Michelle's Keto Diary

[fihe]

Today is Day 4 of my ketogenic diet, and of course, my first day logging it here. I started on Wednesday, per the suggestion of multiple friends of mine.

I've been steadily gaining weight the last couple of years (not necessarily a bad thing), but gained way too much this past year. It's been at least 2 weeks since I last weighed myself, but I must weigh 150-155 lbs. by now. When my cat died last May, I felt very sad and did not want to do anything. I started going to the gym only once a week, when I used to go 3x/week. Then, when my grandfather got sick in June, I pretty much stopped exercising for a whole month. I've been consistently exercising since March 2013, and I had never been away from the gym for so long.

My grandfather died in September. While I did get back to a more consistent exercise program before then, my diet was very poor for at least a month thereafter. When he was sick, all he wanted to eat was ice cream, so I had a lot of that.

For the last few months, I've tried reducing my caloric intake and cutting back on starches, but haven't been able to stay with it for long. I apparently need something more extreme, and now that Christmas is over, I now feel ready to stay away from sugars and starches, and get on a disciplined diet regimen.

Thus far, the ketogenic diet actually is not that hard to follow. The main thing I need to worry about is looking more closely at food labels at the amount of carbs. My greatest worry is getting too many carbs to achieve ketosis. After all, staying under the recommended 20g of carbs a day is extremely difficult, since a lot of high-fat foods (e.g. nuts) contain at least a couple of grams of carbs. So do vegetables.

Here are just a few of the things I've been eating these past few days:

Each weekday, at work: Lightly salted deluxe mixed nuts
Wednesday: Put ranch dressing on my salad, and creamy Caesar dressing on my chicken
Thursday: Cobb salad
Friday: Tuna melt, salad with goddess dressing and goat cheese
Saturday: Scrambled eggs with cheese, half an avocado (I'll have the other half later)

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't eat any ice cream cake yesterday when we celebrated our director's birthday at work, but it shall soon be worth it!

[fihe]

Day 5: Weighed in at a solid 150 lbs. this morning. I figured I'd weigh about that much. For reference, I'm 5'5", so I am clinically overweight. I'd like to get down to 140 lbs. or even 135.

Thus far today, I've had chicken breast with ajvar, a red bell pepper spread (the latter has 3g of carbs per 2 tbsp. serving, so I should probably avoid it), 2 cups of coffee with half and half, and now I'm eating 3 scrambled eggs with a little half and half, salt, pepper, and shredded cheese. I think I need to stop relying so much on cheese as a source of fat, because my skin has been breaking out in cystic pimples around my mouth. I really need to buy more avocados, and cook some meat. My family has a ton of beef in our freezer.

I've been eating mixed nuts every day, but realized yesterday when looking at the nutrition facts that the deluxe mixed nuts (no peanuts) contain a whopping 7g of carbs per serving! They are a great source of fat, but I'm a little worried about the carbs now. I bought another can of mixed nuts yesterday, this one with less than 50% peanuts, and it has "only" 5g of carbs per serving. However, it also has 15g of fat per serving, whereas the deluxe mixed nuts have 17g.

I bought more mixed nuts and some ketone test strips this week at CVS. I got a very good deal on them, since CVS gives out coupons like candy. Now I have a can of nuts at work and another at home. I haven't used the ketone strips yet. I probably will use them tomorrow.

[fihe]

So I decided to use a ketone test strip tonight after dinner, rather than waiting until tomorrow. For some reason, not the entire test pad turned colored, so it's a little hard to tell whether my ketone levels are "trace" or "small". In real life it looks like a slightly deeper purple than it does in the photo.

I've included a photo for my own reference. Pretty weird to take a picture of a stick I peed on, but people do the same with pregnancy tests, right?



Today is the end of Day 5. I hope to achieve a "medium" level of ketones in due time. Of course, too high a level would be unhealthy.

[fihe]

I got my first laser lipo session today. I got a very good deal on it from Groupon. I am getting only my outer thighs treated, since they have always been my worst problem area. (I would have liked another area treated too, but my fat outer thighs take up all the laser pads they have available on the machine.) Of course laser lipo is no substitute for losing weight through diet and exercise, but I'm talking about fat spots that have never budged, even when I used to weigh less than 125 lbs. (The cellulite wasn't as bad when I was that thin, but the saddlebags were still noticeable.)

I purchased six sessions. The laser didn't hurt at all; it actually felt pleasantly warm on my skin. I had the laser on me for 15 minutes. Then, I stood for 10 minutes on a vibration plate, to stimulate the cells. I didn't realize in advance that I cannot eat for an hour before or three hours after the procedure. Considering I had not eaten since lunch at 1pm, the appointment was at 4:30pm, and I did not get a chance to eat until I got home at 9pm, I went for a while without food! However, I was able to work out just fine (it is recommended to work out after the procedure), and interestingly enough, I wasn't that hungry until I left the gym.

