Odds and Ends

In light of two recent runs where fatigue was an issue--particularly on a 7k last week--there's a BP podcast addressing fatigue.

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Mini Bulletproof Diet Update: When I stepped on the scales this morning it was fairly obvious that my body has stored every carb I've eaten this weekend.  This is actually good... since I need the glycogen as I move towards mythical ketosis.  My weight, for those of you who care, is 187.6lbs

The next step is... drumroll... carb reduction. Since I'm churning out posts again, I'm sure I'll have something to say in the next few days.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Update 2

Week one is now finished. Overall I can say this, the Bulletproof diet is working out. But here are my thoughts. I'm going to cover three areas: running, overall well-being and weight loss.

There is no doubt about it, I had two bad runs in a row starting with Wednesday's 7k run that under the best of conditions would have been tough. With a reduced carb diet (and my own eschewing of any pre-run fuel) my run was pretty poor.  The following Saturday was better, but I really seemed to hit the wall at about the 14th or 15th kilometre--we ran just over 18k in total.
To be sure, I believe that my woes are directly related to a combination of a lack of carbs in my diet as well as a deficiency in fueling-up properly. My heart rate was elevated at points where it shouldn't have been elevated, and I (perhaps wisely) elected to take walk breaks.

On my Saturday run I took a bottle of filtered water (with an electrolyte beverage enhancer and 1/4 teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt added in) as well as a GU packet and waffle.  These additional fuel sources were not enough to overcome the fatigue.  Another thing to point out is that we paused for a total of 4 minutes during our run which made our run pretty close to a half marathon.

According to Garmin, my estimated VO2 Max decreased from 51 to 49 over this period (!).  My hope, and belief, is that I should recover this loss as my body acclimated to burning fat--a process that could take a while.

On a happier note, my sense of overall well-being has been greatly enhanced since beginning the diet. It may be the case that removing bad bacteria from my gut as well as toxins from my diet has caused this change.

At my height this month I weighed 193.  At my last weigh in, yesterday, I weighed 188.  I've experienced fat loss and muscle gain.  My belief is that the majority of my weight loss so far has been water weight (as a result of cutting carbs) as well as ... sadly... at least some glycogen.

Getting beyond last week, I've begun this week on a much different note.  Today I ran 6k, including a number of 400m repeats (of which one was at 1:35). I alternated fast and slow repeats. In between repeated I alternated between a set of 20 lunges, 20 side lunges or 50 squats.  I rested, when necessary, to allow my heart rate to come down.  Interesting, my heart rate was about where it ought to have been.

Throughout my workout I felt stronger and faster.  At the end, I had done 3k of cycling, 6k of running, 201 squats, 70 lunges, 40 side lunges, 10 minutes of ab exercises (numerous types of crunches), 20 reps of back extensions... and an ice bath.  No post workout soreness or concerns.

Snow before Thanksgiving

Well, if you live in Saskatchewan, then you are probably affected by the blizzard-like snowfall that recently occurred.  Not much turnout at last night's run club, but those of us who did brave the elements had the options of test-driving Salomon Spikecross 3 shoes. 

That centre pair was mine--post run. I found the shoes to grip the wintry mix of snow and slush very nicely, while keeping my feet dry. My only problem, and I think other runners may well agree, is that the arch support could be a little better.  I went into Brainsport today and picked up a fresh pair of the Spikecross 3's along with a pair of insoles.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Update One - Bulletproof diet + type 2 diabetes

When I stepped on the scale this morning I weighed 4.4 lbs less than I did on Sunday. More importantly, my body fat percentage had come down by nearly a full percentage point, which equates to about 1.5 lbs of fat loss. I'd wager that those other 2.9 lbs are water/inflammation weight as my muscle weight has apparently increased slightly.  I don't expect results like this on a daily (or weekly, for that matter) basis, but I'm impressed that the overall claims of the Bulletproof gestalt are apparently correct in my case. I really do want to stress that as a type 2 diabetic who runs frequently, my situation is a tad bit unique in the population. On that note, I still have not needed any medication to control my blood sugar--this may change, but let's see.

*I should also point out that I am a fairly active person. Right now I'm running about 40 kilometres per week, core workouts every 1-2 days as well as a regime of squats and lunges.

In total, yesterday's calorie count was 2,009. My macros were 17% carbs, 64% fat and 19% protein. That's an absurd balance, perhaps even after considering that the vast majority of the fat I consumed was of the MCT variety.  The day before yesterday was a 38%/47%/15% breakdown.  Again, absurd until you realize that I lost weight.

