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  • Keto(ish!) Korean air fried chicken!🤤😋

    Ken

    ·

    I had to share this recipe; it was incredibly tasty and ready in about 15 minutes using the air fryer. I spotted the Schwartz ‘Air-Fry Spicy Korean BBQ Seasoning’ in my local Tesco, and since Korean fried chicken is something I’ve really missed, I had to give it a go.

    It’s worth noting that the packet doesn’t look particularly diabetic-friendly as it contains a high proportion of carbs. However, when you calculate how much you actually use per serving, the impact is negligible. I coated the chicken liberally and used only about a tenth of the pack—around 12g—per serving. Even at 40% carbohydrate, that’s only about 5g of carbs for the whole meal.

    The Method:

    1. Prepare the chicken: Cut chicken breast fillets into bite-sized chunks. Ensure you only prep as much as will comfortably fit in your air fryer tray in a single layer.
    2. Coat: In a large bowl, toss the chicken in sesame or olive oil, then cover liberally with the seasoning.
    3. Air Fry: Place the chicken in the tray and air fry for 12 minutes at 200°C, shaking the tray halfway through.
    4. The Glaze: While that’s cooking, prepare a paste of tomato purée, soy sauce, and 2–3 drops of a sucralose-based sweetener (I use MyProtein Chocolate FlavDrops). Mix thoroughly.
    5. The ‘Crunch’ (Optional but recommended): Use a pestle and mortar to crush some pork crackling into a fine dust.
    6. Finish: Toss the cooked chicken in the glaze, sprinkle with the pork crackling dust, and mix well. Return it to the air fryer for a final 2 minutes.

    Voila! A keto-friendly, super tasty Korean ‘fried’ chicken dish. It’s fantastic as a snack or served as a main with veggies sautéed in sesame oil and soy sauce.

    Just a ccouple of notes – I do highly recommend these MyProtein drops – they come in around 20 flavours from fruity to chocolatey and beyond. I use them to replace sugar/sweetener in anything and everything. I use them in my coffee as a replacement for syrups, and in my greek yogurt based smoothies and desserts, but as you can see they are often ideal for “lifting” a recipe that needs sugar.

    Also a reminder – with the soy sauce, watch out for salt content; there are plenty of low salt versions out there.

    The killer ingredient, for me, is the pork crackling. Ready-made pork crackling is a must for my keto diet, and I buy in bulk – just watch out again for the salt content and flavourings. Get the unflavoured versions wherever possible, as the flavoured ones often have all kinds of nasties in there. I usually transfer them to a large ziplock bag and sprinkle with chilli powder, paprika or similar then shake to spread the flavour around.

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  • An amazing week for weight loss!

    Ken

    ·

    Weighed in again this morning after my third 36hr fast of the week, and another 1.25km swim last night.

    I’m now down to 17 stone 1.1 lbs (239.1lbs / 108.7kg), which is another 0.6lbs (0.27kg) lost just in the last two days since my cheeky mid-week weigh-in. I’m so close now to being back in the 16 stone range, I can smell it! 😝

    That brings my total weekly weight loss to 5.1lbs (2.3kg). Since my “reboot” in December, I’ve now lost a total of 18.8lbs, but looking back at the big picture, that’s 26lbs gone since my diagnosis!!!

    That’s a fantastic result and means I’ve now lost 9.94% of my starting body weight since diagnosis (which is the important measure from a diabetic standpoint!). I’m sooooo close to that 10% figure now.

    Progress Update • Feb 12, 2026

    17st 1.1lbs
    239.1 lbs | 108.7 kg
    Total Loss: 18.8 lbs (8.5 kg)

    Exercise status: 1.25km swim (1 x 500, 4 x 250m) completed 21hrs into fast. Feeling stronger again!

    Fasting Status: 3rd 36hr fast completed this week!

