Hamenopi

Hey Guys, Sorry about the radio silence. Work's been crazy.  And it'll continue being crazy until at least the end of August. I'll try to post something at least weekly.  The thing is, I haven't been journaling neither. But weights been okay. Last I measured it was 184.8 lbs. I'll share more about that in a later post. I hope to get back into journaling, and blogging. I also want to start interviewing friends, I want the practice. Been dreaming about doing a podcast like thing. Literally dreaming. We'll see if it's in the cards.  If you're interested, let me know. You don't have to be keto, just real. Let's get like a shoe and converse. 

Decided to make a post addressing frequently asked keto related questions. I'm not a doctor and am not giving out medical advice. I'm sharing with you what works for me and several other people I coach. As always, your mileage may vary. How many calories should I eat on Keto? This is the wrong question and it will pull you into the trap of caloric restriction. This is not a diet of caloric restriction. Instead, focus on staying around 20 g carbohydrates or lower a day, 1 g per 1 kg of your ideal bodyweight. Past that, consume fat to satiety. For me this looks like this. 15 - 25 g carbs, 68 - 83 g protein, and the rest in fat. Note: 68 g is my lean body weight in kg and 83 g is my current body weight in kg. As I lose more weight, my range will likely go down. There are also days I'm over 100 g. Do your best with what's given to you daily and press play again the next. There are days I'm under on protein. There are days I'm over on carbs. It...

Several people asked me how I prepare my morning coffees. It's difficult to answer. Depending on where I was in my diet, they were different. The way I drink my morning coffee now, I don't think I would of enjoyed in the beginning. So instead of sharing one, I'm sharing all 3 versions. Morning Proof Coffee - Pre Keto Ingredients 1 c cold brewed coffee 1/2 c Unsweetened Almond Milk 1 tbsp Stevia Blend Directions Combine everything into a glass and mix until blended.  Notes None Morning Proof Coffee - Keto Light Ingredients 1 c cold brewed coffee 1/2 c Milk (2% or Vit D) 1/2 tbsp Stevia Blend Directions Combine everything into a glass and mix until blended.  Notes The reason I reduce my Stevia Blend is because milk contains lactose, a sugar.  Morning Proof Coffee - Full Keto Ingredients 1 c cold brewed coffee 2 tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream 1/4 tbsp Stevia Blend 1/4 tbsp Pink Himalayan Salt Directio...

This weekend we celebrated my Grandmother’s 90th birthday Brisket, Cake, and everything else sugary and starchy scattered the kitchen turned buffet line. I stayed clear of the bread, the beans, and potato salad, easy. I even added butter on my brisket. No bbq sauce! Buttered brisket is amazing, by the way. Added a good dose of bacon boiled green beans to the side. Put butter on them too. Delicious! Reactions I tell you, I had some wild eyes and questions pointed at me. Several people even told me how unhealthy it was. I just glanced down to my 115 lbs of missing weight and shrugged, saying. “Seems to be working for me.” Then I slathered more butter on brisket and yummed it down in front of a few confused cousins. . Later a few asked “So… How much weight you’ve lost again?” A few of them started to question what they thought they knew about health. I also had a few others educate me on how it’ll make me fat....

I tried Vegetarian, Vegan, and Paleo before Keto. All with decent results. I didn't lose all 113 lbs on Keto so my way may not be optimal for you but please try and tell me if it works for you too. For the most part, I worked on the baby steps. Consider this. A pathway up a mountain is intimidating but one step is easy. Enough steps however will get you up the mountain. Once I stopped fixating on losing 50 pounds. My original goal was 250.  And I started working on the things I could do today which would help, I flew past my goal and had to make a new one. Biggest thing. Diet isn't binary. Everything is a shade of health. If you are so religious about perfect macros, it's going to be a hard journey. We must focus on what is sustainable for us. The great news is as we progress, we progress. We can find new sustainable things! What I'm doing now would never have worked when I was 300 or 250 lbs. We don't have to get it right, we just have ...

Last month I was doing an amazing job on keto. I lowered my weekly average of carbohydrates from the first month. I raised fat up to where my protein level was and eventually surpassed it It was a great time and I could tell it was working for me. Little did I know what was going to happen in month 3. Month 3 For month 3, I decided to trust fat more. I did that by keeping carbohydrates around 20. Limiting protein to around 70g. And relying on fat to get me through the rest. I soon realized I was going to need to supplement fat so I decided to do this with Bullet Proofing Coffee and Tea In the beginning, it was a rocky start. I wasn't so sure I could pull this off. My first Bullet Proofing ended up a failure. I wrote about it here. But I didn't give up As a result, I now have two recipes Morning Proof Coffee   Office Proof Coffee   I also have some interesting pictures to share.  Statistics ...

