@Rob1 - this is the plan 
i am going to Set My Mind and Keep it SET!! 
@Ilana_Rose Oh no, i meant i find it easy in the sense of being able to resist eating. Mentally it has been a challenge… i fell asleep (for the 1 hour that i slept) fantasizing about frying up some broccoli, sprouts & cauliflower in a bit of butter and spices. 
Oh that reminded me…I meant to address your question about sleep. I’ll save that for tomorrow though because I’m sleepy! Suffice to say I had some big sleep problems for a while but they’ve worked themselves out. I’ll say more on this tomorrow.
Miranda
Don’t sweat no Keto flu. I did low carb <30-40 for 4 months (lost 20 pounds) before finding extended fasting via Dr. Fung’s Obesity Code. I read it to bust through a month-long stall.
I learned to do extended fasting first but kept coming across Keto eating. That had me stumble across this forum and that opened a treasure trove of information.
Now I combine several days of Keto eating between extended fasts (usually 3-4 days) and the weight is melting away. Keto/EF has peeled off another 41 pounds in 4 1/2 months.
Like you, having tinkered with low carb previously, I never suffered any bad symptoms. Did experience some palpitations early on but salt, magnesium and selenium calmed that. Some insomnia is still present but improving.
Unlike you, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. So I can’t offer advice there but I did successfully kick opioid dependence — 44 kidney stones and a horribly arthritic knee that required full replacement led me there. I never abused the pills but boy did I need my daily dose to keep functioning.
Yes, you and I may have started this whole thing bass-ackwards but we do have a leg up on everyone else — the hardest part is behind us.
Hmmm, well back in the day when food was normal the flavour was said to be in the fat. For example the chicken skin was the most tasty part …
But then some bright spark got the idea we should remove fat from our diet (that would be Ancel Keys) but then the flavour was lost - so they stuffed food with sugar (and even worse high fructose corn syrup) out right toxic.
So my point is don’t feel too deprived. We have the power of F on our side, F for fat and F for flavour. Just explore some nice recipes.
I’ve been scoping out Pailin’s YouTube vids on Thai food I reckon with some minor tweaks I can make those those dishes perfect keto food (I can live without rice). Few people would argue Thai is bland. There’s also butter chicken which I used to love, I reckon I can salvage it as well.
I think you’re right, some people drop out because just eat is bacon and eggs with ZERO exploration.
Cauliflower is definitely a good keto food. As is broccoli.
Check out this web site, https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb.
Find the heading “Visual low-carb guides“. I dare say you should find something interesting there : - )
@Ilana_Rose Thank You <3 hope you rested well. I managed to sleep 3 hours now 
@GentleBen How often do you do these EFs? (Thank you for your kind response, by the way, i am feeling way better about my profound silliness, haha).
I was thinking of trying to come of this fast and staying in ketosis, if i can find a manageable way to do it (and if you guys think it’s advisable).
Or alternatively to break it like normal, with fruits and fruit juices first few days, and then the soft veggies & yogurt, then some solids, then meat, etc. Well, if that is the right order - admittedly i must still do my thorough research here.
But then doing a 48 hour fast once a week, eat Thursday night - fast till Saturday night. (Reason for that is Friday nights are junkfood nights i hardly ever cook!) And then 24 hour fasts daily from Sunday through to Thursday. With a LCHF diet, although i am not so sure on keto and all these measurements, i still have a lot to learn there with all these percentages everyone keeps mentioning.
Gosh, i can ramble. Woke up feeling very shaky this morning (idiotically did some running around the house cleaning last night). Nervous energy is flowing
@Alex99 I will check out these sites for sure (lots of time to read up on stuff lately LOL).
I am pretty sure i can manage to make keto foods tasty. What discourages me is all the negativity on the net about how easy it is to get kicked out of ketosis, especially if you eat too much meat - and i love my meat <3 Also love my veggies, and luckily was never big on fruits anyway. But i sure have time now to learn about macros and micros and minis and what not and how to measure all these things
How often do you find yourself getting kicked out of ketosis? And how do you measure whether you are in / out, if i may?
Yeah, sorry information overload I know.
But I meant just look at the pictures of what you can eat at that dietdoctor site. It’s a super fast way to see what is okay. Then if you click on a category, let’s say veggies or meat, it’ll drill down and you see another picture I reckon those pictures paint a thousands words. Items on the left of each picture are the best, items on the right not as good.