    Target: 12st 12lbs (180lbs) | Remaining: 59.1 lbs

    My average weekly weight loss since the reboot is now back up to 2.4lbs (1.1kg), just shy of my target of 2.56lbs per week, which is also great news. That’s despite having almost a full two weeks off of my fasting and exercise regimen. At least I managed to keep on eating properly during that time, which prevented me from sabotaging my efforts.

    After 8 weeks, I think these new eating habits have become very much ingrained. And while I do foresee a day where I might occasionally treat myself with some of the foods I used to enjoy, I can see myself sticking to this as my main way of eating for life. Being honest with myself, I have to, knowing my susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes. I will always have an insulin sensitivity, and it’s something I’ll have to stay on top of permanently.

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  • Another 1.7lbs lost in just 2 days!

    Ken

    ·

    Another 36-hour fast done, another swim—and I felt much stronger in the pool last night, managing 1.25km pretty comfortably.

    I weighed in this morning and in just those two days, I’ve lost 1.7 lbs. Again, some of this will be water weight due to fasting and exercising, but a significant amount will be body fat.

    This brings me back down into the 230s – under 240 lbs – and gets me back to a weight loss of 18.2 lbs (8.3 kg) in total since I started in December. That is nearly 26 lbs since diagnosis (9.72% of my starting body weight!).

    I now have less than 60 lbs (27 kg) to go, so I’m effectively one-third of the way to my target in just two months. If I keep going at this rate, I’ll hit my goal in another four months, which will be June 2026!

    Progress Update • Feb 12, 2026

    17st 1.7lbs
    239.7 lbs | 108.9 kg
    Total Loss: 18.2 lbs (8.3 kg)

    Exercise status: 1.25km swim (5 x 250m) completed 21hrs into fast. Feeling stronger again!

    Fasting Status: 2nd 36hr fast completed!

    Target: 12st 12lbs (180lbs) | Remaining: 59.7 lbs
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  • Back on track with another 2.8lbs week!

    Ken

    ·

    It’s been a while since I’ve posted, which usually means I haven’t made much progress. That is both true and not.

    During the flu bug and blood pressure issues I reported, I was unable to exercise or fast. I did try to get back to fasting, but a natural side effect of a fast is that your BP drops, which was just too risky until I was sure my pressure had stabilized.

    I did the smart thing and took a complete rest for well over a week. Over the last week, I gradually started back with swimming, as it is the lower-impact exercise option. While I’ve dropped my swimming back to 1km (4*250m) after the layoff I’m feeling much stronger now. Having re-established a routine there, I finally reintroduced running this past Sunday (8th Feb), again taking it a bit easy but still managing 2 mins run / 1 min walk (7 sets), and I felt ready to get back on track with fasting.

    I completed my first 36-hour fast in two weeks this morning. I must admit yesterday’s fast was a little bit taxing, and I seriously contemplated not going for my Monday swim as I was feeling lethargic – but I persevered, pushed through, and am glad I did.

    During my illness, of course it’s no surprise that I put back on a few pounds. One of the issues with low blood pressure is low blood volume, which can result from dehydration and the flushing of electrolytes. As I discussed, one of my medications, Indapamide, is a diuretic. Its sole purpose is to keep blood volume lower, thereby lowering blood pressure. As I was over-medicated, it was a major contributing factor to my fainting episodes. Once I dropped that medication, I saw a corresponding increase in weight. I know this was just water weight because I didn’t change my diet at all. No more Indapamide now, I’m free of that forever, which means my hydration levels will no longer be an issue.

    My weight peaked at 17st 6.2lbs (244.2 lbs) on 4th February, so on paper, I’d put back on 4.5 lbs during my illness – but most of that happened after my medication change which means it was water weight.

    Now, with just a couple of days of my regular running and fasting regime, I’m at 17st 3.4lbs (241.4 lbs), so I have lost 2.8 lbs in less than a week. I didn’t change what I ate in that time and there was only one fast, which at best could only account for less than a pound of body fat loss. The rest is simply my water levels readjusting.

    Here’s my updated weight ticker.

