Couch to Keto Day 3: Weekdays are Easy! But perhaps, I say that too early?

Well it's the start of Day 3.  On Keto.

Day 2 was easy. It was Monday so back to my usual routine. I was able to prepare all my meals at home and eat according to the schedule I created.

I woke up with serious dry mouth, despite drinking SOOOO much water yesterday. I drank some more water and brushed my teeth, problem solved. 

I wanted to avoid having to eat 3 Tablespoons of butter to meet my macros cause that was seriously gross. So I started off the day right drinking coffee with 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil.  I love coconut and coconut oil so this was delicious to me.  If this sounds odd...it really isn't.  Have you heard of Bullet-Proof coffee?

I got a small workout of 23 minutes on the elliptical before I had physical therapy.  I am still recovering from Pirifornous syndrome so my workouts are not stellar.  I am just happy to able to do something physical as I could do nothing for so long.

I returned from P.T. and got hungry for Breakfast about 9, even though I wanted to fast until 10. I had already pre-logged a breakfast of eggs, oil and bacon into MYFITNESSPAL but I wasn't exactly happy with the macros and it wasn't what I wanted to eat.  Instead I chose to eat and made an AMAZING, Vanilla protein shake with almond milk and avocado. The macros were almost perfect. It tasted very sweet, and I love SWEET.  I could have had perfect macros had I purchased low or no carb protein powder. But I have SOOOOO much protein powder, I just need to work with what I have.  I must have 20 pounds of protein powder laying around.  I love to DEAL SHOP and I keep getting such amazing deals on protein, I can't NOT purchase it.  For this shake I used MYPROTEIN vanilla whey protein which had 100 calories, and was 16% fat, 78% protein and 6% carbs...Not great... but it is protein powder people.  What saved my breakfast was the avocado, 2 oz mashed. It was 75% fat, 8% protein and 17% carbs.  I also added 1 Tablespoon coconut oil , WINNER: 100% fat, 0% protein and 0% carbs.   Paired with my morning coffee my morning macros came out to 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbs!  PERFECT! That is not even taking into account the fiber, which you get to deduct from your net carb count.  I highly recommend this meal, snack!

For lunch I chose a serving of spinach with a serving of mixed nuts with pistachios, full fat ranch dressing and 1 ounce of Colby cheese.  The macros for this meal were great as well.  I repeated the meal and packed it away for my "dinner" at work, which I have at 4:30.

Decided to fast when I got home from work, and hoping not to eat until 9:30 a.m.  This would allow me to have fasted for 17 hours.  Ideally I would like my fast window to be fast 16 hours/ eat 8 hours.  So leaving this extra hour means I could technically cave in and eat at 8:30!  I chose this schedule because it is the one I feel will work the best for me.  I work 4 days a week from 1:30 to 7:30 p.m.  I typically take my dinner break at 4:30!  Getting home at 7:30 ish...I don't have any more physical activity that needs to be performed and I often go straight to bed to relax, read and unwind before bed.

Intermittent fasting is a great idea on Keto or any diet as it allows you to eat more calories during the periods you are eating.  This works especially well with the Keto diet as you eating highly caloric food.  Fat has 9 calories per gram while carbs. and protein have 4.

This diet is keeping me full and satisfied.  With that in mind, I have lowered my allowable calories  from 1500 to 1400 with added exercise calories if I need them.  That means 1050 calories  should come from fat (116.6 grams) 280 calories should come from protein  (70 grams) and 70 calories should come from net carbs (17.5 grams) !

Well, I am off to start the day! Wish me Luck!

Day 2 Coach to Keto! The Food Was Yummy

Fat tastes good Ya'll!  I mean, really, really good!  Day 1 on the Keto. Diet started with scrambled eggs. 3 delicious, whole eggs...not egg whites.  Even better, I got to use coconut oil.  1 whole teaspoon. I love the taste of coconut oil. Plus,  you have no idea how refreshing it was to not have a mess of stuck on egg in the bottom of my pan. To be able to actually slide the egg right out of the pan and onto my plate... Well, let's just say that hasn't happened in a while.  I didn't just have eggs, and coconut oil, I had BACON.  Yup, 2 delicious pieces of Farm Fresh, Ewe and Me Meadow (that's my farm) raised bacon.  I cooked a big batch in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Perfection.  Next, I threw on some Cheese. Full Fat, and 1 ounce of delicious from the block sharp cheddar.  Then a little Baby Bok Choy for fiber and salt and pepper for even more flavor.  This meal was absolute HEAVEN.

