Jac's Countdown to 50! page 13

[NourishedEm]

Here is where I usually get them Optium Freestyle KETONES TEST STRIPS 10 I'm happy to get some for you if they don't post to Oz

Thanks, you're a doll. Luckily I found an online pharmacy that sells them for $8.50 for 10 which is brilliant, so I stocked up. I just finished reading Phinney and Volek's book on nutritional ketosis and am going to see how that fits in with my carb-cycling thing. I have been doing well, but am eating way too much protein I think and I don't feel great on it. So we'll see.....

It's getting late, but I've spent the evening deciding what to do about the ketosis experiment. My mood has improved since I ate some carbs, so my thinking is clearer again. Whew. I was getting really miserable - and pretty snotty too. Poor Tony.

The reasons I want to do a ketogenic diet are few, but profound

• it made my gut feel amazing. Not only pain free, but also free of any residual bloating
• I slept well
• my energy levels were up and steady
• I lost weight

Although I still get IBS flares, for the most part I know why they happen and generally have done something dumb to provoke one. Mostly they happen as a result of being tired and/or stressed and consequently making bad choices. A ketogenic diet, for the brief time that it worked, helped me to avoid those bad food and drink choices.

I love the feeling of having no bloating and no pain. It's amazing, and I feel so sexy and comfortable in my skin. I laugh all the time, and I'm patient with people.

I am still around 20-25kg overweight. That's a significant load to cart around with me all the time, and it definitely impacts on my self-esteem too. Being unable to predict what will make me lose weight is a horrible, disheartening feeling. Ketosis changed that.

So that's why I want to do it. In my research tonight I've realised that I've been OK with my carbs - I could even increase them a little - but going overboard on the protein. I'll start with aiming for an upper limit of 75g per day, with up to 50g carbs. I'm working on a food plan that has 'exchanges' on it, so I can keep within the limits without triggering my psychopathology around counting .

I don't know how long I'll keep going with it. I'm leaving that open, because on the one hand I had a great experience with ketosis, but on the other I've just had major cravings for a banana! It might be that I'll end up doing some kind of cycling to get the best of both worlds. For now, I'm too metabolically challenged to cope with that, though.

I'd very much like to get into ketosis and stay there until I get to 65kg. Bring it on and let's see what happens.

Edited to add that I still want to see just how fabulous I can be on my 50th birthday!! 184 days, or 6 months and 4 days.

I've got 97 days till my 40th - Yikes! I guess I better get my butt into gear if I'm going for fabulous.

I like your summation and I hope that you can manage to do whatever works for you, which tbh, sounds like ketosis right now. That's an awful lot of positives up there.

[Jac]

I didn't wait until the weekend was over to restart. In fact, although I got some kind of satisfaction from eating banana and kumara, it just wasn't that great.

Yesterday I started with a cocoa and 1tbsp coconut oil. It was pretty bad, actually. However, the day highlighted to me that I've generally not had the protein/fat ratios in the right ballpark. I felt a bit queasy and headachey, so had my first food at dinnertime - leftover pork roast in stir fried veges (capsicum, broccoli and green beans). I cooked it in coconut oil to start with, then added olive oil, then topped my serving off with avocado oil infused with lime (really yum!). It had an oily texture, but tasted good.

I'm beginning to see the benefits of bacon! The fat outweighs the protein.

Today I was supposed to be driving to a seminar/workshop day. Instead, I've called in sick. I have to be away this coming Wed/Thurs, and that's enough stress for the week. Today I'm working on me, and also on the article. It'll be a day well spent.

Edited to add that I weighed 88.4kg this morning. This is excellent, since I have really sore thigh and butt muscles from a major gardening effort on Saturday.

[Jac]

Yesterday was great - I got work done, in addition to decluttering 2 rooms and reading a novel. Sweet! I had cocoa with coconut oil in the morning, then about mid-afternoon I started to feel a bit fuzzy so I had some commercial stock with more coconut oil. That may have been a mistake . I loved the stock when I drank it - the salt was wonderful! I felt clear-headed and energetic again. We had mince and green veges for dinner, but I didn't enjoy it much and struggled to finish it. I finished off the day with a cup of natural calm.

This morning I'm almost a kilo heavier, bloated and puffy, and I have a killer headache. I'm blaming the stock. So fat I've had cocoa and coconut oil, and I've brought more coconut oil to work to make another drink. I could have brought some food with me, but decided I'd try for another day of fasting.

I'm reading about 2 completely different approaches to weight loss, both of which predict dire consequences for those who choose the alternative. One is around fasting, particularly eating one meal a day. Proponents say that we are supposed to eat this way, and that our bodies are flexible enough to cope. There is an interesting thread on this, and some seemingly healthy people are doing great when eating once a day. The other approach is to increase calories, and that eating this way, unless I totally gorge myself at night in my one meal, is damaging. Sigh.

