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:
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!