1-Month Keto Update & How I got started on my Ketogenic Diet, Foods I use, Intermittent fasting

I’ve been loving my new Keto lifestyle. I’m not in this for weight loss but I have felt better & less bloated since I began. I’m 4weeks into this journey & truly see myself sticking with Keto as a lifestyle. The Misophonia has virtually disappeared and food is much simpler to me. I find it easy to stick to a “Keto” or low carb/high fat diet and don’t miss carbs at all (partly because I know the pain of misophonia that comes with them, & to simply just give up carbs to get rid of it is an easy trade-off in my life).

I don’t test myself to see if I’m in “ketosis” however I’m fairly certain that I am fat-adapted based on my workouts. My Lifts have gotten better and better, and my easy running pace is easy again. During my first couple weeks on Keto, Running was noticeably more difficult. Now it is not.

Fasting has become normal for me. I typically eat 1-2x a day (low carb, high fat meals) and then am fine until the next day (about 14-18hrs later). This is common in Keto because the higher fat meals are satiating. Fasting isn’t forced.

I’m not scared of overeating fats. Because if I do overeat– I just find that I’m not hungry later on. Several days I’ve had big meals around 3/4pm, and then don’t have any hunger until 10/11am the next day.

Today I went on a date with my husband too which was huge for me. I have always been on some sort of meal plan or food restriction, which made eating at restaurants an anxious experience for me. (So I tried to avoid it). Even though Keto is technically somewhat “restrictive “, it’s actually been very freeing for me. I love how I feel eating low carb/high fat, and am not scared of overeating. Here’s what I ate (minus the bun):

So, after a month, it’s safe to say I’m still a newbie but am really optimistic! I have a couple of highlight reels going on my insta @Rebekahkfit with “Keto resources” I like (books/podcasts/websites) & “Keto foods” (pics of stuff I eat/drink on Keto diet) haven’t done progress pics in a while, but here is my photo that I submitted to Jason Wittrock’s 2018 “ketoquest” Challenge.

I’ve been asked this question several times on Instagram and email how to begin a ketogenic diet, so I’ decided to put together this section on how I began so I can reply to those questions with this link :).

I’m technically not sure I’m actually in ketosis Bc I don’t test myself, but I consider my approach to be based on ketogenic principles- low carb, high fat, moderate protein. It’s probably more of a “modified Atkins” according to most of the books I’ve read/podcasts I’ve listened to (all shared below).

My Steps to Keto:

Week 1: I listened to a couple of podcasts with Mark Sisson — the model health show and Bulletproof radio podcast (pictured below). And I got a copy of “The Keto Reset Diet” Book by Mark Sisson. I read through the book in a day and began using Mark’s WHEN approach that day. I already ate fairly low carb (I was gluten free), but I started making a conscious effort to add in fats & decrease carbs to 50-70grams a day.

• I initially tracked a bit to make sure My carbs weren’t out of hand, but kind of got the hang of it after a few days, so I started doing it more intuitively.
• I got more attuned to my body- paying attention to when I was actually hungry versus “hungry” due to boredom or habit

A couple keys:

• I drank a ton of water. I could tell I was losing water and drank about 1.5-2gallons a day
• I didn’t worry about being perfect- if I ate too many carbs one day, or ate too much (felt stuffed), I gave myself a “pass” and just started fresh the next day. This is a lifestyle change, not a timed diet.
• I didn’t worry about having Awesome workouts. I just did my workouts & trusted they’d get better eventually. This week (week 4) is actually the first week where I’m like- yesss I’m killing it

Week 2: I just tried to ABSORB as much info as I could on Keto and keep increasing fats and decreasing carbs to 40-50grams. This was probably the toughest week – just the change mentally and physically was different. But I just kept going as best I could. No judgement, just my best each day.

Here’s some if my favorite podcasts I listened to:

• I also picked up Dr. Fung’s book called “Complete Guide to Fasting” & it is awesome! I highly recommend it. One of my new “insta-friends” @ketohollywood recommended it- and it has so much info on the benefits of fasting as well as “fat fasting”

Weeks 3&4: I jumped in- my goal is to keep my carbs under 20g (net … net carbs are total carbs-fiber carbs) a day. I even tried zero carb days for 3days this past week and actually enjoyed those. I missed veggies though, so that may be something I mess around with as I go.

I picked up another Fantastic book: The Ketogenic Bible, which encouraged me to use a “calculator” for Keto macros (see below). So I’m going to use those for a few days until I can do it intuitively (I’m just loosely tracking btw- like eyeballing meat and saying “that’s about 5oz” … so I’m not being super strict or testing – basically I’m happy as long as i feel good and my sound sensitivity is gone!)This book literally has all the info you ever need on keto!

My focus has been keeping this super simple!!! Here’s the basic foods I’ve used:

• Protein: 8020 Beef, bacon, eggs, egg whites, Slap whey (code REBEKAH for discount)
• Cheese (protein & fat)
• Fats: coconut oil, mct oil, butter, ghee, peanut butter
• Carbs: green veggies (lettuce, broccoli, salad mix, fajita mix frozen veggies), and I also use 1/2scoop UCAN on some days with my “Bulletproof” mocha- recipe is below in photo (Ucan a super starch that doesn’t cause any insulin spike – basically the key to ketogenic life is not spiking insulin)
• Other Supplements: Exogenous ketones (in photo below as well- I currently use Keto burst cocoa flavor that I found on amazon- they seemed to be the best price for the quantity), Gains in bulk digestive enzymes/test gain/NO chews (code RebekahC10 for discount) , Slap “Relax, Bro” magnesium supplement (code REBEKAH) ….
• note: I was using collagen protein (you’ll see in the photo, but won’t buy it again since I didn’t notice anything different)

I keep my meals really simple – shown below ! I just ordered some more Slap whey so I will be trying to bake up some simple (less than 5ingredients) Keto-creations soon

FASTING “foods”:

One of the keys to Keto is being flexible and figuring out what works best for yourself…. I’ve been trying out different things to use during the “fasting phases” of my days… I just can’t wrap my head around just water yet. The above combo is one I have used but felt like I was cheating on the fast & wanted to save more of my calories for actual food

—-So, Today I “fasted” using a mix of hot water with the ketones and Mocha bcaas (approx 10kcals total) and I think this is a good combination for me– I had energy to jog with the dog and also got a great lift after church. Tea is also a favorite of mine!

I hope this helps! I plan to keep going for at least another 6-8weeks before I think about messing around with cyclical Keto (adding in carbs around workouts). I am going to keep nerding out on fit2fat2fit podcasts, and others I find. I think I’m done on Keto books for a while . But the above 3 were excellent.

I do plan to update my journey as I go, and I realize this might be “early” into a lifestyle to post so passionately about… But, I know its easy to forget how I start something in the beginning . So, I figured I’d put this up and you can take it for what it’s worth.

To follow my days a little more- you can check out my Instagram highlight reels on Keto as I mentioned above. You can check out my previous posts on Keto as well here and here. And a bit on my page here. :).

Hope everyone has a great day! Thanks for checking this post out & comment below if you’d be interested in seeing more food/podcasts/workouts/whatever