Today marks 1 month of being on the Ketogenic diet or I like to call it… lifestyle!
It sure has been a month, but not what you think. It has seriously been a month where I don’t feel like I’m on an actual diet, which has been making things a lot easier for me!!
So I’m sure you want to know how much I’ve lost, do I like it, and if I’m going to continue. I also have been getting some other questions about the ketogenic diet, so I decided to answer those questions on here as well!! But, before I get into all of that, before starting on Keto, my husband and I did a 4 goal challenge, which started September 1st and lost 5 pounds before starting Keto just by completely cutting out all sugar (that included fruits). When starting Keto, I documented everything… from what I ate, how I felt, etc…
What is the Ketogenic Diet?
The ketogenic diet is a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. You are roughly eating 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carbs. Your carbs will mostly come from veggies, so don’t think you can have a piece of bread or anything. You are completely cutting all those out, along with sugar. When starting this diet your body forces the body to burn fat rather than carbohydrates. This reduction in carbs, puts your body into ketosis.
What made me decide to do Keto all of a sudden?
As some of you know, at the beginning of September I decided to take on a 4 goal challenge. My husband and I completely eliminated sugar, had a goal of drinking 100oz of water a day, goal of exercising at least 4x per week, and to both lose 5 pounds for the month of September. On September 10th I talked to my cousin who lives in San Diego, and he was telling me that he was on the Keto diet and how much he loved it. He told me just to give it a try, educated me on it, and encouraged me to start. All it took was that pep talk. The next day I spent the ENTIRE day researching and educating myself on the Ketogenic diet. Figuring out the ins and outs. Asking myself was this something I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to make a lifestyle change, and I wanted to lose weight, so I said “why not”. I told myself to give it a month, see how I feel and go from there. But I also told myself to BE COMMITTED. DON’T GIVE UP. STAY STRONG.
Later on in that day, my husband and I both made a menu of what we would eat for the next week, along with a grocery list of what we needed, and then did our groceries. We both started the next day. This time I made a promise to myself to be committed to this. I didn’t say “let’s wait until Monday and start this diet”, as I ALWAYS do! NO, I started the next day, Wednesday September 12th, 2018.
When doing the 4 goal challenge before we started Keto, I weighed in at 300.2 pounds (I’m very embarrassed by putting that number out there for those that are reading this post, BUT I know I need too). I was happy to know that after cutting out sugar completely and starting to work out, that I had already lost 5.8 pounds within that 2 weeks. The first day I started Keto, I weighed in at 294.4.
How did I start?
- As I mentioned above, I did A LOT of research. I watched a lot of videos. If you are planning on starting or even thinking about doing the Keto diet (let’s actually call this lifestyle from here on out.. because in reality we want this to be a lifestyle right?) I HIGHLY suggest doing your research or consult your doctor. Educate yourself. See if doing something like this is what is right for you. If it is, be mentally determined and stay committed! Give it a chance, and by chance I mean an actual chance.. not a week or so.
- Before we went grocery shopping, I looked at what was inside of my fridge. Now, if you don’t have kids at home that is not partaking in this lifestyle then I say throw EVERYTHING away that consist of carbs, and sugar. I say this only because it will temp you to take a bite if you are craving it. Then that bite turns into 2, then 3, and by that time the entire box or package of goodies is gone. Does it waste your money… well of course it does, but either way if you keep it in your pantry/fridge and you don’t eat it, it’s going to go bad, right? As far as me, I gave a lot of my stuff away to my cousin (about 2 grocery bags worth of food). Now, my girls are very healthy and don’t need to be on this lifestyle. So, I do have snacks still here for them. This does take A LOT of will power, let me just tell you. Knowing I have goodies in my pantry and I can’t have… sucks! But, guess what that is the life we live in now. Most are raised off of junk food. Now, I do limit my kids snacks. I give them plenty of fruit before they are able to have any type of junk food, and my kids also do eat veggies. So, since they are fruit and veggie eaters I do allow them to eat certain things.
- Before officially starting Keto, I calculated my macros and downloaded an app (Carb Manager) to track my eating intake. I know some people don’t like doing this, but I am one that needs to track everything to make sure i’m hitting my macros.
- I would also recommend taking before pictures, just so you can see your progress. If you want, take your measurements and track your weight.
- Make a weekly meal plan. If you like to meal prep, I would suggest you do that, so you have pre-made meals already set. My husband and I don’t like meal prepping. We like the taste of our food to be fresh, and not only that, we do get tired of the same foods over and over, which from previous experiences made us fall off plan. So, I do cook every day/night.
