MY KETOGENIC JOURNEY: DAY 14 (PART 2)

Click here to read the intro (Part 1) to My Ketogenic Journey

Still on Track!

Well, I just returned from a multi-part celebratory family weekend out of state, and I'm happy to report that I was able to maintain this program the whole time.

I have been surprised at how little I miss the carbs on this diet.  I thought I was going to be craving bread like crazy, but I'm not.  I'm trying to keep my calories at around 1400/day to meet the goals I want to achieve.  The ketogenic diet ratio I am using for the caloric intake is 70% fat, 25% protein and 5% or less carbohydrate with none of those being starches or sugar.  All the carbohydrate should be from cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and such) and/or dark leafy greens such as kale or spinach.  I find that if anything, it is difficult to meet that many calories per day because I do feel so satisfied with what I have been eating, and I don't eat unless I feel hungry.

I found a Trader Joe's when I arrived and loaded up on keto-friendly foods that I traveled with.  I bought individually wrapped mozzerella sticks rolled in prociutto, provolone and salami packs, Monterrey Jack cheese sticks, avocados and broccoli florets, and mixed nuts that I ate sparingly as snacks.  I also made a discovery at World Market (formerly Cost Plus).  Spicy pickled Brussels sprouts!  I love Brussels sprouts anyway, but these are to die for!  Guess what I'm going to be canning here before too long...  These were perfect as a delicious way to help get my few carbs and fiber on the go.

These pickled Brussels sprouts are incredibly delicious.  I discovered them at World Market.

The brand I purchased is Old South and I found that they do sell their products online.  They have a great line of other pickled vegetables as well!  Click here for the website. 

Understanding ketosis is great motivation!

In order to train your body to begin utilizing fat as its main source of energy (remain in the state of ketosis), it is recommended that you get your fat from multiple sources.  Medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) should be the vast majority of the fat intake.  Keeping in mind that the end goal is to get your body to start using the fat stored there as its main source of energy, it only makes sense that it needs to get used to burning saturated fat as such.  We are animals, and therefore the fat in our bodies is animal fat.  Understanding that cheating on the diet by eating too many carbohydrates can knock me out of the metabolic state of ketosis is great motivation in itself for me!  On this diet calories aren't just calories.

There are sources of saturated and semi-saturated fats derived from plants.  Palm oil, coconut oil, olive oil, olives and avocado are the most readily available and would be the main sources for vegetarians following the diet.  It is helpful if whole milk dairy products (preferably grass-fed) such as cheeses, yogurt, sour cream, heavy cream, and/or eggs can be added.   But, I have discovered that there are a variety of MCT capsules available on the market that can be used to achieve the 75-25-5 ratio for those that do not eat any animal fats.  Click here to shop for MCT capsules on Amazon.

It turns out that, coincidentally, my sister has also been following a ketogenic diet for a little over a month now, and she loves it.  She is far enough along, that she is beginning to see some great results and her energy levels are way up.  

My sister also introduced me to the ketone test strips.  They aren't very expensive and they measure the ketones being produced in the body - instant gratification to see if you're on track.  She says that the test strips really help her to stay motivated; so I ordered some as soon as I got home.  They measure in a spectrum which is also nice as there are different levels of ketosis achievable.  Click here to shop for ketone test strips online.  I'm anxious for their arrival!  Apparently, they are a valuable tool for those trying to control type 2 diabetes with diet as well.

Tracking your diet(?)

Another thing that really keeps my sister motivated and on track is her diet tracker.  I thought I would check it out.  She really likes the Atkins one because it makes it easy to track carbs.  When I got in and looked at the permissions it blew my mind.  Not sure I'd seen a more invasive app anywhere.  Not being comfortable with that level of invasiveness on my phone, I set out to do a little more digging.  *I can understand this being a valuable tool for people that have crazy busy schedules.

I'm one of those odd people that's not addicted to their phone.  I'll use it to take pictures, make a call and send a text every once in a while.  So I set out to look at apps for Windows.  One thing seems to hold true with all the free apps.  The better the reviews, the more invasive the permissions.  Here are a couple of examples;

MyFitnessPal seems to be by far the most popular, but I can't get past the permissions

SparkPeople is less invasive, but I can hardly ever log in due to glitches.  Super annoying.

So, I guess the moral to the story is, if you don't mind sharing the most intimate details of your life with these apps - go for it.  There are always trade offs for the free stuff.  Even though my life is pretty boring and I've nothing to hide, I'm going to stick with a notebook and look the foods up online through searches.  Funny thing is, even when I started to look at the software that wasn't free, I didn't find anything that seemed to do what I wanted.  Even when I got up into the pricier software.  I'll be over here with my little notebook. haha

Easily calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Basically your BMR tells you how many calories your body burns while at rest.  From there you can fairly easily keep track of your daily caloric intake.

There are some fast, easy and free sites that can help you with this.  They will also tell you how many calories should should be eating per day to lose weight.  Click here for one of the best I found.

For another good one:  Click here.

From there, you can easily calculate how many calories you should be getting in the form of fat (70%), protein (25%) and carbohydrate (5%) per day according to the ketogenic diet ratio.

After using one of those handy little BMR calculators, I know that I need to consume 1400 calories/day or less to lose weight.  

Based on the ketogenic ratio of 70-25-5,  I know that:

• 1050 of my calories should come from fat (1400 x .70).  Fat has 9 calories per gram, so I need to consume about 117 grams of fat per day (1050 ÷ 9).  
• 350 of my daily caloric intake should be protein (1400 x .25).  Protein has 4 calories per gram, so I need to consume 88 grams of protein/day (350 ÷ 4).  
• 70 calories or less of my daily caloric intake should come from fibrous carbohydrate (1400 x .05).  Carbohydrate also has 4 calories per gram, so I need to consume about 18 grams of fibrous carbohydrate or less per day (70 ÷ 4).

Now that the simple math is done, I can rewrite my target numbers for easier reference:

1400 total calories per day:

117 grams of fat

88 grams of protein

18 grams of fibrous carbohydrate

I even made this sign to hang in my kitchen:

More great replacement foods!

Low-carb, keto-friendly tacos filled with local grass-fed beef and home-grown mushrooms from our wine cap patch.

My most favorite discovery so far is from a recipe I found in a keto cookbook called Bacon & Butter for keto-friendly, low carb tortillas!  Made with cauliflower, they are absolutely amazing!  Click here for that adapted recipe.

I also made some wonderful low carb double chocolate brownies from the same book.  I'll be making more of those later today.  Click here for that adapted recipe.

I'm going to try to have a couple of recipes each week to publish.  I will post them on my Facebook page as they are ready.  Click here to go to the Facebook page and like it.