As for kicked out of ketosis. I’m afraid I’ve never been kicked out so I don’t know. Probably come close a few times…
I have been asking the same question myself, people are saying “I feel sick”, “hunger, cravings…”, stuff like that. There seems to be direct way to know, only indirectly via counting carbs. Hence the need for a good carb counting app.
After a couple of weeks of number crunching you’ll get the idea. It turns out to be very easy.
Just keep your carbs under 20 net grams a day, eat your normal amount of protein (don’t be afraid to eat too much - blown way out of proportion on the net because some people have a much higher insulin response than normal to protein) and enough fat to keep you from getting hungry in between meals.
Don’t worry about being “kicked out”. Just a bunch of drama queens on the net. It can happen if you eat something with a lot of carbs you didn’t know about - like at a restaurant where you don’t have control over the ingredients. You will be back into ketosis as soon as the carbs are burned up - hours usually.
More important is to make that a rare exception until your body is running efficiently on ketones. For most this is 4-6 weeks.
Btw, I sleep like a baby now but not when fasting. Usually have insomnia when I fast.
And you can measure ketones with a blood meter, but not necessary. I was keto for nearly a year before Santa brought me one and I test when I am fasting out of curiosity. Some people use it to find their own personal carb limit. 20 g will guarantee you are in ketosis - some people can go much higher because of their metabolisms. My husband who has never had a weight problem can stay in ketosis eating 75-100 carbs a day. Good thing I love him or I would kill him! 
Change one bad habit at a time. If you try to do too much at once, it’s going to be overwhelming and you will throw in the towel. I successfully quit smoking several years ago so it can be done! I think it would have been easier if I’d gone low carb high fat first, because frankly, that has done wonders for my mood. But that’s not how it happened and I just white knuckled it. When I cut out sugar last March effectively putting me on a Keto diet (had already cut out grain and increased fats years prior) I likened that week to the week I quit smoking. Same kind of irritability, fatigue and sleep struggles.
There’s a very good book that I’d like to recommend that I’ve read a couple of times when I have wanted to kick bad habits - it’s called “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. His strategies are useful and easy to employ and he explains why we develop ‘habits’ in the first place. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1546697015&sr=8-3&keywords=the+power+of+habit
I checked out all the sites, thank you Saved a bunch of recipes. What carb counting app do you use? I downloaded My Fitness Pal app but for some reason i dont believe.
But i want to because according to that app, 8 pieces of sushi will go total 28g carbs 
@Janie - Thank you for being so awesome and getting to all my questions, i really appreciate it. I am desperate to keep sushi in my diet, haha, and finding it difficult as most seem to go over the 20g carb limit (according to this myfitnesspal app). But i can stay off it for two months, get fat adapted first and then every now and again sneak in a tiny bit. 
LOL That Does NOT Sound Fair Indeed!! If i could manage that, then i would not have stressed so much about the darn Sushi - So Jealous
@Jennibc Thank you for the understanding. I am fasting to get my skin cleared up, and i am somewhat worried that by smoking i am negating the whole purpose for my fast. Although today i smoked VERY little (I know cutting back doesnt help but to not completely waste my time with this fast, i have to try!). Will check out that book, have so many things to read up on now!! 
Your instincts are right, MFP is a POS.
I use and love this one. One of the main reasons is that it has a tightly-controlled food database that will only be altered by the staff at the app dev company.
It’s also easy to add your own foods/recipes to, and if you subscribe, has awesome reporting functions.
The diet doctor site was just about seeing pictures of which foods are encouraged like broccoli and cauliflower versus potatoes.
A lot of people here use the cronometer site, there’s a free and paid version and many use my fitness app, I use myfitenessapp to look certain items up
But I live in Australia so with both myfitnessapp and chronometer I had to wade through pages and pages of “Nut Mix” brand which we don’t have and I couldn’t find the brands we do have here. And for certain food items the numbers vary massively.
I use the iPhone Fitbit App which came with my Fitbit Versa smart watch. It has Australian brands which helps. The phone app only has percentage macros but then I use their web site to get grams. It’s a bit of a fiddle but works for me.
As for no believing yet. That’s good. You need to be discerning and get second options. The numbers can vary from brand to brand massively. And I’m not surprised the values of sushi can be very different, it’s like Greek salad or Nut Mix it depends on exactly what is in there and in what proportions. For Greek Salad I had to add a Custom Food Item.
The idea in the first few weeks is to be somewhat narrow and restrictive. Really send a clear 20g carb message to your body so it gets the hint.
