Yes, That is an Avocado in My Purse - Week 3 Summary

End of week three!

I can not believe I'm already towards the last segment of this diet. Cutting out carbohydrates has been the best thing that has happened to my body in a very long time. The only thing I have to watch out for is alcoholic beverages. It is a lot more difficult to avoid alcohol than I thought! Unless you are someone who abstains from it completely, going from being able to have that nice relaxing glass of wine to going full-keto and allowing only hard alcohol (and even then, drinking any alcohol is rather "frowned upon") requires a lot more willpower than I apparently have. Perhaps if I had more of an incentive to stick to the diet rather than trying it out as a personal experiment, I can cut out alcohol more willingly. So far, that has been the only setback. Not eating bread, avoiding sugar, and counting carbohydrates almost come naturally at this point. Let's see how much further I can get into ketosis next week!

Day 15: 142.4 lbs / Day 21: 140.8 lbs - 1.6 lbs lost!
Hunger (same from last week), thirst (increased from last week)
Still no digestive issues!
Didn't have cravings, but did give in to a cream puff at the Palmer Fair last weekend.
Sleep (somewhat poor still)
Difficulty avoiding social drinking

Mood and Exercise: How Do They Correlate?

Mood is based on a six point scale, divided by two. Exercise is represented in hours.

Sports Performance: I still have plenty of energy throughout the gym sessions/soccer games. I did notice that my thirst has gone back up compared to last week, although not to where it was before I started the diet. I always keep a Nalgene water bottle with me at all times so it's easy to measure my daily water intake. I've been trying to stay above 60oz of water per day.

Weight loss: Still continuing to lose weight! However, I do feel it has somewhat plateaued during the latter part of this week. I am fluctuating between 142 and 139 pounds and can't seem to drop below 139. Then again, the past couple weekends have been "lazy-keto" rather than full keto since I partook in a few drinks and one sugary treat (did someone say cream puff?!) at the Palmer fair. Not surprisingly, the high carbohydrate content of this one treat contributed to a 2 pound weight gain over the weekend, although I'm sure most of this is water weight as carbohydrates tend to have a high affinity for water.

Weight Loss Tracker

x axis represents day # and y axis represents weight

Cicely Shankle is a resident nutritionist at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine. To schedule an appointment with Cicely, call 907.452.3600. For more information about her, click here.

Yes That is an Avocado, weight loss, Ketogenic Diet, diet & nutritionMichael ZunigaSeptember 18, 2018diet and nutrition, yes that is an avocado in my purse, cicely shankle, Alaska Center for Natural Medicine, ketogenic diet, ketoComment

Yes, That is an Avocado in My Purse - Week Two Summary

Made it through week two!

Overall: This week had more ups and downs. Sleep is still poor as I am tossing and turning in bed much more often than I used to. As far as adhering to the diet, it was more difficult during the weekend. I was out of town on a business trip with my mom and ended up eating and drinking a few things I probably should not have...but since I'm being honest and documenting everything I'm consuming, I'm not going to strive for perfection. Nor do I expect anyone else to. This is an experiment after all, and even carefully controlled experiments have their flaws.

Day 8: 144.4 lbs / Day 15: 142.4 lbs - 2 lbs lost!
Hunger (same from last week), thirst (decreased a bit more)
Still no digestive issues!
Cravings (none)
Sleep (still poor)
No more cold flashes!

Mood and Exercise: How Do They Correlate?

Mood is based on a six point scale, divided by two. Exercise is represented in hours.

Sports performance: Still not significantly different from last week but at least I am not getting worse! I am conflicted whether the increased stamina and decreased fatigue have anything to do with being physically lighter on my feet or if it is a metabolic process with ketosis. It is also getting progressively colder as the winter season approaches so perhaps by being outside (for the same amount of time as the summer season) has affected the physicality of sports performance through stiffer joints and/or colder air intake.

Dropping Weight Like a Bad Habit.

Weight loss: I lost 2 more pounds this week! Before this diet, I did not think I even had the weight to lose. Interestingly, my thirst has decreased significantly and for no good reason. However, I strive to maintain drinking at least 40oz of water per day and more than 60oz on the days that I exercise. I'm curious how much more weight I will lose and whether or not my fat percentage is actually decreasing or if it is just water weight.

Cicely Shankle is a resident nutritionist at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine. To learn more about Cicley, either call 907.452.3600 or click here.

diet & nutrition, Ketogenic Diet, Yes That is an Avocado, weight lossMichael ZunigaSeptember 5, 2018Alaska Center for Natural MedicineAlaska Center for Natural Medicine, cicely shankle, resident nutritionist, diet and nutrition, week two, yes that is an avocado in my purse, ketogenic diet, weight lossComment

Yes, That is an Avocado in My Purse - My First Week

I made it through week one on the Ketogenic Diet! Twenty-three more days to go...

Overall: Not bad! I am still motivated to continue the diet and it is getting progressively easier to reject carbohydrates. I have not had digestive issues all week! This is probably the longest I have ever gone without digestive issues such as bloating, heartburn, indigestion, etc. However, I did notice that sleep quality has dropped a bit. I am waking up more frequently throughout the night and have had more cold flashes than usual. It is like my body's having a harder time regulating internal temperature so I end up wearing more clothing or drinking hot beverages to compensate.

Day 1: 146.6 lbs / Day 7: 144.2 lbs - 2.4 lbs lost.
Stamina (slight increase), fatigue (slight decrease)
Hunger (decrease), thirst (decrease)
Digestive issues (NONE!)
Cravings (minimal)
Sleep (somewhat poorer)
Cold flashes

Sports performance: not noticeably different. I did feel increased stamina and reduced fatigue during games but not to any extreme. I also noticed that I did not want as much water in between subbing out and playing. My sweating was also reduced. - It should be noted that it was relatively colder and rainier this past week compared to previous weeks. I could have misinterpreted my thirst and perspiration levels due to these factors.

Weight loss: I lost 2.4 lbs this week! The weight loss on the keto diet is no joke. I did not experience hunger between meals. (I did not get "hangry" even once!) In fact, I had to force myself to eat sometimes, especially before soccer games. I only had cravings once (Day 4 for CAKE). I do not normally eat sweets so this was rather strange.

I felt like this week could have been worse since I went into it thinking I would get the "keto-flu" within the week. The negative symptoms I did experience (headaches, nausea, cold flashes) were perhaps part of the transition into ketosis but they could have also arisen from dehydration or stress as well. I do not think I could have transitioned over to ketosis that quickly but it is possible. I was pretty active and healthy, to begin with. As an avid soccer player, my body was already efficient at burning carbohydrates AND fats, especially on the days I do doubleheaders. So there could be some metabolic overlap there already...

Cicely Shankle is a Resident Nutritionist at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine. To learn more about Cicely, click here.

Ketogenic Diet, diet & nutrition, weight loss, Yes That is an AvocadoCicely Shankle, Resident NutritionistAugust 28, 2018Alaska Center for Natural Medicinealaska center for natural medicine, cicely shankle, ketogenic, ketogenic diet, keto, diet and nutrition, resident nutritionist, weight lossComment