From an early age sugar was defiantly a reward and a bandage. I suspect this was amplified when I went to boarding school at 10. Like many youngsters I certainly didn’t develop a balance eating habit. Before I went I loved riding my bike & swimming but rugby, football, gymnastics and running were not for me. I enjoyed a carb heavy diet and certainly stored my excess round my middle.
In my late 20s I tried the gym and running, low fat and many other diets always feeling hungry and struggling to lose weight or keep it off.
It was not until my 30s did I find cycling again, I started to ride round the park to get fit/lose weight but I fell into mountain biking which I found was as much fun as skiing. Over the years my competitiveness meant I didn’t always want to be last and I tried to improve my fitness and then enter some sportives. My fitness development has been periodically interrupted by my over ambition, lack of talent and generally eating dirt and breaking bones.
It was around this time back in 2003 I joined the Atkins train… uneducated I lost weight but ended up eating a high protein low veg diet. After a few months I stopped went on holiday and binged on all the carbs in the world.
Over the last 15 years I have revisited IF/LCHF & Keto, with varying success but in the last few years with more knowledge, confidence and success. In 2013 I hit 96kg, in the 2016 Marmotte I was 71kg, I am currently 80kg.
I always lose weight on low carb but I have had two issues:
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Struggling to exercise
I would start the year low carb and last for about 3 months losing weight but with no performance on the bike, I would then go back to carbs train normally and over the rest of the year put weight on. Then repeat. -
Gravitating back to carbs (falling off the wagon)
For the last 2 years 2016 & 2017 I have nailed my performance issues (salt, more to follow) however by my summer holiday with all events finished the call of mille-feuille and beer would overcome me and a day off turned into a week and then 4 months.
Any advise on this, despite feeling great in keto I keep losing focus/will power/my mind?