- Before starting I would suggest to purchase magnesium, a multi-vitamin (which you should already be taking daily), pro-biotic, and electrolytes. These are not mandatory when starting Keto, however, since you are no longer consuming carbs/sugar your body will be deficient in electrolytes, magnesium, and potassium. These have helped in the beginning especially when getting the ‘keto flu’.
How did I feel when starting Keto for the 1st week and how do I currently feel since being on it for 1 month now?
As I did research, I knew when starting the Keto lifestyle you can get what’s called the ‘keto flu’. It’s pretty much described as it sounds… flu like symptoms. Since your body is being deprived from sugar and carbs, it doesn’t know what’s happening which causes the keto flu. When I started doing Keto, I did experience some of the flu like symptoms, mostly nausea. It was the 2nd and 3rd day of when these symptoms happened, and it made me miserable, especially feeling nauseous. I also experienced some headaches, a lot of fatigue, and A LOT of hiccups for some odd reason. Then all of a sudden a BURST of energy hit me, and when I say burst of energy, I literally mean it. It was so weird. When that happened, I ended up deep cleaning the whole house, and even cleaning and organizing all my cabinets. Crazy huh! Ever since then I’ve not had any more flu like symptoms.
However, about a week and 1/2 into it, I did experience major constipation. I’ve never really experienced constipation before, so this feeling was all new to me. I was VERY uncomfortable, especially when gas would start building up (sorry if it’s TMI). Since you are eliminating sugar and carbs from your life now, it could have been a number of things. Not enough fiber, too much fiber, not enough electrolytes, low on minerals or vitamins, or possibly something I’m eating. I will say that I’m still working on what it could possibly be, but I have started taking a probiotic, which has helped me out tremendously! I have currently stopped taking the probiotic and trying to narrow down what is causing the bloating, gas pains, and constipation. As of right now, I have not experienced constipation again. Once I have that figured out, I will start back up with my probiotics, since it’s very healthy for you to take. Don’t let this scare you though, my husband has not had this symptom happen at all to him.
So, how am I currently feeling…. well as of right now, I feel great!!!! Especially knowing how much weight I’ve lost! I have so much more energy than before. I don’t need to take naps anymore, or even have that feeling of a nap would be good right about now. I just overall feel amazing!
What is intermittent fasting and do you do it?
Intermittent fasting is not eating for a long period time. Don’t get scared, it’s not that bad. This long period of time includes your sleep period. For me as an example, I have my last meal of the day (dinner) no later than 8pm. If I can make dinner sooner than I will, but I stop eating after dinner. When I wake up in the morning (around 6am), I still do not eat anything until about 12pm, which by then is lunch time. During this time of fasting, your body is burning fat at much more of a rapid rate (assuming that you are eating what you should be eating). If you are barely eating and also fasting, your body is going to store that food as fat because your body doesn’t know when it’s going to get food again, rather than if you were eating and it burning the fat. So make sure you eat!
When I started fasting it was not hard for me to do. In fact, I do fasting fairly often (before starting Keto), and just didn’t know it was called intermittent fasting (face palm). Truth be told, I am not a breakfast eater. For the most part, I skip it. So skipping breakfast and waiting till lunch was not a big deal for me. Now, you obviously can customize your fasting time to whatever works for you, but when doing this; especially if you are use to eating at least 3x a day, take it slow. Do your research on intermittent fasting, so you know what you are doing.
I also didn’t start fasting until 2 weeks into this lifestyle. If you are starting keto, I would suggest incorporating fasting a month into it, if you are not use to it. Again, this is NOT something you need to do within the first month, so if you are not comfortable doing it right away, that is completely fine. My husband actually doesn’t fast consistently. If he’s starving in the morning, he will eat, and the same goes for me. If I’m going out for breakfast with the family or something like that, I will go. Just because you don’t fast doesn’t mean you’re off keto or anything.
