Dairy Free Accountability Thread: It all went horribly wrong (too little protein)

newbies
#1

First day without dairy was awful.

A few things I’ve learnt:

  1. I hate coconut cream.
  2. If I get coconut oil again, I’ll have to get unflavoured.
  3. I did not properly check one of my favourite sauces, and it has a bit more carbs than I thought. Not a seriously large amount, but enough that I’m not sure whether to carry on using it.
  4. I did not get enough protein. Not getting enough protein is terrible.

I was fine at the beginning of the day, but by the end I had such gnawing hunger pangs, I was sure something was wrong. I’d been trying to keep my protein down, but I was keeping it far too low. I broke open some bacon finally, and ate a piece of cheese (which was bad, dairy-wise), but I didn’t get a reaction. That solved the hunger pangs, but they’re lingering today.

I’ve decided to KISS this whole thing, and stop adding in lots of foods I don’t know well, or that I don’t particularly like. Getting enough fat has been a bit of an issue, as all my favourite things tend to have milk in them as an additive. I’m going to try MCT oil, as this would also be good training for when I’m able to reintroduce fasting.

The only bonus is that, inaccurate though they are, Ketostix suggest I’m at about 4.0 ketones, which is not bad, considering how badly I did yesterday. Kicking off with bacon and eggs and being gentle with myself today.

#2

Although I’ve seen coconut cream and coconut milk labeled and sold separately, I’ve tried a couple of different ones and sometimes the thickness of the milk version is comparable to the cream and the milk usually has fewer carbs for the same serving size than the cream and there have been wide variations in the flavors so there are some that I would send some death threats and others that weren’t so bad. :wink:

Recently I’ve been using the Thai Organic Coconut Milk and in the grocery store it’s expensive, but it’s available in my local Sam’s Club at a lower price and even lower when I buy a small case of 6 cans from Amazon. It’s kind of bland by itself, but when I use it as part of a non-dairy creamer recipe, it gives it a decent cream-like consistency.

(Jacquie) #3

When I started keto, over 2.5 years ago, I started dairy free (though I still used butter and a bit of freshly grated Parmesan on salads) and stayed that way for a year. I’m not a big coconut lover, so empathize with your dilemma. When I use coconut oil to fry sliced pork belly or tuna/avocado burgers, I use refined organic which doesn’t have the coconut flavour but you get the benefits of coconut oil. I used a lot of butter (still used butter) with my veggies, EVOO with salads and used fatty meats and chicken with the skin. If I used coconut milk/cream, I used Tosca (no BPA) brand. I ate three meals a day, no snacks and nothing after 6pm. My breakfast was always bacon, eggs and espresso, which I love. :slight_smile:

(Kathy L) #4

So if I want to try dairy free (for a LONG stall) do you think butter is ok? I can give up milk & cream (although I’ll miss mousse) but cheese will definitely be much harder… not sure I could give up butter though…

(Jacquie) #5

@Lueloff Everyone is different in their reaction to different dairy products. I didn’t seem to have a problem with butter. All you can do is try it and track your reaction to it. I started a Dairy Free April challenge thread where you can define your own version of dairy free. Love to have you join if you’re leaning that way.:slight_smile:

(Kathy L) #6

I’ll have to watch that one. Giving up dairy & diet dr. Pepper are the only 2things I haven’t tried to break the stall. Oh, I guess fasting too -just not interested much in that.

#7

It’s hard when you have to give up things you’ve been holding onto! I’ve seen a lot of places say that if you go dairy free you don’t have to give up butter, but it might be worth a few weeks without it to see what happens.

I’ve been dairy free now for 15 days, based on the counter on this thread. I did break that for a meal out so I could have a skinny burger with good mature cheddar, and nothing bad happened. To my amazement, I’ve also lost an inch off my waist and another off my hips, which could be going dairy free or the effect of my workout programme. Made me very pleased indeed, though!

I’m going to stick to the no-dairy a while longer, since I’m used to it now. Not the coconut oil, though. Never doing that again!