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!

Comments (4)

    • Hangell531

      Thank you, Kevin! Have you and your wife considered Keto? I was surprised to see that one of the conditions it is often medically referred to treat is chron’s disease.

  1. Lisa

    Keep updating for me. I’ve done low carb and usually stall out at around 11 pounds lost so I am trying keto. I also had bad carb cravings. I am on day 2 keto and I had to eat a yogurt tonight because I was way light on carbs and protien. I would never have done that on low carb because low carb was the goal. I started at 177 pounds yesterday and was 174 today, that’s normal for me to lose 10 lbs the first 7 to 10 days then stall. We will see how this goes.

    • Hangell531

      *Hugs* I feel your pain, Lisa. Every diet I’ve ever done, I lose 20-30 lbs then stall then slowly regain and often gain more. My hope is that won’t be the case with Keto but stick with me. We can support one another and if we find ourselves stalling, I’m researching another diet that I may consider called cycling. Next week I will talk about it in regards to working out. I’m hoping that will help keep keto from stalling and it is scientifically proven. The diet portion of it unfortunately doesn’t have as much science behind it but I’m at the stage where I will try just about anything to avoid surgery again.

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