This is the third week of my 6 Week Keto Diet Experiment, and I’d say that this week was a turning point for me. Felt really good this week. It almost felt like something just clicked into place. If you haven’t read week 2, read it here.  Here goes…

Stats

• Weight: 82.5kg! (84.7kg week1)
• Blood Pressure: Not going to measure this anymore. I will leave it until the end of the experiment. Measuring every week I think is overkill.

Weight loss kicking in big time, a 2kg loss in just 2 weeks. My clothes are beginning to get baggy on me already even if it doesn’t look that way in the pics!

Something I’m also getting the hang of also is throwing quick meals together using whatever we’ve got left in the fridge.

Photo’s

This week’s photos are a bit confusing really. My weight is smaller yet I can’t see a huge difference between week 3 and last week 2’s photo’s – other than the fact I’ve got a tan and shaved my head/beard (it was f’in hot this week!!).

I am wearing different shorts. Also wearing them a bit higher than last weeks so that does change the photo a bit. Clutching at straws here? 😀

What I might do is switch to lo-salt for most of my seasonings. Perhaps my sodium levels are a bit too high (which would increase water retention).

Cooking

At the moment I’m constantly in the kitchen constantly cooking. It is a bit of a pain but on the plus side my cooking skills are getting better plus I get to see precisely what’s going into my food! What is difficult is trying to manage my keto diet with my wife and kids dairy & soy intolerances. We like a challenge 😀

I know I keep saying it but I don’t care, the food on Keto is epic. Everything just tastes fecking awesome! This week’s highlight was Courgette Lasagne (grilled zucchini lasagne for our US friends with some aubergine added too since we ran out of courgette).

Something I’m also getting the hang of also is throwing quick meals together using whatever we’ve got left in the fridge. We had some leftover meatballs one night. I added bacon lardons, cheddar, avocado and courgette noodles. One word WOW

For breakfast on Tuesday, I ate precooked boiled eggs (3) & 2 rashers of bacon and my usual coffee and 2 tTbspMCT Oil. This is another keeper – really filling, kept me going until lunch

Eating Out – Tafwyl Cardiff

I’ve not properly eaten out yet so not had to stress about what to have at a restaurant. However, I faced what I think is a bigger challenge on the weekend and that is eating out at a festival! Every year we have a welsh festival called ‘Tafwyl’. It’s brilliant, it’s basically a big open air festival to embrace the Welsh Language and raise awareness. Every year the sun is shining, the real ale is flowing and the food is a plenty. Our little boy was singing with his nursery on stage at the festival so we were looking forward to going to watch him.

Every year we have a welsh festival called ‘Tafwyl’. It’s brilliant, it’s basically a big open air festival to embrace the Welsh Language and raise awareness. Every year the sun is shining, the real ale is flowing and the food is a plenty. Our little boy was singing with his nursery on stage at the festival so we were looking forward to going to watch him.

These guys did the most delicious salads ever

I had a good think about what I could do about food. I remembered from last year they had a stall called Meat And Greek which sold amazing Greek Kebabs with Tzatziki etc. Minus the pitta these would be perfect for me. So that was my plan along with a packet of pork scratchings shoved in my bag!

So that was my plan along with a packet of pork scratchings shoved in my bag!

However, for the whole day, the queue for Meat and Greek was massive. It literally stretched from one side of the field to the other. There was no way my wife and the boys were going to let me stand in that queue for 30 mins, they were salivating too. The other option was The Grazing Shed Burger Stall – which was also very tempting, they do amazing burgers (which I could have minus the bun with extra cheese!!). But again mahoosive queue.

Then I spotted ‘Cafe Bodlon’, which had a really small queue in comparison to the other two. Naturally, you would think that the place with the small queue is the least popular and therefore might not be as nice as the other stalls? As soon as I saw the menu I was salivating. The food there was amazing and the people serving were so nice. I got to the front and noticed they were selling some really tasty looking salads with broccoli, quinoa, edamame peas, couscous mixed in and some homemade dressings. They were also selling Cajun pork baps!

As soon as I saw the menu I was salivating. The food there was amazing and the people serving were so nice. I got to the front and noticed they were selling some really tasty looking salads with broccoli, quinoa, edamame peas, couscous mixed in and some homemade dressings. They were also selling Cajun pork baps!

A Stunning Cheddar from Caws Cenarth

I asked the guy if there was any sugar in the Cajun sauce. He wasn’t sure so I couldn’t risk it. I explained my predicament (re weird high fat diet..) and he offered me some brisket minus marinade. He also added a mix of the two salads with some homemade pesto. It was just perfect for what was a hot summers day. Health and very tasty. I did have to spend some time picking out the couscous, to make sure I didn’t ‘over carb’. But soon made up for it, by scoffing loads of broc, asparagus and everything else was on the plate. I also bought some delicious chilli & tomato cheddar from Caws Cenarth, that also got plastered all over my salad 😀

Training – Full Body Strength Workout A

Well, my sessions were on fire in the gym this week. It could be a psychological thing or it could be the ketones doing their thing. Don’t know what it was, but energy was certainly not lacking this week. I made some really good progress on most of my workouts.

