Anonymous wrote:Ines, are you already in ketosis?

I know I'm eating a bit more than 20 carbs some days partially since I didn't know that the allowed foods (like ?) need to be limited and partially because I'm allowing myself limited healthy carb foods (like shredded carrots). So I expect it will take me a bit longer to get into ketosis but I'm trying to avoid keto flu. I'm considering doing a 4:3 this week, though, so I jumpstart. The first two low-calorie days this week were not too hard.

--Lego

I don't think so -- I haven't been at 20 carbs at all, I had intended to but it turns out it's really hard to get that low and i'm trying to be (psychologically) gentle with myself. I'm getting there progressively though. I'll let you know when the thing arrives!

Ines, are you already in ketosis?

I know I'm eating a bit more than 20 carbs some days partially since I didn't know that the allowed foods (like ?) need to be limited and partially because I'm allowing myself limited healthy carb foods (like shredded carrots). So I expect it will take me a bit longer to get into ketosis but I'm trying to avoid keto flu. I'm considering doing a 4:3 this week, though, so I jumpstart. The first two low-calorie days this week were not too hard.

--Lego

I bought a "Keyto" breath stick. I figure that if I'm going through all this trouble to get into fat burning mode (or I guess, more accurately on the way to fat burning mode?) I might as well see if I'm in it in the first place and what it takes for me to get there.

-Ines

Anonymous wrote:Aria here. I was able to find a chicken Caesar salad for my lunch out yesterday so that was a win. I had a lunch meeting today though and ordered another chicken Caesar but think there is a chance the “grilled chicken” had some flour dusted on the outside. It had a kind of crispy golden look to it which concerned me a bit but I ate it anyway. I tried to ask the waitress but she didn’t seem to understand what I was asking. Eating out makes me paranoid because there are so many hidden ingredients they don’t list. Ugh.

On another annoying note, I just discovered that Starbucks Cold Brew has 3g of carbs - just black not even with added cream. Had no clue. Apparently all espresso and coffee does have carbs so think I need to cut back or at least start logging it. Did everyone else know that?

Here is the rest of what I ate today:

B: 2 hard boiled eggs with 1/2 avocado, iced coffee with heavy cream
L: Chicken Caesar salad
D: Roasted chicken with roasted cauliflower

NP here (Andi). You might want to double check your Starbucks macros. If you go to their website, the cold brew and iced coffee black is 0 carbs, the former has 5 calories. Coldbrew with sweetcream has 4 carbs. I found that if you're using Carb Manager app, sometimes the user added info is not accurate.

Hope to join you all. I started 4/22 so 17 days ago. I am down 10 lbs from 209 and feeling great. I am a believer. I have always done some sort of low carb diet but carefully watching protein and other macros seems to be a lot different for me. I had one side effect of the keto-flu of dizziness and lightheaded for 3-4 days, but that has gone away. I am also doing versions of IF (18:6, 16:8, or 5:2, but usually 16:8). I ordered keto mojo blood monitor kit a few days ago and today is my 2nd day testing and have been 1.5-1.7 keto level which is optimal level. I am also testing glucose. I was not prediabetic before but bordering on the cusp so want to track it. I have been using carb manager and ZERO (fasting) apps.

I will give a summary from yesterday since I haven't eaten much today. I usually don't have an issue skipping breakfast so incorporating IF has been pretty easy for me.

L: Salad with bacon, avocado, chicken and primal ranch dressing
D: cashews, steak cooked with butter, cabbage sautéed with soy sauce

Tuesday:
B: Broke my "fast" with an iced coffee from Starbucks and 2 tsp of half and half
L: eggroll in a bowl (mix of ground pork, ground beef, cabbage, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, broccoli slaw)
Snack: chili-limon peanuts from Harris Teeter
D: grilled pork chops, broccoli, goat cheese, and Pinot Noir (I have been trying to limit alcohol during week, but need it this night and still only had 17 net carbs)

-Andi

Here are some good grocery store finds:

Too Good Yogurt with only 3 carbs - Safeway
Trader Joes Oven Baked Cheese crisps- 0 carbs

Has anyone tried the Keto mug cake recipes or kept mug bread?

Anonymous wrote:
I started last Thursday and feel so much better. I know the weight loss so far is just water but it feels so much better to get rid of the bloat and excess water.

I'm not missing any of the carbs that I used to eat but oddly in the evenings will crave some random carb that I've never really liked or wanted in the past. The other night I really wanted a bowl of frosted flakes. I do not like Frosted Flakes and haven't eaten of bowl of that or any cereal in over 20 years. It just sounded so good and by the next day the idea was gone, no desire for Frosted Flakes. Each night it seems to be a different random food that I really want but ever ate much in the past and by the next day I have no interest in it.


Could it be that you are missing something typically added to fortified cereals of the 1990s?
- Ines

Possibly but each night it is something different and the next day it doesn't sound appealing at all. I haven't eaten any of it because these are generally things that we don't have. 1 night craved Frosted Flakes, another night barbecue potato chips (normally hate those) ,different night a custard filled doughnut (not really into doughnuts and whenever I would eat one I'd usually go for the glazed). Oh well, at least it is easy to not to fall for the cravings.

Anonymous wrote:I started last Thursday and feel so much better. I know the weight loss so far is just water but it feels so much better to get rid of the bloat and excess water.

