Those who know me are well aware of how I’ve been dabbling in the low carb camp nutritionally most of the time for the last 10 years or so. And I generally always feel better and more balanced staying pretty much keto for prolonged periods of time. My 30-day ketogenic hiking experiment in Lapland 2017 was a real success leaving me with a metabolic flexibility I’ve never experienced before in my life, and I can still fuel with sweet potatoes on one day, shifting to keto on the next, without any subjective changes in how I feel or perform.
The exception is mental and emotional, I’m so much more stable and balanced when in ketosis, and I can still get some cravings for more after indulging in dark chocolate or my beloved dry red wine. So I reached the decision to spend an extended period of time going as low as possible on carbs. Not having any real discomfort or experiencing any symptoms, doing a strict carnivore diet, just consuming meat, salt and water, feels too restrictive and, though I might try that out for a more limited time, later on, I’m going for a little more variety this time. This makes it a lot easier to describe what I eliminate than what I include.
Starting October first, going for 90 days, I eliminate all plant material from my diet with the exception of olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil, as well as spices. I know from previous eliminations that eggs and dairy do not cause me any issues, and so cheeses, cream, butter and eggs are a welcome addition to the meats I consume during this experience.
Starting off checking a baseline doing some blood work and measuring my body composition with a bodpod, we got something to compare against at the end of the 90 day period. Initial blood work came back showing pretty darn good numbers and I really look forward to seeing how these are going to be affected. I sure know what I expect, yet keep an open mind.
So far, almost one week in, I feel amazing, breath ketone measuring with Ketonix show that I stay in decent level nutritional ketosis most o the day and I wake up full of energy that stays high during the entire day. The hardest part so far is that I actually miss my few pieces of 90% chocolate after dinner, I expect that to go away pretty soon though. That said, the only thing I watch is that I actively avoid carbs, even greek yoghurt is out of bounds, though I do eat Halloumi and Feta cheese that do contain a few grams of carbs.
Not tracking any macros I’d guesstimate fueling with 80-90% fat and the rest protein with trace amounts of carbs from the cheeses mentioned, as well as the approximate 1g/egg. This puts me well under 10g/carbs on a non-strict day!
Thanks for checking out my Journey, I’ll keep you posted!