Keto is more about hormonal regulation than caloric restriction. Calories In Calories Out is great but it's elementary way of explaining it. There's a lot more going on in your body. Ignoring all the other factors could be detrimental. Optimally on paper, you should be working toward 20g carbs total, 90g protein total, and fat to satiety. Will that work for you? Only you can decide. For the first month, I couldn't do under 50g total carbs for an extended time. I also tried to caloric restrict. I was hungry. I had cravings because I wasn't satiated. I ate carbs for quick energy. It happens. No shame, just learn from it and try again. Month 2 I started trusting the science. It was sound science, but I had a ton of dogmatic believes I also thought true. It took me a month to start breaking through them. Needing carbs, calorie restricting, not eating at certain times. These and more were hard grained in me. They weren't easy to disrupt but e...

July 8th, 2015, I had the pleasure of meeting Les Brown and hearing him speak. He’s a famous motivational speaker in the US. Check him out. Anyways, I was over 300 lbs. Sick, moody, depressed, the list goes on. I was not a picture of health. Something needed to change. If I continued my path, a pine box was coming my way. Losing weight wasn’t easy for me. I struggled. I hated myself for falling off the wagon. I’d curse myself for every mistake I made. In the beginning, it was so exhausting. But finally, I found a way to get out of my own way. I began to trust the process and remind myself every day isn’t going to be perfect. We all make mistakes. That’s how we learn. That’s how we get better. Then I started to log what I was doing. I began seeing where I’d fall off the wagon and try new strategies because I had on paper strategies which didn’t work. I even shared some my favorite breakthroughs on my blog. Over time, I pushed past what I thought was impossible odds. It became ...

I discovered a few pics of me about 10 years ago. Man, my hair was dark! Man, has camera quality improved! I was about 250 in that pic, a decade ago. I got up to over 300 lbs in my 30s I remember 2 years ago I was watching my 3 kids playing. I had enough. I wanted to be able to keep up with them. I made the decision. Whatever it took. This is what I did in 2 years. You can too.

Week 9 I thought I was bought in but I swear there’s levels like onions I keep peeling off. But that means I’m progressing which excites me. It’s a rabbit hole of adventure and wonder. I just explored the surface! BPC Week 9 is focusing on the Bullet Proof Coffee and Teas. I’m excited to try them. One month ago, I was swearing them off. My perception keeps flipping upside down. So many prejudices I’m not even aware of, daily, get illuminated. I’m glad I’m seeing them so I can work on them. I’m also discovering things which don’t work. Bulletproofing Cold Coffee isn’t the best idea. Neither is Multivitamins on an empty stomach . At least not for me. YMMV. MFP Like I explained in my expectations , I changed up my macros. 5% Carbs 80% Fat 15% Protein The real average was 8% C / 76% F / 16% P Here is my weekly summary Scale My weight is still going down. I’m not trying to cut anymore. ...

I wanted to fast today but made a critical mistake. I ate a vitamin. These vitamins on an empty stomach tear me up. I keep on forgetting this. Every single time I take this vitamin, 15 minutes later, my stomach churns until I get food in it. I guess that means no multi vitamins on an empty stomach. You’d think I’d figured that out the first time. This was the 5 th time I’ve done it. So I’m writing this note to myself so I may better remember. Because I keep forgetting. Kind of like how I forget what I eat when I don’t take a picture of it or immediately log it. Kind of like how I forget what exercises I do when I don’t record it or log it. I’m writing it down all these things because it’s important to me. What do you write down?

My wife and I were chatting last night about BulletProof Coffee (BPC). I've known about BPC for a while now but it wasn't something that interested me. At least not until I reworked my nutrition strategy for week 8 - 10. I realized my existing strategy wasn't feasible. I needed fat supplementation. Bring on oily coffee. Good Idea BPC For those who don't know. BPC is coffee with grass fed butter or ghee and coconut or mct oil. Yes. You read that right. Butter and Oil. Buttery, Oily Coffee. Guess what. It's a Good Idea! I liked adding a grind of Pink Himalayan Salt (PHS) and a tiny amount of Erythritol Stevia Blend (ESB) to mine. Bad Idea BPCBC BulletProof Cold Brewed Coffee 1 tbsp Kerrygold 1 tbsp Coconut Oil 1 grind PHS 1 squirt (ESB) 1 cup >cold brewed< coffee The things about saturated fat is they solidify in cold temperatures. The fat turned into a thousand tiny coffee f...

When your body becomes good at burning fat for energy, you start burning fat for energy all the time. Then, you stop getting hungry and eating become optional. Your body burns instead the internal fat stores for energy. You eat less because you aren’t hungry and you lose weight. Humans have been doing this forever.

One of the biggest contributors to me losing weight was logging my food. Without finding out out where I was, there was little chance I could improve on where I was. After a while, I realized I had enough information to log my food in advance. I could forecast my meals! Sure, it wasn't perfect but they kept me close to target so much better than I could of without it. I had my own play book of recipes which I knew worked for me... Because they worked for me! Since Keto, I had to create a new play book of recipes. Most my old ones were carbohydrate dependent. Great news is I'm at a point where I can begin to once again forecast my food. This is where I shined last year losing weight! I'm excited to see how it works this year.  This is what I’m shooting for: 20 - 40 g total carbs a day, half being fiber 80 – 100 g total protein 100 – 200 g fat My plan allows my body to use existing fat stores to supplement my nutritional fat deficit. This i...

