My Low Carb Frustration – and Food Diary 🙂

Did you weigh-in this week? 🙂 Our current Low Carb Challenge is nearing the end, but we’re gearing up for another FUN challenge starting soon!

You’ll find the Week 12 Weigh In inside the Challenge Group, or you can comment here on this post if you’re not participating in our Facebook group.

We’ll have our final weigh-in for this challenge on Monday, April 2nd.

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This challenge has been particularly challenging for me…

This pretty much sums up the month of March for me, lol:

Which is why I started using Ketone Strips and kicked off a series of clean testing experiments – to figure out what has caused my weight loss to stall out and just keep fluctuating plus or minus five pounds, for a full year now.

In my last weigh-in post I was stuck (holding) at 140.8 pounds and had just gotten back into optimal ketosis after testing a low carb product.

Then in my last food diary post I shared my meals for last Tuesday and Wednesday, and that I screwed up my “optimal ketosis” state – but not with food…

What really happened, what I thought happened, and what happened next… that’s the topic for today, along with what I’ve been eating to get myself back in ketosis since then. 🙂

To catch you up, when we left off last I was planning to go out dancing and have a few beers on Thursday night.

I rarely drink, but I do love live music & dancing, and a couple of low carb beers to go with it. 😉

I wasn’t feeling that great on Wednesday, kinda sluggish and allergy or cold symptoms, so I decided I should start taking my multi-vitamin again.

Sounds like a good idea, right?

I haven’t been taking them for awhile. I got out of the habit. I take Irwin Naturals Living Green Multi Liquid-Gel for Women. I only take ONE and always with food & water, otherwise it tends to upset my stomach for some reason.

I only took that ONE vitamin (one of a 3-capsule daily serving) on Wednesday, and otherwise only had “tested foods” within my usual keto macros – but I immediately tested “out of ketosis” within hours of taking the vitamin. (???)

From that point forward, my ketone testing was all over the place. I had tested my normal color of ketosis that morning, but after taking the vitamin I would either get a flatline (no color, out of ketosis) or BRIGHT pink, like glow in the dark HOT pink lol.

My first concern was that all the fruit & vegetable blends in this particular vitamin MUST have naturally occurring sugar and that it knocked me out of ketosis.

I spoke with their Consumer Affairs nutrition expert on the phone though, and she assured me there is less than .05 of any macronutrient per 3-capsule serving.

Further research dug up some interesting facts and speculations, specifically that vitamins can throw false negatives AND false positives, and even that high doses of Vitamin C may affect your readings. Whether or not it affects your actual ketone levels or throws you out of ketosis, I have no idea.

I just knew that I didn’t know, and no longer had a reliable way to test. Not while the vitamin was still in my system at least.

The ketone test strips saying I was out of ketosis is one thing, but I ate good and then woke up the next morning bloated and weighing 1.5 pounds heavier (water weight).

Rah! 🙄

I had no idea at that point if I was IN or OUT (of ketosis) so I just decided to blow it off and let it play out and see – and continue to only eat “tested low carb foods” (based on my current clean testing).

So for breakfast on Thursday I had two of the Low Carb Blueberry Cinnamon Bun Muffins I made last week using this recipe, warmed up & topped with butter.

I also finished the last Blueberry Fat Bomb that was hiding in the freezer. 🙂

All afternoon I was considering what to do while I wrapped up my work for the day. Aaron and I had a date that night to hit the city and go see a live band…

I’ve been waiting on a good opportunity to enjoy my favorite off-plan (but still paleo and relatively low carb) meal: sushi – which also happens to be Aaron’s favorite indulgence in our otherwise keto diet.

I was torn all afternoon about that though. But also slightly bloated already, slightly annoyed too lol, and then the fact that it was bothering me started bothering me. 😛

I decided to let it all go and just do a “hard reset.”

Neither of us ate that much at dinner, just enough to be satisfied and no more, then we headed to Nashville and I enjoyed my three low carb beers and some dancing.

