Food Products I Eat

I was talking with a friend yesterday who is starting a ketogenic diet.  I realized that over the last 8 weeks I have made several adaptations that make this diet easier.  Today it really feels like a way of life.

First, we go through a ton of perishables.  Every week the Sam's Club shopping list includes heavy and light cream, baby spinach, cream cheese, sour cream, deli sliced ham and cheese, block cheddar, avocados (we eat at least 5 per week), bell peppers, and any other produce that looks good.  Every few weeks we pick up nuts, frozen berries, olive oil, vinegar, ranch dip mix, and other stuff.

For many people, the desire to snack goes away entirely.  That hasn't been the case for me.  I still enjoy a little something after dinner.  We keep lots of veggies on hand along with sour cream and ranch dip.  When I need something sweet, I reach for the Lindt 90% Dark Chocolate bar.  A recent addition has been flaked raw coconut.  All very yummy.

Several weeks ago we turned a major corner when I discovered the low-carb section of the netrition.com website.  They have a great selection of low-carb products.  I started with oat fiber (a bulking agent for baking), Bob's Red Mill Low-Carb Bread Mix and Baking Mix, and an assortment of pitas and tortillas.  A couple of the items have really stood out.  A couple of times per week we go to Chipotle and bring our own Mama Lupe's Low-Carb Tortillas.  They are almost as good as standard tortillas at only 3g of carbs each.  We have also found that Toufayan Low-Carb Pitas make a great general bread replacement.  I will try to get Genny to post her recipe for "Funeral Sandwiches."  Another delicious recipe.

Anyway, netrition.com gets business from us about every other week.  They are a great company to deal with.  They stand behind their products and take care of their customers.  As a note, I haven't tried any of the Dixie Diner products.  The value for what you get just doesn't seem all that high when so much can be made from scratch.

Routine

We are now 7 weeks in to this crazy diet.  Things are going well around our home.  The kids, while not as strictly on the diet as we are, are doing great.  Andrew has shown a huge improvement in his ability to focus.  They are still kids and get a little crazy sometimes, but that is expected.  They are kids.

We have settled into a nice routine as well.  Dinners are much easier now.  Genny just throws something together with whatever we have around the house.  She just knows what ingredients to avoid and which ones are great.  I am making low-carb pumpkin bread for the kids breakfasts to make morning life easier.  My breakfast consists of a bit of protein with a modified "Fat Shake" from Dr. Peter Attia's blog.  (Mine is a cup of raw spinach, 1/2 c. heavy cream. 1 c. almond milk, 1/4 c. frozen mixed berries, and 1 tbsp of MCT oil.)  My lunch is just as routine.  I have settled in to a habit of a large mixed raw salad with something that amounts to about 10g of protein.  I like to save most of my protein intake for dinner.

I have lost about 15 lbs.  I wanted to lose a little, but I am not very focused on it.  I wanted to feel better, perform better, and get healthier in general.  Weight loss is very difficult to gauge anyway.  My weight swings as much as 5 lbs. day to day.  I know that it takes about 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound of weight, so that tells me that the day-to-day differences in weight are water.  I have dropped a pant size and I am visibly more trim than I was before.

My wife has had a more frustrating experience.  Her weight has decreased by only three or four pounds, which is very disheartening.  She does, however, often hear things like, "You are skinnier every time I see you!"  The truth is, she is trimmer.  The hardest part is that we can't explain why her body is acting the way it is.  She has been going through physical therapy for an injury, and has been getting very strong as a result.  It is entirely possible that she has been gaining muscle at the same rate as she has been losing fat.  Unfortunately, that doesn't help the discouragement of not seeing your hard work reflected in the scale.

Supplements

After the first month, I was experiencing some pretty rough side effects of the diet.  I wasn't tired, but I had a lot of trouble staying focused.  I was very sore and was struggling in the gym.  I had heard that magnesium and potassium deficiency was common on ketogenic diets and that cramping can be a sign of both.  I came across Dr. Michael Eades blog post: Tips & tricks for starting (or restarting) low-carb Pt II.  Within one week of starting supplements, I was feeling 100% better.  I think I am still a little deficient on potassium, so I am still making modifications.  I've never been a big vitamin person, but I can definitely tell a huge difference.

