Keto Stall – Time to Start Tracking Macros Again!

Ketogenic Lifestyle

I hit some bumps in the road over the holiday season.   Well basically from about the beginning of November through until the New Year.

To be more truthful, they weren’t really “bumps” ~  I took a total keto break and wasn’t watching what I was eating at all.   Except to watch all of the FULL CARB goodies I was shoving down my gullet hole.

I ended up piling 20 pounds back on!

Starting on January 7th, I got  back on my healthy low carb ketogenic lifestyle.  The first several weeks were awesome.  In the first month back on program (from Jan 7 – Feb 6) I lost about 11 pounds.

Since then I have hit a weight loss stall.  From February 6th until today, I’ve been playing with the same pound, up and down and up and down.

I know from past experience that we can all get into a keto stall and not lose anything.

It sucks and it’s very frustrating!

But I also know a few things that I SHOULD be doing, and just HAVEN’T been doing.

3 Things that Have Worked in the Past to Get me Over a Weight Loss Stall

1 – Get enough Sleep

Honestly as busy moms, who gets a full nights sleep?  Especially when you have little babies and toddlers running around.  Not getting enough sleep has been something that has stalled my weight loss before. I am pretty certain that I have been getting an adequate amount of sleep, so I don’t think this is the problem.

Maybe I’m not getting as much as I thought!!! After looking at my Fitbit App, apparently I’m not getting as much sleep as I thought lol!

2 – Drink enough Water

Not drinking enough water is always an issue for me.  I don’t enjoy drinking water, taking in enough is often a big chore.  This is likely one of the culprits that has been stalling my weight loss.

I certainly don’t think you have to go crazy on the amount of water you consume, but I do think you need to drink water daily.

My daughter is going to give me an “I told you so” on this one.  But I’m stubborn, and often joke that I get plenty of water it’s just filtered through coffee beans.

3 – Track my Macros and Food Intake

This is the biggie for me and one that I have admittedly NOT been doing for probably a year.

Question in my head: How do you know if you are hitting your macros, if you are not logging your food Heather?  I don’t – I completely guess at it —  and apparently I’m not a great guesser.

Updating My Keto Action Plan

This week more because the scales are really starting to piss me off,  it’s time for me to get down and get serious.

Get More Sleep

My minimum sleep goal has been 6.5 hours, and when you average it out I am getting that much (I’m averaging about 6 hours and 40 minutes).  Some nights I get much less than that amount.  So I would like to see this number increase by even 15 minutes on average over the next 30 days.

Action Plan:  Go to sleep 30 minutes earlier every night.

Drink More Water

Everyone tells me I need to drink more water, drink more water, drink more water, drink more water.  It sounds like a broken record.  And I’m stubborn!!

The more people tell me to drink water, the less water I actually drink.

One of my mentors, Brendon Burchard talks about making sure that you are hydrated as part of your daily routine in his book of High Performance Habits.  If your brain is dehydrated by even 2 or 3%, it can’t perform properly and it has a significant negative ripple affect on everything you try to do.



He suggests that I work in 50 minute time blocks so at the end of that time, I  can take a stretch, walk around, AND DRINK SOME WATER before I sit down and refocus on the task at hand.

I use a simple egg timer (as pictured) that I got from Amazon.  It sits on my desk and I set for all of my daily tasks.  The sound of it going off re-directs me, and keeps me focused and on task.

You can check out the reviews on Amazon by clicking here:


 

Action Plan:  The glass I’m using measure 1 cup.  My goal is to drink 5 of these a day.

Tracking Macro-nutrient for Optimum Ketosis.

I’ve always tried to keep my diet plan simple.  I got this from a friend of mine, Lynn Terry (Low Carb Traveller).  She said it’s pretty simple, keep your net carbs under 20 grams and your healthy fats over 70%.  This is the way I have always tried to do my keto.

Funny thing is (actually not funny at all), after over 3 years of eating this way I think I’ve become completely complacent.  For well over a year, I have not been measuring my food, and I have not been tracking my keto macros.

It’s like I think to myself – “You got this, you know what you’re doing, you know what an ounce looks like”.  All of that may be true.  BUT it’s not working for me.  I’m sliding in a few extra pecan or a little extra spaghetti squash.

I’ve been Eyeballing it and Guesstimating for way to long, and have not logged my food into My Fitness Pal for well over a year!  Top that off with some extra treats or a handful of the kids chips or popcorn on movie night (cause I deserve it) and I’m in a stall.

The only way I’m going to get on top of this is to just start doing it again.

When I lost all my weight in the beginning, I was very strict about weighing/measuring and tracking everything daily!

And a tip I learned from Lynn is record itweigh it – plate it – and THEN eat it.  This gives you less chance for errors and less chance to take extra.

Right from the start I used My Fitness Pal to record my daily food macros.  I just use the free version and find that adequate for what I need.

To weigh my food, I have my handy dandy kitchen scale that works great to measure out a quick ounce of cheese or pecans.  This is the kind that I use and it’s so simple.

You can click here to check out the reviews for this scale on Amazon.  It’s a very reasonable price and has done me well.


Action Plan:  Starting today my goal is to weigh, measure, AND record my food intake for the next 30 days. 

Because this is important to me to get over my weight stall, it will be an area that I am focusing on.  I am not happy with being at this weight.  My body doesn’t work as good as it does when I weigh 25 pound less than I do now.

Optimum health (for me) requires me to get back into that state where I feel energized, and where I don’t feel swollen and sluggish.

If you are interested in coming along my journey as I get through this weight stall, you should  take a minutes to subscribe to At Home With Heather – that way you won’t miss any of my updates as they happen over the next month.

 

 

Talk soon,

Heather

 

 

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