My Keto Experience
Hello all, Sabrina Taj-Taj, LAc here! First time blogger!! I am SO excited!! I have a lot of opinions! Ha! I use myself a lot as a science experiment, but don’t worry I do my research too!
Also, I have always wanted to use my undergrad education! (BA from USC in American Literature!)
Sooooooooo my latest obsession is…… KETO!! I started following a keto diet on August 28th, 2017. I went to www.dietdoctor.com and printed out the two-week plan with my shopping lists and I was good to go.
What is keto? Keto is the latest diet “craze”. There are books about it, other bloggers, Facebook groups, etc., but a basic definition is well, not so basic.
Keto is an adjective “of or derived from a ketone”.[1] What does that mean? Let’s further explore.
A ketone is: “any of a class of organic compounds containing a carbonyl group, CO, attached to two alkyl groups, as CH3, COCH3 or CH3COC2H5”.[2] Ummmmmm yeahhhhhhh???
Moving on.
So what I have gathered is that the keto diet is a high fat, MODERATE protein, low carb diet. I personally would love people to stop comparing this to Atkins, because, Atkins didn’t moderate anything except for carbs. People are excessive. And go overboard with everything like…. BACON. Yes, I know it’s delicious. I hear ya. I looooooove bacon. But you can’t live off bacon alone. (This is coming from a woman who purchased about 15lbs of bacon for a San Felipe trip that became known as #BajaBaconTrip. Ask my cousins!)
But you need vegetables! And the way to assimilate all the goodness in vegetables is to eat them with GOOD fat. But I digress.
The division of food in the keto diet is roughly, 70% fat, 20% protein, 10% carbs. (Some do 75% fat, 15% protein, 5% carbs; others do 60% fat, 30% protein, 10% carbs… there’s no exact breakdown. You need to do what works best FOR YOU.) I am doing the 70/20/10 ratio currently but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to change.
Arg! I just realized I still haven’t given an exact definition! Okay, so the ketogenic diet is a low carb diet (probably more lifestyle for me) where your body produces ketones in the liver that are used as energy versus using glucose (sugar).
The theory is that instead of your body burning glucose (coming from carbs), it burns fat. All that stored fat in your body that’s forgotten because your body is burning glucose from carbs (bread, pasta, chips, alcohol, rice, potatoes, etc.) is now being burned when your body goes into ketosis.
How do you know if you’re in ketosis? Well, my signs where pretty, ummmm, smelly. My BO was no bueno; my thirst and dry mouth started driving me crazy, and I peed even more than my norm (and I pee A LOT!). I’m sure my breath wasn’t the greatest either.
(Side story: a friend of mine, who will remain nameless, ahem, SHANNON M., has a very strong sense of smell. I came up to her one day and she wrinkled her nose at me and mentioned that my usual smell was very different. Oopsie. But yay for pointing it out to me. Ugh.)
So yeah, your smells change. The good news, least that’s what I have read, is that this will go away. My BO has definitely gone back to normal; the thirst and cotton mouth, not so much.
Being I am thorough, and maybe a little paranoid, I got blood work done on September 9, 2017.
MY CHOLESTROL IS HIGH!!! 119
I highly doubt my cholestrol would rise so significantly in roughly 10 days, so I have been doing something wrong prior.
I had gotten blood work done on October 14, 2016 and my cholesterol was 110. So it used to be normal.
See how scientific I am… You’re welcome.
(I also just redid my blood work on October 27,2017 so will do a follow up once I receive those labs.)
I feel like I am rambling. Focus Sabrina!
I have now been on the keto diet for 2 months. I have lost 8lbs. Why so little? Because I am trying to do this slowly and make it a lifestyle. I have read how some people under eat due to feeling satiated from this high fat diet, that they start to lose their hair, or have other health issues. As I have stated before, I am paranoid and, well, don’t want to f!@# myself up. I also work out quite a bit in high intensity workouts and again, don’t want to f!@# myself up. I haven’t yet been able to completely move past my old habits of having a protein shake within 30 min of working out; or having breakfast first thing; or having 6 small meals a day; etc. These things take time. I am trying to be kind to myself and take baby steps. I am down to 4 meals a day.
I am definitely sleeping better than I had been. My skin is clearer and more luminous. I am able to work out well and I am strong (I do kickboxing and Pole dancing, so high demand workouts.) And I feel like my mind is clearer. That being said, my mother, who has bouts with depression, said that within a week, her mood was better and she was sleeping well. She has since lost 11lbs, no longer compulsively eats all the junk food brought in by her fellow nurses in the break room and her body aches have stopped.
So this first blog of mine, is an introduction to my style of writing and basically what’s been floating in my head and/or the different things that I am trying out.
I am starting a keto cleanse starting on November 1st, 2017. I will be following Maria Emmerich’s book entitled: The 30-day ketogenic cleanse. I don’t know Maria Emmerich. I randomly came across her book at Sprouts and picked it up. I enjoyed the heaviness of the book. So you see, I am very specific with my criteria. But like most things, when you trust your instincts, good things happen because it turns out, Maria is the s@#$. She has a Facebook page, with the same title so you can get help there.
So that’s my plan. Will check back with another blog in a couple of weeks (I’m thinking of writing about my other current obsession, which is fascia!) and update on how I’m doing on the cleanse.
Thanks for reading!
Sources:
https://www.ruled.me/guide-keto-diet/
The 30 day keto cleanse by Maria Emmerich
[1] Dictionary.com
[2] Dicotionary.com