Other than laser lipo, I did a little grocery shopping and bought 6 Haas avocados, since Shoprite was having a 6 for $6 sale. Turns out my mom bought 6 too. I don't think I can eat them all before they go bad! Luckily, most of my family likes avocado too. In fact, my mom has considered going on a low-carb diet, per her doctor's recommendation at her appointment today.

When I got home, before eating anything, I tried another keto stick. The color was so faint that it barely looked like a trace amount of ketones, almost negative. I do hope that is simply because I hadn't eaten in so many hours, and had drunk a ton of water.

[fihe]

Day 8: Here are some things I ate today:

Mid-morning snack: I've largely replaced my mixed nuts with 8 slices of thick-cut pepperoni and a mini Babybel Original cheese

Lunch: Cheeseburger with no bread, salad with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, and ranch dressing

After dance class: 0.5 avocado with coconut milk/cream (I ate the other half of the avocado earlier, with chicken)

It's been a long time since I've coconut milk. I forgot how good it is, and full of fat. At least that'll be to my advantage now. Maybe I can use it in place of half and half in my coffee, since dairy apparently is making me break out pretty badly.

I feel like I may have eaten too much today, especially at night, but at least my dance class provided a good workout. Gym tomorrow.

[fihe]

Day 9: Today I logged my food intake on MyFitnessPal for the first time since April 2015. Looks like my carbs and protein are over what they should be (all of my carbs were from avocado, vegetables, or mixed nuts), but my fat intake and overall calories are right on target...if today were a non-workout day. Oh well, since I'm trying to lose weight, maybe 1500 calories for today may not be so bad.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/fihe

I still look and feel so fat and bloated. I did weigh in at 150 lbs. 5 days into keto, so I wonder if that was all the water weight I will lose. Although I had 1500 calories today, I have a feeling I've been eating too much. Maybe I'll log my food every day if I feel like it.

[fihe]

Day 10: Started to log my food intake in My Fitness Pal, but then ordered lunch at work. The T-bone steak I ordered was so big, and would be very difficult to log, so I stopped logging after morning. I wish I had known it came with fried plantains, French fries and rice, or else I would have asked to replace it with salad. Oh well, I gave the plantains to a co-worker, and brought home the fries and rice for my family. I could only have some of the steak at work, and also ate the two sunny-side up eggs and hot dog it came with. I really should have googled "churrasco a lo pobre" before buying it, since I thought it was just the steak and didn't realize it came with all this other stuff. The name "a lo pobre" is pretty misleading in that it implies that the steak doesn't have anything with it.

I cut up the steak when I got home and ate some more of it with half an avocado. There's still enough meat left for about one more meal. There was a ton of fat that I took out. Even though I'm supposed to be eating a lot of fat on the keto diet, I don't like huge pieces of fat on my meat. I gave them to my dog and cat. I just hope that the steak was not too high in protein for what I should be eating. (Never thought I'd complain about getting too much protein!)

I tried another keto stick today, and it seems to be showing me more in the "moderate" range now. Good.

[fihe]

Day 11: Trying to make myself go to the gym today. Currently crying like a special snowflake who just witnessed President Trump's inauguration. Why? Because I feel fat and discouraged, what else? This has only been going on for at least the past 5 years.

PMS sucks. Life sucks.

[fihe]

Day 11: Trying to make myself go to the gym today. Currently crying like a special snowflake who just witnessed President Trump's inauguration. Why? Because I feel fat and discouraged, what else? This has only been going on for at least the past 5 years.

PMS sucks. Life sucks.

Correction to the above: I actually started my period today -_- That could explain why I've in fact gained a pound since yesterday; I must be retaining water. I also have a hot forehead, yet feel cold despite turning my heater on and putting on a jacket. I'm also experiencing pain in my back and inner ears. These seem like flu-like symptoms, which doesn't make any sense considering that I got a flu shot last month. I guess this is "keto flu". I was wondering why I wasn't experiencing it, but I guess it comes almost two weeks in.

Nevertheless, I put on my gym clothes in case I feel well enough to go later.

[NickelArse]

good luck, hope you're feeling better

keto flu after 2 weeks seems unusual.

[fihe]

good luck, hope you're feeling better

keto flu after 2 weeks seems unusual.