Once you go keto then you can be more adventurous and try berries, and certain previously discouraged veggies and fruits …
I usually water fast from Sunday night till Wednesday night. Re-feed Wednesday night then fast 36 hours till Friday morning. Eat well, but still Keto, On Friday and Saturday. Holidays and special occasions may alter schedule.
That still gives me good meals Sunday night, Wednesday night, Friday noon and night, Saturday noon and night and Sunday noon. That’s 7 good meals.
When so want to change it up I might eat four straight days but always IF of 22/2.
If I mind my electrolytes I am just fine.
Losing a solid 4-5 pounds per week and regaining 2-3 on re-feed. That’s a net loss of 2-3 pounds of fat per week. About 8 pounds per month.
Works for me.
You know, I keep looking at the title of this topic and expecting some excitement, but y’all are just going on and on about boring old nutrition, and what to eat, and getting healthy, and stuff. When do we get to the spanking part?
Just asking.
Very true. I came in from Low Carb/High Protein which for me was 85g carbs and I was pretty well adjusted to that before I learned about Intermittent Fasting and thought, “I have done just water once in the past so I know I can do this…” and jumped into daily 20:4. As I quickly found out about the keto diet I transitioned to it in the next month. I have never had the keto flu symptoms and I am sure it is due to the way I got here.
Both my son and husband are not doing Keto per se, but are lower carb high fat (they both eat fruit and have a glass of milk every day) and both had their skin clear up. My son, 16 had bad eczema before he gave up grains and seed oils. Once that was out, the eczema disappeared. His acne cleared up when he quit sugar last spring. When he goes off his eating plan, both come back. My husband had seborrheic dermatitus for years - had to use medicine on his face and scalp. It cleared up when he got went lower carb higher fat. He doesn’t need the prescription any longer. But when he went to a conference when he was eating hotel food, even though he tried to stay on plan, it came back. I think it’s caused by the seed oils for him. Neither of them has ever missed a meal.
I imagine smoking isn’t helping your skin either. I had some deep acne when I smoked. Perhaps maybe start Keto, get into that habit - spend about a month settling in, and when you feel you have got the hang of it, THEN make it the next habit change to quit smoking.
I have been very successful changing bad habits, but really, I’ve only managed one at a time!
Thanks @juice - i downloaded chronometer immediately, and it’s another paid for app 
i already signed up for the (trial) subscription on the MFP app and cancelled immediately… but it looks like they are going to charge me for a month anyway. So sweet of them. I’ll pay for chronometer in February then to get the full benefits!
@Alex99 … i am in SA which has regressed to a point of 3 world country status. Not much gets updated here, not even netflix 
So i always have to rely on the UK or USA’s databases. I used to have a fitbit watch and kept track of my food habits but never did the macro/nutrient breakdown. Time to learn
@GentleBen whoa… respect. Is that type of fasting sustainable? How long have you been doing that?
LOL @PaulL sorry to disappoint 
Thanks @UncaToddly - i came from a HCHP diet so never expected the transition to be easy I aim to do a 24 hour daily fast from here on out, will be easy enough since i always forget to eat breakfast and usually end up spending money to buy unhealthy lunches as i forget to pack anything (NOT a morning person, me).
So the 24 hour fast daily will work just fine for me. And plan to skip eating on Fridays, to have at least one 48 hour fast in the week. And that’s already feeling like it might be a challenge, haha. I am not bothered about getting the keto-flu, i think i have gone through mild symptoms. My mouth tastes like i had an overdone wine evening the night before the last two mornings, so i reckon i am there!
@Jennibc this is SUCH a relief to hear, i really hope it will apply to me too. I had a sudden energy burst last night out of the blue and was super hyperactive - cleaned my kitchen, mopped floors, went crazy. My hands itched terribly (even though i avoided chemicals) and this morning the rash - which has begun to clear up the past few days - is back 
I am more determined than ever to see this fast through until my hands are normal!!
I have read that alot of people say it was easier to kick the nicotine addiction once they were on Keto, so i am also very determined to stick with this now. I was in two minds whether i should just go with intermittent fasting and give keto a skip, but now i am in singular mind about this.
Fruits and fruit juices are not keto and should generally be avoided. When you are fat adapted you can have small portions of low carb fruits like black berries. Fruit has the fructose form of sugar which is more difficult for the body to process and also which is not measured by the HbA1c test.
I’ve not done fast longer than 42 hrs so can’t advise how to break a long fast. Others can here. I would avoid non-keto foods.
