As I’ve continued to experiment with the whole keto thing, I’ve been struck that I’m eating how the French reportedly eat. Perhaps it’s their national secret repackaged as an American fad solution? I’ve been snacking on small portions of excellent cheese, olives and almonds, eating smaller cuts of meats and fish with gorgeous pan sauces, and putting a generous amount of olive oil on my vegetables. All in all the food tastes great and is really satisfying.

As far as the actual “diet” part, I’m happy to report that I was back to my normal weight after one week. That’s a four pound loss. That is not how all Januarys go. I do like to try to do a January reset because it helps me to say yes to all the amazing cookies my wonderful family and friends gift me, say yes to all the holiday cheer, and say yes to the many special occasion dinners throughout the season. Knowing I’ll get back on track, gives me the opportunity to enjoy all the fun. But I’d have to say this keto thing doesn’t really feel like saying no, which is a great thing.

I’ve been eating scrambled eggs with Brie and mushroom cream sauce, fresh crab dipped in clarified butter, and ham with mustard aioli. I’ve particularly enjoyed the luxury of real cream in my coffee. I can’t complain for a second.

I set out to do this with a ratio of 10% net carbs, 25% protein and 65% fat. As I’ve progressed, I’ve landed on what the Internet gurus call a “high-protein keto,” which is more like 5% carbs, 35% protein and 60% fat. This really just is what has happened naturally. I was worried at first that I wasn’t doing this right, but given that I lift weights, I likely need more protein and there seems to be some support for this in the Infomercials 🙂

Carbwise, I have not been actively restricting my vegetable intake, but I have completely avoided grains, sugar, fruit, potatoes and alcohol. This has organically landed me at close to 5%. I certainly don’t intend to avoid those things forever, but will keep going through January as long as it feels worth it.

That’s how my first week looked carbwise. Interestingly enough, I had my first really bad mood the morning after I had my highest carb day. All the rest of the days I’ve felt pretty zen.

Energy wise, I’ve felt productive and good enough to exercise more often than usual. I’d been missing yoga and added that back into my life a few times in the last week. I also wanted to run for the first time in awhile and hit an 8:08 in our mile benchmark run at Orangetheory. I’ve also been social and went out to dinner out with people without too much fuss. This is a huge advantage of this over the Whole 30 in my opinion. I do find that I sleep like the dead and cannot force myself to stay awake when I’m tired. But I don’t know if that’s a bad thing.

So I’m happy and will keep at it and report back soon.