Fit by 50 – Week 27 : 2.5 inches lost and how I cured my insomnia

FIRST THINGS FIRST – THIS WEEK’S PROGRESS

Thursday’s are my weigh in/measuring day. I was disappointed when I got on the scale this morning and discovered I had gained a pound over the last week. Now, I’m recovering from a bad cold and haven’t measured my ketones/glucose for over a week. After I got off the scale this morning, I got out my ketone/glucose blood meter and was a bit shocked to see my ketones were only at 0.8, which is barely in ketosis. (They are normally around 2- which is optimal – see the chart below)

I haven’t changed my diet, so I decided that the cold had affected the numbers and did some research. While I didn’t find anything directly saying a cold can kick you out of ketosis, I was reminded that STRESS can! I have been under a lot of stress this past few weeks, when you account for not only my cold, but my insomnia as well.

Here are 7 things that can kick you out of ketosis.

As Dr. Berg explains in the above video, stress activates the hormone cortisol, which helps us adapt to stressful situations. It’s the “fight or flight” hormone that tells your body its in danger, and prepares for you to “fight or run”. This is done by telling the body to release glucose for energy – thus kicking you out of ketosis with the flood of glucose in your system. Remember, your body doesn’t know the difference between the stress of a cold and the stress of a lion chasing it. All it knows is the body is in danger and acts accordingly.

The stress of my cold on top of my insomnia, evidently kicked me slightly out of ketosis. The fact that my ketones were at 0.8 means I’ve worked my way back, but I still have a ways to go. In fact, I probably got my cold in the first place, because my immune system was compromised from lack of sleep.

I’m so glad I’ve been measuring my body fat % and inches lost as well as weight loss. Otherwise I’d be very frustrated right now. Because, despite the fact that I gained a pound this week, I still lost 0.8 pounds over the last two weeks, AND 2.5 inches around my body (0.75 inches just on my waist) AND 1.89 pounds of fat lost over the last 2 weeks. (Remember, I didn’t take measurements last week.)

How I cured my insomnia and backwards body clock

Things were getting out of control. Either I would only sleep an hour or two, or I fell asleep at 4 o’clock AM, and slept until noon. My internal clock was completely off, probably from the all-nighters I pulled for my classes. It was similar to jet lag, when your body is set to a different time zone.

So, what did I do? I did what people do when they travel, I stayed up and adjusted to the correct time zone. Last Friday night, February 1, I stayed up all night and all through the day Saturday, then went to bed at my new bedtime – 11:00 pm. It wasn’t fun for me, (or anyone around me 🤣), but it worked. I’ll adjust this to 10:00 in the future, but for now this is a huge improvement.

I also stared a new bedtime routine. I turn off all electronics at 10:00, do 30 minutes of evening yoga, followed by 30 minute of meditation. For the first few nights, I used the herbal supplement “valarian root” to promote relaxation, but was able to fall asleep last night without it.

Closing thoughts

There you have it…my progress for the last week. I learned a lot about how daily living, and not just food, affects ketosis. I now know what’s wrong and am on my way to fixing it. The old me would’ve given up, but I know the journey won’t always be smooth. While I’m disappointed with the lack of weight loss, I did make progress toward my goal through loss of body fat % as well as inches lost.  AND, with my insomnia cured, I also feel amazing, and that’s what counts.

Until next time…Namaste my friends