Paschimotanasana

Totally simple thing but I've never been able to do it because my pelvis refuses to tip forwards. People who I see doing it are all women or men who do karate or other flexible sports. Sure I can touch my toes but only with a severely rounded back.

To start working towards this, I like this sitting on a block idea:

When you sit down to practice your forward bend, check out the curve of your lower back and pelvis.  Your pelvis should be upright or tilting forward, never backwards.  Your lower back should have an inward curve.  Use your fingers to feel the shape of your low back if it is not apparent to you visually.  If you feel your backbones protruding outwards towards your finger tips then you need to adjust before bending forward.  Begin by turning your thighs in and widening your sit bones.  If that does not adjust your low back enough, then prop your hips up by rolling the end of your mat up, sitting on a block, or sitting on a towel.  Do not bend forward until your pelvis and low back are safe.




sensational-yoga-poses.com advises doing this too:

If your hamstrings are really tight (like iron or steal that will not bend, even if heated to super high temperature), you'll be reaching upwards more than forwards each time you inhale. If this is the case or hamstrings are so tight that you can't even sit upright with one or both legs straight, then sit on blocks or edge of a sofa or chair (or table) so that you upper body does tilt forwards.


Then as you inhale focus on lengthening your upper body away from your pelvis and as you exhale allow your ribcage and head to sink down.


By practicing daily you may find that you can gradually reduce the height of your prop. (Don't go sawing the legs off of your sofa. Just find something lower to sit on.) As you do reduce the height of your prop, remember the feeling of keeping your spine long and also the feeling of tilting your pelvis forwards.

CKD Plan

low carb pyramid

Cyclical Ketogenic Diet Plan

Sunday - morning cycle warm up, 5k as fast as I can, cycle warm down to reduce glycogen and speed entry into ketosis, less than 50g carbs

Monday - AM CF, less than 50g carbs

Tuesday - AM CF, less than 50g carbs

Wednesday - AM CF, less than 50g carbs

Thursday - AM CF, less than 50g carbs

Friday - AM CF, less than 50g carbs

Saturday - AM CF, 600g of carbs as cleanly as possible.

Repeat 4 times and record results.

Week 1 start on Sunday the 13th.

Week 2 start on Sunday the 20th

Week 3 start on Sunday the 27th

Week 4 start on Sunday the 1st

from The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle MacDonald

Calculating macros and measuring weight and bodyfat daily using livestrong.com.

Weight and BF measured first thing in the morning after 'making a deposit to the underground bank'.

Will try to use sweet potatoes for paleo carbs on Saturdays, but I fear the odd pizza, ramen, gyoza, HFCS infused orangina, doctor pepper, milk, oven chips, and marmite on toast may be sneak their way in.

Conclusion during the week of the June the 9th.

Notes about the Saturday 600g Carb Load
Lyle MacDonald says:
"At an average rate of 5 mmol/kg /hour, approximately 120 mmol/kg of glycogen can be synthesized over 24 hours. This can be achieved by the consumption of 50 grams or more of carbohydrate every 2 hours during the first 24 hours after training. Intake of greater than 50 

Over 24 hours, at 50 grams every 2 hours, this yields 600 grams of carbohydrates total to

grams of carbohydrate does not appear to increase the rate of glycogen synthesis.""Over 24 hours, at 50 grams every 2 hours, this yields 600 grams of carbohydrates total to maximize glycogen resynthesis. These values are for a 154 pound (70 kilogram) person"


"In the second 24 hours, glycogen resynthesis rates decrease and a carbohydrate intake of 5 grams/kg is recommended to further refill muscle glycogen stores while minimizing the chance of fat gain. For many individuals, the small amount of additional glycogen resynthesis which occurs during the second 24 hours of carbohydrate loading is not worth the risk of regaining some of the bodyfat which was lost during the preceding week."


"During carbohydrate overfeeding, there is a decrease in fat use for energy. Most fat gain occurring during high carbohydrate overfeeding is from storage of excessive fat intake. Therefore, as long as fat intake is kept relatively low (below 88 grams) during the carb-up phase of the CKD, there should be minimal fat regain."


