30 Days of Keto

Greetings, and welcome to my “30 Days of Keto” post! Feel free to use the Table of Contents below to start at the beginning, or jump directly to the day you want!

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Table of Contents

Callouts from the Various Days

• A Note About Fibro and It’s Effects
• Something to Watch About So Delicious! Frozen Treats
• Rafi Perez – 8 Things I Do Every Day in My Art Studio (Explanation of Critical 6 List) (I’ll have a post on this soon!)
• Links to Games Mentioned (Coming Soon!)
• Links to Keto Products (Coming Soon!)

List of Days

SOMETHING TO WATCH: IT APPEARS THAT SO DELICIOUS MAY BE CHANGING THE FORMULATION OF THEIR FROZEN DESSERTS. PINTS IN MY POSITION CALCULATE TO 7G OF NET CARBS/SERVING, WHILE THE LATEST NUTRITION INFORMATION ON THEIR WEBSITE SHOWS ALL FLAVORS HAVING BETWEEN 13-14G OF NET CARBS/SERVING! I’LL KEEP YOU POSTED AS THE SITUATION DEVELOPS.

Introduction

As my birthday present to myself, I’ve started Keto again. This year, I’d like to keep an online Keto diary. I’ll try to post a little something every day. I want to talk about what I’m eating, my weight loss, and any health benefits that I’m experiencing. Please understand that my health benefits may be coincidental or muddled. Having Fibromyalgia tends to confuse health issues.

This is a health journey that I hope will benefit others, not just myself. There’s a lot of confusion about The Ketogenic Diet, and a lot of misinformation out there. I suffer from that confusion, as well, and am actively seeking answers. As I find them, I will include them in the diary.

This diary will include all 30 days in one post. Each day will be a heading of its own, with links, so that you can go straight to the days you want, and not have to read the rest of it. It will be organized chronologically, so that anyone reading it can start at the beginning and pick it up easily. At the end of 30 days, I will consider another 30 day post, if the demand is there.

I hope that your Ketogenic attempts are good, and that this diary helps to fill a void in the Ketogenic community. Thanks for coming along on this journey!

Back Story

Many of you know that I tried The Ketogenic Diet last year with good results. I experienced many health benefits, although the weight loss was much slower for me than for others. I took a break from Keto for the holidays, and while I tried to get right back on it afterwards, the lack of support from family, and the frustration I was feeling at the slow weight loss confounded me. Since then, I regained 17 of the 27 pounds that I lost, and my health has returned to its pre-Keto state. I didn’t realize how much the Keto was affecting my pain levels and my ability to do things until now. The improvements in my health came gradually over my 9 months on the diet, and while my reversion also came gradually, the same is not true for being on it once again. I’ve already noticed big benefits after being back on it for only TWO DAYS.

The biggest benefit to Keto is reduction in inflammation. This causes a reduction in pain and brain fog, and an ability to do more with less stiffness. Because Keto doesn’t use sugar as fuel, there are no highs and lows from sugar intake. It’s smooth sailing from the time I wake up, to the time I go to sleep. No hyperactivity, and no mid-afternoon crashes. For nine months, I skipped a nap that I had needed for years. It was wonderful.

Day 1 – Monday, May 20, 2019

I didn’t weigh myself today. After all, it’s my first day back on Keto. I woke up and had a fried egg and two pieces of bacon for breakfast. Within half an hour, my energy level soared, and my head cleared. Eating more protein and fat really IS good for Fibro. They say that Alzheimer’s is Type 3 diabetes, and that eating Keto causes the brain to use fat for fuel instead of sugar, which can dramatically improve Alzheimer’s. I wonder if Fibro will eventually be found to work via a similar mechanism?

I’m going to have to be careful not to wait to post what I’ve eaten, because I can’t remember the rest of this day, lol. I remember feeling frustrated that there weren’t more Keto snacks in the house because I’ve been off for so long. I always crave snacks my first two days, and I want to eat a lot, during the first few days of transition. Then suddenly, the system kicks in and I stop being hungry and having cravings.

Day 2 – Tuesday, May 21, 2019

I didn’t weigh myself this day, because I was rushing to get out of the house. I an abdominal ultrasound, and other activities kept me busy all day. Because of the nature of the test, I had to fast until test time. They wanted me totally empty, so I couldn’t even drink water. Needless to say, after the test I was starving. I took the friend who drove me to the test, to lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s. I greatly enjoyed the Asiago Peppercorn Sirloin with extra Parmesan cream sauce, and green beans and grilled zuchinni as sides. It was delicious!

