First Week of Keto in the Books

As I promised, I am here to update you guys after doing Keto a full week and all I got to say is: hallelujah! I am going to share my tips and tricks for week 1: how I tracked my macros, how I felt and how I am currently feeling, and my weight loss/results.

After gathering all my keto friendly groceries from Trader Joe's, all I had to do was begin. I started my keto journey on March 22, 2021 and let me tell you, it wasn't all that easy in the beginning.

In order to make sure you are following the keto diet correctly, you need to track your macros. To do this I downloaded the "Carb Manager" app on my iPhone. It allowed me to add my current weight, goal weight, and the fact that I wanted to follow a keto diet. With this, it presets your macros: calories, protein, fat, and net carbs; which you can see below for reference.

After setting up the app and getting the tailored macros, the next step was to start using it. The goal is to track your macros and make sure you stick to them by inputing anything you eat through the day. Anything that I consumed, even the condiments I used to cook the food, I added it to the app. It was annoying and time-consuming at first, especially if I made a home cooked meal. However, the app has a scanner so it makes it easier to add products to your daily log and overtime I started to get the hang of it and didn't spend as much time tracking my food.

Enough about the manual labor and more about how I felt throughout the first week. As a college student, I am always running around. With this, it was extremely hard to make time for myself to cook when I was hungry. I either wasn't near the kitchen or didn't have enough time. This was something I needed to work on because, although I didn't cheat, I was hungry and had to hold off eating until I had the time, which isn't great for your body. In addition, I continued to work out daily and without having the proper nutrients in my body, it was harder for me to get a good pump in or even have motivation. So for the first two days, I felt hungry and defeated, but still stuck to it. I didn't go over any of my macros, but I was fairly under and only ate 700-800 calories. As others would say, I started to experience the "keto flu," I got sniffles and headaches and just felt under the weather.

I knew not eating as much wasn't sustainable so I started to make time for myself to cook and fuel my body. As the days went on, I got a hang of it and fell within my macros better. I added more fats to my diet, which is needed to stay full, and I had more calories. I felt better about myself and wasn't starving anymore.

I followed keto and never went over my net carbs or macros for the whole week. Even though I had a birthday dinner and baptism this week, I made sure to eat what I could and plan ahead so I wouldn't starve. At dinner, I looked at the menu beforehand and saw that there were keto friendly options. I had a salmon for dinner and it was delicious. For the baptism, since it was my family, I was able to ask what was on the menu. It was chicken Alfredo pasta which I knew I couldn't eat the pasta itself. My keto aunt was also going to this baptism so we coordinated and brought keto friendly alternatives. She made me a keto garlic bread and we had palm of hearts pasta with the chicken Alfredo and salad from the baptism. At the baptism there was also salami and cheese roll ups, which is keto friendly.

In addition to following keto in the kitchen, I did work out 3 times during my first week. My workout plan consists of treadmill for 15 minutes and weight training a specific muscle for 45 min.

Now...we shall get into what I have been waiting for: my results. I started my keto journey on Monday, March 22, which is when I had my first weigh in. I concluded my first week on Monday, March 29, where I had my second weigh in. In 7 days, I lost 7.8 lbs!!! Seeing a decrease on the scale made me emotional. I was so happy that my hard work finally showed. It made me determined to keep going and just lifted my spirits all together.

I am looking forward to continuing this journey that has now become a part of me and can't wait to see more results! As always, make sure to follow me, @howtotraderjoes, on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for updates on everything Trader Joe's.