Vegan Keto & Intermittent Fasting : Down 36 : 56 To Go
Waiting for a thing to happen doesn’t mean it necessarily will happen. Waiting for my chronic fatigue to magically disappear takes the onus off me and puts it on the Universe, or a multitude of doctors who haven’t a clue! Six days before my sixty-third birthday I decided to push the river, and or the Universe, and TRY to take back my own life. I had toyed with the idea of using the program I had used previously to drop 100 pounds. But the expense was too great, and I would have to break from being vegan to do so. I looked and looked; researching the hell out of vegan keto, and intermittent fasting. There was so much conflicting and confusing information out there. Though kind of feeling desperate—I almost gave up.
On January 8, 2019 my friend, Ryan, Facebook messaged me a link to a video about Chronic Fatigue created by a Dr Berg. I didn’t know this doctor from, , so I watched the video and became intrigued, and informed. In his video Dr Berg talked about his version of keto which he called: “healthy keto with intermittent fasting” (HKIF). After watching this video I watched more of his videos about healthy keto & intermittent fasting. At first most of his videos were “carnivore” based. I wasn’t deterred. Food macros are food macros. His magic numbers were: 70% fat, 20% protein, and 5-10% net carbs including veggies. Pretty simple.
After signing up for his website and digging a bit deeper I found more videos on vegan keto. Dr Berg’s information seemed sound, very informative, easy to understand, and inspirational. Of the many topics he spoke about the ones that rang true for me were: Â reversing chronic fatigue, insulin resistance, and how losing weight through healthy keto & IF could also heal liver, gallbladder, and thyroid issues. Even though I’m a healthy skeptic, I decided to try his version of HKIF.
The main difference between straight up keto and “healthy keto” is Dr Berg recommends everyone consume 2-10 cups of veggies via salad veggies or cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, etc)—eliminating high glycemic index foods—which he spells out in copious numbers of videos & PDFs. For me—as a vegan—that’s a no brainer. Dr Berg explains veggies supplies additional minerals, nutrients, fiber, and helps avoid one of the biggest issues with regular keto: constipation. As a vegan it seemed like a win win—and it has been!
The way you’re supposed to start out is by eating 3 meals a day using the 70/20/10 macros, as I explained earlier. Then you fast from after your last meal until your first meal the next morning—with no snacking in between meals.
Of course I just jumped off the deep end and started with 2 meals a day then fasting for 20. That became a pain and I just went directly to 1 meal a day and fasting for 23-ish hours. Sounds crazy. Sounds dangerous. But it’s not. And it sure does work! I’m eating an unbelievable amount of calories in that one meal, and if and when I feel hungry I drink LOTS of water—a minimum of two quarts up to 1 gallon of water a day. The abundance of water also helps you not get kidney stones—which keto can cause. So far so good!
I have to say, my energy level is much higher than before. Part of that is being 36 pounds lighter, but also burning fat rather than carbs I get that keto energy bump! Next thing in the program is to start exercising. I’m not there yet, but it’s in my near future.
So if you’re thinking of losing weight this is certainly the way to go! All usual disclaimers here: check with your doctor before starting any diet or excercise program. Happy keto trails to you!
