Welcome to day 8 of The Keto Cut - a series that will follow my daily routines as I cut for the summer on a ketogenic diet. These posts may not be for all of you as they are intensely focused on fitness and nutrition. Health is one of the most important parts of my life and I take it very seriously and I figured I would share my experiences and daily "logs" with all of you who may also be interested in this topic.
On "Living" Your Goals
"Living" means that you're living your everyday life in a purposeful manner where you are continuously focused on achieving your goals. It's like directing a sailboat - each maneuver you make is always made with the purpose of aiming you towards your destination over time.
When you "live" your goals, everything you do during the day prompts the question "will this help me get closer to goal x?" - when you do this, you'll find yourself constantly punting the things that don't matter - things like watching netflix and youtube become less important than things like eating right and going to the gym.
Whenever I do a diet like this current Ketogenic regime, I constantly find myself thinking "will this help me get to my goal weight?" - this thought probably runs through my head at least 5 or 6 times a day. Whenever I start to make little excuses about why I don't want to go to the gym on a particular day or why I want to eat just a little bit more, I always turn back to this question.
I really think this approach applies to nearly everything in life - set goals and then continuously live the goal by repeatedly asking yourself if you're headed in the direction of the goal and making the right choices along the way.
Constantly be adjusting your sail and questioning its position - that way, you'll always make it to your target destination (a.k.a. end goal).
Day 8 Log:
Weigh-In:
| Start Weight | Goal Weight | Weight Lost |
|---|---|---|
| 198 | 173 | 4 |
| Today's Weight | Fat Mass (%) | Body Mass BMI |
|---|---|---|
| 194 | 24.7 | 26.7 |
Workout:
Leg Day:
| Movement | Weight lbs | # Reps | # Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back Squat | 245 | 8 | 4 |
| Leg Extensions | 180 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Squat Press | 450 | 8-10 | 4 |
| Hamstring Curl | 220 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Standing Calf Raises | 225 | 15 | 4 |
| Cardio | 10 Minutes - Stair Master |
What I Ate Today:
| Meal | Food |
|---|---|
| 0 | Bulletproof Coffee (2 TBSP Half & Half, 1 TBSP MCT Oil) |
| 1 | 4 Eggs, 2 Slices of Swiss Cheese, 6 oz deli corned beef |
| 2 | 10 Oz Steak and Mixed Vegetables cooked in 2 TBSP Coconut Oil |
| 3 | 8 Oz Chicken, Broccoli Topped with Butter |
| 4 | 3 Servings of Mixed Nuts, 1 Avocado, 2 TBSP MCT Oil |
Here's the Question of The Day, don't forget to post your answers in the comments!
QOTD: Are you determined to live your goals day-in and day-out and constantly adjust in their direction?
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave your thoughts below and I look forward to seeing you in the comments!
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Khaleel, another very helpful post. Your posts are very sophisticated too, lots of eye catching stuff. I'm jealous : )
I have been overweight most of my life and diets that restrict what I eat have never worked for me. At some point all but about 2% of people will fall back to old habits and regain the weight they lost according to what I read in one of Dr. Jason Fung's books. It's not for everyone, but fasting works for me. Your "bullet proof coffee" may have come from one of Dr. Fungs books. I've read The Complete Guide to Fasting. When I eat I eat whatever I want, as much as I want, and I always have dessert if I eat the supper meal. When I fast I drink water, sparkling water, coffee, and once in a while tea. That's it.
Total abstinence from calories is the only "diet" that has ever worked for me. I've lost so much weight that intermittent fasting is great to keep it off, but to loose more I use extended fasting for several days. I'm still above a BMI of 25, but I have the greatest diet and health tool ever devised in my tool belt to resolve my issues. Thanks again, sir!
Thanks @chuck2u32! :)
Fasting is a huge deal and can solve a lot of problems for many other people like yourself. I typically fast until about noon or 1 P.M. while only drinking water, coffee and/or tea as well.
I'll also have to check out Dr. Fungs books, I haven't read them before! I've done a few extended fasts as well (more so for curiosity and other benefits than for diet) and I've had a lot of friends say they work as well. As long as it's done with care, I think it can provide a lot of great benefits! Thank you for reading and leaving your thoughts and experience, it's great to hear from you!
Thank you for the reply and upvote! Most people fear missing even one meal yet the longest supervised fast without calorie intake was 382 days by Angus Barbieri in 1965-66. Take care, sir!
Anytime my friend, it's great to hear your thoughts! I agree, people have an irrational sense of when we actually need to eat. David Blaine also did a public stunt where he had nothing but water while suspended in a glass box in a public area for something like 33 days (I forgot the exact number)
I remember Blaine's stunt. There were many stunt fasters in the early 1900's. They charged admission. I'll bet those were exciting events watching people do nothing ; )
Actually you keep a positive attitude no matter what you post @khaleelkazi. I'm not always so positive. I just noticed you use half and half. I would be careful with that and the cheese. On a diet like yours I think I would crave the cheese. I also think if you are doing 4 eggs a day you will have to increase the cardio to at least 30 minutes. I know it is boring and you don't get the rush but in the long run it really adds up more than anything else you can do besides stretching.
The question of the day was about goals... You picked up an important point about goals. We are constantly adjusting them in their direction. This implies that the goal is more than ourselves... as we adjust ourselves to fit the direction of the goal.
