Super Short Guide to the Ketogenic Diet

This is a very, very basic guide to starting the ketogenic diet. The reason I do not go into more detail is due to the fact that there are people in this world who can explain the science better than I ever could; especially Joseph Arcita and his Guide to Ketosis. Joseph is a fellow blogger whose amazing break down of the ketogenic diet makes my humble explanation look like child’s play.

Who should try the ketogenic diet?

Anyone can do this diet, but it is recommended for people with epilepsy, and women with fertility issues. Over the past eight months, I have seen people with a variety of health issues who would try the diet and have better managed health including issues such as:

·         Type 2 diabetes

·         Crohn’s disease

·         High cholesterol/blood pressure (these usually go hand in hand)

·         Anxiety and depression (also can go hand in hand)

·         Fertility issues – Lack of menses and PCOS

  I am a combination of both the fertility issues, and the anxiety and depression. My anxiety has lessened, and my depression is gone. PCOS is managed, and my cycles have returned.

Basics of the diet

Consume less than 25 g of carbs per day. That will ensure that you're in a constant state of ketosis. My husband consumes 35 g of carbohydrates because that is the amount he can consume and stay in ketosis. I consume between 19-25 g. (Read about my change in carb consumption in the macros section)

Cut out all sugar, sugar alcohols, starches, and 95% of your carbohydrates. No more bread, cookies, cake, beer, soda, milk, root vegetables, and fruit (I know, I’m sorry about the fruit). You will still get carbohydrates from the food you are allowed to eat on the diet. We aren't completely strangling carbs from our diets.

Here's a list of keto friend foods and their carb count. Very useful google document! Print it out!

Also try Linda's Keto Recipes - I use this every day. Love this website!

WATER IS YOUR FRIEND.

I cannot stress this enough. You must drink 2 or 3 liters of water every day, or deal with kidney issues. It is no joke!

Keto flu

You will experience something called the keto flu within the first two weeks of the diet; usually a bad headache and fatigue. It is just a result of your body being starved of carbohydrates. The best way to fix this is to get your electrolytes back in balance. Purchase and use lite salt (found at any grocery store), and magnesium supplements, and drink chicken or beef broth. Good sources of potassium include lite salt, coffee, spinach, kale, salmon, avocados, almonds, pistachios… to name a few.

Please read more into the keto flu and potassium and magnesium deficiency here: “Keto-flu” and Sufficient Intake of Electrolytes

Hitting your macros

Macros are your ever day nutritional goals. You should eat 65% fat, 30% protein, and 5% carbohydrates. To figure out your macros use the Keto Calculator created by a Redditor named Martinus.

I just now redid my macros, and it looks like I have to lower my carbohydrate intake. My personal macros are: 1600 kcal, 85g of fat, 90 g of protein and 15g of carbohydrates. That is what I have to eat every day to ensure weight loss is happening, which it has not since my pregnancy in February. Time to fix that!

Best way to ensure you’re staying under your macros of fat/protein/carbs is to have and use a food journal. I have a food journal on MyFitnessPal.com, and customized it to ensure I am following my macros. I have made it a habit to use my journal every day. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to blow over your goal, even if you’re eating only keto food. Food scales and measuring cups are also pretty freaking awesome to have, and thank God for nutritional labels. Always read labels!

Tonight, after I'm done babysitting, I will set up a variety of links that will help you in your journey on the keto diet. reddit.com/r/keto has been the most helpful with information to this diet. I love that community so much! Go and visit!

Salek

An introduction. Do we like introductions here?

Hellooooo,

I'm Salek! (Say-lick).

I guess you'll eventually figure out a bit more about me as we chug along with the blog, so I'll keep introductions to a minimum. (Okay I lied, I talked a lot. I'm sorry) I'm 25, married, have a cat and two obnxious birds. I swear like a sailor, enjoy video games, books, music, and a variety of activities my husband deems as "old lady hobbies." Whatever, John.

