Danny DeKeto part viii
Too much time has passed since part vii and since I was last in deep ketosis… let’s catch up on both!
I have photos like this, but this better-composed Photo by Burst from Pexels
Remaining in ketosis was tricky when we were all locked down, staying indoors, and for myself, not visiting the gym for exercise and maybe staying in one place for too long each day. For myself, there wasn’t too much snacking, though there was not strict adherence to my own dietary customs which I’ve established in my so-called Keto Journey.
I will stress again right here at the top, that this is indeed my keto journey, which may or may not help you with yours, but which is not intended to be advice in any way. I kicked off this article series so long ago in response to two types of interaction, the first being along the lines of “what is a keto diet?” and the second more frustrating form, “You know what you should do instead?” and similar. I decided that writing it down would be a useful way to respond to both (by deferring the discussion, at least), and for posterity as well.
Today in Keto
Well let’s see where we are in the world of Keto and “diets” lately, with this first link a result of Google News throwing this at me from multiple sources. I’ve selected a link with a less inflammatory headline:
These articles appear now and then, and in general that second group of people I referred to above are often found to be referring to these types of articles. I usually stop reading them as soon as there is a confusion (accidentally or otherwise) between a ketogenic diet focused on reduced intake of carbohydrates, and what is essentially a “paleo diet” which skews heavily toward animal protein (aka meat) intake. The keto umbrella is quite large, and everything fits under it whether it’s useful or not.
I am not any of food scientist, nutritionist, physician, biologist, etc. I did, though, proactively develop my own menu of keto-friendly food items to keep me filled with nutrition and hunger-quelling hormone secretions without loading up on carbohydrates, to try out how a ketogenic diet might effect me. This did not mean going on “The Keto Diet,” but rather, “a keto-friendly diet.” The latter is much more flexible than most people think, and so we get articles that mix “low carbohydrate” and “very low carbohydrate” terminology, are cavalier with what each of those mean in terms of absolute food mass and relative caloric percentage of total dietary intake
I have literally just finished watching this interesting presentation at The Royal Institute (virtually in this case) by obesity researcher Giles Yao about calories (a good backgrounder for those of us who ponder the calories per gram of macronutrient in our dietary mathematical gyrations):
I found myself recalling my early research (note my use of that term… I researched for me, I am not a researcher, as Giles Yao actually is) on nutrients and metabolism and how intermittent fasting and ketosis all fit together. This was a generally interesting video, if you have about 40 minutes I do recommend checking it out as part of a foundational review.
I will say that Yao does fall into a similar trap, though, in grossly classifying menus with a certain makeup based on popular use of terms, and while in the context of this presentation I don’t consider this quite so egregious as the references as in the article I linked above, it is something to watch out for. He refers to several popular and not-as-popular styles of diet, but it would be incorrect to assume that there is one single Paleo or Keto or Mediterranean diet, and in my opinion this is too often lost in the discussion.
My Own Menu
Flipping through the previous 7 parts of this article series is an exercise I’ll leave to you. I recommend it as a form of contemporaneous exposition along the way, but this is the short version:
First, make sure I am not missing nutrition. I didn’t want to become Vitamin B deficient, I didn’t want to miss out on the basic minerals and other micronutrients that spell good health, and I knew from my readings that the Keto Flu was usually a result in part of mineral loss as muscular water retention gave way to glycogen consumption during the cross-over phase (bringing blood glucose levels down and ketone levels up).
Second, given my own experiences feeling full or uncomfortable when eating multiple meals each day (slow digestive system?), I decided to go all in on OMAD/IF, or One Meal A Day/Intermittent Fasting. This meant squishing all of my mealtime into a single time slot each day, and while I am still on the fence about when this best time is for me, it’s usually in the latter part of the day.
Third, supplementation is exactly that, not replacement. Nutritional yeast is a great source of various Vitamin B components, for example, while a multi-vitamin which includes Vitamin B complex in the long list of components is fine to fill in any gaps, maybe. I never considered the supplements in bottles to be replacements for what is in the food, and so I selected my menu with the nutritional components in mind.
