Here we are one week into resetting the keto clock after our weeklong drinking and eating fest in Mexico. Stepping off that plane back into the -20 weather I knew two absolute things. I hate winter, and I needed to get my body back on track. I could feel it. Last week’s article described how we are getting ourselves back in the groove, but this week we added a new tool we have used in the past. Intermittent fasting.
What is Intermittent Fasting
Over the last couple of years, we have done multiple articles on intermittent fasting or IF so, I won’t go into detail. If you want, or need that detail, please feel free to use the search bar at the top of the site. Wendy and I both use IF from time to time just to get feeling well if we take in too many sugar alcohols or overindulge.
For this round I’m doing 16:8. Meaning I will be fasting for 16 hours taking in pretty much only coffee. The fast lasts from 7pm to 11am the next morning. I then take in my calories for the day over the remaining 8 hours. Hunger has not been an issue and I’ve gone over the fasting time several days as I’ve gotten busy and just forgot. That’s a good sign IF is going well.
The Monkey Wrench in Our Keto Reset
The fasting and overall reset is going well, but we couldn’t outrun this damn pandemic we’re all trying to forget about. COVID-19. Wendy works with a vulnerable population and still needs to test regularly. She started to feel a little ill and the test showed those two dreaded bright red lines. I tested positive about an hour after that.
This is our second round, but we were both much sicker than round one. My mother who lives with us and is featured on the site looked after us, but we didn’t eat as clean as we wanted because we got caught with our pants down. Meaning… we weren’t prepared. We didn’t have the proper foods in the house, let along have them prepped. Even the keto couple is caught from time to time. Lesson learned.
Intermittent Fasting and COVID-19
This isn’t a research piece on the two, its just a brief tell that COVID didn’t seem to help or hurt with IF. I’m not any hungrier when I’m sick. I wanted a few more treats, but that’s because I’m sooky when I’m sick. Seriously, I’m the stereotypical male when it comes to sickness. You would think I’m dying every time I so much as sneeze.
The fasting part during COVID was easy. The eating clean and resetting the keto clock… not so much. As I said we just weren’t prepared and didn’t have the tools to be as successful as we should have been. We are on the mend and feeling much better, while eating cleaner and continuing with fasting. Other than being exceptionally tired, I would say we are getting back to normal.
Next Steps for the Reset
This will be our final week during the reset. It’s strange to say as resetting is just the clean keto we should all be following. But after this we will likely loosen up a little bit on the sugar alcohols and add a few more calories back into our everyday lives. It’s not perfect, but none of us are.
Next Monday I will wrap up this little series with a rundown of how resetting our keto clock went with some “could have done better” moments over the last two weeks. Sometimes taking a step back and understanding the why and how of keto will put you back on your path to a healthier and happier you.
Bill
