Seventy30zero

In July 2018, I embarked on my own biohacking journey on nothing but a whim. I did minimal research and no preparation whatsoever. Just went with my feeling of ‘things just have to change’ and jumping straight into the deep end was probably not the best strategy, but it was what I needed to do to get me started on this incredible life changing journey.

I was 51 when I hit menopause. The years leading up to it for me was pretty awful. I dealt with a bunch of obscure issues that wasn’t debilitating but stopped me from doing many things I enjoyed and was really hindering my fitness endeavours. I think it was mostly the fatigue and mental fog that just got worse. Looking back now I always struggled with them since my teen years blaming myself more than anything else. I am the type of person who thinks ‘if you don’t think about it, it’s not that bad’ and I just left it at that but on hind sight, it was quite bad.

During my 20’s, I had 3 wonderful children and my body was still coping fairly well with those pregnancies but the tiredness of all of that took its toll on my sleep, nerves and emotions. Sleep deprived and tired all the time, I became a bag of raw nerves. Loved my babies but totally neglected myself. The only thing that saved me was my supportive husband and my running. I clung to running for my life. It was my time, my space, my sanity! No matter how tired I was after my youngest’s last feed at night, I knew that I needed to run.

The other issues were all due to just chronic random inflammation. I’ve always had bad skin, acne, eczema, and unexplained rashes was a common occurrence with me and any amount of stress or bad food would bring about a bout of hives or gut distress. Hormones were always out of whack and joint pain, nerve pain, cold sore outbreaks (almost monthly if not more) and the PMS. The list goes on and with that feeling depressed most of the time just seemed the norm.

I signed up for my first ultra in 2002. It was the Oxfam Trailwalker and a 100km trail race. From that day I was hooked. Cursing at a team mate who was going through mood swings while I dealt with my own. Struggling through my pain, exhaustion and annoyance, I was already ferociously planning my next 100km… without him.

So in my 30’s I managed ok and fitness was pretty good but so many things were holding me back. The biggest was the gut issues. Even as I trained well to get my body into a place to withstand climbing mountainous trails and running roads for 100km, my gut had always failed me. I would always end up midway through the race with diarrhoea and terrible painful bloating and nausea. It was so frustrating to me that no matter what I did or how I tweaked my fuelling strategy, nothing seems to help and it just got worse with every race.

The other issue was the poor state of my immune system. My HSV outbreaks would always come if I trained too hard or had a race and would leave me having to rest for a week feeling fluey, tired and suffering terrible nerve pain. I just dealt with it all and it became the new normal.

Eventually, though my life was getting a bit less hectic with the kids all getting to secondary school age and my own energy coming back a bit, I then found I was pregnant again! 10 years since my last pregnancy and my body did not appreciate being put through all this again. It was a tough pregnancy near term and the baby was big and healthy so I can’t complain at all, but pushing him out into the world really took its toll on my body. It literally broke it.

I ended up with PSD (pubis symphysis diastasis, which is the separation of the ligament that fuses the front pelvic bone) birthing my rather large baby boy and was left unable walk properly for 6 weeks. It took even more time till I was pain free and to even consider returning to running. Recovery was slow and frustrating especially when you have to look after a new born baby as well. Thank goodness he was such a good, happy baby!

I did recover quite well in the end through sheer stubbornness, began to train and managed another 100km trail race 9 months later.

By 2018, I was steadily feeling heavier and my pre pregnancy waist line seemed depressingly to have disappeared for good. The many races I had completed over the years had left their mark and each ultra left me battered and out of commission for a while. I had terrible insomnia, allergies to almost everything (even an exercise induced allergy) and would sometime go weeks without any sleep at all. I was constantly told to lower my cholesterol or go on statins and so I did what the doctor said and cut out everything that was high in cholesterol (and anything with any nutritional value) and proudly brought my numbers down and also felt absolutely terrible. I developed a frozen shoulder out of nowhere and was in terrible pain for a whole year. Was on heavy medication for nerve pain and insomnia. Depression turned into anxiety that sent me into minor panic attack episodes at times. I had chronic pain in my neck and while still running I suffered IT band syndrome ,weak ankles and random joint pain, etc, etc…

I will stop here because the list just goes on and on but I suffered in silence because that is what you do as a Japanese woman. There is a Japanese word that doesn’t really have an equivalent in English, “gaman”. I always hear this in my head with my mother’s voice. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, it is a Zen Buddhist term meaning “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”. So, in the summer of 2018, in desperation and with the side of me that grew up in a western country sick of “gaman”, I just decided to try the Ketogenic diet.

The reasoning behind this desperation was because I did not want to give up on my trail running passion. I knew I needed to find the food that my body would accept as fuel without all the palaver. As I researched endlessly on the web and read any books I found on Ketogenic/low carbohydrate diets, I learned how much damage a high carbohydrate diet can have on the body. I also read controversies about cholesterol, the USDA food pyramid, the demonising of fats and salts, the devastation of sugar had on your body and the processed foods of the SAD (Standard American Diet). This made me question everything that I used to believe that was a heart healthy diet. It was around this time that Dr Tim Noakes, a doctor, scientist, professor and the author of a book published in the 80’s titled ‘Lore of Running’ had also later published a book called “Lore of Nutrition” amending what he originally purported as the ideal fuel for runners and athletes in his new book. He caused some waves among the medical society who didn’t like the questions that were being raised about the falsehoods of a low fat, high carbohydrate diet that was supposed to be the basis of what they claimed to be a heart healthy diet. Eventually his fellow faculty members at the University of Capetown decided they could silence him by accusing him of making “outrageous unproven claims about disease prevention” to the public. His trial, which he eventually won in 2017 was still in the news during the time I was doing all my research into Keto. It really opened my eyes further and solidified my determination to continue with this diet even though it was so hard to stick to as it completely affected my social life with how restrictive it was. I felt determined to carry on and I also began to discover much more about fat adaptation and how healthy fats might finally be the answer to all my fuelling issues.

