Sunday's low carb diet diary

This is the last in my whole week documentary of my attempts at a low carb diet. I think I turned a corner of sorts today.

Breakfast at the Daily Grind: Scrambled eggs and bacon and a cup of coffee with half-and-half. I don't know why they put it in a to-go box. I bring my own cup to save on creating plastic waste. They know me there, too. Sometimes fast-food workers get carried away and don't think.

Still feeling lousy like yesterday, I thought maybe I should eat more and eat stuff with more vitamins and minerals, so I fixed a plate of butter-fried chicken livers with onions. I didn't feel any better afterward.

I did some research online and at the bookstore. I read in Dr. Eades Protein Power book an exact description of me. He said, you're going along on your low carb diet and starting to feel great and then suddenly you are stricken with lethargy and aching muscles and profound weakness. This is a classic sign of potassium deficiency. Apparently you lose a lot of potassium on this diet, especially if you sweat. You supposedly pee a lot, but I haven't noticed that. I have been thirstier and yesterday I sweat quite a bit in the heat. I don't feel dehydrated but I have felt thirsty often.

I was going to try and drink this water plain, but it didn't appeal.

A trick I learned hiking the PCT was when I needed to drink more water than I wanted, I would flavor it with Crystal Light lemonade. I could easily drink a liter of water if it was lemonade flavor. I would do that because water sources often were spaced 20 miles apart, sometimes more. So when I came upon a water source, I would drink a liter so that I wouldn't have to carry it, then carry another 3 liters. I wouldn't need to drink anything for a few hours so I was able to handle those large distances without having to carry the water on my back. This is called "cameling up".

This Crystal Light has a little bit of sugar in it. I made it half strength so there was only 1.5 grams of sugar at the most.

I also bought some supplements, including a potassium supplement.

A few hours later I was feeling MUCH better.

Dinner was steelhead trout with mustard sauce, half a very small sweet potato and a big salad with homemade bleu cheese dressing. I had seconds of the salad. I also drank a glass of red wine.

I sure hope I am feeling better tomorrow. Adapting to this diet has been harder than I thought. The first three weeks eating like this were pretty easy. For some reason, this week was very hard. I don't know why I took 4 weeks to feel like some people do after a couple of days. I've been trying to do as suggested: eating way more fat than anyone would think is necessary, not too much protein but not too little, liberal use of salt including "lite" salt, and drinking more water than usual to make up for water lost. But I guess I was still falling short.

In addition to the potassium supplements (apparently my use of potassium chloride "lite" salt instead of regular salt wasn't enough), I bought magnesium and iodine. I've always measured on the low end of normal when the doctor has given me thyroid tests. Maybe the iodine will help. The magnesium is apparently also needed, also, but I'm not sure what exactly it does. Hopefully it will make me feel better. I hate supplements and hope I don't need them for very long.