Let’s start with some administrative items: November’s blood work & oncologist call occurred without incident. All blood marker levels are within in the normal range — my CA-125 was slightly elevated, but my HE-4 was down a significant amount. (No, I cannot thank the diet for that yet since the tests were done about 4 days after starting keto.) I’ll do another round of blood tests and a CT at the beginning of January.

Last week & weekend, I traveled up to Northern California for my BFF’s birthday. Any fears about staying keto-friendly while I was up there were quickly abated by her texts and emails — with food questions & answers, as well as menus for the restaurants at which we’d be eating.

Sidebar: SHOUT OUT TO YOU, HILARY. YOU FUCKING ROCK SO HARD.

Despite the preparations made, it was still hard, and I fell out of ketosis while I was there. I made simple “mistakes” that messed with my net carb intake — namely, a cappucino (damn you again, milk) and too many nuts as snacks.

I laugh because I thought to myself, “I’ve SO got this.” #smug

I have SO NOT got this.

*shrug*

It’s becoming annoyingly clear that measuring and tracking everything I eat is going to be required longer than 2 weeks. (COME ON. I just want this to be EASY. But yeah, we’ve already talked about the easy way and the right way, right?) Even more annoyingly, I’ve recently realized my food tracker does not differentiate between total carbs and net carbs.

Sidebar: Total Carbohydrate – Dietary Fiber = Net Carb

This is a big miss by MyFitnessPal, because I’m limiting my net carbs, not my total carbs. For instance, 78g of carrot has 7g total carbs, but 2g of those are fiber, so REALLY, I’m getting 5g of net carbs. Two grams makes a big difference when all you’ve got to work with each day is 25.

#accuracyfail

I’ll be exploring other options. (UGH.) Since I already meal plan, I’m thinking I may just create my own tracking system with the nutrients figured out after I grocery shop. This will also allow me to pre-portion everything, and make grabbing food quick and easy — both for myself (my phone reminder to eat is helpful, but it’s not going to make the food for me) and Kenji (who leaves most mornings at 5:30am and doesn’t have time to portion out from larger dishes). (Plus, he makes the coffee each morning and that’s WAAAAY more important than feeding himself.)

Speaking of quick and easy, I found a keto-friendly meal delivery service! (Seriously, where would we be without the internet?!) Our first 6 meals arrive today, and I’m hoping this will help in overall preparations. It’s not inexpensive, so we’ve committed to not eating out as long as we’re getting them.

The experiment continues, as does the search for information and advice. I’m working on a separate post with the science behind this for those of you who are interested. And apologies to friends in person who have to hear me talk about this ALL. THE. TIME. It’s (obviously) one of the main things on my mind right now.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Eat some pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes for me. Gobble, gobble.