Keto Week 1 Reflections
Now that we have been following the Keto diet for a week, here are some of the changes and challenges we have experienced.
We both woke up feeling fine for work Thursday morning and were powering through the work day with a surprising amount of smooth energy. Unfortunately, Lindsay started to feel very bad after eating a large lunch. She got nauseous, clammy, rapid heartbeat, and proceeded to lose her lunch. After about an hour after her stomach settled, she then had a bone broth, and slowly started to feel better for the rest of the day.
Worried about her all day, I looked into the Keto flu more in depth to try and find solutions for her. From what I found, the two biggest factors to help mitigate the Keto flu are to:
Get tons of sodium, with more potassium and magnesium than normal
Drink tons of water
The best ways to do this are to sprinkle Himalayan Sea Salt into your water throughout the day, have bone broth, eat salty foods, and take an electrolyte supplement. Adding salt to everything definitely seems to make a huge difference. Also, “lite” salt has sodium, along with a high amount of potassium, which makes it a good bet as well. The best broth is one you make at home from healthy bones, but the next best ones are Thrive Market, Epic, and Kettle and Fire. An excellent salty food is Epic Pork Rinds, the barbecue flavor is our favorite! The electrolyte supplement we took seemed to help as well as drinking lots of water throughout the day. Also, for the nausea, taking enough digestive enzymes to breakdown all the fat you are consuming is beneficial.
I felt fine most of the time, with the occasional rapid heartbeat, which was quickly solved by drinking salted water. During the transition into Ketosis, you are losing all your electrolytes and water, and thus, need to overcompensate for them during this time.
The next day, overly prepared for any Keto flu onsets, Lindsay packed her bag for work with Epic Pork Rinds, Epic Broth, salted water, and a toothbrush and toothpaste, just in case. However, on Friday, Lindsay felt completely normal. I think she is through the worst of it.
On Friday, I felt great. I felt like I had unlimited energy and a very positive, upbeat attitude. This lasted until I headed home, and then I started to get tired. We both have been getting tired around 7pm, much earlier than normal.
This weekend, we decided to take it easy to allow our bodies to transition. Saturday, we did a small hike of 3.5 miles and felt great the whole time! The weather has been so warm here that it is like going for springtime hikes right now!
A couple of other side effects we noticed during this first week are less mucous production, which can be good or bad thing. Lindsay, who naturally has oily skin and hair, has noticed that her skin doesn’t get as greasy throughout the day. Also, she has been quite the drooler, but that seems to have lessened the last few days. On the other hand, she has been waking up with a dry mouth. We still aren’t sleeping completely through the night, waking up frequently to use the bathroom or just randomly waking up. Both of us have also felt wide awake and alert at about 6am, so we have been getting up early. This is very new for Lindsay, who traditionally has not been a morning person.
Overall, it seems like we are, hopefully, through the Keto Flu phase, and continuing to transition. Lindsay got the worst of the Keto Flu, but we got through it fairly smoothly overall. Everyday, we have kept our nutrition to about 75-80% fat, 10-15% protein, and about 5% carbs. We are always under 20 grams of net carbs. We use Cronometer to track this -- if you haven't already, be sure to check out this free nutrition-tracking app. I plan to resume my workout routine tomorrow, and that may or may not go well. Either way I will let you know. Wish me luck!
On to week 2!
