pure weight to your body in such a short order. Or a combat athlete for that matter.
I hear of a similar approach regarding caffeine intake. Used sparingly, can be considered cheating for sone. I don’t get the buzz/mental alertness caffeine brings because I’m so my body is so adapted to it, but at some point I do want to find that discipline to dial it to zero for a couple of weeks and see if the effects are all they’re cracked up to be …
Given that I’m one coffee away from measuring my daily intake via grams, I’m definitely not one to speak there, haha. But I know of athletes that intentionally shy away from caffeine leading up to a comp so they can blast it and fly come day-of.
The complete opposite path, but I used to have to get caffeine out of my system ahead of army schools where they wouldn’t let you have it… I wanted to manage the headaches and crankiness before the school rather than during!
First week of officially not being a dick and sticking to a regimented food plan.
Hit protein goal first, then fats and then what ever was left over. Carbs for the days were net carbs around 60 or 70.
Just loaded up with costco chicken skewers which are da bomb by the way, and a costco precooked beef, then just veggies and salads.
I woudl be interested to check my weight when I can, because my jeans last week were a struggle to get on, now they are not, so maybe just this one week has been a good week.
Still struggling greatly with any kind of energy and my old injuries. Spending a lot of time over the next 6 months trying to get specific resolutions to the issues rather than just not knowing.
Swimming going well. Stepped up last night, managed 30 laps in 19 minutes of a 25 meter indoor pool. That’s my basline now, to get 30 laps in less time, then add 10 laps at a time.
OH man Sleep. Yes my sleep is atrocious. I just got ‘dream’ which the CBD hot chocolate for sleep at night. I have not had good sleep for years, it comes and goes. I have been taking melatonin nightly and sometimes I feel like it works and a lot of times not. It takes me anywhere for 30 minutes to 2 hours to fall asleep 80% of the time.
I would some additional work arounds for legs. I can do leg extensions and I can do leg curls. I was also looking at seated good mornings, jefferson curls and RDL’s, because I don’t bend my knee through a full range of motion, it stops just prior to any pain. But what else can I add to do that?
What’s up with your knee? Is there a specific injury? Pain or instability at a specific angle (sounds like maybe bottom-range flexion)? Do we want to improve it or just find ways to keep building some muscle? Do you have access to a sled?
I do have access to a sled and will be doing backwards walking.
The knee is a mystery. 30% eccentric loaded my knee collapses. I just had a nerve induction test and they have ruled out peroneal and other nerve function issues. I have extremely sore calf muscles, I can squat full range, but getting through that 30% range area i need to shift my weight to pass through, so I don’t do it.
I also had an MRI that said I had high grade cartilage damage, which essentially means bone on bone. It is frustrating because the knee issue I have has been around since 2019 when I had another MRI that said mild cartilage damage, and no one still knows what’s going on. with the 2-3 year span of the same ‘knee issue’ frustrates me because in that time I have lost almost all my cartilage, which could have been reduced if the diagnosis was around.
Anyway, I am working on stability exercises now to help strength around that range. I really wnat to strengthen my legs up as they are pivotal in surfing which is my goal to return to.
Don’t get me started on my sleep quality lol. Mine’s beyond saving.
I’m just going to spam the usual checks:
-Hows your sleep schedule? Going to bed and waking up at the same time daily (within 30-60 mins of the same time)?
-Any lights on in your room? Make it as dark as you can.
-Limit blue light exposure in the evening. Blue light filters on your phone and monitors; any screens possible.
-Get sunlight into your face ASAP when you wake up. For some (like myself), this is not possible with work schedule, so attempt to get sunlight in when you can throughout the day.
-Stay off your phone for the last hour of the day minimum. Doubling down on that for Social Media; it has a tendency to increase anxiety, which is very much tied with insomnia.
-Cool down your bedroom (It’s winter so not now obviously).
-White noise can help some folks, but it’s mostly a matter of believing it works. Weighted blankets help a lot of people too. If your house is quiet, there may be no benefit with white noise - but it dulls the sounds of sirens and car alarms if in the city.
-Avoid late night meals and training. Train in the morning if possible to reduce the adrenaline released by training.
-Depending your methods of training, how you train can play a large role in this. If you aren’t using a failure based training system, or doing CrossFit WODs regularly, you probably don’t need to worry about changing your training.
It’s worth mentioning to get a sleep study done if you still get poor quality sleep after actually sleeping for 8 hours regularly. They should be testing for Sleep Apnea.
