Well HELLO AGAIN... (I'm so sorry!!!!)Wow. Hi y'all. First, I have to apologize for disappearing on you guys for the last (almost) year! SORRY!!!!! SORRY SORRY SORRY!!!!!! I got a little ambitious and started a Vegan Keto Instagram (@vegan_keto_madi) at the same time I started this blog, so once school started again in the fall, one had to give and it unfortunately ended up being this blog! (Posting photos just seemed a little easier and less daunting than maintaining a blog!) I couldn't even remember the password to log in for the longest time, but since I just had a MAJOR life change with my vegan keto diet, I HAD to get back in here and share it with you all! It's. Been. AMAZING!!!!! First, let me give you a recap. I'm still vegan. I'm still keto. I don't remember how far I had gotten by my last entry, but I kept off the almost 30 pounds I lost since last year. Go me! (HOWEVER, while my excruciating stomachaches were gone, TMI but I was still... pooping (can't sugar coat that- figuratively)... 3-4 times a day...) Now, to the BIG KETO CHANGE!!!!!!!! The Experiment...Soooooooooo, as the title suggests, 10 days ago, I gave up SOY, GLUTEN and ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS! So this meant, NO MORE VEGAN JERKY (which I am a little upset about, as it is $10/bag and I just bought a 3 pack...) ... NO MORE TOFURKEY... NO MORE ROCKSTARS... NO MORE DIET COKE... NO MORE LOW CARB TORTILLAS.... WHOLE, NATURAL, HEALTHFUL, VEGAN KETO FOODS ONLY!!!!!!!!! I originally started this challenge, ironically, to prove other keto-ers wrong. I'll be honest and own that one. I kept reading about how tofu/soy is not really accepted on the keto diet, and I thought to myself "What the heck do these people know? I eat tofu all the time, and I'm still 119! I've kept off my weight; I feel pretty good!" So, I set off on my quest to "prove them wrong" and gave up soy. I like to go big, though, so I ended up giving up artificial sweeteners too. And, coincidentally, I happened to not be eating gluten as a part of this all, so I figured I'd add it to the challenge, too. Why not, right? The verdict? I WAS WRONG! I WAS SO WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The GOOD NEws!I FEEL AMAZING! I have had chronic fatigue for the last DECADE and for once, I AM NOT CONSTANTLY EXHAUSTED! In fact, I have WAY more energy than I know what to do with! Honestly, I feel slightly manic sometimes because I am not used to having this much energy! I do not NEED caffeine anymore (I still drink it in the mornings, because I love it, but I am not desperate and dying for a refill of caffeine around lunchtime. I even debated getting caffeine or caffeine free tea at a meeting today! [I went with green, if you're curious]). My brain is moving faster; I am not constantly in a fog! I find myself speaking louder, with more confidence. IT'S SO STRANGE! I FEEL ALIVE AGAIN!!!! And, believe it or not, it's 5pm and I'm at a meeting after a full day of work AND I FEEL GREAT WRITING THIS! I'm actually used to going to bed at 7:30, and the last few days I've looked at the clock and it's been close to 10pm and I wasn't even tired! I drank sleepytime tea last night just to make sure I got some sleep haha. But in the mornings, I'm not waking up grumpy like before. I am a little grumpy that I'm woken up by my poop alarm clock (as I affectionately call it), but I'm popping out of bed at 5am instead of 6am and it ain't no thang! Speaking of poop (we're all friends here, right?) I am pooping *drumroll* ONCE A DAY!!!! And it's solid; a miracle for an IBS sufferer... believe me, it's been YEARS! I know it sounds silly for a 30 year old woman to say "Guess what? I pooped ONE solid poop today!" BUT when that hasn't been a reality in YEARS... it's pretty remarkable! HOWEVER... THE Bad NEWS!I'm all about transparency, and life isn't all sunshine and rainbows here. #1- I realized that when they say EAT A LOT OF SALT, they actually mean EAT A LOT OF SALT! When I switched to this new diet, I ended up eating less salt (I'll tell you my meal plan in a bit) because I wasn't eating processed "meat" products. As a result, my sodium levels dropped from about 3,000mg a day to.... 500-1000mg a day. Big drop. Unfortunately I didn't NOTICE this at the time... I was feeling so great I didn't consider anything might be wrong. Welllllllll...refer to #1... When they say EAT A LOT OF SALT, they actually mean EAT A LOT OF SALT. Cut to 2 nights ago when I