At the point that I decided to “let it go” on Thursday I took another vitamin, given I wasn’t going to be testing my ketone levels for a few days anyway – and I haven’t been feeling my best.

I’ll have to figure out what to do about that, or whether it’s really a problem for me, like maybe a sensitivity or reaction to one of the ingredients or blends in it – because it has always given me indigestion, and the bloating and negative readings make me want to toss it. 😉

I woke up craving pancakes on Friday morning…

Sidenote: I don’t even know why I’m sharing all of this with you, or if you even care, but I figure you want to know my thought process – and how I got myself back in ketosis, which is where I’m going with this next.;)

So yes, I woke up with a headache (I’m a lightweight, lol) and craving SWEETS.

It was the perfect morning for Low Carb Pecan Pie Pancakes, for sure. 🙂

I have THREE low carb syrups I like, but only two that I’ve done clean testing on so far. I still haven’t tested the ChocoZero products to see if or how they affect my ketone levels…

I like them all three, but the ChocZero syrup is definitely my favorite. It’s thick and rich and absolutely delicious!

Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Syrup is 2 net carbs for 1/4 cup.

ChocZero Syrups are 2 net carbs per TBSP.

Know Foods Syrup is zero net carbs.

I haven’t been enjoying the ChocZero products or flavored syrups lately since I’ve been doing my clean testing experiments one product at a time, so I took this “testing break” as an opportunity to ENJOY my favorite ChocZero syrup: Maple Pecan! 🙂

Fluffy pecan pie pancakes and ooey gooey maple pecan thick & rich syrup was the PERFECT low carb hangover cure. 🙂 lol

At this point (Friday morning) I have no idea if I’m still in ketosis or not, and still don’t trust the test strips yet – given I had another vitamin the day before, plus untested products.

I’m not 100% sure the ONE sushi roll on Thursday night would knock me all the way out of ketosis (or not). I’m guessing so, but that’s definitely just a guess, with no way to confirm either way.

The only other meal I ate on Friday after the low carb pancakes & syrup was a totally off-plan meal (just a single meal, not a binge – which is a win for me, lol) to ensure the “hard reset” I was after. That plus no more vitamins of course, so I could start getting accurate ketone readings again.;)

I woke up on Saturday morning ready to dive back in with a clean slate, but FIRST – I had a ChocZero Dipping Cup for breakfast, because I haven’t had one in months, and it might be the last chance for awhile! 🙂

I had cream cheese and peanut butter with a ChocZero Dark Chocolate Dipping Cup poured over the top. All low carb of course!

The dipping cups are still out of stock, but you can still get white chocolate on Amazon – for now, anyway.

After breakfast on Saturday I resumed my “clean eating” to get back into optimal ketosis – eating only foods I have tested so far and know for sure don’t have a negative affect on my ketone levels.

So for lunch I finished the last two Low Carb Blueberry Cinnamon Bun Muffins I made last week using this recipe. Keto Tested and approved! 😉

I topped them with cream cheese and frozen blueberries, which I warmed up together just enough to make it fluffy and purple -lol. That was delicious!!

For dinner I kept it simple with three eggs fried in real butter and topped with cheese:

On Sunday morning I decided to try the new flavor of KZ Paleo Cereal: Strawberry & Chocolate. It’s way different than the Original KZ Cereal with big dried strawberries in it!

They are both sold out on Amazon, but I got this bag of the new Strawberry & Chocolate cereal in one of my February Keto Boxes.

I had it with 1/4 cup Daisy Brand 4% cottage cheese (half a serving), 30 grams of pecans, and 2 servings of the cereal mix – for a total of 4 net carbs.

That was so good I had it again for lunch! 🙂

Aaron came over that evening, so I decided to make dinner for a change.

I started with this simple “cucumber salad” which is just diced cucumber salted, with a TBSP or so of mayo and crumbled feta cheese.

You can get as fancy as you like with it, using a low carb vinaigrette instead of mayo, adding diced tomatoes, etc – but we both like simple.