Notes about Re-establishing Ketosis on Sunday Morning
Lyle MacDonald says:

"Low-intensity aerobic exercise, below the lactate threshold, is useful for both establishing 

ketosis following an overnight fast as well as deepening ketosis. High-intensity exercise will more 

quickly establish ketosis by forcing the liver to release glycogen into the bloodstream. However it

can decrease the depth of ketosis by decreasing the availability of FFA. Performing ten minutes 

or more of low-intensity aerobics following high-intensity activity will help re-establish ketosis 

after high-intensity activity.

1. After a carb-up, if not weight training the following day, perform 45’+ of low-intensity aerobic 

exercise (~65% of maximum heart rate) to deplete liver glycogen and establish ketosis without 

depleting muscle glycogen. Interval training will establish ketosis more quickly by depleting liver 

glycogen but will negatively affect your leg workout.

OR
2. Perform a high-intensity workout (weight training or intervals) followed by 10-20’ of lowintensity 

aerobics to provide adequate FFA for the liver to produce ketones.

3. Perform 10-15’ of low-intensity aerobics after high-intensity training to provide FFA for the 

liver for ketone body formation."

For this, on Sunday mornings I will cycle 4km, run 5km as fast as I can, cycle 4km, then go for a walk to the park for a low carb picnic.


Week 1

Kie's Saturday - prestart carb load:
workout
3 hour morning workout: deadlifts, met-con, cleans, pull-ups


breakfast
2 rounds of pancakes with butter and blueberry jam
young coconut
chocolate protein smoothie
banana
yoghurt
home-made cheesecake

lunch
Four 7" pepperoni pizzas
Yoghurt banana strawberry young coconut meat & water smoothie

dinner
Baskin Robins mint choc chip ice cream
Movie popcorn - butter
Movie popcorn - caramel
2 Large Pepsi (not diet)

evening
Large Sprite


summary
morning weight: 78.00kg
morning BF: 13.0%
calories: 6,735
protein: 251g
fat: 255g
carbs: 935g
sleep: 7 hours


notes:
Think I could have eaten more healthily using sweet potatoes and dried fruits.

Kie's Sunday - start of CKD
workout
4km cycle, 5km fast run, 4km  

breakfast
no time lunch
sausages
bottle of wine

dinner
swordfish
kimchi
broccoli
half a bottle of wine

summary
morning weight: 79.65kg
morning BF: 13.0%
calories: 2055
protein: 105g
fat: 82g
carbs: 40g
prev night's sleep: 7 hours


notes:
Early morning workout was done at high intensity to deplete liver glycogen stores and speed onset of ketosis.
Half of calories and carbs came from red wine. Did well to refuse champagne keeping carbs below 50g.

Kie's Monday
workout
none, legs still broken from run


breakfast
no time


lunch
was too lazy to make anything before leaving for work


dinner
pork chops, 2 fried eggs, kimchi, avocado with olive oil, and spinach

summary
morning weight: 77.65kg
morning BF: 13.2%
calories: 1173
protein: 57g
fat: 95g
carbs: 41g
previous night's sleep: 8 hours


notes:
Should eat more than this or I'll lose muscle and fat. 
Start getting organised tomorrow.
Managed to get the calories up with some olive oil and avocados. Avocados have a lot of carbs too though, so they sent the carb total up to 34 out of 42g.
Overall pleased with the day, still unable to walk from Sunday's 5k, and sunburnt.

Kie's Tuesday
workout
crossfit - romanian deadlift & met-con


breakfast
protein gel and a diet pepsi


lunch
3 steaks, carrot and broccoli

dinner
2 steaks, kimchi, avocado with olive oil, broccoli, cup of milky tea.



summary
morning weight: 77.35kg
morning BF: 11.9%
calories: 2604
protein: 378g
fat: 101g
carbs: 38g
previous night's sleep: 8 hours


notes:
Good on the sleep for the past 2 days. 
That morning workout really beat me up and I feel drained.
10 minutes late for work because I had to sit in the gym for a while with my head in my hands.
Huge drop in bodyfat Mon-Tues. Was this due to not eating much on Sun & Mon? Or perhaps it is the effect of Saturday's carb overeating compared with the following carb restriction. Or it could be a machine malfunction and tomorrow's reading will be above 12%. Will be interesting to see if this happens every week.
Good to get more calories in today too. Just over maintenance. 


