Quick Update

I’m on spring break this week so I actually have a little time to write. The slow-carb diet is coming to a close, and I have ultimately set an end date for April 3, 2013. After that time, I will continue to eat relatively healthy and possibly start trying to bulk up some muscle for summer. I’m considering switching to the MyFitnessPal app – I would just like to maintain the weight I’ve lost after being on the Slow-Carb Diet. According to the application, I will be able to consume somewhere in the neighborhood of 2100 calories per day in order to maintain my current weight. That actually seems like a lot – I will play it by ear at first, but I’m guessing I will be closer to the 1700-2000 calorie mark. It will finally be time to incorporate some carbohydrates (I’ve missed them, terribly) into my diet while continuing to limit my caloric intake to a more reasonable value.

One of the major issues I’ve been facing lately deals with my digestive tract and being able to process food in the way I have always been used to. As I’ve previously mentioned in another blog post,

“since my body has grown accustomed to eating healthy, unprocessed, low sugar food all week long, splurging on Saturday often leaves me feeling sick to my stomach with a short-lasting sugar high.”

Not only do I consume far more calories than I am accustomed to on this one day versus the other six days of the week, but also, the calories definitely are not of great quality. My body does not know what to do with the “different material” its given and I ultimately feel horribly ill for almost 24 full hours. It’s a bit like going out on the town for a night of heavy drinking. If you’re obviously not used to poisoning your body with alcohol on a daily basis, and you all-of-a-sudden have 6 glasses of Riesling, 5 Bud Lights, and 3 shots of Jameson, your body isn’t going to be too happy the next day. In other words, instead of an alcohol hangover, I truly believe it is possible to have a food hangover. It can only be cured with time, rest, and a higher quantity of water.

Since I'm losing weight proportionately throughout my entire body, I still have a little excess fat around my abdomen I'm trying to lose - we'll see what happens in the last two weeks on this diet. At any rate, as of this morning, Wednesday March 20^th – I weighed 160.4 pounds. I’ve lost 23.0 pounds so far this year! 

Ketosis

I wanted to talk about why the Slow-Carb Diet is so successful for anyone who tries it. Essentially, it forces your body into Ketosis. Here is a brief, paraphrased version of what Ketosis actually is: Sugar and carbs are the body’s main source of energy. When glycogen (sugar) is low, the body has to get creative in order to convert fats and proteins into useable energy. Since the body is metabolizing fats instead of sugar, the liver releases ketones, which are detectable via urine and blood.

As you can expect, I do spend a lot of time reading other diet/fitness blogs. In case you’d like a science explanation of how Ketosis actually works, I included a link to another blog that clarifies it far better than I ever could. 

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-ketosis/#axzz2MQN7u8Rk

I purchased these test strips from Walmart for about $7 to occasionally track the presence of ketones in my system. You have to ask the pharmacist to get them but you don’t need a prescription or anything.

It comes with this nifty little color chart! After my cheat day, my test result is always negative. By Wednesday or Thursday, I’m starting to see results between the “trace” and “small” categories. Usually dry mouth is a symptom of Ketosis so by mid-week, I’m usually experiencing some degree of unquenchable thirst.

I used to test my system regularly, but now I can accurately sense my ketone levels in my system without the strips. I get a numb headache and sometimes my vision gets slightly blurry – a minor annoyance but nothing severe. As I’ve mentioned before, you’re not being starved on this diet, but your body is trying to process all the food energy in a completely different way than it was originally used to.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I AM OF SICK EGGS AND BEANS! As in, I will probably never look at them again for the rest of my life as soon as this diet is over. Okay, so maybe I’m being a little too over-dramatic. It is really not the bland taste that I have an issue with, because anything can be pepped up with spice. But the texture, oy vey, the texture is what kills me!

My weight loss is slowing down drastically. I’ve decreased to a maximum weight loss of ½ pound per week, whereas last month, it was easy for me to lose 1 ½ to 2 pounds per week. However, I’m finally starting to hover around the weight I’m supposed to be for my height and age. =)