Our Keto Journey - Day 14

Day 14-

We have made it officially two weeks into our diet so far. 

I had another busy day, which started with another restaurant challenge, a breakfast meeting. The only good Keto option for breakfast was eggs with bacon or sausage.  I do like eggs and bacon, but I am struggling with the lack of variety for breakfast. I think this has been one of the hardest things for me on this Keto diet. 

After my morning meeting I did some errands and came home, where I managed to do a few chores and work on some writing projects. I made myself a nice salad for lunch with lettuce, a whole bunch of cucumber, some feta cheese, and some pumpkin seeds for extra flavor and crunch. 

I had a handful of the crisps and a cup of almonds as a snack in the afternoon, and then Peter and I ran out to a candidate forum event in the evening.  It was late when we headed home so I actually skipped dinner, but I did eat a quick yummy nut bar I had gotten at Costco.  

Choosing to eat the nut bar, I wanted to make sure that I was correctly counting my carbs. There is a difference between total carbs and net carbs. In this nut bar for example there are 14 total grams of carbs, but there are 7 grams of dietary fiber so you can subtract the fiber from the total to get only 7 net carbs in one bar.  

According to most of the sources I have read you can have up to 50 total carbs or up to 20-25 net carbs per day.  

Total carbohydrates – Dietary Fiber = Net Carbs

I spent some time reading more sources about Keto, including an inspiring story by a woman who has lost over 100 pounds on Keto and has continued to keep the weight off for three years now.  

Since we are two weeks into this diet, I decided it was time to learn a bit more. Apparently Peter and I are doing something called ‘Lazy Keto’ which is totally not surprising. Basically this is just folks like us who are not worrying about exact percentages, we are just trying to keep our daily carbs under 20 grams.  

The non-lazy version of the diet is folks who make sure their diet percentages of fats, proteins and carbs are carefully balanced. I did find an online ‘keto calculator’ and after entering some info here is my ideal percentage, or as Keto folks describe, these are my macros. 

I did not have the chance to make it to the YMCA today, so I will definitely have to make time to go tomorrow. 

Peter and I are both sticking with this diet and we are seeing results.  There are still moments when I really do miss some of my favorite carb-loaded foods, but I know we are working toward our goals.  We both have talked about the fact that we have not felt hungry at all; the only real challenge is the limited choice of foods that we can eat. This keto diet isn’t always easy, but we are both doing a great job of sticking with it so far.