I always make the cucumber salad first then set it in the fridge while I make dinner. Which tonight was turkey sandwiches on spinach bread.

First though, while I was slicing up that cucumber, we had a delicious snack of Apple Pie Almond Butter on crisp cold cucumber slices. YUM! 🙂

Have you ever tried your nut butter on cucumber?? I like it so much better than celery!

The Low Carb Spinach Bread Recipe is super easy to make, and it’s one of Aaron’s favorites. I made half a batch (1/2 cup almond flour, 3 oz finely shredded parmesan, 1 tbsp melted butter, 1 large egg & 1/2 bag of frozen spinach).

The half batch made 6 biscuits, which made 3 sandwiches – one for me and two for him.;)

I had turkey, mayo & fresh baby spinach on mine.

Keeping with foods I knew were tested and “keto approved” to get back into Optimal Ketosis, I had low carb blueberry pancakes for breakfast on Monday morning – made with the same nut butter recipe I used before.

I added frozen blueberries too, in addition to the berries in the Blueberry Cinnamon Bun Nut Butter, so they were especially delicious!

And this time I used Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Syrup on them. 😉

Breakfast was actually late in the morning, so I had a super late lunch – or more like an early dinner.

Aaron brought salmon & broccoli take-out from Applebee’s with a side caesar salad. That hit the spot! I ate it ALL, where I would usually make two meals out of that.;)

Later that night I got hungry, and just had some cream cheese & nut butter together, which is my latest low carb obsession. It’s so creamy & good, like cream pie 🙂 – especially with the flavored nut butters!

I’m using Philadelphia “5 Simple Ingredients” cream cheese which is 1/2 carb per ounce instead of 2 carbs per ounce. I had 2.5 ounces of that with 3 TBSP of Pecan Pie Almond Butter (only 1 net carb per TBSP).

That ^ is SO good! I’m pretty sure my nut butter was making faces at me though -lol. 🙂

 

That brings us up to date…

I was back in ketosis as of Tuesday morning. I had the same cereal for breakfast again, sausage & eggs for lunch, and just some pecans and cream cheese & nut butter for dinner – because I was tired. 😛

This time last week I was “holding” at 140.8 pounds.

After the “vitamin incident” I was up to 142.8.

After my “hard reset” on Friday I was at 145 pounds.

Yesterday (Tuesday morning) I weighed in at 143 pounds – and showed on the Ketone Strips as finally back in ketosis.

Today (Wednesday) I woke up in Optimal Ketosis with a solid reading on the Ketone Strip, but one pound higher on the scale: at 144 pounds. Such is the way it goes, I’m used to that. It all plays out over time…

My goal is to get back into the 130’s where my body belongs, but as I’ve mentioned before: I’m less concerned about the number on the scale and more focused on 1) staying/being IN ketosis, and 2) getting back to regular workouts and an active lifestyle to build up my core strength & muscle tone again.

 

I’m honestly frustrated and kinda over the whole product testing thing and really just want to eat pecan halves and eggs and steak and not even THINK about it anymore – or pee on another test strip. 😛 lol.

Blah – it’s too much like dieting!

Still, I’m determined to identify what has caused my weight loss to stall over this last year. So I’ll let you know when I decide to do my next “clean test” – intentionally this time lol. But at least I learned something new about vitamins & supplements!

I guess I should have expected screwy results considering they make my pee glow in the dark. 😉

How are things going with you this week?

Don’t forget to weigh-in here, or in your comment below…

Leave a comment and let’s chat!:)

Sorry for the little “detour” this week but at least I didn’t totally go off the rails. 😉 And yes, I know I should “eat like a grownup” a little more often (ha!), but having keto flu AND a full work schedule – I’ve just been eating what’s on hand (and “keto approved” already).

Plus you know how it is: the minute you knock yourself out of ketosis you start craving sweets again. But I did keep it to low carb sweets within my keto macros.;) Win!

I hope you at least got some good low carb food ideas to try this week from this update! 🙂 *cheers* xo

To be low carb continued…

Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler

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