Day 22 - Weekend Bake day!I do like to bake, and play with new ingredients or new ways of thinking about food. Today though was a good old fashion Vanilla Cheesecake. A Keto Vanilla Cheesecake.
I will leave it in the fridge tonight and have some tomorrow. So I will tell you how it tastes then! A weekend little badness! Nom nom nom! We've had bad...so what about some good. The discovery of Cauliflower Cheesy Mash! Ooof, this is good!
You can make a light version of this replacing the cheese and butter with 150g Quark, and 50 ml Coconut Milk. It then drops to 55 calories per serving! I added this to my meals today as follows - Yay! 70% fat reached! But calories a little high. by about 100 cals. Hey ho. It is a good days menu! Day 23 - Night EatingI have for some time now (like years I'm talking!) been getting up in the middle of the night to eat. I normally feed every 3-4 hours, last meal being between 8-9.00 pm. So by about 3.00 am...I wake up proper starving! This is when I have my first meal. The yogurt/fats/strawberry shake. I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep otherwise. For body builders and Athletes, night time is when we repair and grow and recover from the days workouts. So, I have no problems with this. It does in fact help me massively, and improves my sleep. Look below. The pink lines are when I get up, and the low lines are when I'm in deep sleep. You can see once I eat, I generally have the best quality sleep of the night! And the longest deep sleep period. It just knocks me out, stops me from thinking of food, and relaxes me. Perfect. Not the best idea for non exercisers mind. This is to aid muscle and workout recovery, so don't think I'm telling you to get up and eat in the night if you've sat on you back side all day! And be aware, these calories are are worked into my macros, and is counted as one of my meals. Oh and the sugar free Keto cheesecake is a winner! Had it for breakfast! In the middle of the night! Nom nom! I have to mention, I have been feeling a little out of sorts for the last 2 days. Pressure headache quite a few days now, hazy eye sight, lethargic, palpitations and irritable. Lurgy Coming? Or something else. Didn't go to gym, as just too lethargic. Mmmmmm......? Day 24 - Coconut Oil - If its saturated...why is it good?Promised you an updated Keto Coconut Bread recipe, this is really tasty! It not Vegan like the one before, but it is Keto.
While chomping on my Keto bread and peanut Butter, I began thinking about a conversation I had with my brother in law Paul, about the fact he had read that although coconut oil is a saturated fat, it has been proven to be still good for you. I was aware of this, but as he was wanting to up his fat intake after reading my blog, I still couldn't bring myself to suggest he start adding even more coconut oil to his morning oat soak, and found myself advising him to add more olive oil, or Hemp oil, or invest in some Udos oil to drizzle on food, or eat more avocados/nuts, as these are known good sources of unsaturated fat. But I needed a refresher on the benefits of coconut oil and why it was different to other saturates. Coconut Oil is a saturated fat. To put it into perspective, it is about 90% saturated fat. So to compare, butter is about 60-64% saturated, and lard is about 40% saturated. So coconut oil is way up there. And we have already learn't that too much saturated fat in the diet is unhealthy because it raises "bad" LDL cholesterol levels, which increases the risk of heart disease. Right? However, it has been proven that coconut oil does actually give your good cholesterol HDL, a boost? Remember though, that our bodies do actually need a level of saturated fats, just in much less quantities than unsaturated. And a good balance of these both is known to boost HDL levels, but coconut oil seems especially efficient in doing so. Why? About half of the saturated fat in coconut oil is made up of Lauric Acid. This is much higher than in most other oils. Lauric Acid is an MCT Medium-chain triglycerides. These are basically a type of fat in the blood. Triglycerides and Cholesterol are both part of the 'blood fat family' also known as lipids. MCT's are easily digested whole by your body, and have slightly less calories per gram (8.3 instead of 9). Lauric acids have been proven to help speed up your metabolism, and to lower your cholesterol. Hence coconut oil, although saturated, been seen to lower cholesterol. As well as this, plant-based oils (coconut oil and palm oil) are more than just fats. They contain many antioxidants and other good substances too. So, with Coconut oil's special HDL-boosting effect from it's high levels of the MCT Lauric acid, and from being plant based, having antioxidants and other good substances too, it may make it "not as bad" than the high saturated fat content would indicate. However, it's still probably not the best choice among the many available oils to reduce the risk of heart disease. So use sparingly, but it is still worth including in your diet. I'm still not feeling great today, headache won't go. Tired hazy eyes won't go, have developed a thirst, still got palpitations. Lots of bugs going round...Booked to see a doctor in the morning. Didn't go to gym. Day 25 - Doctor...Doctor..gimme the news...I woke up this morning, and did my cholesterol and blood sugar checks. I found these results middle of the 4th week- Good news - My cholesterol has settled to a normal safe level. Even after eating all this extra fat. Interesting really. You would of expected a