Category: Health and Wellness

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Keto Day 49- Heidi Angell Log

Keto Day 49

Hello Lovelies,

This week has been very busy with life, and I sadly had the last course in Weigh to Health. It’s hard to believe that I did a year-long course solely focused on weight loss and healthy eating. I started out that course aiming to lose 7% of my 365 lbs (25 lbs) but secretly I hoped to lose 50-100 lbs which everyone says is a reasonable weight-loss expectation (1-2 lbs a week.) Needless to say, nowhere near that. But I learned some great information and combining that with Keto, I hope will let me see that kind of results with Keto. Let’s get to the Keto Day 49 results, shall we?

Keto Day 49- Week 7 Measurements

Last Week

This week

I’m down .9 lbs. My hips are down 1/2 an inch.

Keto Day 49- Week 7 Fitness data

Strangely, I didn’t get an email last week, which was super frustrating. IDK what is going on with Fitbit, but I keep getting more disappointed with them. So we will go with what I reported last week

Last Weeks Fitbit data:

Sunday, June 28th 4,483 steps, 2.07 miles, 39 minutes of activity

Monday, June 29th 4534 steps, 2.1 miles, 24 minutes activity. This makes no sense because I went for a walk in the morning for 30 ish minutes (I totally forgot to set my watch to log the workout.) AND I went swimming for 45 minutes so my fitness minutes should be 75 minutes minimum.

Tuesday, June 30th. 7,7722 steps, 3.54 miles, 157 minutes of activity. This makes sense as I went for a 25-minute walk that morning and swam for 46 minutes. I also did a lot of chores and moving around every hour or so, which made up for the rest of that activity.

Wednesday, July 1st. 6,845 steps 3.04 miles 58 active minutes. I went for a 25 minute walk and I also did a 30-minute resistance band full-body workout.

Thursday July 2nd. 4,068 steps 1.88 miles 0 active minutes.

This makes no sense at all because I did a bunch of cleaning and running up and down the stairs. I also did a 20-minute resistance band core training session, but I did forget to set my watch so I guess that’s why?

Friday July 3rd 3,636 steps, 1.68 miles, 34 active minutes.

Again, I don’t get it. I went for a 45-minute swim and while I did spend about 15 minutes talking to a lovely lady there about my experience with back issues and suggestions to treat her own, I only logged about 75 yards less than I usually log because we were walking laps in the pool while we talked. I even logged this in my watch so I don’t know why it shorted the workout.

Saturday July 4th 5782 steps, 2.68 miles, 47 active minutes.

James and I went for a lovely 40-minute walk to see the fireworks setups and watch them up close before the sun fully set. The rest of the day was cooking, prepping, cleaning, and having fun as a family so I guess the active minutes is pretty close.

This week’s Data

Sunday July 5th 7,400 steps, 3.4 miles, 72 active minutes.

I went for a walk and did a 30 minute band workout. Of course, Fitbit didn’t track my walk time, just distance of 1.69 miles which lately I’ve been doing in 40 minutes so the active time seems accurate.

Monday July 6th, 5,295 steps, 2.4 miles 101 active minutes.

We went for an hour walk Monday morning and I swam for 45 minutes so again, close timewise, however because of my doubts on Fitbits accuracy, I actually measured my laps during my swim. I did 1,100 meters. Fitbit recorded 775 yards, which = 708.66 meters. So Fitbit shorted me 400 meters. That is not a small shortage! So I have reached the point that I don’t feel like I can truly trust my fitbit data.

Tuesday July 7th, 12,580 steps, 5.69 miles 142 active minutes.

I’ve started doing PT exercises again which is a 30 minute core strengthening and stretching routine every morning. I went for a morning walk for about an hour and then went for a 45 min swim that fitbit tracked as a walk for some odd reason. I did 1,000 meters.

Wednesday July 8th 7127 steps, 3.3 miles, 45 active minutes

30 minutes of PT and a 45 minute walk equals 75 minutes of activity so fitbit is off.

Thursday July 9th 9,536 steps, 4.36 miles, 62 active minutes.

I spent 40 minutes doing PT, then we went for an hour long walk which is 100 active minutes.

Friday July 10th, 3,973 steps, 1.84 miles, 49 active minutes.

a 30 min PT workout, 45 minute swim, and 30 min band workout equals 105 min activity.

Saturday 2,292 steps, 1.06 miles, 0 active minutes.

I don’t understand this because it logged a 23 minute workout, which I’m pretty sure was my doing chores. I also did my 30 minute PT for a total of 53 active minutes.

48,203 from 37,070 steps- up 11,133 steps from the week before.

22.05 miles up from 14.31 miles- up 7.74 miles from the week before.

471 Active minutes up from 359 active minutes last week (according to the minute’s tracker. According to my known workouts it should’ve been at least 640, up from 430 minutes) up 112 minutes (or 210 minutes, respectively.)

So yeah, wildly different activity numbers. I did do several tests of counting steps during my hourly get up and move sessions and the step count seems accurate so at least it measures that correctly. But beyond that, Fitbit doesn’t seem super accurate and Myfitnesspal doesn’t seem to know how to log the activity.

This is made particularly frustrating because I tried to recalculate my macros this week as it is recommended to do every 6-8 weeks to keep the weightloss moving and according to most of the trackers, my base is 2300 cal, but my activity level I should be consuming 2600 calories for a 15% weight loss. And here I’ve been trying to schedule 2100- 2300 calories so basically always riding my metabolism on the verge of starving.

Keto Day 49- Week 7 Food Data

Last week’s food data:

This week:

I need to up my food game. I know that I can’t possibly do 2600 calories a day as I struggle most days to manage 2,100, but I scheduled for 2300 and still ended up short. I need to focus on adding more calories earlier in the day. I also need to look at food prep that is not protein so I can go for a non-protein add on when I’m hungry. Man, Monday’s swim left me straight up ravenous!

It’s tricky though because of the carb restrictions. I went over on both carbs and protein last week. Sure, not a ton, but trying to figure out how to maintain this delicate ecosystem of Keto dieting is becoming very stressful. I may consider upping my carb minimum to 30 to fit within my macros while giving me the space to eat the number of calories I need. IDK. We shall see. Still doing research on this part.

Oh, and I bought a new bathing suit. I was kind of thrilled when I guessed my measurements right and wanted to celebrate that my top is down from last year at a 3X and everything was tight, to this year where a 2 X is loose. I was also excited that I’m down on my bottoms from a 4X to a 3X. I suspect that my early tracking efforts last year were not accurate in what they were measuring.

Then I had James take a picture and was sad all over again.

My legs are just disgusting. I honestly debated not including this picture because I am embarrassed. This is what people see when they look at me.

But it’s important for me to be real with myself and be honest with where I am otherwise I can never get to where I want to go. I’m more motivated than ever to make sure to include weights in my regiment to help tone that hot mess of fat up. I won’t share photos like this too terribly often because honestly it is really disheartening and unmotivating to see myself like this.

But I think at least every 3 months or so will be important so I can truly see some changes happening, hopefully.

Keto Day 49- Next Steps for Week 8

The last day of Weigh to Health class was all about creating strategies for success beyond the class. It looked at some interesting statistics from The National Weight Control Registry

This is a study on people who’ve lost at least 30 lbs and kept it off for 1 year or longer.

Some of the interesting statistics that they found correlated between members to maintain weight loss:

  • Most managed their weight loss and maintenance through diet and exercise plans and tracking.
  • Most eating plans averages 56% carbohydrates, 24% fat, 20% protein
  • Most days included 60-90 minutes of moderate intensity exercise.
  • Most people kept daily food records and weighed in daily or weekly.

The biggest indicators of success were tied to mindset changes around making these habits (tracking diet and exercise) as lifestyle changes, not just “the diet mentality.”

which has kind of been daunting for me. Like, I don’t mind the workouts, though I realize that I’m pushing on being a bit too much. Definitely doing more than 60-90 most days. My daily average is right there, depending on if you take the Fitbit active minutes or my estimated active minutes based on my workouts.

