Alright, I did keto for a month and 2 weeks, on many days it was dirty keto and at times lazy keto. The main issue I had is that I felt like garbage. I got past the Keto Flu, and the sugar withdrawals. What made me feel like garbage is the high fat dense foods. I have very sensitive digestion and I realized I need fruit in my life. Yes, you can have some fruit when you’re doing low carb/keto but as I started consuming small amounts of fruit I literally felt like the sparkle of life came back. I felt this hours after consuming some fruit so I don’t think it was that initial sugar rush, it was something more than that. I do not consume very much meat and when I do it is hard to digest. It makes me tired and feel overly full. I tend to do better with soft foods (like an old person!) heck I’ve even gotten heartburn from split pea soup….split. pea. soup. PS oatmeal gives me heartburn too. Basically, I am sensitive to many foods and I believe that’s why keto wasn’t for me, and maybe if I did it a little healthier with more veggies and less processed food I would have felt better, but after I consume some green juice or some fruit it is such a huge relief that I feel like I’m breathing in air for the first time (ok, a little dramatic but it’s true). I wasn’t evening having that much fruit before trying keto. I was really addicted to sugary sweets and felt I needed them daily. I think not being able to have the fruit, and cutting out the sugary treats, made me fall back in love with fruit, so to speak (distance makes the heart grow fonder). If you’re eating doughnuts and cookies every day, then fruit is extremely unappealing. But if you haven’t been consuming anything sweet for a while then fruit is really EXCITING. Last week I was still attempting to be on the keto bus, and I felt like I weighed 500 lbs. (I actually weigh somewhere in the 130s) But I was so bloated and noticed my pants were tighter and it was confusing because I was tracking my macros and working out more than ever. As soon as I kind of let go and added in a couple fruits I felt so much better and noticed way less bloating. AND a huge benefit is that I stopped craving food constantly. I think there’s something to the fake sugar keto junk food that caused me to want to eat all day long, it was like I was addicted to those snacks and fake sugar treats.

One thing that I learned a lot about is the sugar alcohols that are in many of the keto treats that I was having. Guess what, they cause bloating! They cause you to retain water, they do not cause weight gain but temporary bloating and water retention. Not to mention for me it was extreme bloating, gas, nausea, and a lot of headaches. These products definitely can be used to transition off sugar but there will be some consequences especially for those who are more sensitive to sugar alcohols. Click here to watch a helpful video about this.

Somewhat off topic but I watched this video of one of my most favorite (ex) raw vegans, Megan Elizabeth. If you follow any vegan or raw foodie people online then you may have noticed that so many of them are no longer vegan and no longer raw. Some of them have gone full carnivore! It made me feel a little relieved that these people who seemed perfect and like it was so easy to eat a pretty extreme diet (raw vegan) are now “coming out” as no longer eating that way. I have tried brainwashing myself into eating this way since I was 14 years old and discovered the raw food diet and I have never been able to stick to it for more than a few months at a time. Watching this video and learning of other people’s journey to and from a raw food diet made me feel like less of a “diet failure”.  At some point in the past 3 years or so I have come to my own conclusion that there is no 1 perfect diet for everyone. I think everyone is different has different dietary needs and there is nothing wrong with that. I was vegan for almost a year and I never missed meat but I did miss eggs. Eggs always looked delicious and I eat them now and they make me feel good. While I was trying the keto lifestyle I bought some chicken and guess what has sat in my fridge the entire time and has gone bad? The chicken. I ate a little bit of it but it just wasn’t that appealing to me. As for fish, I love fish, so for me that’s probably what is best for me, a mostly plant based diet with a little eggs, fish, and chicken (if it seems appealing) sprinkled in here and there. I definitely want to still steer towards a lower carb lifestyle though. I am still avoiding white sugar, and want to keep that up. And if I have a sugar craving (or WHEN I do, let’s be real here) I will choose lower carb and healthier options. I want to start making more of my own treats and focus more on whole foods. As opposed to sugar free whipped cream with low carb chocolate chips (of course that chemical shit storm made me feel yucky). In that video, Megan Elizabeth explains that she began eating hamburgers after not doing so hardly ever in her life, she immediately felt better. I thought that was so interesting and obviously her body needed that at the time to get over her very serious health issues. Personally I cannot eat beef anymore, I ate a lot of burgers my whole life but it does not work for me anymore, horrendous heartburn and it is so hard for my body to digest it just isn’t for me anymore. But after all of this experimenting I have a renewed interest in super healthy raw foods. I think stepping away from it for so long gave me some renewed ability and clarity to shove more fruits and veggies in my face and feel good again 🙂