So I am 8 days into low carbs today and have been thinking that this is the longest I have gone without pasta in a very very long time – perhaps my whole life. In fact, I’m pretty sure when I was born the doctor looked at me and said, “Is that a piece of tortellini in his mouth?” I very much miss the texture.
So there are interesting things going on. First of all I am still low energy, but am less frustrated than I was before for a couple of reasons:
- I am still running at a caloric deficit. My base intake is 2200 Calories plus the Calories I burn during exercise (about 600-800). This value will be higher when I hit the weight I want to so I should get some more energy then
- Though I am definitely producing ketones I am not yet in full ketosis. This, I think, means my body is still in transition and trying to figure out where all the fucking carbs are. When it figures out they ain’t coming then we’ll be getting somewhere
Another interesting things are poos. Now, as famous as I ma for talking about poos, let’s just say they are as expected on this new diet – infrequent and prolonged.
And moving along…
Sodium. Apparently sodium intake is crucial because the liver does some shIt that fucks up sodium levels. This might explain why I can’t get enough kimchi and sauerkraut. Well…so be it! So, in non-wanker speak, the kidneys tend to dump sodium and water when in a low carb diet. And we lose sodium when we sweat. There is also lots of sodium in our blood, so if levels drop, we get imbalanced. MOre below on this
I thought I was sleeping better, but last night proved that wrong.
Water intake. I notice if I am not drinking enough later much more now. Carbs also aid in the body’s ability to hold water (~2.4g water/g carbs, according to many people on the interweb). So I need to keep on that – going through SodaStream canisters like crazy!
I am now reading the Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance by Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek. These two doctors are referenced a lot and they have a lot of detailed info in this book. I am a few chapters in and it has been helpful so far!
Phinney and Volek recommend using bouillon cubes to replenish salt – to get an additional 2 grams per day (American average is 5 grams per day). But I’m going to have to argue that good quality kimchi, sauerkraut, and other fermented foods are a much better source of sodium – and of probiotics. And they just taste fucking great.
So I’m gonna try to get some local, homemade Kimchi tomorrow from a shop recommended by a friend…I will make up a pea shoot kimchi batch when I get some extra pea and some extra time – the previous one I did was stellar…
So anyway, I was 185.8 lbs today and I am eating late tonight so not sure if I’ll drop weight tomorrow. Much of this first weight loss is probably a lot of water.
My next race is August 29, so I can’t run a calorie deficit for too long as I need to get my energy back for that race. And hopefully be 10 lbs lighter than when I ran it last year!
Alright, that’s enough
