Keto Times - Maintaining ketosis
I've learned a lot about food (did you know that the carbs in regular milk are sugar?) and am learning how to understand labels better.
It's important for me to know not just what the carbs, fibers, sugars, and net carbs are in a given thing. I also have to look for sugar alcohols because they, too, count as carbs. And boy, does that limit your supermarket shopping even more. Those suckers are everywhere!
But we have found that there are some great options in spaghetti sauces. If it says "organic" or "gourmet" we're likely to do better. Arabiatta flavor (which we like, spicy!) has been good for us. Combined with Dreamfields' spaghetti, it's a quick lifesaver. An important factor is measuring. A cup of spaghetti sauce is it for the two of us. Measuring really matters when every carb counts.
The good thing about that is that we're buying tastier ingredients, and they last longer. A $8 jar of spaghetti sauce lasts us three meals. A cheaper jar used to last us one because we used the entire contents for one meal. How extravagant that seems now!
We've also gone local for meats and vegetables. Since I eat so little now, quality really counts. I get fresh local eggs and local cream from a creamery. We buy local vegetables and local meats from a butcher.
I've also learned how my body is adapting to ketosis. To maintain ketosis I need to eat less than 15 carbs a day. Once I would have thought that impossible. Now i realize it's not hard. Heavy whipping cream is my friend. I drink it straight to keep my fat content up. I pour it on everything (along with MCT oil). Yesterday, the coffee shop we went to only had half and half (extra carbs). It tasted like skim milk to me.
So I try and stay around 10-11 carbs per day. Which means maybe 1 carb per meal until dinner where I want to eat some kind of vegetable. Or maybe, if I've been really good, a tiny piece of fruit. Ten raspberries. Oh the luxury!
Every breakfast is eggs and bacon/sausage. Or a flaxseed muffin with heavy whipping cream.
Snack is some cheese. Maybe some organic ham. Sometimes I go crazy and have cream cheese and celery. I used to hate celery. Now I love it. I must have a snack every day or my calorie count is too low.
Lunch is usually tuna salad (tuna + canola mayo + olive oil + capers [sometimes jalapenos]). If I feel exravagant, I'll wrap it in a lettuce leaf.
I repeat my snack.
Dinner we have some fancy cooked meat -- it varies -- and a non-starchy vegetable. Broccoli. Spinach. Cauliflower. Peppers.
What I crave is fruit. Yesterday Mark had an orange with breakfast and it drove me wild. I begged half a segment (oranges are forbidden -- too much sugar) and it was amazing.
The real challenge is keeping up my calories. You may think that this is a lot of fat and OMG, the calories, but my average calorie intake a day ranges between 900 and 1100. This is why my dietitian told me that there was no calorie restriction. Eat as much and as often as you want. Eat more than you want. Carbs make it easy to hit calories. Fats make it hard. You simply can't eat enough fat (even though it's high calorie) to make your calories. You feel full faster. You don't get hungry.
An average woman of my age and level of exercise needs about 1900 calories a day to maintain herself. On a really good day, I manage about 1600. I think have had two days since I started where I hit 2000. Both of those involved steak. :) And sour cream on steak. :)
That's why this is a medically monitored diet. It's hard to eat enough to keep up a caloric balance. I should eat more fat. And it is hard to do.
It's important for me to know not just what the carbs, fibers, sugars, and net carbs are in a given thing. I also have to look for sugar alcohols because they, too, count as carbs. And boy, does that limit your supermarket shopping even more. Those suckers are everywhere!
But we have found that there are some great options in spaghetti sauces. If it says "organic" or "gourmet" we're likely to do better. Arabiatta flavor (which we like, spicy!) has been good for us. Combined with Dreamfields' spaghetti, it's a quick lifesaver. An important factor is measuring. A cup of spaghetti sauce is it for the two of us. Measuring really matters when every carb counts.
The good thing about that is that we're buying tastier ingredients, and they last longer. A $8 jar of spaghetti sauce lasts us three meals. A cheaper jar used to last us one because we used the entire contents for one meal. How extravagant that seems now!
We've also gone local for meats and vegetables. Since I eat so little now, quality really counts. I get fresh local eggs and local cream from a creamery. We buy local vegetables and local meats from a butcher.
I've also learned how my body is adapting to ketosis. To maintain ketosis I need to eat less than 15 carbs a day. Once I would have thought that impossible. Now i realize it's not hard. Heavy whipping cream is my friend. I drink it straight to keep my fat content up. I pour it on everything (along with MCT oil). Yesterday, the coffee shop we went to only had half and half (extra carbs). It tasted like skim milk to me.
So I try and stay around 10-11 carbs per day. Which means maybe 1 carb per meal until dinner where I want to eat some kind of vegetable. Or maybe, if I've been really good, a tiny piece of fruit. Ten raspberries. Oh the luxury!
Every breakfast is eggs and bacon/sausage. Or a flaxseed muffin with heavy whipping cream.
Snack is some cheese. Maybe some organic ham. Sometimes I go crazy and have cream cheese and celery. I used to hate celery. Now I love it. I must have a snack every day or my calorie count is too low.
Lunch is usually tuna salad (tuna + canola mayo + olive oil + capers [sometimes jalapenos]). If I feel exravagant, I'll wrap it in a lettuce leaf.
I repeat my snack.
Dinner we have some fancy cooked meat -- it varies -- and a non-starchy vegetable. Broccoli. Spinach. Cauliflower. Peppers.
What I crave is fruit. Yesterday Mark had an orange with breakfast and it drove me wild. I begged half a segment (oranges are forbidden -- too much sugar) and it was amazing.
The real challenge is keeping up my calories. You may think that this is a lot of fat and OMG, the calories, but my average calorie intake a day ranges between 900 and 1100. This is why my dietitian told me that there was no calorie restriction. Eat as much and as often as you want. Eat more than you want. Carbs make it easy to hit calories. Fats make it hard. You simply can't eat enough fat (even though it's high calorie) to make your calories. You feel full faster. You don't get hungry.
An average woman of my age and level of exercise needs about 1900 calories a day to maintain herself. On a really good day, I manage about 1600. I think have had two days since I started where I hit 2000. Both of those involved steak. :) And sour cream on steak. :)
That's why this is a medically monitored diet. It's hard to eat enough to keep up a caloric balance. I should eat more fat. And it is hard to do.