Now that we’ve adventured through the first couple of weeks of keto we wanted to share the experience with you as well as some helpful tips to give you the advantage if you ever try keto for yourself. We thought it would be helpful to break out how we felt by day since our research seemed to show us that each day could vary quite a bit as your body gets used to your new eating habits.

His:

Day 1 – I started out morning 1 groggy, low on energy, and low on motivation to study. Technically I had started keto 12 or so hours before day 1. I still got up at a decent time, but was sore from working out the past week so I did stay in bed for a while longer and got caught up on emails. I made a bulletproof coffee with 15ml of MCT oil, 15ml of butter and plain Black Rifle Coffee. The coffee kicked in quick and gave me the pick me up I needed. It felt like I had more energy than I normally would have had with two cups of regular coffee. The rest of the day went well. I was able to focus more and wound up studying for the entire day which in the end drained me.

Day 2- I had a test this morning so I ate a fatty breakfast and 30min before the test I took some hydrogenous ketones. I felt confident and clear-headed throughout the whole test and ended up doing quite well. After that I wound up studying for the entire day again. I did start to feel weak and my muscles were cramping but I realized that while studying I lost track of drinking water and I hadn’t hydrated as I should have so I slowly started to rehydrate to help my body out.

Day 3- I still had some lasting effects from not drinking enough water the day before. By the middle of the day I was feeling okay again. I started to really feel mentally clear from the moment I woke up until I went to bed. No real fatigue set in. I was not working out normally at this point but I did continue with daily walks these first few days.

Day 4- This is the first day that I really felt great. I woke up alert and ready to go – I didn’t need my usual few minutes to collect my thoughts and get out of bed. I had sustained energy all day so I attempted to work out. It went well. Definitely a different feeling than having carbs before a workout, but not a bad different. I also starting a different method of lifting in the gym, but I’ll talk about that in another post.

Day 5-7- Everything kind of rounded out for me on day 4. Getting into this diet wasn’t bad for me at all, but I’ve done drastic changes before and gone low carb, low fat once when I was younger and trying to cut weight prior to really learning about nutrition and the body.

All in all I can understand how this was harder on Rosalyn and would be harder on others who haven’t done similar diets before. I’ve really enjoyed keto. The food that we eat tastes great and I never really feel like I’m being restricted. Once you start to really make a habit of this type of nutrition plan it gets much easier as you go along.

Hers:

Day 1 – I woke up early feeling good, focused and productive. I had a cup of hot tea and felt hungry so Nick made me my first butter coffee and it was delicious.  Half an hour to an hour later I was feeling super jittery from the caffeine, but this is a usual reaction for me if I drink coffee on an empty stomach. I was feeling low on fuel (somewhat like a hungry sensation, but not) and energized (probably because I was hopped up on caffeine). Each meal after that filled me up even though it was much less food than I am accustomed to eating.  Nick and I both tested our urine in the evening and I was already testing as small to medium for ketone presence.  This is probably because I had already cut out a lot of carbs and sugar as I tried to find a solution for my acne in the weeks prior.

Day 2 – My brain was going a million miles a minute close to the time my alarm was going to go off. I can remember my brain trying to calculate out my macros for my meals and sprinting through a to do list for work over and over again.  It was like my brain was in hyperdrive and I wasn’t even awake! As I got up I felt awake and ready for the day but about a half hour later I was already feeling like my heart was racing and I was out of breath. My whole body felt like it was buzzing.

I felt nauseous about an hour or so after eating so as I tried to hydrate thinking it would help with the breathlessness but it made me feel worse. My hands started to feel tingly and that’s when I knew I may be starting to react strongly to the fuel switch. My body felt heavy and tired but my mind didn’t so I just laid low that day so I wouldn’t make matters worse. I made sure to drink a lot of electrolytes which really helped. I also made sure to eat plenty of fat and protein to give my body extra fuel as it was adjusting. I felt tired and had brain fog and headaches in the evening.  Needless to say, I went to bed early that night (at 9pm) and got a good 9 hours of sleep.

Day 3 – I woke up feeling a lot better but still a little off. Just like the day before I felt like my heart rate was elevated and my body was tired. I made sure to have broccoli, meat and cheese along with an electrolyte drink for breakfast but unfortunately I still l had to lay low that day as well. It’s no joke when they say you may suffer from the keto flu! Fortunately, I felt much more alert and clear headed as well as consistently energized throughout the day. The strange thing about day three was that after every meal I would still feel hungry.  I think it was my body protesting and trying to tell me, “eat the carbs!” because that was its preferred fuel source.

Day 4 – I woke up feeling great. It was almost as if a switch had turned on. I remember still feeling like my brain was in hyperdrive as I slept but other than that I was good. I only had slight points of breathlessness and muscle tiredness throughout the day. The worst symptom from day four was leg cramping in the afternoon and throughout the evening.

Day 5 – This day was much like the one before. I felt almost completely back to normal if not even better since I had total brain clarity and energy throughout the day. Unfortunately, I had more leg cramping in the evening but after some trial and error with when I drank my electrolytes I realized that my body was needing more nutrients in the evenings so instead of just drinking electrolytes just in the morning I made sure to have a cup in the evening as well.

Day 6-7 – These two days were great. I felt normal, my body was working normally and even better than usual. I felt so energized and clear headed. I hardly had any leg cramps thanks to staying super hydrated and eating at the right times. The exciting thing about day six was that I had an egg with dinner and didn’t feel the slightest bit of an upset stomach. If you read last week’s blog you’ll know how much of a struggle it was for me to realize I could no longer eat eggs. So as silly as it may seem this was a really big moment for me and even more of an encouragement factor to keep going. The rest of the day I had good energy and great mind clarity.

Switching to Keto was much more difficult for me than it was for Nick. But I feel like I definitely learned more about what my body needs and the best times to eat the right foods. The first week really can be a challenge but I promise if you stick through the first few days you’ll reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

Our week 1 tips

Here are some helpful tips we know will help you as you make the switch to keto.

• Stay hydrated – seriously! Drink a lot.
• When you drink, drink electrolytes to supplement the flushing out of vitamins and keep your muscles from cramping. We really like Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Powder which we picked up from our local Sprouts store.
• Make sure to give yourself decent amounts of fat each meal to keep you going
• Drink butter coffee – it tastes amazing and really gives you sustained energy when you need a bit of a boost. We recommend blending it to really incorporate the butter and MCT oil. We have a Nutribullet that works great!
• Track your meals in an app. We use My Macros+ so that we can put in our ideal amounts of nutrients we should be reaching per day. The app calculates out the nutritional facts by scanning barcodes or inputting the info manually. All you have to do is weigh out the amounts are you’re set.
• Pay attention to what foods work best for you and at what time of day – some combinations may work better than others so experiment by how you feel.

We’ll see you next week for Week 2!

Rosalyn & Nick