Week 1

Week 1!

I'm not a patient person. I was going to wait and start the diet on Monday but I was part too excited to wait and part feeling guilty about that big burger dinner from Friday night. So I started Saturday. The grocery trip to prep was very expensive. I know that some of those bigger purchases, like the stevia sweetener, will last much longer than a week so this was an initial investment. The key will be to be flexible with things like meat and buy what is on sale, then meal plan around that. Overall I'd say the first week was a success. I lost 4.7 lbs! Sure glad to get rid of some water weight. Fasting till 11 or 12 every day has felt good, and it helps because then my meals are larger and I stay full longer. I really am not feeling a lot of hunger, and that makes dieting WAY easier. My biggest complaint is energy level during exercise. The only run that felt fine was my first one on Saturday morning when I wasn't keto yet, therefore still had plenty of glycogen around to fuel me. It's going to require some experimentation with carbs to see where I need to be before I run in order to not feel like shit. I need to research that more as well.

Sunday thoughts:

In the back of my mind I was thinking about adding the intermittent fasting 16:8 to the keto diet, and Saturday it happened to work out perfectly because of working out in the morning and then not eating till nearly noon. I'm not completely committed to the idea, because on weekdays when I get up at 5:30, waiting till 11 to eat is really tough. Maybe as I adjust to the keto diet and the hunger is less, it won't be difficult for me to wait.

I know I said I was just going to weigh weekly but this morning I had to get on the scale to see if my first day made any progress. Well lookie here - I weighed 160.8 with a fat % of 35.6! The weight I believe, because I know I was carrying water weight. The fat % - there's no reason why it would have dropped so much in one day, so we'll just see where it evens out when I weigh again on Friday.

Monday thoughts:

Yesterday I did my weekend 6 mile run after fasting for about 14 hours. It did not feel great. I felt like my lungs were working much harder than they should, and I had to take more walking breaks than usual. I still had a pace of 11:20 which isn't bad though. My first thought is that I should give myself some sugar the night before those runs. I plan to enjoy some halo top Friday night in prep for Saturday's 10K. I have also done some reading and one of the things I found was that 'distance running on keto works as long as you are in aerobic exercise.' Which of course I am not because my heart rate averages 160 or so when I run. So hopefully the carb loading helps, because I am not going to slow down to a 13 minute pace just to keep my heart rate in the cardio range.

Today is my first weekeday waking up fasting. I've got 30 minutes to go till lunch time, and I feel just fine. The 16:8 fast may be easier than I thought. I resisted the urge to weigh myself this morning, and I'm going to make myself wait until Friday.

Good lord I am peeing a lot. I think I'm up to 6 times already this morning. Trying to keep up my salt intake is tough. Those Mio drops are not hacking it - each squirt only has 75mg! I think I'll keep using it in my workout water bottle, but it's not going to help me increase my salt & potassium as much as I need. I might have to resort to a tablet because I'm not about to drink broth. Eww.

Meal planning is critical for this to succeed. Good thing I love to plan. :) I have to plan out the whole day at once, because it can require some tweaking to get the macros just right. Before when I was only looking at calories, it didn't matter what I had for dinner; I could just adjust amounts. Now I'm finding that some days I when I pick leaner meats I need to add fat in elsewhere, or vice versa. The plan is to plan the whole day the night before.

What do I miss? Halo top. The sweetness is most of it, but also it had become my evening ritual, and it doesn't feel right ending the night without it. I supposed that'll just take getting used to.

Tuesday thoughts:

I snuck in a weight this morning against my plans, and it was 161.2. I went pretty heavy on the salt at dinner last night and also ate later than normal. I might break my rule and go back to weighing every day for a bit, just because I'm curious about the fluctuations on keto. If it makes me frustrated, though, I'll have to switch back to weekly.

Wednesday thoughts:

Yesterday was my first time exercising in the evening and it went just fine. Still managed to get dinner in just before 7pm so I'm sticking to the 16:8 fast pretty easily. I do not feel that hungry in the mornings, and waiting till 11 to eat lunch is going well. Today I won't be able to work out but hopefully can at least get my lunch walk in. Very happy that I was below 160 for the first time in I don't know how long. Getting closer to that goal!

Craving sweets big time today though. I'm PMSing which doesn't help at all. Got an unsweetened passion tea from Starbucks and put 2 packs of splenda in, so that helped the craving for a while. Can't wait till my halo top on Friday. I have noticed, though, that I am not suffering from sugar headaches which I always got if I ate too much candy/sweets during the day. My mind has felt very clear except for that one night on Sunday when I felt like shit.

Thursday thoughts:

Down again on the scale - woo! I suffered through the cravings last night and treated myself to 5 whole chocolate chips. lol I'm definitely going to experiment with some more dessert recipes this weekend. And I don't even know why I spent all that money on stevia - I knew I liked splenda so I should have just bought that to begin with. 

Been reading more about macros as limits rather than goals. How would I do if I ate less fat and more protein? Might play with the numbers next week.

Friday thoughts:

Today I do not have my calories or macros planned out yet. I grabbed some food that I knew would be about right for lunch, and tonight we are going to get sushi and then I'm going to have my halo top treat. I will go back and enter it all, because I need to see how what I'm eating affects how I feel when running. Here's hoping a small carb load is enough to power me through 6.2 miles. 

The data from this week:

what the Physiquonomics calculator gave me for a goal:

total calories   protein   carbs   fat
     1630              114          45     110

what I actually ate:

Saturday: weight 163.6
                1489 calories (burned 2847)
                 92 protein
                 39 carbs (31.3 net)
                110 fat

Sunday:  weight 160.8
                 1604 calories (burned 2654)
                 110 protein
                 46 carbs (24.3 net)
                 111 fat

Monday: 1559 calories (burned 2344)
                120 protein
                 40 carbs (26.7 net)
                104 fat

Tuesday:  weight 161.2
                 1560 calories (burned 2561)
                 109 protein
                  44 carbs (28.2 net)
                  106 fat

Wednesday: weight 159.8
                   1674 calories (burned 2213)
                  115 protein
                   39 carbs
                  123 fat

Thursday: weight 158.9 
                 1603 calories (burned 2535)
                  97 protein
                  46 carbs
                  123 fat

Friday: weight 158.9, 35.1% fat

Food diaries:

Saturday: fried eggs w/cheese & mayo, turkey slices & no-bake keto cookies (baiscally coconut, peanut butter, and butter), steak w/herb butter & caesar salad

Sunday: spinach salad w/bacon, eggs, & avocado, salami/cheese & keto crackers (cheese, almond flour, & spices), grilled chicken & sauteed okra

Monday: keto crackers w/tuna salad & avocado, salami/cheese & no-bake keto cookies, broiled salmon & caesar salad

Tuesday: tuna salad w/avocado & keto crackers, chicken/bacon salad & apple slices, spinach salad w/italian sausage & egg

Wednesday: turkey/cheese & keto crackers, chicken/bacon salad & no-bake keto cookies, keto chicken tenders (breaded in almond flour) & avocado

Thursday: egg salad & keto crackers, keto chicken tenders & avocado, bunless burger & spinach salad w/bacon