Week #4
Almost at the halfway point!!
Following a strict keto diet, you will track everything that goes into your mouth. Focus on consuming whole foods only; no processed foods or treats.
In case you misplaced it, here is the weekly eating plan for the 10 Weekly Keto Challenge.
I encourage you to try doing a 10-hour eating window on your strict keto / macro tracking days. Not necessary, just beneficial! Refer to the Intermittent Fasting post for more information.
Refer to the Recipes – Week 4 post for some great keto-friendly recipes.
This week, the following topics will be addressed:
When following any type of diet, keto included, your #1 source of nutrition should always be food. Nutritional shortfalls, however, may necessitate that you supplement. Deciding to add supplements should be based on the quality of your diet, your biology, and consultation with your doctor. Personally, I supplement daily with biotin, magnesium, and potassium; all in capsule form. I also supplement collagen in both capsule and powder form. (I’ll explain the rationale for my biotin and collagen supplementation in the hair loss and excess skin after weight loss sections that follow). For now, we’ll focus on other supplements.
Electrolytes – sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and bicarbonate – are the minerals that control blood pressure and keep nerves and muscles in proper working order. Many who practice keto have an insufficient intake of sodium, potassium, and magnesium. The reason for this deficiency is that when engaging in a low-carb diet, we excrete sodium and potassium (through urine). Although fruits are an excellent source of potassium, most contain too many carbs to be part of a keto diet. When practicing keto, we drop salty processed foods; a key source of sodium. Overall, keto has us taking in fewer electrolytes and excreting more. Hence the deficiency. (Please remember from one of our previous discussions that low electrolytes can lead to keto flu).
While every person is different (based on goals, macros, foods eaten, and caloric intake), when I refer to my tracking app, MyFitnessPal, the calculator indicates that I should be consuming no more than the following (daily):
Carb Manager (the other tracking app that I talked about) states that the ‘average’ person should aim for 3-5 grams of sodium, 4.7 grams of potassium, and 600 mg of magnesium on a daily basis. This is a good time to check out the nutritional charts on your tracking app to see where you lie in terms of recommended daily requirements.
To ensure that your overall electrolyte intake is stable, try to eat leafy vegetables, drink bone broth, and add salt to your meals. For specific deficiencies and their signal symptoms/indicators, please refer back to the visual from our preparation week.
Some medical conditions require controlled sodium intake. Therefore, take this section with a grain of salt (lol). To increase sodium levels in your daily food intake, you can take electrolyte supplements (these are available in virtually all health food stores) or consume organic bone broth, nori, kelp, higher salt vegetables (cucumbers or celery) or salted nuts. Sprinkling Pink Himalayan salt on your food or adding a pinch to your water is another option.
Vitamin D – the sunshine nutrient! Residing in northern Alberta, many of us are vitamin D deficient, particularly in winter. Vitamin D is a critical vitamin and deficiencies have been linked to diabetes, heart disease, cancer, autoimmunity and bone density issues. I have read that adults should be getting 1500 – 2000 IU of vitamin D each day. If you decide to take a vitamin D supplement, make sure that you are consume some fat when you take it; it is fat-soluble. Please note that you can buy vitamin D supplements that contain fat, thereby making it unnecessary to consume extra fat when taking it. Additionally, vitamin D should be taken in the morning as it can wreck havoc with your sleep.
MCT oil (medium-chain triglyceride oil) is a form of saturated fat that elevates ketone levels in the blood. It is a quick way to enhance ketosis and provides for quick energy. Start small if you decide to take MCT oil as it can have quite the laxative effect. Start with 1 tsp/day and work up to up to no more than 2 tbs.
Ketones can be consumed directly through exogenous ketones (that contain BHB; beta-hydroxybutyrate). In the absence of glucose, BHB provides our bodies with energy. Exogenous ketones come in two forms; ketone salts and ketone esters. I’ve read numerous studies stating that exogenous ketones decrease the breakdown of body fat. I’ve also read contrary. I take exogenous ketones twice daily. They are quite expensive, but I do see and feel the benefits.
