ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery

Into WildFit Challenge week 7 we go (and week 8 really as they are pretty much the same). Honestly being in Spring gets easier and easier and week 7 is significantly better than week 6 (which is by FAR the hardest week of all) and then 8 is better than 7 and so on.

So yeah, things were going well – during week 7 I was down to about 119kg which is around 6kg down from the start of WildFit when I was 125kg.

Week 7

Spring is actually not too difficult, especially for us as we both enjoy cooking, we have the equipment, the tools and the skills to cook tasty food within the constraints of Spring.

The only really danger in Spring is boredom, I don’t really feel hungry, my energy is stabilised and I find eating much more salt helps (ketosis is diuretic and fat stores a lot of water and mineral content) so 3-5 grams a day is good (high quality pink Himalayan salt or unprocessed sea salt).

We had some amazing meals nevertheless.

Paleo Ikan Bakar (yes you can find chili boh and sambal with no sugar).

Served with cauliflower and broccoli rice of course (our go-to for Asian food).

Yah I was in a spicy, Asian food mood haha – one of my favourites – Petai Prawns!

We also found a great and completely compliant place to eat out – Chimichurri Jaya One. They have 2 really nice dressings without sugar and you can assemble your meal to be completely spring/paleo compliant.

More Asian food haha, this is something we have every week now seen as though we shop at NSK every Sunday night we grab a lovely fresh Siakap and steam it or oven bake it with ginger, garlic, chilis and some coconut aminos or Bragg’s aminos.

Week 8

We had another go at eating out at a place called Goodness Greens Cafe in TTDI, not even gonna talk about that as I had a bad experience and won’t be going back. Basically, a place that’s pretending to be healthy-ish – but really isn’t and has NO Dressings on the menu without some form of sugar (apart from plain olive oil, which I ended up having to have).

Bah Kuh Teh with konyaku noodles. If you have noodle cravings, these will be your saviour. In the US they sold as Miracle noodles or something like that, basically carb free, zero calorie noodles. 97% water and some undigestible fibre.

There’s no real secret to this phase, or staying in Spring other than to keep yourself fed well, make the effort to shop – learn to cook better and be creative.

Google whatever you want to eat + Paleo and then adapt it to fit in Spring.

Honestly don’t have a whole lot of meal pictures after this point as it stopped being a novelty and just started being how we eat every day, we don’t feel hungry, we have amazing energy, we sleep great and even when we don’t sleep that long we don’t feel tired all day.

Cravings are 99% gone (the odd devil conversation does pop-up now and then).

Pretty amazing really.

Buying some Ketostix – Ketone Measurement Sticks

This is also the stage when you want to know if you are entering Ketosis. So I bought some Ketostix aka Ketone sticks to test how I was doing, apparently, I was doing great (or not depending on how much you read..).

I bought the Sensatest Ketone Urine Reagent Strips 100 Strips from Lazada.

So yah, definitely in Ketosis, in optional nutritional ketosis? Probably not – but on the way for sure! It’s good to have a sign that we were doing the right thing. Now you have to understand Ketone urine reagent strips and that they measure what equates to excess ketones and also don’t measure the type of ketones you produce when you are fully keto or fat adapted.

So they are a very blunt tool. If you want an accurate measurement you need to do a blood test with something like the Precision Xtra NFR Blood Glucose Monitoring System – but that’s a step too far for me.

You can read this to understand more:

• Tuit Nutrition: Being Fat Adapted Versus “In Ketosis” (Pt.1/3)
• Tuit Nutrition: Being Fat Adapted Versus “In Ketosis” (Pt.2/3)
• Tuit Nutrition: Being Fat Adapted Versus “In Ketosis” (Pt.3/3)

Week 7 & 8 Summary

This is the time to buckle down, get into a rhythm and commit to doing this for as long as you need to. We surprisingly didn’t struggle too much, of course, cravings hit us hard sometimes – and we succumbed to some compliant as possible treats from time to time (almond coconut cookies and similar).

We ate a lot, made sure we had plenty of variety and still ate out at least once a week (our weekly Nando’s outing – a whole chicken with 4 portions of grilled vegetables, no carrots).

With the odd other meal at Paleolicious, ChimiChurri or sometimes we had to make do with whatever was available that was most supportive of our health (Subway salad is an option).

This is also a great time to start working out with a little more intention, which is why I started back up my Couch to 5k training.

And if you want to go a little deeper, here are some great books to read on the subject:

– The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living
– Keto Clarity: Your Definitive Guide to the Benefits of a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet
– The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance
– Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine
– Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health
– Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar–Your Brain’s Silent Killers
– New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great.
– The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss
– Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
– The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted

Read all of the above and you’ll be in an educated position to take complete control of your health. It’s a powerful position to be in.

If you are struggling to switch into ketosis, remember the following tips:

– Up your salt intake (my preference is Himalayan pink salt as it’s very mineral rich and pretty cheap and easily available here)
– Eat plenty of healthy fats (Coconut oil, fatty fish, avocados)
– Even more water than usual
– At minimum some moderate exercise (brisk walking for 20-30 minutes every day is enough, especially when you feel low energy)

To summarise:

– Drink more water (at least 6-8 large glasses a day)
– Drink the Alkagizer Prime every day (no fruits)
– Add an EXTRA portion of vegetables at every meal
– Continue removing refined sugars
– Continue removing all grains (rice, wheat etc) and white potato
– Continue removing dairy (and all byproducts)
– Continue to remove Food additives, Nicotine, Alcohol and Caffeine
– Continue to Remove fruits, sweet vegetables, beans and honey

Yup, so no change – keep on in WildFit Spring!

All my WildFit posts are here:

WildFit Challenge – Week 1 – Inner Dialogue
WildFit Challenge – Week 2 – Alkagizer Mild
WildFit Challenge – Week 3 – NO SUGAR!
WildFit Challenge – Week 4 – NO CARBS Or Dairy
WildFit Challenge – Week 5 – No Alcohol or Caffeine
WildFit Challenge – Week 6 – Entering Ketosis AKA Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 9 & 10 – Yah Still Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 11 & 12 – A Small Break