We have about one week left on our initial commitment.  I can't see myself ever eating the way I did before.  For one thing, I have learned that I love FAT.  Heavy cream in my coffee tastes AMAZING!  It is so nice to cook a ribeye and eat ALL of it.  I have also grown a huge love for avocados.  I believe our family eats about 5 or 6 per week right now.  I am sure that I will make some changes, but there is a lot to like about the way I am eating right now... such as wings and blue cheese wedge salads!

One last note.  Please check out Dr. Peter Attia's and Gary Taubes' startup organization, NuSI.  Their goal is to bring true scientific testing to the area of nutrition and find out what is really good and right for humans to eat.  Check them out at http://www.nusi.org/

FAT

Any amount of research on the internet reveals many types of ketogenic diets.  These diets have the common trait that they cause your body to create ketones by limiting carbohydrate intake.  The number that induces ketosis is different for everyone, but it is commonly agreed that less than 50g per day will cause ketosis in the majority of people.

Some of these diets do not limit a person's protein intake.  We experienced the problem with this first hand.  My wife was definitely below 50g of carbohydrate per day, but she was eating protein at will.  The problem is that any protein you eat that your body does not need for tissue maintenance is converted to glycogen by your liver.  Again, this number is different for every person, but for a fairly active person not engaging in heavy weight training, a place to start is 0.5g to 0.6g per pound of body weight.

Last weekend, my wife was at her wits end and ready to quit.  She was not producing ketones at the same rate I was and didn't feel very good.  She was completely frustrated and tired of working so hard for no results.  After talking through what she has been eating, we agreed on a hypothesis that she was eating too much protein.  She cut back immediately and was producing ketones like crazy two days later.  Today, she commented how much she feels like she is adapting to this new lifestyle and feeling pretty good.

The natural next question is, "I can't eat carbs; I can't eat protein; what can I eat?"  The simple answer is FAT.  That is not an acronym.  It is a macronutrient group that we have been told to never eat.  That is where Dr. Peter Attia comes in.  Check out http://www.eatingacademy.com/.  Dr. Attia puts a fair amount of time in his blog dealing with the myth that fat makes us fat.  He also has a great series called The Straight Dope an Cholesterol.  The series is a little technical, but gives in-depth details on why we don't need to worry about eating fat on ketgenic diet.  In fact, there is sufficient evidence that a low carb high fat (LCHF) diet can actually improve your cholesterol.  However, "improve" can be subjective.

I would love to write more on this subject, but I think I want to refer you to Dr. Attia's blog.  As I began to write more, I realized how complex the subject is and realized that I can not do it justice.  I will leave the subject for now, but I will share that I had an advanced lipid profile before I started the diet.  My plan is to have another after 2 months on the diet to be sure that I am not at an higher risk.  We will see.

Food Talk
We have had some great meals in the last couple of weeks.  I have kept us stocked up on almond bread and started making pumpkin bread.  I have been disappointed with how my quick breads are rising, but I think that might be due to using old baking powder.  Due to the lack of leavening, the pumpkin bread has come out more like pumpkin pie, but it makes a great breakfast with a big dollop of softened cream cheese.  The best part is that one serving is 170 cal (as though I care), 4.4g net carbs, and only 5.8g of protein.  The kids and I love it.  A link to the recipe will be at the end.

We have had some phenomenal dinners thanks to my wife's creativity.  She made a fantastic taco salad a couple of nights ago and I grilled up some salmon for Caesar salads tonight.


Additionally, I found a recipe for 3 minute chocolate cake.  I whipped up some cream and folded in some softened cream cheese for frosting.  The kids and I loved it.  My wife, however, found it lacking.  Next time around, we will try icing it with our favorite chocolate mousse.