large increase with all this cheese and fats! But no, I have happy cholesterol still. Mmmm, more evidence that fats are not so bad for you after all maybe? Bad news - My blood sugars are continuing to rise...a lot! Remember this chart below? This 9.2 mmol/l reading was taken FASTED in the morning. So this is saying I am currently diabetic...off the scale diabetic! Now I had previously mentioned that this was the norm in a lot of cases of low carb diets, that blood sugars rise, stay consistent as they have no where to go. But this level is very high. And also, could account for my tired eyes, permanent headache, irritability, palpitations and the last couple of days of thirst I have been suffering from? These are all symptoms of diabetes. In 4 weeks could the Keto diet made me a diabetic? And started all the symptoms that go with it? I'm off to the docs.... So I did consult with my doc Marios Josephidou (Peachy Health, Milton Keynes), and I had sent him over my blog, so he understood how I thought I had got to this level of blood sugar. He was very concerned. He suggested I have a HBA1c blood test done, which takes an average of your blood sugar levels over the last 12 weeks. So this would tell us if this rise is definitely a recent thing since this diet, and confirm that I hadn't been having blood sugar spikes for a while without my knowledge. We did the blood test, now to wait for the results. Day 26 - The results are in!Hba1c test results were normal. Confirming that this diet has been the cause of the rise, as I had no previous issues before. So, Marios has suggested I move to a diabetic diet, adding complex carbs (no simple sugars) back into diet and come off of Ketosis, as its put my glucose levels simply too high. And is very much the reason I have developed these diabetic symptoms. 9.2 - 9.6 mmol/l is too much sugar in my blood to be ignored. And I can't continue to live feeling this exhausted. It really has given me an insight into how a diabetic has to live their life. I'm so lethargic and anxious. I need to reverse this...and quick! I did this Keto diet as an experiment, to see if it worked as a fat burner. And also, I was also always openly vocally negative about the Keto diet, saying that I felt it was a fad, as with my nutritional knowledge, I felt taking out a macro-nutrient such as carbohydrates, simply can't be good for you, and your body needs a balanced diet. I am coming out the end of this diet, still now thinking the same thing, possibly even more so. Day 27 - Ketosis end of the lineSo on the 6th day of the 4th week being complete, I will be coming out of Ketosis. And going on a diabetic diet until my blood sugars have returned to normal. I will be gradually adding small amounts of complex carbs into my diet, so not to encourage a return reaction, as they have been absent for this time. A reverse diet. I have devised the following diet, and will gradually up the carbs and proteins over the next 3 weeks. - As well as slowly bringing up the carbs and proteins, I do plan to keep a better ratio of fats in my diet. I am just adding extra vegetables, high fiber whole fruits like berries, peaches and melon, and oats to start with for carbs. I have enjoyed discovering more unsaturated fats, and ways of eating them, and these will be staying in and plentiful. And will also be a lot more at ease with eating saturated fats, knowing a balance of good and bad, doesn't harm my cholesterol levels. It's been a great learning curve. I did a final weigh in, although I hadn't trained for 3 days of the last week, as I just felt awful. DAY 1 - Weight – 75.3 kg / 11st 12lbs Height – 5 ‘6 / 168 cm Body Fat – 22% Muscle Mass – 53.5kg / 8st 6lb Water % - 61% Visceral Fat - 4 DAY 7 - Weight – 72.2 kg / 11st 5 lbs Height – 5 ‘6 / 168 cm Body Fat – 24.5% Muscle Mass – 51.8 kg / 8st 2lb Water % - 56.4% Visceral Fat - 4 DAY 14 - Weight – 71.2 kg / 11st 3 lbs Height – 5 ‘6 / 168 cm Body Fat – 23.3% Muscle Mass – 51.8 kg / 8st 2lb Water % - 57.7% Visceral Fat - 4 DAY 21 - Weight – 70.9 kg / 11st 2 lbs Height – 5 ‘6 / 168 cm Body Fat – 23.3% Muscle Mass – 51.7 kg / 8st 1lb Water % - 57.7% Visceral Fat - 4 DAY 27 - Weight – 70.8 kg / 11st 1.5 lbs Height – 5 ‘6 / 168 cm Body Fat – 22.9% Muscle Mass – 51.4 kg / 8st 0lb Water % - 58% Visceral Fat - 4 So I have lost weight at about a pound a week as intended (once the fake weight went) this is eating 2200 on my diet. (So you see, starving yourself isn't the answer on any diet!) But, there is a consistent loss of muscle more so than fat loss. Not the greatest for a body builder. And the before and after shows improvements in 4 weeks. But to be fair, wouldn't any diet if you had followed it as necessary? ConclusionPros -
Cons -
I hope you've enjoyed following my journey. And I'll look forward to any comments or questions you may have. But...until the next time. Have a great evening! Terri
2 Comments
Karen Becket
26/1/2018 07:53:26 am
Terry, Thank you indeed for this most interesting detailed blog. I have considered the keto diet too, but with just being post menopausal I decided “No” as I was still so unbalanced hormone wise. Your results on your 4th week were quite startling, I wish you a full recovery out of your diabetic state.
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Campbell Noon
13/1/2020 04:10:02 pm
Great Blog on Plant based vs meat the final outcome I share as it makes logical sense and is a more balanced method of nutrition especially for the active athlete. Thanks Terri x
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