Tag: weight loss

So last week I stagnated on this journey. I watched my weight fluctuate up instead of down… I ended the week at a loss, but it was frustrating.  Going back through my numbers I noticed a trend that I want to share.

A) I have always had a hard time drinking water… I was NOT drinking enough water from day one.

B) I got used to intermittent fasting and some days only ate 600 or 700 calories.  Those lower calorie days are when I stopped losing.

C) As soon as I started drinking a gallon of water a day and forcing myself to get the calories in (this meant one day 6 tablespoons of walnut oil which I know sounds unhealthy but I was literally NOT hungry and it was a way to get my fat calories.) My weight started dropping again.

I also started taking a one-a-day supplement to help with nutrients.  Also on the advice of another friend I set my total “allowed calories” for a day to my BMR at http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator.  For those of you who don’t know what your BMR is it is the minimum amount of calories you use just walking around daily.  Mine is higher because I weigh so much.  It give a bench mark for how many calories to eat up to– this is important because I think some people think Keto means they can eat whatever they want that fits macros and still lose weight.  If you start eating 4k a day you could possibly lose a bit at first but you won’t maintain that lose and really more likely will gain weight,

Also traditional health says eat on average 1200 calories at minimum daily.  (I know I am steering a little off of keto which talks about macros being what is important and calories less so;  however, I think balance is a good thing) I think if there are long term health issues that can come from eating under 1200 calories consistently (one day I only was at 350 calories) then I need to consider some of that as well.

I am still shooting for 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs.  I LOVE focusing on macros with a general goal of at least 1200 calories, because if I happen to eat a little to much protein I can offset with a little more fat… no harm done.  I don’t have to only eat 1200 calories, but as long as I get that much I feel like I am staying healthier. My body seems to agree as well. The myfitnesspal app has a great easy way to say your macro percentage and I am relying on that to help me get my food in check.

Going strong into WEEK 4 holy smokes!! 🙂

Last night a woman’s group I am in started talking about Keto.  Many of the same questions came up and I saw people making this really… hard.  They were linking “rules,”  lists of food you CAN and CAN’T eat.  If I had seem many of the posts last night when I first was starting out I would never have started!

So let’s just chat for a minute, shall we?  I am having SO much success with this, and it is not complicated.  I am not a doctor I just took the advice of other people who have followed the program, and suggested the program and dove in.

Keto is short for ketogenesis– you can look that up for the science around it, but in a nutshell, it is the process in which your body produces ketones.  These are the bi-product of burning fat for energy.  Keep that in mind for a minute 🙂

OK so I saw a lot of people representing Keto has mainly low carb high protein.  Keto is about low carb, moderate protein and high fat.  Basically we get our energy from two sources: glucose (carbs break down to this) and fat.  Excess nutrients become fat and drum roll please……that’s how I became a person carrying another person around with me every day!

So carbs, proteins, and fat contain calories– they each vary on how many grams per calories… you could look that up if you want.  Keto teaches that you want to give your body about 5-10% of it’s daily calories from carbs while staying under 20 “net carbs” and about 60% + of your diet from fat.  There are different theories out there regarding net carbs or total carbs, but essentially net carbs are “carbs-fiber=net carbs.”

A good app for tracking this for me has been at myfitnesspal.com.  It’s free and easy to us. You can set your own percentages for those in the app and it’s awesome!  Link to my diary here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/Vaidyanatha  for examples on what I eat.  (I mix the butter in my coffee)

The Keto diet has similarities to Atkins, Paleo, etc… but those percentages REALLY matter.  Your body NEEDS the fat to get to Ketosis.

Let’s talk actual diet.  I am finding that things I have in my home work perfectly fine for this;  try just raiding your cupboards. Grab some meat, mix some butter into your coffee, research your ingredients… always good to be as natural as possible with what you put into you body, but DUDE’s don’t flip. You don’t have to go spend tons of money on this… I live on a budget of 10.00 per day for myself and three kids….

Go grab an app you like that lets you track your nutrients. Also a scale (mine was 7.00 at Walmart). I find that really focusing on fat helps me kind of just fall into where am I shooting for every day.  Also as a side note, I am SO FULL most of the time.  Tonight I almost didn’t want dinner. Those fat grams stick with you and you will see weight drop! (Keep in mind your starting weight plays into weight loss per week in the beginning. … DO NOT get discouraged if you do not have insane results.)

Ok… so that’s the big secret. Track your percentages…. LOL See? SUPER EASY!!!

