Keto Journey – Struggling

Although I am feeling better, the scale isn’t moving. I’ve had to suck it up and buy a bigger size pants just to be comfortable again, but I really don’t like having to buy bigger pants.

I am in no way as big as I used to be, but the anxiety of that thought sends me into sheer panic. I am really trying to break it down to manageable pieces. If I don’t I will lose this battle. I know this from past experiences.

So, my manageable pieces are: not eating any grains what so ever, especially since I’ve learned I have a very real allergy to them; not eating after 7p, although depending on my day I may stop eating sooner and finally, kicking my exercise up a notch.

The exercise part is a real battle, I get bored really fast. So I am trying to get at least 8k steps a day this week, go to the gym at least twice in the morning and twice after work. 🤞🤞🤞

I say all of that to say that I hope all this will improve my sleeping, Thank you menopause, because it’s all over the place which seems to feed my anxiety.

So talk to me Goose, how are you doing? How are you managing stress? Do you workout with a buddy?

Keto Journey

Part 3 of 3, sounds like alot of common sense. For me, common sense sometimes gets overruled by cravings or from being hungry. This video gives you great food swaps to help with both of my issues.

Keto Journey

Here is part 2 of 3,

Keto Journey

I am following this Doctor on YouTube, she makes alot of sense to me. Here is part 1 of 3 that I wanted to share.

Keto Journey – Bad Choices

One of the things that lead me to IF and Keto was, I learned that I am allergic to ALL grains. Yep, you read that right all grains: Oats, Rye, Barley and Wheat.

What my doctor told me was this explains why I had GERD/Acid reflux issues so much. I was frustrated that even if i didn’t eat any “trigger” foods, I still has bad episodes.

In my research, I learned that grains are inflammatory to my body. Not only do they trigger my stomach issues but it also aggravates my thyroid. Yes, I also have Hypothyroidism.

All of this led me to the Keto life.

So as you know I am going into my 4th week and its Christmas time. There is a treat I make for the family, that they call Snowman poop. Lol it requires Life or Chex cereal.

As you might have guessed, I snacked on a few while making 3 batches and guess what? I had a bad GERD episode.

I haven’t had ANY of these episodes since I eliminated grains and started Keto.

Food for thought my friends…

Keto Journey – Red Meat

I don’t eat much red meat, but ever since I started this journey I’ve been craving it.

I normally eat alot of chicken but today I made a standing rib roast. This is the first time I ever attempted cooking such an intimidating hunk of meat.

When I do eat red meat, I like it rare to medium rare; nice and bloody! To clarify, since I have had bariatric surgery my stomach is much smaller and it can only take very small portions. One of the things I’ve experienced with my smaller stomach or pouch is anything that is over cooked or very dense is hard to process and it gives me a very bad stomachache. This is the main reason why I eat mostly chicken.

This roast was so good. It had a nice seasoning on the outside and I put veggies in the pan to roast with it.

If course I ate a little too much and now have a tummy ache anyway.

I do feel a bit confused about Keto and red meat. Do you alternate lean meat and meat with good marbling? Or are you supposed to have only one or the other.

For me at this point, since I don’t eat much of it anyway, I’ll go with what sounds good.

What’s your thoughts?

Keto Journey – Aggrivation & Epsom Salt

Anyone else feel like your patience is tested more while being on Keto or just dieting?

I am going to go out on a limb here and say “Being Hangry” is a thing! LOL

It always amazes me when I realize that I am hungry when my irritation level really rises. What I mean is, I don’t have hunger pains but rather, I’ll get a slight headache and become highly annoyed by the smallest thing.

Like the sound of the TV or someone’s voice or just the sound of someone breathing in my vicinity.

I’ve read several things about Keto Flu, which isn’t a sickness neccesarily. It’s your body going through withdrawl for things like sugar.

What your body doesn’t use it stores in your fat cells. When your body is burning fat it will release whatever it stored there, flooding your system with all kinds of things.

So it’s my thinking that I am more pissed at myself then other people. But, I am being told the best thing to do is exercise and drink a lot of water to help flush your system.

To that I will add, I am adding a long hot soak in an Epsom salt bath. Epsom salt will help soothe tired muscles as well as help reduce swelling. Plus, I’ve effectively put myself in a time out.

What are your thoughts?

Keto Journey – Distractions

When I quit smoking, it wasn’t the “Not Smoking” part that I had trouble with, it was all the dang “Free Time” I now had on my hands that was a bitch!

So what did I do?

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/a30bc965-0c36-4534-bc4d-0d9a33bd9ff9

I hot glued all kinds of things to make wreaths for Every Single door in our house. I made easy sew baby blankets, painted tshirts, read books and whatever else I could think of.

So fast forward, if you’ve been following my blog you might have noticed my many different interests. LOL

Theres a reason for that, I spend alot less time eating and worrying about my next trough appointment, I am able to do those things I always wanted to have time to do.

Do you have anything you always wanted time to do?

Keto Journey – Homo Sapiens

For me, I grew up in a family (and I’ll bet its alot like yours) that every family event revolved around the table.

If there was a Holiday, Death, Birth, Marriage, Divorce and etc we needed Grannys magic pudding, Auntie Zeldas miracle fluff and Uncle Cookies alcohol concoction. This set us all up for lots of health issues in our future.

Intermittent fasting and Keto is touted as helping us to eat like our ancestors. When I say ancestors, I mean our Stone Age ancestors. Let’s think about that for a minute…

Presumably, our Stone Age brethren didn’t have 3 squares and snacks like we do today. What!

Because I am older than cellphones, I think I can relate to having to grow and nurture plants and critters for actual food or consumption. I went to Ma & Granddaddy’s farm to pick corn, grapes, Blackberries, okra, squash; collect eggs; slop the hogs…then once everything was washed, we shucked, squished, peeled and cut up everything for “putting up” and dinner.

What I am getting at here is because food is so readily available, we are fatter and lazier then our ancestors.

The way I imagine a day in the life of our predecessors is basically this: Wake up, go look for food, eat whatever you can find, repeat…maybe all George could find was a squirrel and so that’s what he ate for the day. Maybe all Lucy could find was green leaves with a few berries and so that’s what she ate for the day. At the end of the day, they found something to put in their belly.

The bottom line for me here is: food is fuel not a Family pig out session.

I have battled this my whole life and when I had bariatric surgery it allowed me to really think about what was really important and it wasn’t about granny’s magic pudding.

Comedian Michael McIntyre hits it

Keto Journey – Craving Sugar

Oh Man was this week was challenging!

So technically this is my 3rd week attempting Intermittent fasting and Keto. But it’s the first week without having sugar.

I almost broke weak; chocolate was calling to me! Someone gave me a giant slab of chocolate for Christmas.

Being a former smoker (almost 20 years ago), I wanted to approach this endeavor like I did with quitting smoking: Cold Turkey!

Sugar & Carbs are a Keto killer, which means if your body is dealing with the sugar it’s not dealing with burning fat. The main premise of Keto is retraining your body to burn fat for energy.

One of the biggest discussion topics I see is about sugar and substitutes. Bottom line, IF you need a sweetener the general consensus is use Stevia.

The way I understand it, Stevia has the lowest insulin response in the body. Unlike Splenda which causes the same type of response that real sugar does.

The idea is, is to keep your insulin or blood sugar on an even keel. It’s the insulin spikes that causes damage and eventually insulin resistance.

For instance, it was explained that Cancer cells like sugar and when you eat high carbs and sugars you are basically feeding those cells. So if we dont feed them so much, the less chance they will grow.

This resonates with me because I’ve had kidney cancer and I dont want to go through that again.