I like the way you’re doing it! When I first started keto, I went gradually low carb for a couple weeks, then read about keto and gradually got more hard core over another week.
The advantage of the gradual approach is you learn what you’re doing AND you avoid the keto flu! At least I did.
Me too (via stepping down carbs) - and from what I’ve heard… I’m glad to have avoided it 
Yep. We’re stepping down gradually as we eat up the rest of the “bad” stuff still on hand. I’m ashamed to admit I ate a corn dog today though. 
Can’t force my grandson to eat them all now can I? Everything else was way keto friendly though. Even sipping some Merlot right now. Happy that’s keto and heart friendly. Even the doctor recommended it.
Slowly but surely we’ll get to ketosis. Likely weeks away though. We’re really enjoying the new food journey so far. Some things taste amazing and some things not so much. My daughter keeps experimenting and I keep buying whatever she wants for spices etc. So far, in addition to mushrooms, ranch dressing and sour cream the only thing I’ll never eat again are arugula and feta cheese. 
Those two are the most disgusting tastes I’ve ever tried. I’m sure there will be more but there are so many more good items that I crave. She just got some goat cheese today. We’ll see how THAT one goes… I REALLY want a dozen pygmy goats for pets but that’s a post for yet another forum. 
I’m eating MUCH healthier and enjoying the flavors of what we eat so much more now. I’m amazed at how I now have to “push” myself to eat three meals a day. Gimme a good keto breakfast and I can likely make it to dinner with no additional food.
Joe
By all means don’t push yourself to eat 3 meals a day. When your not hungry don’t eat is always a better idea.
Congrats on your progress and all the best on landing your next job!
How nice that you are doing this with your family! I was fighting this battle with my family for years before they quit opposing me and now are on board. My family doctor was seeing me every 3 months to make sure I wasn’t killing myself. LOL!!!
My keto tip is eggs. They are very economical and so versatile. I always have at least 2 dozen at any time and those are just for me!
Keep up the good work. I think perfection is a land mine. Do the best you can with what you have. If you need artificial sweetener to make it work, then don’t sweat it. Avoiding sugar is more important.
Yay eggs! Because they are central to so many recipes and just so good to eat, between the three of us 2 dozen doesn’t last a week now. Always at least a dozen hard boiled in the fridge for snacking. If it’s OK to post an Amazon link I LOVE this egg cooker and it’s dirt cheap! “Dash rapid egg cooker”
Joe
If he’s young and metabolically healthy, you probably can 
The young need to pay their dues to their elders 
But corn dogs taste so good yet are SO bad, especially with ketchup and mustard 
and it’s my duty to assist him until they are all gone. The kid is a freaking dynamo. NEVER slows down! Typically picky eater for a 7 year old too. We’re slowly weaning him over to “our side”. Hoping a healthier diet will calm him down some. We allow him ZERO added sugar and he’s still bouncing off the walls!!!
My daughter will be up soon. Then there will be keto pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast. Probably some avocado or some kind of keto muffins as well. Can’t wait!
Joe
You realize that you are going to have to change your name from OldFatJoe to OldJoe if you make this your lifestyle?!
LOL. I can’t wait for that day! Now where is that body reset button for the OLD part? YoungHotJoe has a nice ring to it. 
Joe
A new and increasingly problematic issue for me. Sleep. Or more importantly the lack thereof since the change to keto. I did a search here and there are tons of threads on the subject. Can’t read them all. I fall asleep just fine. I only get three to four hours max sleep though. No bad dreams and no reason to wake up but depending what time I got to bed 9-10PM I’m awake at 1-2AM and no getting back to sleep. I started drinking Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time extra tea with Valerian root and chamomile before bed a few days ago. It tastes really good and probably puts me to sleep even faster but I still wake up way too early. It’s actually a good thing I’m out of work right now because I couldn’t possibly work safely in my present state. Driving could be a problem too and I won’t get behind the wheel. I actually feel drunk. Poor motor skills and lack of focus. It’s THAT bad.Don’t want to quit keto but I can’t go on with sleep deprivation if keto is the reason. Maybe I need to add something more to the diet? Hopefully it’s just something out of balance or a short transition period.