Fourth, consider the whole system, including gut health. In my research travels I began to reflect on my own gut health and potential weaknesses there, and so I began experimenting with fiber and probiotics and such, and I found I felt better. Balancing different types of resistant starch (unmodified potato starch, RS2, is something I use more often than cooked-then-cooled rice for RS3, for examples), with gut-health fiber (glucomannan and inulin) and a probiotic which works for me (this requires some experimentation, and if you really must know you can get your own gut microbiome analyzed to fill in any deficiencies), coupled with the higher dietary fiber components of my keto menu (spinach, kale, cauliflower, etc) have made for a better sense of health and well-being across the board. So much so, in fact, that I wondered often why I would eat a donut or pizza or other such things which are not all that great for our health in general (but then, we know why we enjoy a donut and pizza…).
Fifth, balance diet, exercise, rest, and life. Nothing new here, but for me, sleep was often tossed out in favor of staying up late working, or socializing, and while neither of those are bad things, the balance really is key. In my own experience, the balance of diet and exercise is critical, the inclusion of adequate rest is essential, and making this fit into a pleasant daily life is always a challenge that pays dividends throughout. Wait, is that an explicit priority ordering there? It’s all relative, and it needs to work for you.
I already enjoyed going to the gym, so an exercise component was easy enough to maintain. Adjustments to my actual dietary menu took place based on research, on some previous experimentation with, say, vegetarian and vegan menus and my existing American menu and eventually fell into a keto-friendly set of items. It was important to me that I identified items that are enjoyable, and it turns out that’s easy. It also turns out that my own keto menu is not so heavy with animal proteins, which is where my concerns about articles as I’ve linked above come in… my keto diet is not The Keto Diet as I say now and then, because there is not one.
I gave in more often to the need to sleep, which was probably the most difficult part of my adventure, but one that was ultimately rewarding. We must rest, no doubt about it. I happen to be lucky enough to not be overly distracted by caffeine, so that coffee intake doesn’t impact my restful sleep so much (though medications can, so I am more aware of how I treat my allergies, for example). If a sufficient level of exercise is included in the daily or weekly schedule, sleep will find you if you don’t find it.
Balancing life with these changes has meant including what I call Keto Cheato items now and then. No, this is not “dirty keto” that comes up sometimes, but a realization that sometimes pizza and donuts are okay, but only now and then. If I am to follow my bullet goals, then pizza and donuts match nearly zero of my requirements other than that life balance, because we are physiologically inclined to enjoy greasy carbs and sugary sweets. For my own uses, Friday was usually my cheat day, and while “cheat” is something of a loaded term, for my own consideration it was important to keep in the back of my mind the notion that pizza is a delicious deviation from my own norms. Your mileage may vary here, as it should with all of this.
My Daily Go To Meal
I stopped taking pictures since the meals were always essentially the same, but I found that when I was working from home, eating a known-good meal in my OMAD/IF schedule was easy, convenient, and tasty. If you can construct a menu of food items which you enjoy, which you look forward to consuming, and which provide your nutritional needs (and in my case, meet the requirements above), you will not find following a “diet” to be such a slog as some might think.
My one core meal each day is approximately:
- Riced cauliflower (steamed)
- Brussels sprouts (steamed)
- Broccoli (steamed)
- Spinach (raw)
- Kale (raw)
- Parmesan Cheese (grated, to taste), sometimes Feta or other cheeses
- Nutritional Yeast
- Chia seeds (ground)
- Flax seeds (ground)
- Nuts (sometimes… any of Walnuts, Almonds, Pecans, Macadamias)
- Seeds (sometimes… any of pumpkin or sunflower, or maybe others)
- Sun dried tomato, Jalapeno slices, or other auxiliary vegetables to taste
- Spices (varies, to taste)
This is a meal that is extremely easy to prepare, very low in carbohydrate, and very filling. I sometimes include some protein, like wild smoked salmon, in small amounts to keep protein intake levels adequate, but as Yao says in his video, a (largely) plant-based diet will lead to weight loss because of the mechanisms of metabolism and calorie extraction, and so for my own uses this is one of the benefits… weight loss and a general sense of well-being are both wins in exchange for a meal which I enjoy and which is easy to make and nutritionally sufficient.
