In my guest room upstairs, there’s an expensive (and heavy) spin bike. Behind me, there’s an equally expensive Nishiki hybrid bike. Both of them I purchased when I decided to make the best of quarantine by embarking on a bike fueled fitness journey. The summer days passed, friends cooed about their new Pelotons and cross state biking trips — and I decided that if only I had clip on shoes, I’d ride more….
I’m not great at going on journeys. But, I’m excellent at getting them started.
At this moment, I am 5’6.5, 191.8 lb, and I have everything I need to engage in a low-carb November. If you are embarking on a similar journey, below are the fruits of my hours of obsessive research into my plan.
Before beginning, I’d like to point out a few things. I’m an unlikely candidate for low carb living. First, I am a life-long pescatarian. For those who are unfamiliar, pescatarians are basically vegetarians who eat seafood. Posts and articles about keto living seem to center around bone broths and bunless burgers. As a child growing up in the 80s and 90s, I became accustomed to maneuvering around in a meat eating world – especially during the ages of 10-17, which I spent living in Houston, TX. From chili cookoffs to backyard smoke pits, I sustained myself on the mayonnaise salads, fresh fruits and burgerless buns.
Now, as niche communities inch their way towards a more sustainable future, more and more products cater to vegetarians and vegans. I couldn’t have fathomed this shift as a young person. I am still in awe by the number of options now available to me. Lately, however, I’ve been much more focused on health. I am drawn to the whole foods lifestyle, and have found a new passion for cooking with fresh ingredients.
Now, with this shift to keto – what will I eat? The things I read urge focus on whole foods — but without meat as a staple, I’m drawn in by the products created to make things a little easier on me. So, my diet will contain a mix between newer products coming out of the keto-industrial-complex, and nutritious whole foods.
Next, this isn’t my first time trying low carb. As a person with a busy career, who is in true quarantine during Covid, I can’t afford to feel awful. So, I’ve also added in some products I’m hopeful will help, such as exogeneous ketones (more on that later).
Last, I wasn’t always overweight. In my 20s and much of my 30s, I hovered between 130-150 lbs. I ate whatever I wanted. But, I’ve always been a “fat kid.” And any time the scale inched up, I would try yet another crash diet. Be it the cabbage soup and maple-cayenne-lemonade things that prevailed in the late 80s or the macrobiotic or South Beaches or raw food diets in vogue in the mid 2000s — I was doing it. Perhaps yo-yo dieting wrecked my metabolism, or perhaps I just got older. Either way, I know I need to put something sustainable in place. I’ve had success with Weight Watchers and Noom — and will likely switch back to one of those programs once I get to a healthy weight. For now, I see keto as my ticket to get there..so I can stay there.
In the interest of making it through, I also plan to include carb refeeding days. This is mostly in the interest of keeping my sanity, but will also allow me to add some whole grains and starchy vegetables in the mix. There’s research to suggest that intermittent carb cycling keeps the body “on its toes” and avoids plateaus. We shall see.
Another item for sanity: wine. I was happy to confirm that dry red and white wine can be added without drastic impacts to the plan. On some real levels, there’s no way I would do this without that assurance. Sober quarantine you say??? Not in this household!
My Prep for the Plan:
- Bulletproof Coffee: This mix of coffee, grass fed ghee and MCT oil is meant to start your day with healthy fats and energy.
- Seafood: I stocked up on wild caught salmon, Gulf shrimp and wild-caught swordfish to start. I only eat wild caught seafood after reading Larry Olmstead’s book “Real Food, Fake Food.” Do yourself a favor and leave the farm raised “red snapper” alone!
- Pasture raised eggs: It’s my hope the chickens actually got to walk around. I feel my suspended disbelief is worth the $5 a carton.
- Meat substitutes: I plan to eat Impossible brand meatless grounds, when I need a break from the seafood and eggs. I also ordered a deli box from The Herbivious Butcher.
- Hearts of palm pasta: I contemplated Shirataki noodles. I can’t get over how they are packaged in a “water.” Fair or unfair, my mind can’t get into it. I don’t love zucchini, so zucchini noodles are out for me. Honestly, why are people acting like zucchini noodles make sense? But I love hearts of palm – and while I still believe it’s a dumb trick to believe anything that isn’t a noodle is a noodle, I figure I’ll give it a shot.
- Vegetables: I plan to eat vegetables daily. To start, I have arugula, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, green beans and spaghetti squash.
- Exogeneous ketones: The concept behind the keto diet is that your body will burn ketones instead of carbs. To produce ketones, your body breaks down fat. This supplement is meant to provide those ketones in advance, in order to prevent the “keto flu” – which carries symptoms like brain fog, low energy, headache, sleeplessness etc. Listen when I tell you — I’m betting the house on this supplement to carry me through. If I’m going to have to pretend trees are pasta, there’s no way I’m going to induce a “flu” on top of it.
- Supplements grabbag: I started collecting a number of supplements when I started my health journey, and plan to sprinkle them in here and there when appropriate. Key for keto will be the electrolyte packets, since the first few weeks result in rapid water weight loss. I will also use the fiber to keep things moving along in the absence of whole grains.
Let’s see how it goes! If there’s anything you think I should add, please let me know in the comments.