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My Experience With the Keto Diet

12/1/2016

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I'm taking a break from my political/social/economic commentary to write about a diet I'm trying. Before I continue I want to explain that I am not a scientist so if I say something incorrect, don't judge me too harshly. I'm basing this oversimplified explanation on the diet's general theory, the limited information I've been given, and my own experience. I could be completely wrong. So...

I'm 37 years old. I've been sitting at a computer for 10 hours a day for the last 16 years. It's only been luck or grace that has kept me from being heavier than the 240 lbs that I was approaching. For the first time in my life I committed to my wife that I would do something about it. We decided that together we would try the Keto diet.

The first time we had heard about a ketogenic diet was when our 1 year old son was having daily sleep-inducing seizures. The ketogenic diet is good for neurological health and brain development. We put him on it for a few months and he hasn't had a seizure since. We chose to do it for ourselves because it is also recommended for people struggling with Hashimotos disease and hypothyroidism, of which my wife suffers from. Another reason is because I'm a childishly picky eater and this diet seemed to give me some hope that I might be able to pull it off.


My Normal Diet
My normal diet consists of bread, cereal, rice, pasta, cheese, meat, milk. I also like chocolate, cookies and cake. My favorite vegetables are ketchup and potatoes. Most of these foods consist of simple carbohydrates/sugars, which would be great if I were running marathons daily. But I don't run, or even walk much. My body has become accustomed to this high sugar diet and low exertion lifestyle. It knows how to process these simple carbohydrates as well as it can, but the insulin spikes caused by sugar/simple carbs does horrible things to your body, including inflammation, high cholesterol, hormone imbalances, low thyroid performance, etc (read an explanation here). Some of this energy was used to get me from my bed to my office and back again. The rest was put into storage in my stomach area in case a famine hits. In that case, my body would enter starvation mode and eat away my belly fat - But the famine never came.

The Theory of Keto
The problem with burning fat by starvation mode is as soon as you start eating again your body will go into ultra fat storage mode and you'll end up just as chubby as you started in a short amount of time (This is the problem with many low calorie diets). So the trick is to have enough calories to keep your body out of starvation mode, but still kick your body into fat burning mode. This state is called Ketosis. One way to achieve this state is by eating a diet of mostly fat*, virtually eliminating simple carbohydrates/sugars, while regulating your caloric intake to a moderate level.

*Avoid trans and mono-saturated fat. Natural fats found in eggs, meat, dairy, nuts and vegetables are the good ones.


What Happened
The first thing I did was download the MyFitnessPal App so I could track my calories and Macro Nutrient intake (Fat/Protein/Carb). I wanted to lose as much as possible as quickly as possible. According to my weight (240 lbs) it was suggested that I go with a 1700 per day calorie limit at an 80% fat, 15% Protein, 5% Carbohydrate ratio.
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Next I started eating a lot of Bacon. Immediately I realized that bacon was fatty but not fatty enough. Too much protein. I tried eating it with cream cheese. Better, but still not fatty enough and cream cheese also has some carbohydrates in it. Also my sodium was through the roof. I tried cottage cheese. Way too many carbohydrates. Milk is also too high in carbs, even whole milk. I struggled to find the right combo of foods to make my ratios work out. I finally found that the right amount of bacon and cheese and a glass of whipped cream did the trick. ​As you can imagine it wasn't long before I was sick of bacon and cheese. Also constipated. I added psyllium husk to my diet and a lot of water. 

Not sure of what else to do, I continued with the bacon, cheese, cream, psyllium husk diet. Within a week I had lost 10 lbs! I later realized that this is water weight. When you get the carbs out of your system your body de-bloats fast. As soon as you start eating carbs again those 10 lbs will come right back just as fast. My joints felt better, I didn't ache in the morning and I could tie my shoes without holding my breath. I wasn't looking that much thinner though. After this week of de-bloating the weight loss slowed down as I started to burn actual fat. I realized how significant losing a pound of fat actually is. It really shows. Over the next 50 days I have lost an additional 20 lbs. At the time of writing this I am about 206 lbs. My goal is to get down to 185. At that point I will adjust my diet to a higher protein ratio and then build up muscle. I keep in mind that if I up my carbs I will add some bloat weight back on, which I'm fine with. Ideally and long term I'd like to be a moderately muscular, slightly bloated, 200 lbs person.