Recipes
Dottie's Pumpkin Pound Cake
3 Minute Chocolate Cake
   sub almond meal for soy flour
   I also use 4 sweetener packs
Chocolate Mousse
   I like to shave 100% cocao into the mousse

Two Weeks

It has been two weeks since we started this crazy diet.  I feel like I am adapted pretty well.  We seem to be getting used to preparing real food on a daily basis.  For example, my wife just prepared a great dinner of taco salad with avocado dip.  It was delicious.  While cleaning up, I put a dozen eggs on to boil while I prepared a salad for my lunch tomorrow.  As I finished peeling the eggs, I put a batch of Trader Joe's Ruby Red Chai for us.  I finished peeling the eggs about the time it was finished steeping and poured it over an inch of coconut milk and added a pack of Sweet Leaf Stevia.  The tea is spicy and delicious and has almost zero carbs.

My workouts have been going pretty well.  Yesterday was a tough 3.5 mile run, but I was able to get it done.  Today I warmed up for 5 minutes and did a series of calisthenic exercises.  Wall-balls with side plank super-sets followed by walking lunges with torso-twists.  I finished off the day with a couple of sets of pull-ups and stretching.  I could do 18 pull-ups without stopping in college and I want to get back there again.  I felt like I had energy to spare today.  So, at worst, I have noticed no difference in energy by switching to a low-carb diet.  So much for needing carbs for energy.

Enough with the boring stuff... here are the stats.  Right now, I sit at a loss of ten pounds in the two weeks since I have started.  I feel lighter and I swear my belly is flatter than before.  Most of all, I feel better.

I have backed off on my protein intake slightly.  I think I ate a little more fat to feel satisfied.  Based on my body weight and activity level, I have estimated that I need about 90g per day.  I was eating about 120g.  The danger is that if your body can't use up the protein you eat, it gets converted to glycogen by your liver.  (For my fellow geeks out there, the process is called gluconeogenesis.)  This additional glycogen causes an insulin response and can throw you out of nutritional ketosis.  So, today, instead of putting grilled chicken on my salad, I put one and a half boiled eggs for a total of 10g of protein.  That opened me up to have a good amount of protein for dinner tonight.  To make sure I was satisfied at lunch, I added an extra splash of olive oil to my salad.  Nonetheless, a dozen almonds with some coconut oil later than afternoon ensured I wasn't starving when I arrived at home.

You might be wondering what all of this fat is doing to me.  Well, I will get into that a little more tomorrow.  Just to set you mind at ease, since you all care for me so much, I am keeping a close watch on my lipid panels to make sure I don't kill myself while I am going through the process of making myself feel better and look better.

More to come...

One Week Down

So, Sunday marked the beginning of this second week on our adventure. I wish I could say it has been easy. The kids are distraught due to the lack of cereal, cookies, crackers, and other carb filled goodness in the house. It is even worse when we are at a function and they are serving some yummiest that we decline as a family. All in all, they have handled things very well.

I have been trying to help them out by doing a little baking at home.  I was alone with the kids Friday night while Genny was out.  It had been a struggle all week.  We were all sick of eggs and wanted something that resembled a baked good.  It is amazing how attached you get to these things.  When you cut starch out of your diet, it removes a whole category of food textures... and I am a very texture oriented person when it comes to food.  I decided that I would try baking macaroons and quick bread made with almond flour.

One thing that I realized immediately is that this stuff doesn't rise.  You don't get a whole lot of fluffy without wheat flour.  I am sure there is a solution to this, I just haven't figured it out yet.

Both baked goods were a huge success.  Personally, I am not a fan of the macaroons.  I used stevia to sweeten them which, after baking, leaves a bitter aftertaste.  The kids, however, LOVE them.  They are so excited that they get to have a cookie that is healthy.

The almond bread came out very nice.  It is a bit dense and can surprise you if you are not ready for the lack of sweetness, but does very well with all sorts of toppings.   We have now tried it with butter, cream cheese, and low-carb preserves.  It has a great flavor, and like most of the low-carb items I have made, is very filling.  We often have trouble eating an entire slice.

