After dabbling in intermittent fasting, keto, the Zoe diet, and trying a few monk fasts towards the end of last year I decided it is time to stop dabbling and get serious. With an indulgent 2025 Christmas behind me, I am starting to go full keto over the next couple of days, 18:6 intermittent fasting initially building up to regular weekly monk fasts.
From a technical aspect, I’m using the Zero app to track my fasting window. I’ll be using a Fitbit Aria 2 to monitor my weight (no longer available but the latest Fitbit scales are available here – no accompanying watch though, more on that later perhaps). There’s an Omron M7 Intelli for keeping an eye on my blood pressure. Ascensia Bayer Ketostix for keytone level monitoring and various keto recipes from here, there and everywhere.
I’m finding the advice of Dr Annette Boswell aka Dr Boz useful. In fact I’m kickstarting my keto off with her 3 day Sardine challenge. Last time I tried this, I had a normal keto meal, fasted until the next day, 6 hours on the sardines, 18 hours fasting again and my keytones were up and I was burning fat.
On top of the diet, I plan to factor in some exercise. Being born in the late 60s means I’ve started to notice a loss of strength across the board. Up until September last year I had been mountain biking for 10 to 15kms three or four times a week. An illness had me laid up for a couple of weeks in September and I lost the habit. It is my intention to factor in some lifting at some point but as I write this I’m staring at a rowing machine that’s going to be my initial weapon of choice while it’s dark, cold and wet outside but I’m going to need to summon up the gumption to knock the dust off it first.
What are my goals?
Weight loss. Better energy. Better sleep. Better metabolism. Self-healing through sustained periods of autophagy.
Ultimately I want to get myself off the meds I found myself on last year. There’s four in total at the moment. I’m also taking a number of supplements which I’ll talk more about later. I’m toying with the idea of logging weight, blood pressure etc. but we’ll see how I feel about sharing that as I go.
I also wanted to start writing. Blogging about my attempts to be more healthy and take on my various ailments seemed a simple way to get started. (Initially I had this as “my health journey” but I almost puked when I read it back!)
There’s other stuff to throw in about meditation, yoga, mental health and generally getting your mind right so your ass will follow but we’ll see where my meanderings take us.
Peace. Out. Disco.