Hello Everyone!! Hope that this post finds you well, and that the first week of your new year is coming along fabulously!!
Day 3 of my Keto adventure was full of tasty food, and though I may have gone a little high on the calories, I have no regrets :). In my defense, all the eating was in preparation for a dental procedure which would follow the next day. Because the procedure involved an oral sedation, I was required to fast 6 hours before the appointment, so I would not be getting breakfast , or lunch on day 4 , which is why i ate a little more this day :)
Day 3 I did feel a little bit shaky, weak, and tired at points, but i also have been fighting a minor cold, so i am not really correlating that with the diet change. Luckily i was off work this day, and able to rest after finishing my house chores at a leisurely pace.
DAY 3 WHAT I ATE
BREAKFAST:
For breakfast this day, i started out with hot tea with a little heavy cream in it. My fiance also made me a cup of hot water with beef bouillon to sooth my throat, since i was not feeling well. After that we had our regular morning green power shake, but only with the single avocado, because we did not have two that were ripe. Such is life sometimes! Picking ripe avocados can be tricky, and sometimes, there just aren't many at the store to choose from!
We also took Vitamin D supplements, as well as MCT oil, and a Trace Minerals Supplement. MCTs or Medium Chain Triglycerides (of Medium Chain Fatty Acids) are fatty acids of a certain length, as reflected by their name. It is an odorless and tasteless liquid at room temperature. MCT oil supports gut health and immune health. There is also evidence that MCT oil may support hormones and weight regulation.
For more information on MCT Oil check out this blog that lists some benefits and precautions about using MCT oils : https://wellnessmama.com/98671/mct-oil-benefits/
This is the link for more information for the exact oil that we have :https://vivanaturals.com/supplements/mct-oil .
Unfortunately the trace minerals that we have here at the house do not give specific details of how much of each mineral are in it, so it is not a viable option to enter it into Cronometer. I have included the label of them below. You can see that this supplements every single mineral on the Cronometer mineral tracker(and more!), but since I do not know the exact values, I left this information out of it.
LUNCH:
For lunch i made a delicious keto chef salad with butter lettuce, spinach, cucumber, mushrooms, olives, cheese slices, summer sausage, topped with garlic parmesan dressing :)
This was a meal that i actually prepared for myself :) In case anyone was wondering if my fiance makes all of my food hahaha ;) I enjoy preparing, washing and cutting vegetables, so making salads is always something i take pleasure in.
Preparing the vegetables is sort of meditative when you tap into enjoying the process. This was a huge salad though, so i did not finish it all in one sitting :) I put the remaining bit into a tupperware to use as a lovely side with my dinner later.
DINNER:
For dinner my amazing fiance prepared a delicious beef steak for me, coupled with asparagus pan fried in butter. He did an excellent job on the seasoning for this meal, and it was very filling and satisfying. I finished what was left of my lunch salad as an additional side.
The water in my mason jar looks a little murky in this photo, because i sometimes will add the juice from half a lime to 32 ounces of water to make it more appealing and tasty and keep me up on my hydration :) I used this method twice on day 3, which is why 'lime juice, raw" appears on my tracker as the juice from one lime. It's a great way to trick yourself into drinking more water :)
SUMMARY:
For this day, my diet was 71 % fat, 23% protein, and 7% carbs. A Keto target would be 75% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carbs, so this is a great balanced day, in terms of a ketogenic diet :) As I mentioned before my calories are a bit high, but calorie restriction is not really something I am very concerned about, as i am not trying to lose weight anyway! A girl's gotta eat!!
Nutritionally , this day is actually pretty balanced. Cronometer shows me as hitting 89% of nutrition targets for this day, falling a little short in fiber, iron, and folate.
For day 3 i definitely hit my hydration target, coming in at 153% of Cronometer's suggested amount for my personal age, height, and weight :) Hydration is key to optimal health, and I feel so much better when i am hydrated!!!cMy skin is clearer, my digestive system functions better, and my mind seems more alert when i am fully hydrated. My body just feels like it is running so much cleaner on just water, without the additional sweet drinks. For this day my carbs come in at 32.1 g and my sugars are coming in at 14g. To put this into perspective, a serving of Dr Pepper (my once-favorite soft drink) has 64g of sugar in it, and 66 carbs.
Of course the fats on this chart do appear to be high for the tracker, as i have still not calibrated my Cronometer account to the keto diet presets. I will likely switch it over after one week, so that the information for the first week is consistent.
For this day, vitamin levels are a little hit and miss. I am showing low levels in Vitamin B1 and Vitamin E. Folate and B5 levels for this day are also not optimal, but again, before i become too concerned, I will wait to see these numbers at the end of the week. If any vitamins are consistently low, i will be addressing supplementing these naturally or via tablet supplements.
