Well I’ve already been doing keto for two years. I’m down about 55 pounds, but stalled out a few months back so I had to cut back carbs to almost zero and really up my fat intake to take off this last 10. I’ve done this several times since I was about 40, because to keep it off, you can’t really ever go back to normal carb consumption, and I always did. This is the longest I have done it and it gets easier as time goes on. The trick is to come up with lots of tasty recipes that are still safe to eat. My mild type II diabetes has reversed. Labs are always good. That’s a good enough incentive to keep me honest these days. We do cheat on Christmas, Thanksgiving, and our birthdays. Only four times a year!
Mrs. Torque and I are supposed to be doing this “hardcore!” in the final weeks leading up to our Disney World vacation in June. So I get home last night, and what has she made for dinner? Spaghetti. Really?
Yesterday I ate some homemade kimchee, a tin of sardines, a 2.5-inch square of chocolate cake made from coconut flour and Splenda (salvaged from the attempt at low-carb pancakes), and for dinner I had one scrambled egg (fried in non-stick spray) wrapped in a Mission low-carb tortilla with shredded Tillamook cheddar and Tabasco, with a side of one avocado with ‘light’ mayonnaise.
As of this morning, I’m down 28 pounds from mid-March.
Well, I fell off the wagon last night, but climbed back up this morning. I browned up some sausage links and then broke up a bit and added a couple eggs and some Quetzalacatenangoes and made a scramble. I’m on my third or fourth cup of coffee. I’m planning a green salad and some steamed veggies for lunch and more veggies simmered in a marinara sauce (it’s actually pretty good) for dinner.
So I’m doing a light version of this. Allowing unlimited vegetables and 1/4cup of whole grain porridge each night before bed (seratonin building blocks.)
So far, so good. My hope is to get protein up to 60-80% of my calories by the end of the week. Yesterday carbs were 30% (too much porridge) and so far today they are only 16%. I’ve also dropped the calories down from the usual 2100 to 1800 yesterday and 868 so far today. Should be up to 1800 by bedtime.
My one problem is iron. I have hemochromatosis, so I’m trying to keep that low. It really, really hard. Just having eggs for breakfast puts it over the level I want. I’m taking calcium with every meal to try and slow absorption. If I could eat spinach and kale I could do this diet soooo easily!
I haven’t felt hungry or deprived yet, so that’s good. Bacon with breakfast is helping with that.
I made a huge batch of chicken stew yesterday. I added black olives, celery, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes, but in very small amounts. Also a blorp of balsamic vinegar - just enough to flavor it. It’s delicious, but will get old eventually.
Tomorrow I plan to put together a vat of chicken with onion, celery, orange zest and a blorp of soy sauce. All of the chicken is boneless skinless breast meat.
I’m clearing out the freezer, whee! I had some pork chops with a bit of freezer burn. I cut off the skanky bits (dogs are gonna love me!) then fried up a few slices of bacon, then browned the chops in the grease, then added a bunch of thin sliced onions and about half a bag of prepped coleslaw–just cabbage and carrots. Some garlic, salt and pepper, sprinkle of dill. Got the veggies all nice and almost cooked, added a generous splash of red wine vinegar and tossed that through on low heat until the cabbage is soft. Add bacon back in all chopped up. So good. Enough left for another dinner, score!
For another sweet and tasty treat, Bullet Proof Stash Spice Chai tea. That is hot tea, a tablespoon of coconut oil, a tablespoon of butter, a healthy splash of heavy whipping cream, some fake sugar, and froth everything with one of those little beaters. Quite good. Or do it with coffee for breakfast, which I do sometimes when I don’t feel like making eggs. Staves off hunger for several hours.
I guess I do count as already doing it, though I’d only started about a week before the Main Cadre™
Still hardcore at it. Down 8 pounds. Love using the Keto Sticks for that positive visual reinforcement, and it tells me just how far INTO Ketosis I am. Which helps a lot.
Been taking the lazy way, plenty of meat and cheese. Some selective vegetables, but many have too many sugars to pass the test.
Determined as hell to do this again for a long time. I’ve so far to go, and will be only mildly pleased when I eventually cross the 20 pound mark.
But, every day… every day.
And in the evening, I’m permitted A shot of tasty tequila, as long as I avoid the citrus wedge. I’m quite fond of mixing it with diet tonic water. LOVE that taste, I drink the stuff incessantly. And it gives a faintly citrus flavor without the sugars of limes or lemons.
That chart is encouraging for those folks who like a drink now and then but assumed that alcohol = sugars = carbohydrates.
I am not found of counting carbs & grams of fat & protein every meal, so I’m using simpler approach - no processed foods, very little grains, only whole milk dairy, and only raw, crunchy fruits and vegetables. The important thing is to feel full.
My basic meal is an ounce of chopped nuts, a tablespoon of granola, 1 to 2 cups of chopped crunchies, with a cup of greek yoghurt or a couple of ounces of cheese. I stress eat celery in the afternoon, and eat meat at night. I think I’m going to have to switch to eating meat at lunch, though, if I ever leave any left overs. I’ve eaten more meat in the last two days than I typically eat in a week.
I haven’t gone back to exercising yet, because I have been just too busy at work.
I’m a huge fan of cronometer.com. It allows me to track everything I want to keep up with, while also setting the iron extra low for my weird digestive tract.
Speaking of which - I don’t drink alcohol but roomie #1 bought some erythritol (Swerve brand sweetener) recently. She thought she was getting a low carb sweetenr. But the nutrition panel on this thing is very confusing. It says that one teaspoon has 0 calories, but 5g of carbohydrates. How can that be? Are there carbohydrates but they just can’t be absorbed perhaps?