I managed to get some of the So Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream from Publix. So I had some later. That stuff is GREAT! There are so many varieties to choose from. The very best for Keto is the “No Sugar Added” kind. The low fat one has sugar in it, while the no sugar added has no sugar, and is sweetened with a combination of Erythritol and monk’s fruit. I’ve had good success with those two sweeteners. Both are all natural, have no impact on glycemic index (unlike the artificial sweeteners), and don’t trigger my migraines or allergies. Artificial sweeteners give me ringing migraines, and Stevia causes both headaches and anxiety (which didn’t make sense to me until someone told me it’s in the Ragweed family, which I’m allergic to).

I had about 1/2 cup of that great ice cream for 5g of carbs, I think. It has a little aftertaste, which in my opinion is not nearly as bad as that of artificial sweeteners, and which went away after the first couple of bites. The chocolate ice cream is rich and fudgy, with a slight under-note of coconut that’s so good.

I ended my day with a turkey rollup – tomato Gem Wrap, cream cheese and ham.

Day 3 – Wednesay, May 22, 2019

Weigh In: When I weighed myself this morning, I’d lost 1.6#. I’m really happy about that. I’ve only been on for two full days. It’s nice to see the weight loss starting. I know that at this point, it’s all water weight either from retention or inflammation, but either way, reducing that extra load will have lots of positive benefits.

I didn’t eat breakfast today. I wound up fasting for 14 hours. It wasn’t intentional. I just didn’t feel well enough to eat until then. I have to watch that, though. While the fasting really helps with loose skin and other things (thanks to the miraculous process known as autophagy – more on this in a separate post), if I fast too much my metabolism slows to a crawl. It doesn’t do me any good to diet if my metabolism slows to the point where I can’t lose any weight.

I wound up breaking my fast at 4:30pm with a rolled-up piece of turkey and cheese. Then I ate a 4 oz. steak and about 2.5 oz. of green beans with butter for dinner. Over the course of the evening, I had a Choc Zero Coconut Bark and about 1/2 cup of So Delicious No Sugar Added Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream. Then around 11 pm I had a rollup with a tomato Gem Wrap, 2 pieces of turkey and 2 pieces of cheese. A snack of Cheese Whisps ended my day, sometime between 1 and 2am.

Day 4 – Thursday, May 23, 2019

Weigh In: When I weighed myself today, I’d lost six-tenths of a pound. I wound up fasting again. Again, unintentionally. I did manage to get coffee – 10oz with 3TB of heavy cream. I’m not watching my macros yet. I want to give myself this week and see where I naturally fall. The intention is to record my food all week, then tally the total number of calories, fat and carbs that I’m naturally eating. Last time I did Keto, I found that I was hardly hungry, so I wound up almost starving myself until I really began to pay attention to my macros. I suspect that may be my natural inclination. Eating more fat just causes you to be far-less hungry.

So my family surprised me with McDonald’s today. Luckily they thought to ask me what I wanted first, and I was able to use the nutrition calculator to find a couple of options. Did you know that the Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad is only 8g of carbs? That’s without dressing, so if you order it, make sure you have a good low-carb ranch on-hand. The best one I’ve found so far is Litehouse Ranch. It has 2g of carbs in 2 tbsp. Even better, if you like Blue Cheese, is the Marzetti’s Blue Cheese which only has 1g of carbs in 2 tbsp. Both are available in the refrigerator section, and are comparable in carbs to the Primal Kitchen dressings I love. (I’m not overly-fond of their ranch, though. It’s good, but doesn’t taste like ranch to me.)

Another great option is the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe. Ask for it without the bun or ketchup and it’s only 6g of carbs. (The sesame seed bun is a whopping 33g of carbs so it’s definitely a no-no!) It comes fully loaded with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, mustard and mayonnaise and when you ask for it “sans bun” they will put it on a bed of lettuce, which is really nice. (Btw, if you don’t omit the ketchup, the burger goes from 6g of carbs to 11g of carbs! Be warned!)

