90 days on Keto and Fasting: Results--- 35 pounds and controlled blood sugar

Today I celebrate day 90 of being on a strict low-carb ketogenic diet. I've had some good results both over the 90 days, and in my previous low-carb diet.

I have lost 35 pounds in the 90 days, which brings my total weight lost by low-carb keto to 89 pounds. I was mostly on lowcarb before, but less strict, and didn't do fasting other than skipping breakfast most days.

My BMI has gone down from 32.0 on day 10 of keto, to 27.0 this morning, which means I am no longer obese, just 'overweight.'

As a Type 2 diabetic, it was bad blood sugars that drove me to strict keto and fasting. I had a 336 blood sugar on day 1 of the current keto regime. I had a 84 yesterday, and was up to 99 this morning.

I am currently on a No-Breakfast Plan experiment, where I don't start eating until lunchtime. I'm also currently on the third day of a three-day fast. Or maybe a four-day fast. We'll see where I am tomorrow morning.

My blood pressure has been high, and while previously a low-carb diet lowered it without help, it hasn't helped much. I decided to try taking some good kind of garlic capsules. I found one kind which was allicin powder, the active ingredient in garlic, Buy Naturally bioactive Mega Allicin. My blood pressure has gone down slightly since I started to take it. I may add a cinnamon capsule--- I have used Cinnulin in the past--- and see if that helps even more.

No-Breakfast Plan experiment
The problem with this experiment as an experiment is that I was already mostly not a morning eater. And then I decided I had to do a 3 day fast, so any results will be a part of that. I think if I experiment again I might experiment on eating breakfasts, and see what that does. Anyway, I will report on the results at the official end of the experiment on Monday.

My July results on Keto

It's the beginning of a new month, and time to consider what keto has done for me the past July. And I think it's pretty good!

July was days 10 to 40 of my renewed keto lifestyle. And it had some great results. My blood glucose was 170 and 156 on the first two days of July. It was 101 and 93 on the last two days, and today it is 88. Compare those results to when I was on 2 diabetes meds, and still had readings in the mid 200s unless I was on strict low-carb--- a diet at least 1 of my doctors actively discouraged. She wanted me on the dreadful DASH diet, and thought that telling me it was a government-approved diet would encourage me to like it. There was no way to make me like the constant hunger, non-weight-loss, and higher blood sugars on that diet, though.

Fasting: I had 8 fasting days during July, mostly individual days with one 5 day fast. Each time I fasted, my blood glucose became more normal, and since I was on keto the other days, it stayed more normal.

Weight: I weighed 196.8 pounds at the beginning of July, and 185.2 by the end. I had not weighed under 190 since college, maybe since high school! My BMI (body mass index) went from 32.0 to 30.1. My Ketonix says I was in high level ketosis for almost all the days of July.

Clothing size: I bought two pairs of jeans and a pair of shorts in a new, smaller size: XL. And they fit really loose on me. I really want to buy a new pair of jeans in 'L' just to see if it would fit!

There are bad sides to my new keto life, though. I've been feeling so much more energetic, I got a lot of things done, including starting on a major house cleaning. But with all that energy, I spent too much money. Since government disability doesn't PAY much, I have to be very, very careful in August. Which is too bad since I want to buy some new clothes. And I can't even afford a trip to the grocery store this week.

Also, my blood pressure has not improved any. I'm hoping another month will see some changes in that. Keto is supposed to be good for your blood pressure. If I don't see improvement, I will probably have to resort to blood pressure pills. If my 'health care provider' (not a doctor) is willing to prescribe a kind I am willing to take.

Losing 67 lbs on Keto, Fasting day 3

Yesterday I walked into the feed mill to buy chicken feed, and ahead of me in line there was a woman who probably weighed something like 320 pounds at least. She said something about having lost 5 pounds though she wanted to lose 200.

And something occurred to me. She probably looked at me and saw a not-so-fat person who probably wouldn't understand her weight struggles and would judge her for them. Because I'm not as fat as I used to be.

