KETO Effects Journal Day 2

 First, let's see how I felt in the last 24 hours when it comes to aches & pains, sex drive, word issues & mood. Well last night I noticed my hip ached pretty good going up the stairs and so did my hands. Sex drive wasn't bad last night. I was actually in the mood. Sex drive was still good this morning. My mood has been pretty even.  I could only recall having a word mess up once today. 

When  my sex drive was in overdrive, I'm assuming from premenopause, I would get these surges. When I had a really high sex drive we would have sex 3 to 5 times a day! Yeah, I know it's a lot. LOL! Anyway, I am only mentioning this because I seem to be having mild surges today. I will refer to surges a lot in my journal. 

Had a horrible carb day today. Had 152 carbs! Way more then I should have. Didn't do well when I got home. My calories were not too bad considering at 2225. I at least tracked what I ate today. Tomorrow I will do better. I have a busy day ahead with cleaning out my carport and reogranizing my LEGO room! I'm looking forward to the ladder. It is way past due as I am moving all my LEGO's & new sets I haven't built yet to work!Weighed in this morning at 194.6. No real movement but my scale was acting up! 

Let's hope tomorrow I do better and start getting back on track! If at first you don't succeed, try try again!

Time For A Reset! Keto Effects Journal Day 1

It's been a busy couple of months! I've enjoyed more carbs than I should have but I am ok with it! I've enjoyed my summer thus far.

I weighed in at 194.6. A bit high but I just came back from 2 weeks at my camp. I'm confident I'll drop a big chunk of that in no time. 

I've maintained for 2 years now for the most part. Now it's time to actually see how my low carb diet is benefiting me outside of weight loss!

I've spent all my life trying to lose this weight and now that I found a diet I can maintain it's time to focus on healthy habits and the benefits of choosing healthy eating! 

Memory issues and Alzheimer's/Dementia run in my family. I switch my words a lot. When I eat more carbs, it seems worse. My joints seem to ache more and my mood isn't as good. I'm also going through premenopause. One symptom I have had with premenopause is high sex drive off and on. But I'm not sure how much the sex drive is premenopause or some of the effects of the keto diet or a combination of both. Including my better mood! Believe me it's a good thing and I'm hoping the keto diet has played a roll with my better mood and higher sex drive. It's seems to slump when I eat more carbs.

So I want to keep a daily journal of how I'm feeling to get a better idea of how the diet is effecting me in positive ways. I think once I can clearly track how beneficial this diet is to my health outside of weight loss I will be more encouraged to stick to it and not allow myself really heavy carb days. Everything in moderation right! 

When I eat a lot of carbs it seems to cause these negative symptoms but I've never documented it to be sure. This time I am going to write a daily journal so I can track how I feel on good and bad days. I have to do this even when I fall off the wagon. It's the only way to know for sure the positive effects the diet is having on my body.

Yesterday I had a ton of carbs to get it out of my system. One thing I do know is my cravings for carbs gets worse the more I eat them. I also ate something that didn't agree with me and I was up at 1:30 am with bad stomach cramps. I feel better today! I don't think it was any of the carbs I ate but some cream cheese that wasn't quite right.

My goal for the first 2 to 4 weeks is to be under 50 grams a day. I want to see if I can notice much difference between 20 and 50 carbs. So I'm starting with 50. 

Today I had 68 carbs and 1588 calories. Coming off carbs can take a few days to hit my goal but I'll get there. Tomorrow I'll work harder to stay under but I don't think today was bad for my first day of getting back to focusing on the real reason I chose the Keto diet, the many health benefits! 

KETO Ice Cream Using The Ninja Creami Deluxe

Keto Vanilla Ice Cream (24oz Size Pint)

6 Eggs

6 Tbsp Butter (Melted)

1/4 Cup Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup

1/4 Tsp Xanthum Gum

1 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk

1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Scramble Eggs in a dry pan. Just enough to be cooked. Place eggs in a blender and add melted butter and remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Add to 24oz pint container. Freeze for 12 to 24 hours. Choose the full option on your Ninja Creami Deluxe and the choose "Lite Ice Cream". This will blend for 4 minutes. Should come out smooth. You can respin if need be to get it creamier. 

 

A Much Needed Update!

 As usual life has just been crazy! But I figured it was about time I update my blog since it's been a month today since my last post. Lot's to report, so let's get started!

My lowest weight was 174.8 on May 11th, just a couple of days after my last post. I started off strong before leaving for our candy show trip!

