#3 The first 5 changes on my ketogenic journey

We eat so much and know so little...

Please put aside your sandwich, it won't be delicous!

• KETO FLU

That's for sure the first thing I "suffered" from, that's why I took two weeks off from work, so my metabolic shift would not be as stressful for me. I felt like shit for around 4 days, but that's normal and it will pass and which each day passing by everything starts to improve, even now after 4 weeks I find everyday something that's changed!

With "feeling like shit" I mean (in my case), being tired, having no motivation, my brain felt like it swam in acid, more or less like a hard hangover.

And I went from 100 to 0 with my carb intake, for me it worked best going that rough path directly, there is no binch, no treat, no cheat day in my plan. Don't get me wrong, I do eat carbs, but my total carb intake a day is max 50g, but mostly below 30g and those are from vegetables, greens, dairy and berrys.

• KETO ADAPTION

The great mistery of when to be keto adapted? Ya, for me it's simple: if you stop feeling like shit = you are keto adapted! Because you made that metabolic change and your liver produces ketones from fat. At least that's is my understanding of it.

• ME, MYSELF AND MY GUT

During the first two weeks, besides losing lots of water, I noticed differences in my digestion, usually I had "to poo" every morning once a day, that changed. In the beginning it was unregular, it was less, it was harder, but sometimes also more fluid, especially if my fat intake from oils were high and also my pee smelled "stronger" the first weeks.

And after those two weeks, everthing went back to normal, I have now with a meat/fat heavy ketogenic diet, my daily fluffy poop back!

That's normal too, because the gut bacteria you need to process fat, meat and so on, are different and they need to grow first, to be able to digest the food you eat.

I did speed it up with probiotics, I take once or twice a week a probiotic pill with 30 different bacteria strains, but those probiotics I started to take for general health and as prevention since a year or so and I really can't remember when I had my last cold or so, it must been years!

• KETO ENDURANCE

As I mentioned in my previous post my sleep is more solid, my energy level is consistent during the day, I have less hunger and I can go longer without food. Those factors make my life in many ways easier!

Therefore I can handle my unregular job better, I start everyday on a different time and the shift lenghts is different as well, e.g. I started to work at 2 a.m. yesterday, I slept maybe 6 hours, I had one cup of black coffee, I ate around 8 a.m. some walnuts and brazil nuts, was back home around 3 p.m., took a shower and went out to buy some food, I ate at 5 p.m. a huge meal with all different kind of things, did some homework, watched a tv show and read sth. in the internet and went to bed around 9 p.m. Long day? No Problem!

And as I also mentioned in my last post I just need fewer and shorter breaks between my sets during my workouts in the gym, it's not like I can lift massivly more than before, but I can do more exercises in less time.

Stress also just does not get to me anymore, having this rock solid quality of sleep and the consistent energy, did not only improve my physiological but also my psychological performance. It's really hard to describe, I just feel very deep rooted within myself.

My impulsiveness fades away day by day, I don't get grumpy anymore because of being hungry, differnt life or conflict situations do not scare me anymore or make me feel uncomfortable or awkward, I just am.

It may sound really strange, but the ketogenic diet did change me from within and I can only speculate. Does a carb heavy diet overcharges every cell you have, just overprovides energy for every cell, no matter if they need it or not? Therefore you are in general more nervous and suffer faster and harder from biochemical inbalances? What about the difference between glucose and ketones? Is it really that huge of a difference, the qualitiy and quantity of your energy source? I really can't say!

• KETO SKIN AND TASTE

For my entire life I had a macropore skin on my upper arms and also black spots on and around my nose, now the skin of my upper arms feels as soft as any other part of my body and the area around my nose isn't soaked in fat and black spots anymore.

My skin got in general more resistant, I use an old school razor with a shaving brush and haven't noticed cutting myself for around 2 weeks now.

Bitter foods like dark chocolate with 99% or more cacao, does not taste as bitter as before the dietary change and frozen berrys tasted pretty sour before, but now they taste sweet. =)

Also dental plaque that I remove regularly with dental floss does not have a smell anymore.

Those were my 5 things I could observe during the first 4 weeks of my ketogenic diet, I will continue next time on supplements and homemade little helpers for the ketogenic diet.

Please keep in mind, that I am writing about my own life experiance, I am not saying that anybody should do the same, I am not recommending or advicing anything to anyone, it is more like a personal diary I want to share with you and as you have guessed by now, english is not my native language, but I am trying!

I thank you so much for your time and patience!

=)