Let me start off by saying that I have pretty much done every single diet fad that has or is being marketed in today's health food industry. From low fat to low calorie, vegetarianism to lean meats, "healthy" junk food to diet pills - I have done it all; not a single attempt has brought me anything but misery and hunger, and surprise, surprise, more weight gain.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome, and insulin resisticance are the main culprits in the (now shrinking) tire around my waist, my previous lack of a menstrual cycle, and my awesome hockey playoff goatee. (Let's Go Pens!) Fourteen years of this crap, I eventually reached the "I don't give a fuck" stage, and gave up even caring about the why and how to fix it. PCOS and my weight be damned, I chose chocolate ice cream and potato chips that wouldn't satisfy me over a little weakling of a salad with icky low fat, low calorie dressing that wouldn't satisfy me either. I picked my poison, and it was sugar and carbs. I guess that was the depression talking... He's a jagoff.

Last September, being the lazy jerk that I am, I was spending my morning browsing Reddit, and was checking out the PCOS subreddit. Some of the ladies were discussing the different types of diets they were doing to combat their PCOS, and the one that caught my eye was the ketogenic diet, which is a low carb diet. The only diet I knew of that was low carb was Atkins, and I thought it was suppose to be unhealthy for you.

There was even a keto subreddit! There was SO MUCH information to read, and it was truly overwhelming. Redditors were posting their progress, non-scale and scale victories, and stating how much better they felt, and how quickly the weight was coming off. I was definitely intrigued. Eating a high fat, moderate protein diet? Was everything I was told about my diet and health a complete lie? To be honest, I LOVE fat. I never felt shame about grabbing the steak fat off a family member's plate because it tastes good. Maybe the diet would work for me? Might as well try it out once.

I started reading the google document linked in the sidebar called "Keto in a Nutshell", moved on to the FAQ, and than eventually the documentary called Fatheads. I watched Fatheads with my husband. When we finished the movie, we both decided to try the diet out and see where it would take us. Took less to convince my husband than I thought. He's a very stubborn meat and potatoes guy so I was shocked when he said he'd try it out. I didn't say a word about his decision because I didn't want him to back out in anger or frustration at me, and the diet. At least I had a diet buddy. Buddies are important!

In the first week, John lost about eight to ten pounds, and I lost five. It was all water weight, but I can't complain, my clothes fit better, and I was sleeping better. John's health issues included sleep apnea, heartburn and general gastral intestinal issues. My health issues were/are depression, anxiety, PCOS, insulin resistance. Can't forget our weight either! :3

Within a month, John's sleep apnea, heartburn, and plumbing issues disappeared. He had lost twenty five pounds. Myself, I finally got my menstrual cycle after going over a year without it, my depression went away, my anxiety lessened, and I lost fifteen pounds. I actually lost weight. Holy shit.

So, we stuck with the diet because it was working, and still is working. In February, and March of this year, I lost no weight and couldn't figure out why. I was stuck at 28 pounds lost.  My husband assumed it was the jar of natural peanut butter, and whip cream I was going through every day that was stopping my weight loss. Couldn't help it. I needed it.

Turns out I was just pregnant. I was mother fucking pregnant. Me!? I never thought I'd be able to have children. We had gone seven years without contraception, and never got pregnant. The fact that I was knocked up was a cross between disbelief and excitement. I cried, I jumped for joy, and said outloud, "I'm going to be a mommy!"

Well, two days later, I miscarried. I felt like shit. Some days I still do, but I know it was not my fault. At least I know I can get pregnant now, and the baby fever has finally set in... to the "joy" of my darling husband. All the more incentive to keep on this path John and I are both taking.

Tomorrow's post is going to be geared more toward how to do the ketogenic diet, and who should try it out. If you want to do your own research, /r/keto on Reddit is very informative, along with Gary Taube's books Why We Get Fat, and Good Calories, Bad Calories.

Hope to see you! I'll probably post a recipe tomorrow as well. Aww yeah, recipes!