Week 1 of my 100% Keto Chow challenge is now complete. It has not been easy! I really miss snacking the most. A handful of almonds or a string cheese stick here or there sure sounds good to me. When I feel the urge for a snack, consuming some table salt usually does the trick for a while.
But grocery shopping is a breeze! All I needed to buy this week was heavy cream and avocado oil. No thinking or meal planning required. Soooo easy!
We have been busy with a flooring project in our living room after some ceramic tiles buckled a few weeks ago. My amazing and hard-working husband did all of the difficult work but I did try to help a little bit. Have you ever had a dust storm occur inside your home? Let’s just say it is not fun but it has kept me occupied. And we now have a beautiful wood floor in that room.
We went out to lunch with some family members on Sunday at a favorite local barbecue joint. I drank a Diet Coke and totally enjoyed the opportunity to talk to a somewhat captive audience. I think it can be more uncomfortable for the people around me than it is for me when they are eating and I am not!
The first couple of days this week, my calories were well over 1300 so the next time I made shakes, I used less heavy cream. I almost always make three shakes at a time in my blender. The first prep day, I used 8 oz per batch (810 calories). The second prep day, I used 6.66 oz per batch (675 calories). This lowered my calories enough so that adding heavy cream to my coffee no longer pushed my calorie count too high for the day.
Something else I did differently on the second prep day is I poured the blender contents holding three shakes into four bottles and added more water to each one so I would perhaps feel like I was getting to eat (drink) more food each day by eating four times instead of three. I have mixed feelings on if that was successful or not. I like my shakes thick rather than thin so maybe sometime I will pour the equivalent of three shakes into four bottles but not add more water to each one. A challenge like this involves some experiments and small adjustments along the way.
My husband prefers avocado oil in his shakes plus he has different macros than mine. So I end up taking notes every time I make shakes, and I often re-check my math before I start the prepping process, which is never a bad idea. After our recent dust storm, I advised my husband that I would be adding some extra dust to his shakes for good measure. ;)
While he is drinking mostly shakes himself, he does still have some small keto meals and snacks but usually when I am not around. He admits that he really misses eating out with me but he supports my efforts and my focus on this project.
When I started out the week, we had only the Chocolate and Salted Caramel flavors in our pantry so it was exciting when an order containing the flavors Pumpkin Spice Caramel and Cookies and Cream arrived on Friday along with two more bags of Chocolate. My husband and I both like the Chocolate flavor the best but we both also enjoy having something different once in a while!
My net carbs were a little high (in the 20s) all of this week because I was using Sweet’N Low sweetener packets in my coffee and tea (in case you don’t know, all those sweetener packets contain fillers and slight carbohydrates). I have been aware of this for years but I was completely in denial about how many packets I was actually using each day! Yesterday, I made the switch to liquid sucralose. There will certainly be an adjustment phase as I get accustomed to the flavor difference and figure out how many drops I need to use but I am already pleased to see a lower net carbs total at the end of the day.
Have I lost weight this week? Yes and no. I dropped 5 pounds the first day, which was obviously water weight. I went from 140 on January 1 to 135 on January 2. The scales on January 8 again said 135. Maybe the Ankerl calculator was right when it indicated 1300 is the maintenance point for me. I am going to try for closer to 1200 calories per day in Week 2.
If you ever have questions or want to chat with other Keto Chow users, check out the Keto Chow sub on Reddit or the Facebook support group.
I have a question on how how is your weight today? Have you maintained and if so how did you reintroduce food into your diet