    Progress Update • Feb 10, 2026

    17st 3.4lbs
    241.4 lbs | 109.7 kg
    Total Loss: 16.5 lbs (7.5 kg)

    Exercise status: 1km swim (4 x 250m) completed 21hrs into fast. Feeling stronger again!

    Fasting Status: 36hr fast complete!

    Target: 12st 12lbs (180lbs) | Remaining: 61.4 lbs

    It will take another week to get back to my pre-illness weight, but losing a couple of weeks to an unexpected illness is no big deal.

    I’m really pleased with myself for not using that illness as an excuse to fall back into old eating habits that could have seriously sabotaged my efforts. It’s probably a first for me to not ‘eat my emotions’ or eat badly while feeling sorry for myself.

    And let’s not forget—I still have cause to celebrate! Part of the reason for that illness was, paradoxically, my weight loss success. I’ve now halved my blood pressure medication precisely because I’ve lost weight so quickly.

    My blood pressure has been fine since. I checked again today and my seated BP was a healthy 113/78 (74 bpm). My standing BP was 106/74 (102 bpm). That’s a tiny drop compared to the 30-point crash I was seeing before, and my heart rate and BP recovered within a minute.

    Everything is looking good. I’ll just need to keep an eye on my BP as I increase my fasting and exercise, especially once I lose another 10 lbs or so. It’s quite likely that I’ll reach a point where I’m ‘over-medicated’ again as my body adapts. I’m now very confident that by the time I reach March for my next diabetic check-up, my HbA1c will be back to at least the ‘pre-diabetic’ level, if not ‘normal,’ and I’ll be able to look at dropping the last of my blood pressure medication.

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  • Self-medicating – managing the downturns

    Ken

    ·

    In my last post, I was riding high on hitting the 10% clinical weight loss milestone and finishing my first 36-hour fast since the flu. I thought I was back on track. But as it turns out, the ‘Machine’ had one more lesson for me this weekend.

    While my flu was gone, the fainting spells weren’t. I was regularly checking my blood pressure, and on Saturday morning, I hit another snag. A quick check of my blood pressure revealed the startling truth: my standing BP had cratered to 82/56. My heart was racing at 105 bpm just to keep me upright. For those not familiar with BP readings, a normal, healthy BP is typically around 120/80!!! The reason I was on medication for hypertension (high blood pressure) is that, 3 years ago, my BP had skyrocketed to 206/112! Now I’d gone the other way entirely. Low blood pressure is like a hydraulic pump with a leak – and my blood pressure was barely enough to keep me upright.

    It became clear that even after halving my Losartan, my body was still over-medicated for my new, lighter weight. It was now the weekend so I couldn’t talk to my GP so it was clear I’d have to either tough out the weekend mostly horizontal to prevent any risks of fainting, or take drastic action myself.

    Since I’ve been ill for a week, I’ve been absolutely chomping at the bit to get back to my exercise regimen, and obviously, this was simply not an option with such instability in my blood pressure. Running would almost certainly lead to me fainting. Swimming…well, let’s not even contemplate that!

    I took a long look at my medication. One of the meds I’m on, 2.5mg of Indapamide, is a diuretic whose main role is to reduce overall blood volume by encouraging more frequent urination. But given my increase in exercise and lower weight, the reality is that this was flushing out electrolytes along with water, notably potassium and magnesium, which are essential to maintain pressure.

    I had to make an ‘executive decision’: I paused the Indapamide entirely.

    The results over the last 48 hours have been nothing short of a revelation. By Sunday evening, my standing BP had climbed back to a rock-solid 118/77. The ‘haze’ had lifted, my seated readings were perfect at 117/75, and my resting pulse was a calm, efficient 63 bpm. It was still dropping during my standing BP test – but only to 91/70. That said, my heart rate was rushing up to 103 bpm in order to support the extra effort of pumping my blood around my system as I stood up.

