Our Keto Reset - Day 7

Day 7. Bacon. Keto Flu. Bloatitorium. Dehydration. Puking.

The day started out great. We got up about 7 AM. In retrospect, we should have gotten up earlier and walked. I'll explain later. Then I cooked a pound of bacon. We each had five glorious pieces. We saved the bacon grease and the rest of the bacon, except the one piece we gave to the dogs. Yes. One piece. And they looked pissed. I could almost see them saying, 'No one has leftover bacon, dad.'

Today's menu:

Breakfast: Bacon-Bacon-Bacon-Bacon-Bacon

Mid Morning: None.

Lunch: Me: 2 1/3rd pound cheddar bacon burgers with tomato, onion in a lettuce wrap and a scosh of ketchup.

Yvonne: 1 1/3rd pound of cheddar bacon burger with tomato, onion in a lettuce wrap and a scosh of curry ketchup

Afternoon: Nothing

Dinner: Me: Three egg and havarti omelet

Yvonne: Leftovers from the Bottom round and mushrooms.

By 9 AM I was feeling like I'd just been rolled by a marching band and left in a ditch. I lost all of my energy. Totally gone and flatlined. I stayed on the couch until 11, when Yvonne had me run an errand with her. That sort of perked me up. I was able to get some writing done. Then I made lunch. I should NOT have had two burgers. The problem was that it was so messy that I ate it fast. We really didn't have the right kind of lettuce to make a wrap. We needed butter lettuce and we had romaine. Because I did eat it so fast, my stomach didn't register that I was full so I ate the other one and welcomed myself to the Bloatatorium. 

Using a pick axe and rope, I managed to climb my way back upstairs, where I did more work on my novel in progress. A few folks commented about my use of hominy the previous day on Facebook and I had to explain to them about math. It was all good. 

Mid-afternoon, Yvonne wanted to go for a walk. Sure. I strapped on my Suunto watch to keep track of distance, and HR, and V02 Max and other shit I don't know about. Then we hiked two miles and a half. Now, all day I'd probably had two glasses of ice tea and three or four sips of water. I read somewhere that on the Keto diet you really should drink 100 oz of water. Well, I didn't even have a fourth that much and got my HR up to 152 during part of the walk.

This was me in my new hat

What happened? I came home and started puking up pieces of cheddar bacon burgers with tomato, onion in a lettuce wrap and a scosh of ketchup. I felt like I was three hours in at a Frat Party. I was overheated. Whenever I drank water it would come right up. It took me about an hour to get right, during which I got to watch my football team go 0-4 and their second best linebacker get lost for the season. Oh joy.

Lessons I learned today. 

• Dude, you need to drink hella more water.
• Dude, you need to drink hella more water.
• Dude, give your damn dogs more than one piece of bacon.
• Dude, people don't have leftover bacon.
• Dude, eat slower so you know you are full.
• Dude, electrolytes are a thing.
• And finally, Dude, you need to drink hella more water. 

Total Weight Loss:

Weston: -5

Yvonne: -5 

Our Keto Reset - Day 6

Day 6.

I felt great again today. Got up and walked 2 miles. Then I had to get some food into the oven. The plan was to have a big lunch. My parents were coming down from Tucson.

Today's menu:

Breakfast: Nothing really

Mid Morning: None.

Lunch: Indian spiced lamb shanks with artichokes and hominy.

Afternoon: Nothing

Dinner: Steaks and salad

The lunch was a huge and involved meal. I'll give the recipe if anyone wants it. It really held us over for the remainder of the day. I know people said that the hominy has a lot of carbs, but if it's divided by 4 people and we still have leftovers, then it's less than 6 carbs per person. And remember, I'm not going for zero carbs. I trying for 20 - 50 carbs max.

Total Weight Loss:

Weston: -4

Yvonne: -4 

Our Keto Reset - Day 5

Day 5.

Felt absolutely great today. Got up at 6 AM. Walked 1.1 miles. Not a lot, but it’s something.

Today's menu:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with butter and heavy cream. So good. Two sausage patties each.

Mid Morning: 2 oz cheddar cheese

Lunch: Chipoltle

Me: Chicken Keto Bowl with Green Salsa

Yvonne: Steak Keto Bowl with Green Sals

Afternoon: Nothing

Dinner: Bottom Round Steak in Mushroom Gravy with Brussel Sprouts

Dinner was an interesting proposition. We had this 2 pound bottom round steak in our upright freezer for two years. I found a recipe and used the instapot. Essentially, I cut the round steak into bite size pieces and then cooked it with onions, mushrooms, and cream of mushroom soup mix for 1.2 hours in the instapot. And guess what? It came out soupy. So, I microwaved the brussel sprouts and put them in the mix, added some arrowroot to make the soup into a gravy, and we ate it like a gravy boat of beef and brussel spouts. Of course, had we not been on the Keto Diet, we would have probably used some sort of pasta to carry the gravy, but we didn’t. And good on us.

 He

Also, for lunch, it was interesting that all I had to tell the guy at Chiplotle was we were having Keto Bowls. He knew exactly what the hack was. It's not on their menu. It's just a bowl without the beans or the chips. We were only able to eat half. It was damn good, but surprisingly expensive. 

Total Weight Loss:

Weston: -3

Yvonne: -3 

Our Keto Reset - Day 4

Day 4.

I'm back in the saddle again. Woke up to a better back.

Today's menu:

Breakfast: Skipped (oops)

Mid Morning: 2 oz cheddar cheese

Lunch: Me. Leftover chicken from Day 1.

Yvonne. Mortadella Salad

Afternoon: Nothing

Dinner: Adobo lime rubbed grilled salmon with zucchini noodles and an avocado.

