Recently, out of the clear blue, I've developed congestive heart failure from high blood pressure at an atypically young age. The mixture of a high stress lifestyle, above normal bodyweight for an extended period of time, and a tendency to indulge in high carb foods have taken an enormous toll on my health which is now becoming difficult to conceal from myself or others. I've walked, sprinted, lifted, and kickboxed to the point where I pack "power in my pocket" and stand a good chance of defending myself and others with or without supplementary weaponry. However, my own heart is having trouble keeping up, and I know very well the risks of continuing to exert myself with this condition.
I've also dieted conscientiously for the past 2 years. Intermittent fasting, cutting out all fats, and one meal a day have all failed. So far, the one attempt with any success has been a week long stint with ketosis dieting, which I'm pleased to report almost immediately reversed symptoms and resulted in much greater energy after a miserable transition through a debilitating keto flu lasting 3 days. Considering the success of this approach, and my seeming inability to keep fucking weight off while eating even healthy sources of carbs, I'm now at the cusp of an unprecedented experiment.
One reason I haven't attempted a ketosis reset earlier had to do with the cognitive demands of my post. Going foggy was not an option. However, given the severity of my symptoms and the inevitable ending of a certain early death, I will need to take my chances. For the next 6 weeks, I am going without starches or sugars to the extent possible and subsisting solely on meat, eggs, select nuts, cheese, and green vegetables. This worked incredibly well during my first experiment, however I also fear losing strength. Given the charged political environment and my implied obligation to be ready when called to engage and eliminate threats to my family, loss of physical power would be unacceptable. However, since I now don't have a choice in the matter, I've needed to devise a method for maintaining adequate strength, while losing maximal strength as a tactical trade off. I call my approach Eating the Army for Breakfast.
The workout is a simple morning routine meant to be completed as quickly as possible 5-6 days a week in conjunction with a daily routine of walking. For time, I will complete 100 bodyweight squats, 35-50 pushups, and 35-50 situps followed by a brisk jog, or in other words, maintain a capacity to exceed the Army's old physical fitness standards while my body is in the throes of ketosis induced exhaustion and weakness. If successful, I should be able to break through the keto slump into full ketosis without losing significant amounts of muscle. It is meant to be a consistent stress that will not overwhelm the recovery capacity of my systems under ketosis and will set adequate physical fitness as a baseline to which my systems will adapt, when I become fully keto-adapted. In other words, I will attempt to purposefully LOSE strength but only to the point of being as strong as a passable Army recruit. I hope this will have the simultaneous effect of reversing my declining health while also retaining practical self defense capacity.
In conjunction with these additional workouts, I will maintain lifting kettlebells, pullups, dips, and high kicking exercises. If that doesn't put me back in healthy shape, my time is probably up no matter what I do.
Tl;dr: For 6 weeks, no carbs. 5-6 days a week: 100 bodyweight squats, max pushups, max situps, run briskly. No other changes are allowable to my weekly routine. Get healthy or die trying.
I'll be updating this blog as the experiment progresses. Death is a clever enemy that will one day win. I intend to make it bleed for the privilege, and this next 6 weeks will be a surprise surge that I have good reason to believe will swing the battle in my favor.
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