For fairness of data, I'm using three Tuesdays for comparison. This Tuesday, last Tuesday (Nov 29) and the Tuesday before that (Nov 22). And I have the help of my blog entry for the day to gauge my overall mood. With a side helping of contributing factors.
Tuesday, November 22nd:
Weight: 89 kilograms
Diet: Lo Fat Hi Carb
Mood: Pissed off and looking forward to an apocalypse.
Contributing factor: The Muppet just became the alleged leader of the free world.
Tuesday, November 29th:
Weight: 87.2 kilograms
Diet: Just switched to Ketogenics and feeling the difference.
Mood: Slightly 'down' but not as 'down' as usual.
Contributing factor: Loss of salt.
Today. Tuesday, December 6th:
Weight: 85.5 kilograms
Diet: Lo Carb Hi Fat
Mood: Emotionally 'high' yet exhausted.
Contributing factor: The 2.76 kilometer walk that Beloved and I bullied each other into doing.
Obviously, the biggest difference for the numbers people is the fact that I've lost a net weight of three and a half kilos in the space of a fortnight. Whilst the weight loss seems the same on a weekly basis, there is a world of difference on the emotional level.
My need for sleep aids has vanished. My need for supplements has vanished. Heck, even my need for asthma meds is dwindling.
I've gone three days without needing a dose of Atrovent by any means, and that means that I'm stepping down on the Seretide. If I go another three days without needing Atrovent, I can stop taking Seretide and just make sure I have a spare puffer nearby in case of allergen encounters.
Which means my old standby of: Puffer in my pocket, puffer in my bag (in case of no pocket days), puffer on the bedside table, and puffer in the medicine cupboard. Because paranoia has served me well.
...which reminds me, I need to scrabble around and find ALL of my old ventolin puffers. Hand them in at the Chemist's for safe disposal and all.
The biggest problem for me with Ketogenics is serving portions. I'm still living with the meat-to-veg ratio of the old school. Aka, little bit of meat, especially if it's lean meat, and loads of vegetables.
Which also contain their share of natural carbohydrates.
Ketogenics says: More meat, less veggies. And fry them all in fat. And add salt. And creamy sauces.
This is peculiar for me because the entirety of my life as been all about increasing veg and decreasing meat to the rough volume of a pack of cards. Or less. Plus it probably doesn't help that I find lots of vegetables to be very tasty indeed.
The Ketogenic plate should have eighty grams of protein, twenty grams of carbs, and two hundred grams of fat. I know, that sounds daunting, but you can have fats in any form. Avocado, oils, cheese... it's not hard.
And apart from some intermittent depth-charge sneezing, I have been feeling absolutely wonderful. Apart from the whole problem with salt and portion proportions that I'm busy getting over.
And next tuesday, I'll do the full weight update folderol so you can keep check. Now onto the important stuff. The dreaded bullying.
Last night's dinner had the wrong amount of carbs because I'm still getting used to all that. As a result, Beloved was suffering this morning. They didn't want to go for a walk. So I made them their salty broth. Had my own, and basically harangued Beloved to get up and take a walk around the shorter block, because exercise must be done daily to have good effect.
Then Beloved turned to walk around the longer block, because might as well go big.
Then, instead of going back home, we went on around the shorter block, and back around the longer block. Each of us egging the other on. That was the final turn, though. We returned home sweaty, exhausted, high as a kite on adrenaline, and having to organise the kids at warp nine because it was already past time to go to school.
That... was bedlam. And partially sideways because Beloved would much rather research things whilst sitting down than fry up some eggs for an all-protein lunch. I can forgive... it's just that I didn't get a chance to sit down because I was running after everyone else. Until about nine-ish.
We're not doing that long a walk again on a school morning. We just can't.