Total Weight Loss:

Weston: -2

Yvonne: -3 

Our Keto Reset - Day 3

Day 3.

The remnants of Hurricane Lorena are still hanging around. The arthritis in my lower back was screaming today. No work. Little writing. Just pain.

Today's menu:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with tarragon, onions, garlic, and truffle salt. Didn’t taste like eggs. Yvonne didn’t like it. I need to make it up to her for lunch

Mid Morning: 2 oz cheddar cheese

Lunch: Applebees

Me: 8 oz steak and garlicky green beans

Yvonne: Quesadilla Burger without the Quesadilla and garlicky green beans 

Afternoon: Nothing

Dinner: 2 mozzarella stuffed sausages and leftover garlicky green beans

Today was tough. I spent most of it on the couch. I have arthritis in my lowest back and sometimes the weather whispers nasty rumors of pain to it.

Total Weight Loss:

Weston: -2

Yvonne: -2 

Our Keto Reset - Day 2

Day 2.

We would have gotten up and walked, but the remnants of Hurricane Lorena hit us at midnight and we're spent the day in the middle of a day long thunderstorm.

Today's menu:

Breakfast

Breakfast:1 1/2 sausage patties with a slice of fig and melted cheddar cheese

Mid Morning: 2 oz cheddar cheese

Lunch: Me: 1 Inside Out Sandwich (mortadella, Genoa salami, ham, Munster cheese, banana pepper, roasted red pepper, mayo, and lettuce. Yvonne: Dirty Leftover Chicken 

Afternoon: 2 oz Cashews

Dinner: 1.5 Stuffed Peppers Each

Yvonne spent most of the day in Tucson at an art class. I spent most of the day at work. When I came home, I made the stuffed peppers from a recipe using cauliflower rice, so I had to make that first. I think the stuffed peppers came out great. Super tasty and filling. We have enough left over for another meal.

Dinner

Total Weight Loss:

Weston: -2

Yvonne: -2 

Our Keto Reset - Day 1

Day 1.

Nothing spectacular happened yesterday, but then this was just the first day. We didn't have any urges, probably because of the eating debauchery we had last weekend.

We got up and walked a mile before I went to work.

Today's menu:

Breakfast:
Two Hard Boiled Eggs
2 oz Cheddar Cheese
Mid Morning: 
2 oz Cashews
Lunch:
2 Inside Out Sandwiches (mortadella, Genoa salami, ham, Munster cheese, banana pepper, roasted red pepper, mayo, and lettuce)
Afternoon:
2 oz Colby Jack Cheese
Dinner:
Rotisserie Chicken
Cauliflower

As you can see, nothing fancy. We don't have the cookbooks we ordered yet, so we're playing it safe.

Of note, I only ate half my breakfast and half of my lunch. I'm not used to eating in the mornings, but 5 smaller meals a day is better than two large ones so.We split the chicken down the middle for dinner and still had enough left over for each of us for tomorrow's lunch.

The only time I was ever challenged was when I went to a matinee at the movie theater. There's literally nothing there I can eat or drink. I bought a water and it cost $4. Now, that's a crime.

We both recorded our starting weights. We will not share what they were, but we will share ho much we lose or gain day to day.

Weston: 0
Yvonne: 0

Our Keto Reset - Day Zero

In this era of save games and respawning, one wonders why we can't do it in real life. Why can't I respawn while my friends stand over my body to keep others from stealing my loot? Why can't I just save game when I'm thin and healthy, indulge for a while, then return to the save? One thing we know for sure is that those options don't exist in reality.

One way I've been able to get healthy is by deploying. Sure, I've seen people return fatter from a tour in Afghanistan, but that takes effort. What with no alcohol and the opportunity to workout every day, one can't help but become more healthy. Well, I don't really want to deploy again anytime soon. My PTSD is finally under control thanks to a happy pill and the world's best therapist, so that option is out.

What about the South Beach Diet, you ask?

Or why not do the grapefruit fast all the Hollywood movie stars do to get in shape for their movies? Pro tip. Don't believe for a second they drink grapefruit juice and then poof! they're suddenly hard bodies. They have dietitians and private trainers who work them like dogs. Since I can't afford either of those that option is out to me as well.

What we have seen is that we've had a lot of friends do Keto and succeed. They make the lifestyle change. They dedicate themselves and are healthier for it. So, Yvonne and I thought we'd like to do the same. She has some pounds that are so dedicated to staying with her, she can't even bribe them to go away. And between my stress, an injury, and some depression, I've gained too much weight to be healthy. So we're going to try Keto for health and body image.

But we're only going to try it for 60 days (at least that's the goal).

We want to use Keto and accompanying Ketosis to cleanse our body of the results of way too much refined sugar, grains, and other bad things. Then, at the end of 60 days, we'll look at how we want to proceed and move in that direction.

At this point on Day Zero we don't really want pizzas, pasta, and bread to disappear from our life. The idea is after 60 days, find a way to moderate the intake of those horrible but delectable foods, while keeping the best of Keto around.

I can see the purists looking askance at us. They have every right to. Everyone has to choose their own paths and this is ours. Is it the right one? We hope it is but we're not sure. Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes and that Disney is going to mess up the Star Wars franchise. But at least we'll try.

What we're going to do is make daily posts. Yvonne and I are both influencers and taste makers and we have a lot of people who look to us for advice. I can tell you this, we're going to eat well. We're going to try some great Keto recipes. If this journey is going to be hard, we might as well eat well on the way.

So here we go.

Day Zero.

Keto Reset Day 1 starts tomorrow.

Wish us luck.