The candy trade show turned out to be way more difficult than I thought it would be when it came to trying samples. So my plan to try very little did not happen. We were getting samples thrown at is each and everyday. We did make an effort to at least share a sample even though many vendors tried to had us each one! LOL! Eating out was a challenge as well as we were all tired and sometimes are options were minimal. Within a couple of days of our trip I just gave in and enjoyed the week!

I got back from the candy show and gained 15 pounds! I was 189.8 on 5/18/24! But I dropped over 9 pounds by 5/22/24 and was down to 180.4. I reached 177.6 pounds by 5/31/24. Since then I have been going up and down between 183 & 178. Memorial Day weekend was my first hicup and than I had a few things at work that caused me a bit of stress and now I am super busy with my daughters graduation from high school this weekend and my sons middle school graduation next week! To say I am a bit overwhelmed is an under statement. I am slightly sad with the constant reminder this week that my daughter leaves in September for college. All of this has been a contributing factor for me wanting to eat all the time. Even though I know it is a lousy excuse and I just need to learn to deal with my emotions in another way, it's hard. It's difficult to change habits you have relied on all of your life. But I still try my best and usually end up with temporary hiccups rather then long term one's that cause me to gain all my weight back. 

My focus this week is to get back on track, which I have done a few days off and on, but keep my focus so I can get back to my lowest weight in the next month. As always, I will try my best!

Continuing To Chip Away At The Pounds!

I am continuing to drop pound by pound. I was at 175.6 this morning! So my progress continues! I did well last Saturday when I was out with a friend. I ate less then I burned calorie wise. But I had a lot of sodium so of course my weight jumped up but just for a brief time as I got right back on. I had another girls day out with another friend on Tuesday and did really well. Walked over 12K steps & ate only 1332 calories and had less then 50 carbs. I also went to the gym on Monday. Didn't go yesterday as I was beat with driving over 8 hours on Tuesday and walking those 12K steps. My friend cancelled this morning to go to the gym and I chose not to go, too. I'm still a bit tired and need to catch up on more rest before my trip. 

I have successfully fasted on Sunday & yesterday since I last checked in. I do think that fasting contributes to my weight going down and a decent pace. My hope is to fast one more day before we go on my trip on Sunday. I think the only way I am going to get these last few pounds off is to fast a couple times a week. That seems to be the most effective for me. Fasting is also a lot easier for me while doing the Keto diet. So fasting & Keto really do go hand in hand. It's much easier for me to fast when I am sticking to my Keto diet as the Keto diet really helps with craving junk. 

I don't have a weigh in from 2 weeks ago exactly, which was April 25th, but I do from the 27th. I was 180.8 and I am now 175.6 which is 5.2 pounds! That is excellent!! It's always a good when I can lose 10 pounds in a month! I am hoping to continue on this path and keep going down 2.5 to 3 pounds a week! 

Now I just need to stay focused and see how far I can get before I leave on Sunday! 

Food Logs From Saturday 4/27/24 - Thursday 5/2/24

 Here is my food logs from Sautrday 4/27/24 to Thursday 5/2/24:

Having A Great Week!

My week has gone very well. I am down to 177 pounds this morning! Woohoo! That is down 3.8 pounds since Saturday which is awesome!! I had another successful fast yesterday. I think to help my weight come off I will try to plan at least 2 fast days a week. This past week my fast days were a little wonky with one being Saturday. But next week I will plan for Monday & Thursday if my body is agreeable. LOL! Sometimes I just need to do it when I know I'm not hungry at dinner and go with it. So scheduling them ahead of time isn't always necessary. Just seeing how I feel on a day to day basis sometimes works better. So we shall see! 

I've been to the gym 5 days this week! Which is amazing! I also have had 4 days with over 10K steps since Saturday. So I'm doing well with getting those steps in! Eating wise I have mananged to keep my carbs under 20 three of the last 6 days. The other 3 days I was under 50. So I am slowly getting back on track to getting under 20 grams again. My water intake has been good but I did fall short a little yesterday. 

All in all I feel really good about my progress and hope I can manage to lose a few more pounds before my trip! Tomorrow I am headed out for a fun day out with a friend and have a plan for eating out. I will most likely indulge in some popcorn tomorrow if we head to the movies. But that will be my only treat before I leave on my trip in the next week!  

Hopefully This Is A Downard Trend!

I was down again this morning. Feels good to continue to drop. Hopeully I can keep up the momentum! I'm down .8 from yesterday which is great! Like I've said before, it's always good to keep dropping a couple of days after my fast. Then I know the weight loss is real and not just a fluctuation. 