Kurt Harris (weird though he might be) originally posted about his approach to what he calls a 'broken metabolism' =
· Aim for ketosis
· 5% carbs
· 10 – 15% protein
· Rest is from fat
· Maybe one meal a day, with cream drinks during fast
· IF

This is what I've begun to do - unintentionally. I don't think I have a broken metabolism - I'm not unhealthy enough for that. I don't have any symptoms of thryoid problems other than trouble losing weight, I don't have brittle bones or weak nails or immune problems. I just have heaps of fat and an inflamed gut. I know that eating this way is kind to my gut, it doesn't inflame it any further and it does give it time to rest.

I don't know what my point is here - kind of stream of consciousness writing - except to realise that I have to go my own way. This is a very low calorie way of eating, but I need to try it out. I loved seeing Joanna Lumley respond to a question about how she stays so energetic and glamorous - she says she "never eats breakfast and usually forgets to eat lunch".

Joanna Lumley.jpg

I have no idea whether this will work, or how long I can keep it up. N=1 continues.

ROFLMAO - after writing this, I went and ate 2 sausages. I clearly don't know what I'm talking about!

[NourishedEm]

Your last sentence made me snort.

I've been thinking about much the same thing and where I've ended up is deciding to listen to my body. For example on Sunday, I really wasn't hungry. There were times that I 'could eat' but no real hunger signals so, aside from my bulletproof coffee in the AM, I didn't eat till dinner and I felt great. Yesterday, I wasn't hungry until 2pm but I was hungry then so I ate. I still had fasted all morning on my bulletproof coffee only. I don't see why we need to choose one or the other, I think you should play it by ear. Aiming at all times for ketosis and only eating when hungry. I think that way, some days you'll fast till dinner and some days you won't but all days you won't be fighting your body's signals.

What do you think?

[Jac]

Your last sentence made me snort.

I've been thinking about much the same thing and where I've ended up is deciding to listen to my body. For example on Sunday, I really wasn't hungry. There were times that I 'could eat' but no real hunger signals so, aside from my bulletproof coffee in the AM, I didn't eat till dinner and I felt great. Yesterday, I wasn't hungry until 2pm but I was hungry then so I ate. I still had fasted all morning on my bulletproof coffee only. I don't see why we need to choose one or the other, I think you should play it by ear. Aiming at all times for ketosis and only eating when hungry. I think that way, some days you'll fast till dinner and some days you won't but all days you won't be fighting your body's signals.

What do you think?

Lol - excellent plan!!

[Jac]

Day 6 of trying for ketosis . I've been away again for the last couple of days, but have done OK I think.

Wed morning I checked ketones first thing . . . .2mmol/L. That's not even the standard level for an overnight fast!! On that depressing note I drove to Tauranga for a meeting, collecting other people on my way. I left home at 7am, got to the meeting at 12.30. I hadn't had breakfast, and although it was 'my' meeting I'd neglected to tell the organiser to make sure there was something for me to eat!! There were club sandwiches, a few cakes, and a huge fruit platter - I wasn't even tempted. I was a bit hungry, though, so I actually ate 2 big teaspoons of straight coconut oil (I had a container in my bag for just this eventuality!). The meeting went really well.

Then, at about 2pm I drove everyone to Whakatane where we had another meeting. I was beginning to think about food by then, and planned that if I needed to I'd get to a supermarket after the meeting and buy some ham. As it turned out, I didn't need to do that. That meeting went OK, too - good people but some concerning issues with their korero. The same catering, lol. After that, about 5pm, I dropped one colleague at a hotel for the night, one at the airport so she could go home, and I drove the 1.25 hours back to Tauranga so I could stay with my mother. I didn't need the ham, but had more coconut oil. I'm starting to get used to the texture, but it needs salt!

Mum had roasted a leg of lamb and done a huge pile of low carb veges. I managed to avoid most of the high fodmap choices, and also didn't pig out on the lamb. Score .

Thursday - drove back to Whakatane, where I was in a very stressful meeting all day. I mean stressful enough that by lunchtime I had a fine tremor in my muscles and it's still there today. That's ridiculous, and it doesn't happen too often. Anyway, I skipped breakfast again, had another tsp of coconut oil mid morning, and at lunchtime there were chicken drumsticks so I had 2 of them. Just before my 3 hour drive home I ate leftovers from dinner - a serving of lamb with some tomato and lettuce and some dressing. When I got home my lovely husband had cooked steak and green veges. Again, I was moderate with my protein intake and only had one piece of steak. I was still feeling ??hungry, very tired and quite physically stressed, and had 3 squares of dark chocolate. I loved it, and it helped . Overall I probably had a bit much protein, but not too badly over and spread out over the day.

This morning ketones are .3mmol/L, but my weight is 87.2kg. That's amazing!! That's an overall loss of almost 14kg in the 18 months since I started PB, 3kg since I started eating this way in August, and a new low weight. In addition to hitting a new low, I'm excited because generally a period of eating as little as I did on Wed would result in a gain. So I have to assume that even though I gave my body near starvation rations for a short time, it didn't respond like a metabolically broken mechanism and grasp onto all nutrients like a dying thing. Yahoo .