literally kept blacking out and collapsing every time I tried to walk. I took the following day (yesterday) off work and drank powerade zero (was so desperate I forgot they have artificial sweetener. Whoops) and vegetable broth. Then I made a VERY salty dinner and felt MUCH better after all that. But I really need to work on how to get more salt into my diet (It was suggested I add salt to my water, so I might try that). So, to recap, issue #1 is I wasn't getting enough salt in my new *miracle* diet. #2- I quickly learned the issue with cutting out 3 things at once is I don't know which of the three was causing my fatigue that now has been reversed... Was it the soda? Energy drinks? Soy? Gluten? (I did get a gluten test once and do not have gluten sensitivity, so I tend to think it's not that). But right now I really have 2 options... 1) keep cutting out ALL three... 2) reintroduce one at a time back and risk feeling icky and getting the poops again.... Speaking of poops, I ate fake meat again last night to get my sodium levels up... NO SOY/GLUTEN fake meat.... Andddd my stomach was not the happiest thing morning. HOWEVER I also did bulletproof coffee again this morning after a day off, so maybe the mct oil was bugging me. Again, no way to know... So I might try the fake meat again tomorrow and see what comes out of it. Or what comes out of me... (haha, poop joke...)... moving on.... Next STepsGood question, right? At this moment, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. Until I hit the full 14 days, I am at least going to keep eating no soy/gluten/fake sugar. AND SALT SALT SALT! I'm probably actually going to do it all through May just for funsies (though if I do decide to try soy and see how it goes, THAT JERKY IS SITTING IN MY PANTRY [okay in the Amazon box in my garage] CALLING MY NAME!) I will probably keep going through May but add in some processed soy/gluten free foods along the way to see if it's the soy/gluten that's been holding me back, or the PROCESSED foods, that by eliminating the soy/gluten was also eliminated.... I will keep you in the loop (and not wait a year to update again (did I say I was sorry about that yet?) Before I go...I will have a more dedicated thread (with photos! Yay!) on my current no soy/gluten/sugar plan on my next blog, but right now I just wanted to give a quick overview if anybody was curious...
See why it's hard to get salt in on this plan, though? I'm not going to salt my milkshake or pudding... But I AM going to keep going and find a plan that works because, the moral of this story is: I FEEL AMAZING AND I NEVER WANT THIS FEELING TO GO AWAY! EVER!!! Until Next Time...Follow my IG, or leave a comment here. I love to hear from you! (Fun fact, I realized last night that I have DOUBLE the followers on my keto IG that I do on my real life IG... I don't know whether to be honored or offended HAHA)
Thanks for reading! (Really, I know that was long. Thank you.) VEGAN KETO MADI
1 Comment
Katherine
9/21/2017 05:15:40 pm
I know exactly how you feel. Since about the time I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism and Vit D deficiency (my body doesn’t absorb it well), I’ve had chronic fatigue. I want to go to bed within a couple of hours of getting up. By 6 pm, I want to die. I did Whole30. It worked well, but I still didn’t feel as I thought I should. Then, I did Ketogenic. I felt better, but still loss of energy and mood swings. Then, I went dairy free, soy free Keto, cut my meat consumption in half, tripled my green veggie intake, added Vega Essentials shake with kale, flax and chia, and now I am taking Trace Minerals, B vitamins, Chromium, Vitamin C (chromium absorption), green tea extract. I cannot believe how good I feel. Like I’m happy! Like, I can feel childlike happiness. I haven’t felt that since my teens or earlier. I have fun with my kids now. I enjoy them. So much energy, I have a hard time sleeping at night but I still have energy the next day. I am learning that adding hormones to my body (animal hormones or soy), causes me to be unhappy and tired. My only struggle now is variety. I’m getting bored with the same food. I’m kinda stuck. I’m not a vegan at heart, eating veggies creatively is not my forte, but I see a big difference with just the changes I’ve made.
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About MeI have been carb-loving vegan for over a decade, but carbs stopped loving me as I approached 30... Archives |