Many who start keto suffer from hair loss. There are a number of reasons for this. The first reason is under-consuming calories. Taking in too few calories can send our bodies into shock and this can lead to the shutdown of ‘less critical’ functions, including hair growth. Our body’s energy always goes to the operation of the most critical functions first. Secondly, in earlier discussions, I discussed the importance of meeting protein macros every day (without going 30% over). Not eating enough protein can lead to hair loss. Thirdly, when we limit our intake of carbohydrates (including some vegetables and most fruits), we reduce the variety of nutrients that our body needs for healthy hair. This reduction in nutrients can cause us to lose more hair than normal or cause hair growth to slow down.
To prevent hair loss, it might be worthwhile to consider taking a biotin supplement. I take biotin (one 10,000 mcg capsule) every day. If you would rather increase your biotin consumption through food (obviously a better choice), try eating the following keto friendly foods: cauliflower, mushrooms, organ meats (liver and kidneys), nuts (almonds and walnuts), and egg yolks.
I’m living this right now. L I dropped my first 30 lbs really, really quickly. That was good! But, my stomach? Saggy with excess skin … obviously not what I had hoped for. The problem is that rapid weight loss doesn’t give our bodies time to ‘snap’ back. Here is what I know now that I wish I had known then.
One of the things that makes keto so appealing is that you don’t have to exercise to lose the weight. But you should … to avoid the loose excess skin issue. You started this challenge with a 10,000 step/day goal. Stick to that! Keep your body moving and working. Also, consider implementing some resistance/strength training to your exercise regime. Begin with some weight lifting – not massive body-builder amounts – just enough to give yourself a good workout. As I am no expert in the area of exercise, I don’t want to make any recommendations. I would, however, encourage you to google ‘beginner strength training exercises’ and try to incorporate this into your life 3-4 times each week.
I own and use both a treadmill and a bow flex. (It’s important to note that, until about 3 months ago, my treadmill acted as a clothes rack. I now use it faithfully 3-4 times each week. I bought my bow flex 6 months ago, but have only started using it within the last 2-3 months. I do my strength training on my bow flex 2-3 time each week).
Recall that I recommended a biotin supplement to prevent hair loss. Turns out that biotin also contributes to vibrant and taut skin. Double-bonus. The first time that I truly looked at my stomach after my quick weight loss, I immediately started researching how to fix this. Everything that I read addressed the importance of collagen. I now take a daily collagen supplement (capsule) form and I use collagen powder in my morning coffee. There are literally hundreds of collagen powders available. I’ve tried many. I’ve enjoyed all of them and none stand out as being better than the other. I will, however, admit that I have fondness for flavoured collagen powders; vanilla bean and salted caramel topping my list of favorites. I drink 3 cups of coffee each morning. I take one scoop of collagen powder and put 1/3 in each cup of coffee. If I’m feeling that I need even more sweet, I add a few shots of skinny syrup.
There are ways that we can add ‘real-food’ collagen to our daily diets. These include fatty fish (like salmon) red/yellow peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, avocados, bone broth, green tea, and dark chocolate (seriously – what a great ‘excuse’ to eat chocolate).
To date, I still have some loose belly skin. But, it’s not as bad as it used to be. I may never get that those highly desirable wash-board abs. But with hard work and patience, I will get that toned stomach that I long for!
Dear lord – these are real!!!! I can say that when I follow strict keto, my sugar cravings are non-existent …. at least after a few days. The minute that I shift to lazy keto – or dip a toe into dirty keto – the sugar cravings return. With strict keto, my willpower is through the roof. With lazy keto? Not so much. The moral of my story is that I do best when following strict keto.
I have 4 major weaknesses. All natural peanut butter with sea salt, pumpkin mousse, Jell-O, and Russel Stover’s sugar free pecan clusters. If these products are in my house, I’m in big trouble. I can’t eat just one pecan cluster and set the rest aside for future days. Nope. If they are in my house, I eat the entire bag (5 in each bag) in a single sitting. The sweetener in the pecan clusters is malitol; which causes significant stomach issues. Clearly, my love of these is stronger than my disdain for the side effects. Sad, I know.
Pumpkin mousse? I love, love, love this! (I included the recipe in week 2). The sweetener that I use in my pumpkin mousse is erythritol; which is an acceptable product on keto. It’s the overall calories and fat in the recipe that are the problem. My recipe makes three servings. Each serving has 442 calories, 42.1 g of fat, 3.2 ne carbs, and 5.9 g of protein. So, imagine how much I throw my system off (and knock myself out of ketosis) when I eat all 3 servings in a single day?!?