What's unique about yesterday's diet was that it included a slice of pumpkin loaf (* made with organic ingredients by my spouse here at home, which is important to mention, I think), fair trade dark chocolate with cinnamon (again, no added garbage or unpronounceable ingredients).

I'd say the only thing that gave me any fits was the hummus I had at lunch. I had a total of 81 grams of carbs yesterday, which were mostly divided between the pumpkin loaf and the hummus. The pumpkin loaf didn't seem to have a negative effect, but the hummus did. Sadly, the hummus is on Bulletproof's suspect list.

Now one other strange item is that I have been drinking soda.

Zevia uses stevia (considered "Bulletproof") and eschews colourings as well as the evil high fructose corn syrup. Nice.

Until recently I had been drinking quite a bit of Diet Coke. Zevia is simply a better option. You can get Zevia at Dad's here in Saskatoon.

So that's the latest.  Let's see in future updates if Bulletproof really is the real deal, or a flash in the pan.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Day One

Just for fun... for the next two weeks I'm consuming a "bulletproof" diet to see what effect the diet will have my health and blood sugar (remember, I'm a type-2 diabetic).  This may seem a bit dangerous, in the abstract at least, but I already have a pretty idea how this is going to go.

I'm not going to post everyday with my diet, but I will report any interesting findings. Right now, my weight is 191.2, muscle mass is 38.7% and my body fat is 20.9%. Feels weird making all this public.

Day One
For breakfast I had Bulletproof Coffee along with two scrambled eggs (organic). I sprinkled some crushed red pepper onto the eggs.
Result: 535 calories. Blood sugar one hour after: 6.3 mmol.  Ordinarily I'd take a Metformin after breakfast. Probably a good thing I didn't do that after this breakfast.

Lunch. 210g of grass-fed extra-lean ground beef, 1 tsp MCT oil, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 130g of Hanes Hummus (* Hummus is considered a "suspect" food on the Bulletproof diet, but I'm easing onto the diet, so....). 15g of dark chocolate.
Result: 692 calories. Blood sugar one hour after: 7.3 mmol.

Early Dinner. Bulletproof coffee with a single square of dark chocolate.  What can I say, I had very little appetite. And at a grand total of 1700 calories for the day, I wasn't under-doing it.

Just checked my blood sugar... 6.3 mmol.  So my blood sugar was pretty consistent throughout the day. Can't argue with that.

So let me add that I'm supplementing my diet with a multivitamin I picked-up at Dad's Organic Market, an Omega-3 supplement (Life brand, from Shoppers Drug Mart) and a Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM supplement (already seeing results, so maybe I'm one of the lucky ones this supplement works on).

Official Upgraded Bulletproof Coffee Preview

So I was at Dad's Organic Market when I came upon actual Bulletproof products. I tend to be a bit skeptical of ... everything... but since I've had my own variations of Bulletproof Coffee I figured I'd take a flyer on a few of the official Bulletproof-labelled products. In those case, I think I took a $60 or $70 flyer, but who's counting?
I used half of the recommended coffee beans since it was already past 3pm when I started grinding the beans. At any rate, these beans are billed as "upgraded coffee", while the Brain Octane is essentially MCT oil. The ghee is a clarified butter.
So the recipe worked as advertised, though the real test will be tomorrow morning when I make coffee and oatmeal.

Pictured here is "Andy's Hill". I'm not sure who Andy is, how this came to be his hill or at what point the hill was named.  I just know that I want to ascend the damned thing during this evening's run.

My partner and I took our son for a stroll on the trail. One day he'll be running these trails.

This was our entry to a path down to the trail. Quite a lot of fun.  Probably a damned good thing I got a pair of trail walking shoes from Brainsport last month!

Gingerbread and Trails

Today's run club meeting was fairly interesting. We hit the trails for a good chunk of our run and I may well have trail fever now. What changed?
It must have been about halfway through our first segment when I noticed a lack of impact pressure in my hips--not sure I mentioned that I got a diagnosis of mild hip arthritis recently. I could have run all day on the trails.
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I adhere to some fairly strict rules about nutrition. One major rule is that I don't eat foods that promote or cause inflammation (e.g. processed foods etc). Another is that I try to eat foods that reduce inflammation whenever possible (ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, green tea).  I have yet to reach the point when I run without at least a little notice in my hips, but I'm pretty sure I've stopped things from getting any worse.  This is little comfort because I will eventually have to give up serious running at some point.
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As it is now, any run over 21k has to be on a trail.
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Saskatoon's notoriously short autumn is about to give way to early winter.
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Brainsport just announced the 2016 Gingerbread Run.  I surprised myself by registering for the 5K. I'm eager to run a 5K with proper training (i.e. not one day removed from a 30k run... haha).