This led to another attempt at pancakes.  The first attempt was good, but yielded an end product with the wrong texture.  It was, again, very eggy and not cakey at all.  So I went searching for a recipe that uses coconut flour as a base.  I found one and tried it out on the family Saturday morning. While everyone was getting to the table, I whipped up some cream and grabbed the strawberry preserves for some toppings.

What a HUGE SUCCESS!  We hardly finished our prayer before the kids inhaled their first serving and started reaching for more.  The pancakes were heavy, but slightly fluffy. They tasted and felt like pancakes in your mouth. The big test is always Genny.  She slathered on some whipped cream and a small serving of strawberry preserves on her plate.  After the first bite went into her mouth, I heard a satisfied, "Mmmmmm" coming from her direction.  I love it when a plan comes together.

We have been enjoying our treats through the beginning of this week.  I tried to make a pumpkin bread, which turned out more like pumpkin pie.  Oops.  Oh well.  I spread some cream cheese on top and nuked it for a few seconds and it was delicious.  Maybe the next one will turn out better.

How I Feel

So far, I still feel good.  I can't say that my workouts are dramatically better, but I am not suffering without the carbs.  I have lost several pounds, but I'm not ready to report on that yet.  I am sleeping well and feel good in general.  The signs of inflammation have yet to improve.  My joints are still stiff and the eczema hasn't improved, but I'm only about 10 days in.  I don't really get all that hungry which is great!  I hated being a slave to my gut.

Here are links to the recipes mentioned above:

Sugar-free Coconut Macaroons
Gluten-Free Almond Flour Bread Recipe
Light and Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes

Performance

One of the reasons I wanted to change my diet was to increase my workout performance.  I have been running for 3 years and have made consistent gains until recently.  I still enjoy my workouts, but I would love to go faster and feel better after I am done.  By switching to fat as my main source of fuel, and working to increase my aerobic base (the point where your body switches to glycogen for fuel), I hope to see those gains I have been wanting.  Here is my baseline:

VO2 Max: 51.8 at a heartrate of 173 bpm
RQ @ VO2 Max: .93
Aerobic Base: 42.5 @ 154 bpm

This tells me that I could be worse off.  Many people hit their aerobic base while walking on a flat road.  I was doing a fair amount of work before I hit mine.  It could still be better.  My all day pace is about 163 bpm which is above my aerobic base.  That means that my metabolism is currently set up to hit a wall since I have limited glycogen stores.  Once I can get my aerobic base up to 170 bpm (dare I wish?) I could conceivably keep going.  We will see.

So, how are my workouts?  Last week I worked out 5 days, running 3 and doing calisthenics on 2.  We changed our diet on Sunday.  This week, Monday and Tuesday were good. Wednesday and Thursday were no-go's, and today was very good.  It isn't really fair to blame the middle of the week workouts on the diet.  I didn't sleep much (because we were spending so much time preparing meals for this crazy diet) so I was pretty tired.  Last night I had a great night's sleep, even though it was only about 7 hours.  I think that had a bigger effect on my workout than the food.  So, at this point, I can't say that I am positively affected by the diet, but I also can't say that I am adversely affected either.

Another subjective criteria I plan to track is my soreness and physical recovery time.  In The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance, Phinney and Volek quote ultra marathon runners who saw their recovery time on a 100 mile run drop from 3 weeks to 1 week.  We will see soon if the aches, pains, and stiffness go away.

Days 4 & 5, Ups and Downs

I don't think I have really shared exactly what I am eating.  Today I ate a little over 1700 calories consisting of 35g of net carbs, 135g of fat, and 93g of protein.  That has been pretty typical day over day.  I believe that the fat has been the main source of my satiety.

I've never eaten like this before.  Breakfast was a piece of crustless bacon cheddar quiche.  Lunch was about 6oz. of kielbasa with sauerkraut, and about 1 cup of broccoli with butter.  For dinner I had a stuffed pepper and zucchini gratin (with a little extra gratin).  Finally, some veggies and almonds for snack, and a couple of cups of chicken bullion to keep my sodium level up.

I felt full all day and for the first time, my body is telling me, "STOP!" when it is time to stop eating.  I never thought I could feel this full on 1700 calories per day.

