I got back yesterday from a week of boy scout summer camp at 5500 feet in the mountains with my son. I didn’t bring much food with me as I wanted to ‘just deal with it’ and see how I managed the week. I brought HWC for coffee, though, as I figured this might be my only source of fat for the day. Here’s some observations and takeaways:
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I’m soooooo bloody thankful I was fat adapted going in. The portions served were small, IMHO, and lots and lots of carb-centric foods. I was still able to eat keto all week with judicious choices, but I was NEVER hungry but for one time. See 2.
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At one dinner they served pulled pork with bbq sauce, which it turned out had sugar. Just that little bit hit me pretty hard. I was hang-over sick the next day, developed a headache, and darn it, was hungry mid-day. Just goes to show, at least in my body, I really can’t have sugar anymore without consequences.
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Electrolytes are even more important that I’d thought. I kept up my water, salt, potassium and magnesium intake. I think I could have had even more potassium, but I’m still experimenting to see how much I really need. Although I brought homemade salt supplements, I didn’t have to take too much because everything I ate was salted well. After a couple of days, I started having my son sprinkle potassium on his food. I seriously think this helped with some of his mild-homesickness he was feeling. However, I did a 5-mile hike, and I couldn’t seem to get enough water, but the potassium was a god-send. I’m now going to keep some in my purse to have throughout the day. My family is off to another camping trip, and I had my husband take some potassium with him and instructed him to sprinkle it on their food.
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Being fat adapted was so helpful for the constant walking up and down small grades throughout each day. I never felt like I was running out of energy, except for the one day after the hike, from which I’d expended a lot of energy but didn’t get good sleep after. The walking, once I acclimated to the elevation, felt really good. Going uphill sometimes winded me anyway though, but I felt like I recovered much faster than my adult counterparts.
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I’d hoped for a fat loss considering my energy expenditure over the week and smaller portions of food (3 times a day), but alas, I gained a pound. I’m thinking it’s probably muscle gain because my stomach actually looks a little flatter and if I’m not fooling myself, I think I can see more of my clavicle than before. I’ll take it.
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I wish there were keto camps modeled after the scout summer camp. I feel like this is more how we lived before the advent of cars and offices and it would be so much easier to keep the fat off the body. If I could do this for another month or two, minus the tent, sleeping bag and dirt, then I’d have no problem getting rid of the fat.