Things I Learned 
1. Fortunately I figured out some other things to eat besides bacon. I actually don't eat much of that anymore. When I get toward the end side of my calorie limit I use super fatty things to kick me up toward the 80% range and finish off my calories for the day. My go tos are Coconut oil, Heavy whipping cream (these I drink straight) and Mayonnaise**, taken in the form of dressing on lettuce or as a dip for cheese. 



**Hellman's /Best Foods is my favorite mayo, but at some point I'd like to try a Hellman's knock-off recipe that uses avocado oil instead of canola oil.

2. My wife told me about intermittent fasting and it seems to improve my results significantly. I eat all of my calories for the day within a 6-8 hour window (late breakfast, early dinner). That way In the evening and when I sleep my body stops using the food and starts working on burning my body fat.

3. Getting and keeping your body in a state of ketosis is extremely difficult and even the slightest deviation in diet can knock you out of it for weeks. I used this new exogenous ketone supplement to help keep me in ketosis even when my macro percentages are less than perfect. Does this supplement actually work? I'm not a scientist so I can't know for certain, but when I pee on these
 ketone strips it tells me that I have a lot of ketones in my pee pee. The supplement also curbs my hunger pains when I'm about to start my intermittent fast.

4. When you look at the dietary information on the labels of vegetables, nuts and beans you'll see that there are two kinds of carbohydrates: dietary fiber and sugar. I don't count the dietary fiber in the MyFitnessPal app because those carbs are not absorbed, just used in digestion. Some product entries in the app say "Net Carb" which means the dietary fiber amounts have been omitted from the entry information. Check all of your food to see which ones you can have without throwing off your macro percentages. Even though Nuts and Beans have high fat and some dietary fiber , they also have sugar carbohydrates (Fruit is also very high in sugar) and will quickly max out your sugar carbs for the day. 

5. Since we're on the subject of human waste, during the first couple of week, while in that stage of de-bloating, you will have diarrhea. This will eventually go away, but be aware. Once this stage is over you will poo poo a lot less frequently - maybe only once or twice a week. You might think you're constipated, but if you're drinking a lot of water and taking fiber, chances are you are fine. The diet just makes a lot less solid waste than a high carb diet. Less gas passing too.

6. Don't do too much cardio exercise while you're on the high fat/low carb diet. Your body needs carbs for these types of activities. You'll hurt yourself, unless you increase your carbohydrates a little. Instead lift weights. Once you lose all the fat that you want, increase your protein to build muscle in the gym and/or increase your carbohydrates for Cardio workouts. If you don't exercise at all, keep eating high fat. All these foods are good or bad depending on what you're trying to accomplish with your body. They each have a purpose.  

7. Take daily vitamins and/or a super concentrated vegetable drink (like this).

8. The diet depletes you of sodium so double (but not quadruple) your normal sodium levels and drink lots of water. Also take Potassium (200 mg/day) and magnesium supplements if you experience leg cramps and some joint pain in the beginning. Start with small doses with the magnesium or you'll have diarrhea problems.

Favorite Foods
To be completely honest, once you get going, food becomes less emotionally enjoyable and more about survival. At first I would try new foods and recipes, but ain't nobody got time for that. Making separate meals for the family is hard enough. Now it's just about getting the food down and making the numbers look right. I keep it simple and stick to a routine menu of meals that I can prepare quickly.   

-Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad (I could ,and usually do, eat this every day)

Recipes coming:
-Pepperoni Pizza with a Fried Cheese Crust (satisfying)
-Tacos with a Fried Cheese Shell (almost feels like your eating tacos)
-Steak with Cream sauce (rich)
-Mozzarella Cheese Sticks dipped in spicy brown mustard (fast)
-Bacon with cream cheese (the classic)
-Scrambled Eggs with Sour Cream and Tomatillo Salsa (hearty)
-Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan cheese (something different than cream)
-Cauliflower Cream Soup (rich and filling)
-Pastrami with Cheddar cheese (cold)
-Grilled cheese HAMwiches (my invention)
-Fat Bombs (pretend that it tastes like a dessert)
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4 Week Cycle: Don't Do Keto "Cheat Meals"

5/11/2016

4 Comments

 
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The Four Week Cycle Theory
When my wife and I started doing the Keto diet, we decided to have one cheat meal per week. We felt that eating the unfamiliar diet of fat and protein would be totally doable as long as we could eat some bread and pasta just once a week. What harm could that do? After tracking my weight daily over the next few months I could see how drastically those meals were throwing me out of my weight loss trajectory.

With regular dieting, it's a calories number game. In that situation, one meal of 500 extra calories isn't that big of a deal, but with the Keto diet the point is to force your body to metabolize food in a whole new way. Getting your body into Ketosis (the state in which your body uses ketones as energy instead of sugars) takes 4 weeks of perfect eating. I've found that one serving of simple carbohydrates will immediately cause your body to retain 8 lbs of water weight, instantly reset your body back to sugar burning mode, and 4 weeks worth of effort is lost.

The Theory Confirmed Again
Five months ago I started to feel different. My mind was buzzing and sharp. Sometimes when sitting still for too long I would feel the sensation that I was floating. That week I lost 8 lbs. of fat (not water weight) and it showed. I thought, "This must be Ketosis". It was that week that I hit 40lbs total weight loss. I was pretty happy.

Then a friend of mine (we'll call him Joel, cause that's his name) came into town and we went out to eat. I ordered fish and chips in celebration of my awesome week. A cheat meal. The next morning I bloated up with 8 lbs of water (205 lbs). I suspected that would happen. Over the next few weeks was Thanksgiving dinner, then Christmas parties. After the new years I decided that I aught to take a break of from full keto. I still ate pretty good, not too much bread and sweets, just tried to enjoy myself a little and coast. It was nice. As expected, I stayed exactly at that bloated weight (205 lbs) through the whole time. I honestly could have kept at that diet forever (which is exactly what I plan to do eventually) but I still had 20 lbs to lose before I reached my goal weight of 185 lbs. 

4 weeks ago I started full, no-cheating-ever Keto. The first week I de-bloated fast. I was down to 197. Then over the next 3 weeks I was stuck at 195. Then 3 days ago I started dropping fast. 3 lbs in 3 days. This morning I'm at 191.8 and I'm feeling that ketosis buzz again.

According to my four week cycle theory, If I have 1 cookie or one bowl of ice cream right now, I will end my ketosis and start the 4 week process over again. I think I'd rather just wait a few weeks and finish this.  

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Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad - Perfect Keto Meal

12/4/2015

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1. Fry chicken breast in a pan with salt, pepper and your favorite spicy stuff. Chop it into cubes and cool in fridge. 
2. Cut up a bunch of Romaine Lettuce. (or 50/50 Iceburg-romaine). Rinse and dry. 
3. Make dressing using the image below as a guide for proportions. Adjust to taste.
4. Optional: Crush 2-6 Garlic flavored bagel chips into dime sized bits. For Keto dieters, 3 chips will take up most of your carb allotment for the day.
5. Mix everything together in a large bowl. 
6. Add shaved Parmesan and fresh-cracked pepper after plating.  
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3 cups of Romaine, 4 oz. of Dressing, 3 oz. of chicken, 2 bagel chips, and a hearty helping of grated Parmesan cheese should be about 1000 calories and should look like this for Macros:

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Miracle Noodles: Actually Pretty Darn Good

12/3/2015

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They looked weird and transparent in the package. My expectations were low.
I rinsed them, fried them up in a pan for a minute until they were opaque. First I made fettuccine with my alfredo cream sauce - totally legit! I was completely surprised. The second time I used the rice shaped ones, added a cheddar cheese sauce and seasoned ground beef, it was the best hamburger helper I ever had. So warm, heavy and satisfying.
These things are basically zero carbs and zero calories. it's like eating a noodle made of water. I'm very happy with these.