Hello. Yes, I do feel better, thank you. Turns out it was a 24-hour bug unrelated to keto. However, I haven't been very hungry since then. Today is the first day since Saturday that I've eaten over 1200 calories; I had 1438 today. I really hope I can start losing fat soon. Thus far my water weight goes up and down and that's it. I just ended Day 15.

[fihe]

Day 16: 1326 calories consumed today. I haven't broken 1500 at all this week, but I haven't even been hungry. I guess fat really is that satiating. I suppose I could lose weight not so much from ketosis, but simply from consuming much fewer calories than I was previously.

However, I have a feeling I will not lose any fat for a very long time, like at least two months. Whenever I've tried losing weight in the past, it's always been this way. Great.

[NickelArse]

Day 16: 1326 calories consumed today. I haven't broken 1500 at all this week, but I haven't even been hungry. I guess fat really is that satiating. I suppose I could lose weight not so much from ketosis, but simply from consuming much fewer calories than I was previously.

However, I have a feeling I will not lose any fat for a very long time, like at least two months. Whenever I've tried losing weight in the past, it's always been this way. Great.

Don't be silly, keep you head up but if you hit a plateau or you're not achieving fat loss there's normally a logical explanation for it

[fihe]

Don't be silly, keep you head up but if you hit a plateau or you're not achieving fat loss there's normally a logical explanation for it

Hmm, whenever I've tried losing weight in the past, it was always hard for me. I would go for weeks or even a couple of months with absolutely nothing coming off, then it suddenly comes off later.

I ate way too much today btw. I stopped counting my calories after a certain point, but I must have had at least 1800. Oh well, I've been under my goal every day this week so I guess that makes up for it.

[NickelArse]

what are you current stats?

What calorie and macro goals have you set for yourself?

How much weight do you plan on losing?

[fihe]

what are you current stats?

What calorie and macro goals have you set for yourself?

How much weight do you plan on losing?

5'5", 146.5 lbs. as of this morning. It fluctuates a little, but I've consistently weighed in under 150 lbs. since my first week, so that's good. I aim for 1500 calories a day, but have been eating less than that for most of this past week. I stopped counting yesterday and didn't count at all today, and I have a feeling I ate way too much both days. I'm generally fine on weekdays, but I've always had trouble keeping my diet/calories in check on weekends, long before I started this diet.

I want to get down to 135 lbs, maybe even 130, just because I feel "safer" getting to below my goal weight in case I should gain some back. I did used to weigh as little as 125 lbs. in mid-2013. After that, any attempts of mine to get back down to that weight have been extremely difficult, but I don't particularly want to weigh that little anymore anyway. I also had very little muscle back then (not that I have much now, but nevertheless more than I used to).

[fihe]

Day 21: It's already been 3 weeks! So far so good. I did have ajvar (roasted red pepper spread) with my chicken yesterday which hopefully did not have too many carbs. I think it has 3g of carbs per serving. It did taste a little sweet. Other than that, I've been mostly having high-fat condiments with my food, such as sour cream and ranch dressing. Delicious.

Today I cooked myself a panna cotta. It is made of heavy cream, half and half, unflavored gelatin, sugar, and a little vanilla, but I used stevia instead of sugar. It needs to be chilled overnight, so I will eat it tomorrow. Hope it tastes good.

My weight has been stable at 146.5 lbs. for the past few days. I really hope I lost at least a pound of fat. I seem to have gotten a little smaller, particularly in the waist. I wore my size 6 pants today for the first time in a while. I've been able to fit in them on and off for the past month, but they did not feel as tight today as they did last time. Now if only I can lose several more inches!

[fihe]

Day 24: Ugh, I've been bloated all day yesterday and today. I weighed in this morning at a whopping 149.5 lbs, when I weighed only 146.5 a few days ago! It's water weight, and it's making me look and feel huge! At the gym on Thursday night, any exercise that involved abdominal contraction (which is all of them) was uncomfortable and difficult. I could only do 3 exercises: bench press, deadlift, and squat. 5 sets of each. I was exhausted by the time I finished! I would have loved to do 1-2 more exercises, but I was physically and mentally just DONE. I also got home pretty late that night, and had a long, busy week to boot. Now my legs and lower back are really sore.

I finally lost a couple of pounds/inches and I'd like for them to stay off. This is pretty discouraging.

[fihe]

Day 26: Wow, almost a month on this diet and I'm still fat. My weight keeps fluctuating by a couple of pounds. I weigh 148 lbs. today, which is less than what I weighed yesterday upon waking up, but more than what I weighed a week or so ago. I have stopped counting calories each day, so I wonder if I have simply been eating too much. I did seem to lose a few pounds when I was eating only about 1500 calories daily, the week after I had gotten sick. I'm very sure it's all just water weight, but it nevertheless makes me feel like my efforts are for naught.