Kie's Wednesday

workout
crossfit - "Jackie"


breakfast
protein gel and a diet pepsi


lunch
chicken, broccoli and carrot

workout
crossfit - pull-up practice, GHD practice and handstand practice


dinner
chicken, broccoli and dijon
casein protein shake

summary
morning weight: 76.6kg
morning BF: 12.5%
calories: 1196
protein: 236g
fat: 8g
carbs: 31g
previous night's sleep: 8


notes:
Felt tired at CF this morning, but managed to get through a good workout.
Lost weight but gained bodyfat, yesterday must have been a machine malfunction. Daily readings over 4 weeks will help this even out.
Calories were a bit low for Wednesday so put in a protein shake to increase to 1,200. Still too low. Try harder tomorrow.

Kie's Thursday

workout
crossfit - SWOD: Front Squats, MWOD: Wall balls and mountain climbers


breakfast
protein gel and a diet pepsi


lunch
chicken, broccoli and dijon


dinner
sausages, fried eggs and spinach
more sausages and casein protein shake

summary
morning weight: 75.65kg
morning BF: 12.2%
calories: 1805
protein: 225g
fat: 112g
carbs: 26g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Felt normal at crossfit this morning, was able to push it all the way.
Got to bed an hour later that I'd hoped.
Good to see the carbs really low for Thursday, but that's because the calories are really low too. Have to try to eat more for breakfast.
3 chicken breasts for lunch today felt like a lot, less appetite than yesterday.
Bodyfat seems to be evening out as a slowly declining graph, but weight loss is not stopping. Eating more breakfast could bolster that.

Kie's Friday

workout
crossfit - Regionals 12.4 Team Workout


breakfast
BCAA, sausages, protein gel and a diet pepsi


lunch
steak and broccoli

workout
crossfit - Grace Rx'd


dinner
pork chops, spinach, avocado with olive oil and balsamic
casein protein shake

summary
morning weight: 76.30kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 2070
protein: 245g
fat: 113g
carbs: 28g
previous night's sleep: 6


notes:
Not going to bed early enough, part of the reason 'power week' stripped off fat was due I think to all the good sleeping that was going on. Must try to keep this as constant as possible between the two experiments.
After a tired start to the week I am feeling stronger.
Having some fat and protein for post workout breakfast will help get the calories up today.
Eating at maintenance yesterday meant the weight didn't drop but the fat kept dropping.

Kie's Saturday - Carb cycling day

workout
crossfit - Miracle Mile


breakfast
Protein Shake, burrito, young coconut strawberry and yoghurt smoothie, biscuits, root beer

lunch
honeydew melon, biscuits, aquarius, taco rice

dinner
popcorn, amino value, buttered toast with peanut butter, with marmite, with jam, young coconut melon and yoghurt smoothie, biscuits, burrito

summary
morning weight: 75.95kg
morning BF: 11.4%
calories: 4462
protein: 172g
fat: 135g
carbs: 646g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Just over the 600g mark on the carbs, didn't feel rough this Saturday, felt full all day though.
Next Saturday try to eat a sweet potato at least.



Kie's Sunday

workout
no motivation


breakfast
nothing - still full


lunch
sausages, saurkraut and a bottle of red wine

dinner
cod and spinach


summary
morning weight: 78.6kg
morning BF: 12.4%
calories: 1412
protein: 42g
fat: 60g
carbs: 33g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Started the day with a bit of a food hangover.

Kie's Monday

workout
crossfit - push presses


breakfast
protein gel and diet pepsi


lunch
250g smoked salmon, green salad, diet Dr. Pepper


dinner
chicken & tomato stew


summary
morning weight: 79.1kg
morning BF: 12.8%
calories: 963
protein: 142g
fat: 26g
carbs: 31g
previous night's sleep: 6


notes:
Stayed up late watching Predator, woke up feeling dried out from the wine so drank loads of water all day.

Kie's Tueday

workout
Crossfit - cleans


breakfast
protein gel and diet pepsi


lunch
chicken tomato stew


dinner
salmon, spinach, lettuce, avocado with olive oil

summary
morning weight: 78.1kg
morning BF: 13.2%
calories: 1636
protein: 134g
fat: 101g
carbs: 53g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Felt okay this morning. Surprised by the BF reading, it looks like the weights comes down first, then the bodyfat comes down, then the weight loss slows, and the bodyfat continues to drop. With a slow start to the week, perhaps due to not depleting glycogen on Sunday morning and drinking on Sunday, I am not confident that I'll get to 11.4% BF again this Saturday morning. That would mean this way of dieting is not a method to reduce BF and should not be revisited. Of course I'll continue for the planned 4 weeks regardless of data.



