A Time For Everything

The St. Louis Blues were swept from the first round of playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche. Now, I don't really care about the St. Louis Blues; they've been a general thorn in the side of my Dallas Stars, and their goalie is a bitch.

However--seeing any hockey player cry when their hopes for a(nother) Stanley Cup have been quashed, really gets to me. They're such fierce competitors and seeing them this vulnerable and willing to show their heartbreak really gets to me. I feel it in my chest. Even now, thinking about it, makes my heart clench a bit.

Remember that personality strengths test I took?

The strength of empathy ranked quite high, which surprised me when I first got the results. But I guess this is one way that empathy manifests itself.

On the flip side of the Blues' loss is the Avalanche win. They're also a favorite of mine and I'm over the moon they've advanced to the second round. One of my other favorite player, Nathan MacKinnon, plays for them, so I'm excited for him.

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Trying to get back on the KETO wagon today and will be doing a detox / cleanse for the next 10 days. It'll be interesting so see how it works.

Surprisingly however, when I weighed myself I hadn't gained as much weight as I imagined considering all the unhealthy things I've been eating for the last six months. In fact, I weighed in this morning at the upper level of my usual four pound swing. Now, I imagine the current high is actually higher, but overall, that's good news.

My main goal is not primarily the weight loss, nor the loss of fat, but getting back into ketosis and subsequently autophagy.

If you're not familiar, it means at its base level: self-eating.

When your body gets to this point it is removing debris and toxins from cells. The cells can then regenerate back to optimal functioning, whatever that may be. Autophagy has the ability to heal or really eat bacteria that is causing issues. For example--gum disease. A friend of mine had periodontal disease and after some time spent in autophagy, the disease had been eradicated from her mouth. I'm not sure how long that took, but I've known her for a while, and I'm going to bet less than a year.

That was of particular interest to me because I too suffer from periodontal disease. I've had boneloss in my jaw as a result. As a result of the severity of that boneloss, I had three teeth pulled and a bone graft applied. I'm on my way to getting posts and a bridge put in.

But I'd like for the periodontal disease be a thing of the past so that I keep the rest of my teeth. I'm only 53...

Now not only would that process heal my mouth, but I'm sure other parts of my body will also reap the benefits. Google-search "benefits of autophagy" if your curious as to all the other benefits...

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I hope you've had a good week since last I posted.

Take care...

It took me a while to get back into eating a keto diet after my trip to the lake, but back into it I finally got. However, since my foray into eating keto back in the spring, the results were hit or miss, variable, discouraging.

Eating a keto diet means, at its basic level, that carbs make up 5% or less of a person's macronutrients on any given day. Macronutrients are carbs, protein, and fats.

 And in looking that up, I realized why I was having such a hard time.. I was operating under incorrect information. For some reason, I thought I needed to stay under 20% carbs! And all I was doing was making sure anything I ate was less than 7% of the % Daily value as listed in the nutritional value panel. Ha!

This screen shot is from today after I quickly added my breakfast. I don't actually use the Fitbit anymore. It taught me what I needed to know. Obviously, I have a ways to go for the day, in terms of caloric intake and leveling out the percentages of the macronutrients, but that's were I'm sitting as of posting time.

Last week I opted to give up the yogurt (7%) I was eating to see what would happen and everything else I've been consuming has been 1% or less carbs. And so... Sustained ketosis!

I eat a lot of protein and need to up my fat and veggie intake for sure--which, salads with creamy dressing are just fine with me. I've been on a Ceasar salad kick again, so win-win.

I'll be staying on track through next week so that I can eat whatever is put in front of me while visiting my family. There may be pizza and ice cream in my future or a big fat juicy burger and fries! Maybe not.

Sadly, however, Blue Bell and Pecan Pralines and Cream is not a staple in Nebraska, so I might have to settle for something...else.

Hope you're having a great week. Catch you Friday.