It's just after 8am, and I'm planning a day of working at home, playing a bit, getting rid of the tremor, and eating regularly. I'm hungry now, which is unusual at this hour.

*heads for kitchen*

[NourishedEm]

Wow, sounds great Jac and I read on the Eat Moar Fat thread that you haven't had any IBS symptoms which is even better!! I think ketone levels are bound to rise and fall throughout the day and I wonder if mornings are the best time to measure them? You're running off liver glycogen overnight so you rely less on ketones, I believe. Maybe test in the middle or end of the day to get an accurate picture.

However, based on how you feel, if you are able to go all day without major hunger and with stable energy, I'd say you're in ketosis.

[Jac]

Em, if you find any info about when to test ketones, I'd love to hear it. I started out doing it in the late evening, figuring that that'd be a more honest measure after I'd finished eating. Then I read that Jimmy Moore and others seem to be doing it in the morning. I don't know if it makes any real difference, though.

The very best bit about not having IBS symptoms (well, apart from the no pain bit ) is being able to wear jeans all day .

9am: BP cocoa with co oil and ghee = 26g fat (about - probably a bit less, but I'm not sure how to measure a tbsp of fat. Is it solid or liquid?? If liquid, I use less than if I pile up a tbsp with solid fat)
11.30am: 3 eggs fried in 2tbsp coconut oil = 16g protein and 39g fat (shit! That's a lot! 13g fat per tbsp of co oil and 4.5 per egg)
4pm plan: chicken broth with extra salt - no fat or protein, but delish
Dinner plan: Sausages = 22g protein and 33g fat for 2 - I plan to eat 4!! (well, I have that option if I want them) = 44g protein and 66g fat, plus veges, which I don't bother to count.

60g protein, 131g fat. That's a big day for me lately, but just what I need. Also, although there's a cold breeze outside, I've had my first natural vit d intake for months. Great feeling!!

[Jac]

Counting on my fingers, I think this is day 9 of HFVLC. I can't call it ketosis yet, since I doubt that I'm fully into it yet.

I had a great weekend, with gardening, going out with family, just hanging out at home, and some movies too. Actually, I finished watching season 2 of Game of Thrones. It's a good series, but nothing seems to get resolved - the cast just keeps on growing. I'm finding it a bit like a violent version of the Sims .

I have a few IBS symptoms from yesterday - we went out to celebrate our son's 19th birthday - both of our younger kids and their partners were there. I had bacon and eggs with some kransky sausages. Shortly after eating I felt a bit weird and flushed. Soon after that I developed bloating, and over the course of the day some spasms crept in. At first glance it seems that the sausages were at fault, but it's not quite that simple. I've recently reintroduced ghee, and have been having it every day for the last few days - so I could be having a mild intolerance thing going on. Also, I'm kind of feeling a bit odd all round - a bit of light-headness, tired, a bit fuzzy headed too. I think this is probably low carb flu, not from having too many carbs but perhaps not quite enough fat, or even not quite enough food. There is also the definite possibility that it's related to the stress of the meetings last week.

Lots of possibilities. I've put away the ghee for a few days, and will try reintroducing it again once things have settled. I still have to really focus on eating fat! It's not coming naturally to me at all, and I have a tendency to put off eating anything at all simply because I can't get my head around what to eat that isn't protein or carbs. It's a learning thing.

I am finding that I'm satisfied with lots less food that I used to be. This weekend I've had some random thoughts about eating sweet things, though - I think that's partly the brain fuzziness and partly because I have a metallic taste in my mouth that is crying out for something with a really intense flavour to cut through it. I can't think what to eat to help, but walking past a muffin shop I was salivating about the icing - not the muffins, which I don't really tend to enjoy, but the sickly sweet icing on top. Luckily I have a good focus still, and none of that crap in the house.

So - Monday morning. Tired, fuzzy, and hungry. I have some pure chicken stock to have with coconut oil and salt, and some leftover mince/vege mix from Saturday night. That should give me energy and the right macros to shake off the physical malaise.

I weighed this morning - 86.5kg. Great, but I'm more interested in getting the weight loss along with energy and no IBS. On balance, this isn't a win.

[Jac]

This morning I feel like I've been hit by a truck - aching back, bloated tummy, heavy all over. Blech.

On the brighter side, I haven't needed to take any pain relief. I've thought about it a couple of times a day, but each time I've been able to distract myself. I slept really well last night, and woke naturally this morning.

Food yesterday was chicken stock with co oil and a bit of extra salt, then a minced beef and vege thing for lunch. Dinner was lamb steak with veges and creamy mayo. I really want to try some other oils for the mayo - I wonder what walnut oil would taste like??

Working at home today - I have heaps to do and at least here when I need a break I tend to be more active. At work the breaks come when other people interrupt me, then it's hard to refocus.

I've finished the mince dish this morning - I'm having such small quantities compared to how I used to eat. Literally about 3tbsp of mince and veges, and I'm done for the morning.