So I’m not aiming to add more “active minutes”. Instead, I am aiming to increase the effectiveness of my active minutes. I started this last week and will continue to push this week. I am consistently swimming for 45 minutes three days a week. My goal is to spend as much of that time pushing from moderately active to vigorously active. What’s the difference? Moderately active means you can hold a conversation but you’re winded. Vigorously active means you cannot speak during that time frame. Last week I started pushing myself to that point during my workouts for short burst, but I wasn’t really tracking how much time I did it, just doing my best to maintain it as long as possible.

This week I am going to attempt to actually track the difference in my workouts to achieve that. Still trying to determine the best way to do this. It will probably be by tracking whole workouts in Myfitnesspal notes, and then logging just my high intensity portion of my workout in fitbit maybe?

The other option is to see if I can somehow influence the figures on the “workout tracking report” in Fitbit:

Given how unreliable I am finding the Fitbit data, I’m not sure which would be best. So for this week, I will try to do both and see which gives me better data. I also need to figure out the best way to cross over between fitbit and Myfitnesspal to achieve a cleaner record. I was logging workouts in Fitbit, then when the data didn’t add up, logging in Myfitnesspal but I’m thinking that may not be the best approach. Not that either of their calorie counts seem very accurate. They’re just guessing, really. Which is abundantly less useful than the calculators online based solely on my height, weight, age, and perceived activity level.

So upping my exertion, also upping my calorie goal to 2500 in hopes that my reality will be closer to that.

I have discovered that there are no keto experts in my area who take my insurance. There are only 3 keto experts in the area. period. They range in cost from $50 for a 30 minute consult to $500 for a 90-minute consult (which I am guessing would hopefully include the weighing, measuring fat, and maybe offering a meal plan? None of them are very clear on this.)

So I plan to stick with my nutritionist if she’ll allow it. Sure, she can’t help me understand what I’m doing with the diet, but she can run my tests, check my cholesterol, take my measurements, and I know, like, and trust her to encourage me and help me consider adapting as needed.

Follow my Keto Journey

If you would like to see my Keto Journey, you can check that out here:

 Keto day 0 

Keto day 7

Keto Day 14

Keto Day 21

Keto Day 28

Keto Day 35

Day 42

Otherwise you can just use my recipes to to build your own meal planning!

Until next time,

Stay inspired!

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How a Make-up Review is About Smart Marketing

How a Make-up Review is About Smart Marketing

Hello Lovelies,

Some of you may have seen my makeup tutorial recently, and I’ve had a few people who have questioned if I was getting into the makeup space. I may not, or I may if there are enough of you who are interested in seeing that.

However, that video was really about how companies (and people) who are thinking outside the box will be able to adapt and become the businesses of the future.

During Covid-19 thousands of businesses closed their doors and many were not able to reopen after three months in lockdown. But I have shown and talked about businesses who adapted. From nail specialists and chef’s hosting virtual “pamper parties”. with a small handful of participants each paying a small fee to participate.

From companies shifting their focus form their brick and mortar locations to their online services. From restaurants offering delivery or pick up when they had not offered that before.

Il Makiage

Il Makiage has built itself for the online generation. They are amazing!

Even if you have no idea about makeup, they have an amazing quiz that helps you pick the perfect foundation. And by perfect, I really do mean perfect. Woke up Like This was exactly the level of coverage, the texture, the right shade for me.

They have a bunch of other quizzes to help you find the right concealer, the right brow kits. You can shop by product, or by “talent”.

Under the talent section, they have several makeup artists who create different looks using all Il Makiage makeup and you can see what products they used to create the look.

If you’d like to see more makeup reviews and content, then please visit the video on Youtube, subscribe to my channel, give the video a like, and comment on what you’d like to see next: A product review or me trying one of the Talents’ Looks?

Il Makiage lets you try up to 4 of the items from the look for the cost of shipping in their “try before you buy” program.

I mean, come on. How amazing is that? Sure, the cost of the makeup is in your higher-end price ranges, but they make it pretty much painless to try their products.

I am not makeup obsessed. I’ve had my fun with expressing myself with makeup but most days I don’t wear any makeup. But they make makeup fun and they keep adding more talent over there. I LOVE it!

Seriously, I don’t need new makeup but I have a 15% off coupon that is burning a hole in my pocket. And I don’t even usually do coupons. I am generally immune to “marketing tricks” but they don’t use these techniques as tricks. It is just a part of doing business and I love how they do business.

I kinda want to get into the makeup scene just because of them. How crazy is that?

The Big Picture

The reality is that innovation has always driven business development and it will continue to drive business development. Online shopping has been consistently growing year after year. Lockdown made it not just a convenience, but a necessity. Several of the thought leaders on business are saying that Covid has advanced online business by years! And as the virus continues to march along, most businesses thought leaders are saying that if you do not have a solid online presence and strategy you will get left behind.

The great thing is that so many brick and mortar stores have seen huge leaps in their sales, which means that people are willing to shop at online stores besides Amazon at growing rates. This means that you do not have to rely on Amazon to have your online store and sell your goods.

Need Help?

So let’s talk about your business.

What are you doing to innovate? How are you changing the business landscape?

If you are struggling with this idea and would like a free consultation then contact me.

Whether you want to up your social media game or expand your online distribution, whether you are investing in a side hustle or are creating a business from scratch after being laid off, I am happy to help you take your company outside the box.

I’ve provided consults and support for small IT companies, SAAS businesses, MLM friends who want to expand their reach, Book bloggers looking to make some money, fiction and non-fiction authors, Etsy shop creatives, even nail technicians who didn’t believe me when I said that they could find a creative way to shift their business online during the Covid Crisis.

I’d love to help you too!

Until next time,

Keep Growing!

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Keto Day 42- Heidi Angell Log

Keto day 42

Hello Lovelies,

Planning out my menu for the week took me a bit longer than I expected as I haven’t added a lot of my recipes into Myfitnesspal yet, so I guestimated on Sunday and started adding recipes to Myfitnesspal and the blog in rapid order. That whole process to me through Thursday.

Let’s take a look at the results:

Keto Day 42- Week 6 Measurements

Last Week

This week

I lost 3 lbs! It was such a relief to see that scale shift again. That means my total loss so far is 6.9 lbs, which puts me still in that 1-2 lbs per week. Slow and steady.

My waist is up 3/4 of an inch and my hips are up 2 inches. I suspect this is because I’ve added in new leg and core workouts the last 2-3 weeks which may be causing muscle growth and water retention.

Keto Day 42- Week 6 Fitness data

Last Weeks Fitbit data:

Sunday, June 28th 4,483 steps, 2.07 miles, 39 minutes of activity

Monday, June 29th 4534 steps, 2.1 miles, 24 minutes activity. This makes no sense because I went for a walk in the morning for 30 ish minutes (I totally forgot to set my watch to log the workout.) AND I went swimming for 45 minutes so my fitness minutes should be 75 minutes minimum.

Tuesday, June 30th. 7,7722 steps, 3.54 miles, 157 minutes of activity. This makes sense as I went for a 25-minute walk that morning and swam for 46 minutes. I also did a lot of chores and moving around every hour or so, which made up for the rest of that activity.

Wednesday, July 1st. 6,845 steps 3.04 miles 58 active minutes. I went for a 25 minute walk and I also did a 30-minute resistance band full-body workout.

Thursday July 2nd. 4,068 steps 1.88 miles 0 active minutes.

This makes no sense at all because I did a bunch of cleaning and running up and down the stairs. I also did a 20-minute resistance band core training session, but I did forget to set my watch so I guess that’s why?

Friday July 3rd 3,636 steps, 1.68 miles, 34 active minutes.

Again, I don’t get it. I went for a 45-minute swim and while I did spend about 15 minutes talking to a lovely lady there about my experience with back issues and suggestions to treat her own, I only logged about 75 yards less than I usually log because we were walking laps in the pool while we talked. I even logged this in my watch so I don’t know why it shorted the workout.

Saturday July 4th 5782 steps, 2.68 miles, 47 active minutes.

James and I went for a lovely 40-minute walk to see the fireworks setups and watch them up close before the sun fully set. The rest of the day was cooking, prepping, cleaning, and having fun as a family so I guess the active minutes is pretty close.

37,070 49,208 steps- down 12,138 steps from the week before.

14.31 miles- down 8.18 miles from the week before.

359 active minutes (according to the minute’s tracker. According to my known workouts it should’ve been at least 430 minutes) Down 24 minutes (or 19 minutes, respectively.)