    But this morning – Monday – things were completely fine! My seated blood pressure was 115/79 with a heart rate of 61bpm, but standing saw no drop in my BP At all – if anything a slight rise, no doubt caused by the reflex of a system that has become used to having to work harder to pump blood around a taxed machine – my standing BP was – 118/77 with only a jump to 77bpm!! So it was clear that standing up was no longer stressing my system!

    It’s a strange irony of this journey: sometimes you struggle because you’re failing, but sometimes you struggle because you’re winning. My body has changed so fundamentally in the last two months that the very drugs keeping me alive through 2025 were becoming a dangerous liability in January 2026!

    Obviously, I do NOT recommend making changes to prescribed medications without discussing with your GP – but in this instance, I knew exactly what the problem was and what my medication did, and had researched potential side effects of not taking my Indapamide. Since it was only a diuretic, the worst case was some water retention and my blood pressure going back up, but obviously the latter was the intended effect, and I’ve been checking my BP twice a day so I wasn’t too concerned about the risks.

    I’m now looking forward to getting back to the pool tonight for my first swim in over a week. I’ve been fasting again today but I am very conscious that fasting also can lower blood pressure, so I’ll be monitoring through today and if there’s any sign of low blood pressure, or a drastic change when standing up, then I’ll break my fast a couple of hours before swimming.

    I’ve subsequently messaged my GP this morning with an update on what I did and why, and a request to make this change official – I now have a follow-up appointment booked tomorrow evening to discuss.

    But as far as I’m concerned, it’s a huge win, and a really profound step toward my goal of being once again medication-free.

    I’m not just ‘dieting’; I’m recalibrating a complex machine. And tonight, that machine is finally ready to get back to exercise with my first swim in over a week!

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  • A week off due to illness, but now firmly back on track

    Ken

    ·

    After my flu bug and mysterious fainting spells were resolved, I’ve been gradually recovering. That meant not only letting my flu bug run it’s course but nore importantly, giving my blood pressure a chance to adapt to the lower dose of my main BP medication. As I previously reported, the ‘mysterious’ fainting was actually a sign of success – my body had simply outgrown the old dosage.

    As a result, I decided against fasting, as I wanted to track my BP, and fasting is one of the things that can affect your readings. And of course I didn’t risk any exercise given the risk of fainting!

    So it was a frustrating week, only made marginally more bearable by the fact that I was at least able to take some time off work as well. I’m not one who easily gets bored sitting around – I watched lots of movies, and some TV – including the new Marvel Wonder Man TV show, which was excellent! And got some of the lower effort chores around the house done as well.

    I did have a weigh-in earlier in the week in which I’d put on 1.5lbs, although I haven’t really counted it due to the illness. No great surprise that a few days without fasting or exercise would see an increase in weight, but given that I’ve pretty much stuck to my eating plan, the damage was negligible.

    Anyway, yesterday I did my first 36hr fast since falling ill, and today I weighed in again. The results demonstrate that I’m back on track with a bang! Not only did I lose the 1.5lbs I put on, but I lost an additional 1 lb to take my total weight loss now to 19.3lbs.

    Progress Update • Jan 30, 2026

    17st 0.6lbs
    238.6 lbs | 108.2 kg
    Total Loss: 19.3 lbs (8.7 kg)

    Milestone: 10% Clinical Weight Loss (from diagnosis) achieved!

    Fasting update: 1 36hr fast completed this week

    Exercise update: None this week due to illness

    Target: 12st 12lbs (180lbs) | Remaining: 58.6 lbs

    Barring any further unexpected illness or other disasters, I’ll break through the 17-stone barrier this week and should have exceeded 20lbs lost since December, which is a huge milestone.

    While I’m tracking my weight loss from my reboot in December, one figure that I track all the way back to my starting weight at my original diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is the % of my body weight that I have lost. This is a key milestone by which Diabetic medical professionals track progress. And as of this week, I have now lost 10.13% of my starting body weight, which was an embarrassing 18 St 13.5 lbs (265.5 lbs / 120.7kg).