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Non-Roux Cheese Sauce

12/1/2015

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A typical roux recipe usually includes a mixture of a little butter, some flour and milk to create a creamy base for many sauces. It requires a little skill and patience to add the ingredients in the right order, at the right time, and to not burn it. A couple of years ago while making Kraft Macaroni and Cheese I ran out of butter, but I did have some cream and I thought. Isn't cream basically the same thing as butter, but creamier? I used the cream as a substitute and it was the best blue box mac n cheese ever. Later that year I was making a roux based homemade mac and cheese recipe for thanksgiving and realized that this is roux making process is pretty dumb. Why go through all the trouble to make a creamy base when you could just use cream? I tried it and was amazed at how much better the results were. Plus it's way stupid easier!

Step 1: Heat up cream in a pan at low heat.
Step 2: Melt in cheeses of your choice. (usually about 40% cheese to 60% cream ((but whateves. It's all good.))
Step 3: Add pepper if you want

These are some keto perfect meals that use these cheese sauces:

-Ham, Cheddar Sauce, cauliflower and/or broccoli (Imagine it's like a ham and cheese hot pocket)
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-Chicken, Parmesan Sauce, zucchini noodles (Use a lot more cream sauce than what is pictured) 
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-Steak, Cream cheese/sour cream sauce, onions, (mushrooms if you like those things)

-Hamburger, bacon, american cheese and Colby Jack, onions, pickles, ketchup, mustard. (it's a quarter pounder)

-I'm thinking of trying a chicken pesto one at some point. 
​
Just measure and track your portions before you start. It's pretty easy to get an 80/15/5 ratio if that's what you want.
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A More Interesting Way to Drink Heavy Cream

12/1/2015

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With the goal of ingesting a mostly fat diet, I usually find myself at the end of the day needing a few hundred calories of only fat. Most of the time I just drink it in the form of whipped cream. If i'm in the mood to, I'll whip it with some stevia and cocoa powder (but after a few bites it starts to feel like you're eating butter). 
Recently my wife made me an Italian Soda using Sparkling water and vanilla stevia. It is honestly great. 

1-4 oz. cream,
1 can of Dasani Sparkling,
8 drops of vanilla stevia
Ice
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Mozzarella Cheese Crust/Shell

11/30/2015

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When low carb dieting, many times you have to lie to yourself and say "Wow! This low carb bread substitute thing is amazing!" But you know it's actually NOT amazing and typically it's pretty gross. I suggest not spending your time and money trying to make these things. Sadly there is no bread substitute that's as good as the real thing.

Instead, eat burnt cheese! My sister in law taught my wife how to make these. They're very satisfying and, in a lot of ways, even better than bread.

1. Use a good non-stick pan - a little snag can ruin everything and there's very little room for error.
2. Mound a half cup of mozzarella cheese into the center of the pan, let it melt.
3. Form the edges with a spatula while the cheese is still malleable.
4. Don't touch it until you're sure it's crispy on the bottom.
5. Using your spatula, loosen the edges and carefully work your way toward the center until it's free.
6. Put on a paper towel to cool. This will help take a little bit of the oil skim off the outside and also help with wrapping around toppings. 

Uses:

Keto Locos Tacos
-1/5 cup mozzarella cheese shell
-0.5 oz Long chopped (shredded) Iceberg lettuce
-2 oz Seasoned grilled chicken breast (or ground beef)
-2 tbsp Sour Cream
-0.5 tablespoon Honey BooBoo Taco Sauce (Ingredients: ketchup, taco seasoning, water) Just trust me.
-2 tbsp grated Jack/Cheddar cheese (optional) ​
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Keto Calzone
-1/2 cup mozzarella cheese crust
-Add Toppings of your choice while cheese is still melting
-1 tbsp marinara sauce
-Fold and plate
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