New Year, New Journey
Happy 2018! We hope you had a great 2017, and are ready for a fresh start in the new year! We haven’t been on here in awhile, but we decided to give it another go, and modify the website a bit. We are also going to be starting the ketogenic diet this year, and want to share our experience with you.
Keto Diet
Just to provide a little background, the Keto Diet is an extremely high fat, moderate protein and low carbohydrate diet. It was invented in the 1920’s to help treat epilepsy and diabetes. The diet has recently gained a lot of traction and is now in full fad mode because of the numerous other health benefits it provides. In addition to helping with epilepsy, it helps stabilize blood sugar, helps people with all sorts of chronic diseases and inflammation, not to mention many anecdotes mention that people on the diet just feel a ton better and have a lot more energy than normal. Now we know what you are thinking; every diet makes these claims, however, I have been thoroughly researching this diet, and we decided this is the one to try out. We are going to see how we feel, and if it works for us, we will keep it up, and if it does not work, we will mix it up.
The breakdown is typically 80% Fat, 15% Protein and 5% Carbs. By providing your body with minimal carbohydrates and a plethora of fat, your body will begin to use the fat to fuel your energy and brain. Essentially, the brain can only run off of two forms of energy: glucose and ketones. A diet of mostly carbs, as is common is our modern day society, will cause the brain to only feed off of glucose as its energy source. By greatly limiting your carb and glucose intake, your brain will begin to source its energy from ketones. Some argue that energizing your brain with ketones could be a more natural state for our bodies dating back to the hunter gatherer days. It is important, however, that the brain still has access to glucose, and so this diet does require about 5-10% carbs on a daily basis.
The sources of food are also extremely important. We try to eat whole foods, mostly organic, minimal processing, and grass-fed as much as possible. Grass-fed meats and dairy actually have Omega 3 Fatty Acids, which are considered extremely healthy for the heart and brain. We try to get organic and grass-fed dairy and meats, but do buy local when we can.
It is also important to note that constant and continuous ketosis does not work for everyone. Some have been successful in full ketosis for years, whereas, others need a carb refeed day in which they consume close to 100-150g of healthy carbs (for example, sweet potatoes or beets) to feel good and maintain proper hormone balance (especially for women).
Disclaimer: We are not medical professionals. This is just our story that we wanted to share. Everyone is different and has a unique approach to nutrition. Please be mindful in considering what is best for you and your health and do not rely on the experiences and anecdotes of others to drive such important decisions. I think one of the most important things to remember is to listen to your body, your heart, and mind as you gain as much knowledge as possible relating to your nutrition. If you would like to try this diet, we recommend you speak first with your doctor or nutritionist for consultation. We are simply sharing our experience with this diet, and are not recommending or giving advice to change your diet.
Tune in here to discover our journey and experiences along the keto diet.
January 1, 2018
Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We decided to try and jump start ketosis by doing what is called a Fat-Fast. Basically, we get the vast majority of our calories from fat. This should, in theory, help jump start ketosis so we can get into a fat-burning state within a few days. We decided just to take it easy today and binge watch Outlander Season 3 on Starz, along with eating a ton of fat. Sounds great, right?!
Our diet started with our morning tea/coffee recipe and a little bit of fasting. We didn’t eat anything after the coffee until noon. Intermittent fasting is a big part of a healthy diet/lifestyle because it can help to jumpstart ketosis, and allows your body to fully digest what you have already consumed the day before. To see all the benefits of intermittent fasting, check out my past article here.
Here is the breakdown of our first day’s keto menu:
Morning
Tea and/or coffee with Vital Farms alfresco grass-fed butter, Bulletproof Brain Octane, Dr. Bronner's Coconut Oil, and Organic Valley heavy whipping cream
Noon
Homemade turkey bone broth with herbs de provence and turmeric and cumin spices
Mid-Afternoon
Thrive Market Beef Bone Broth
Evening
2 Vital Farms alfresco eggs fried in butter with Kassaggio aged gouda
Electrolytes: to help with fluid loss, rapid heartbeat, headaches, everything. This is the most important of the supplements.
L-Carnitine: to help transport fatty acids into the brain better for energy to alleviate mental fog
Digestive Enzymes: to help digest all that fat
B-Vitamin Complex: for an energy boost
We felt fine all day today. Surprisingly, we consumed about 1600 calories, of which 90% was fat and 10% was protein. We only had about 2g of net carbs for the whole day. We noticed we wanted to eat more, but we weren’t actually hungry. The eggs helped us feel more satisfied by eating a solid food, but we never felt too hungry or weak throughout the day. We went to bed super early after taking the electrolytes supplement and some additional Calm magnesium powder.