I was looking at Google play store this morning for white noise apps when I thought hmmmmm. I have a few Google Echo Dots scattered around the house. So, I said Alexa, play white noise. She quickly complied. I found out she’ll loop the noise until you tell her to stop so tonight I’ll let her make noise all night long to see if it helps. This sleep problem just can’t continue or I’ll end up in the loonie bin!
Anyone else have sleep issues on keto?
Joe
Hey Joe,
There is a kind of settling in period that happens with a lot of people when they switch to a keto lifestyle. And it affects a lot of different areas of life.
People can have issues with sleep. They can have issues with getting their electrolytes in a good place. They can have issues with peeing a lot, mostly at first. They can have issues with their bowels, either too loose or too hard or even back and forth between the two. If they’re on medications, they can sometimes have issues working out what they need or don’t need (or how much / little) as their bodies change. There can be issues of tiredness if the body has a hard time getting into the groove of burning fat instead of sugar. And I probably left out a few.
For me, most of this stuff worked itself out in pretty short order, well, except the medications, as I wasn’t on any. It’s a big change for people who have been heavy carb eaters for many decades. It takes time for the body to sort out a bunch of stuff. But hang in there. The body has a remarkable ability to heal itself when given good fuel. Lots of stuff happens on the inside that may or may not show on the outside.
Well you can’t turn back the clock but you can slow it with less glycation which is the culprit in aging cells. Less carbohydrate = less cell damage. Keto is the fountain of youth!!!
The brevity of sleep is a common complaint and I suffered from it too. I did have a lot of other things going on at the same time so sleep was very difficult. The things that improved it were as follows in order of importance:
1 sublingual melatonin at bed
no outside or artificial light (a sleep mask was pretty useful)
no caffeine after 3
quiet room (ear plugs can help)
When I woke, I practiced a form of self hypnosis to go back to sleep which was not allowing any thoughts besides sleep into my brain. That took some practice but still use that to this day. In fact, I use all these techniques.
I had a literal buzz with ketosis in the early days. It was a little unnerving. I did learn however that it dissipated over time and sleep became easier. I also came to realize that I didn’t need the 8 or 9 hours that I was use to as a carboholic. That sleep was more like a coma.
I now get pretty excellent sleep and average about 8 hours just because I can but on the days I need to be up early, I have no problem with fatigue. I think the longer sleeps are making up for the years with children - young and teens. Lots of lost sleep then!
One of the things that helped me was to not consume anything 4 hours before bed. If I had anything later in the evening my sleep would suffer.
I was waking at 4am regularly when I started this, cramp didn’t help but it wasn’t always that. It seems to have resolved itself now- I was upping the salt a lot so I don’t know if that’s made a difference, but I’m very pleased. Hope you find something to help soon…
I don’t know if it’s keto or what but the past year I’d wake up after exactly 5 hours and not fall back asleep… some people say that’s OK… but that was not enough sleep for me to feel refreshed during the day.
White noise helps a LOT. Now when I wake up in the middle of the night, I either do a relaxation exercise (which always puts me back to sleep) or aget up and do word puzzles on my Kindle until I get sleepy again. Either way, I (almost always) fall back asleep again with these tricks. Absolute worst case scenario, I pop a Benedryl, although I try not to do this. Melotonin didn’t work for me.
I was just thinking the same thing! I do like the ring of “Young Thin Joe” . . .
I’m still gleaning through the responses to Joe, but I just had to jump in here because you mentioned pork rind coated chicken.
I just tried that myself a few times this past week. Wow, was it good. I didn’t fry them. I put them in my toaster oven. I used chicken thighs, with bone and without. I made a egg batter with some spices and a little bit of ranch dressing and heavy whipping cream. Soaked the thighs in that, rolled them in the finely minced pork rinds, soaked them again, and rolled them in pork rinds a second time. Mmm mmmm.
I even got a little adventurous, I put some pickled jalapeños slices, cheese, pepperoni, inside the boneless thighs and rolled them up.
I ran out of pork rinds, so I started wrapping the thighs with two strips of bacon. Baked for 30 minutes at 275 and them upped it to 350 for another 30 minutes to crisp it. I’m rather proud how they all turned out. I won’t let it go to my head though, as I’m still not a good cook overall.