Just Start your Diet, Will Ya?!? – Day 11

Day 11 – Monday, January 4, 2016 – Wt: 269.4 – Blood Glucose  97 –  4.2 Lbs. lost – 74.4 pounds to go – in Ketosis

I try to console myself about the fact that I must return to work today with the thought that, unlike other times at home with a fridge steps away, I not only resisted grazing on whatever I could find, but in fact, got into ketosis for most of that time as well as saw my blood glucose go down into the normal range. Yes – there was New Year’s – and that was another success – it didn’t derail the diet.

With my focus more on the ketones and blood glucose I am much calmer. With the weight secondary I am not frustrated – nor should I. My goal was 2 Lbs./week and that looks to be on track – so what’s there to be frustrated about?

I’ll even put this out there: even if I don’t lose the weight I’d like, I’m in a better place psychologically and physically than I was prior. My energy is up (a little), my apathy is down (let’s see how work goes, though), my mind feels clearer – and I’ve consumed no junk food since before Xmas – with New Year’s a brief exception.

All good stuff, and I’d like to think, a great start to the year.

Then the wheels came off.

What I ate

I had made some low carb chili awhile back and thawed some out. One cup was my lunch. Of course, before this was my coffee and cream at home as well as black coffee at work. I was feeling weird all day – probably the ketones – as it was woozy with a slight headache.

Around 2:30 I had an energy drink as I was battling a fatigue unlike that of a big carb-filled lunch that just makes you incredibly sleepy but more a heaviness without tiredness. I didn’t notice any mental fatigue – I seemed sharp and in a good mood, really, for a first day back at work.

As the day went on I felt weirder and weirder. I also had a rather large headache, though I took nothing for it. I felt it might just be the adjustment to ketones. I also felt that same craving for something bad which seemed to accompany each time I seemed to really start to crank out the ketones.

This time I gave into the craving. I stopped on the way home at Trader Joe’s, got a bottle of vodka, and had a drink when I got home. Then another. I felt fine. A little vodka isn’t even going to ruin my diet all that much – it’s not like it was a piece of cheesecake.

The third one was not such a good idea. I have noticed this before: drinking during ketosis can turn you into a lightweight – after the third drink, which I didn’t finish, I began to feel sick.

I had checked my ketones when I got home and the strip was quite dark. I seemed to be producing a lot of them.

I was eating tuna salad and pork rinds – and had been feeling nauseous even before I got out of work. It got a lot worse. At this point I thought that some carbs might make me feel a little better – I can pick up the diet tomorrow – but in my addle-pated state I grabbed the first thing I could find – the kid’s leftover pizza. This *did* make me feel a bit better – for the moment.

Then I had a slice of cheesecake.

I went to sleep figuring I’d get back on course tomorrow, but instead I felt awfully sick. I awoke and almost a 1/2 dozen Tums couldn’t contain the pain and discomfort. I actually had 2 bid glasses of milk and this did settle my stomach. I went back to bed but drifted in and out of sleep. When it was time to get up I felt in no way able to get up. My head ached. It seemed more the continuation of the headache from the afternoon before rather than a hangover. Every muscle in my body ached. Was I coming down with the flu?

I doubted it. I believe it was some toxic combo of ketones, vodka, and crappy carbs that did me in. I could deal with that better than a case of the flu.

And maybe the vodka was a lesson learned. I needed to have it to show myself it makes me sick as a dog. It will probably hold less allure in the future after this.