Starting out today a little bummed; yesterday went well in regards to “healthy” choices, but I overshot my carb goal when I added roasted veggies from Baja Fresh to a side of steak.  I thought I was being “oh! so good” only to find out that there are  25!!!  carbs in a side of their veggies.  How? I am still confused.. but lesson learned. Always add the meal to tracker BEFORE eating.  That said it was super good and veggies and steak are not a bad combo…  I need to plan a bit better and definitely not make assumptions.

I looked into the idea of “net carbs” today and learned about taking fiber into account to track your net carbs. Adjusted my tracker to include fiber to be able to track that a bit as well!

GOOD NEWS Had a weigh in at DR yesterday. Fully dressed and I am down 10 lbs from the last time I weighed nude!  The last time I weighed was near on a month ago so I can’t say specifically if it is keto or not, but definitely going to give keto at least most of the credit!

Totally forgot to grab anything to get me through today so when lunch time hits I am going to be careful.  It’s apparently hard to eat out and keep things basic, so I will be tracking foods before I order today!

I am 35 years old, and I have struggled with weight and food my entire life.  I -like many others- have used food for comfort, for activities, for socializing, for… for… for… AND I still don’t think there is anything necessarily wrong with any of the above… EXCEPT when food is the only contributor.

Then KETO happened, and I already keenly keto… thus the very inspiring site name!! 🙂 So 4 days in might not seem like much to many people, but it is literally the longest I have ever been able to “stick” to a new plan.  I am benefited by being surrounded by people who are working on their health, and I KNOW that is helping me. However, I also find this program mentally stimulating and exciting.  Instead of calories I am more worried about net Carbs. Instead of what I CAN’T eat I am focused on getting enough Fat grams– which has been a challenge lol!

I want to use this site as way to log my experiences with this lifestyle.  This isn’t medical, I am not following anything except basic guidelines, and I am trying to make it as easy as possible.  For me that involves intermittent fasting and no-fancy ingredients or expensive food bills.

So I am at the end of Day 4 and starting a blog because I am soooo excited! I haven’t weighed myself; I will, but for now I just want to explore success by hitting my intake goals.  I am using My Fitness Pal to help set my daily goals as you can input your percentages of fat carbs and protein.  I am less worried about the calorie cap because my understanding from my reading is that focusing on high fat and protein you don’t need to really worry about the calories. I am starting at percentage of carbs- 10%, fat 60%,  and protein 30%.  Based on internet advice that says:

• 60-75% of calories from fat (or even more),
• 15-30% of calories from protein, and
• 5-10% of calories from carbs.

I do plan on slowly altering so I am closer to the 75% fat and 5% carbs; however, the keto flu sounded terrible and I decided easing in might be a good thing!

You can view my daily diary here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/Vaidyanatha

I am finding that butter is my friend and rotisserie chickens are a life saver.  I tend to be a lazy person when it comes to meal prep, so those chickens are such A HUGE TASTY AMAZING alternative.  You will notice I am only eating two meals a day.  I am also playing around with intermittent fasting 16/8 style.  More on that later!

Things I have noticed:

• I think it might be my imagination but my skin looks better.
•  I slept better than EVER last night, but wasn’t super exhausted when I went to bed.
• I am spending more time with my kids!
• I didn’t yawn at work today!  (love my job but about 3 in the afternoon I tend to get sleepy).   LOL!

So drum roll please…. I have MORE energy! This is something promised as a benefit.

I have a three kids age 13, 9 and 4.  I am not putting them on this program, but dinners… they need to eat what I eat. So I have to find food that will work for them and me.  Last night I totally rocked a chicken salad with a tiny amount of green apples and added walnuts… the kids made sandwiches and I just forked the deliciousness into my mouth, I also sauteed brussel sprouts in butter and garlic.  (Surprisingly my kids eat those! but the they always have).

Tonight I had some frozen steamer bags of cauliflower “rice” in the freezer and I was out of chicken.  The meat I took out wasn’t thawed, so I was kinda desperate.  I made a rue with as small amount of flour as I could get away with, added garlic, canned chopped mushrooms, the “rice”, tuna, and grated cheese.  I also used paprika and black pepper.  It turned into a close approximation of tuna casserole and the only reason one child didn’t eat much is I totally forgot he honestly does not like tuna anymore.  We added leftover brussel sprouts and all in all I would give my recipe a B. It really needs more flavor or something, but I can’t figure it out what would pop in into an A!

Anyway getting there and happy!