I ate half of a salad for 6g of carbs, and the entire burger for another 6. Leaving me half a salad for later. I rounded out with some So Delicious ice cream, leave me a 1g of carb margin for the day. I’ll probably use it to make a cream cheese and lunch meat roll up a little later on tonight…

Day 5 – Friday, May 24, 2019

Didn’t get to weigh myself today, as I was busy running out the door to docent. I have art up at the St. Augustine Beach Art Studio and Gallery, and in return for showing that art, I’m required to docent 7 hours/month. I was right on the money the first four months I had work up. The last two have been mostly dependent on how I feel, and they’ve been really good about letting me “make my hours”. Since Keto had put me on an upswing, I knew I’d be able to docent Friday and pay back some of the hours I owe for May.

It was a long day, and I managed to stick to Keto everywhere, while I was out. I had a Venti Cold Brew with Heavy Cream from Starbucks, which is negligible carbs, as long as you don’t get the Nitro version which is made with sugar. I also had the Bacon and Gruyere Sous Vide Egg Bites, which have 9g of carbs, and then I didn’t eat again till after my docent gig was over.

The evening brought me to a friend’s house for dinner and games. I skipped their dinner and brought my own from a local pizzeria. (No, not pizza!) I got a pita-less gyro which was okay, but I probably flubbed with my addition of extra tziki sauce, since it is made with milk, and the lactose in milk processes as sugar. I was tired by this time, and not thinking as clearly.

By the time I got home at ten, I was in a lot of pain and exhausted. All I wanted to do was throw something in the microwave and crawl into bed to work on my computer and let my body unkink. Unfortunately, everyone here took the opportunity to get KFC while I was gone, thinking it would save me from being tempted. Not when I roll in and need to eat and am too exhausted to make anything. I ruined the whole day with a chicken thigh, mashed potatoes and biscuit. Proving that I’m still not completely “head deep” into the Keto, and what’s pulling me out is the lack of available easy options when my Fibro is acting up. I’ll weigh tomorrow. Hopefully the damage won’t be too bad. I expect it will be another 4 days getting back into Ketosis, though.

Day 6 – Saturday, May 25, 2019 and

Day 7 – Sunday, May 26, 2019

Day 6 brought some bad news that made home life a mess. I didn’t weigh or stay on Keto because we had the terrible news that my Uncle was in the hospital following a stroke. We were glued to the telephone most of the day, trying to get news and help as best we could, considering we are in a different state. Quick and easy food, leftovers and comfort food were the norm for these two days.

Weekly Summary: STRUGGLING. Net Loss: 0.2#

Day 8 – Monday, May 27, 2019

The Day 8 weigh-in showed that I’ve put back on the 2# that I’ve lost. I’m SO ANGRY and frustrated! I know that I shouldn’t be, but I’m still 17# higher than I was at my lowest weight, and only 10# lower than when I started keto a year ago. It’s so hard not to feel demoralized over all of this. I know that I face challenges with my health, and I know that nobody could’ve predicted what happened this past weekend, but I just want to cry.

I stayed on Keto all day today, starting the day with a breakfast of 4 slices of bacon, and Starbucks Cold Brew coffee with 3 and 1/2 Tbsp. of heavy cream. I was grateful for breakfast, too, as my brain has been really foggy all weekend, and the protein hit helped considerably. I skipped lunch, but had a burger with mayo and Primal Kitchen Ketchup, a deviled egg and 7-Layer Salad (without the peas – or as many as I could manage to pick out).

One of the many challenges of being ill, is that I don’t often feel well enough to cook for myself, and I’m reliant on food made by people who aren’t on Keto with me.

I did enjoy a ChocZero Almond Chocolate Bark bar as a treat, though. Sweetened with their unique blend of eryithritol and monk fruit, they taste so good and never have any aftertaste! I’m particularly fond of their syrups, which come in flavors like caramel and maple. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll go use the SoDelicious Unsweetend Coconut Milk (there is only 1g of carbs in a full cup!) and the ChocZero Chocolate Syrup to make a cup of cocoa. Now I just need a really good whipped cream substitute!

Day 9 – Tuesday, May 28, 2019 – Day 14 – Sunday, June 2, 2019

On Saturday, May 26, 2019 we got word that my Uncle in New York had a stroke. This, combined with my birthday on May 30, pretty-much messed up every day from Tuesday, May 28, 2019 through Sunday, June 2, 2019. There were just too many variables to worry about food, and by the time Thursday rolled around, there was no way I was going to Keto for my birthday for a second year in a row – I wanted dessert!

