Choosing Keto
My husband, @loganarchy, and I have been married for 4 years now, and in our case happiness leads to overeating. We used to be very active - hiking, running, rock climbing, dancing, bike riding, etc. But since we have been married we have started eating poorly and exercising less. This slow addition of flab and degradation of muscle was weighing us down, literally.
A couple of months ago my husband starting talking about this new diet he wanted to try. I was (and still am) a little skeptical of all diets. There are SO many fad diets, it's hard not to be. I feel that most diets are silly, unless you can sustain them for the rest of your life. If you need to merely lose weight they're great, but if you can't learn how to be healthy, it's all going to be gained right back. This diet sounded especially fishy and unsustainable because you have to eat NO carbs (less than 20 each day), and you must to eat TONS of fat and protein. I love me some sweets and bread. But he told me that some of his friends were successful in losing some poundage and it sounded like there was actual science behind it, so I was intrigued.
Then he gave me more details. He starting talking about something called the "keto-flu" and having to drink TONS of water. I had to stop him. I'm a middle school teacher, and there's NO WAY I can do something like that during the school year. My bladder has learned the routine. Also, I can't leave a room of 35+ kids to run to the bathroom. Teaching is brutal on the bladder - but that's a story for another time.
So, we decided to wait for my summer break to start the diet. This gave me time to do some research. As a middle school science teacher I had to check out the cellular processes and the simple science behind it. It sounded pretty legitimate... so I agreed to try it. Understanding myself and my love for sweets, however, I have no idea how long I can sustain this. But I love adventure, so let's try it! We may have had one last hurrah when we received a McDonald's breakfast coupon in the mail...
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We found some great resources, weekly meal plans, and recipes. And this also gave us time to clear all the carbs from our kitchen! I'm not a fan of wasting ANYTHING! So, after a couple of months, we were finally ready.
It Begins
We started on Friday, 6/16/17.
That morning we made a shared Google Doc with links, meal plans, shopping lists, etc.
I wrote out our first shopping list and off we went.
Here are our first 3 day's meals, since we started at lunch after we went shopping on the first day:
Day 1
Lunch: cream cheese wrapped in deli meat and pork rinds
Dinner: Chicken thigh and steamed broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower
Snack: Cookies and Cream Ice cream and Moose Tracks Ice Cream.... Oops... but seriously, it was in the freezer and someone had to get rid of it.
Day 2
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1/2 can tuna with mayo, bulletproof coffee (coffee w/1 TBSP butter, 1 TBSP coconut oil, 1 TBSP heavy cream)
Lunch: BLT salad, full-fat ranch dressing
Snack: cheese stick
Dinner: Taco salad with ground beef, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, and salad mix
Day 3
Breakfast: bulletproof coffee
Lunch: 1 1/2 lettuce-wrapped burgers with mayo, cheese, and tomato; 2 hot dogs; 1/2 nectarine tart with coconut flour crust
Dinner: shredded cabbage mix salad with avocado cubes and ranch dressing, steak
Snack: hardboiled egg with salt
Day 4 (today - woohoo!)
Breakfast: bulletproof coffee, scrambled eggs with cheese
Lunch: nada (I got up late - yay summer break! - so I wasn't really hungry)
Dinner: Beer can burgers - roll ground beef into a ball, press a can into ball to make a beef bowl, fill with mushrooms, bell peppers, onion, cheese
As you may have noticed, I quickly fell off the wagon. I couldn't let that ice cream go to waste. So, my husband is about a day ahead of me, clearing his body of all carbs.
Also, yesterday was Father's Day, which I expected to be a very challenging day. We went to my husband's father's for a bbq where there were carbs galore! I was in charge of bringing dessert, so I got creative and as "low-carbby" as I could. My husband and I ended up sharing a non-sweetened nectarine tart (I sweetened the rest), which ended up pretty tasty! And then we went to my parents for dinner. It was very reassuring to be able to eat what was there and just NOT eat what we knew we couldn't. I didn't feel like a complete weirdo or a food snob.
I have not yet experienced any of the keto-flu symptoms yet, but my husband has had a slight headache and has felt dehydrated all day.
Tomorrow I'll post our menu and more about our progress!
Wow I love this post! The Keto diet does sound hard! I am a sucker for PB And J sandwiches, And Ice cream like you are LOL.
I made some Keto friendly bread from Almond flower. It almost replaces bread.
https://www.ketoconnect.net/recipe/best-keto-bread/
Haha, it has been hard! but it's like a super fun puzzle adventure to find substitutes for all of the stuff I love!
I've already found a great substitute for ice cream AND mac & cheese!! 😁
Take a look in my most recent post: https://steemit.com/keto/@abloveshorchata/keto-diet-part-3
I've also found a couple of websites that use peanut butter powder in some recipes... I love peanut butter, too, so I'm totally going to have to try one of those SOON!
And berries are fine, just in small amounts, so I'm SURE you could find a fun take on PB&J.
Thanks so much for your comment!
Keto is a diet that I have seen people lose weight on. I am dysmetabolic and I can't get a lot of exercise in due to MS. I am pre-diabetic. I am always conscious of my carbs, but I lean towards a Paleo and/or Mediteranean diet. My primary concern with a Keto diet is the amount of fat and the low amount of vegetables. It is very similar to the Adkin's Diet of days gone by.
I wish you both the best of luck!
The Keto recipes we have been doing involve a lot of leafy greens so its a nice counter balance to the fats.
That's awesome! My ex-DIL tries to skip the vegetables. I was 6 or 7 credits from my BS in Nutrition Sciences when I was sidelined by MS. Nutrition is such an impirtant part of general health. I have found that if I make sure that I eat at regular intervals my body responds better. I lost 7 pounds by eating a very light meal or snack when I wake up between 1 and 2 in the morning.
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Excellent! Keto is part of my 72 lbs in 72 days experiment I have challenged myself to as my introduction to steemit.
You've been followed and upvoted!
I'm getting hitched in FOUR WEEKS. I've already stripped away 50Kgs of lard and have plateaued. Time to kit the Keto lifestyle again so I can hit my goal. Thanks for the extra motivation!