Setting myself some modest health goals to kick-off 2023. By the end of April my goals are:

- Weight 100kg or less
- Running 4 miles daily/comfortably
- Total Cholesterol <=4 mmol/L (<=155mg/dL)
- Quit refined sugar foods/drinks
- Junk-food once per month

Backstory cliffs:

- Previously a fit Thai-boxer in 2018. Trained in Phuket, Bangkok + UK for years. Was no stranger to 8 hour training days + long daily runs/sprint sessions. Also loved skateboarding and hit the parks most weekends.

- Caught covid early 2020, major insomnia for 6 months (could barley talk some days) which turned out to be some form of virus-induced 'overtraining-syndrome' and exacerbated by my hard training.

- Only saw decent improvements after stopping ALL exercise for nearly 3 years. Off work for 1.5 years.

- I'm currently able to walk an hour a day and/or run 1.5 miles a couple of times a week without having problems with insomnia.

- Older brother survived a heart-attack in 2021 (slim guy, 42 + pretty healthy, ran 1/2 marathons but high cholesterol over the years)

- My cholesterol has been between 5 - 6.5 over last few years so in the 'average to high-risk' category, but with family history it should be way lower.

- Made some big improvements to diet in the last year including adding porridge, salmon + avocados, removing bread, rice, cheese, butter + bacon. But....

- I'm a raging sugar-holic, once triggered I tend to increase consumption daily until a blow-out occurs. Usually looks something like this...



Future goals:

- I dream of being fighting-fit again, training in Thai Muay-thai gyms and being so fit running feels like flying was one of the best feelings of my life.

- During covid/lockdowns I would dream of playing live poker for (relatively) big money. I'm currently completing a 2+2 challenge to build a £2k bankroll from zero...

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...85/?highlight=

...and am at £1096 at the time of writing this, so getting into some regular £1/£2 games this year would be nice.

Best of luck with all your goals everyone, 2023 is going to be a cracker!

Initial weight: 112.2kg

Planning to have 2 meals a day at 2pm + 6pm (Intermittent Fasting) and use a Ninja air-fryer to cook with + drinking black coffee through the day.

Lunch plan:
- Porridge w/ cherries/blueberries + almond milk
- 3 scrambled eggs (no butter, in microwave)
- Cholesterol yogurt + vitd 1000ui + immunace multivitiman

Dinner plan:
- Salmon once a week
- Chicken legs (w/ skin) w/ crushed garlic + salad once a week
- Steak w/ salad once a fortnight
- Homemade turkey burgers or turkey steaks most nights w/ steam veg + an avacado
- Steam veg = steamed broccoli, kale, bell pepper sprinkled w/ sesame oil + seeds
- After dinner will have spoon of 100% peanut butter or almonds + 2 squares of 90% Lindt dark chocolate

Exercise plan for January:
- Walk 1 hour every day
- Run 1.5 mile every Friday (try adding Wednesday by the end of the month)

Any suggestions on amending the above?

I know 3 eggs a day is a controversial one for ppl w/ high cholesterol or heart disease in the family, but on the flip side they are very rich in Vitmamin K2 (which takes calcium from the blood and puts it in your bones) and studies are mixed/flawed (e.g. were the eggs fried and with sausages?). I'm willing to cut the eggs right down with enough evidence they are harmful.

I'm a sugar aholic too. I find that the less I consume the less intense the cravings are. I scratch that itch a bit with chocolate protein powder. Will make smoothies or just add water/almond milk. It's not the same but tastes good and obv has protein

I've also taken to mixing it with No Fat Greek Yogurt adding a splash of almond milk and freezing as an ice cream type item occasionally

Good luck. Will follow

Sounds damn tasty, might try it if I get back to boxing training this year. Tiger gym in Thailand used to do iced-chocolate protein smoothies with peanut butter, and after a 2.5 hour training session in that heat...forgetabaadit!

Been a pretty good week, stuck to the diet plan until Saturday. Tried to be good and order a Halloumi + pepper dish, not realising it turned up with a burger and chips, whoops

Started walking an hour a day but got a bit ill through the week so knocked it on the head for a few days.

Today's weigh-in: 110.3kg

re eggs, have you thought about buying liquid egg whites and substituting them for the whole eggs?

also...re sugar craving...it isn't my big 'thing' as salty carbs are way more addictive for me...but still, when I'm going low carg/sugar I still get that craving. I find buying the low calorie ice cream pots...eg Weightwatchers ones ifn they have them where you live?...and having one of them post dinner is enough of a sweet taste to satisfy me. They're not going to win any competitions but they're fine and they're like 80 calories ish so really won't damage your plans overly

good luck. I'm also in fat camp.

