The third eleven days of Lent 2021.

Friday 12th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
4 77.9 -0.4 14.2 -0.1

I woke up and looked at the watch. I thought it said 655. Whilst shaving and brushing my teeth, I looked at the clock again and actually it must have been 635. No matter for me - I like being up early. I went downstairs, let Luna out, fed her and then made coffee.

I have a headache above my right eye and I’m going to have difficulty doing screen work today, which is annoying because I must finish an article today, in the sense that I should have finished it on Wednesday.

I went to bed early again and read. I finished a book on investment. The problem with books like this is they really require one to sit down and run the numbers, which makes reading them and getting the full benefit when in bed rather difficult. I then picked up a book on eating habits and how the diet has evolved into three meals a day. The talk of sandwiches and pie made me rather hungry - nothing I couldn’t handle though.

This morning the statistics are heading in the right direction again. I’m below 78kg and my fat weight is dropping gradually. I have a long day of work ahead starting with a due diligence meeting, a pension meeting that needs an hour of preparation and the article writing. It is all achievable provided I shut the door and get on with it.

This evening I hope to stop early and prepare for brewing on Saturday. I am brewing a dark beer. Brew days always go better if I prepare everything the night before.

Saturday 13th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
4 77.3 -0.6 13.9 -0.3

I woke up this morning with a headache, almost like a hangover. I got to sleep late because I waited for my wife to come in. On her midnight arrival, I had to open the cafe and cook her scrambled eggs with salad. The activity made me hungry and for some reason, I have a craving for steak pudding as a result. Actually, it was relatively easy to disconnect from the food. This morning I got up a bit later and made her an omelette (the canteen offers a full 24-hour service apparently).

I stopped drinking fluids around 8pm last night to avoid having to get up in the night, but it didn’t make a difference. What is notable is my weight has dropped significantly. It must be an anomaly. However, my waist measurement has dropped to 91cm/35”14.

I’m brewing beer today and I prepared everything last night. A mouse has kindly been in the garage and as a result, I’ve had to clean up a few pieces of equipment this morning. But as I type this at 930, the water is heating up for the first stage of brewing.

Yesterday I had some meetings in the morning and managed to sort out my pension - something I should have done years ago. Most of the standard pensions out there are not very good and sensibly investing can make a difference. You can either retire earlier or retire more comfortably. In the afternoon, I took Luna for a walk and the procrastination engine kicked in. It got to three o’clock and I decided to cook my dinner - two steaks, broccoli and asparagus in a cheese sauce. The cheese sauce was simply a few bits of cheese leftover (stilton and brie) with some butter microwaved with the vegetables for a minute.

I was procrastinating because I needed to finish an article. I’ve been playing around with it all week. Inspiron hit around 4pm and I took a blank sheet of paper and rewrote it in fountain pen, almost from scratch. By 7pm I had a draft and today I need to edit and hack it around. All being well, I will have finished it in time for Monday.

It feels great once the article is finished, but you really need to dedicate deep work time to such things, otherwise they will not get done. By doing so, it is easier to enjoy the activity too.

Anyway here is the summary of the week. The fat weight continues to descend:

According to the Fitbit, I had two “good” nights of sleep. I need to get good REM sleep. It helps with long-term memory and learning.

Sunday 14th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
1.5 76.9 -0.4 13.7 -0.2

It’s the fourth Sunday in Lent, which means in precisely three weeks this activity will be over. Our dog woke me up at 7 and I went into autopilot. I let her out, fed her and emptied the dishwasher. I’ve completed all of my measurements and I’ve the lightest I’ve weighed for at least the last two years at 76.9kg.

It’s also Mothering Sunday, which we will have to do over video as the COVID lockdown continues.

I’m having moments of difficulty caused by occasional cravings, but as I write this I’m feeling fine. That said, tonight’s toad-in-the-hole is already defrosting and the potatoes are already peeled for the mash.

I also felt a bit faint yesterday. I brewed a beer from scratch and that can be quite physical. I don’t know what I’ve done but I’ve extracted far more sugar from the grain than I expected and it is happily fermenting this morning. I had a very small taste of the wort to check it.

We ate around 1830 and had Roast Chicken with salad and green beans in stilton sauce. It was much needed with all the lifting and shifting due to the brewing. Once the wort is boiled, I need to spend time outside and also I cleaned up the mash tun. This was time spent outside in the air. We had hail yesterday. Hopefully, the weather will be more pleasant today.

The ketosis strip was difficult to read this morning, so I’ve recorded it as 1.5. They wear out once they are exposed to oxygen.

