I just spent a 3 day weekend at the DCAC Fitness Convention; 13 classes in 3 days.  I split the time between actual movement classes and lectures; total FUN:)

What’d I learn?  A lot.  What am I passing on?  This: the day to day choices we make, all day long, really, really, matter.  Our food, how much we sleep, how we handle our stress, and that we move and laugh and smile, matters.  Our choices to either do these things or not, become our habits, and our habits makes us who we are.

More:  Habits Are Everything, and we all have to take the Action Steps to develop the habits make us healthier.  No one else can do it for us, and we can’t do it for anyone else. We can’t change our spouse, our child, our parent, or our friends.  We can only change ourselves, and then hope to inspire the people we love and care about. (The DCAC Fitness Conference isn’t just about exercise, there’s some great Positive Psychology lectures – I love that stuff!)

Keto Update:  I thought I’d stop the Keto Diet at the end of the month ( July ), and I did.  But I miss it!  I’m back on as of today!  I might do a little Keto Cycling here and there, but not for at least a few weeks. ( More on Keto Cycling later.)  It was honestly easier than I thought it would be except for 2 things:

I’ve been deficient in Salt and Fat, even though in the past few years I’ve really upped my in-take of both.  Ketosis makes the kidney’s flush out more water than normal, and with the water goes your sodium and electrolytes.  This is revealed in pretty painful and persistent leg cramps, which I’m prone to anyway.   My blood pressure also dropped a little too low, but with the conscientious salt increase, I can tackle that.

I needed 2 teaspoons of salt a DAY to counter-balance the cramps and hypo-tension, which meant adjusting my tolerance for a salty taste.  It’s impossible to “retain water” when you’re in even mild/medium ketosis, even with 2 teaspoons of salt a day.  No wonder Salt was so important throughout history!  P.S. I never did get above the “medium” levels of ketones.  Maybe next time?

I was also surprised at HOW MUCH FAT it took to get into ketosis – a LOT.  You can’t tell just by looking at my “What I Eat” page, but I had to LOAD on the butter/coconut oil/olive oil/cream cheese/MCT oil, and cream.  It’s not easy, or initially natural, to eat that much fat, and it took some thought and effort.

My weight stayed completely stable, even on the 2 days I did make an attempt at counting fat grams, and took in almost 3,000 calories – IN FAT ALONE, not counting my protein or veggie carbs.  Did you catch that?  My weight stayed stable despite all those fat calories.

We’ve been fed such a load of bull for all these years!

On that note, here’s a great article on Dr. Michael Mosley, in the Daily Mail.  He’s the author of the FAST DIET, and for years promoted a low fat, high carb way of eating, which he himself followed.  He gained weight anyway and developed diabetes.  Now he’s re-examined the science and has come to a very different conclusion about saturated fat and carbohydrates role in our health and our weight.  Please read!  The more you know, the easier it is to make good choices for yourself.  The easier it is to make good choices, the less your (lizard) brain fights you.  Your lizard brain is the deep, subconscious part, that HATES stress.  It’s hard to win a fight with your lizard brain, and far better to work on thoughts and habits that become STRONGER than the lizard.  Does that make sense?

When you’re done with that article, read Dr. Mercola’s latest article on the vindication of Saturated Fat.  Honestly, Good Fats are So Good For Us, here’s a few reasons why, and at the end of the list is the reason I’m going back on the Ketogenic Diet.

Fats make up every single cell membrane in our body, and saturated fat and cholesterol are a large part of those membranes.

Saturated Fats make up all our Sex hormones and Fight/Flight hormones.

Fat and cholesterol make up 60-70% of the dry matter of our brain.

Saturated Fats increase the size of our LDL cholesterol ( we want big, fluffy LDL!)

Saturated Fats raise HDL.

Saturated Fats are structurally sound and aren’t prone to damage by heat, light or air, which means they’re great to cook with.

Fats allow Fat-Soluble-Vitamins, A, D, E, and K,  and many minerals, to be absorbed into our cells.

Fats are critical to our immune system.

Here’s one of my Favorite Reasons:  Fats Trigger Satiety – especially in the absence of Carbs.  This is the best thing about the Ketogenic Diet to me:  No Hunger.  No Bloat.  No Cravings.  It’s awesome!

Besides that, the Ketogenic Diet fits perfectly into my Real Whole Food, Paleo-ish template.  Does my whole family eat this way?  NO!  But that hasn’t been hard to work around – at all.  I’ve been serving meats and tons of vegetables forever; for the kids or company, I add: bowls of watermelon, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, low-carb/almond flour/coconut flour breads/cookies, ( you get the idea),  and everyone’s happy.