The yolks contain both a large amount of Vitamin K2 (good for preventing heart disease) and cholesterol, so its about getting the balance right. I'll probably cut down to 1 a day if my cholesterol is still too high.

I prefer to just eat sugar very rarely, that way Im happy to 'take it or leave it' most of the time. Caved last night though and polished half a box of chocolates (gotta keep those mofos out the house!)

Rest of the week was very good though, plenty of steamed veg and leafy salads. Little-gem or Romaine lettuce have way more crunch/taste than traditional lettuces so been enjoying then with a loads of olive-oil and garlic.

Also managed to walk and hour a day. Bit ill still so not running again yet.

Today's weigh-in: 108.7kg

Picking this challenge back up again after a 6 month hiatus but will be taking a different approach and going back on the only diet that I have had any real success/balance with in the past. The Intermittent-Fasting KETO diet!

The best part of keto for me is having zero hunger and feeling genuinely full/satisfied after each meal. With no carbs the hunger/sugar pangs just vanish.

The reason I stopped it last year was because my cholesterol was still high, so this time I'm going to attempt it with very little saturated fats (mostly cutting out sausages, bacon, cheese) and also add a no-added sugar cholesterol drink (Benecol).

Also cutting my eggs down from 3 to 2 a day. I still think doctors are behind the times on eggs but no point straying too far from UK/USA heart health guidelines.

Daily meal ideas:

Lunch: (Im quite boring and can happily eat the same lunch every day)
- Avacado, 2 scrambled eggs, tomato, air-fried chicken breast w/ paprika + cashew nuts
- teaspoon of peanut butter + marmite <--- Holy crap this is good, try it!

Dinners:
- Chicken legs stuffed with garlic (air-fried) w/ salad + olive oil salad dressing
- Steak (grilled with Himalayan salt + pepper ) + salad/dressing
- Salmon + steamed veg (brocolli, kale, babycorn) drizzled in sesame oil and sesame seeds
- Tuna salad with feta cheese (Romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber)
- Chicken breast stuffed with garlic/soy-sauce + streamed veg
- Peanut butter chicken - haven't tried this one yet but cooking it up this week - https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/...butter-chicken

After-dinner snacks
- Almonds
- Crunchy Almond butter <-- another beaut I discovered recently
- 90% Dark choc (2 squares still very low carb)
- Iced almond milk coffees
- Almond milk + blueberries shake



Today's weigh-in: 113kg

Could be worse, hoping to be below 110kg by end of July

Research says taking fish oil omega 3 pills or flaxseed lowers cholesterol. I read atleast twice a week is minimum for eating salmon, sardines, any herring fish if you don't take the omega 3 pills. Walnuts are high in omega 6 or 3 too. I saw a study on pumpkin seeds too lowering cholesterol.

Thanks for the tips, I'm already taking high strength fish oil daily but I could start adding some flaxseeds/walnuts to my meals. Pumpkin seeds are also keto-friendly so in they go

Forgot to mention I'm also having a pint of water with apple-cider vinegar, good for weight loss and cholesterol apparently (I quite like it for digestion though).

Also having a daily pint of water + squeezed lemon, meant to be good for fatty liver and heart health.

Today's weigh-in: 109.6kg - No waiting around, Keto is freakin' magic

Been feeling really full after my meals too because of the high (healthy) fats content.

Picked up something spicy today as saw that Peri-peri hot sauce + marinades are really low carb. Found out bit later they contain sunflower oil and a couple of other less than optimal ingredients so mb this is a once a week/fortnight thing but was damn good!

that dinner looks awesome!

Not sure if it's my taste-buds adjusting but this Peanut-butter Chicken recipe was amazing! https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/...butter-chicken

I accidently doubled up on the peppers and ginger but glad I did, spicy and delicious (Was too busy eating to take a picture, will get a snap next time)

New goals for this month:
- Reach 106kg
- Walk 20+mins every day

IME this is not exactly true once you get down to an actually low bodyfat %, but you can probably ride it for a while. Best of luck.

Low body-fat is uncharted waters for me so I definitely can't speak to this, however if one is consuming enough calories/fat in the keto diet why would low bodyfat affect hunger? I was under the impression that it is the glucose swings that cause most of the hunger pangs.

One concern I have is if I ever get back to heavy training, will keto have a negative affect on this?