And Jell-O? Sugar free Jell-O is sweetened with aspartame and corn maldodextrin; not good for keto. Even knowing this, I still eat Jell-O and have never really been impacted by the sweeteners. I love Jell-O plain. I love it with a tbs of hwc. But I love it most when I add all natural peanut butter. I could eat this every single day. The peanut butter is my real addiction. I don’t want to get into the habit of spooning it out the jar, so I add it to Jell-O. You’d think that because I consume ‘all natural’ peanut butter that this would be a good thing. If I could control myself, it would be. But, when I buy peanut butter, I can see it … smell it … taste it … and think of it all the time. Needless to say, peanut butter is now a rare treat for me.
What I’m hoping that you are realizing is that we all have a weakness … or 4. L If you have a weakness, the best way to control it is to get that product out of your house! If you do ‘cave for a crave’, this makes you human …. read below.
It could be a cheat bite, a cheat meal, a cheat day, or an even longer lapse from keto. What’s important to know is that most of us (but not all) fall off the wagon at some point in time.
My story is a prime example. I was diligent when I began keto and was strict, strict, strict. I lost 30 lbs in just under 3 months (mid-June to early September). At that point, things slowed down. I wasn’t as strict. I was exceeding my macros and calories a few times each week – not by a lot, but enough to slow my progress. By December, I was still down another 10 lbs. With only 10 lbs to go to meet my goal weight, I started to get a little (a lot) cocky. (I’d like to mention that in my 9 months on keto, I only ever really cheated once. I ate ‘real’ mashed potatoes for Christmas dinner. Zero regrets). But, I regularly exceeded my macros and calories and gained 5 lbs. On January 01, I went strict keto again. It seemed like every second week or so, I was blowing it; eating huge amounts of peanut butter and pumpkin mousse. I have, since then (and today is March 14) gained and lost the same 4 lbs … over and over and over again. I am super strict. I slack. I am super strict. I slack. Ridiculous!!! In all honesty, this is one of the reasons that I wanted to get this challenge manual written. I want to lose those last 10 lbs. I figured that reviewing all that I knew about keto, I’d get my motivation back.
The point of this section is to say that we are only human. Many of us are bound to mess up and eat something that horrifies the keto police. It’s how you handle yourself after messing up that counts. You could do the old “whatever, I may as well not even continue” or you could pick yourself up, dust off, and get right back on the keto wagon. I can guarantee that if you let one cheat bite turn into a cheat meal and into a cheat day and a cheat week and so on, you are going to regret your decision down the road. To err is human. If you fall off, reach out for support – to me, to a friend or family member, to anyone – and get back on that wagon!!!! Zero judgement here!!! We’ve got your back!
I’m not much of a drinker. But, get me to Mexico and I can pound back Dirty Monkey drinks like nobody’s business!!! (As soon as covid is a thing of the past and we can travel again, I’m heading to Mexico for a “Keto? What’s that?” week of endless Dirty Monkeys! I’m serious. 100% serious).
So, alcohol …. can you drink on keto? Yes! Everything? No. Those fancy girlie drinks with umbrellas and pieces of fruit are a thing of the past. So, what can you drink?
Pure alcohols like vodka, rum, whiskey, gin, tequila, and brandy have zero carbs. It’s the ‘mix’ that really causes carbs to sky rocket. Try mixing your alcohol with a sugar free soda or carbonated/sparkling water. Wine (red, white, and sparkling) usually has about 2-4 carbs per glass. For obvious reasons, dry wines have fewer carbs. Beer? Sorry, most are high carb. Here are the carbs per 12 oz servings of some of the most popular beers: Bud Light – 6.6, Coors Light – 5, Corona – 15, Heineken – 11. I have seen advertisements on social media for low carb beers. I’m not a beer drinker so I’ve never investigated this.
There are lots of skinny syrup mixes that can be added to zero carb alcohol to make some pretty decent cocktails. They taste so good that it kind of feels like cheating. My favorites are pina colada, peach Bellini, and margarita skinny syrup mixes. If you’re into virgin drinks, you can always add these to zero carb diet sodas or sparkling or carbonated flavoured waters.
The menu for next week is anything that falls under the strict keto umbrella. You will carefully log and monitor all of your macros and calories. You can follow an optional 10-hour eating window, fasting for 14 hours each day. Remember, fasting is recommended, but optional.
For more information, see the post entitled: What Is Intermittent Fasting? How To Do It?
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