Ketogenic - Becoming My Norm

I have been on a full Ketogenic diet for a week now.

I am not sure I can call my version of the diet truly Ketogenic. I am not sure my carb levels are low enough to actually be kicking me into ketosis. And I am not going to be one that checks my ketosis levels with a meter or testing stick every day. I am not that bonkers about it.

But I do know that I have adjusted my carbs down from my normal 40-50% daily to 10-15% daily! And that is HUGE! In fact the past two days I have been closer to 10%.

I am not going to lie. It took some adjusting.

1. I had to get over the detox headaches. Yes, I was definitely addicted to carbs and sugar because I had a raging headache for a couple of days and slept horrible. But I am beyond that now.

2. I have had to make adjustments for the drastic decrease in magnesium and potassium that a low carb diet entails. I was having jittery legs at night and even caught myself right before I had a full-on leg cramp. So I am taking a magnesium citrate supplement once a day. For the potassium I am just making sure I eat enough of high-potassium foods to get my levels up. Honestly, by doing this I am eating about the same amount of potassium I was eating before, maybe even a tad more because I am so conscious about it. My go-to foods are sliced mini-portabella mushrooms, eggs, cauliflower, unsweetened almond/coconut milk, a banana before I go to bed, and I am using Morton Lite salt which is half sodium and half potassium.

3. I shoot for about 20 grams of carbs a day and then allow myself a small banana at night before bed which gives me another 20+ grams of carbs. If I can keep my carbs at around 50 grams a day I feel like I have been victorious!

4. I have spent a lot of extra time in the kitchen. But that has been mostly prep work. I wanted to have things already prepared and in the fridge or freezer so that when I am hungry I am not tempted to grab something easy (which is usually a carb). Yesterday I even froze some puree'd very ripe peaches (with water and stevia) in ice cubes so that I can use them to make a peach syrup to eat with cream cheese pancakes. The kids love having pancake and bacon nights and now when we have that I can have my own version, too, already pre-prepped.

5. For me the name of the game is not to deprive myself! This week I have successfully modified several of the family's regular meals to meet my needs. That way I am not cooking two separate dinners every night and pining away at the meals they are eating.

On spaghetti night I had zoodles with turkey meatballs and grated parmesan cheese.

Another night I had mini pepper chicken nachos while they had regular beef and tortilla nachos.

I got to have pizza by making a cream cheese pizza crust that was amazing so I had my favorite mushroom and onion pizza with no sauce (I don't care for the sauce anyway) with shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheeses!!

Today I had cauliflower rice for the first time to make a chicken, shrimp, and mini colored peppers stir fry. It's better than real rice, in my opinion. More flavorful!

Tonight I think we will have those pancakes and bacon. (I can have lots of bacon!)

6. In this quest to low-carb I have decided to just cut out ALL grains. And I mean all grains. I have been grain free for one week! And, I am missing them less and less. I am reading Wheat Belly Total Health by William Davis, M.D., to bolster me in that resolve.

7. I have also cut out all added sugar. I use stevia for any sweetening I need to do. And it's enough.

I am not out to lose weight. At all. My goal is to quit providing my cells with excess glucose and to rid myself of my carb and sugar addictions.

So far, so good!!

I'll let you know how those pancakes turn out.