This just highlights one of the major difficulties about being on Keto – the best Keto is composed of FRESH foods, and home cooking – neither of which holds up well under pressure or illness. I often don’t have the energy to cook, especially if I’ve done anything else that day (like cleaning or going to the store). There are few prepared foods for Keto. (Watch your labels folks! A lot of things say they are made for Keto, but have 40g of carbs in ONE meal! That is NOT Keto! Also, most of the prepared foods still use vegetable, sunflower or safflower oil – none of which are Keto approved fats and which will raise your cholesterol with a Ketogenic high fat diet!)

So far, the most promising thing I’ve seen is the Green Chef meal service. I’ve been in contact with them over their Keto offerings (some as low as 11g of carbs in one meal – not great, but BETTER than most packaged foods or other meal services) and I will keep you posted as I continue communicating with them.

Weekly Summary: DEMOLISHED. All weigh lost, regained because I couldn’t remain on the diet. Too much was going on to retain food selection. Too much takeout was consumed.

Day 15 – Monday, June 3, 2019

FINALLY! Today marked the first day Mom is back on Keto with me, and that will make my life so much easier! Planning food together is much easier than trying to “Ketofi” family meals, and the absence of junk food around the house will be a bonus. There’s nothing worse than not being able to find a reasonable Keto substitute snack in the house, and being surrounded by junk when you’re legitimately hungry!

I started the day with Starbucks cold brew dark roast coffee, 3Tbsp of heavy cream, and a doctor’s appointment. I was getting the results of my ultrasounds, which were thankfully okay, but I was totally nervous about the whole thing, so I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything. (Mom was so sweet and asked if I wanted a “rollup” – we make them with or without Gem Wraps and Boar’s Head lunch meats, because several are no sugar added, and no preservatives – but I just couldn’t stomach anything.)

By the time I got home, I was starving. I had 5 low-carb almond flour crackers with some Baba Ganoush from Oliv (have to check that, eggplant can sometimes be carby), as well as a few cubes of cheese. (We stopped at the grocery store to re-Ketofi our house, and I got three different types of 0 carb cheese – one with a wine crust, a beautiful cream Havarti, and a wonderful smoked Gouda.) Dinner was a steak crusted with a new 0 carb Carribean spice blend that I found. (I bought three new ones at the grocery store, so I’ll add links later on.) This one was called “Carribean Rum”. It was a bit milder than expected, and really needs to sit on the meat for a while, or be heavily crusted for full-flavor. The spice profile was wonderful, though. We also had a cauliflower dish made by the Alexis brand that had cheese and bacon in it, and salads with the Primal Pantry Balsalmic Vinegar dressing.

I did manage to get in some low-carb dessert goodness, in the form of some of the So Delicious No Sugar Added Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk Ice Cream, and later I had a Choc Zero Hazelnut Bark Bar. I’m not sure if I kept under the 20g of carbs, but right now, I’m just trying to get used to making the right food choices again. I’m also anticipating the onset of Keto Flu by salting food well, and taking Magnesium drops. I wish I could find an electrolyte blend that was a drop as sometimes I have trouble swallowing, and the electrolyte pills that I have are tremendous!

Day 16 – Tuesday, June 4, 2019

A Note About Fibromyalgia and It’s Effects on My Eating and Sleeping Patterns, as Well as its Effects on Weight Loss and Keto, in General

Today started slowly. My Fibro has been acting up and messing with my schedule. In the summer, we have Daylight Savings time which always throws me an hour out of whack, and no matter what I do, I can never seem to fix that until the fall. My schedule is “set” for some reason, with a sleep time that never varies, whether it falls at 3am in the fall or 4am in the summer. The main problem comes from being tired all the time over the summer, and needing more sleep. So while I can go to bed at 3am in the fall, get 7 or 8 hours of sleep and still be up between 10 and 11 am, in the summer that becomes 4am with 9 – 10.5 hours of sleep, and suddenly I’m sleeping till 1:30 – 3:00pm.

Of course, this difference in sleep times throws me out of whack with every scheduled activity I need to do, but it also throws me off kilter to the family’s eating schedule. I wake up and can’t eat for an hour or two because of nausea, and by the time I’m ready to eat, Mom wants to make dinner. My tummy doesn’t always handle dinner foods as its first meal, so I’ve been experiencing a lot of tummy upset at night, which interferes with my sleep, which interferes with.. well you get the picture.