    However you look at it, it’s a great achievement – and one that, as I’ve mentioned, has already made a real difference to my health. I’ve been able to reduce my main hypertension medication by 50%, the first step in many towards me getting back to being “medication-free”. I simply refuse to be tied down to medication whose sole purpose is to counteract my own bad lifestyle choices!

    This weekend I’ll get back to some exercise, maybe starting with a run, and then a swim.

    I am going to take it a little easier on fasting this week, targeting just 2 * 36hr fasts rather than the 3 * 36hr fasts I did before I got ill. Perhaps that was just a little too much too soon. But I will also be checking my blood pressure and how I feel, and may revise that if I’m feeling up to fasting longer.

    Despite that week’s layoff and the 1.5lbs I put on briefly as a result, my average weight loss is still at 2.8lbs per week. That’s well over my 2.56lbs per week target. But that said, I’d like to try and get a couple of weeks in where I top 3lbs per week just to give me a bit more of a buffer. Every week that I exceed 2.56lbs lost adds to my safety net. I’ve already had 5 weeks where I blew way past 2.56lbs and reached 3 or even 4lbs lost in a week so no reason I can’t repeat that success.

    More updates soon!

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  • The 10% Milestone: Why being “too healthy” is not for the faint-hearted! 😏

    Ken

    ·

    So – I finally got to see my GP this evening. I’ll admit, I was feeling a bit down in the dumps after those recent fainting spells, but it turns out the news is actually all good!

    I’ve mentioned before that a major clinical target for diabetics is to lose 10% of their body weight. I thought I was sitting around the 7% mark – not to be sneezed at, but still not quite there yet. However, I was only counting the weight loss from December. If I use my original diagnosis date as the ‘baseline,’ I’ve actually lost over 25lbs. That means I have officially hit 9.64% of my starting weight!

    Losing 10% is the magic threshold where the ‘Machine’ starts to rewire itself—and that includes blood pressure.

    Think of it as a calibration issue: the ‘triple-whammy’ of medication that was prescribed for 265lb (121kg) me is simply too powerful for the fitter, healthier, 240lb one.

    My meds have become ‘too good’ at their job, lowering my pressure to the point where I’m prone to light-headedness and blackouts – especially when my system is stressed, as by these recent coughing fits!

    The doctor caught the ‘glitch’ pretty readily. My seated blood pressure was a normal 129/80, but when he took a standing measurement, it plummeted to 106/76. This is Orthostatic Hypotension – a fancy way of saying my body can’t move blood ‘uphill’ fast enough. Essentially, my medication has made my arteries ‘too relaxed.’ They’re just chillin’ – completely uninterested in doing the extra work required to keep me conscious when I stand up!

    The fix should be simple: my GP immediately halved the dosage of my primary blood pressure medication. I should see the ‘system update’ take effect over the next few days.

    My cold and flu symptoms are finally retreating, so a day or two more of taking it easy – while the new prescription settles in – should be all I need. I’ve gone from feeling frustrated by an ‘enforced break’ to feeling absolutely over the moon. This isn’t a setback after all, it’s the first real, undeniable proof that my hard work is literally changing my biology!

    This has turned my frown of frustration upside down into a smile of elation! 😁

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  • Stop! Fast! Lessons in electrolytes and limits

    Ken

    ·

    Well—that escalated quickly!

    I thought I was just fighting a scratchy throat, but this evening took a serious turn. After a series of coughing fits, I actually fainted on the sofa during a particularly strong cough!

    For some context, my type 2 diabetes was originally “announced” two years ago by serious hypertension. At its worst, my BP hovered around 206/112, which is considered “crisis” level! It took some months and three different medications to bring my blood pressure down to normal. But as a side effect, my meds cause low blood pressure – just standing up too quickly can leave me lightheaded.

    But I didn’t feel like I really came close to fainting until last year.

    I’d developed what I thought was a really bad flu, but it was accompanied by some other symptoms that didn’t fit. The most serious symptom was the fainting spells. I had a couple of coughing fits that were so bad I couldn’t breathe and passed out. The technical term for this kind of episode is a “cough-syncope”.