On top of the core meal are my two supplemental menu items:
- 1 daily cold water mix of glucomannon, inulin, unmodified potato starch, cinnamon, and green Stevia powder, with liquid probiotic
- 1 daily coffee with collagen protein, cacao powder, and high-C8 MCT oil
That is it. Cheats now and then, including meals containing more or even substantially more animal proteins (aka Meat, which I enjoy in moderation) and meals higher in carbohydrate, are allowed now and then, and if I am capturing data like body weight and blood glucose levels, I can see directly the impact such cheats have on me and act accordingly.
Coffee and water all day, of course, and there was a time when I was drinking an apple cider vinegar beverage with carbonated water… I do not enjoy this, but it is probably not a bad idea, especially if I can mask the flavor completely with almost anything other than apple cider vinegar.
Getting in to Ketosis
As I type this I am mid-fast to increase my ketone levels and enter proper ketosis. Again. If there is one challenge for myself that has been more steep than I would like it has been keeping myself in ketosis while staying in so often, as we should (and must?) during whichever phase of pandemic we find ourselves in.
Exogenous ketones are not helpful, unless you really want to see your urine test strips turn deep purple. For me, the very best way to get in to a ketogenic state is to fast. Once I switched from those urine strips to a proper blood meter (I don’t want to give the company a plug because I don’t care for their support practices), and I could observe my own serum levels of glucose and ketone, it became clear how effective my fast could be in getting there.
Getting there is pretty easy, as it turns out. 45–50 hours of fasting, especially if there is normal gym activity in that interval, will bring me from no-keto to “light ketosis” at 1.0 mmol/mL or better, which will only increase if I don’t fall off the keto wagon soon after. My downfall of late has been… popcorn. Yipes. The goal is to “burn off” the glycogen without replacing it, and then add in some of that MCT coffee and a nice core meal (by the way, breaking a fast > 24–30 hours should begin with something very simple like bone broth or maybe a vegetable stock, be careful with your digestive system!).
Once in ketosis, the go to meal I’ve described above does not drive my levels out of this ketogenic state, and so I can maintain a low-blood-glucose level while still consuming nutritional, delicious foods without being left hungry or weak. Win win win? Seems to be.
Staying in Ketosis
This is always the challenge, to be honest. Once there is some momentum, as weight loss or strength or general well-being goals are being attained, it’s easier in my opinion, but breaking old habits is tricky and without some actual data as feedback, it can only be more difficult to stick with it. To be perfectly honest, this has been my problem more recently, lacking focus and giving in to pure laziness of staying home all the time to avoid potential infection in this second (or third?) wave of pandemic-ness.
I have found that a weekly extended fast (something more than 24 hours) is helpful to reset the system, so to speak, especially after any Keto Cheato at the end of the week. The longer fasts are good for me, they may or may not be good for you. My own experiences with intermittent fasting have made fasting generally easier, though not staying focused on my weekly extended fast regimen didn’t help. Getting back into that mode has been slightly challenging, but ultimately useful an experience.
The real take-home from the pandemic lockdown era has been the coupling of my own keto menu and a consistent exercise schedule. I had determined, and probably mentioned, that I can be in a stable state (maintain body weight, general well-being) with the keto-friendly diet and intermittent fasting, but weight loss and real well-being come from keto and exercise. As I discovered during 2020, exercise can include walking for several miles each day, but it cannot be limited to that. If I set a daily goal for general movement at 100%, then my own goal for weight loss and well-being is something more than 180% of that daily. It really should be over 200% but that’s something to tune.
Finally, taking personal measurements (the “quantified self” of modern times) is not only useful, but essential. I do not count calories nor weigh food (I took the eat-to-satiety route and that has worked well for me), but checking body weight, checking blood glucose and ketone levels, and tracking exercise output levels have been essential tools for my own wellness. Your mileage may vary here as well, but watching for consistency and improvement using real data is a good idea, in my view.