All I've eaten today thus far is my scrambled eggs with 3 jumbo eggs and ~0.25 cup shredded cheddar cheese, ~1 tbsp. half and half, salt and pepper, with some coconut oil to grease the pan, 3 Banquet beef sausage links, and 2 cups of coffee with some half and half added. (I use the ~ symbol for approximations, since I didn't measure stuff out.) I may cook a chocolate panna cotta later, but need to look at some more recipes to see how I can make a keto-friendly modification. I'm planning on making panna cotta for next week's Valentine's Day celebration at work, and thought it would be nice to make both chocolate and vanilla. I'd like to be able to eat some myself!

[fihe]

Day 27: Still fat. Weighed in at 149 lbs. this morning. However, I went clothes shopping today and somehow fit into size 6 pants. I do already own a pair of the same pants in a different color, and I know that they do not particularly run big, so I guess that's good. Workout today was focused on abs. I really need to strengthen my core.

I ate my chocolate panna cotta today. Since the chocolate I used is semisweet and not unsweetened, I should probably be more careful with it. I hope I don't get knocked out of ketosis.

[fihe]

Day 29: So yesterday and today, I was able to fit into two pairs of size 6 pants that I haven't worn in a while. I did try wearing one of them last month, and it was uncomfortably tight due to being so bloated. Now I don't have much of a problem with bloating anymore It used to happen after every meal.

Ever since Monday, my right shoulder has been acting up. I did get an x-ray for it this past Thursday, and I need to go back to the radiologist to get the results. I hope it doesn't affect my lifting too much. I plan to go to the gym tomorrow if it's open. There's supposed to be a huge storm. In fact, my company is closed tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to having to catch up with so much work on Friday, and fix any plans gone awry due to the lost day (I work in transportation and we do pickups and deliveries every weekday), but at least this is a welcome break to how busy I've been every weekday for the past two weeks.

[fihe]

Day 35: Happy Forever Alone Day! We had a ton of desserts at work today. However, the only ones I was able to eat were the keto-friendly chocolate and vanilla panna cotta that I brought (and cooked myself), and a couple of strawberries. Actually, the chocolate I used was semisweet instead of unsweetened, which hopefully won't be too much of a problem. (I have since purchased unsweetened chocolate to use next time.) Just a few minutes ago, I also made myself a keto chocolate mug cake with chocolate ganache using this recipe:



Both the panna cotta and mug cake were very easy to make. Because they are so full of fat, they make me quite full! I do hope that the few grams of carbs in each of those haven't added up enough to knock me out of ketosis for today I just tested myself with a ketone test strip and it was fine, but I'll be closely monitoring myself...if I can remember.

[fihe]

Day 36: I used my keto sticks a few times today. I was concerned since there was very little color on it after I came back from my ballet class (that was a good workout!), but it was more colored after a couple of hours when I tried it again. Good, all that chocolate from yesterday did not knock me out of ketosis.

I'm thinking that I should probably stop eating mixed nuts and cheese every day at work, especially within an hour or two of coming to work, when I'm not all that hungry. It's probably keeping me from losing weight. My weight is not going down at all! I feel stupid.

[fihe]

Day 37: Woke up today with a charley horse in my left calf. It lasted for only a few seconds, but it felt like a lobster was grabbing my calf! I also didn't do too well at the gym today. On several of my exercises, I used less weight than usual. Of those where I didn't, I couldn't do as many reps as I would have liked. Whether it was my legs, arms, or back, my muscles seem to be pretty prone to cramping today. I wonder if I have a nutritional deficiency.

Today at lunchtime, I had a cheeseburger with no bread, with a salad with ranch dressing. It made me so full, but I ate it at noon and was starving by 8:30pm, when I got home from the gym. Didn't eat anything between that time, except maybe a few mixed nuts. The size 6 pants I wore today fit fine except for on my stomach, and my lower abdomen felt bloated when I ate after getting home from the gym. I guess I ate too much.

[fihe]

Day 40: Not pleased. Still fat. Maybe I'm just eating too much. I really don't want to have to start tracking all my calories again :'(

I honestly doubt that ketosis has been helping me lose weight at all. The only way it may help at all is that most foods I would eat out of habit are full of carbs, and such foods are now off-limits.

[fihe]

Day 42: I was reminded today by ********'s Memories feature that exactly 2 years ago on this day, I weighed 125 lbs. This morning, I weighed 147.5 lbs. I do remember it being very difficult to get my weight that low, although it stayed at 130 or even 127 fairly easily. That's ridiculous that I gained over 20 lbs. in only 2 years. Granted, 135 lbs. is probably a better weight for me, or at least easier to maintain, but if I am capable of getting myself to a lower weight, why not?