    The first time it happened was the worst, though. I had been lying in bed with my partner, reading and dozing off, when I started coughing. It was so bad I panicked and sat up on the edge of the bed – which was, in hindsight, the most stupid move. The coughing persisted, but next thing I knew I was on the floor, looking up at my partner who was on the phone to the emergency services! 🫣😱😬

    I had hit my head on the chest of drawers next to the bed on the way down, but fortunately hadn’t done any real damage. But I was lucky.

    I stupidly insisted they didn’t send an ambulance out, which would have at least gotten me to a diagnosis sooner. I only discovered later it was, in fact, shingles! Which is easily treatable with anti-viral medication!

    After that first fainting spell, I got very good at sitting/lying down somewhere safe at the slightest suggestion of a cough. I assumed the symptoms would quickly pass, but they persisted, and the other symptoms got worse until, eventually, I made my way to the hospital, where a doctor diagnosed me in minutes and had me on the right antivirals straight away!

    So why is this cough-syncope back now?

    It’s pretty clear that a month of radical lifestyle changes are to blame. Losing 18lbs very rapidly, getting into quite extreme fasts without building up gently, pushing myself in the pool, and switching from running on my treadmill to outdoors – it’s no surprise my body has hit a hard limit and is telling me so in no uncertain terms!

    So between my meds, the electrolyte depletion from the fasting and exercise, and this new bug, the ‘machine’ didn’t just need fuel; it needed an emergency shutdown.

    This is a stark reminder that while the weight loss is great, the transition can be a massive shock to the system – especially if the means of getting there involve a lot of changes.

    Recovery isn’t just a goal now – it’s a requirement.

    I had known that I was feeling worn down before this happened, so I had fortunately pivoted dinner to a heavy-duty “comfort chili – beef, kidney beans, and a base of blended sweet potato and squash served over riced broccoli, alongside homemade guacamole. It’s high-protein, high-potassium/magnesium, and exactly the kind of “internal maintenance” I need. I’ll be looking very closely at the nutritional profile of my meals over the next few days to help restore the balance.

    As I’m “home alone” right now, without a partner to call for help in the case of an emergency, I’m monitoring my vitals closely with my home blood pressure cuff – I have a spreadsheet that tracks my BP over time, and I’m very familiar with healthy vs unhealthy readings. I’ll be keeping an eye on any lightheadedness or coughing and taking a “duck and cover” approach – or rather sit down / lie down!

    I of course, also have my partner set to check-in on me remotely over the next few days.

    If a further syncope happens again despite my precautions, I won’t be as stubborn as I was last year – I’ll be calling for a professional check-up. It’s vitally important to take these things seriously and not try to just “plough through”.

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  • 36 hour fasted and a 1.25km swim: refuelling the machine

    Ken

    ·

    Woke up this morning to find the scratchy throat I’d been ignoring has not just miraculously disappeared overnight, so as much as I’m fueling for muscle recovery, I’m now fueling to fight off a potential cold. I suspect Tuesday’s run in the damp cold air caught up with me, so today’s meals are pulling double duty.

    I was low on a few breakfast ingredients so I took a walk to Sainsbury’s to grab some avocados and extra veg for the refeed. They were out of frozen mushrooms, so I pivoted to frozen Mediterranean vegetables instead.

    I sautéed the veg with spinach and an avocado in oil, then poured my usual 3-egg omelette mix over the top to create something more like a frittata. Topped with some grated vintage cheddar for flavor and served alongside three Heck chicken sausages, it was a lot of food, but I felt like my body absolutely needed it after last night’s exhausting swim and the accumulated fatigue as well as low electrolytes from the rest of the week’s exercise and fasting.

    While it might look like a massive plate of food, and a lot of fat and calories, there is a bit of a method to my frittata madness.

    My breakfast frittata already gave me a head start on extra vitamin C for that scratchy throat, with red peppers, cherry tomatoes and spinach. Later, I’m planning a berry smoothie with strawberries for an extra hit of antioxidants, and dinner will be heavy on the broccoli and spinach. If I’m going to keep my “machine” in tip top condition, I need to make sure the maintenance includes the immune system, too!

