A little history
My diet and exercise regime change from time to time, particularly my diet as I expand my knowledge or forget things I’ve previously learnt. This post is about my current keto diet and exercise regime.
I still work 9am – 5pm for an IT company, but the office has recently moved from a location close to my home, to Melbourne’s CBD. My morning travel time has jumped from a 5 minute drive, to approximately 1 hour of walking / public transport time. Due to the move of office, I realized I simply couldn’t continue my usual regime of waking up at 6:45 am, taking a pre-workout supplement, then working out from 7:20 am – 8:00 am. And for the first 3 months or so in the new office, I had given up on exercise completely. I had decided that I couldn’t get up any earlier than I was used to, and by the time I get home around 7:00 pm I am way too tired to work out.
3 weeks ago, I finally decided to stop making excuses and I set my alarm for 5:45 am to pick up where I left off. Primarily because, 3 weeks ago, I realized I had gone from 87 kg (191.8 lb) to 96.5 kg (212.7 lb).
Gaining that much weight back in 3 months wouldn’t be realistic if the only change was a lack of 40 mins of cardio daily. My diet took a steep decline around the same time that my exercise ceased. And I realized only recently why exercise is so important to me. It’s not to “bulk up” or to “burn extra calories”. By bypassing the barrier of exercise, I am then free to bypass the barrier of bad diet choices. My willpower and motivation have increased. My stress levels have dropped (recently with the aid of a supplement which you can read about here). My insulin and hormone levels are balancing. And to top it off, the endorphin high for the rest of the day feels fantastic. I believe solemnly that diet is many times more important than exercise, but I’ve found that without exercise first, I struggle to make smart diet choices.
Where I’m at now
This morning, after 3 weeks and 1 day back into my ketogenic diet, I weighed in at 91.9 kg (202.6 lb). I’m not obese, but I’m overweight and still have a long way to go before reaching my goal body fat percentage of about 10%. But with the 4.6 kg (10.1 lb) reduction in weight already, I look much leaner and I feel invincible. The hardest part is getting the ball rolling, but once it is, the rest is much easier.
Update 26/08/2015
It has been close to a year since I wrote the above and a lot has happened and changed since then. My routine is mostly the same, and I am currently at 86kg, but mostly my diet has had to change rather drastically a few times for various reasons. I will be writing about this shortly, so keep an eye out for it if you’re interested!
Update 01/02/2016
Yet again my diet has changed a fair bit since this post and I have learnt some invaluable tips and tricks to making weight loss and fitness goals easier. I highly recommend you read my latest post on Ketogenic Dieting and Intermittent Fasting for what I believe to be the best possible weight loss method for rapid and maintainable results.