Mineral levels for this day are also pretty respectable, especially considering that we took the Trace-Mins supplement ( not reflected in tracker due to non-specific nutrition facts), so these numbers are showing lower than what we actually had. The Trace-Mins supplement that we have has every one of these minerals in it, in an "optimal blend" so I would almost assume that mineral nutrition was fully covered on this day. More detailed nutrition information would be required from the supplement for confirmation.
For Day 3, I met, and exceeded every protein nutrition target :) The dairy, summer sausage, and cheese, as well as the steak were likely the main source of this protein. This was the highest protein day of the diet thus far.
CONCLUSION:
Day three's menu was delicious and included some of my favorite meals. I love a big tasty salad for lunch,and a savory steak for dinner, so maybe I have found the ideal diet for me after all! I did have some cravings for carbs and sweets, but these seem to be subsiding relatively quickly, and are, surprisingly, not much of an issue :)
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below! I look forward to sharing my keto journey and all the delicious food to come with you all :)
Brightest Blessings!
SO MUCH LOVE!!
Evening Star
Looks great!! Have you tried any Pruvit Products? They specialize in Ketones!
I have not! I actually just stumbled upon information regarding ketone supplements today, and will be researching more on these!
Awesome! The Keto Kreme by Pruvit is a game changer!!
Sweeet!! I will check it out :) Are you on a keto diet as well?
To be honest my diet is based around portion control. I was focused on supplements and ketones last year but experienced burnout with it. I've simplified things by just focusing on portion control and better decision making and have lost over 40 lbs in the last 15 months. I still have 15-20 lbs of fat to go but I'm transitioning into muscle building. I will start layering back in supplements I'm sure as I continue on this path. But, seeing you post about Ketones made me want to speak up about Pruvit products because they are an industry leader and I know people personally who are very involved. :-)
Excellent!! Everything works differently for different people, and i can definitely see how one might get burnout with keto. It is a little bit of a drag hahah. That is really cool that you are working on transitioning to a healthier body! Can't wait to see what you accomplish! I will certainly check out those Pruvit products though :) Thanks so much for the tip!
Thank you for the message and we'll keep motivating each other! :-)
I don't know if I have the same level of discipline as you to stick to a particular diet. But I have to say the meals you've prepared look amazing and super delicious! :)
Discipline is all in your mind!! You can do anything that you set your mind to :)
I didn't think that I had the discipline for this diet either. But I stuck it our for a few days and got used to this way of eating and the weight fell off. It's been 1 year and I have lost 170 lbs.
Glad you're hanging in there! I admire your tenacity!
Very well done explanation. Very concise data collection. Moar like this.
Thank you! i would not have been able to track all of this without the help of the app Cronometer though. They don't sponser me or anything hahahha but i really do love their product :)
I mistakenly jumped on MCT oil without heeding caution to dosage. It was a very bad discovery lol
I’m rooting for you girl!! Loving all the detail in your posts!
OH no!!! I was lucky not to have any issues with it. This was the first day i took it and was able to take a tablespoon with no adverse reactions :)
Wow, you really did a great job of designing your meal. I've already had the water running through my mouth and ask me where do I get something so tasty to eat. What I found particularly cool was the listing of minerals and protein and so on. Where'd you get this information?
I find it really hard to find out from a meal that's been put together. Do you use a tool or software for this?
Thanks for answer me. :-)
I use a website called Cronometer! It is one of my favorite nutrition tracking apps, and has a huge library of branded foods with precise nutrition information, as well as having options to enter custom recipes and meals. This site has been a game changer for me in tracking my nutrition!
They have a free version, and an upgraded version with more capabilities :) We have the upgraded version :)
Hope this helps, and good luck with your nutrition information!
https://cronometer.com/
excellent post & good work ..............
i really like it ..@eveningstar92
Thank you!! I loved this salad ! So tasty :)
Right friend, @eveningstar92 it looks like there will be many tests
Nice post for a diet plan.Thanks for sharing Eveningstar92.
Thanks! I am trying my best to make a well detailed, nutritional diet plan :)
Some yummi looking food you're eating ;)
Unrefined Celtic sea salt (the gray stuff) is another good source of trace elements/minerals :)
Thank you!! Yes i have heard of using celtic sea salt as well - i will have to keep an eye out for it when we are at the grocery store next time. Our Natures plus Trace-Mins that we have claim to be a formula "derived from ancient sea bed deposits' lol whatever that means! :)
goodness!
Gracious!