Day 22, 3am waking

For the majority of the last 2 or 3 weeks I have been waking at 3-3.30ish. I have struggled to get back to sleep, sometimes due to additional little people, sometimes due to me stressing and sometimes I am just wide awake. The fact of the matter is I am consistently wakeing right up a similar time each night. Reading Reinette's blog she too has been suffering with the same problem.

Glucose:    5.3
Ketone:     1.5
Breakfast: Broth
Lunch:      Broth
Dinner:     Broth
Ride:        None

Casting my mind back to last year I think I had similar problems, this sounds quite common, with a fair bit of speculation but with no real explanation. The theories vary from too many ketones, not enough ketones, too much glucose or not enough, supplements at the wrong time etc etc. I am sure much of this is not incorrect and we are all different. That said, I spent much of last year in ketosis and I did not suffer with this problem the whole time. This leads me to believe that this was something I suffered when I was adapting, so whatever the cause I think it will work itself out, if only I had kept a diary or a blog.

Unfortunately at the moment, despite going to bed early, after falling asleep in front of the telly at 20.00, I was still pretty tired when I got up and could not motivate myself to get on the bike, am I being lazy or taking another purposeful rest day? I know that Lucy is away this weekend so I won't be out on the bike and will have some rest and recovery then, but still I couldn't muster the energy. By mid morning the sun was beating through the window, it looked a glorious day and I was bit gutted I had not pushed myself a bit harder.

Yesterday I was hungry so I ate, the more I ate, the hungrier I appeared to get. I was not super strict on my carbs (30g ish), but I had not exercised. So maybe it was these free carbs that was causing the hunger. My bloods, whilst still staying in ketogenic ranges, certainly saw a rise in glucose and a reduction in ketones, neither which helped me sleep!

I believe intermittent fasting is exactly what it says, intermittent. Humans evolved without 24/7 shops, fridge and food. We ate when we got the opportunity and stopped when we were full. Being fat adapted definitely enables us to not be tied to, or require 3 meals a day, or to snack constantly, however enjoyable that is socially. In addition the ability to ignore hunger and fast becomes really quite easy and natural, there would have been times when we would not find food and we would live on our reserves.
I did not eat that much on Sunday and I was very hungry yesterday, however I did feel the more I ate almost made me feel more hungry. Ultimately I want to find a healthy balance thats supports my training, however at the moment I still want to shift some weight. After eating yesterday and not getting on the bike today, why not fast for a day, burn some fat, boost my ketones and give my body that natural randomness of calorie intake. 

Fasting was not too bad today, broth mostly satisfied me except for a couple of periods in the day 16.30 & 20.00 I was quite hungry but I stayed strong. Looking forward to eating tomorrow.