Good morning everybody!

[AustrianDudette]

I lived on Budapest and didn’t like it. Many buildings are pretty and I loved the hills and it has a very central role (“everything is there” as it’s the biggest market in a small area) but it’s way too big for me, with those tall modern ugly buildings… Now I live between two small villages, surrounded with forests, there are lakes and little rivers! And Budapest isn’t very far if I totally want/need to visit it.

I totally see your point. When we moved to Munich we also looked at flats in the city and then decided we didn’t want to live there, with all the crowds and the traffic. We’re now 10 km from Munich, that’s a nice balance - the woods and meadows are a bike ride away, and so is the inner city. But in my heart I’d prefer to live even further in the countryside, like you do…

Lucky, you have a chance with your husband… Mine (not officially husband but my SO and we plan for several decades, it was only two this far) is a high-carber for life, I am 99% sure of it (just because I have a wild imagination).

Oh well…I’m not convinced I will succeed, it’s that rotten German beer culture, try to wean the men off their beer…nearly impossible. And beer is high-carb, right? But I’m the cook in the house and I’m a good cook, so I will at least do keto recipes for the meals we eat together. Miracles can happen, mind you… I wish you the best of luck!

[AustrianDudette]

I’m 56, but since starting Keto 15 or so months ago, feel closer to 25 or 30 years old.

Keto has really turned around my 50s for sure

This is so great for you, congrats! - and so helpful, I mean I know how I felt when I did keto (which I then knew as LCHF), really good, but hearing it worked and works for others really well is very encouraging!

[AustrianDudette]

I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.

That’s also a good one - this one is my favorite: “Well, this Dahlia is my good and deserving aunt, not to be confused with Aunt Agatha, the one who kills rats with her teeth and devours her young…”

I’m a big fan of Aunt Agatha, I must say, even if she devours her young.

[AustrianDudette]

Okay - I am not sure if I should start an accountability thread (I’m not sure how it’s done), but I am going to start here and see what happens.
So this is my keto week I accountability/diary entry:

It went really well. I don’t know, somehow I just start with keto and after a day it’s just click and it’s as if I’d opened up exactly the room where I need to be. It’s a constant feeling of THIS is where I should be! THIS is what I should be doing! No cravings, nothing.

According to my calorie counting app, these were my days:
Energy from fat 76%, carbs 12%, protein 12% (Calorie deficit of 14% of recommended intake)
Energy from fat 64%, carbs 8%, protein 28% (Calorie deficit 16%)
Fat 64/Carbs 8/Protein 28 (Calorie deficit 57%)
Fat 75/Carbs 11/Protein 14 (20%)
And so on.
There are hiccups, carbs should be mostly a lot lower and protein is tricky as I would like to eat more non-meat-or-dairy-protein and haven’t really found perfect sources yet.
But it’s early days and I think much of it will get better as I get more practice.

I basically to what gingersmommy says, three meals, no snacking, focus on hydration at this stage (I also take magnesium and maybe should get potassium…need to look into it).
The key for me is preparation - I need to have food prepared or snacks ready when I get hungry (although I didn’t really get that hungry or get cravings this week) and NOT have sugary stuff in the house. I am an abstainer, I can’t eat sugar in moderation, I just can’t.
Another issue is how to do keto with a small child in the house - she has lunch in kindergarten but dinner at home. At the moment, I haven’t got a stock of kid-friendly keto recipes that she will eat, so that’s going to be an issue and something to focus on the next week and see how I do. (On the 20th of December I also will have to cook for the kindergarten kids and I’d like to do a keto crowd pleaser.)

What I am more mindful of now than in my first phase of keto a couple of years back:

• I know much more of the science
• I know much more about behavioural psychology and habit formation - for instance, I am an abstainer and I just can’t have sweets in the house, and that’s that.
• I am now aware that maintenance is the crucial stage and I will have to be extra watchful if?/when? I get there. (I found the blogger Katie of runningforcookies a big inspiration about maintaining, she’s been navigating these straits for years)
• I know that the first few kilos are mostly water weight - I’ve been peeing like crazy, like a pregnant lady really, and I’ve lost 3 kilos this week), and that plateaus etc are to be expected.
• I know that I need to find a delicate balance between making my nutrition a priority and not taking it too seriously. This may sound weird; I’ve found that this balance is my sweet spot - I do best if something is interesting and challenging, but not too dogmatic, and I do very badly if somebody wants to force me to do something; even if that somebody is me, I don’t really react well to it. And by now I realize this is just part of my personality and I’d better work around it and adapt to it.
• I know that I need to be accountable to somebody. I’ve got a meditation buddy and we text each other when we’ve done a meditation session and I find it has become really important to me. So I’ve started to send my husband my stats (calories from fat, carbs, protein, calorie deficit).

So, that was my first week -
I started with about 20 kilos overweight and I’ve lost 3 kg this week.
I’ve stuck to the rules but need to work on the amount of carbs and protein that I eat.
I felt a bit cold and “keto flu”-ey when I had a larger calorie deficit, but not really a problem.
I feel very thankful that I’ve managed to kick myself hard enough to start a second round of keto and I’m also very grateful for the research and resources that are now available.

Should anyone still be reading, I wish you all a great weekend and a lovely beginning of Advent!

AD

[PetaMarie]

You could edit your title to reflect that this is your accountability thread and relocate it to the accountability category which is locked to people who are just passing by (readable to members, though) since you already started writing.

[Shinita]

And beer is high-carb, right?

There is low-carb beer, I saw beer lover ketoers talking about that.
I have a different attitude. I drink and eat some of the carbiest items on keto if I want, I use ridiculous amounts It’s not for everyone but it works for me. But I don’t drink alcohol every month.

But I’m the cook in the house and I’m a good cook, so I will at least do keto recipes for the meals we eat together. Miracles can happen, mind you… I wish you the best of luck!

Thank you, I wish the same and it’s really not me being sceptical, just my truth: I am the cook on weekdays and I am the baker of almost all the cakes too (my SO eats lots of cakes, they are normal food for him, at least for breakfast or for a snack). He loves most of my low-carb food and he has been eating it since years - with a more or less big mountain of carbs. No power can change this except if it’s some low-carb baked goods, those have a good chance, I managed to feed him some low-carb meals (mostly breakfasts) after some time but a low-carb day is tricky and I am really sure keto never will happen though I myself changed way more I have thought possible… But I’m seeking a better diet and he is very pleased with his.
Some people can’t be converted (and there’s no need and I don’t think keto is for everyone) but I’ve read about success stories with the spouse more often so let’s hope you have WAY better chances. Even if you won’t be fully successful, some good steps are always good. It’s not all or nothing, my old low-carb diet is zillion times better for me than any higher-carb one even though keto feels the best (and it matters how I do keto too).
So good luck for you both to find your own diet that you will be thriving on! Well, three, oh my, a child probably makes your job harder, I have only a not choosy high-carber adult partner, it’s not that hard if I give up making food for both of us.

I can relate to your “delicate balance”, I am not good with forcefulness and too many rules myself. In the beginning, I really liked that keto doesn’t really ban certain food groups, it just seriously limits our carbs intake. Yeah, I couldn’t eat certain items because a morsel was worse than nothing but I wasn’t addicted to them. There were new recipes, very few new ingredients as I had most on low-carb, a different exciting word but I could eat basically anything I wanted, in tiny amounts. And for some of us, it matters A LOT. There are so many keto versions, we can choose, it’s not some horribly fixed diet. And we don’t need to eat a perfectly balanced diet each and every day (though I prefer to eat well every day myself but sometimes it just doesn’t happen, it’s life and it’s fine).