If you’ve read my previous posts about food you’ll know that I’ve always eaten high carb. It was never a conscious choice it’s just what I naturally did. Especially since I don’t eat much meat, that leaves more carbohydrates as food choices. Over the past year and a half I’ve not restricted any of my food. I have been allowing myself to have all the unhealthy foods that I didn’t allow myself to have for about 20 years. This has been healing for my mental health since I used to restrict my diet because of wanting to lose weight but mostly because I wanted to cure my autoimmune disease. After being told by a doctor that I likely do not have that autoimmune disease it made me relax a little around food and relearn how to enjoy the many delicious options that are out there. Over time I noticed I only wanted the sugary sweet treats. I was rarely craving “real” food. This, and for many other reasons I thought I would try my “keto curious” approach. Instead of eating 3-4 cream filled donuts when I crave them, maybe I would swap it out with a lower carb treat. I started this about 3 weeks ago and it turned from that mentality to me choosing low carb at every meal. I was excited to try something new and by cutting out the sugary treats I immediately noticed I didn’t have those extreme energy crashes that I used to have every day. I also loved the idea of cutting out something that I know deep down is bad for my health: sugar.

What Is It?

“Ketogenic” is a term for a low-carb diet (like the Atkins diet). The idea is for you to get more calories from protein and fat and less from carbohydrates. You cut back most on the carbs that are easy to digest, like sugar, soda, pastries, and white bread.

https://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-ketogenic-diet

       Doing “Lazy Keto” as it is officially called, has been way more um, interesting than I imagined. The first 3 days I felt very energetic, I don’t know how much of that was excitement about doing something new (during the boring isolation times of Covid19), or how much was actually physiological, but I noticed a definite energy boost. Then came the nausea, my gut hurt and I felt like I would throw up various times on multiple different days. I never did throw up and I no longer feel nauseous. I was absolutely not expecting to feel anything like the Keto Flu, especially since I wasn’t 100% strict about it, but I think it is telling as to how much sugar I was consuming by the severity of my detox symptoms. Another very important thing that I learned is that low carb or keto treats (aka atkins candy, slim fast keto fat bombs, low carb ice cream…) make me feel terrible! I did go overboard on those at the beginning and boy did those make me feel bloated, gassy, and frankly, like garbage. I believe they are full of unhealthy chemicals and should be used in moderation, which I was NOT doing at first. Another crazy detox symptom I had was extreme rage. I had this for a solid week and it felt like PMS…on steroids. I got irritable extremely easily and quickly. This rage turned to tears on a few occasions. I could not stand feeling this way as I am normally peaceful and calm, so luckily this went away!

“But with lazy keto, you only need to focus on one number: your daily intake of carbs, which according to the buzz, should be about 20 to 50 grams per day. The rest? As long as you generally try to eat more fats than proteins and you stick to relatively healthy food choices, the percentages don’t matter and you can put away your calculator. (But focus on whole foods—if you want to try to lose weight eating greasy fast food, you’re looking at dirty keto, which no dietitian we know would ever recommend.)

Though the name is new, the idea of lazy keto has been around for a while, says nutritionist DJ Blatner, RDN, the author of The Superfood Swap.“ This is actually what many people do when they say they are following a ‘keto’ diet,” she explains. “Most people aren’t counting all their macros, they’re just trying to eat low carb/high fat. They hear about the keto plan from a friend and create their own version.”

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a32882772/lazy-keto-diet/

       The whole time since drastically lowering my carbohydrate intake (I aim for under 50 net carbs a day) I have felt very bloated in my stomach. My guess is that I’m not used to the higher fat intake, the sugar alcohols, and maybe my fiber is now lower. Also, the low carb processed treats that I was consuming/still am in moderation contribute to the stomach bloat. Oh, and I’ve had more headaches than usual too. As for weight loss, (which wasn’t a goal, but 5-10 lbs. would be a nice side effect) I feel like I might have gained weight! I am not weighing myself but my stomach feels big all the time now, so weight loss doesn’t seem to be happening.

       Overall, I really dislike the stomach bloat as it makes me feel uncomfortable all day long, but I’m thinking with some tweaks this could go away. I really kind of crashed and burned into the Lazy Keto diet. But that’s usually how I make a behavior change, and then I make necessary adjustments as I get more used to the changes. I will admit that I do miss fruit, so I will have some sometimes and count the carbs, and it is still easy to stay under 50 carbs a day. (A lot of people aim for 20 carbs per day but I am not ready for that extreme just yet…) I do think cutting out sugar and lowering my carbs will provide me with health benefits, but I’ll admit I’m not very good at it, and I’m still learning. I plan to keep doing this but tweak it as I go to see what makes me feel my best.

Here’s my “Keto Curious” Pinterest board if you want to see which recipes I’m into! pinterest.com/Lux__Lee/keto-curious/