Results and eventual catches with ketosis

I did not weight myself last Sunday. My stomach was protesting so I returned to my daily shot of resistant starch and waited for my gut to start doing its job again before I went up on the scale. Result: -2 kg since last time! That is - minus 2.6 kg total since I started the ketogenic diet about 3 weeks ago. (EDIT: went to the loo, got my pajamas off and got on the scale again: minus another kg! So now- minus almost 4 kg since the start!) Happy girl!! :)

My exams are starting on Friday so I really don't have time to sit here and analyze my diet :( But considering all my studying at the moment, I am really pleased to be in ketosis!! I can actually focus on the studies and don't even have to take a break for food during the day. Might not necessarily be a positive thing though. I am still a bit worried that I don't eat enough. But then again - yesterday I ate heaps instead. Just eating when I am hungry and not eating when I am not kinda makes me vary my calorie intake a lot from day to day. Sometimes fasting for 24 hours and sometimes, like yesterday, eating well above my daily intake.

So well... the only issue I can think of now is the occasional waste of food. I mean, yesterday I brought a lunchbox to uni. The appetite was completely absent. So it lay there in my backpack for several hours in room temperature and then went back to the refrigerator when I came home. Now I'm not sure if I can eat it. Waste of money on that food. But if that's the only catch - then I am more than fine with that! :)

(well sure, my breath is still a nightmare but I see that as a good sign)

Good news and progress!

Some good news today! First of all: The Economist has published an article about how wrong scientists have judged fat, and that insulin (and thereby sugar) is the real bad guy. In a Swedish Facebook group about LCHF someone described our fat of fear by writing that "getting fat by eating fat makes as much sense as if you'd get sweet by eating sugar, or green by eating greens."

Then it was time for Purple Pant Check no 3 today! Last time I checked my purple pants was three weeks ago. Check this out:

Purple pants today

 

Purple pants three weeks ago

This time, the pants got up almost all the way, my bum fits as it should which I think explains the much more flattering shape of it today, and I didn't have to struggle as much to hold the zipper gap :)
At next check, they will go up all the way to the crotch and I will be able to get the zipper up a little bit!!

Now I can't wait to get on the scale tomorrow :)
Challenge today: party and going out tonight without cheating on the diet. I almost managed yesterday with the exception of some BBQ sauce on the pizza topping that I had (without the pizza bottom).

The success of mrs Housemate!

My wonderful friend and housemate has gotten fantastic results for her first week of this so called "extreme" diet! Her sleep is still perfect and the previous headaches are still absent. This is the first time she has managed to stick to a diet for this long even though it's just been a week. And the scale told her today that she has lost... *drums*... 3,3 kg! That is wonderful and she was so happy this morning and I am so proud of her! :)

Since I keep on following the LCHF lifestyle in Sweden, I get a lot of inspiration from there. One thing that I wanted to try was pork crackles with butter. So I did. And it tasted amazing! Was it good and healthy though? ... Nah, not if you intend on being strict as I do. Many ingredients and most of them suspicious things such as hydrolysed soy proteins and lots of numbers that I suppose have an invisible E in front of them. No sugar in the ingredients, but I guess there are some since the packing says "low in sugar" instead of "no sugar". The carb content was less than 1% though so I decided to go for it. Won't buy this anytime soon again though.

I am starting to get slightly nervous about one thing. Today I've only had a bulletproof coffee for breakfast and then nothing at all until about 5:30 pm when I had the pork crackles and butter. And now its 8 pm and I don't think I'll be hungry again before I go to bed. Problem is - I made a great steak yesterday that I intended to have as main food source this week together with fried asparagus, but I am not hungry enough to eat it! I also have heaps of organic eggs, tuna and homemade mayonnaise. It's not a lot, but I don't feel like eating anything anymore. It's probably a good sign - my body has finally learned to only eat when it has to. I just don't want to miss out on tasty and good food that I've made an effort to prepare.

Pat on the shoulder to mrs Housemate for great success and to me for not having bigger problems but rather enjoying life ;)

No carb challenge - what happened?

I believe it is time for an evaluation of the no carb week! Report for mrs Housemate will come too, but after she's checked her weight (tomorrow).