I bought some PET bottles on Amazon. I’ve got to bottle beer next week. I held off but timing is critical. I’m counting this as necessary!

Monday 15th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
1.5 77.4 0.5 13.5 -0.1

I did not expect my weight to go down overnight given the amount of food I had. Mid-afternoon, I started with a natural yoghurt, then some porridge and then toad-in-the-hole with extra sausages, mash and green beans. About thirty minutes later, I was drowsy, probably due to the sugar crash. I took a vitamin B supplement to counter tiredness.

Yet this morning I’m still reading between 1.5 and 4 on the ketosis strip and my fat weight continues to decrease. We went for a walk with the dog in the evening but other than that, the day was spent at the keyboard. I managed to finish an article I’m writing from Zymurgy magazine and I sent it in for review. One thing off the long list.

Around 2045 I went to bed with some books. I read until 2215 and went to sleep almost immediately. I had to get up around 0420 but went straight back to sleep afterwards, waking at 0720 when Luna called to be let out. I’m feeling a bit zonked. Time to get some coffee in the system, but at 0820 I’m up and ready to go for the day.

The lockdown really skews reality. If I were still commuting every day, I’m not sure I would be able to do this diet. That said I have done OMAD diets before and commuted, with a relaxed attitude towards what I was eating. Also on reflection, I’m not sure that the diet I’m following is really in the spirit of Lent. I’m eating one meal a day and nothing else, but I’m eating very well indeed. I’m eating good quality meat, fish and vegetables. Perhaps next year I need to do something differently.

Tuesday 16th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
1.5 77.7 0.3 13.6 0.1

Argh! My weight and fat weight have increased. I wondered how long it would be before this happened. The variance is minimal and I’m not worried. The two things about yesterday to note were I didn’t get enough exercise and I didn’t get to sleep early enough, despite heading to bed to read around 2100.

We both had a lot to do yesterday and I managed to slip out to the post office and shop to get out of the house. We had dinner around 1500 - salmon, cauliflower mash and salad. My meetings then continued to around 1800. I cleaned up the boiler from Saturday’s brew session, which took longer than it should. I also replaced the lid and airlock on the fermenter. The yeast is very active indeed and loads of gunk has come through the airlock onto the lid. I thought it best to replace the lot with a clean sanitised one. That said, I’m now anxious I’ve dropped something into the beer.

Brewing anxiety is quite annoying. I suspect it stems from the fact that one small mistake in the process can result in a massive error. For example, I didn’t seal a keg properly in November. In December when I came to drink the beer, it had not gassed properly and was not drinkable. I had a go at fixing the keg on Saturday and I think I’ve succeeded, but I’m wondering if it is better to be safe rather than sorry and not use it again. The best way to keep beer a long time is to bottle it. I don’t like bottling. If you don’t understand why, try it - clean the bottles, rinse the bottles, sanitised the bottles, carefully syphon the beer into the bottles or via a bottling vessel. It’s repetitive graft. I can understand why breweries send their beer away to be packaged.

I’m about to start a heavy day of work, but I hope to get out in the garden for a bit. I’ve walked Luna around the block for 15 minutes this morning. She didn’t want to go in the rain and nor did I, to be frank.

Wednesday 17th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
1.5 77.9 0.2 13.6 0.0

My weight is increasing and my fat weight is staying more or less the same. I’m tired and I’m not sleeping. I drink five coffees a day and I’m usually done with the caffeine by midday. However recently I have been drinking decaf in the afternoons and for some reason, I’m not sure it is a good fit for me. After failing to get to sleep last night I was back at my desk at 00:30 for 20 minutes just to see if I could tire myself out. I got to sleep eventually but it took a while.

I’m also not getting enough fresh air. I went out yesterday for 20 minutes with Luna and didn’t get out of the house again. I need to get out today for a bit longer.

Then in the cascade of failure, I purchased a Mac Mini on e-bay for £35. Was it essential? There are two views to this. 1. It looked like a great offer and is exactly what I need for a personal programming project, in that the computer may not have been there for purchase at the end of Lent. 2. If I was being strict, then strictly it is an unnecessary purchase. I’ll mark it as an amber. It will live in the garage (unless we have an ultra-hot summer) and it will sit compiling code.

We had dinner around 1600 yesterday and I had to work into the evening due to a company event. Today the end is in sight on a documentation project I’m doing and I will put that to bed in the next hour or two. Then I need to write a Russian essay on being in hospital. Fortunately, as a freelancer, I have the flexibility to do this around other things, otherwise it would not get done in time for the lesson this evening.