My peak weight was 255 lbs, or around that. I didn't weight myself much at my peak weight. I took the weight off first through low-carb, down to the 220 to 210 range, and there I plateaued.

Keto took me down to the 190 range, and now on my current fast, I found I weighed 188. I have not broke below 190 in years, maybe since I was in high school.

Sometimes it's hard to remember I'm not so fat anymore. I was buying 2X clothing for years, and now I am tossing it for XL sizes. I just had to order some new pants from Haband company because I was running out of jeans that fit and that hadn't been ripped by my cat, Eleanor. (She's got neurological problems and digs claws in when she jumps in my lap so she won't fall, and ripped a hole in my favorite properly-fitting jeans that expanded until the jeans had to be discarded.)

Fasting, Day 3
I have only recently done a fast that lasted 40 hours, and now I'm on a fast that has gone in to the third day. Dr. Jason Fung, author of The Complete Guide to Fasting (see sidebar, BUY THE BOOK!) allows home-made bone broth as a fasting fluid, and I had one cup the first day and two the second.

I felt no hunger the first day, which is why I fasted in the first place, and a little the second. When I feel a little hunger, I drink some tea and wait a while and the hunger passes. The bone broth helps, but I don't want to drink it too often because home-made bone broth has some fat in it and so some calories.

I have done my HeavyHands walking all three days, and actually felt more energetic than I had been. I have had chronic fatigue for years, and the keto diet helps some, but not as much as a fasting day helps. My blood sugars have been 94 and 111. And I'm getting caught up on dishwashing since I'm not dirtying new ones! (I don't have a working dishwasher.)

My New Facebook Group
Some of my author friends have been starting Facebook groups instead of author pages because Facebook pages are no longer very useful. I've decided to start a Facebook group for this blog, and will be posting new blog posts from this blog there.

I'm still working on setting the group up, but if you want to join, the group is at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/583596832037760/

Keto success means tracking your weight

In reading a book on another topic altogether, I learned it's hard to improve your habits if you don't track things. When it comes to healthy keto eating, weight is an important thing to track. Not the ONLY thing, though.

Since I'm on keto for weight loss as well as for diabetes control and treating my autism spectrum disorder, I like to track my weight daily. Not that I need to know every day. But when I plan on doing it once a week, it ends up being more like once every three months.

My old bathroom scale was a disaster for that. I kept it in the living room (bad move) because the light in my closet where I used to keep it doesn't work any more, and I was sick of needing a flashlight to weigh myself. But in the living room location the scale became a cat toy. A usually-dirty cat toy.

So I recently decided to buy myself a smarter scale--- one that syncs with my smart phone and one that also measures other stats like BMI and body fat percentage. My choice was the Etekcity Smart Fitness Scale model ESF17.  (This is my affliate link.)

You have to download an app to your smartphone, so this isn't a great choice if you don't own a smartphone. But it works on my cheap smartphone.

You have to bring your smartphone in with you when you weigh yourself each time. But that's a good thing. And even though the scale is in the unlighted closet, I don't need to use the flashlight since the scale's weight number shows up on my phone.

The scale is good for those on a budget since the price is $39. I imagine I'd have to pay about as much for an old-fashioned scale.

And one big help is that if you don't have the habit of writing down your weight every time, the scale's app tracks your numbers for you, and you can see your old numbers on a graph to see if you are making progress or the opposite.

Important: Keto (and fasting) isn't all about your weight numbers! Steadily improving your health is more important than quick weight loss. If you have gone from scary-bad blood sugar numbers to near-normal ones like I have, you know that there are benefits to keto and fasting that have nothing to do with anything a smart scale measures.

But in our weight-obsessed society, losing weight if you are 'overweight' is vitally important to your self-esteem. Tracking weight will help you fine-tune your keto. If a keto practice or food makes you gain or lose weight, you will know. And knowing what's going on is half the battle.