Maffetonovember

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Space beer.

I am reliably informed by a Flight Operations Engineer from the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne (whom I just happen to know) that there is only one beer on the planet that has been certified and approved by NASA for use in space. This would be fine and dandy for astronauts of all nationalities except that the focus of Euro-American space activity is of course aboard the International Space Station, and alcohol just happens to be banned there, which somewhat puts a downer on the whole space beer idea.

This, of course, does not preclude the manufacturer of the beer making and selling it on planet Earth. The beer in question is a stout and just happens to be manufactured in small batches by a micro-brewery just a short distance from my home. So when our engineer friend announced she was in Sydney for the weekend (accompanying Buzz Aldrin on his National Geographic 'Mars: The Live Experience!' presentation tour), well we just had to meet up at the '4 Pines' brewery/hotel and chew the fat and drink some of the much-vaunted 'Vostok Stout' (although its earth-bound version is rather anti-climactically called '4 Pines Dry Irish Stout').

That is the long way of explaining that on day 9 of my stint aboard the proud ship 'Maffetone Method' I broke my pledge of abstinence from beer and drank a solitary ale, well, an 'approved for space travel' stout in fact. I'd love to be able to say I rubbed shoulders with Buzz Aldrin and perhaps bought him a pint, but at age 86, he doesn't get out so much anymore, apparently. I did learn from our engineer friend, Andrea, that Buzz is great to work with, is very professional (of course) but does tend to 'go off on tangents' when giving talks, which only makes it sadder that he didn't join us for a pint. Actually, Andrea's main role on this trip isn't so much to accompany Buzz on his tour, as to represent the European Space Agency at meetings to establish the Australian Space Agency, slated for next year (and about bloody time, too. Australia is one of the very few developed nations with an active space industry not to have its own Space Agency).

But back to the beer and my two-week, low-carb diet. A solitary beer does not, of course, destroy an entire two-week dietary plan, but I was careful enough to ensure almost zero other carbs passed my lips through the day, so the total count is still way, way below what is considered normal. And just how is it all going? The answer is 'really well', and in surprisingly easy fashion. Essentially it has required eliminating from my diet all bread, grains, sugars, starches, pulses and so on, and instead focusing on protein, fats and non-starchy vegetables. This has not been as difficult as it may sound, as the fats and proteins that replace the carbs are delightfully tasty and satisfying, with a resultant, almost complete cessation of hunger pains or cravings of any kind.

Being neither space engineer nor dietitian I am not 100% certain of the science behind all this (but the book explaining it all is winging its way to me), but the result is a loss of just over 4 kgs of weight in 11 days, 9 of which have been solid Maffetone Method days of little to now carbs.

And the running? Well, the jury is still out on that one. The positive aspect of maintaining a very low heart rate whilst running is that I suffer no soreness or tiredness and can run more often. The downside is that I am running so slowly as to cover relatively little ground, although I am on my feet for considerable periods of time, which is another positive. The pace will (so Maffetone declares) come with time as the body adapts to running on fat rather than carbohydrate. We shall see. The results are encouraging enough to persist for the time being, but I'm desperately awaiting the arrival of his book so that I can understand and really work this method properly.

But for now, the weight loss is the thing. Having this year struggled and struggled to lose even a single kilogram of blubber despite a lot of running and a careful diet that in years gone by has generated meaningful results for me, this low to no-carb diet has after just a few days seen the lard (I suppose literally) melt away. And I know this is not just 'water loss' because my body water percentage has actually increased over the same period of time, as has my muscle mass. So, it's all good gear so far as this body is concerned.

As for side effects of the low-carb intake, there have for me, been very few. I had a slight headache on day 2, and on day 7 I had a minor bout of 'ketosis flu' in the morning and 'brain fog' in the afternoon. These are, I gather, common symptoms associated with going 'into ketosis'. This is when the body gives up trying to find glucose in the blood stream or glycogen in the muscles and instead has the liver produce high levels of ketones, which the body uses to break down and burn fat for fuel. This, of course, is what we're trying to achieve, and which if perfected allows an endurance athlete to perform for extended periods of time, such as those last 10 kilometres of a marathon when all your glycogen stores are depleted.

So, thus far, it's all looking tremendously positive and even a little exciting. If nothing else, it will get rid of those excess kilograms of weight, which will be a huge step in the right direction to getting back into shape.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the space stout is delicious!