Honestly guys… July was super challenging. On top of trying to adjust to a new schedule with going back to work while juggling the classes I continue to teach, my professional development, social, and dating lives were all busy, too! Which not only made keto difficult, but meal planning / prep, tracking, exercising at 100%, writing, etc, and everything in between was been hard to keep up with this month, too. The month of July has been even more challenging than June because I just have so much on my plate. 

Let’s take a look at the last few weeks:

Keto “week 1” – July 1st

As you can see by the ratio of green to pink, there was a lot of eating this week and a lot less activity than normal. I had a lovely 4th of July visiting my sister in Denver but definitely ate my fair share of carbs in my favorite forms (potatoes, pizza, bread for sandwiches, ice cream in a waffle cone, etc… all I missed was pasta) and indulged in too much alcohol, as we had a lot to celebrate and Denver vies for “Brewery Capitol of the United States”. At least we were able to get in a couple fun kickboxing workouts, though I should have made more of an effort to get more movement in.

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Keto “week 2” – July 8th 

My flight home from Denver was cancelled and I ended up traveling all day. At the airport, I had a sandwich with onion rings, which only added insult to injury at the end of my trip. Due to a leadership conference on Wednesday-Friday of that week, I didn’t grocery shop or meal prep at all. Once home on Monday evening after cancellations and delays, I barely had time to order pad thai from a nearby restaurant. Tuesday I waited until 2pm to have a Caesar salad with chicken and no croutons from Chopt, and that evening I reheated a keto-meatball meal from the freezer. Wednesday and Thursday pretty much all meals were catered at this leadership meeting, which weren’t terrible but also not keto (I’ll write about these gluten free cookies later). Friday I was able to squeeze home for lunch then the weekend was full of social fun, including a nice long hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

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Keto “week 3” – July 15

This was my first good attempt at keto (besides Monday when I had pizza on a date) and what did I learn: too much protein! Keto is hard, guys. It IS NOT just a low carb diet, so if someone tells you they’re doing keto but they’re still eating a bunch of protein, it IS NOT keto. It’s just another low-carb, Atkins type diet. Which is basically what I ended up doing this week. The taco salads I made, though delicious, should have had less beef. Then I could have had six of them instead of four! Also, all those carbs from dairy add up because, unlike fruits and veggies, dairy doesn’t have fiber so they all count towards your carb intake. The weekend was a mess. But I did get a little meal prep done that Sunday evening… 

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Keto “week 4” – July 22

Though for Monday and Tuesday that didn’t matter much, since they fed us at this conference. I’m not one to pass up free food, so I enjoyed the sandwiches, salads, and chips provided. On Tuesday I also had a small cookie with the after-lunch coffee. Thursday and Friday evenings were social, all day Saturday was social, and Sunday evening was also social. Basically no meal prep this week…

Keto: this week – July 29

Because I had leftovers of lasagna soup and keto-smoothie fixins. However, I also made a frozen pizza (Sweet Earth Food veggie lovers pizza) to have for lunch Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday evening I have date, Thursday evening I’m going out with friends, and on Friday I head to Charleston for a bachelorette party, so I figured trying to get the most out of what I have in my fridge and pantry already was a better choice than grocery shopping this week. 

This keto blueberry smoothie recipe I found on pinterest (which is no longer available) was nowhere near keto. 1/4 Cup whey protein AND 1/4 cup Greek yogurt?! Psshh. My whey has 20g protein per scoop, so that would be enough without yogurt for keto. So I finagled with the ingredients to come up with this for Wed/Thursday lunches:

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Foreseen challenges… bachelorette party, plus another one the last weekend of the month. Dating, outings with friends to shows, activities, and strenuous outdoor adventures… is this even worth trying right now?? Will August and everything coming up next month hinder me so much as July or can I do a better job with this keto effort? Something I’ll be pondering today, and I’m curious as to whether buying keto sticks to test my pee will motivate me more. haha. I guess we’ll see.