low carb

Since January 7 I’ve lost 19 lbs. on the ketogenic diet. Not too disappointing for a 59-year-old woman who has been overweight most of her life. And for a woman who lives by the principal:

“If you’re not gaining than you’re losing.”

So, in 5 months I’ve lost 4 lbs/month. Unfortunately, I screwed up for several days (weeks) when I fell off the wagon .

When I started the keto diet, I had been kind of winging it. I calculated my macros, settled on a certain number of calories I wanted to stay at, and tried to balance my percentages so my diet would consist of 80% healthy fats, 15% protein, and 5% carbs.

Fun Fact

I’m naturally a grazer. Maybe it has something to do with living on a beef farm, but I don’t think so. However, just as the cows like to slowly creep through the field, snipping up some grass here and there, raising their head and chewing on their cud for a little bit, and then go back to creeping and snipping, I do the same—just in the house.

Typically, I drink coffee in the morning, as I’m fixing The Farmer’s breakfast, I may snatch a piece of the bacon, drink another cup of coffee, and around 10:00 I go back into the kitchen to grab a little snack.

As I’m fixing his lunch, usually around 11:00, I may take a bite or two of whatever I’m fixing for him, drink a soda, eat some chips, munch on a cookie, and not be hungry enough to actually eat lunch.

Around 2:00, I go back into the kitchen, snoop through the cabinets or fridge looking for something simple to grab. Maybe a slice of ham, or a bag of chips (snack bag size), another cookie, and a diet soda.

4:00 another pass through the kitchen, but it’s pretty close to supper time, so I grab a snack cake and a cup of coffee.

5:30 we’re eating supper, and that’s after I’ve nibbled while I’m cooking.
Of course, it doesn’t end there, there’s a dessert while we watch TV that evening, then another snack, and if I stay up until 11:00 (which I do every night) there’s time for another snack.

Hmmm. I’m starting to realize that I may have a problem with food. You would think me being overweight would be the first clue.

At any rate, I’m not a big eater—like sitting down at a meal and eating a big ‘ole plate of food. In fact, calculating my calories of what I eat at meal time would show that I don’t eat that much. And when we go out to eat, I bring a to-go box home with half my leftovers. But I always eat the leftovers that I bring home before the night is over. And all the snacking I do is probably the reason I don’t eat more at meal time.

So, the point is I’m a grazer.

Grazing on Keto

I use the Carb Manager App, so it’s been fairly simple to keep track of my calculations while I’m doing keto, even as I’m still grazing. The difference has been that the snacks I’ve been eating have been low carb or zero carb.

However, in hopes of getting better results in weight loss, I’ve recently started a 28-Day Keto Challenge, which I purchased for $37.

After digitally receiving all of the material, I skimmed the plan, skimmed the recipes, made a quick grocery list and began the challenge.

In the first 2 days, I felt like I had the keto flu. Not sure that’s what I was really experiencing, because I’ve been in ketosis before, so my body is adapted to burning fats. It was probably coming off the insane amount of sugars that I had consumed the few days before. However, the material that I purchased included information on how to quickly get through the keto flu, and maybe prevent it altogether, but I hadn’t read it, because I didn’t think I would have a problem—and I was only skimming through what I thought I needed.

The food was better than I thought it would be when I first skimmed the recipes. Some recipes were familiar, like the eggs and ham. I have a recipe similar to it using bacon, but I call it “Birds in a Nest”. But some of the food I had never even bought before. I mean, who knows how to pick out an avocado? Is it supposed to be light green or dark green? Hard, soft, or squishy? Not to mention, every time I write avocado I misspell it—~~advocado~~, ~~advacado~~, ~~avacado~~

I spent 15 minutes in the cheese aisle looking for prosciutto, and finally remembered it was a slice of meat. Yeah, so there have been a few challenges. I’m still looking for goat cheese for my button mushrooms.

And because I “skimmed” through all the reading material, I messed up the challenge a little. Not too much, but I didn’t follow the meal plan like I should’ve, and there have been days that I wasn’t able to eat off the meal plan because I wasn’t home.

The Results of Week 1 on the Keto 28-Day Challenge

So what were my results for week 1?

I’m back down to my starting weight from where I gained weight! Yay!!

I lost 6 lbs. in the first week, which is not surprising considering how quickly I gained the 6 lbs. a few weeks ago.

Pros and Cons — So Far

Pros to the challenge: it seems to keep me more accountable because there is a plan. I haven’t been grazing.

Cons to the challenge: I think the only con in the first week is that it was unfamiliar to me, so there was a learning curve.

There have been other benefits to this way of eating that I would like to share some time, which I’m really more excited about than weight loss. I’ll share that soon.

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