I am actually getting quite frustrated with the updates from Fitbit. Ever since the one they did mid-June, my numbers are completely whacked. I mean, if there was some consistency then I would say that the problem was me. (I am the kind of person who always assumes the problem is me until I can identify the actual issue.) But for the over a year that I’ve had Fitbit, 10K steps is about 5 miles. So that means that 2K steps is 1 mile. If you look at the steps and miles on my low step days that doesn’t quite match.

For over a year, James and I have been measuring our different steps. I always have about 2K steps more than him when we finish a walk. I take relatively short strides despite having long legs. Ever since that update, I am typically under by between 1,00 and 3,000 steps. That is a crazy fluctuation!

Before the update every time I was active for more than a few minutes it would register as an active minute. After 10 minutes it would log a workout and would count the whole active time. Now, if I forget to set it, it will start counting the workout after 10 minutes, shorting the workout. So if I go for a 40-minute walk, it will only count 30 minutes.

Sadly, if not for James’ tracking his workouts on a Samsung Smartwatch, we never would’ve known this. I have also found that somehow my physical workouts don’t seem to translate from Fitbit to Myfitnesspal correctly. Fitbit tracks your “calorie burn” which I ignore because it is ridiculously over the top (Example, on the day it said I had 0 active minutes it says I burned 3,309 calories because I walked 1.88 miles. On Sunday where I walked 2.07 miles and had 39 minutes of physical activity, it says I burned 3,473 calories. Tuesday when I went swimming it said I burned 5,405 calories! Myfitnesspal adjusts for those obscenely over the top numbers, for example on Tuesday Myfitnesspal estimated my caloric needs at 3,605. almost 2,000 calories less than Fitbit claimed my burn was. That is a crazy difference!

The struggle is that I can’t accurately measure my difference in calories so maintaining the right number of calories to keep from tanking my metabolism while still having enough deficit is so difficult. Especially when it seems that Fitbit tracks different workouts differently and yet doesn’t report those different workout forms to Myfitnesspal. So when Myfitnesspal lowers the calories it does it at an even rate.

What am I going to address this? I’m really not sure. Myfitnesspal doesn’t add caloric burn for weights or resistance band workouts because the amount of calories burned is completely dependent on how much muscle mass you have. So for now, I guess being aware of these issues is all I can really do.

Keto Day 42- Week 6 Food Data

So last week, I didn’t track daily but estimated that my weekly caloric intake was 12,000 calories.

Planning out my menu went much better though I do need to work on planning the menu in Myfitnesspal to get a better caloric count. Several days at the end of the week I underestimated the calories for the meals, but because I was behind uploading recipes I didn’t catch it until it was too late to fix.

Still, my daily average of 2,113 is a lot better than a daily average of 1,800.

A weekly under total of 4,027 comes out to an average daily caloric deficit of 575 calories which is right in the sweet zone most metabolism diets say you should be in to lose weight without killing your metabolism.

My macros were also pretty solid until I was feeling a bit snackish the end of the week and kept doing pork rinds which caused me to go over on my protein macros.

When I plan the diet this week, I think I will give myself a bit more cushion on the protein side and when I snack, I will focus on choosing more low-carb veg options, like salad or Catalina olives. I think my electrolytes got off a bit this week because I was struggling with leg cramps and charlie horses a lot at the beginning of the week but found that the pork rind binge seemed to help it. Eating pickles, pickled eggs, or Catalina olives should also help with that without causing my protein to go over.

Keto Day 45- Next Steps for Week 7

You know, I feel like this week was a pretty good week, all in all. I missed a couple of days walking and would like to get to the point where I am walking every day for at least 25 minutes.

I felt really great doing three days swimming and plan to do that again next week.

I am enjoying the resistence band workouts and will keep doing the two workouts a week which gives me two rest workout days between weights and swim.

I am shifting my daily walking goal down to 8,000 steps a day to see if that will motivate me to hit it more regularly.

I am going to spend more of today planning out my menu in myfitnesspal not just on the kitchen board and will plan appropriate snacks to help me stay better in tune with my daily macros.

I’m still looking for a keto dietitian who is covered under my insurance.

I may also start looking for a replacement for my Fitbit. This really makes me sad because for the most part, I have enjoyed my Fitbit. I suspect that it is a great starter tracker app and I’ve just outgrown it. It will probably take me a few months to pick which one I want to go with next.

Follow my Keto Journey

If you would like to see my Keto Journey, you can check that out here:

 Keto day 0 

Keto day 7

Keto Day 14

Keto Day 21

Keto Day 28

Keto Day 35

Have you tried the new MyFitnessPal recipe sharing I tried this week when I shared the Homemade Keto Meatballs recipe? If that works, I can share my keto meal plan as a spreadsheet with links to the recipes if anyone feels that would be beneficial? I know most of my friends aren’t as tall or large as I am so I’m not sure that would be beneficial for you. But if you think it would, let me know.

Otherwise you can just use my recipes to to build your own meal planning!

Until next time,

Stay inspired!

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Keto Day 35- Heidi Angell Log

Keto day 35

Hello Lovelies,

So, week five was an interesting experiment. I decided not to track at all. Y’all, seriously, I am so tired of tracking. It has become kind of an obsession that I next level hate. As a young teen, I had a really unhealthy relationship with food. It took me years to undo that unhealthy relationship. But the last 19 months has found me becoming very OCD with all the tracking and having a super negative feeling about food in general. So I decided to take a week off from tracking. I’m not sure that was the best plan as I look at the Keto Day 35 results.

Let’s see what we can learn from my choices.

Keto Day 35- Week 5 Measurements

Last Week

This week

Exact same weight. Which was kind of disappointing. My neck and waist are down a quarter inch, and my hips are down a whole inch.

But I was feeling super depressed about no weight loss so I decided to measure the rest of my measurements to help me feel better, hopefully?

Let’s see. Day 21 measurements

Vs. Day 35 measurements:

My left Bicep is up a quarter inch, forearm is down a quarter inch. Right bicep is down a half inch, forearm is up 2 inches! Breasts are down 3/4 of an inch, Ribcage is the same, Butt is down 1 1/4 inch, Left thigh is the same, left calf is down a 1/4 inch, Right thigh is down a 1/4 inch, and calf is up 1/4 inch.

My math is not strong when done this way but I think that I have lost 4 inches. The gain in my right side I attribute to the workouts we’ve been doing. So let’s jump into that data next.

Keto Day 35- Week 5 Fitness data

Last Weeks Fitbit data:

Sunday June 21 3,769 steps, 1.74 miles, 25 minutes of activitiy

Monday June 22nd, 9,489 steps 4.27 miles, 64 minutes of activity (I actually should have had more active minutes because I went for a 57 min walk Monday morning, and Monday evening it logged at 10 minute “walk” that was actually my doing the resistance bands and I’m pretty sure that time was closer to 20 minutes as I was doing a video workout that was a 15 min video, but I had to pause and adjust the bands a couple of times to do the workout.

Tuesday June 23rd. 7,112 steps, 3.29 miles, 50 minutes of activity.

(Again, I actually should have had higher because according to my workouts I had a 60 minute swim and a 23 minute walk. I know the swim was a bit long because I realized when I got back to the car that I forgot to turn the workout off. )

Wednesday June 24th 2,219 steos 1.03 miles 0 minutes.

Wednesday I should have had more active minutes because I did a leg-focused resistance band video that went for 30 minutes. But I forgot to click “workout on the fitbit and because it was all in my legs, Fitbit didn’t detect enough movement to see me “working out.”

Thursday June 25th 11,388 steps, 5.11 miles 73 active minutes

This should also be higher as my Workout tracked shows a 3 mile walk. I think we were out for about 45 minutes. It also shows a 60 minute workout that evening which I honestly am not sure what it was tracking. I am thinking when I was doing chores? Sad, it registered my chores as more of a workout than my morning walk. *shrug*

Friday June 26th 14011 steps. 6.49 miles, 171 active minutes

By Friday I had figured out that my Fitbit hasn’t been tracking very accurately so I made sure to actually tell it I was going for a walk (100 minutes. It was a great 5 mile walk around the neighborhood and came in at 8000 of my total steps for the day!) and told it when I went for my swim for 43 minutes.