What do I eat in a days worth?
breakfast- 1/2 avocado, 3 pieces of bacon, 3 whole eggs
Lunch: 2 1/2 cups of romaine lettuce, 4 oz rotisserie chicken, about 8 parmesan crispy, 1 tbsp of parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp bacon crumbles, 1 tbsp of ranch dressing
Snack: 1/4 pistachios, 1oz uncured pastrami meat, 1 string cheese, 1 hard boiled egg
Dinner: 6oz seared salmon, 1 cup broccoli
I will have another blog post which will go more in depth of what I currently eat in a day. The pictures above are what I ate in a day before I started intermittent fasting. To give you an idea of what I currently eat…. I normally skip breakfast, have lunch between 11-1pm and normally have a bullet proof coffee, about 4-6 ounces of protein, and 1 cup of veggies. I’ll have a snack (if i’m hungry) before dinner, and normally have macadamia nuts, pork rinds, uncured pastrami meat with cheese, or pickles. Then for dinner, I will have about 3-4 ounces of protein, and 1 cup of veggies. Typically my calorie intake is anywhere from 1300-1700 just depending on what I eat that day. Do I stay full, yes! Am I satisfied, YES! Is the food good, YES!
Do I still dine out?
Outback Steakhouse: 8 oz steak w/ butter topping and side of broccoli & cheese
Babystacks: 3 pieces of bacon w/ 3 eggs and cheese on top
Yes! Now, I will be completely honest. When being on the keto lifestyle, it is 100 times harder to eat out. You start to realize that EVERYTHING has carbs or sugar in almost everything. However, almost every restaurant has an option for you to choose from. Now, it might not be what you want, especially when going to your favorite restaurant, but again… stay committed and determined! If you are just starting out and don’t think that you will have the determination to stick to something that is pretty much protein/veggies, than I HIGHLY suggest you not go out until you are ready to do so. Also, check the nutrition menu before going to a restaurant. This makes things a lot easier when ordering. Just so you know what you can and can’t have. It also make it easier then getting guilted into getting something you shouldn’t be.
So when me and Robert go out for dinner, I typically always get a steak with veggies. Just be careful with veggies.. some add a sauce or sugar into their veggies. When Robert and I went to Outback Steakhouse, the broccoli w/ cheese (as pictured above) has 4g of sugar! So, I did not eat the entire portion of the broccoli/cheese, which made me consume 2g of sugar. Luckily, me consuming 2g of sugar, did not take me out of ketosis!
When going to breakfast places, I either get steak and eggs or I do a create your own omelette type of meal, or I get side options (as pictured above).
I can’t say this enough… whoever you go, just stay committed!
Also, if you have an In N Out around you, my go to meal whenever I don’t want to cook at home is their 3×3 animal style protein style with no tomatoes…. DELICIOUS!!!!
Are you going to have cheat days?
Yes! In fact, our cheat day is this Sunday! Robert and I have decided that we are going to do 1 cheat day/meal a month, and that even depends on how we feel afterwards. But, with the holidays coming up we still wanted to enjoy all the holiday home cooked meals. So, for this month we have chosen to do our cheat meal on our 12 year anniversary, and then on Thanksgiving and Christmas. This will be very interesting, and I will definitely let you know what I ate during our cheat day, and how I feel.
How much weight have I lost in a month?
When starting the Ketogenic I weighed in at 294.4 on 09/12/18. As of 10/12/18 I now weigh 278.00 pounds!!!! That’s a total of 16.4 pounds in 1 month being on keto and since September when taking on our 4 goal challenge I lost 5 pounds before starting keto… so I have lost a total of 22.2 pounds!! YIPEE!!
Did I work out at all?
I have not worked out during the first month of starting Keto. However, I do plan on going back to my workout schedule and working out at least 4x per week. It is recommended when starting keto not to work out for the 1st month because you body is adapting to this new lifestyle, but I say listen to your body. If you want to start working out within the first couple of weeks and you feel great, then do so!
Will I continue with the Ketogenic diet?
HECK YES!!! Let me just say this… I have been big my whole life. I have tried many and all of the diets, and EVERY TIME when being on a diet I have always FELT like I was on a diet. Doing Ketogenic, I can honestly DO NOT FEEL LIKE I’M ON A DIET… AT ALL!!! That is the God’s honest truth! I truly enjoy what I eat. I have flavor in my foods that I eat. I don’t feel deprived at all. I don’t feel left out when other’s are eating. I feel satisfied. I feel full. I feel GOOD!
Within the 1st month, I actually can see and feel results. Family has noticed me losing weight, which gives me more motivation to continue. My rings are starting not to fit anymore. I see my breast not actually filling my bra cup anymore (which actually makes me sad). I see shirts starting to become lose.
So, my answer is YES I will continue. If I am LOVING the foods I’m eating, why stop!?!?! Because I can’t have sugar and carbs!?! Well guess what? There is an alternate to everything… I just have to do it the KETO way! 😉
As my journey continues, I plan to give you an update on my progress every month. And will answer any questions you all have.
XOXO
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