Just eight weeks ago, I embarked on a new dietary adventure – the keto diet! I largely undertook this diet to see if it would resolve my chronic migraines. You can read all about the first six weeks, and the symptoms of keto flu, in more detail in this blog post. Here’s a recap:
- The first two weeks I felt symptoms of keto flu – dizzy, lightheaded, some depressed mood, tired, etc.
- The second two weeks, I had a lot of severe hormonal symptoms – hot flashes, severe migraine, brain fog, anxiety, and fatigue. Keto is much harder when you are a lady!
- After a month, I began to feel better overall although I was still feeling brain fog and fatigue and hadn’t resumed much by way of business activities!
Eight Weeks of Keto Versus Six Weeks – Do I Feel Different?
So do I feel much different today after eight weeks versus six weeks of keto-ing? The answer is YES! The brain fog has finally lifted and I am feeling much more energy. I am finally back to working on my business, and my mind is buzzing with ideas. I wake up in the morning feeling good, and that energy lasts up until late evening. Here are some other benefits:
- Improved sleep! I am incredibly drowsy at night (which I love!), fall asleep faster, and sleep in later. I haven’t slept this well since I was a teenager!
- Soft skin! Yes, this was an unexpected one.
- Reduced skin inflammation and acne. A lovely change!
However, by the end of the day, I have been feeling pretty fatigued and migrainey.
A Few Modifications to My Keto Diet
After still feeling a lot of brain fog by week six, I decided to play with my electrolyte supplementation. I started drinking bone broth every day and that really helped with the brain fog, this is in addition to a magnesium supplement I take every day. I am also experimenting with two hormonal supplements – DIM and chaste berry to see if it helps my hormonal migraines. I try and have a kale salad and an avocado a day to make sure I am getting enough potassium.
“Cheating” on Keto
A few times, I have had “accidental” cheat meals because I ate out at a restaurant and ate too many hidden carbs (i.e. sugar). However, I feel fantastic once I am back in ketosis (which takes about 12-24 hours). It has helped me realize the keto diet is actually doing something.
To try and get back into ketosis faster, if I know I might end up eating a “cheat meal” on accident, I will work out before the meal and eat that meal as dinner. I try to fast overnight, and if it’s not possible because cheating has left me hungry, I will do a sprint workout (ten minute walk, two minutes of sprinting in 30 second intervals, five minute walk) in the morning before breakfast. This always leaves me feeling great and helps me burn off the extra glycogen and get back into ketosis faster.
I highly recommend not eating cheat meals – I haven’t intentionally eaten many of these “cheat meals.” It’s hard ordering out at restaurants without inevitably eating too much sugar. After I accidentally cheat, I feel hungry, tired, and headachey – not fun! So far, my safest restaurant choices is a lettuce wrapped burger at Roam Burgers in the Bay Area (they will gladly tell you the ingredients of their sauces and if they contain sugar), and a steak and salad at the Cook and Her Farmer at Swan Market in Oakland.
Emotional Eating
Since embarking on the keto diet, I realized that in the past, I snacked continuously during the day for an emotional boost. It was hard letting go of this reward system of “treating” myself. This also applies to eating out, as I used to love “rewarding” myself after a hard workout by eating whatever I wanted. It was a little sad letting go of eating as an emotional boost, and I was surprised how hard it has been to say good-bye to this way of eating!
Migraine Symptoms are Changing
I used to never feel a lot of actual head pain with my migraines (which I always thought was kind of weird) – instead I will have a lot of neurological symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, light sensitivity, nausea, etc and maybe very mild headache pain. Now, when I am eating a non-keto friendly meal, I will start to feel stabbing head pain within 20-30 minutes. I consider this a good sign, as my body is finally able to tell me more clearly that what I am eating is inflammatory. The neurological symptoms of the migraine now appear later after the head pain, and the triggers are very clearly sugar and caffeine intake (along with computer use!)
I am predicting that over time, as I become more “keto adapted”, the migraine symptoms will become less severe and frequent. I feel like any sort of change to the pattern of my headaches is a good thing. The fact that I can work during most of the day, and then rest at night when I feel a headache coming on, is a positive change!
Time to Wrap This Up!
I mostly wrote this blog post because I am excited to be feeling good on keto (at least 75% of the time) and wanted to celebrate! I also wanted to share what has helped me feel better on keto. For ladies, the keto diet might be an especially rough transition, and I imagine I will be making more modifications with time. I am exploring possibly doing “carb up” meals in the future to help with hormonal symptoms.
As my migraine severity and frequency is only slowly decreasing, I imagine it will be a few more months before I will be feeling significantly better. Now that I can more confidently tell if I am in ketosis or not, I am enjoying not taking ketone readings as frequently anymore. As I make more progress, I will update this blog post again!
In the meantime, happy keto!