Kie's Wednesday

workout
Crossfit - front squats, weighted pull-ups, 


breakfast
protein gel and diet pepsi


lunch
chicken tomato stew

dinner
Chicken, broccoli, fried eggs, kimchi, butter, carrots and lotus root

summary
morning weight: 76.65kg
morning BF: 12.2%
calories: 1178
protein: 147g
fat: 41g
carbs: 49g
previous night's sleep: 8


notes:
Felt great this morning, 8 hours sleep! 10pm to 6.15am. I could have gone back to sleep for more too. Shows how my body needs more sleep.
Felt good in the gym too.
It is not a coincidence that I had an omega rich, high fat, high protein low carb meal, then 8 hours sleep and bodyweight came in a whole 1% less in 24 hours. Try the same tonight.
Last week there was one reading outside the curve on the graph, this week the off reading could be yesterday's 13.2. Last week I hit 12.2% on Thursday@75.65kg, this week 12.2% was hit on Wednesday@76.65. Could this be a slow downward trend on BF% while increasing muscle mass?


Kie's Thursday

workout
Crossfit - Good mornings, wall balls and 200m runs 


breakfast
3 boiled eggs and diet pepsi


lunch
Chicken and broccoli

dinner
Salmon, broccoli, spinach, kimchi


summary
morning weight: 76.30kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 1605
protein: 206g
fat: 72g
carbs: 24g
previous night's sleep: 8


notes:
8 hours sleep again! 0.2% drop in BF, same as last friday. But will the swoop to 11.2% come to fall in line with predictions?
Last night I felt stuffed after dinner, but hardly ate any calories over the whole day.


Kie's Friday

workout
Crossfit - High hang snatches and Hang cleans 


breakfast
2 boiled eggs and diet pepsi


lunch
Smoked salmon and salad


workout
Crossfit - Kalsu, the most horrible workout ever


dinner
Pacific cod, spinach, kimchi


summary
morning weight: 75.65kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 1214
protein: 203g
fat: 31g
carbs: 29g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Only 7 hours sleep because I got up early for open gym.
Is that why BF was stagnant.
Last time a omega rich, high protein day followed by a good night's sleep dropped 1%BF, this time nothing. Not confident about beating last week's 11.4%.



Kie's Saturday - carb refeed

workout
Crossfit - 30 muscle ups, pull-ups, push-presses, runs, air squats

breakfast
protein shake, burrito, berry juice


lunch
danish pastry, cheesecake, creme caramel, yoghurt

dinner
caramel popcorn, salted chocolate cookies, sweet potato, honeydew melon, 4 litres of beer, sashimi, chicken wings, ginkgo nuts, scallops, asparagus, yoghurt and raisins

summary
morning weight: 75.0kg
morning BF: 11.10%
calories: 5382
protein: 222g
fat: 129g
carbs: 617g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
stressful day with all the trains etc.

Kie's Sunday - re-establish ketosis

workout
5k run, cycle, walk


breakfast
scotch eggs


lunch
sausages, red wine

dinner
diet pepsi


summary
morning weight: 77.35kg
morning BF: 11.20%
calories: 1217
protein: 60g
fat: 96g
carbs: 20g
previous night's sleep: 10 (hangover)


notes:

Kie's Monday

workout
Crosssfit - Snatch 5-5-5-5-5


breakfast
3 boiled eggs, sausages


lunch
3 sirloin steaks, carrot , broccoli, sausages

dinner
pork chop, spinach, broccoli, kimchi

summary
morning weight: 78.2kg
morning BF: 12.30%
calories: 2198
protein: 287g
fat: 119g
carbs: 19g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
There we go! there's the delayed jump in BF from Saturdays refeed. But why does it take a day to register?


Kie's Tuesday

workout
Crossfit - front squats, weighted pull-ups


breakfast
diet pepsi


lunch
4 pork chops, broccoli, carrot

dinner
Nimono


summary
morning weight: 77.98kg
morning BF: 11.80%
calories: 984
protein: 121g
fat: 43g
carbs: 27g
previous night's sleep: 8


notes:
Good to see the bodyfat has completed its rise and is on the journey back down again as in week 1. I think if the Sunday morning 5k was not done, then today would have seen either another slight increase or the same result as Monday. Instead by re-establishing ketosis right away, the bodyfat starts it's journey to Saturday morning's 10.8% (Estimation made from graph so far below).

