Keto Week 4 | 12 Lbs Down!

I've complete 4 full weeks on the Ketogenic Diet wooooo!! By far the best decision I've made this year. I honestly believe my whole mentality as well as physicality has changed in less than a (calendar) month, I started June 16 btw. So let me start with results again and then I'll tell y'all all about the burst of energy I've felt, how I rarely get hungry, and my new pattern of eating (one meal a day, spoiler alert).

So I currently weigh 147.0 lbs and my waist is 31 inches. I haven't been this weight in maybe a year or longer, so to get there in less than a month is AMAZING! I started at 158.8 lbs and about 33 or 33.5 inches (sorry for the non-precise waist measurement). So in total in 4 weeks I've lost 11.8 lbs (basically 12 lbs) and 2 - 2.5 inches from my waist.

Other positive changes I've had this week: I have WAY more energy all day long, I feel like I get better sleep, I don't get bloated as much as I used to (could've been a gluten sensitivity that caused me to bloat to the point where my stomach would be in pain almost daily), I can see a much bigger difference in my body now and the way my clothes fit, and I'll save the biggest change for the next paragraph, the frequency of my meals.

So I don't know how long I'll eat like this because it wasn't fully an intentional change, but I started eating one meal a day the last two days of this week. Why? Because I don't really get hungry but maybe once a day. Also because it's FULLY SAFE AND HEALTHY AS LONG AS YOU GET YOUR NUTRIENTS. I had to put that in caps because every time I say I'm doing something diet-wise there's always a couple of people who try to tell me how unhealthy it is.

Before I tell you about the benefits of eating one meal a day I will put out a DISCLAIMER ABOUT IT (I know how annoying these are, but I have to do this because I will get people telling me how bad it is. I do my best to research as much as I can, not only for me, but for those of you who are interested):

1. I don't recommend jumping straight into it because then you'll be really hungry all day and feel like you're starving yourself which could backfire leading you to binge when you do finally eat. Your best bet is to start a Keto or Paleo diet and get to the point where you GENUINELY are not hungry all day.

2. If you eat one meal a day, you need to make sure that meal has TONS of vegetables (eat a few cups of salad!!), no more than 20-25g of carbs, 20% protein, and get about 85g of fat. If you try to eat one meal a day and it's just bacon and eggs, you will have a major lack of nutrients.

3. Basically just do a lot of research before making that decision.

Okay, so now the BENEFITS OF OMAD (One Meal A Day).... I'll keep it short and sweet, you put less pressure on your digestive system, save money on food, increase energy, decrease hunger/cravings, improve discipline, and burn way more fat. I'm mainly doing it because I honestly am not hungry very often, not necessarily to burn super amounts of fat, and I also made sure I researched it to be certain it was safe to eat once a day and how to be healthy about it (I eat way more vegetables now, yay!), and I get more than enough calories so my body doesn't think it's starving.

What one of my my meals looked like (Side note, try not to eat it all at once because you'll get bloated and overly stuffed, trust me. Spread it out within an hour or two): On Thursday, I had a couple bowls of salad, with two Lasagna-stuffed bell peppers, along with guacamole (I use lettuce "chips" to dip into it lol), a keto peanut butter cookie, and a Powerade Zero. I got plenty of vegetables, enough protein, and enough fat. I also had coffee earlier in the day using heavy cream which gave me more fat as well. I also added Potassium Chloride and Kosher salt (for Sodium) to my meal to stay up on electrolytes.

Alright and now that I've just "babbled" in blog form to you all for however long it took you to read until this point, I will finish off by suggesting that you stay tuned for my before and after pictures on YouTube (I filmed the video today, but have to edit it, so it'll be up soon!). I will eventually post them on here too, but I think posting a video will be a cool way to switch it up and it'll give you all a break from reading these loooong posts I'm writing :). Until then, thanks again for reading this post!