** Disclaimer ** I started following a keto diet approximately 5 weeks after I came home from brain surgery. I had gained about 10 pounds. I was tired, weak and had done barley any physical activity for the 3 months before I started to follow this way of eating.**
If you read my previous post about eating this way, you will know that losing weight was not my reason for starting a keto diet. Don’t get me wrong, loosing the 10lbs that I gained in recovery would be fine by me.
Eating ‘clean’ is something I have done my entire adult life. For me, that meant protein, carbs and a small amount of healthy fats. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and a balanced snack.
A keto diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Hight fat. This goes against everything I have done for the last 20 + years of my life.
Grocery shopping was:
– regular ground beef
– nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews,
– Cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, feta)
– Salmon, halibut, shrimp
– bacon bits
– whole cream
– a lot of low carb veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, bell peppers
– avocado
– chicken wings
– whole eggs
The first 24 hours was surprisingly easy! Breakfast was a few whole eggs, scrambled with cheese and salsa. Some days I added half an avocado. Cauliflower rice with broccoli, cheese and bacon casserole with grilled halibut was for lunch. Dinner: bacon wrapped chicken breast with asparagus, real butter and garlic. I didn’t miss the carbs at all.
Day two and day three I could feel it. All I could think of was oatmeal, rice and sugar. Sugar is my weakness. I wanted chocolate bars and ice cream. Since I am still recovering from surgery, all I could do was walking. Doing my regular 3km walk was draining me. I felt like I was starving. Obviously I wasn’t, but I was struggling.
For snacks I enjoyed some thick chunks of cheese and a small handful of nuts.
Some people suffer from the ‘keto flu’. Basically flu like symptoms while your body transitions into ketosis. This was something that I wanted to avoid so I supplemented with exogenous ketones. I bought mine from Pruvit. A company who says it is leading the ketone revolution! I love the Keto Kreme for my coffee and all the flavours of Keto Max. If you are thinking of trying these product my friend Carrie is an Independent Distributer. Click on her link http://bossbabecarrie.com
By day four I felt ok. Not great. Don’t forget that I am only six weeks out of my surgery. I wasn’t expecting anything at this point so I OK is a good place to be. During the afternoon of week one to two I did start to feel tired. Because of this there were a few days that I had a mid day coffee.
Fourteen days later and I am actually feeling good! The scale showed that I had lost 4 pounds, and that made me happier than I was expecting.
I was sleeping better. For the last week I was falling asleep easily and staying asleep for a solid 7 hours. My concentration was improving and I was feeling alert and awake all day. My energy and alertness was back to normal.
The struggle I have is that I wonder the REAL reason I feel so good? The neurosurgeon said that recovery at home would be 6-12 weeks so it is likely that my good feelings are just normal after brain surgery.
Since I am feeling better, I am going to increase my physical activity now. Get to the gym 4 days and do some light lifting. Increase my 20 minute dog walks twice a day to 30 minutes two times a day.
Many people have asked for recipes so I will get on posting some.
I still believe that this is the best way for me to eat for a healthy brain so I am going to stick it out another six weeks. This means I will have followed a strict keto diet for a solid two months.
Stay tuned for my favourite recipes and another update.