Saturday June 27th 1,220 steps, .56 miles 0 active minutes.

Yep, this was my rest day. After crushing 10,000 steps the day before and hitting 9 workouts for the week I feel like I definitely earned that rest. Going just on what Fitbit tracked, not adding in my somehow untracked workouts, I hit:

49,208 steps- up 6559 steps from the week before.

22.49 miles- Up 2.89 miles from the week before.

383 active minutes (according to the minutes tracker. According to my known workouts it should’ve been at least 491 minutes) up 13 minutes (or 121 minutes, respectively.)

Clearly I need to get in the habit of tracking my workouts manually instead of relying on Fitbit to recognize them.

For most of shut down, we kept our walking up but weights went by the wayside. When we realized that after everything opening up we don’t feel comfortable going back to the gym we decided to find a better solution. HIIT has not really been that for me so I got a set of resistance bands and have been using those twice a week.

We also got some extra gear for our swimming to help with resistance training: a pair of fins and a pair of paddles. My hope is that those have added to the toning. We all know that muscle weighs more than fat so with that toning it would suggest that I should see some loss coming soon, right?

Keto Day 35- Week 5 Food Data

As I mentioned, I really totally slacked off with tracking food this week. My hope was that I could transition to lazy keto and not have to track obsessively. A lot of people on keto focus on the “eat when you’re hungry” mentality and lose tons of weight. So I tried that.

I did go back and do some math based on what I remember eating (which on Keto is actually super easy because I really only felt hungry and ate twoce a day most days. Until Yesterday. I swear I just ate all day long yesterday, grazing and snacking all day.)

So based on my loose calculations I was good at sticking to 15-20 carbs each day. (I tracked that every day.) but my caloric average was 1800, which is way below my basal metabolic needs calculated by both keto calculators and my nutritionist (who is not an expert in keto but as her numbers and the keto calculators are about the same, I trust her to keep me good with that.)

She said that being a couple hundred calories under my base every once in awhile is fine, but to do it regularly could undo all the hard work we’ve done the last couple of years. As much as I worked out last week, I am surprised I wasn’t more hungry (though it explains my non-stop eating yesterday, my body was in panic mode because I was at such a severe deficit.)

Loosely my fitbit calorie burn is estimated at 26,000 calories for the week. My consumption is roughly 12,000 for the week and should be a minimum of 16,100. If, as the Mayo Clinic says, 3,500 calories equals one lb of fat, then I should have lost 4 lbs. Now, it is entirely possible that I also gained 4 lbs of muscle. However, according to most resources, it is physically impossible to gain more than 1 lb of muscle in a week and most people will struggle to gain more than half a lb. While I reconize that there is absolutely nothing normal about me, from the amount I need to consume to my massive frame, I am inclined to suspect that this average is probably true for me based on this excellent article from Bodybuilding which explains how muscle is built.

So based on that research, I reached out to 28 Days of Keto-Women Only support group. (For any men in the group looking for support, you might want to check out 28 Days Keto Challenge. I think that the reason for separating the group is so that women might feel self-conscious sharing their progress/ etc in a mixed group.)

Generally, I find that you have to be very careful about the recipes shared in the group and there are a ton of people trying to sell keto products. But there are also a ton of us who are all on this journey together and trying to support one another with shared knoweldge. I have found that the people trying to sell products are less likely to engage on your posts. Again, I always have to thoroughly research anything I get from the group, but I have gotten some interesting content from there.

I reached out about my stall in weightloss and a crazy bout of cravings I had and one person looked at my information and suggested that while some people have a hard time with diet sodas creating cravings (what I suspected was to blame) it could also be the cherries I was eating.

See, I haven’t been paying a ton of attention to the food charts. I just track in Myfitnesspal and a carb is a carb is a carb, so long as I stay under 25-30. But she said that while there are plenty on the dirty keto diet who do believe that in her experience working with a lot of people on the keto diet there is also a tie to how certain foods effect your glycimic response and while cherries are relatively low on the glycemic index for diabetics, for those on the keto diet they are high and don’t show up on any of the food lists.

While the cravings went away after I stopped drinking the diet soda (I rarely ever have it, but just happened to have some while I was out one day and forgot my water. Then had another the next day from James’ stash.) I did help finish eating the cherries this week, limiting it to 5 a day. While I don’t use the pee stick test for ketosis because having tried Atkins in the past I NEVER got into ketosis even doing strict Atkins, I have noticed this week that my urine has smelled differently so I wonder if that may be part of the problem as well. I’m not going to get the pee sticks because quite frankly if I can’t figure out a system that allows me to be less obsessive about food, I may need to find a new weight loss system. (Not there yet, folks. Still sticking to this.)

Keto Day 35- Next Steps for Week Six

Where does all this information leave me?

Well, I am renewing my efforts to find a Keto dietician specialist who can hopefully help me address my struggles. In the mean time I think to reach a happy medium on the food front, I will plan out a daily menu that allows me to hit my macros goals (especially fat, because I feel like I might have let that slip a bit this week.) and my caloric goals.

That allows me to not have to obsessively track every day. I know what I need to eat and I will set it up so I am at 20 carbs, 145 grams fat, 120 grams protein and 2300 calories, that way if I want/ need to snack more it gives me some wiggle room in each category while limiting carbs as much as possible.

While I really do want to lose weight, I am tired of my weightloss efforts costing me so much time and money. I am also going to spend some time getting back in touch with how beautiful I am because so much of this obsession makes me forget sometimes that I am #Fatandfit and #fatandfabulous.

I need to remember that just because I am not seeing the results others see on Keto, doesn’t mean I am failing. I need to remember that just because I am not achieving my weight loss goals, that does not make me less than. I am stronger than I have been in a long time. I am beating my health issues. I am getting great quality time with my family while getting fit. I am beautiful.

If you would like to see my Keto Journey, you can check that out here:

 Keto day 0 

Keto day 7

Keto Day 14

Keto Day 21

Keto Day 28

I will spend the week trying to figure out the best way to be able to share my meal plans with you if you would like to see the meal plans? Just let me know in the comments.

Until next time,

Keep being inspired!

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Keto Day 28- Heidi Angell Log

Keto Day 28

Hello Lovelies,

Happy Father’s day! Today is going to be a quick check in because I have an amazing man to celebrate today.

I have to say, this week has been weird and difficult and frustrating and then I got on the scale and that feeling was confirmed. I’m not super sure what happened but will probably dig into the data more tomorrow because today is all about James Angell.

Keto Day 28- Week 4 Measurements

Last Week

and today:

I’m up 4.5 lbs.

But my neck is smaller by a quarter inch, my waist smaller by an inch, but my hips bigger by an inch.

It’s so strange because I felt lighter and tighter when I woke up too. Remember last week how I was feeling not great? It is also strange because the week after my period is usually my lightest weigh in time.

Probably related to muscle building? Hopefully, and we will see that shift things over the next few weeks. Holding strong.

Keto Day 28- Week 4 Fitness data

Sunday June 14th- 4,037 steps, 1.87 miles 0 workout minutes

Monday June 15th- 8,054 steps, 3.73 miles 63 minutes

Tuesday June 16th- 5,126 steps, 2.31 miles 24 minutes

Wednesday June 17th- 8,046 steps 3.7 miles 80 workout minutes

Thursday June 18th- 5,790 steps, 2.62 miles, 111 minutes

Friday June 19th- 6,195 steps, 2.87 miles 52 workout minutes.

Saturday June 20th- 5,669 steps 2.62 miles 15 minutes.

Total steps- 42,917 (up)

Total miles- 19.72 miles (up)

Total workout minutes- 345 minutes- down.

So these numbers are a bit weird and surprising. For one, my workout times are not right. I’m not sure why Fitbit hasn’t been recognizing my workouts, but I went swimming on Tuesday from 4-5 and James and I went for a walk that morning that was at least 20 minutes. That alone would equal about 40-45 minutes swim ( our average water time) for a daily total of 60+ minutes, never mind the extra little walks and stuff I did every hour or so. Yet despite my logging a 1K yard swim that day, it somehow didn’t include my fitness time. I really need to get better about manually starting and stopping during workouts.

