Whitney Wednesday: My Keto Life

I've been traveling a bit lately and missed a few weeks of Whitney Wednesdays, so I'm sorry for those of you that were waiting on my second installment to my last post! To recap where I left off, I am on the Keto diet, however it's more of a way of life now. I've lost 26 pounds since the end of March, and I'm finally feeling in control of my life and my anxiety. It's been a great decision for me personally and it's been a really easy diet to stick to. I want to put out the disclaimer that I'm not pushing this diet on anyone, but rather that you guys have noticed my weight loss and have had a lot of questions, so this is for those of you that were curious and just wanted to know a little bit about what I've been doing! 

What is Keto? The Keto diet is pretty simple: you limit your carbs and cut out sugar, so that your body adjusts to using ketones for energy instead of using sugar as fuel. To get in ketosis, you are to eat organic, eat only 20 grams of net carbs a day (total carbs minus the total fiber = net carbs), no sugar, and eat healthy fats. Your diet should be mainly healthy fats, then proteins next, and lastly carbs. Your carbs will pretty much come from vegetables and nuts. I'm paring this down a lot, so be sure to do your own research before starting a diet like this. It was very helpful to know WHY my body was reacting the way it was the first few weeks, and it's because I read up on keto, sugar detox, keto flu, mineral deficiencies, and food sensitivities before I started.

So what does this look like for me? Well, I'll tell ya! SIDE NOTE: Just to put this out there, I feel as though people can customize keto a bit to fit their lifestyle, so my day to day may look different than someone else's. I'm lactose intolerant, so I do mainly dairy free except for some cheeses here and there. I also don't do any products that have SOY in them (it disrupts my hormones and thus effects my anxiety), so I use coconut aminos in place of soy sauce for recipes. With that said, here is what I typically eat in a day. 

Breakfast: This can vary depending on how hungry I am. Sometimes I'll drink just bulletproof coffee (coffee, almond milk, a few drops of Stevia, and MCT oil or grassfed butter) and some days I'll drink my coffee but also eat two eggs with Trader Joe's "Everything But The Bagel" seasoning, and avocado. If I'm really feeling it- I add two slices of bacon. I try to stay away from cured meats but sometimes bacon just sounds good.

Lunch: This also varies but most of the time, I'll grab a salad. The salad typically has chicken on it and avocado, and I really prefer spinach leaves instead of iceburg. I like to vary between taco salads and cobb salads because they're easy to make at home quick and take on the go.  When I don't have time, I'll eat a Kirkland's Protein Bar and some macadamia nuts.

Snack: I always have peanut butter fat bombs on hand. They get me through any sugar cravings or if I just feel like I need something sweet after a salty meal. I also have almonds or macadamia nuts on hand the majority of the time. I'm in love with macadamia nuts not only because they are amazing, but they are high in healthy fats so they are a good way to get my good fats in each day.

Dinner: I'm really into traditional buffalo chicken wings right now, but I also like doing chicken and a vegetable like broccoli or asparagus, and sometimes I'll make bunless burgers or steaks.  I really like the recipes on Ketoconnect.net and haven't made anything yet that I haven't liked. Even my husband, who is not doing keto and doesn't like "diet food", has liked everything I've made. 

Evening snack

TIPS AND TRICKS

The first few weeks of keto are a little brutal because your body is detoxing from sugar, so I personally had headaches, body aches, felt shakey, felt super tired, and didn't sleep very well. Kind of like pregnancy where morning sickness is a good sign of the health of the baby, these symptoms are good signs because your body is working to get past the sugar "addiction" and switch over to using ketones. To get myself through those first few weeks, I started taking magnesium, and essentially making sure I didn't deplete my electrolytes. I'm not a doctor or nutritionist, but I know from experience that it helped a TON to be taking iron (I'm always low on iron), magnesium, and then a daily multivitamin on a daily basis. I slept better, I didn't get muscle cramps in my legs at night, I felt better all day and didn't get fatigued.

You'll also want to make sure you drink a lot of water. It'll help with headaches and keep your muscles from cramping. 

Those first few weeks, people suggest sprinkling a little Himalayan Sea Salt on your tongue if you are ever feeling tired or faint. It helps your electrolytes.

I use the Lose It! app to help keep track of my weight loss, and to keep track of what I've eaten that day. I notice that if I don't track my food or how much, I'll start to let things slide and then it just pushes me back in my progress. The Lose It! app is free, it shows me my net carbs for that day, and shows my weight loss progress in a line graph so I can visually see how I'm doing which helps motivate me to keep going. It's been really good for me and I'm really grateful I found it!

I also started taking probiotics and prebiotics to help with my gut health. I have taken a SLEW of antibiotics throughout my lifetime and those kill off even the good bacteria in your gut and can take years to build back up. I knew I needed to start taking those to aid not only my digestion but my immune system so I wouldn't get sick every time my boys bring home a new illness.

I also "like" taking apple cider vinegar shots before or after meals. When I say I "like" taking these shots, I mean that they are awful and are super hard to choke down. HOWEVER, their benefits outweigh the horrible 10 second after taste, and my digestion really likes them. (You don't have to do this on the Keto diet- I just like doing them to help my tummy. I also usually just do them in the morning or after dinner.)

A tip that the people from ketoconnect.net said was that if you feel like you need to cheat, cheat with calories and not carbs/sugar. So if you are feeling munchy, and feel like binging, go grab some bacon, or a fat bomb, or something that feels indulgent but won't completely back track your progress. If you have sugar, especially in those first few weeks, you're going to have to go through that detox again... and it's not pretty. This was really helpful for me to keep going, and I'm SO glad I had this tool because I honestly believe that's what helped me keep going instead of spiraling after 6 weeks like I always had done in the past.

Once I hit 4.5 weeks, I felt so much better and stronger. I slept better, and wasn't fatigued by 3pm. I could push myself more in my workouts, and lift heavier weights, and my mood has been happier! 

So there you have it! Next week, I'll have Kait and Britt talk about their Keto experience! 

-Whit