It’s also worth mentioning that reading before bed helps a ton of people fall asleep, particularly if paired with a sunset lamp (it simulates the sun setting, can be programmed to last as long as you need).
frowning: k, so I’ll go through my routine based on your info here.
Sleep schedule is solid. in beed by 10-1030, at 1030 I will read maybe 10-15 minutes max, in bed at 10 read a little longer. After this weeks terrible sleep I am going to adjust this, to be in bed for 1030 and read for 30 minutes. I feel like I am not tired enough, (that might change with the addition of this new CBD sleep drink I am trying)
No lights, great blackout curtains, which I only just got, but living with an ex wife who watched tv for at least an hour while I was sleeping didn’t help, used to wear a sleep mask
I need to invest in more blue blocking stuff, I try to stay off my phone/comp by 930, but lately not sucessful but will be more strict. Social I am really trying to actually phase to a bare min, it has been getting me down a lot lately, sometimes the scrolling was ok but I came across a video yesterday that broke my heart, so I am limiting that for a while.
I was going to look into a proper cooling mattress, this is one thing I have not tried yet, but have read and heard good things. Currently i do 10-20 min red light therapy before bed.
I have a sunrise lamp, but the night time feature isn’t quite bright enough for reading, let me play with settings, could be that. Sunrise lamps is very new, like a week old, and I haven’t been able to use it much because I have been out of town for work, and it needs to connect to internt and wouldn’t connect to hotel wifi.
Training isn’t really an issue like, not pushing myself that hard and I try to train currently no later than 7pm finish,
I have done a sleep study, they couldn’t find anything super conclusive but did say I had very mild sleep apnea which is kind of strange.
I am getting back into reading before bed, which does help me for sure.
Take aways
Trying new CBD drink
More blue light blockers,
less screentime late
possible cold blanket.
Limiting screen time and using natural color lights (not fluorescent or anything) should cover you pretty well regarding blue light. There’s also blue light filters in most electronics’ settings.
I would change the reading thing from [30 minutes] to [until you feel tired].
I’m very biased against social media, so i take issue with this specifically. Unless you have monetary reasons, the ’ bare minimum’ social media is 0 minutes, and I’d recommend this. I deleted all social media except this and YouTube… and even YT is becoming problematic. It’s all addictive, it royally fucks up dopamine responses, and makes virtually every mental health marker go downhill. Much of that lands as stress and anxiety on the brain, making it hard to turn off at night.
^not criticizing, just trying to keep us honest. Most people are on social media, and thats fine… unless it’s got a negative effect, which it almost always does.
Anyways, I hope this helps out. Using a sleep log can help you ‘dial in’ your sleep hygiene too, but it sounds that you’ve got most of this under wraps already.
Starting weight: 200lb
Today’s weigh-in (2 days from 4 weeks): 184.2lb.
-16lb in 26 days.
No strength loss. Deadlift increased, all other pulls got a little easier but I didn’t push for progression. A couple of reps lost here and there on the presses due to passive stability from a lack of glycogen which was always expected… but I’ve actually progressed a little bit on machine exercises with those same muscles so I’m confident I’ve held onto everything.
I have a cheese and biscuits night I’m invited to tonight and starting to feel a little bit beat up. I do feel like I could possibly go a week or two more as an absolute limit (as standard) but feel I am now at a bodyfat percentage where I’d need to go slower and that going any deeper the risk of muscle loss will heighten as my performance may be about to decrease. I might take the weekend off, eat what I feel I want to, and return to the bulk on Monday.
I would personally start my workout with Peterson step-ups (progressing to a higher box) and terminal knee extensions.
The main progressive movement would be a single leg squat from a high box. Try to progress that down to lower boxes, always staying above the pain point. Focus on finishing at the top with a glute and quad contraction and controlling the eccentric (don’t crash to the box). A good clue is whether your shin angle is changing - you don’t want it to.
Then I’d wrap the workout out with a bunch of forward and backward sled drags to build some muscle. Longer sets (60-100m) would be my choice.
@FlatsFarmer is a genius here, so he may have different and better advice.
A table full of dozens of different types of cheeses from all over the country with a ton of different chutneys, crackers, and biscuits to carry them to your mouth with. Alcohol is usually involved too but I’m gonna do my best to avoid it.
frowning: k, so I’ll go through my routine based on your info here.