Well well well. The adapting phase is over now, I believe. It has been a struggle the past week, but I pushed through and, considering my terrible breath, I think I've finally entered ketosis. :)

So what are the effects except bad breath and pimples (common side effects)? I am feeling absolutely fantastic! Seriously, I've felt somewhat depressed for quite some time while I've gained weight (not depressed because of weight gain... but perhaps they have a common cause). But now, after one week of extremely strict low carb high fat diet, my old energetic eyes that I've always been quite proud of, are actually back! I feel optimistic and I am getting my confidence back. This is definitely the best effect from the experiment!

Some things that I have described previously are still facts. Good results at the gym even if it's been hours since my last meal. Perfect hunger signals! It takes about 7 hours until I get hungry again after a meal, but I actually feel the hunger rather than just noticing that I have sugar cravings and that I am in a bad mood. There is no overeating either. I am satisfied with the portions I give myself and then I don't think about food until 7 hours later.

And what everyone obviously wants to know - has anything happened to my weight? Well yes it has! Not a lot, but it is going in the right direction. Minus 0.6 kg as of today. :D

This started as a one week challenge. But that was only the start. Now, since it took a week for me to get adapted, I want to keep this experiment going. The plan is to later slowly start adding things to the diet in order to see what it is that my body wants and what it doesn't want.

Fat and more fat. Some asparagus for a change instead of the same old broccoli today and the happy eyes :)

What is this magic???

I think it might be called ketosis! But I should not be there yet. So I suppose it is just a seriously kickass diet! Great results on the third day for both my wonderful housemate and me!!!!

So what happened? Well, I felt terrible all day, in a bad mood and sooo tired. But - I had brought my gym gear to uni just to be able to do a chest session immediately when I was done there. So I forced my ass there and, tadaaa, my energy magically came back to life, the weights were raised in all sets and I even managed to end it with 15 mins of sprinting afterwords! This happened after only having two meals today with the last one 4-5 hours earlier. Fuckin' kickass!!!

And you know what else is fuckin' kickass? My housemate is obviously also suffering from an adapting body. Probably a lot more than I am since she is all new to the concept. Despite this, she woke up without a headache today for the first time in three weeks!!! And she's really pushing herself with this new way of eating. She is truly amazing!! Go miss Housemate!! :D

Breakfast in the bottom (yep, that's right), post-workout snack in the top and a happy Sofia filled with endorphins to the left:)

Something amazing just happened...

Since I am on a no carb challenge at the moment, I'm starting to notice some things happening. Things such as feeling completely exhausted in the afternoon/evening and being easily annoyed. That is, my body is trying to adapt to the new extremely strict diet. I also noticed that it took me about 7 hours to get hungry again after I had breakfast yesterday, and there was no need for a snack in the evening.

But now there was something amazing happening during brekkie. I managed to not finish my plate!!! Felt stuffed when I had one piece of the meat left and actually threw it away after I had to force down another bite. I seriously can't remember last time that I didn't finish my plate. It's something rooted very deeply from when I was little, and also from living many years on a tight budget. Suddenly it happened.

This means that I actually can feel when my body is satisfied while on this diet! Go Sofy!!!

Breakfast!

And oh, look up the hashtag #skaldemanslchf on Instagram! It's all Swedish but anyone can see what's in the pictures anyway. Love seeing proof of other people eating as crazily as I do :)

Purple pant check and the diet thing

I think a lot about how I eat, what I eat, how and what I should eat and how/what I want to eat. Strict low carb diets are ideal, no doubt about that at all. That sort of diet has made up the basis for my food habits for about 4-5 years now. That's how I lost 20 kg once!

There are a lot of variations between different low carb diets though and I have probably tried most of them. GI diet, paleo, LCHF, primal, strict, liberal, ketogenic, dairies or no dairies, fruits or no fruits. The stricter the better is what I believe in. Unfortunately, it is not very easy to stick to if you have an interest for food and cooking as I have. It is good for my body but not for the mental well being. I feel like I am missing out on life when I am on a strict diet and I can't see myself doing it for the rest of my life.

