The experiment continues…

…without keto.

Wait, what?

Yep. We are taking a hiatus from the ketogenic diet.

While it may seem sudden to some of those reading this blog, especially with all my “woohoo keto rocks” posts, the decision has not come lightly. There are are so many different reasons, and the latest revelations with Dr. Ellis brought up more questions than answers as I explored more research.

That’s a deeper dive than I want to get into at the moment, but the long and the short of it is this: lately, I’ve in a place where I’m questioning the efficacy/point/reason of the diet.

You can’t prove a negative, so it’s impossible to tell whether keto has helped these past 9 months.

The reality is, my CA-125 levels were rising the entire time. But, they also could have been rising faster without keto.

The reality is, my PET scan showed more areas of uptake. But, they also could have been larger masses and even tumors (which they are not) without keto.

The reality is, this is a difficult diet to maintain, even a modified version of it.

So, after much discussion, we’re changing the experiment — we’re not throwing out everything we’ve learned thus far. There have been so many positives to keto — particularly around recognizing how the body reacts to certain foods. We’ll really just be adding a bit (okay, a LOT) of diversity back into the diet — more fruits and vegetables. We’ll still limit grains, we’ll still avoid processed sugar, and we’re still not drinking alcohol. For me, I’ll focus on low glycemic index foods, to minimize inflammation in the body.

We’ll continue to watch the CA-125 levels, and if something goes crazy, we can easily switch back. We’ll follow the recommendation from Dr. Ellis to go super low-carb for the first 48 hours of my infusions, which just means I’ll have to prepare starting Saturday so I’m in full-blown ketosis by my Monday appointment.

In the meantime, bring on the bananas.

11 thoughts on “The experiment continues…

  1. When I took a week off of Keto, the first thing I ate was a banana…and an apple. Funny how the keto diet makes seemingly healthy foods seem taboo. One of the keto groups on Facebook is all about “half-assed keto”, and one comment I always hear is, “No one ever got fat from vegetables”.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I’m not certain I could do without my two different colors of fruits or veggies with every meal, my hats off to you for what you’ve been able to accomplish this far! I know this has been a hard decision for you. You’re strong and resilient!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I just read a book called the Obesity code, which basically advocates this exact thing – ditch anything processed – even full fat dairy is fine – no low fat. Eat all the vegetable, all the fruit, ditch the sugar and processed grains and most alcohol. Only red wine is really encouraged. They also encourage intermittent fasting, particularly during illness and chemotherapy treatment. I’m sure you’re doing other reading on all these subjects as well.

    Thanks to keto, you have perfected your cheese chip though, 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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