Since I was feeling good I decided to up my game and wore a 5kg weighted vest during my Full Body Strength Workout A. As a result,I had some funny looks in the gym, people probably thinking ‘look at that nutter, what on earth is he doing’ ha. I get that quite a lot in the gym as I’m usually the odd one out doing stuff on the monkey bars, or doing weighted pullups or practising callisthenics.

So far the results have been fantastic and the good has far outweighed the not so good..

Basically, I’m not doing what everyone else is doing, plodding along on a boring treadmill or making loud grunting noises while pushing a barbell up and down. I used to do the same back in the day, but I picked up too many injuries and find that nowadays I get a much better workout by using mostly my own body or functional equipment.

Strength Workout A Training Log

So anyway, with the 5kg vest on I still managed to up the weight on everything and complete most of the vests. So my strength is improving despite my weight dropping, bonus!

Another point to note is that I was nowhere near as fatigued on the finisher workout as I was last week. So it seems like my body is most certainly becoming more keto adapted as time passes.

Training – Full Body Strength Workout B

Same story with Full Body Strength Workout B. I love this workout particularly because I love pullups and dips. Pullups and Dips, both basic exercises but are generally a really good measure of strength. They are also both compound exercises which means you are going to get lots of upper body muscle fibres firing during each exercise. This is always good for building muscle and strength.

I usually use a dipping belt around my waist with a kettlebell attached underneath. Only in the last few months have I started adding weight, it has taken some time to get to this point again!

Anyway, for dips I managed to up the weight from 10kg to 12.5kg this week with 3 8 rep sets, not forgetting the extra 5k in the vest. During pullups, I also used the 12.5kg weight vs 10kg last week in addition to the 5kg vest. So that’s 15kg in total. It’s safe to say the Ketogenic Diet has not hampered my strength, in fact quite the opposite!

So that’s 15kg in total. It’s safe to say the Ketogenic Diet has not hampered my strength, in fact quite the opposite!

Strength Workout B Training Log

Again it was the same story for the sandbag/farmers walk and the finisher workout (Kb Swings, Decline Pressups and Jump Squats. I added reps and switched the jump squats for box jumps all with the vest on. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely blowing out of my a$$ at the end of the session but that’s where I want to be. I want to feel like I’ve had a quality session in my 30 minute lunch hour window.

I’m starting to consider perhaps cycling carbs around my workouts once this experiment has finished but continuing Keto on a long term basis.

Training – Running Sessions

I Had some good sessions during the week. Did a 10k run on Thursday which felt good, I just had consistent energy all the way around. On Friday at OBSTAFIT Run Club we extended the route slightly. Toby Dovey was running with us. I’ve known Toby a few years now, he was a regular OCR Runner and Podium finisher. The man is rapid and is doing very well out in Dubai where he now resides. So he pretty much led the run. It was a steady pace most of the way round, but then the pace picked up considerably during the last 3rd.

Now usually this wouldn’t bother me but I struggled as soon as the pace increased. My legs were feeling heavy from the day before, but also my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. I’m pretty sure this is down to lack of glucose and isn’t a big surprise. Changing pace quickly from steady to fast tempo is always going to prompt the body to start looking for glucose, particularly if that person is used to normally eating carbs before a run! I accepted this may happen though when starting Keto – it can take months for the body to fully adapt to its new fuel source, especially when it needs it quickly like when running quickly!

It was a steady pace most of the way round, but then the pace picked up considerably during the last 3rd. Now usually this wouldn’t bother me but I struggled as soon as the pace increased. My legs were feeling heavy from the day before, but also my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. I’m pretty sure this is down to lack of glucose and isn’t a big surprise. Changing pace quickly from steady to fast tempo is always going to prompt the body to start looking for glucose, particularly if that person is used to normally eating carbs before a run! I accepted this may happen though when starting Keto – it can take months for the body to fully adapt to its new fuel source, especially when it needs it quickly like when running quickly!

Changing pace quickly from steady to fast tempo is always going to prompt the body to start looking for glucose, particularly if that person is used to normally eating carbs before a run! I accepted this may happen though when starting Keto – it can take months for the body to fully adapt to its new fuel source, especially when it needs it quickly like when running quickly!

Saying that mind I still managed to hold the pace. Thinking ahead I have no idea how I’m going to manage a sub 1:30 Cardiff Half Marathon at this rate. I’m starting to consider perhaps cycling carbs around my workouts once this experiment has finished but continuing Keto on a long term basis? So far the results have been fantastic and the good has far outweighed the not so

So far the results have been fantastic and the good has far outweighed the not so good.

Weekend Food Prep

Well, it was a pretty mental weekend really, we made a last minute decision to go view a house and put an offer in, which then, in turn, got accepted all in the same weekend. So much of that weekend was spent studying the house etc and researching renting our own house! As a

As a result, I didn’t get much prep done which is going to make next week a lot more difficult. I did luckily manage to cook up another Chicken Popper Jalapeno Casserole so I won’t be complaining since that is one of my faves at the moment!

I appreciate your comments and questions and will always do my best to answer them. Thanks for reading, Week 4 coming up 😀