I am super motivated right now! 6 pounds to get to my lowest weight again and less then 9 pounds before I get into the 160's! I will do my best to get there!

I've decided to bring my scale with me when I go on my trip in a couple of weeks. This way I can monitor my weight. I get back from the candy show on Friday May 17th and then go see my doctor on May 22nd for my annual physical. I don't know of any better incentive then that. I would like to be back to my lowest weight or even lower before I see her. I have a feeling that knowing that I have this appointment right after my trip will help me stay on track while I'm gone! 

I did not make it to 10K steps yesterday, but I did take a walk with my kids in the afternoon. I just hit over 7K steps. I was meeting a friend at the gym this morning, but she had to cancel due to being tired from a long day of travel yesterday. But I was already on my way to the gym and did 30 minutes on the treadmill this morning. So that was still a win!

My goals for the week are to get plenty of exercise. At least once a day. Keep my water intake up and stick to below 20 grams of carbs everyday going forward! I've been doing closer to 50 lately, so it will be good to get back on track!  I do think taking out those few extra carbs benefit me in many ways.

A few things I do notice when I do more then 50 carbs and usually over 100 is I get more moody, my joints begin to hurt more and I crave more carbs! So staying around 20 will be all the more beneficial going forward.  I would like to stick under 50 as much as possible to avoid the moodiness, joint pain and the cravings! 

I'm looking forward to what this coming week will bring! Have a great week!

A Successful Fast!

 I managed to have a successful fast yesterday. I had no problem fasting after lunch. I will try to wait until 11am to eat this morning. I droped another 1.4 pounds which is great news! I would have hoped for a little more with my fast, but I'll take it! The best news is I am back into the 170's again. 

I also did over 11K steps yesterday! I had a great day over all. This week my goal is to stay focused and hopefully drop a couple more pounds! I have 2 weeks as of today before I leave for my candy show in May. My hope is to get as close to 172 as possible! I know I have over 7 pounds to go, but it is possible if I can stay focused and my body cooperates! 

My New Weight Loss Motivator!

I have been looking around for some nice outdoor cargo pants and happened to find 2 brand new pairs of cargo pants at the thrift store yesterday! They were only $10 bucks a piece! But....they didn't fit! I liked them so much I decided to make them my motivator to help me get back down to my lowest weight and then some!  I don't have too far to go and hope I can get into them once I lose about 20 pounds or so! I have a 4 inch gap to make up! Fingers crossed!!

My 2 new pairs of Cargo Pants! I'm pretty sure I got a great deal on these!

As you can see, they don't button now, but hopefully they will in the near future!!

I fell in love with these Cargo Pants! I can't wait to get into them!

 

I'm Back! Sorry For Being MIA!

I am finally finding a moment to get back on and post! I know I haven't posted since April 11th. Life has just been a little busy. I've had a lot going on and a lot of challenges over the last couple of weeks. Right after my last post I went to my daughters college event at the Culinary Institute Of America in Hyde Park. She will be attending school there in the fall. They had such delicious food to sample there!! But I did ok. Then my Scrapbook Retreat was the following weekend and I got through that ok, too! Right after the Scrapbook Retreat we headed to my camp this past Monday and returned home last night! 

I am pleased to say I was at 180.8 this morning! I think I have done extremely well considering all the events I have been to in the past couple of weeks! My lowest weight on the 11th was 179.2. So I am not too far off track! Yes, it would have been nice to lose some weight over the last 2 weeks, but I am not complaining.  I am just glad I pretty much maintained at this point!

I have a major challenge ahead of me for the month of May. I will be attending the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Indianapolis, IN. The show is 2.5 days long and we will be gone from May 12-17. I am going to utilize my kids for tasting so I will only taste items if absolutely necessary! I have 2 weeks to get as much weight off as possible before we head out!

I have a new incentive to help motiviate me to get back to 172 and continue to lose the rest of my weight beyond that and get to my ultimate goal of 145 pounds! I will share this new incentive in my next post! Stay tuned!!

Down Again!

I was pleasantly surprised to be down again this morning. Just .4 pounds but I'll take it. Especially with all the trouble I had in March with fluctuating! It's always nice when my weight continues to go down a day or two after a fast. Then I know the loss was not temporary!

I did give in and had some chocolate yesterday. I was craving it all day. I also was really tired yesterday afternoon and went to bed at 8:45pm! There is a bug going around and I am hoping I am not getting it! Fingers crossed as I am going to a college event with my daughter this weekend. Today I will make sure I stay out of the chocolate!