I also did a workout on Friday that didn’t seem to register, when James and I played with the resistance bands he got for and early Father’s day present. I’m not sure how long we worked out. It was a lot of experimentation and learning. But it was enough to be sore after. But Fitbit apparently didn’t register those workouts so I need to do a better job of remembering to manually set those.

Keto Day 28- Week 4 Food Data

I’ve been trying to transition to not tracking obsessively. (It is exhausting!) and so my goal was to give myself a bit of a break with the tracking and see if I could maintain the balance after a month on the diet and only track in the evenings.

I actually did pretty well, I think, but I noticed that it is easy for me to not hit my minimum calorie goal of 2300 calories. I missed that three days last week. I have worked really hard for the last year to finally feel hunger again when I wake up in the morning and I don’t want to mess that up as that is a sign my metabolism is working again.

I know that a lot of the keto research I’ve done suggests that many can do the keto diet and only eat 1300-1500 calories and do just fine and I can see how it would be so easy for me to do the same, but I haven’t been able to meet with a keto nutritionist yet and so I’m not ready to make that shift until I can talk about my specific needs.

Some shifts in diet this week:

I have had to give up on Keto coffee and haven’t had any coffee since Friday. The MCT oil kept making me feel nauseated. I tried cutting that out and the acidity was tearing up my stomach. We got Swerve to try and make something similar to my regular coffee using half and half and swerve, but the acidity still tore my stomach up. I drink coffee because I like coffee. I don’t need it for the caffeine boost or whatever so it is just easier to give it up than keep trying to “make it work”. I have shifted to having a breakfast protein shake using Almond milk, heavy whipping cream and whey protein. I may add spinach to it next week. We shall see.

I managed three days of seafood this week. We found some great Salmon cakes, we made AMAZING Ahi Tuna, and I had sardines on my pizza one day. I don’t love seafood but I hope I can maintain a 1-3 times a week ratio.

I got cherries yesterday. Worth every single carb. Hated only eating 5.

Y’all I am seriously struggling with how few fruits and veg I can have. I find myself avoiding carbs in meat and eggs just so I can have it with my fruit and veg. obsessing over that 20 carbs a day thing is tough. But the last few days have been kinda brutal. I have had cravings like I’ve never had before on this diet. We went to Winco (1st time, new store and my husband was SO EXCITED!) and by the time we left I was so grumpy and feeling super deprived for the first time on this diet.

I ended up eating two keto bars, my cherries, and pork rinds trying to curb the cravings. I was trying to figure out what could’ve triggered it (besides the fact that Winco has all the junk food one could ever possibly even dream of having.) and I think it’s because I have had several diet sodas the last few days. Normally I just drink water and mio or Amino energy.

Gonna cut the sodas out this week and see if the cravings stop.

First Month of Keto Changes:

Weight: Lost 8 lbs

While this is not as great as many report in their first month of Keto and part of me was a little disappointed not to have the 20-30 lb drop that is very common, I have also been very strictly keeping my calories up for a “moderate loss” to keep from killing my metabolism. Considering that healthy weight loss goals are 1-2 lbs a week, I am not going to complain about this weight loss. Especially if it keeps me from hitting a plateau because if I can maintain this then I will have no problem hitting my goal of losing 100 lbs in a year.

Average weekly steps

I seem to be consistently fluctuating between 35,000 and 50,000, which comes out to 15-20 miles a week. My goal is to have my daily average at 10K, putting my weekly average at 70K. I hope to achieve this by next month’s overall check-in.

Additional workouts:

Swimming twice a week, HIIT once a week, weights/ resistence once a week.

These have all been great and part of me is getting caught up in the gym rat mentality of my youth. But another part of me is wondering if working out for more than an hour a day is A. Healthy and B. a good goal to have. We will see how I feel in a month.

Resting Heart Rate

Dropped form an average of 70 bpm to 63 bpm

Sleep

I was getting an average 7 hr 20 minutes before the keto diet. the first couple weeks my average dropped to 6 hours 30 min, but this last week it seems to be working it’s way back to normal with last week being 7 hr 38 min average.

Mood

While I originally noted a heightened energy the first 10 days or so, I have not really felt that the last week. Not sure if it is that my energy is less or that my body is adapting after being on antibiotics and prednisone. Will keep an eye out for this the next few weeks.

Other Changes

I have noticed that I seem to retain more water. My ankles always look swollen and I get sock marks more than I was getting the weeks before. My skin and nails have been a bit dry the last few weeks but that could be from swimming added back in. My hair has been fine. The last week I have developed an odd small pain in the left side of my neck, not quite where my adenoid is and while my tonsils don’t look more swollen than normal, I am keeping an eye on that strange phenomenon.

If you missed the first few weeks of my journey, feel free to take a look:

 Keto day 0 

Keto day 7

Keto Day 14

Keto Day 21

If you would like to learn more of the research I’ve been doing on Keto, then check out my guest post on Lifegrove “Is Keto Diet Holistic?” If you would like to see more posts like this, let me know over there and I will keep sharing the research and what I’m learning along the way.

So yeah, that’s all I’ve got for today. I’m off to spend the rest of the day with the most amazing dad I know. Hope you all have an amazing week!

Until next time,

Stay inspired!

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Keto Day 21- Heidi Angell Log

Keto Day 21

Hello Lovelies,

So here we are, Keto day 21 and I woke up this morning feeling very blech. I haven’t been sleeping great the last week (probably in part from the antibiotics, probably in part from eating late, and probably a lot because of working too close to bedtime.)

I got on the scale to do my measurements figuring I was going to see some really good stuff. And while I was recording my measurements, I kept feeling sad and disappointed. I put off writing my post as I had a couple of other projects I needed to quickly (or not, because it has been that kind of day!) get taken care of.

An hour ago I figured out why everything has kinda sucked (even though objectively, not really) all morning. Today is the first day of my period. (I know, some of you are screaming “TMI!”) I tell you this for two very important reasons. For anyone who has known me for any amount of time, I have ridiculously horrible period symptoms sometimes. Like cannot get out of bed, will pass out from blood loss bad sometimes. Like it is not uncommon for me to gain 10 lbs in the days before my period and lose it during my period type bad. With that also comes some serious emotional flux. It is not uncommon for me to have to ask “Is it just me, or is XYZ really annoying?” or to burst into tears of frustration because I can’t figure something out fast enough.

Just warning you, that is where I am right now. Having an intensely miserable period that has me audibly groaning from the cramps being so intense, and I’ve burst into tears three times already today.

And yet, knowing this is what’s going on, I have some good info so let’s get into the report.

Keto Day 21- Week 3 Measurements

So, just a quick recap of last week’s data:

And here is this morning’s data:

I’ve lost 4.9 lbs! I should not be disappointed. You will see that I actually gained a bit since my appointment on Tuesday with my Dietitian and I suspect that is what set my mood off negatively.

I also weirdly gained in my neck. I have no explanation.

I lost a half inch from my waist

and I lost a whopping 2.8 inches from my hips.

I also decided to take some additional measurements to track other places where I may see size fluctuating.

I’m not sure if I plan to do these extensive measurements once a month or add it to my weekly. We will have to see.

So, as I mentioned last week, I have some additional data from my dietitian’s visit.

I will have another visit in August and be able to share the difference in the numbers.

Keto Day 21- Week 3 Fitness data

And here is my raw data for this week:

  • Sunday June 7th was 0 steps, 0 miles, 0 minutes.
  • Monday June 8th 1,047 steps, .48 miles walked and 0 minutes of activity.
  • Tuesday, June 9th 12,394 steps, 5.73 miles and 242 minutes of activity
  • Wednesday, June 10th was 8,132 steps, 3.62 miles and 90 minutes of activity
  • Thursday, June 11th was 7,155 steps 3.27 miles and 104 minutes of activity.
  • Friday June 12th 5,02 steps, 2.16 miles, 12 minutes of activity
  • Saturday June 13th 2,450 steps, 1.13 miles and 32 minutes of activity

Sunday and Monday I was sick with that sinus infection blooming out of control. Tuesday was the first day of the prednizone. I went swimming on Tuesday and Thursday, which was actually kind of amazing. But the last couple of days I didn’t get in my workouts or step goals as I was struggling to get projects done.

Keto Day 21- Week 3 Food Data

For my food intake this week, I am getting a better handle on the carbs and fat but went a bit high on the protein.

