As I’m currently 25 weeks pregnant for the second time, food is often on my mind. Granted, it always was, but the intensity has definitely amped up. But I just realised I haven’t yet written about my keto diet experience, which brought on arguably some of the biggest changes in my long and rich culinary history.
It all started when, towards the end of last year, Gav and I got the idea to finally have a wedding ceremony for our covid wedding… and we’d do it in Sri Lanka! How exciting (and omg Sri Lanka was the best… that post will be coming soon but the TLDR is you need to go). It all sounded great and preparations began. But then I realised… I need to lose weight, and fast.
Having spent most of last year as a full time mum to an intense toddler, I had slowly but surely put myself on the backburner. As mums do. Whilst I’d make sure she’d be eating a balanced meal three times a day, plus healthy snacks, I would just scrounge for leftovers and sadly fill my cup with sugar after the end of a hard day. “A little treat,” I thought (and as I had learned to do… eek). But one day I stood on the scales, and embarrassingly realised I almost weighed as much as I did when I gave birth. It wasn’t quite that… but it was getting close, and I just couldn’t believe it. Except I could.
So now I had this bridal deadline in mind, but I was also a porky pie who had totally lost control of my health, and the two just wouldn’t go. I had to at least try to slim down.
In the meantime, Gav and I had tried for another kid (we all know what that means, and I cringe when I hear others say it, and yet here we are) but it hadn’t happened yet — which I’d chalked down to stress. And I was stressed. I took on the whole role and responsibility of raising a new human in this world, and everything it enails, ALL THE TIME. I didn’t get (or give myself) a break, and it showed.
(I’ve realised since that this is not a good example to set, and I’m trying to change this… oh, I’m trying)
I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon the keto diet in particular, but in the past I had slimmed down by going low carb and practicing portion control, so it didn’t sound too outrageous to me. To be honest, I didn’t really know what keto entailed at first, and when I read it was all about a high-fat, mid-protein and low-carb diet, I was prepared to give it a go.
And let me tell you: this thing works.
Of course, this is my experience and your mileage may vary. I’m also very much not a doctor, lol.
First of all, your meals are going to look a bit weird. Just get ready for that. Eating eggs without bread but with bacon and avo? Kinda strange, and it does get a bit mushy if you don’t crisp your bacon (luckily, I do). But the benefits far outweigh the costs, in my humble opinion.
You also have to get a little antisocial. You’ll quickly realise that almost all cafe fare (not all, but the tempting ones at least) come with a main (not even a side) of carbs… so it rules out a lot of your favourites. And this is assuming you don’t just want to eat salads. So you get creative. You may also stop eating out so much, as I did, because it’s just so much harder to control. And this can be a good thing in many ways, as long as you keep your social life up in other ways!
Once you dive deeper into keto, you’ll learn that many of the things you assumed were healthy, aren’t included in the diet. The basis is that carbs convert into sugar, which cause inflammation, so even some fruits and veggies that are high-carb but ostensibly “healthy” aren’t allowed. Of course, if you want to try it (and I’M NOT A DOCTOR) you should do so with discretion and even pick and choose the parts that work for you, at least in the beginning. But you’ll find that carrots, apples, oranges — basically all fruit except berries — aren’t included.
The funny thing about keto? About 6 weeks after starting, I’d lost probably 5kg… and I fell pregnant.
I’d actually read about that online (mainly on Reddit) after I’d started trying the diet, but that wasn’t my original intention: weight loss was. But there are a myraid of testimonials that individuals tried keto and then mysteriously got pregnant soon after… make of that what you will!
As I’m pretty deep into pregnancy now, I’ve since eased up on the keto lifestyle, but I do try to make sure I have enough fat and proteins in my diet. Of course, carbs are my weakness and were my lifeline in the first trimester… but I try to balance it out. Starting small is always the key, and managing your carb intake makes room for other tasty foods, in my experience!
Have you tried keto? I’d love to hear in the comments 🙂