I think that I am starting to realize what kind of diet works for me, in the long run. While I enjoy trying new diets and see how they affect my body, and probably will continue doing so, I am now focusing on a diet that provides me with a good health, does not disturb miss Sugarmonster, that is enjoyable and that supports my hunger hormones. The last part is probably the most important one. I need a diet that does not trigger binges. A strict low carb diet that consist of only meat, green vegetables, fats and eggs does not work for me. I do believe that it is the best diet you can possibly be on, but it is too strict for me to be able to follow without huge binges every now and then.

When I listen to the hardcore people who are talking about peas and red capsicums as being "forbidden food" I also kinda get annoyed. That is not how I want to live! Some food is forbidden, sure thing. But my diet will consist of natural, unprocessed food. That is the most important criteria! Then there are different degrees of "goodness":

1. Meat and eggs: As good as I can afford - hormone free, free range, organic, locally produced etc.
2. Natural fats (butter, coconut oil, olive oil)
3. Green vegetables
4. Other vegetables, berries
5. Nuts and seeds - shared position with dairies (mainly cheese)
6. Fruits, roots, peas and beans, dark chocolate (>85%)

That's about all the food that I want to include in my regular diet. On an everyday basis it is only the first 3 or 4 categories that are consumed. Plus hard cheese (no lactose there). On the weekends I usually become more liberal and include some products from the other categories as well. Forbidden food has added sugar (I can allow myself natural sweeteners such as ripe bananas or honey sometimes), trans fats, lots stuff in the ingredient lists that I don't know what it is (e-numbers, preservatives etc.), palm oil and gluten. Artificial sweeteners are avoided but preferred to sugar (e.g. I bought sugarfree Strepsils for my throat yesterday).

This kind of diet allows me to experiment and give myself treats. It is considered healthy by most people. It is low carb. My stomach is working properly. I have energy. Miss Sugarmonster is usually absent. It helps keeping me aware of my hunger hormones (I feel hunger and I am capable of having normal sized portions). My blood sugar is stable. I do not binge!

This is the focus I have right now. I've never had that focus on my food habits before. It has always been about following strict rules made up by someone else about what I should eat and when. Now it is about my own functioning and learning how to get a healthy relationship with food. What works for me regardless of what other people say.

And - here's an update of how my beautiful purple pants fit a couple of days ago! :)

Still looks absolutely terrible but, I can get them over my bum anyway. And that's after only three weeks!

Entering into the light

In the beginning there was darkness. But after a certain period of time, filled with mood swings, struggles, mental fist fights with miss Sugarmonster and maybe a slip or ten, after forcing yourself to stay on track - you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. And suddenly you are there. Still far away from your goal, but you have reached the light. The light where it is no longer a constant struggle to keep on trying but rather just goes automatically. The light where you notice that you actually don't really feel like trying the cake at work because miss Sugermonster has given up. The light where you actually long for kicking some ass at the gym because you know how great it will make you feel afterwords. Suddenly you are not trying to convince yourself anymore - you are just doing it and you start feeling that you can actually manage this, for real!

It is worth going through the torturous phase to get to the light. And really - it does not take that long. I have a three day rule. That is how long it takes to get past the worst of the cravings. The diet is easier after about a week. After two weeks you'll probably be in the flow, you've gotten the hang of what you can eat for your different meals, the sugar addiction is on hold, it is not a huge mission to get to the gym anymore and you're probably starting to see your first results.

I read somewhere that it takes three months for a new habit to get established. Might be true. Probably is. But it will not be a constant fight trough all that time. The fight is only in the beginning. I believe that you will find your health salvation within a month. Just give it a try. A real wholehearted try. You can do it!

Treat - no binge

Today I bought chocolate. 90% cocoa. I took two squares and now its lying here beside the computer and has been there for maybe an hour and I don't actually feel any need of having another piece. Wow. What just happened? Miss Seductive S. Monster - I was expecting you and you're not here. Fuck yeah :)

SCORE!

Oh yes, she did it!! Was it good? Oh yeah. Did it give me new energy? Oh yeah. Am I more optimistic now than before? Hell yeah! Did it make my headache go away? Unfortunately not, which obviously affected the training, but hey - I did it! :D

And the after-pic:

Now Sofia - how about remembering this next time you feel like spending time with your laptop instead of the gym?!