The Ketogenic diet was a game changer for me. The adjustment period was very tough, getting through the famous ‘keto’ flu and having my running fitness level drop down to what felt like zero. I would have to start fresh to build it back up and decided to take this time to build my knowledge, reading and researching everything that was available. Any information about the ketogenic diet at that time was patchy and very difficult to separate fact and fiction. In the end my efforts paid off. Armed with this new knowledge I felt more confident to stick with it. I discovered very early on that it’s by no means an easy diet, and it is an ‘all or nothing’, and cheating was absolutely out of the question.

Getting back into training, I had to start slow and get back down to basics. At the beginning my heart rate soared with just a little jog and there were times I felt I was so slow that I felt like was moving backwards! But I listened to my body and gave it time to readjust from a carb based energy source to using my body fat, which everyone, even the skinniest people, have in abundance. Steadily I regained my fitness levels as my body was optimising the mitochondria in my cells to run on this ‘new’ fuel. It was an amazing change. Other things started to happen even before that to keep me on track. Just one week on keto, my neck pain disappeared and my sleeping was so much better and I was able to stop my reliance on sleeping pills and other medication. The brain fog lifted and I couldn’t believe that I had been drowning in it for so long! It was like suddenly someone cleaned the windows and everything looked clear and bright! I felt calm, happy and balanced.

My running took on a new life! Menopause was also a fast fading memory as I began to feel lighter and stronger. I didn’t suffer from all those niggly pains in my knees, ankles or feet. I didn’t have any lactic acid build up after a hard workout. My recovery was amazing and I felt I was finally fat adapted and not relying on any carbs since I was training fasted and feeling great.

Fast forward to April this year, almost 6 years on keto and having transitioned into a more low carb diet, I started to feel I needed another kick start again and also was still plagued by my HSV outbreaks. I still felt some foods did me no favours and I started to get that carb addictive feeling again. Why was it coming back? I guess I was getting less Keto and more low carb so maybe things were starting to slip again. I felt I needed another reset so I decided to go to aiming for zero carb so a carnivore diet seemed the best way forward.

So this is how I got here. 4 months on carnivore, which consists of only eating meat (mainly beef), eggs, salt and water. Dairy is allowed but I personally felt better to cut out most dairy products except for full fat greek yoghurt, and, oh yes, coffee, my only non-animal based substance. Feeling absolutely amazing and totally satiated on this way of eating (woe), my cravings for “bad” foods have disappeared. My body is still healing and I know it still has a long road ahead but my fitness level is returning and more importantly my attitude towards it. Once again I’ve gained so much more knowledge from taking myself in this new direction. It has been hard to cut out all the plant based foods at first but now it just feels right. I’m calm, clear minded and the energy level is amazing! Just feel like a better person, more whole.

I have religiously kept my own journal of my health journey from the very beginning and have never thought of sharing it, especially since these extreme ‘diets’ are a bit of a sensitive topic. I believe that there definitely is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to food and everyone has to find the way that suit themselves the best for what they aspire their bodies to do.

So, it was all a very personal journey for me and I also didn’t really know if it would come to any improvement at all. But now from all the knowledge I have gained through all my trials, tribulations and successes, I’d kind of like to share my story in case it can help anyone else going through a similar personal journey. I realise it is an extreme and risky thing to put your body through and it needs to be done with consideration into individual health conditions and, if at all possible, with the right kind of professional help, even though I did it alone. Nowadays, there are more doctors, and health professionals who are more open to different types of diets that don’t align with the normal guidelines, and are open to guiding you through these more extreme diets for health and wellbeing. Everyone is different, with our own quirks and expectations and I wish that when I started this crazy journey there was a professional with a broad knowledge and an open mind to help me along this crazy passion.

Before having my children I worked in the fitness industry as a Personal Trainer but am in no way a medical or nutritional health professional. I am someone who just wants to keep learning and see all sides of the puzzle and not feel like I have to live inside a box someone else built up. I do like living in a safety of a box most times but the Japanese side of me always likes to push the boundaries just to see how far and more efficiently things can go in which case, ‘gaman’ comes in pretty handy.

My journey is still ongoing, and my first race on zero carb is this weekend! 45 km on a very tough trail with lots of elevation and in the summer heat and humidity of Hong Kong. Then, in late October, a 3 day ultra trail event covering a total of 100km in the mountainous areas of Nepal, very quickly followed by my main event of the year, the 100km UTMB TransLantau race in early November on my home turf. I am super excited to see how I do with my newly revised body and fuelling strategy and how it will affect my race results. I’m also very excited to share the results and all the details of the blood (not too much), sweat and tears (hopefully happy one) with you here.

So now, at 57 getting very near to hitting that big 6-0, I feel healthier, happier and feeling as fit or fitter than I have ever felt before. There’s still more room to grow for sure, and the best is definitely still to come!

I hope I can share a bit of insight in my ramblings to help those of you in a similar place in life to find a new way to help you make your dreams a reality.