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When you go in for your thrice-weekly weigh-in and needle-pokefest, your urine gets scrutinzed at the same time.
Its actually a little fun - you get instant feedback on whether youre burning that flab and how high your engine is running.
Now, I usually eat breakfast around 7 a.m - protein first, some fruit, coffee, pills/potassium and a large glass of my lemon/Splenda/water potion. It gives me a full belly, lots of energy, and a full bladder by the time I reach the clinic.
My regular 8 a.m. weigh-in usually requires a morning urine sample. I just bypass the sign-in and head to the ladies room.
Now, you usually need to provide a Monday and Wednesday Morning Urine (MU) sample; occasionally the nurses will request a Friday Evening Urine (EU) sample. Samples should be taken one (1) hour after eating. Hence, my pit stop upon reaching the clinic is perfect timing.
I dont come from a medical background, and am the furthest removed possible from the profession in my day-to-day career, so I listen quite intently when ketosis - or the Krebs Cycle - is explained to me. Do I understand it? Only to the point where the doctor rationalizes that it is the 4-hour separation between eating the protein that fuels the 8-enzyme chain process to burn the fat... Sounds good to me.
Now, the purpose of the urine exploration phase of the diet is quite interesting to me. Im no lab tech, but to see science in action for me is, well, fun.
At each visit, the urine sample youve lovingly safeguarded or just produced, is tested using a
reagent strip for urinalysis. (Translation for the layman: its like a little paper dipstick with colour squares that change depending on the intel your urine is about to impart.) For those who have experienced such scientific miracles, its like the pregnancy test stick, but this time the pink indicator means something a little bit different...!
Well, little did I know, but you can purchase these strips for your own home use...because I just cant get enough of the scientific fun, and I feel compelled to check my fat burning machine on a regular (daily, sometimes twice daily) need-to-know basis.
There are two types of strips my clinic uses: the regular weekly ketone strip (to measure only your level of fat burn) or a monthly comprehensive strip that lights up like a rainbow, decoding a wide variety of secrets such as sugar levels and any number of medical facts about you.
I really only care about the keytones. I run between a 1-4, with 1 being the lowest, but still evidencing a burn of fat, to 4 being the home fires are raging!
Now, since Ive taken such an interest in my new found keytones/fat burning process, I purchased my own personal supply of reagent strips for some mad science experiments. However, I bought them during the week that I mistakenly bought the sugar-laden applesauce, which halted my fat-burning. I didnt know that I was eating "evil food" at the time, but the strips didnt lie. I just wasnt sure what was happening: the strips kept showing a negative reading.
I was perplexed: I was burning consistently from Day 1 of the diet, and often quite high every week previously, so why werent these strips working?
Duds, I thought. $16 down the drain...
It turns out though, that strips work just fine. I tested them again over the course of the week, after my body was cleansed from the sugar interlopers, and Im consistently burning (1,2 or 4 and losing.)
Whew! Science in action...
So, if you want to check your keytones, go to your neighbourhood pharmacy (or one of the larger chains) and ask for Bayer Keto-Diastix. Its $16 for 100 strips, and you too can create scientific magic without waiting for your next weigh-in. Between 15 and 30 seconds (the results are only good for a very short time!) you can track the ebb and flow of your 8-enzyme chain and keytone process.
Happy testing!
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