I had a goal to post in the morning so I can get on with the work I have to do during the day and sleep well at night not worrying about a post a put up. This goal is immediately beneficial to my health. Luckily the price of Steem is slowly creeping up so I feel my goal to post something every day may be worthwhile although my voting power is going to pieces.
To goals,
@mineopoly
Thanks @mineopoly! I used to have a very moody approach to life and my friends and family pointed it out. I do my best now to try and keep it positive as much as possible! Being able to laugh at yourself is the key!
I agree, dairy isn't always the best thing in the world for our bodies. I'm a huge cheese fan though! I only have 2 TBSPs of half & half a day, so I don't think it's a huge deal. I usually will ramp up the cardio as the diet progresses - right now I'm doing about 10 minutes at the end of each workout and then I'll slowly add minutes and intensity on top of that as the weight loss starts to slow down.
Goals are like a living organism and they require TLC - tender loving care!!! We always have to be paying close attention to the direction of our actions and make sure that they're slowly but surely leading us in the right direction.
That's a great goal and I agree, it can be tough to scramble at night to put a post together and it has affected my sleep schedule more than once! I've been trying to post in the morning as much as I can, but sometimes (like today) I had to go straight to a meeting first thing. Hopefully I can get more consistent about posting in the morning as well!
Love seeing the progress, keep going my friend!
Thanks @koldy! How's your progress been so far on keto?
It's been great! I've lost 15 pounds from when I started. I'm trying to transition back into bulking now though, which is proving to be slightly more difficult than I anticipated. Just trying to eat more with each meal now.
Insane... I am having a cheat day today 😎😎😎
Haha, I've got my cheat day coming up this weekend! Will be nice to get some pasta and some of my other favorites!
I will add a little bit of salads... I dont want them to get ignored 😝😝😝
Hahahah I tend to skip the salads on my cheat days, it leaves more room for the feast of deliciousness! 😉 🥞
@khaleelkazi if you are planning to cheat try to make it a cheat meal rather than a cheat day and cheat on dinner so when you get to sleep the next day most of the carbs are gone n digested so it will be easy to get in keto again instantly
It's actually more of a carb refeed than a cheat day - I purposefully load up on carbs like rice, potatoes, bread, etc. throughout the whole day.It's a CKD diet, I'll definitely talk more about it when the time comes in these posts! I do agree with you on the "meal" rather than the "day" for people who aren't doing a cyclical keto diet, it would definitely help in getting back to ketosis faster!
i see. i will love to know more about CKD.
I read a book titled The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet and it featured a reward meal that included one high carb item. I always chose pie or cake : )
Another book I'll have to add to my list, thanks for all the suggestions! I'm a huge apple and blueberry pie fan myself, topped with some vanilla ice cream 👀
Writing goals and updated them is proven to make it happen 80% of the time. That chicken and broccoli sounds good though!
I agree, writing them down and visualizing them is always a huge help in making them a reality! The chicken was phenomenal and broccoli is my favorite veggie (especially when its loaded with some butter and garlic!!) We made chicken legs in a slow-cooker crock pot - they came out surprisingly well, I'll have to make it again and share the recipe with all of you!
That be great! I'm running out of healthy food ideas. Crock pots are amazing! Not many people use them when they really should.
:) I definitely will start adding recipes to these posts! I agree, crock pots are so versatile - I make all kinds of soups, stews, meat and vegetables in there!
oooh yeah I love crockpots!
I like the recipes so far, looking forward to more!
Me too!
i think "living" your goals need determination and consistency which many of us lack.maybe you can talk about determination a bit in your next post.and your meals for the day seems pretty satisfying and yummy.keep going!
I 100% agree, I'll try to think of something! Thanks!
Hmm yeah I'd love to hear about determination from you as well!
I am totally willing to live my goals and often they do change as time goes on so I must adjust.
Out of curiosity, how are you measuring your body fat?
That's great @sequentialvibe, I know that you're fast on track to hit all the goals you set!
I have a Withings Smart Scale that measures it. I also have a pretty good read on what certain percent ranges are, so I know that it's at least accurate to within a few percent, but some claim that the scale is one of the most precise digital ones out there.
Withings is key!
Woao
Squat press 450 Man ma head is spinning, Allah bless, i have a question can we have coffee just before we start working out...
Haha! It's all personal preference in my opinion. I usually have either coffee or Pre-Workout right before I start.
I'm more of a coffee in the morning, pre-workout before working out kind of person!
there are two types of people.... # Gym lovers and #Coffee lovers
hahahahaha I am both as well!
I am also both! Coffee and gym are great!
oooh yeah coffee and gym are my favorites as well!
Finally had time to check your posts, had an exam today so i was really busy with life!
Not bad not bad, at least you train legs, legs are the best part of your body to train when you want to drop weight, my legs are like 2 giant cities that burn a lot of energy when they are being worked out
I'm starting my cut today, i have 2 weeks without any exams so i need to cut before i start studying because i already know how i am, i tend to overeat a little when studying and decrease the amount of time I workout... I won't do keto cut though, I'll probably do a normal cut just decreasing calories, I already do intermittent fasting so I'm already ready to burn fat for fuel
Do you have any journals about ketogenic diet research?