Another eating-related problem is that when the Fibro is bad in the summer, I tend to slow down. Which means my metabolism slows down greatly. I can’t manage to exercise over the summer, and my only means of keeping my metabolism moving is to eat frequently. Unfortunately, I’m only managing to eat once or twice, because of the way my schedule is falling.

My problems with Fibro may not be your problems, but if they are, keep your chin up and just keep plugging away. If you’re doing Keto for weight loss, it will be slow at times. The best thing you can do is to eat smaller and more frequently – resist the urge to eat large and infrequent meals. Make sure you make the right Keto choices, stick to your macros, and keep at it. Eventually, when the Keto has improved your weight and your energy, you *will* be able to get moving again.

BACK TO THE FOOD REPORT

Weigh In: It’s starting. I lost 1.8#!

Today, I started the day with my customary Starbucks Dark Roast Cold Brew (unsweetened, of course) and 3TB of heavy cream. I didn’t eat breakfast (too much nausea), but for a snack I had 7 of the low-carb crackers I purchased with a couple of ounces of various cheese cubes.

Dinner consisted of a cheeseburger with fried onions and mushrooms (no bun), with Primal Ketchup. I had a ChocZero Hazelnut Bark bar for dessert. Around 10:30, 8 Cauliflower Thins were joined with some tuna salad for a yummy snack. I’m feeling the lack of veggies today, but I wanted a break from salad and cauliflower and nothing else seemed appealing. Mom has decided Broccoli Chicken is on the menu tomorrow. That’s one of my favorite recipes. We substitute cauliflower rice for regular rice, and you’d never know the difference.

A Note Regarding the Following Days

I apologize guys. I’m not sure what happened – I think I just had too much going on, and I was too focused on trying to get work done around so much fatigue. I simply forgot to record what I ate anywhere! I did record my weight and the results, with a couple of notes about things to watch for, but no full list of what I ate on a given day.

I’m trying to reconstruct as much of it as I can, so please bear with me. Thanks for your patience!

Day 17 – Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Forgot to weigh today. Have no idea how much I changed.

Day 18 – Thursday, June 6, 2019

Weigh In: I weighed today, but because I forgot to weigh yesterday, I’m not sure what really happened. Calculating the results between Day 16 and today, I can say that I lost 1.4 pounds overall, though.

Day 19 – Friday, June 7, 2019

Weigh In: I lost 0.8 pounds today!

Day 20 – Saturday, June 8, 2019

Weigh In: I went up by 0.2# today. I suspect it was the nutty snack bites I ate yesterday. They have a negligible amount of real sugar, and are a bit carby with all of the seeds and nuts in them. They’re not sweet at all, and really delicious. I’ll have to be careful *how many* of them I eat. I’ll experiment to see when I go over that sugar limit. Remember: Eating anything that processes like sugar causes an insulin response which kicks you out of Ketosis (fat burning mode) and into sugar burning mode. Your body will have to finish processing the sugar, before it can switch back. So eating sugar or sugar-like foods, can kick you out of ketosis by 2 -3 days EACH time!

Day 21 – Sunday, June 9, 2019

Weigh In: All of that weight must have been water from eating something inflammatory. I lost a crazy 3.4# overnight! Wow!

Weekly Summary: AMAZING!! I lost a whopping 7.2# this week! Holy cow!!!

Overall Loss: 7.2#

Day 22 – Monday, June 10, 2019

Weigh In: My weight stayed the same today. I’m okay with that!

Day 23 – Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Weigh In: Small fluctuation – up 0.2#. I’m not worried yet, though!

Day 24 – Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Weigh In: I lost 0.8 pounds today!

I don’t remember much about this day, except that we ordered Chinese food and I got the Curry Chicken and Vegetables, because I figured it was pretty safe. Unfortunately, most Chinese food has corn starch in it for thickening, and if you don’t specifically ask for no starch/no sugar, you’re stuck with what you get. I didn’t remember to ask, so even though I subbed out regular rice with cauliflower rice, I may have created a problem for myself somewhere.

Day 25 – Thursday, June 13, 2019

Weigh In: My weight has trickled up by 0.4#. Could it be something in the Chinese food I ate?

