At the start of this year my workplace started an eight-week long fat loss challenge. Teams of two and $25 each to compete. The team that lost the highest % of fat lost won the pot. Quick math knowledge: The lower your starting fat (aka your denominator), the less fat you will have to lose (aka your numerator) to yield a higher % of fat lost. Summer was just around the corner, and there was some serious cash on the line.
At the midway point, I had lost 6 pounds of fat, which I was very pleased about. The other people in my department were also losing an impressive amount of fat. I’m competitive by nature, so I asked my cousin, who’s dabbled in those physique competitions before, for some advice on how to lean out quickly. She suggested trying the keto diet.
A Miracle
After just 2 days on the keto diet, I noticed the stubborn belly bloat start to subside. After a week, my stomach was flatter than before pregnancy. I was honestly dumbfounded. I’ve taken prescription pill after prescription pill for my stomach issues and never found relief. I’ve been on the wheat belly diet, the paleo diet, the low fodmap diet… the results were mild to just okay. From time to time, I would get bloated, and I still had unbearable pain
Before starting the keto diet, I had full intentions of quitting the diet after the competition was over; but after living bloat and pain free for the first time in a really long time, I’ve stuck with it for the last few months. I had planned to continue the diet indefinitely…
Youth Has Wisdom
Until one day my daughter saw me weighing out some roasted cauliflower and asked me what I was doing. I told her I couldn’t have too many because of my diet. She looked confused and replied “…but I thought cauliflower was healthy.” I thought to myself: “She is right.” They are healthy, and so are other vegetables, lentils, beans, and fruits that I used to love eating but had to stop because they were too high in carbohydrates.
Not Your Average Keto Dieter
I’ve always believed in a well-balance diet, and I still do. I was depriving myself of healthy, holistic foods because I was restricting carbs and for what? I wasn’t trying to lose weight. I was eating a ton of calories just to maintain my weight, and it did get a bit exhausting on some days. If it sounds like my keto journey has taken a serious turn; it hasn’t… more of a mild turn, a very mild turn.
Food Reintroduction
I decided to slowly, very slowly start reintroducing healthy fruits and vegetables back into my diet to help pinpoint which foods cause me to react negatively. In this series, I’ll reintroduce new food every two weeks (or so) and document how it effects my physically. I’ll try each new food at least twice to ensure the results are consistent.
The First Trial
Carrots. There are a few reasons why I picked carrots as my first reintroduction food.
1) It was a low fodmap vegetable. I was on the low fodmap diet just prior to starting the keto diet. The low fodmap diet yielded the best results of all the other diets I’ve tried to relieve my stomach woes.
2) It wasn’t too high in carbs. I went over the recommended net carbs of 20g, but it wasn’t too much over.
3) It is super healthy and filled with nutrients.
In theory, I thought this would be a low-risk food.
The Results
It did not go over too well. My first attempt at eating carrots for dinner, I was bloated within an hour. The stomach pain started in the middle of the night, and the bloating took a few days to subside. My second attempt at eating carrots was last night…also for dinner. Similar to the first attempt, the bloating started within an hour, but I didn’t notice the stomach pain until the next morning. At the 24- hour mark, my bloating hasn’t reduced much.
Conclusion
I need to stay away from carrots. Not exactly the transformation Tuesday I was hoping for…
If you would like to join me on my food reintroduction journey, be sure to follow my page for the lastest updates.
Until next time,
Tami
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