Conservation Fitness Program, Day 12- Ups and Downs of Keto

I constantly tout the opinion that there is no such thing as one perfect diet. This comes from years of personal experience, research and reading material from health and nutrition experts. The one thing I can guarantee is if someone states their diet is the perfect diet, they are wrong.

While there is no one perfect diet, there is a perfect diet for everyone. It’s just going to be different for each and every person.

Case in point, last week I tested my vegetarian week and it was a fairly good experience. I ate a lot of great food, all the recipes I tried were fantastic, and I only needed to make some minor adjustments to the meal plan. At the end of the week, I felt good. I lost a little over 2 pounds, and had little difficulty staying on the vegetarian diet.

This week, however, I am finding I need to make constant changes to recipes, I am feeling lackluster about the meals, and after some of my meals I am feeling particularly heavy. I weighed myself today and I gained some of the weight back I had lost last week.

That being said, I have felt better about my workouts. I have been able to push myself a little harder to do pull-ups instead of ring rows. I have more stamina to go all out for my core workout songs (like “Gold”, “Ring of Fire”, and “Blood is Pumping”). And while I have modified workouts so I am not fully squatting, my knees haven’t bothered me this week.

I really don’t feel that Keto is for me, personally. Either I’m not doing it right, or my body is telling me I need something different. I have tried my best not to exploit the diet to eat only greasy bacon and tons of cheese. In fact, the days I have had a particularly cheesy meal are the ones I feel the heaviest afterward.

The thing about keto, and diets like it (like Atkins, for instance), is there are always loopholes where people promoting the diet exploit something about it. “Oh, you should do keto, because you can have bacon and cheese!” While this is technically true, having nothing but bacon and cheese is quite the recipe for a heart attack, in my opinion.

Keto isn’t the only diet which gets exploited. Remember last week how I said people will promote vegan diet by saying “OREOS ARE VEGAN!!”? Yeah, that’s exploiting a diet designed to be healthier for you to make it completely unhealthy.

I know several people who swear by keto. My dad was on Atkins for a long time, and he lost a lot of weight as a result, but he still had to take it easy, because he was at risk for heart disease. But then you have my good friend in Florida who has achieved great success with Keto, and I beleive her when she swears by it. She doesn’t exploit it, as far as I can tell. When we went out to eat, she ordered the deviled eggs on the appetizer menu as her main entree. Another time she ordered chicken and had some green beans with it. She was meticulous about what she could and shouldn’t have. And it worked wonders for her. I should say, it’s still working for her.

This week hasn’t all been bad. Yesterday I made a Keto Mousse, which was absolutely divine. Tonight’s pizza was delicious, and the avocado dressing I made was pretty good, too.

If you want to get a sample of Keto, try some of these recipes and see for yourself the good side of Keto.

Keto Mousse

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 4 oz fresh berries
• 2 oz chopped pecans
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. 1. Pour cream into a bowl and whip with a hand mixer until soft peaks form. Add lemon zest and vanilla and whip just another 20-30 seconds.
   2. Fold berries and nuts into mixture.
   3. Cover with foil and let sit in refrigerator for 3 or more hours to chill and firm.

Avocado Ranch Dressing

4 servings- 390 calories Carbs:13g, Fat: 25 g, Protein: 6.4g

Ingredients

• ¼ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup cashew butter
• 1 small avocado, pitted and peeled
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp dill weed

Directions

1. Combine remainder of ingredients (olive oil through dill weed) in a ninja/food processor/blender and process until smooth. If texture is too thick, add more water, a tablespoon at a time until you reach desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a separate container
2. To serve, pour 2 tablespoons, or more if desired, over one can of tuna or romaine lettuce salad. Serve immediately.

Keto Pizza

Ingredients

Crust

• 4 eggs
• 6 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

Topping

• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 4 oz shredded cheese
• 2 oz pepperoni

Directions

1. Beat eggs and mix cheese to make crust. Spread the crust mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, forming a large rectangle.
2. Place in oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes or until the pizza crust turns golden. Remove and let cool.
3. Increase temperature to 450 degrees.
4. Spread tomato paste on crust. Sprinkle oregano on top and top with cheese. Place pepperoni on top of cheese.
5. Bake pizza for 10 minutes, or until pizza has turned a golden brown color.

I did make some adjustments and revised my zucchini rolls recipe. This one seems much better now:

Zucchini Caprese

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized zucchini
• 4 oz mozzarella, sliced
• 2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tomato, sliced (optional)

Directions

1. Thinly slice zucchini length-wise to create long, slender pieces. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange slices on baking sheet.
2. Place zucchini in oven and set on 450 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes.
3. Remove from oven. Place mozzarella on zucchini slices, top with basil, and tomatoes, if desired.

As for today, I am ready to be done with Keto and move onto Paleo. Especially the vegetarian aspects. Eating vegetarian on Paleo is MUCH easier than eating healthy vegetarian on Keto.

Breakfast: Keto pancakes
Lunch: Salad with Avocado dressing
Dinner: Keto Pizza with sausage instead of pepperoni
Snack- Zucchini Caprese

Workouts:

CrossFit Beginners- some random workout of the day
ZooFit- EMOM (every minute on the minute) with squats, plank, push-ups, and v-hold

Mood:

I feel pretty productive. I worked a little on my intro for the guide. I also went by a couple stores to see if they would be interested in displaying and selling my books. I’ve contacted libraries and other venues to give presentations on ZooFit and have book signings. It’s inspiring and pushes me to do more with ZooFit.

Challenges:

Same thing I’ve been struggling with all week- making Keto work for me. I still feel it’s a good fit for the Conservation Fitness Guide because it obviously helps OTHER people, it just isn’t doing it for me. Right now I debating whether or not to be upfront and honest about it in my book. I doubt it’s a good idea, because then it plants the idea in the readers’ minds that this didn’t work for the person writing it, so why would it work for them?

This might be the big question to ask those who are in my beta trial group. Which diet was the hardest to adhere to? Which one was the most enjoyable? Would you have wanted me to share my experience with these diets with you? Or do you think that would influence your opinion on the diets?

It’s early but I’m calling it a night. Getting some needed shut-eye.

Tomorrow I will be gearing up for Paleo week, and it can’t get here fast enough. Just two more days. I can do this for two more days.