The only bad part is that I haven't been sleeping the last couple of days so I haven't been exercising either.  I am hoping to get a good run in the gym tomorrow.  Other than that, I feel good.  More to come!

Day 3

Any explanation of how things are going isn't going to make any sense without a little background.

The main limitation of this diet is that carbohydrates must be kept to less than 50g per day.  You still have to get nourishment so the question is... where?  You can't use protein.  Any protein you eat above what your body needs is converted to glucose by your liver.  That glucose is processed like any other glucose and, if you have too much, can throw you out of ketosis.  Vegetables are mostly water and undigestable material providing very few calories.  What is left?

FAT

And, herein lies a problem.  In our whole grain, low-fat world, you get a lot of funny looks when you pile four tablespoons of butter on your plate... if you can even find any butter.  (I gotta remember to take some butter or coconut oil to work tomorrow.)

Of coarse, this leads to a long and detailed discussion about the perils of consuming fat that I am not prepared to discuss.  Instead, please check out Dr. Peter Attia's website at http://www.eatingacademy.com/.  Specifically, "How did we come to believe saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for us?" is a good one.

So, how is it going?

Well, I have never felt more full in my life.  I am consistently eating about 1800 calories per day and can't imagine eating more.  To give you an idea of how crazy that is, I have estimated that my basal metabolic rate is about 2800 calories a day and I exercise to the tune of 600 calories.  Kind-of crazy.

The books warned about the sodium crash.  It seems that removing the carbs from your diet causes your kidneys to start dumping sodium like crazy.  A lot of people complain of flu-like symptoms when on an Atkins diet.  Yesterday I started to feel a little run-down around 10:30.  The Phinney and Volek books recommended an extra couple of grams of sodium per day.  Within an hour of drinking a cup of chicken bullion I was feeling much better.  Two cups of bullion per day since then and I am feeling pretty good.

The food is pretty good.  Eggs and bacon for breakfast... heavy cream in my coffee... lots of butter and such.  So far, my workouts haven't suffered.  So, I feel pretty good.

Sadly, I haven't been getting anywhere near the sleep I need.  I think it is bedtime now.

More to come...

Why?

So, our journey starts with a conversation with my very good friend, Eugene, who asked me to listen to two podcasts:

http://www.grc.com/health/lowcarb-podcasts.htm

These are a couple of TWIT Live Specials Hosted by Leo Laporte.  He was interviewing Steve Gibson, the host of the Security Now podcast.  Steve explained his journey into nutritional ketosis by eating a very low-carb diet.  As I listened, there were several things that caught my attention.

1. He reached a point several days after starting that he was no longer hungry.  After I heard this, I actually began to resent lunch since it is an interruption to my day that I am required to deal with.  If I could get control of my hunger and addiction to sweets, that would be worth it alone.
2. He found that he was feeling better and recovering faster from exercise.  This was also very interesting.  I enjoy my workouts, but sometimes the soreness and stiffness doesn't seem worth it.

These podcasts and a little online research helped me understand that when a person lowers their carbohydrate intake below 50g per day, their body starts a process where it switches its main fuel source from carbohydrates to fat and ketones.  Ketones are necessary because fat cannot cross the blood brain barrier so the brain can only burn ketones and glucose.  When the body is deprived of glucose, it begins to generate ketones to feed the brain. 

Steve's story led to me continuing my research and reading two books by Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek.

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living

The first one is a subset of the second one that focuses specifically on the application of low-carb diets on athletes.  These books go into great detail on how to live on a well formed ketogenic diet and how to avoid the pitfalls that usually come along with them.  There were a couple of things that added to my interest in the diet in these books.  The first was with respect to my mom, who has been struggling with her weight as long as I have memories and has been struggling with type 2 diabetes for the last several years.  There has been a lot of success using a ketogenic diet to treat type 2 diabetes.  The second had to do with reduction of inflammation.  I have struggled with atopic dermatitis for 15 years.  If this can help, I am on board.

Well, that give you an idea of why we are starting this.  I will fill in more details later and share more about our experience.