I am excited to share with you why I am starting a doctor recommended Keto Diet and share results from my first month.
What happened?
I visited my Dr a few months back and had a long talk about my issues. I am struggling so much to lose weight, lacking energy, have brain fog, and on and on. My blood pressure and cholesterol are high. We also discussed my depression and anxiety issues and evaluate my current medications. He is a fabulous Doctor and always really listens to me.
One thing we did was a full panel of blood work. We realized I was taking too much thyroid medication. And spent the next several months getting that back in the normal range. I had a radio active iodine treatment in 2005 to “kill” my thyroid but somehow it has come back to life and I need less synthetic thyroid. It is crazy how much better I feel just getting this fixed!
I showed him my current diet. I keep track of it on an app. I key in every single thing that I eat! At the time I was following a fairly low carb (50 or less) and around 900 calories a day. I would have coffee for breakfast, a protein shake for lunch, and protein rich dinner. I was loading up on protein and counting each calorie. He listened to what I was saying and saw the daily diaries. Then had some important things to tell me:
- I am not eating enough calories. He said I need at least 1500 a day to just do my daily tasks
- I am eating too much protein. He told me that your body can only use so much protein and an extra is turned back into glucose.
Research. Research. Research.
So what is a girl to do? Well he told me I need to start a Keto Diet. Now I have heard about this diet. I even tried it a couple times but always went back to my old ways because honestly I didn’t understand it. So I came home and turned to our trusted online friends: Pinterest and Google, where I found SO much info!
While I was in the research stages a Dr told Joel the same thing about this diet. SOOOO…. a decision was made to make the switch! We jumped in feet first and have been doing it now for about a month.
I have found online there are so many ways to do the keto diet. There is Lazy/ Dirty, Clean, Strict, and on and on. For me, I am doing a more laid back but on track approach. All my foods are not organic or grass fed. But I do make sure I am eating within my macros each day. Not focusing on calories but rather the food I am eating.
Moving forward on the Keto Diet
So my basic guidelines are my macros each day. 75% Fat, 20% Protein, 5% Carbs. I use My Fitness Pal app to track my daily macros.
I wanted to share month updates to help keep me accountable. Keep in mind I take thyroid medicine, hormone replacement (I had a hysterectomy), and I take anti depressant and anxiety medicines. So losing weight is always a slow and up stream battle for me! Always!
So for January I am down 10 pounds! Not bad for me. In fact that is amazing for me! I feel like my fog is lifting. I have more energy. I am actually not as hungry and have to make myself eat!
Recommendations
Here are some things that have helped me this month:
[amazon_textlink asin=’B0078HXBN6′ text=’Himalayan Salt’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’loveandcent0d-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’fe0d44bb-36d7-47d4-b3dd-7afaeeea2dc5′] – This is great in your lemon water!
[amazon_textlink asin=’1939754445′ text=’This EASY Keto Cookbook’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’loveandcent0d-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’f2278db8-cbfc-4c51-85b8-c1e71c9d25ef’] is awesome!!! I have used it almost everyday!
My own recipes:
Be sure to check out Pinterest for more. Here are my boards with some of my favorite finds. Easy Keto Dinners, General Low Carb Recipes, Keto Desserts and Fat Bombs, and Keto Drinks.
So here is my before pic. This was from our awesome trip to Austin. I love this mural and I love the man in this pic. So I want to love this pic. But honestly I hate how I look. So this is my before photo. Let’s see how it changes this year. Hopefully we can make a trip back to Austin to retake it! 🙂