Unless you are joining a keto cult, who cares? You can change your diet to support lifting heavy when you start lifting heavy if it turns out that your performance is suffering.

yes exactly. I've inevitably flagged a little in the gym when in the second half of the keto cut cycles, but losing a few lbs each week is definitely worth it and once you stabilise, the energy comes back

Well I've got quite a bit of weight to shift and I'm still months/years away from being able to hit the gym (due to ongoing overtraining-syndrome) so probably going to be on strict keto diet for a while.

This week I tried sauerkraut as I've heard its a superfood with both pre/pro-biotics and tons of Vitamin C + K2, and I absolutely love it! Definitely adding this into the diet every 1-2 weeks. Tried to find the best quality sausages I could (90% pork + low sugar)

Weighed in at 108.7kg today, pretty happy with the progress but likely will fall short of this month's goal. Also the daily walking backfired as my Over-training Syndrome starting flaring up so looks like this isn't going to be the year I get my running back unfortunately.

Did find this great vid from Dr Berg though about the benefits of drinking 'whole' lemons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z-EOytgEhA

Apparently 5x the nutrients is in the peel, pith + seeds and its good lowering weight/cholesterol. Biggest surprise was that it actually tasted pretty good, especially with blueberries, so going to be adding this to my daily diet an hour before lunch.

You can get overtrained by going on a daily walk?

First variant of Covid got me good in March 2020, I restarted pretty intense training too soon after, and continued it for 6 months until I twigged that it was the cause of my severe insomnia (it was on a 2-4 day delay so took a while to figure out, and 'severe' is an understatement).

Took 2 years for the insomnia to stop and get back comfortably back to work, now I get a milder bout once a month but pop a pill to handle it.

These days the odd short 20 min run or hour walk is fine, but seems regular, daily exercise of any kind starts to massively disturb my sleep for about a week.

That smoothy looks awesome.
im gonna try that today!

Thanks in advance.

that really sucks. seriously can't imagine how I would cope without regular exercise

Yep it's a sh**-sandwich as I was big into muaythai, running + skateboarding, but if poker has taught me one thing it's to focus working on the things that are still within my control e.g. diet, studying, career, poker.

I got made redundant a month after I caught Covid, had to move back in with my parents and had 2 years of undiagnosed/unexplained severe insomnia (and all the nasties that come with that), so tbh life feels like a freakin' picnic at the moment now I'm through that haha.

Anyway, now I've thoroughly bummed everyone out, let's lose some weight!

Weighed in at 108.1kg yesterday, slow progress but have being really enjoying my keto meals and it is definitely feeling sustainable.

I've had a couple of carb cheat days this weekend which included a Falafel wrap, Thai BBQ and Roast Dinner, but managed to stay off desserts so really happy with that

Blood test results are in and unfortunately sh** was still a little on the high side which I'm gutted about:

Cholesterol total: 5.6 mmol/L
Triglycerides: 1.55 mmol/L
LDL: 3.86 mmol/L
HDL: 1.03 mmol/L
total/HDL ratio: 5.4 mmol/L

Blood sugar: 35 mmol/L

What went wrong?
--------------------

1. Weight is still at 108kg: Even though my diet is bordering Keto, I def overeat nuts and espeicially nut-butters and am now eating too many technically 'dirty' keto meals like peri-peri chicken and peanut-butter chicken.

2. HDL dipped slightly from 1.17: I had to quit running as it was affecting my sleep again Also some weekends eating puddings and general nonsense may have lowered this. Disappointing because I spend a twat-load on avacados + organic eggs.

3. Triglycerides: Even though 1.55 is considered "normal" range as its under 1.7, I remember this being almost 0 when I was on 100% keto with no cheating at all. Given my blood sugar is relatively high I think those odd cakes every few weeks and not being in full Keto is having an affect.

What's next?
---------------

A massive pizza and ice-cream binge this weekend I've had planned with some family for months....


What's next to fix my goals?
-------------------------------

1. LOSE FRICKEN' WEIGHT!! - I feel stuck in a loop like when Peter Griffin keeps going back in time to save his marriage and ends up dancing with Cleveland in a 1980's club instead every time.."dammit!" So plan is (a) Cut nut butters out during week, enjoy a little at weekends (b) Lemon-blueberry shake every day instead (c) Peri-Peri or Peanut-butter chicken only once a week (d) Get in Keto and stay there! No Carb cheating at all. (e) Don't stop points a-d until my weight is 90-92kg

2. Try running once a week again. It's a balancing act with my condition, but its been 6 months so maybe my condition has healed some more to allow this.

3. Ditch cheat carbs/puddings and just stay in Ketosis.

New goals for May '24:
-------------

- Weight below 100kg
- Cholesterol below 5
- Running regularly again