My state of health and ketogenesis
My first check up was last week. I got to show off the cool app (Carb Diet) that I use to track my daily intake. So much easier than the paper forms they gave me! There are others available. What I like about this one is that it also tracks water (very important for me) and I can custom edit/add in stuff that I make as regular items once I go through the work of figuring out their contents (calories, fat, carbs, sodium, etc.). I like that quite a bit.
The program manager was impressed. We talked about my struggles with staying in ketosis. I can easily stay in the middle ground, it's less easy for me to maintain, day after day, full ketosis at 15 carbs. It's very difficult to eat that much fat. Trust me. Even fried cheese and sour cream don't make it easy. You just can't eat enough butter with your steak to make up 60% fat.
And there's only so much heavy whipping cream a girl can drink straight up. Trust me. I know.
So she prescribed KetoCal, a high fat powder that you can use to make shakes, or in other recipes, to give you that extra boost of daily fat. It's made specifically for eplileptics. We're going to try that and see how it works. We're also lowering my daily carb count from 15 grams of carbs a day to between 11-12 grams a day. I've changed my counter to ten so that if I go over a little, it's not so bad.
So. That limits things. A 1/2 cup of banana (nortoriously high in carbs) is 15 grams of carbs. A medium apple is 21 net carbs. A medium orange (oh how I miss oranges!) is 12 net grams. Vegetables are down to about hot peppers and kale. This is much more like a full ketogenic diet.
But I'll manage.
So what else. Yes, I've lost weight. My blood pressure has gone from 120/70 to 112/65. My heart rate, which was a steady 70 is now a steady 65.
Because of what I'm eating, she's taken me off extra calcium. I'm eating so much dairy, any second now I'll begin to moo. I now have a prescription for Vitamin D (5,000). And we are both thrilled that all my joint pain is gone. Who knew this could be an anti-arthritic? Apparently some people. I just wasn't one of them.
In two weeks I go in for full blood work. We're waiting until I've been on my new reduced carb count and a higher fat ratio so we can check and see how I'm doing with that. I continue to feel great. I mourn fruits more than vegetables. I tried a small piece of chocolate candy the other day and you know what? It tasted like crap. I was surprised. A clear sign my tastes are changing.
The program manager was impressed. We talked about my struggles with staying in ketosis. I can easily stay in the middle ground, it's less easy for me to maintain, day after day, full ketosis at 15 carbs. It's very difficult to eat that much fat. Trust me. Even fried cheese and sour cream don't make it easy. You just can't eat enough butter with your steak to make up 60% fat.
And there's only so much heavy whipping cream a girl can drink straight up. Trust me. I know.
So she prescribed KetoCal, a high fat powder that you can use to make shakes, or in other recipes, to give you that extra boost of daily fat. It's made specifically for eplileptics. We're going to try that and see how it works. We're also lowering my daily carb count from 15 grams of carbs a day to between 11-12 grams a day. I've changed my counter to ten so that if I go over a little, it's not so bad.
So. That limits things. A 1/2 cup of banana (nortoriously high in carbs) is 15 grams of carbs. A medium apple is 21 net carbs. A medium orange (oh how I miss oranges!) is 12 net grams. Vegetables are down to about hot peppers and kale. This is much more like a full ketogenic diet.
But I'll manage.
So what else. Yes, I've lost weight. My blood pressure has gone from 120/70 to 112/65. My heart rate, which was a steady 70 is now a steady 65.
Because of what I'm eating, she's taken me off extra calcium. I'm eating so much dairy, any second now I'll begin to moo. I now have a prescription for Vitamin D (5,000). And we are both thrilled that all my joint pain is gone. Who knew this could be an anti-arthritic? Apparently some people. I just wasn't one of them.
In two weeks I go in for full blood work. We're waiting until I've been on my new reduced carb count and a higher fat ratio so we can check and see how I'm doing with that. I continue to feel great. I mourn fruits more than vegetables. I tried a small piece of chocolate candy the other day and you know what? It tasted like crap. I was surprised. A clear sign my tastes are changing.