I also did pretty well keeping my calorie intake within range.

I will be spending the rest of today working on food prep to help me keep my winning streak going next week. We planned out some dinner meals from the Keto diet book and I will report back on those next week.

Keto Day 21-Next Steps

1. For fitness, I will try this HIIT training video this week.

2. I have an hour of swimming scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. We only really manage to get about 45 minutes based on the Covid routine though.

3. We are continuing our daily walking routine and James got resistance bands as an early Father’s day present so we will be trying those out Monday night instead of lifting weights. My hope is to have two days of “weights” like we were doing before Covid.

4. I want to continue my research and understanding of Ketolife tapping into the data below. I hope to report back some interesting findings.

5. I just want to give a quick shout out to my mom and my sister as they are the ones who inspired me to go on the Keto diet.

The bottom picture was from a year ago when my nephew was headed out on his mission. The pictures above are from each of them this month. My mom has lost 75 lbs on and my sister has lost 40 lbs on Keto. Without their support, their tips, and honestly seeing this visceral change for them, I would not be where I am on my journey. Cheers to you two amazing women!

Continuing research

I have a lot of fact-checking to do in that book. Will come back with some of my findings and some of my opinions on some of the recipes.

I also plan on taking a look into these resources

Carl Frank’s Intellectual Hedonism– This is just a giant list of resources, which gets my little geek brain so happy!

Here are a host of Youtube Channels I was advised to check out.

Dr. Ken Berry

Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt

Dr. Jason Fung

Dr. Jeff Volek– This is just one of a ton of videos he’s done, but he doesn’t seem to have his own channel so I will have to look up more as I do the research.

Dr. Stephen Phinney– He seems to be the same as Volek.

Dr. Eric Westman And he seems to be the same.

If you are just joining my Keto Adventure and want to see where it all started, don’t miss out:

 Keto day 0 

Keto day 7

Keto Day 14

Do you have any questions about keto? Have any tips based on what I’m doing? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

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Keto Day 14- Heidi Angell Log

Heidi Angell 14 day checkin

Ok, I know that today’s post is actually like Day 16, not keto journey day 14, but that’s because I got a horrible ear infection on Friday and by Sunday I was barely able to function and curled up in bed with an ice pack trying not to die until I could get to the doctor’s yesterday.

Antibiotics and prednisone have me feeling much better and able to function today and I am reporting the data I was able to record on Sunday which was my keto journey day 14 so the title stays. Because no matter how miserable we are, we can get pics and measurement and step on a stupid little scale, right? Health and wellness FTW!

For those who missed Keto day 0 or Keto day 7, you can check those out.

Keto Day 14- Week 2 Measurements

That is a delightful loss of 3.2 lbs

I also lost an inch on my neck, which I’m really impressed with as my face and under my jaw was swollen from the infection.

I’ve lost about a quarter of an inch from my hips but nothing from my waist. I know it will get there. I’m not super stressing about that right this moment.

Fitbit Results

Yeah, you get both sets in the pretty graph this week. Woot. I also won a badge this week. All that running up and down stairs to do chores or use the bathroom while working from home is really adding up to some major mileage!

I’m guessing that the down points are because from Friday afternoon through Sunday I was increasingly less active as the ear infection grew.

Also, I think Fitbit doesn’t know how to automatically track things like HIIT and weights unless I specifically tell it I’m working out. The last few months of working out from home has gotten me very lazy about telling her I’m working out. I will do better with that.

So Monday I… tried… to do this HIIT video and only made it maybe 15 or 20 minutes through it before I sat hugging and puffing to watch the rest of the workout because it was too much for me! I definitely felt it the next day too!

On Tuesday I found out our gym was opening back up so I scheduled for weights on Wednesday and swimming on Thursday.

Weights was scheduled for only an hour, but I only went through the arms and upper body section. Quite frankly there were a lot of people there and half of them weren’t wearing masks and were lining up waiting for equipment to be cleaned and ready. As my husband is high risk, it kinda made us nervous. Especially as this weekend Utah has seen our numbers double.

I felt a lot better about the swimming. It was just me and my son and six life guards. No lane sharing, and they were constantly going around cleaning the surfaces. They had clearly upped the chlorine, which I’m sensitive to, and waiting to wash it off until I got home probably wasn’t ideal. But they have closed the locker rooms for after showers. I plan to bring a wet wipe to clear it from my eyes and ears right after to reduce the risk of getting another infection and will wear earplugs and leave my goggles on more to reduce exposure.

Food Data

Yeah, so I didn’t do as well with tracking over the weekend because being sick will do that to you. I didn’t realize that I can’t select the period of “week” I would like or I would’ve gotten these charts on Sunday.

But one of the things I adjusted this week, based on my reading in the 30 Day Ketogenic Cleanse by Maria Emmerich was to treat fat as a lever. You don’t have to eat all the fat, just up it enough to feel satiated (or in my case, get to my minimum 2,100-2,300 cal.)

I have read most of this book and I gotta be honest I am kinda disappointed with the referral. It is super woo-hooey and there is no citation. (I have a big thing for citation, I know!) While some of the stuff might be good, I need to do a lot of research before I recommend because some of the stuff she is recommending I know is flat out wrong. (Like 1300 calories being enough for most of her clients, both male and female. Unless they’re super short and not that heavy, I doubt that’s right. I’m super sensitive to this subject because that kind of attitude is what led to my bottomed out metabolism. She also blames dryer sheets for creating estrogen imbalance and contributing to your weight issues. She also advocates for throwing out your mouthwash and doing oil pulling. I need to do a lot of research and see some really good studies to consider taking that seriously. Not that the dryer sheets matter for us as we stopped using them a year ago because I’m allergic to them. But still, some of this book borders on anti-vaxxer level so I don’t feel comfortable recommending it yet.)

I’m not ready to say whether I would not recommend this book as I just reviewed some of the recipes with my dietitian. We feel that there may be some good recipes in here to help with my concern about managing my bad cholesterol intake. My big fear of doing the Keto diet is keeping my cholesterol under control so I don’t have to go on medication, which can’t happen if I keep eating five cups of pepperoni to get to my protein and fat goals. So, after trying our the recipes, I will get back to you on that. They make up more than half the book and if they work then it is worth the $30, with a disclaimer to some of her extreme theories.

While the recipes are geared toward a 1300 cal diet, it makes enough for two so I can do some tweaking to get my calorie goals. It is no dairy which kind of scares me because that has been my other key diet staple. But it means some fun new adventures in the kitchen for James and me so I’m looking forward to that.

Next Steps

  1. I will be planning out my menu tomorrow pulling from the recipe book while also incorporating some of my staples which have led to my success this week. I am also exploring some of the Keto options at Healthy Lifestyles to have some quick and easy meals that are healthier than a handful of pepperoni or nuked breakfast sausage (My current quick go-to options. Not ideal)

2. For fitness I plan to make a go at more HIIT training, probably trying this video this week.

3. I have an hour of swimming scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday.

4. We are continuing our daily walking routine.

5. We’re considering additional weight training options as we’re not sure we feel comfortable going back to the gym with James being high risk. If anyone has a suggestion (besides bodyweights because I’m too heavy and it hurts too much). We’re looking for something that will give us a similar benefit of what we were doing at the gym which was about 50 lbs for me and about 75 for James, that we could use for legs, abs, back, and arms without risk of injury. Our dietician suggested bands. We need something relatively low cost and space-friendly because our house is getting mighty small as all three of us continue to reduce our outdoor activities as Covid rises in our area.

I went to my dietician this morning and will have more of my data from that visit for next week so that I can keep track of that in the proper weekly logs.

Continuing research

I have a lot of fact-checking to do in that book. Will come back with some of my findings and some of my opinions on some of the recipes.

I also plan on taking a look into these resources

Carl Frank’s Intellectual Hedonism– This is just a giant list of resources, which gets my little geek brain so happy!

Here are a host of Youtube Channels I was advised to check out.

Dr. Ken Berry

Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt

Dr. Jason Fung

Dr. Jeff Volek– This is just one of a ton of videos he’s done, but he doesn’t seem to have his own channel so I will have to look up more as I do the research.

Dr. Stephen Phinney– He seems to be the same as Volek.

