How am I getting on with the eating so far?

 So this experiment consists of 3 major changes to my eating habits:

1. Fast - Intermittent Fasting for 16 hours a day
2. Keto - Cutting out most carbs
3. 800 - Calorie Restriction to 800-900 per day

I wondered at the start if it would all be too much. So, midway through week 2, how am I doing?

Fast

I started out with a plan to have 2 meals a day and throw in the odd low-carb protein drink. I'd aim to eat roughly between 10am and 6pm. I found that I was often eating dinner at 7 instead of 6 mainly because by the time I finished work and maybe walked the dog, and with prep and cooking time, 6 just wasn't realistic. So I then started eating at 11am rather than 10am to compensate.

Don't I feel famished in the morning?

In short, no. I'm really finding it quite easy to stick to this. In fact, I'm finding I can easily go much longer than 11am without eating. Yesterday, for example, it was actually 2pm before I had my first meal.

The hardest time for me is the evenings after dinner. Evenings are the time when I have always consumed excess calories, either snacking on chocolate, or drinking a couple of glasses of wine. It's a habit that's hard to break. Yesterday I had a glass of sparkling water instead.

Keto

I'm actually enjoying the keto part of the diet surprisingly. Although I love carbs, I also like meat and veg. I am a Yorkshireman after all! If I was vegetarian or vegan I think I'd struggle.

Having a meal plan with recipes works really well for me. Whereas previously, I would eat a lot of processed foods for lunch (beans on toast, tinned ravioli, bought soup, etc), I am now cooking everything from scratch. And the meals are generally tasty and nutritious with a few comfort food options thrown in.

I've discovered quite a few new meal options that I would have regardless of being on keto:

• avocado and spinach smoothie which is luxurious and filling
• chicken kebabs
• greek yoghurt - with fruit, or added to a variety of other dishes (e.g. chicken kebabs above)
• bacon wrapped avocado
• breakfast tray bakes - cooked breakfast equivalent but baked with olive oil rather than fried
• salmon stir fry - I was surprised to find that bean sprouts are just fine as a replacement for noodles or pasta or rice
• smoked haddock chowder

800

The calorie restriction was where I thought I might struggle. I read that the increased protein on this diet would keep my appetite suppressed and that appears to be true. After the first week, I no longer feel empty most of the time and don't really have any food cravings.

I should say though, that I'm not being strict about my calories. In fact, I'm not really counting them at all. But I am roughly following the meal plan so I'm pretty sure that I am between 800 and 1000 calories most days.

Overall Assessment

So far so good. I'm enjoying the food, not overly hungry, and broadly sticking to the plan with no problem. My energy levels have returned enough so that every day life, work, walking the dog, etc, feel back to pre-keto levels.

The only issue is that when I try to do any bike training, my legs feel dead. That''' be the subject of another post I think.