I'm not missing any of the carbs that I used to eat but oddly in the evenings will crave some random carb that I've never really liked or wanted in the past. The other night I really wanted a bowl of frosted flakes. I do not like Frosted Flakes and haven't eaten of bowl of that or any cereal in over 20 years. It just sounded so good and by the next day the idea was gone, no desire for Frosted Flakes. Each night it seems to be a different random food that I really want but ever ate much in the past and by the next day I have no interest in it.

Could it be that you are missing something typically added to fortified cereals of the 1990s?
- Ines

The cooking and grocery shopping does get SUPER old after just a few days. I tend to treat myself with takeout or a dinner out once I'm starting to feel the burn. Also, convenience foods can be a huge help. Here's some of my go tos when I'm feeling burned out:

Restaurant:
bacon cheeseburger/no bun, salad on the side
large shrimp Caesar salad no croutons
grilled steak with asparagus and hollandaise

Takeout/fast food:
Sashimi
Wing Zone wings (so good and no carbs til you start adding sauce) w/carrots and celery and ranch
Sausage egg mcmuffin, no egg

Convenience:
Fresh Market Chicken Salad (has 1g of sugar, so if you are super strict you may want to avoid but it's A-Okay with me!)
Trader Joe's Chili Lime Burgers (freezer)
Trader Joe's Crab Cakes

-its Britney b*tch

I started last Thursday and feel so much better. I know the weight loss so far is just water but it feels so much better to get rid of the bloat and excess water.

I'm not missing any of the carbs that I used to eat but oddly in the evenings will crave some random carb that I've never really liked or wanted in the past. The other night I really wanted a bowl of frosted flakes. I do not like Frosted Flakes and haven't eaten of bowl of that or any cereal in over 20 years. It just sounded so good and by the next day the idea was gone, no desire for Frosted Flakes. Each night it seems to be a different random food that I really want but ever ate much in the past and by the next day I have no interest in it.

I plan to rely on Atkins frozen meals and prepared low-carb salads, too.

Smoothie idea -- spinach, frozen raspberries, almond milk
Shake idea -- ice, almond milk, chocolate keto mix.

I forgot that I have lunch plans at a restaurant today. This will be new. I plan to order a salad.

-- Lego

Sylvia here.
Britney, I think you have a great attitude about this!

My problem is I’m on day 9 and i’m getting tired of planning and cooking everything. Would love a break and may have to check out some of those Atkins meals.

Today’s menu:
B: coffee w/heavy cream. 2 cauliflower thins topped with avocado, smoked salmon and everything but the bagel sprinkle.
L: TJ’s cruciferous crunch topped with chicken, feta, cucumber, tomatoes, a hard boiled egg and Primal Kitchen Greek dressing.
D: ketoconnect’s butter chicken recipe with cauliflower rice fried in ghee and broccoli.

Does anyone have any good low carb smoothie recipes? I miss smoothies and the ones i’ve tried are too liquidy and gross. Trying to figure out how to up the creaminess.

Britney here. Thought about you guys when I had a glass of wine and a square of super dark chocolate last night. I felt like such a failure - and then I really gave myself a good shake... a small glass of wine and dark chocolate fit into my macros for the day and for once I'm not doing this to "white knuckle" it for as long as I can before I fail - I'm making this a lifestyle. I've got 40ish pounds to lose, and that certainly isn't going to fall off in 3 months.

I was rushed getting out the door this morning, so I grabbed an atkins meal from the freezer. Not ideal, but better than nothing. Here's today's plan:

B: Coffee w/ cream
L: Atkins chicken broccoli meal/side salad with oil/vinegar
D: Roasted chicken, cauliflower mash, spinach salad

I did order some flackers, parm crisps and lily's dark chocolate chips from amazon that should arrive today, so I'll have a good variety to choose from for snacks.

I've noticed the fatigue that's been hanging around the last few months of crap eating seems to have lifted almost instantly. Placebo or not, it's nice being able to stay up a bit later in the evenings to get some stuff done and then actually have time to unwind vs. collapsing in bed.

Lego back.

I also had a string cheese and ? but still under 600 calories today since I'm also doing 5:2.

I didn't know about the coffee -- I don't even log it -- I only log the cream so it wouldn't show up. But I did realize that I'm eating too many strawberries. I thought they were allowed but they are high carbs so avoid them if you care. I am still eating shredded carrots and strawberries (and up to one small apple) for this week at least, but I'll reevaluate Sunday.

Tomorrow will be kale eggs with mushrooms and swiss cheese, and smoked salmon and avocado with coffee and cream for breakfast.

Lunch will be egg salad with guacamole.

Dinner will be roasted zucchini and fried tofu over cooked spinach.

Thank you to Ines for starting this group. It's helpful.

Aria here. I was able to find a chicken Caesar salad for my lunch out yesterday so that was a win. I had a lunch meeting today though and ordered another chicken Caesar but think there is a chance the “grilled chicken” had some flour dusted on the outside. It had a kind of crispy golden look to it which concerned me a bit but I ate it anyway. I tried to ask the waitress but she didn’t seem to understand what I was asking. Eating out makes me paranoid because there are so many hidden ingredients they don’t list. Ugh.

On another annoying note, I just discovered that Starbucks Cold Brew has 3g of carbs - just black not even with added cream. Had no clue. Apparently all espresso and coffee does have carbs so think I need to cut back or at least start logging it. Did everyone else know that?

Here is the rest of what I ate today:

B: 2 hard boiled eggs with 1/2 avocado, iced coffee with heavy cream
L: Chicken Caesar salad
D: Roasted chicken with roasted cauliflower

Is it better to be in "deep" ketosis vs. ketosis period, or is it an either / or situation?