Dr. Eric Westman And he seems to be the same.

Do you have any questions about keto? Have any tips based on what I’m doing? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Keep being inspired!

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A Nail Care Routine for Beautiful Healthy Natural Nails

Nail Routine

Hello Lovelies,

I got a weird question about my healthy nails the other day from one of my followers. They asked:

“How are you keeping your nails so gorgeous during this crisis? How have you managed to fill them?”

I am guessing that she thought that my healthy nails were not real. I can see how one might assume that as I rarely have them without nail polish on them, especially for pics and videos.

But I assure you they are all natural, as you can see from this lovely pic after gardening caused some of my squovals to break off and look more oval.

But my nails haven’t always been this long and healthy. Actually, for the last seven years I have been in a battle of nail maintenance hell that nearly had me running to the nail salons to get gel nails.

It started with my move to Utah. Before that, I had decent nails that I kept short because of little ones. I took them for granted, using them to scratch sticky things off new products, to scritch at food stuck on a dish I was washing, to gain leverage under pop cans with wild abandon. I never really understood women complaining about breaking a nail.

How Environment can Impact Nails

Then we moved to Utah and in a matter of days (it was the middle of winter) I painfully broke every single one of my nails. I chocked it up to the extra abuse from the move.

But they struggled to grow back. They would split, peel, and snap off painfully at the slightest provocation.

On top of that, I developed painful dermitits on my hands. My cuticles would peel and get caught on things, ripping down to red bloody skin. I blamed the hard water and dry air of Utah and increased my lotion usage with minimal results.

And so began a seven year long effort that has led to my current healthy nail regimen. This plan is a precarious maintenance routine tied closely together. If I slack off on any of these elements for too long, I pay the price with broken nails, bleeding cuticles, and painful splitting.

I do not consider this a “beauty routine” because first, I’m really not that shallow and second, I would totally be too lazy to maintain it if not for the very real and very painful consequences when I slip up. Gel nails may be more expensive, but they would be so much easier if this were just about vanity.

That being said, here is my routine.

Start on the Inside

I started with taking a women’s multivitamin. This was actually recommended by a doctor for several reasons, my nails not included. But I did notice that when I take my Optiwoman Women’s Multivitamin once in the morning and once at night, the quality of my nails improves.

I should mention that I also take Triple Flex. Not sure if it makes a difference with my nails, but figured I would mention it, just in case.

I work very hard to incorporate plenty of water in my diet. It is good for my skin, hair, nails, and digestion. I feel more invigorated every day that I start off drinking 12 ounces of water and aim to consume 3 oz for every pound I way. This tip was recommended by a nutritionist to help my body absorb nutrients efficiently and to potentially help in losing weight. It seems that it is amazing for the first, but hasn’t seemed to make a difference on the second. But I digress.

I also work hard to eat a balanced diet with plenty of healthy oils.

For other health reasons, I eat less processed foods or refined sugars. Again, I have found that this does make a noticible difference in my nails when I slip up on this.

The last piece I added to my diet that I will swear by is the Naked Fruit Juice products. I was having a hard time getting enough fruit and veg in to meet my needs so I added a shot to my morning liquid breakfast and I don’t know what it is about it that is different, but it does make a difference to the thickness of my nails. I didn’t think it could be true, but during lockdown we had a hard time getting it a few weeks and my nails got significantly thinner and started breaking again. Naked Fruit juice was the only change that could account for it.

The Outside Matters Too

I bought cleaning gloves for the first time in my 30 odd years of cleaning. I wear them religiously. The water here is so harsh that it destroys my nails and cuticles so fast!

I also have lotion at every sink in my house. I wash my hands, dry them, and apply lotion. It is the only way to keep the dermatitis at bay, especially in the wintertime when the air is completely sapped of moisture.

Next step, getting gloves to wear outside. I have winter gloves, I have cool weather gloves, I have gardening gloves. I do feel silly wearing all of them because I’m the kind of person who doesn’t own an umbrella because I’m not bothered getting wet. Yet, my livelihood is made in how well I can type. Painful inflammation in my fingers and hands makes typing pretty impossible.

I have also found that an active lifestyle with a regular walking routine and getting up every hour or so from my desk to get the blood flowing also benefits my nails.

My last step to my nail routine I found a natural remedy recommended by some Youtuber (I wish I could remember who, but I cannot even find her video anymore.)

She recommended doing this every day, but I definitely do not have that kind of time. I typically do it once a week. Sometimes I forget and go two weeks.

All Natural Nail Bath Recipe

  • A bowl deep enough to fully submerge both hands and nails comfortably.
  • 2 tbs of olive or vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp of lemon juice
  • 2 tsp salt
  • Warm water to fill the bowl enough to fully submerge nails.

You put everything in the bowl then stir it together and soak your nails, constantly rubbing and massaging them for a half hour or so. Because of my dermititis, I will get my hands in it as much as possible too. The warm water opens the pores. The salt will rub off any ridges or rough skin and the lemon juice is supposed to whiten stained nails? I know that when I have torn cuticles they always seem to get infected and swell and hurt. But this bath definitely cleans the infection out. When I first found this, I had bleeding cuticles on most of my fingers. They were constantly getting caught and tearing more. I had been in this agony for months with no relief. Two weeks of doing this treatment every day had completely healed every single wound.

And I had gorgeous long healthy nails again. But I don’t have a half-hour to sit and soak my nails every day. My life is far too busy for that. So I do this treatment about once a week, sometimes twice a month.

Put it all Together

I use all of these techniques in combination to get the lovely healthy nails I have. I also paint my nails at least once a week usually, to remind me to wear gloves when doing chores.

But I am not a vain creature and life gets busy and I often forget to do this or that part of the routine. When I find my nails breaking off, it is a great reminder that I need to start over with my regimen.

Do you have lovely long healthy nails? How do you maintain them? Let us know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Keep Improving!

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Keto Day 7- Heidi Angell Log and Birthday Wishes

Keto Day 7

For those who missed my Keto Day 0 post, you can check that out here.

I didn’t get any response from anyone on any of my social media about what you wanted included in this weekly report so I’m doing as my husband suggested. “Do it for you. Report what you want to report. Don’t always be worrying about providing everyone else what they want/ need.”

So here goes.

It’s My Birthday

I am 39 today. Despite all the chaos and heartbreak going on around us with riots in the streets, I woke up with a sense of lightness and hope. Feeling driven and ready for action.

First thing, I hopped out of bed and weighed and measured and documented. I’m not sure how I feel about my results.

Week 1 Measurements

Here are the measurements for today compared to last week.

So weight is exactly the same

Neck is down a small smidge

Waist and hips are both up an inch each.

Fitbit steps are weird… oh, that is just for that day. Lol. Yeah, So my Fitbit weekly report comes on Mondays, which would be the easy way to share, but would also make the report a week out. Then I considered using Myfitnesspal, but the export data report has not been working for over a week and of course, it’s not working today.

So as I decide how best to show a fitness report for future posts, here is what you’re stuck with today. I include it because I feel like it is really important.

Here is the report from Fitbit for the week before.

I kinda hate that it doesn’t show all the steps for each day. I’m wondering if I lower my step count goal if it will show it all. I may test that this week.

Fitness for Week 1 of Keto

Monday May 25th- 5,861 steps, 67 minutes of physical activity, 2.71 miles

Tuesday May 26th 9,290 steps, 141 minutes of physical activity, 4.17 miles

Wednesday May 27th- 2252 steps, 12 minutes of activity, 1.04 miles

Thursday May 28th- 10,208 steps, 125 minutes of physical activity, 4.73 miles

Friday May 29th- 7147 steps, 79 minutes of physical activity, 3.3 miles

Saturday May 30th 7,324 steps, 115 minutes of physical activity, 3.39 miles.

Total Weekly figures- 34,758 steps (UP!) 539 active minutes (UP!) 22.05 miles (Up!)

I know the week before was a bit rough because it was that time of the month and was a very painful period so for three days I was barely functional. Still, I have also felt like I had a lot more energy this week.

Food Data

So quick reminder of my Keto Goals

my goal is to stay under 25 grams of carbs, consume 190 grams of fat, stay under 144 grams of protein and aim for between 2100 and 2300 calories.