Thursday 18th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
1.5 78.3 0.4 13.7 0.1

Argh. Everything is increasing. And technology is failing. My Fitbit decided that I woke up at 5am and got up. I got up around 620 and did my measurements, but went back to bed shortly afterwards and watched a video. It’s unusual for me to do this, but today I needed a bit of a lie-in. I’m still in ketosis, but my measurements are up. No matter. I just need to keep going for 16 days and I will be out of Lent.

I went for a walk to the local shopping centre yesterday lunchtime. Given the lockdown, it was a bit of a trek to find the open entrance, but once in there were a few shops open, mainly coffee shops, stationery shops and hardware stores. I bought some stationery, arguably non-essential but one of the items was a file box which I needed to tidy my office.

We had pork belly with kale and salad, and I studied in the evening. I finished Russian lessons at 2100 and went to bed almost straight after. I tried to read but couldn’t really concentrate on it. I’m reading several books at the moment - too many in fact. I’ve temporarily put down the book about American food habits - it’s too difficult to read about food and not get hungry.

My aims today are small and administrative. I have a meeting shortly to close off a project and I have a meeting this afternoon to open up a new one. In between, I will take our dog for a walk and later do some study for a potential contract.

My thoughts are beginning to focus on what I do after this Lent period. I do not want to ruin the progress I’ve made. I intend to start cycling again - I just need to muster up the courage to get back on the bike and not fall off it. This weekend will be cold by all accounts, so perhaps it will be time and the weather will be good enough when Lent is coming to an end.

Friday 19th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
1.5 77.8 -0.5 13.5 -0.2

Once again I went to bed early but ended up reading and watching videos. My wife was working late and I tend to wait up. Still, I slept well and the Fitbit informs me that I had over an hour of REM sleep. That said over the past couple of days I’ve had a bit of trouble with short-term memory. I recorded 3 coffees yesterday (yes, I record the number of coffees I drink) and I’m sure I had more, but actually, I probably didn’t and I can’t remember. Anyway, the statistics are heading back in the right direction. Also, my fat weight is the lowest reading throughout Lent.

Why do I record my caffeine intake? It’s very easy to spend the day slurping coffee. At the moment, I keep to a maximum of 5 cups of coffee and after that, I switch to decaf or drink something else. Really I should reduce the amount of coffee and be done with it by midday. It can make someone ratty and hyper. Also, there are advantages to having coffee in the morning to get going, but during the day it can stimulate cortisol levels and have adverse effects. I’ve tried to cut coffee out, but I end up coming back to it.

I’m taking today off work more or less - I have two meetings. My first port of call is the supermarket to get some groceries. Our shopping lists are remarkably small when we eat one meal a day and there is no “bad” snack food on the list. I suspect the most expensive item will be razor blades.

After the excitement of the supermarket, I will attempt to mow the lawn and dig over the composter. This year I’m ahead with the garden. I got out as soon as I could and mowed the lawn in February. In previous years, I’ve left it and left it, then we’ve had a period of rain and it has been as late as April until I’ve done something about it. Working at home has its advantages.

Yesterday we had smoked haddock with vegetables in butter and salad. I also had some peanuts. I’ve not had any feelings of hunger outside of mealtimes, although this morning I did have a sharp abdominal pain. I’m sure it’s just muscular.

I had hoped to take Luna for a walk at lunchtime but the weather wasn’t kind to us. We went in the evening instead.

I managed to get through a lot of work yesterday and set up the Mac Mini I bought on Tuesday. It arrived very promptly and I persuaded it to boot something different to Mac OS (NetBSD). It has been compiling and building software all evening. These computers are lovely bits of kit and it is a shame that they get discarded. The version of Mac OS on it was ancient (Leopard) and was the version I used when I first bought a Mac. Interesting to see it again.

Saturday 20th March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
0.5 77.8 0.0 13.5 0.0

I’m tired this morning because I didn’t sleep well. I didn’t get off to sleep and I was disturbed when I did. The Fitbit says that I got 3 hours and 36 minutes of sleep… but this is 2 hours out because although I got up at 5:15, I went back to bed and slept until 730. The Fitbit can be unreliable at times. Anyway, our dog is a reliable alarm clock and I had to get up at 730 to let her out and feed her breakfast. Out of all the inmates in this house, I think she is treated the best, although if she filled out a survey she’d probably say the food is repetitive and the crate space does not meet EU regulations.

In the morning yesterday I got up and went to the supermarket early, then mowed the lawns and sorted out the composter. We have to compost raw things at home at the moment because the brown bin collection is unreliable, but this generates a lot of waste. I prefer to compost but I don’t have space to compost all our raw waste and garden waste without buying another composter. Also, there’s a rodent who visits the composter. I suspect he or she is the second-best treated inmate, getting food for free daily and living under next door’s shed.