Thursday is my friend Kathy’s weekly Game Night. We’ve been getting a large turnout lately, so I haven’t wanted to miss it. Unfortunately, with everything else I’ve had going on, juggling has become the norm. I’ve been trading this off with a dinner party that happens weekly on Fridays, since I usually can’t manage to do both.

I slept late, and didn’t eat until almost 4:30, when my Mom threw a lamb chop in the oven early. Bless her, I probably wouldn’t have eaten at all, if she hadn’t done that. I was running tired and trying to get too many things done. I don’t mention it often, but I’m trying to work on my Critical Six List EVERY day. (If you don’t know what this is – you need to see this video by Rafi Perez of Rafi Was Here Studios. I’ll be writing a post on it later.)

Rafi Was Here: 8 Things I Do Every Day in My Art Studio (Critical 6 Explanation)

I brought a hard-boiled egg, some So Delicious No Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream with a little ChocZero Honest Chocolate Syrup on top, and the rest of my lamb chop over to Kathy’s. The ladies who attend the weekly game night, know I’m on a limited diet, and they’re wonderful about bringing stuff to share. Suzy brought fresh strawberries (I had two), and Brenda brought cheese, crackers and nuts, and I was able to have some cheese and nuts without issue.

After this, I went shopping so that I could make something for The Art Studio mixer on Friday night. I didn’t even get home till 1am.

I was so exhausted when I got home, I decided to have a treat. I let myself have a serving of So Delicious No Sugar Butter Pecan – and it WAS! So delicious, I mean! It’s a new flavor and I could only find it at Walmart. Well-worth the extra effort to get it! Since I ate so little the rest of the day, I was sure I’d come under the carb limit, even with the “ice cream”.

Day 26 – Friday, June 14, 2019

Weigh In: Uh-oh. Gained 0.6 pounds today! I suspect it was because of the So Delicious No Sugar Butter Pecan I ate last night. Although it contains no sugar, it has an addition that the Chocolate and Vanilla don’t have – chicory root! I’ve heard some rumors that chicory root processes just like sugar. This bears investigating. No more butter pecan until I can devise a conclusive test! (Update: My latest investigation shows that they MAY be changing their formula. None of my chocolate or vanilla pints have chicory root in them, but the formulation shown on their website DOES. This may become something we can’t eat.)

Friday started out tiring and ended up awful. I had an Art Studio social event on this evening, and I slept as late as possible after my shopping excursion of the previous night. If I could have planned that better, I would have. My Fibro really needed a full 24 hours of rest in-between, and it didn’t get it. Instead, I rolled out of bed on six hours of sleep, and began preparing Keto Pimento Cheese Spread. I needed to bring something to the event, and cheese spread, paired with Big Wheat Thins, for the non-Ketos, and Simple Mills Rosemary Crackers for me, seemed a great option. I really thought we’d all go out to eat afterwards, so I wasn’t planning a meal-like item.

I also had to swing through the Guy Harvey Outpost and pick up the surfboard for my latest community project. (Post to follow.) (Pic of the unfinished surfboard coming shortly – it’s in pretty rough shape.) Kathy and the rest of the gals didn’t mind, and seemed to enjoy the side detour. They spotted some birds nesting in a nearby light post, and spent some time outside taking pictures, while I hurried in and tried to find my contact. I think we all agreed we’d like to go back and take a look around, seemed like an interesting place.

We arrived a bit after the mixer started, and The Art Studio was totally jammed. They only have a small in-wall A/C unit, and the door to the studio was open, so it wasn’t doing anything. Between all the bodies, and the heat and the humidity outside, I felt ill fairly quickly. I put out my food, managed to get a few crackers and some of my cheese spread into me before the nausea hit, replenished the stock in my case, and then slumped into a chair near the A/C power-pushing water, and never moving again. It totally defeated the purpose of a mixer for me. I couldn’t even think enough to hold a conversation with friends, much-less mingle with new people and hope to sound intelligent. Lesson Learned: I won’t be going to ANY summer events at The Art Studio. Kathy finally rescued me, telling The Art Studio President, Paul Slava, “I need to get Gina out of here.” By the time she pulled me out the door saying, “You’re leaving. NOW.”, I could barely stand. It took me most of the one-hour car ride back to begin to feel better.