I really don't think I have that much more muscle on myself now than I did then, especially since I haven't been serious with my exercise routine for almost the past year. I do still work out, but I don't have a consistent routine because I honestly don't really care anymore. Ever since my cat died last May, I just haven't been the same. Before that, the last time a pet of mine died was in 2007, when I was still in high school. However, back then I was fat and didn't consistently exercise anyway.

I'm starting to get tired of keto, to be honest. Getting enough fat in my diet is difficult, considering most high-fat foods are condiments, and I'm sure I'm getting too much protein. There's only so much sour cream I can put on my chicken, and so much peanut butter I can eat straight from the jar. (Yes, I have a tablespoon of peanut butter about once a day now.) Few things make me feel full. I have had hormonal acne for the past month, localized around my mouth, especially on the right side of my face.

I've lost a lot of weight in the past on a high-protein, low-carb diet. I do wonder if that would be feasible for me now, since I have a different lifestyle now: a full-time, sedentary 9-5 office job with less time and energy for working out than I did years ago, working a per diem job, on my feet for much of the day, and the ability to take a day off whenever I wanted. But even back then, it was not easy when I was on 1500 calories a day, consuming 1g/lb. of body weight of protein each day, and trying to squeeze in any amount of carbs or fats in my remaining calories for the day.

I guess losing weight is hard no matter what, but it's especially bad when none of my efforts are helping in the least.

[fihe]

Day 43: Not sure if it's just what I happen to be eating today and how much, but I seem to be getting full more easily. At work, we had some clients visit for a training session on their new account with us, and ordered a bunch of pizzas for them and our staff. I would have loved to have a slice, but I did not. First of all, when they first arrived, I was quite full from eating my cheese and nuts. Then later, I ate my lunch I brought from home. In fact, I actually was thinking of having some pizza since keto doesn't seem to have been working for me anyway, but I figured if anything, I'd have one at the end of the day if I was hungry. Then I forgot about it :P Good, I guess.

My ballet class was cancelled today, and I suppose I could have gone to the gym, but now I am at home doing nothing but thawing myself out with my heater on. (I found out that my class was cancelled when I was already at work, and didn't have my clothes with me.) The only way I can get myself to the gym on a weekday is either if I have an appointment with my trainer or if I go directly from work and have my gym clothes packed in my car.

Oh yeah, I wore a pair of pants to work today that I haven't worn in a long time, and they were rather tight on my stomach. Apparently I still have a ton of work to do.

[xR1pp3Rx]

I think we need to tweak your keto approach so you can start to benefit from it. its not uncommon to stall out when you don't have all the ducks in a row on this diet!

[fihe]

I think we need to tweak your keto approach so you can start to benefit from it. its not uncommon to stall out when you don't have all the ducks in a row on this diet!

Hmm, what do you mean by that? That's actually interesting that you say that, because I was about to create a thread about how I have lost only 2-3 lbs. in the first 2 weeks or so and nothing else. Today is Day 45 of keto, so it's been about a month and a half. I felt fat today at work because my pants were ill-fitting.

[fihe]

Day 47: NO MORE CHEESE. NO MORE DAIRY PROTEIN. Apparently it's what's been causing me not to lose weight after all this time. I had a feeling it was something other than calories alone. I was reading this article, which states the following:

Protein, like carbs, can raise insulin levels, which drives energy into storage.

The amino acid composition in dairy protein makes it very potent at spiking insulin. In fact, dairy proteins can spike insulin as much as white bread (6, 7).

Even though you may seem to tolerate dairy products just fine, eating them often and spiking insulin can be detrimental to the metabolic adaptation that needs to take place in order to reap the full benefits of low-carb diets.

I suppose I can still eat dairy products that contain little or no protein. I did just have chicken breast with sour cream, which contains <1g of protein per 2 tbsp. serving. Half and half, which I use in my coffee, also contains very little protein. Hopefully my skin will clear up these days as well, since it seems like dairy causes me to break out.

I went to the gym yesterday for the first Saturday in probably a month, and while I got a bit of a late start, I had a decent workout for the legs. Pretty sad how I've become so lazy. I think it started with when I got sick a month or so ago on a Saturday. Two years ago, I was so conscientious about my workout routine that I once drove to and from the gym on a Saturday in a blizzard. Now I struggle to even get myself in there.

The amount of time I spent at work 2 years ago is in fact more than I spend there now, so why do I now feel like I have less time for myself? -_-