So from one of the keto calculator that looks like this:

Which means that I am right there at the goals. Which means it should work.

Another fun piece of data, since joining fitbit my resting heart rate has steadily dropped from 76 bpm to 68-70. It has been fluctuating in that range since November. Last week it has been 64-67.

I’m not sure how that relates to my concerns about my cholesterol bit will be talking to my nutritionist about how best to track cholesterol from home.

Thoughts on the Data

I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed that the scale hasn’t moved. I mean, I know it is the first week and patience is required, but 1-2 lbs a week is not unreasonable by all diet and weightloss standards. With increased workouts and starting a new diet I thought there might be at least water weight? IDK.

I was more disappointed by the gains in inches. Looking at the pictures from last week and this week, it really did look like I was smaller? I feel smaller.

But data doesn’t lie.

You will see that I’m a little high on carbs, a little low on fat. That has been my biggest struggle this week. I definitely did not go in as well-thought out as I thought. Yesterday and today has been a bunch of food prep and meal planning to get those numbers just a bit more adjusted.

I miss my veggies, folks. I really do. If I eat Zucchini noodles one more time this week, I might cry. So getting some variation in there while sticking within the keto rules. I will have a really fun recipe for Strawberry Fatbombs up this week along with my thoughts on it.

While there are some positives in the data this week, more energy, lower resting heart rate, there is room for improvement.

So my goals for keto this week:

  1. Add in some HIIT- I think this will help firm up things and make those inches move on the measurements. It is also a great way to boost your metabolic burn. My big concern was that most HIIT moves are geared towards people who are already more fit than me. However, I found a list of HIIT for Beginners, Low Impact videos on Youtube and will start here and see how it goes. I will aim for at least 3 workouts added into my daily walking goals. Next week, I will report back on the videos I did and what I thought of them.
  2. Focus on bringing the fat up and the carbs and protein down. I know it is a minor adjustment, but I would rather be under on carbs and protein and at or over on fat. This will take some diet planning.
  3. Record the positives to add in at the end of the week.
  4. Share any more that I learn from research.

My biggest struggle in life is that I keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting that with enough hard work, commitment, and sticking to the plan that I can force what I want to happen. That is not the way I plan to move forward with life. Nope, I am all about working smarter, not harder.

I am committing to give this a month and see how it goes. But I also need to have a plan for when to cut this loose. So in 30 days if I have not lost at least 10 lbs and 1 inch on waist and hips, I will be prepared to transition to a new plan.

Birthday Wishes for this Year

I know they say that you’re not supposed to tell or it won’t come true, but for me these are more than wishes. They are my goals. So I am setting my intentions.

  1. Lose 100 lbs
  2. Make $75,000 (Whether through Angell Enterprises or getting a job or a combination of the two.) This is only $10,000 more than I made last year and I hope with dedication I can achieve this.
  3. Buy a house. This is contingent on getting on track with goal 2.
  4. Find my way back to the happy balance we were enjoying in September of 2019. Where we had the money and time and energy to do fun activities as a family, to support the youngest in his sports goals, to go on vacation, to explore our passions.

I know that the economy is taking a hit. I know that a lot of people are struggling. I know that I am setting some aggressive goals for the next year and that they may seem selfish with what others are facing.

But they are my goals and this is my life. No one else will fight for my happiness if I don’t. I deserve to be happy. I deserve to achieve these goals. Now to roll up my sleeves, follow the data, and live my dreams!

If you have dreams and you are struggling to hit your goals, then join my weekly Resolutions Community over on Patreon. I do weekly check-ins and the purpose is to support one another on our goals and help each other work smarter, not harder.

Until next time,

Keep being inspired!

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Keto Day 0- Heidi Angell Log

Keto Day 0

Hello Lovelies,

I meant to put this post up on Sunday May 24th, as part of my mad dash plans to start the Keto Diet, but I got swept up in Keto planning and then had a bunch of other projects due that had to come first.

Secretly, I suspect I also delayed because it is scary being this vulnerable. It is all well and good sharing health and fitness tips when you are a size 8. Or when you have a strong reason to believe that your efforts will result in change.

Those who’ve read my Health and Wellness Journey, know that I have valid reason to fear that Keto won’t work for me. As in it won’t take off the weight. I’m not sure if I will ever find the thing that will work. But I can’t quit trying to lose weight and stay healthy (not mutually exclusive activities) and with my weight efforts going backward, it is time to bravely go where Heidi has never gone before. (Yes, I am a trekkie, and no, I am not ashamed of that blatant reference!)

I had planned to wait until we used up a bunch of food we recently bought at Costco, but then I did my weekly measurements and pics and I knew I just couldn’t wait any longer.

I am getting the wings back under my arms. I worked so hard at the gym to tighten that all up so it wasn’t so bad! While this picture made me sad, this next one made me feel physically ill looking at myself.

I mean, there are no words. I know that for some time I have been working really hard at taking pics at certain angles to hide how fat and disgusting I feel. I feel guilty about it because I see girls using all the crazy filters and photoshopping all their images and I think that most of them do not need to do that.

And here I have been doing low-tech the same thing. I keep getting ads on facebook for undergarments to help hide all that mess. And sadly, I have considered looking at them.

But I don’t want to be that person! I knew I could not wait another day to start.

Day 0 Stats

I have actually been considering starting keto ever since Christmas when my weight loss efforts stalled. But kept putting it off as I did more research. Now that I have gained back 13 of the 25 lbs I lost in weigh 2 health, I can’t keep waiting. So here goes.

These are my stats recorded in MyFitnessPal. I absolutely love this app! I do have the paid version which allows me to do a lot more with customization and such. It was this ability to customize that made me start seriously thinking about doing Keto.

My Attack Plan

I have been doing a lot of research. Thanks to a lot of my friends on Facebook, I have found a wealth of knowledge and still working through all of it.

My sister Kim pointed me to this really handy website Simple Way to Start Keto and there was a keto counter. For those who aren’t familiar with the Keto Diet, the whole idea is that you don’t just count carbs, you count Fats (go high) Protein (moderate amount) Carbs (go low) and with any diet, you still need to be careful of your calories.

I respect that a lot.

I also ordered this book in paperback, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

And spent some time reviewing the website Ruled.me

I also joined a bunch of keto facebook groups that my friends and family have recommended to me.

According to multiple keto calculators, based on my height, weight, and BMI

my goal is to stay under 25 grams of carbs, consume 190 grams of fat, stay under 144 grams of protein and aim for between 2100 and 2300 calories.

And I will keep doing research. Here are the things I still want to research, thanks to the wealth of resources my friends have provided:

Additional Research

Carl Frank’s Intellectual Hedonism– This is just a giant list of resources, which gets my little geek brain so happy!

Here are a host of Youtube Channels I was advised to check out.

Dr. Ken Berry

Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt

Dr. Jason Fung

Dr. Jeff Volek– This is just one of a ton of videos he’s done, but he doesn’t seem to have his own channel so I will have to look up more as I do the research.

Dr. Stephen Phinney– He seems to be the same as Volek.

Dr. Eric Westman And he seems to be the same.

What Would You Like to See?

I will be providing all the Keto recipes I find and try and like here on the blog under our Angells’ fun with food.

I am a bit torn on what to include in this very public venue. I try to consider in a post why I am creating it. It is for you, my viewers. But with my other posts, it is easy for me to know what to discuss. Here, I’m not sure.

I will do the weigh and stats report. I can talk about what I am getting from the research, what I’m struggling with, what my successes are. But that feels a lot like I’m talking about me. Would that help you?

I considered showing my daily meals because one of the biggest struggles I have had the last several days is that because of my weight and height, the amount of food I have to consume is way higher than a lot of the other blogs I see out there. But most of you probably are not as tall or heavy as I am so would that help you?

I am going to be seeing a nutritionist as I go through this because one of my concerns about going on keto is that at my one year health check up my cholesterol was up and all that fat and oil makes me a bit nervous. Fortunately, my cholesterol wasn’t up enough to warrant putting me on medication. Still, I don’t want to play around.

So let me know what you would like me to share of this journey.

I will be posting these on Sundays from now on as part of my personal weigh in routine, so look forward for my first week’s thoughts and feelings coming soon.

Until Next Time,

Keep Improving!