6 months ago, I set aside some goals for the year. One of them is the muscle up. The thing is… I couldn’t even do a pull up. I could barely do pushups. Sure, I lost a lot of weight… I looked great! But, no muscles will still struggles lifting light weight. I had to put the work in for the result to happen. Just like in weight loss. I had to work on growing muscle. In 2017 I shifted focus. One reason the scale slowed was I spent more time developing fundamentals of sustainable strength. Now in the second half of the year, I can start chasing those lofty goals I made so long ago. I can finally lift myself up to that level. That’s what I’m going do. Mondays will now be #MuscleUpMonday to chase my muscle up goal. Thursdays will be #ThursdayInversday to chasing my handstand goal. I’m going to try to track my progress. This is week two. I got out the GoPro and filmed it. I want to show you a 1 minute clip of where I’m at. I don’t ...

I love what I wrote today in my journal. I’m going to share it with you. Do you journal? It’s awesome. Sure, it’s awkward in the beginning but it’s gold long term. You can find So much value writing your thoughts. One awesome result is you can go back through your life and pick up gems you completely forgot about. That’s what this entry was about. It’s too great to keep to myself. I hope you enjoy it. 7-3-2017 Hey look! It’s my Half Birthday. So far, I’ve persevered every time against anxiety. Why does it still trouble me? Why am I still so afraid? May we remain joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer, always. Anything worth doing is not a one-step journey. Stay mindful of your goal. Things to ask yourself: Is deviating from your goal worth it? Will you regret deviating tomorrow? Will you regret it in 5 minutes? Is the deviation a new experience? Then consider the deviation. New, non-mundane experiences are w...

In the beginning, it was a hard sell for me. I was plant powered and wasn’t interesting in switching over to a low carb high fat diet. That’s so silly! Why would any rational person do that? But after prodding from my lovely wife, I ceded. With tepidation, I tip toed toward the diet, giving it a dubious due diligence along the way. I was going to prove keto was just a fad diet. There’s a lot of hype and misinformation around it. But I dug deeper, I began to find it is a ton more nuanced than what fit on an infographic. It’s profound! The science behind it blows my mind. Why has this not been around longer? First 2 To be honest, the first 2 weeks were hard for me. I believed this wouldn’t work. Everything I knew told me this wouldn’t work. But it wasn’t good enough for me to know it. I needed to prove it, so I gave it a fair shake. First 2 weeks were hard. I wanted the carbs. They called to me. I dreamed in them. Each whiff of bread intoxicated my sens...

A Note from Last Year. Today I started Fit2Fat2Fit Dietbet, weighing in at 240 pounds . I just weighed myself before going to bed, 244 and a half pounds. Now instead of losing 9.6 pounds in 4 weeks, I need to lose 14.1. Joy... I'm not giving up but that's all types of discouraging... Does this sound familiar? Every time you start, you fall backward. You're not alone. The thing is... If that's when you give up, you lose. Instead, get up and try again. What's the point you may ask? Only you know 'What the point' is. Only you can know your 'Why'. What I'm saying is 'Don't give up on your why'. Giving up is easy but that won't make life easy. What Happened? By the way, I lost that 14.1 pounds and even more. Then, my long term goal was 220. I eventually had to make another goal of 200. I'm now at 190. That's 50 pounds! And I'm still losing fat... And gaining a ton...

Picture this: Your infant child, one hand on the wall, pulling himself up to try to walk. He's up, vertical, stumbling awkward. His hand, on the wall for support, turning toward you for his big show. Wobbling, he steps forward. One step, then, two. Then as gravity's pull latches on to him, he stumbles half a step more, then falls prone to the ground. What parent would curse this child for falling? What parent would call him stupid, claim they were a defect from the wrong side of the gene pool? Only two and a half steps? For Shame! On the other side, who would hoot and cheer? Clap and sing the child's praises? Lift him up and high with a hundred kisses? Then why do we call our selfs stupid when we stumble and fall on the second and a half step? Why do we blame out genes and curse out abilities trying something new? Figuring out something we haven't mastered yet? The magic is in that we made it to two. The magic is we can crawl right back over to that ...

Try not to get too dogmatic with your diet. Like snowflakes, we are all similar but unique. Your best bet is to journal your way and listen to what your body tells you. 20 grams of carbs is just a starting point. Protein in grams to lean mass weight is just a starting weight. Start there, then experiment. Get interested. Be a case study of 1. Learn to ask a lot of questions. Take all the answers with a grain of salt. Pink Himalayan Salt. Take everything with salt. You need the electrolytes. And... of course, above all else, don’t forget to…  Keep Calm and Keto On.