The statistics have flat-lined and my ketone levels are lower this morning. In terms of the week, here are my weight statistics.

My waist measurement is 90.6cm (35”11/16) this morning. The Fitbit has failed to record reliable statistics three times this week so I won’t bother with those.

Moving progressively on, I had intended this morning to fly out of bed in superman style and bottle a load of beer. Actually, at 0930 I’m on my second coffee figuring out what to do next. I’d forgotten I need to set up a new bottling rig, so I might figure that out instead and do the bottling tomorrow. This afternoon I have a Zoom meeting with the County Beermakers where I won’t be drinking but will be participating. Ridiculously one benefit of lockdown is I can attend brewing meetings without drinking.

Here is an example of where restricting oneself on Amazon and Bay becomes irritating. I have two monitors, both plugged into my Mac which is my main machine. I’m debugging a problem with the “new old Mac Mini” I bought this week and I need a monitor. I can either set up a third monitor from the loft or continually move the second monitor between computers. I discovered this morning that the only option to upgrade the operating system I’m using is to boot into Mac OS Leopard, copy a file into place and reboot. It works, but it needs a keyboard and monitor. There are no tools that understand the Mac hard disc format from the Operating System I’m using (even the one that exists, doesn’t work properly). So my natural solution would be to buy some cables and use the two monitor inputs. There’s a suitable cable on Amazon and I think I should wait until after Lent - at the end of the day I can get by.

Sunday 21st March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
0.5 77.8 0.0 13.5 -0.1

I woke up this morning feeling like I’d had a few drinks the night before. I have a slightly sore throat and a taste in my mouth. I ate some raw onion yesterday and sometimes this causes the morning after taste, but I can’t example the sore throat. My ketone levels have dropped to a trace.

Yesterday, I got engrossed in the “new old Mac Mini” problem. I ended up discussing it with a friend in St Petersburg and we spent an hour reinstalling the thing. It was quite complicated because I was not installing MacOS but NetBSD. After an hour or two of fiddling with DVD burners, MS-DOS partitions, disk labels and boot loaders, I had the thing booting again without having to keep MacOS on the disc. But that took up most of the morning.

In the afternoon I attended my beer circle’s monthly meeting but didn’t drink. Given the pandemic, it was held on Zoom. They were all enjoying home-brew. It didn’t bother me particularly - I can get by with coffee and water, although it would be harder if we all met in person.

On Friday I made a large batch of chilli-con-carne and we had some last night with guacamole and creme-fraiche. Then I took Luna for a walk and spoke briefly to a neighbour about the rat (see yesterday). We saw the rat as we were eating and it is living a good life. It will continue to do so unless Luna gets her way. According to our neighbour, it lives under our tool shed, burrows into their garden, runs along the wall and then burrows under to my composter. There is video evidence. It’s not doing any visible hard so we are leaving it alone.

We went to bed early for a Saturday night, but it compensated for a late night on Friday.

I’m typing this at 746 and I’m just about up. I’m going back to bed to read for a bit once I’ve made some coffee. Today I want to avoid the computer. We spend too long looking at screens, exacerbated by social Zoom, Teams and Skype meetings. I need to get some time away from the screen and that is what I shall do. I will be making homemade burgers and chips later on as our “cheat meal” - probably our most excessive cheat meal of the period.

Monday 22nd March

Ketosis Weight Variance Fat Variance
0.25 78.0 0.2 13.5 0.0

Both weight numbers are up and it isn’t surprising. Around 1500 we had homemade burgers with cheese and bacon, homemade chips and onion rings. I also made porridge. It was a big meal, probably the biggest in Lent and probably the highest amount of carbs I’ve eaten since Shrove Tuesday. My ketone levels are very low this morning - there’s a trace but that’s about it. I had a sugar crash in the afternoon for about 20 minutes followed by the inevitable stomach movements that happen when I eat carbs.

Despite getting some rest yesterday, I don’t feel particularly rested this morning. I read some drafts and made changes to an article I’m working on, had a family Zoom call and walked Luna. Other than making dinner, I spent the rest of the time reading.

What I should have done is bottled some beer and transferred the porter from the primary into the secondary to rest. The beer that needs bottling is in the secondary… so I guess I will have to do this one evening this week. Packaging is the bit of brewing I enjoy the least.

I got up this morning around 715 and took Luna for a walk, getting my fresh air for the day early. I’ve got a day of work in front of the computer. If I can get through it rapidly, I will bottle the beer later on.