Bodyfat/time graph of CKD experiment so far showing cross over at this Saturday's predicted bodyfat.

Kie's Wednesday

workout
Crossfit - One legged deadlifts, weighted dips


breakfast
Nimono


lunch
Chicken and broccoli

dinner
Nimono, salmon, kimchi, pickles


summary
morning weight: 77.05kg
morning BF: 12.10%
calories: 1227
protein: 179g
fat: 40g
carbs: 27g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Today's BF reading does not fall in line with the graph.

Kie's Thursday

workout
Crossfit - 1RM Jerk, Helen


breakfast
Nimono


lunch
Stir fried beef and broccoli

dinner
chicken drumsticks, kimchi


summary
morning weight: 67.95kg
morning BF: 12.10%
calories: 1199
protein: 138g
fat: 52g
carbs: 39g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Nothing changed over 48hrs. Is the stress of this sore throat causing a plateau?

Kie's Friday

workout
Crossfit - 1RM Snatch TWOD, OHS 4-4-4-4-4 SWOD, Thrusters+CTB MWOD.


breakfast
BCAAs, pork and onions


lunch
pork and onions

dinner
chicken drumsticks, red wine.


summary
morning weight: 76.5kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 1986
protein: 204g
fat: 104g
carbs: 56g
previous night's sleep: 6


notes:
Total plateau, caused by less sleep this week or by sore throat?



Kie's Saturday

workout
Crossfit - team WOD

breakfast
Protein shake, dried sweet potato, paleo cookies

lunch
melon bread, croissants, lemon smoothie, curry bread, pizza bread, cheesecake, milk, sweet potato cake.

dinner
yoghurt, peanut butter on toast, french toast, banana, kiwi, mango, watermelon, pineapple jelly, aloe vera drink, banana ole drink, 70% dark chocolate.

summary
morning weight: kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 5312
protein: 213g
fat: 240g
carbs: 695g
previous night's sleep: 7.5


notes:
Cold almost gone away.


Kie's Sunday

workout
Cycle, 5km run, cycle, walk


breakfast
nothing


lunch
sausages, fried eggs

dinner
sausages and dark chocolate


summary
morning weight: kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 729
protein: 39g
fat: 67g
carbs: 16g
previous night's sleep: 9


notes:
Good night's sleep after a bloated day of mainly refined flours and dairy. Feel so much better with an empty stomach.


Kie's Monday

workout
Crossfit - Front squats, weighted pull-ups, dumbbell thruster met-con


breakfast
sausages, diet pepsi


lunch
sausages

dinner
chicken, broccoli and egg mayo

summary
morning weight: 77.95kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 1631
protein: 103g
fat: 123g
carbs: 53g
previous night's sleep: 7


notes:
Felt really strong in the gym this morning, it's great not feeling weak like I was last week.
Why did I eat 40g of carbs in the form of dark chocolate?


Kie's Tuesday

breakfast
nothing


lunch
nothing


workout
Crossfit - Romanian deadlifts, dips, Diane


dinner
maguro tomato avocado wasabi salad, fried cod, raspberry leaf tea, chicken and cucumber, casein protein shake

summary
morning weight: 77.35kg
morning BF: 11.8%
calories: 1381
protein: 210g
fat: 40g
carbs: 45g
previous night's sleep: 9 (woke up once, then slept in)


notes:
Dark chocolate taking up all the carbs again!
Had to eat a lot to make up for fasting all day.



Kie's Wednesday

workout
Crossfit - cleans


breakfast
pork and onion


lunch
chicken breast and broccoli

dinner
roast balsamic lemon chicken


summary
morning weight: 77.10kg
morning BF: 12.0%
calories: 0
protein: 0g
fat: 0g
carbs: 0g
previous night's sleep: 8


notes:
Diane stiffness is taking 36 hours to kick in.


Kie's Thursday

workout
Crossfit - Press


breakfast




lunch



dinner




summary
morning weight: kg
morning BF: %
calories: 0
protein: 0g
fat: 0g
carbs: 0g
previous night's sleep: 


notes: