A very significant year. So overwhelming I had to make an apology that this annual writeup is likely received as half finished.

For those who are new to this initiative, welcome! This channel is a repository of N=1 experience surrounding Cyclical ketogenic and Intermittent Fasting, encapsulated in the theme of inaccessibility.”Food For Thoughts” is an annual write up as an offering for readers (however few they are) to detail my experiences and/or journey since 2016. For more elaborated introduction please consider reading  “Where / How shall we begin?”.

Disclaimers before we begin:

1. Wording and terminology disclosure.
   1. WOL ~ Way of Life.
   2. WOE ~ Way of eating.
   3. CKD+IF ~ Cyclical Keto / Low carbohydrate + Intermittent Fasting (18:6 ~ 20:4).
2. This entire concept initiative is slightly leaning towards the stern sides at purveying nutrition, frugality and psychology. Timely readership is  appreciated.
3. No differently to other content or aspiring authors – do not confide anyone’s experience(s) as cure. How you’ve adopted various WOE  into your own variable – WOL on top of your own individual nuances (physiology, biology etc) exists variably for a reason that it is uniquely yours.  All health and/or wellness reclamations remains truth be told ~ an individual indemnity and responsibility. 
4. All of my key feature write-ups are single handedly written without external assistance, editors or “automation”. All are subject to undergo writing amends unless disclosed as “archived”.  

Summary

This year gave me many blessings, but not without their challenges. For those not acquainted, I posted an official notice declaring changes on my living circumstance(s), as I soon be moving inbetween residences. I also outlined in the article how this will affect my capacity on continuing the rebrand as well as the frequency of new content writing.

The good – I was able to maintain and extend, fitness training to as much as seven (7) full days of training for nearing a full four (4) months with sustainable intensity. On top of the usual four day splits, there were now three (3) more additional accessory training usually involving backs and lower parts.  Rationale:

1. Mobilise the more underutilized muscle groups
2. Obligate to reclaim (some) privacy away from my temporary accommodation.

Nutrition formatting remained as CKD+IF. But I’ve decided to extend the fasting windows, to effectively seven (7) days on top of the above increase of training frequency. Mondays to Fridays are exactly the same – up 20 hours / 4 hours for feeding window. Saturday and Sundays I am still practicing IF, but reduced to 14-16:8 to allow comfortable increase of needed calories and for the carbohydrate allowance.

Weekday calorie intake hovers up to 2200 kcals. Weekends ~ 3000 kcals taking place after training.

As for the challenges ~ plenty. Almost non-stop on a daily basis.

The various WOL restrictions in my temporary accommodation required a steeper learning curve than anticipated. No eggs, no fish, no cooking nor preparing any food involving uncooked meats of any kind.

I’d like to pause for a minute to express assurance for all my relatives involved. I am absolutely grateful for what I am granted. But here in this writeup I am simply trying to be objectively transparent, by curating as many insights relevant, both good and the bad ~ all of which are significant enough to cumulatively affect my entire reflection throughout this very challenging year.

Supplementing the many gaps in my nutrition, throughout these last four ending months of 2023 were absolutely crucial. Another reason for me to strongly consider these came from from my recent nutrigenomics consult. These supplements are mainly pre-methylated vitamins + other methylation micronutrient supports. Notably Choline ~ Phosphadytil Choline and Choline Bitartrate were the highlights and I decidedly feature them into my Non-Negotiable 5+year retrospect writeup. Without these in place, I cannot imagine how I can handle constant daily stressors. Not just burn-outs from industry hours overtimes here. But everything else surrounding it ~ routines be it personal, training, finances, home, family, scheduling. And on top of it all – economics, sociology, and environment.

Consequently, keeping on top of my own self journalling has been unfortunately becoming a challenge. I only have  in any given day, effectively since the beginning of this year less than one hour of absolutely free discretion time. Much of this is spent towards just me winding down. Every other minute on the other hand ~  is quite literally ~ spent or consumed in a hustle.

All in all this year brought me many lessons. Grind and grit. There were far too many things I was meant to include here in the summary. But time prohibitive ~ not possible for me to do so. That wraps up my summary for 2023.

About the Book’s progress, jobs and my state of “stress”.

I am saddened to admit I have no further news ~ than that of my rewriting on the Book / Parent manuscript ~ still remains as “on going”. I had to attend so many matters in as well outside of this initiative.

And that is not all. I may have escaped living under stigma of welfare. However the future remains uncertain.

I have always loathed that one day, taking on multiple vocations are likely on the cards. And it is precisely this involuntary anxiety, that I wanted to share my thoughts on this subject, particularly surrounding Automation. “AI”, “Assistive Tools”,  “ChatGPT” or whatever other “names” we coined these inventions ~ I believe should all be introspected with intense skepticism(s) by the user. I am simply thinking-out-loud here that my observations thus far suggest a “U” curve, so far in terms of their social implications between benevolence or exploitation.

Despite experiencing constant anxiety, I have learned nonetheless a thing or two about “Stress”.

I actually love my work. And that “Burnouts” can be, yes I shall admit constructive and/or even – a self-fullfiling journey. The question here is sustainability.

In order for WOW (no, not worldcraft, but “work”) to be sustainable, Expectations (objectives) must be honoured with Acknowledgment (awareness) of the process. My trade quickly become loathing, and full of anxiety if expectations forego mutual acknowledgement. Expectations, is clearly important at setting out itemised objectives, I am not disputing that. However, equally as important is to honour both process and time which are context-sensitive. Being aware of these context, which is sensitive project-to-project, is where Acknowledgement becomes equally as important.

“Hours” spent to me does not mean anything. I’d argue it is a poor marker to evaluate “quality”. What matters is the process. Irrespective “design” or “front-end development”, I’d wager all industries involve at some stage, manifesting intangible proof-of-concept into tangible proof-of-stakes. Of course I do not carry every “proficiency” or industry “skillset”. But my observation thus far suggests there is always an element of learning and unlearning. So long as this is acknowledged, Time, therefore, (almost) does not matter.

Obviously the above is subject to its own limits. I certainly don’t have unlimited time, nor do I offer unlimited charity.  I have been omitting other things which I initially planned in this “Summary” part of Food For Thoughts. However, with so few energy and time available, I am not likely to expand on them. Hence, my summary stands and/or concludes as they are, for 2023.

Conclusion

By now, absolutely nobody I suspect is not affected by the inflation and cost-of-living crisis.

I fail to understand the mind of politicians whom they cannot factor in logic, together with current and/or tangible concerns before their very eyes. Their impact(s) on anyone’s grocery receipt is not mere trivia. It is survival, that which I can attest from my retrospect on five-years stigma of welfare.

Irrespective, cyclical keto  + intermittent fasting is here to stay. The extended training to six or even seven days all went through without excess or notable injuries. Despite my prolonged 40+ hours regiment is far and few because I do not wish to be questioned by or amongst relatives, considering the major WOL changes I had to adjust throughout a good 3/4 of this year.

Of all things –  I do look forward for the new year. Albeit very exhausted and less confident ~ that I likely will not meet a deserved rest as I shall have to move out again.

Live-It-Forward,

AW.