My daughter and I had a shopping day planned, so off we went on our 45 minute drive to the nearest "big" town.  We hit McDonald's up first and used the APP to score a 2 Egg McMuffins on BOGO for her and a $1.00 Artisan Chicken Sandwich sans bun and tomato for me.  I didn't special order. I looked at the sandwich for a minute to see how I was gonna tackle my problem.  Then,  I just chucked the bun and tomato to the side, wrapped my chicken up in the big lettuce leaf, stuck it in the parchment paper that comes with the sandwich and enjoyed.

We shopped for hours.  We hit Rue 21, TJ MAXX, Pet Supplies, Pet-smart, Goodwill, Big Lots and Bath and Body Works.  I took water with me, but drank it all and maybe made a bad choice with a 0 carb Diet Pepsi.  There is no conclusive evidence to suggest that Diet Soda is damaging to the Keto Diet.  Today it did not make me crave carbs and sugar BUT remember...it is only day one.  We shopped and shopped some more.  Good thing I scored some Keto Friendly food for the drive home, as I hadn't eaten now for about 4 ish hours.  My daughter and I drove home and snacked on a few Salted Pistachios. OM, NOM, NOM!

Got home about 7:30 and cooked dinner.  4 oz of farm fresh, ground beef. 1 slice of Muenster Cheese and 1/2 serving of Baby Bok Choy cause....Fiber!

Input everything I ate today into My Fitness Pal and.....FAIL.   Not enough fat.  I thought about what I could eat to fix my macros and settled for 3 Tablespoons of salted butter!  O.K.  I don't recommend this.  It tasted good at first but toward the end...it was gross. Anyway, it fixed my macros and left me more than satisfied for the day at 1500 calories.

Bottom line.  Today went great.  I felt full and satisfied and the food was delicious.  It was not optimal to eat 3 Tablespoons of butter at 7:30 P.M. but I wanted to meet those macros.  Can't burn fat if you don't eat fat!  Lesson learned.  I have pre- logged my food for tomorrow and my macros will be pretty spot on with balanced fat intake throughout the day.

Day 1 Couch to Keto: What I Know about Keto (It is Not A lot)

Yup, I am finally trying it.  The Keto Diet. You know I am all about "Track it to change it" so  I dedicate this segment of my blog called "Couch to Keto" to share with you my Keto journey.

Today is Day 1.  I woke up, drank some water, used the bathroom and stepped on the scale.  138 pounds. For reference, I am 5'4" tall and 46 years old, with 47 happening during this 30 day challenge.

Next, I took photos, 3 photos: 1 front view, I side view and one back view.  UGHHH!!!!! Those pics are scary Ya'll and NOPE, I am not sharing them.  I rarely show my before pics until I have a "after" as I am usually quite disappointed in my appearance when I do "Before" photos.

Next...I made some coffee...black, which I have drank while on other diets but have lately been enjoying with creamer or milk.  Today it is back to black coffee.  I debated putting in some coconut oil but as I am not hungry and because I am tinkering around with the idea of Keto combined with intermittent fasting, I left out the coconut oil.

Ahhh....coffee!  Now, I feel quasi human.  I begin to watch some videos about Keto on You tube as I don't know more than a handful of things about doing the Keto diet and I love to be informed so I can do things properly with minimal slip ups and so I can share my findings with you. Your Welcome!

HERE IS WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE KETO DIET ON DAY 1 

* Eat foods so that your macros are roughly 70% fat 20% protein and 5% carbs. (For me and most that means keeping carbs under 20 grams each day.)

* You cannot cheat by sneaking carbs, your body will know and you may be thrown out of ketosis.

* It may take 3 days to go into Ketosis or fat burning mode.  If you are new to Keto this could take longer.

* Exercise and VERY LOW carb. intake could help install Ketosis faster

* You must still watch your calorie intake if you want to lose weight on the Keto diet.  Losing weight is ALWAYS about CICO or Calories In vs. Calories out. (Why I am considering intermittent fasting)

*You must still eat veggies, but veggies have carbs.  Stick with veggies that grow above ground and green leafy veggies are best.

*Things that contain lots of carbs include: grains, pasta, bread, sugary snacks, most fruits, most processed foods.

* Drink lots of water, at least 100 oz. a day

* You will be a lot....maybe from drinking 100 oz. of water a day?

* KETO FLU: headaches and fatigue should go away but may take a while

*Avoid KETO FLU: by increasing salt, potassium and magnesium, there are products available to make this simple.

O.K.  that is really about all I know about the Keto Diet besides some sci-ency stuff I will save for another post on another day.  After all, I have 30 days to test this "diet" which may turn into a way of life as it has for many others.

Have you tried the Keto (Ketogenic) Diet?  Are you doing it now?  I would love to hear about it!  Send me a message or comment.