by Me | Sep 10, 2018 | Food & Diet
Ketosis is a natural state for the body, when it is almost completely fueled by fat. This is normal during fasting, or when on a strict low-carb diet.
Ketosis has many potential benefits – related to rapid weight loss, health or performance – but there are also side effects. In type 1 diabetes and certain other rare situations excessive ketosis can even become dangerous.
There are many benefits of ketosis. By giving your body and brain an almost unlimited supply of energy, you can increase your mental and physical endurance. It also reduces hunger, facilitating effortless weight loss. Furthermore, as getting into ketosis requires eating very few carbs, it can effectively reverse type 2 diabetes.
One way to enter the state of ketosis is to eat a ketogenic diet. Another is to do a period of fasting. Under these circumstances, as soon as the body’s limited reserves of glucose starts to run out, your entire body switches its fuel supply to run almost completely on fat. The levels of the fat-storing hormone insulin levels become very low, and fat burning increases dramatically. You thus get easy access your fat stores, and can burn them off. This is great for losing excess weight. Studies prove that keto diets result in more weight loss, faster.
Side effects
When starting a low-carb ketogenic diet and reaching ketosis it’s common to get some side effects during the first week. Possibilities include headache, lethargy, irritability, leg cramps, constipation and heart palpitations.
by Me | Sep 10, 2018 | Food & Diet
Day 5 of my Meal replacement Diet prior to surgery… and still going OK…
I find that I am not hungry at all in the mornings (which is not that unusual for me anyway) so rather than forcing myself to eat breakfast when I don’t really feel like it (and yes… I do know it is “the most important meal of the day)) I have decided to incorporate the 16:8 Diet – which involves only eating within an 8 hr period each day – and then fasting for the remaining 16. This sounds pretty nasty, but actually works in pretty well with my eating patterns anyway…. I am now only eating between Midday and 8PM – which is not too bad …
Now I know that the idea for the OptiFAST VLCD is to reach “
Ketosis“… and I am not really sure if/how 16:8 may impact on that… but I have so far lost another 2KG in the last 5 days… so can that be a bad thing ??
by Me | Sep 7, 2018 | Food & Diet
Day 2 of my Meal replacement Diet prior to surgery… and so far so good….
Except… I caught up with some old Uni mates today for “lunch” and I was all psyched to just have my OptiFAST Food Bar and water… but I forgot my food bar… I was still holding strong for a H2O only lunch but my mate decides it was his shout … So I caved in and had a
Woodfired Vegetable Salad (quinoa, cranberries, sumac, almonds, labneh), which I decided wasn’t the worst thing in the world I could have (and was actually quite tasty – considering my
Taste is only back about 60% what it should be) – Thanks Marty 🙂
Back onto water, celery and carrots, with some Soup for dinner 🙂
by Me | Sep 6, 2018 | Food & Diet, Pre-Surgery
Okay… so today I start my 2 weeks pre-surgery Meal Replacement Diet… which essentially involves replacing all meals with OptiFAST Shakes/Soups/Bars with a few fruit and veges in-between – and lots of water.
I’ve been out shopping (spent $150 on OptiFAST) and the photo above shows pretty much everything I will be eating over the next 2 weeks.
- OptiFAST Chocolate/Caramel Shakes
- OptiFAST Berry Crunch Bars (No Chocolate available at the moment)
- OptiFAST Chicken/Vegetable Soups
- Some Veges – I prefer Celery, Carrots and Tomatoes (yeah I know they are really fruit)
- Some Fruit – Berries and Apples – (Not in Photo)
- Plenty of water (I can have carbonated water Before Surgery, but NOT After)… I will have Lemon Juice in it to make it more “interesting”… and I am not really supposed to have the Flavoured Mineral water but that is my secret (not so secret anymore) treat
- Tea (I don’t drink Coffee) without sugar (but I can have skim milk) – I have got a few different varieties of herbal teas to make life a little bit more interesting too.
by Me | Sep 5, 2018 | Food & Diet, Pre-Surgery
Today is the last day that I will eat “real” food for probably 2 months…. and will most likely be a turning point for a change in my food habits for the rest of my life.
Tomorrow I start 2 weeks a pre-surgery “meal replacement” diet, then after surgery I go on liquids for 2-3 weeks – followed by 2-3 weeks of “mush”… and then once I can eat solids again… the size of meals will be significantly restricted… for the rest of my life.
Despite my weight, I don’t consider my food habits particularly bad… I only occasionally had take-away… ate plenty of fruit and veges… drank plenty of water… but clearly the quantity/serving size of my meals was an issue…. That is all about to change … dramatically.
by Me | Sep 3, 2018 | Food & Diet, Pre-Surgery
17 days to go before my surgery… so I need to start planing and getting my head around the “meal replacement” diet which I need to start 14 days prior (6th Sep).
The purpose of the pre-surgery diet is primarily to shrink down my Liver a bit (so they have more space in my stomach cavity for the keyhole surgery)… I will also (presumably) shed a few more kilos prior to the surgery.
For two weeks I get to replace ALL meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) withOptiFAST Very Low Carb (VLCD) Shakes, Soups and Food Bars… I am also allowed, for morning/afternoon tea a handful of berries or an apple, and with dinner 2 cups of veggies…. Oh Joy !!!
Apparently the first 3-4 days will be the hardest, while my body adapts to the change of diet and I may experience (short term) headaches, light-headedness and tiredness. I also need to keep a close eye on my blood sugar, monitoring regularly and will probably need to cut down Diabetes medications by about half.
I seem to be slowly getting back my taste (which I lost about 8weeks ago)… but am not sure if this is a good ot a bad thing… I am not anticipating a “taste extravaganza” from OptiFAST.