    Here’s the estimated nutritional load:

    Recovery Fuel: Nutritional Breakdown
    Ingredient Cals Protein Fat Carbs
    3 Large Eggs 210 18g 15g 1g
    3.3 Heck Chicken Sausages 130 18g 6g 2g
    1 Medium Avocado 240 3g 22g 12g
    Vintage Cheddar (30g) 120 7g 10g 0.5g
    Med Veg & Spinach Mix 60 3g 1g 8g
    Cooking Oil (1 tbsp) 120 0g 14g 0g
    TOTALS 880 49g 68g 23.5g
    • The “Good” Fats: Loading up on the avocado and oil wasn’t just for the calories. After a 36-hour fast, these healthy fats are exactly what I need to signal to my brain that the “famine” is over. It helps me stay satiated so I don’t spend the rest of the day thinking about food! For diabetics, healthy fats are our friend.
    • The Muscle Repair: Between the eggs, the chicken sausages, and the cheese, I made sure to get a heavy hit of protein. My muscles were definitely feeling the strain after that “running on fumes” swim last night, so this is the building block they need to start recovery.
    • The Salt Factor: I didn’t hold back on the vintage cheddar, and even added a pinch of salt to my omelette mix – and for good reason. Despite suffering from hypertension, after this week’s exercise and fasting, the salt content helps me reset my electrolytes. It’s quite likely why I experienced lightheadedness after my swim last night.
    • The Immune Support: I also treated this meal as a preemptive strike against that scratchy throat. By choosing the Mediterranean veg mix, I’ve packed in red peppers and cherry tomatoes which, alongside the spinach, provide a massive hit of Vitamin C and antioxidants. It’s about giving my immune system the resources it needs to fight off whatever bug is trying to take hold while my defenses are temporarily lowered from the week’s efforts.

    It feels good to have some fuel back in the system. Now, I’m going to take it easy for the rest of the afternoon – physically anyway, since I have some work to do – and let my body do its own work of recovering!

    I may need to grab a herb tea with fresh lemon juice to keep myself hydrated.

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  • Tough swim!

    Ken

    ·

    So last night I did my usual swim, but it felt nothing like usual. The difference was stark and not in a good way.

    This is my first week on the Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) protocol—basically three 36-hour fasts back-to-back. Fast Monday, eat Tuesday, fast Wednesday, eat Thursday, fast Friday, eat Saturday. Because of the pool schedule, my swims always land on the evening of a fasting day. Last night was my first Wednesday swim after two fasts in a row. Throw in a Monday swim and a Tuesday run, and the fatigue was starting to stack up.

    Physiologically, I was running on fumes. Fasting while exercising depletes your glycogen stores much more rapidly, and I was definitely feeling that lack of “fuel” on top of the accumulated tiredness from the week’s miles.

    Of course, none of that stopped me. I still powered through my planned sets of 5 x 250m. I’d told myself to listen to my body and that if I felt done at 4 x 250m, I’d call it quits. But despite feeling low on energy, I felt good enough to push through those final ten lengths.

    It wasn’t without consequences, though nothing too major. I felt a little more lightheaded than usual afterwards and even the walk back to the car felt like a slog. I’ve often dealt with fatigue and lightheadedness since my diagnosis, and my blood pressure medication is known for adding to those symptoms, but this felt different.

    This felt earned.

    I’ve been pushing myself because I’m determined to get my fitness back while losing the weight I need to get my diabetes under control once and for all. So, all in all, I feel pretty good about myself right now!

    I’m also sensible enough to know when NOT to keep pushing. While I might have wanted to go for another run today, I won’t. Instead, I’m about to take a leisurely walk up the river to the local Sainsbury’s to grab a few essentials for my refeed. By the time I get back, I’ll have completed the full 36 hours and I can finally refuel the overworked machine! 😁

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