Before we went to Kathy’s house, we stopped at Sammi’s Pizza, and I ordered a pita-free gyro with extra Tzatziki sauce from them. I suspect part of the reason I felt so ill was because I hadn’t eaten, and my body had no resources to draw on when I started to get overwrought. After I ate, I felt better and was able to engage in art conversation and general hilarity as we sat around at Kath’s house, but by 8:30 I was sitting with my head on the kitchen table, trying hard not to fall asleep. It was a relief to finally get home.

Day 27 – Saturday, June 15, 2019

Weigh In: NOT GOOD. I gained a pound today!

Today was a challenge, because I had an all-day Game Day at a friend’s house, and they always order pizza. Sometimes they bring in donuts. Even if I’m good, my weight will often pop up after a game day, simply *being around* so many carbs! Okay, that last part isn’t true, but I think what happens is that I bring a lot of low-carb snacks with me, and in order to feel as if I’m not being deprived, I eat more than usual, which puts me over my carb limit anyways. At least, that’s my guess.

Not this weekend, though! This weekend, instead of snacks, I brought meals. Two of them. I also stopped and got Cold Brew from Starbucks – as I often do on these days – as well as their Bacon and Gruyère Egg Bites. Those are a bit carby at 8g of carbs, but worth it if you’re planning well. I didn’t want to cook. I didn’t want to fuss. I wanted to roll out of bed, get breakfast on the run, and arrive at Game Day with as much sleep as possible! I arrived at noon, and jumped straight into SpaceCorp 2025-2300AD while eating.

For lunch, I had steak with fried peppers and onions – still while playing SpaceCorp. Breakfast had gotten me through till 4:30 without me feeling a bit hungry or deprived. I knew that the gang would start ordering pizza around 5, so to combat that, I ate at 4:30. It was delicious, filled me up, and when the pizza arrived I was too satiated to care.

Around 9pm I ate again. (Yes, these things go noon-midnight. Yes, by this time SpaceCorp was *finally* over – after 7 hours, lol.) I played Machi Koro while eating Broccoli Chicken. By this point, everyone else was on snacks like chips and M&Ms, but I stayed true. I treated myself to some Hint Water in various flavors throughout the day, and sailed on to midnight.

It was a relief to get home. I was exhausted after three major outings this week, including shopping. I treated myself to a ChocZero Coconut Bark Bar, and a couple of hours later I fell asleep.

Day 28 – Sunday, June 16, 2019

Back on track! I lost 1.4# today!!

As you can see, one of the biggest challenges with Fibromyalgia is remembering to do things. Right now, I’m working to catch up on this blog post. I was smart enough to keep a list of what I was eating each day, so right now, I’m in the process of reconstructing those things.

Today was Father’s Day, so Dad got to pick the meal and he wanted Teriyaki Chicken which is proscribed on Keto. (There are several things in Teriyaki sauce, even homemade, which are not Keto-friendly.) I didn’t go off, however.

For my first meal, I had a snack of Simple Mills, Sundried Tomato Basil crackers and cream cheese.

That tied me over until dinner, when I had grilled chicken and veggies, sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic. To season mine, I selected butter, and some of that Caribbean seasoning – this time Caribbean Jerk flavor. I went back for a small amount of seconds, this time supplemented by a little bit of the konjac “noodles” my Mom had made (I don’t really like the texture, but sometimes you just need a noodle replacement.)

I allowed myself a wonderful dessert of So Delicious No Sugar Coconut Milk Ice Cream, topped with ChocZero Honest Maple Syrup and a couple of crumbled pecans. (8g net carbs)

Finally, for my final meal I had a simple lamb chop done in olive oil, garlic and a tiny bit of lemon juice.

Weekly Summary: AGGRAVATED. Gained 0.6# overall. Something or someTHINGS I ate this week, caused me to drop out of Ketosis.

Overall Loss: 3.2#

Day 29 – Monday, June 17, 2019

Weigh In: I lost 0.8 pounds today!

I started the day with my usual version of Keto Coffee – Starbucks Dark Cold Brew Unsweetened, with 2Tb of Heavy Cream (okay, yes, that’s a bit more cream than I usually use, but there was a drizzle left in the container and I couldn’t see returning it to the fridge for such a small amount!)

My opening snack consisted of half a Parmesan crisp with Laughing Cow Cheese Spread. I try to avoid that, usually, because it has some preservatives in it, but it tastes good, and is low carb, which makes it a great occasional treat.