90 Day Keto Challenge - Week Eight

Apr 21

Week eight - 90 day keto challenge

This update is coming to you a little bit late. I had the kids at home while I was working last week for their Spring break, and while it may surprise you, I’m sometimes not capable of getting done all the things I’d like to.

Now that we’ve entered into our third Ontario lockdown, with the kids remote learning, work from home, gyms closed - oh man things feels heavy and yes, food has found it’s way to being a comfort!

Reminder, this was my covid weight loss plan

The Goal: Lose 15 lbs in 90 days by following a ketogenic diet, tracking my food intake, and moving my body.

Diet: Keto with a high protein focus. I will track my macros every single day. I will do some intermittent fasting and extended fasting. Click here for my post on what a full day of following a keto diet looks like for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Exercise: 1,000 jumps a day with my jump rope AND a minimum of 30 minutes additional activity. Example: walking the dog, strength training at the gym, gymnastics (once restrictions lift, I’m registered for a weekly gymnastics class for adults!)

Accountability: I will share an update every week on Sunday evening, here on my blog to let you know how the week went and share a weekly weigh in. Once a month, I will update my photos and measurements with before and after comparisons.

I will be so thrilled with myself when I accomplish these 90 days. I hope you will follow along on my journey!

Click here to see my starting weight, scale metrics, and before photos.

Need help starting a ketogenic diet? Click here for my step by step guide

I hit 100 days of jumping rope

Now that’s something to celebrate!

When I first started jumping rope it was out of legit desperation to just move my body again. The gym had been closed and I had been quite sick over Christmas. It was my way to find just a little bit of momentum to find movement again since I was struggling so much with at home workouts.

I planned to only jump for a week to see how it went, so to be over 100 days now feels really good! I’d like to generate a list of jump rope tricks/techniques and start working on them week by week until I’ve mastered them. It’s such a simple thing to do and having goals is really helping me move through the shutdown and try to keep things positive.

Good News

As of my last update, I mentioned that we were waiting on test results for my Dad. I’ve worked really hard lately not to worry unnecessarily about things I can’t control. This was a hard one but I’m glad I didn’t spend much time thinking about the worst case scenario because my Dad’s test result came back negative for lung cancer!

He was told he had stage 4 lung cancer about a month ago, due to growths in his lungs and enlargement of a lymph node. I don’t know all of the details of how they came to such a horrible diagnoses without all the diagnostic testing. He had a lung biopsy and the test came back negative for cancer. Now we’re not sure what the growths are (maybe infection) so hopefully we’ll get more results back soon.

More good news, Steve is getting is AstraZeneca vaccine tomorrow. I’ve honestly carried a weight this past year that my husband could get covid and I wouldn’t be able to be with him at the hospital. The things nightmares are made of.

So many people in Canada are afraid to get the vaccine because of rare instances of people getting blood clots, but there are risks with everything you do in life. I shared my viewpoint this week and received a mixed response with over 80% of my online community choosing to get vaccinated and a very passionate 5ish% who want nothing to do with it. The message on the right was just one of the ‘kind’ messages I received this weekend.

Haha in all reality, I received MANY, genuinely kind messages from people who appreciated my vaccines stories and conversation. I had some great conversations about reasons why some people won’t be getting the vaccine, and was even explained reasons why some BIPOC may have a mistrust in the healthcare system. I focus on the positive messages but I know many of you like reading the garbage that some people send so there you have it!

It generally feels very heavy when I share my opinion. People tell me to just stick to food and fitness content and that they don’t think I should be using my social to express my opinion. Fuck that. In the words of the latest Birdspapaya bomber jacket, I was “not made to be subtle”.

Diet and Movement

I go in waves between wanting to dial things in and finish this challenge strong, and eating to eat whatever I want. It’s a common reality for most people - the back and forth between health and entertainment/comfort.

I actually had an amazing week Mon-Friday I ate great and the scale was down to 162.9. Lockdown news came and Friday night I ate off plan. Saturday I ate off plan. Then bam - scale is up almost 4 pounds in two days.

My thoughts when I knew I had to “report” back this weight gain did feel like a lump in my throat. There’s no point in taking photos. There’s no point in reporting measurements - so I won’t be, not today.

The great news is I have not missed one day of jump rope or extra exercise that I planned. That’s 56 days in a row of 1,000 jumps a day and 30 minutes or more of additional exercise (weight training, walking, walk run, gymnastics etc.). While I’m not proud of my sudden inability to follow a ketogenic diet and maintain a caloric deficit, I am proud that I have not allowed myself to become stagnant.

I sit in my bed most days and work (since I gave my desk to Taylor for home school). So I sit in bed, eat, eat again, eat a third time…my days are SO SEDENTARY. It does feel very heavy and difficult some days to find my way to movement. To peel my ass out of whatever cozy blanket it’s snuggling under, put on a sports bra and move. It hasn't been easy for me but I’ve made it something non-negotiable. I need to find a way to make my diet non-negotiable again. I know that I will, I just need to keep trying.

The Friggin Stock Market

Another weight I’ve been working to manage is the swings of my self traded stock account. Last August I started investing as a hobby for myself. Things were going extremely well - my account was up almost 100% in 9 months. This past month, that gain dropped by over 70% which has been a little difficult to stomach. Though It’s been a learning experience.

Having days where you can say “Wow, I just lost 5 grand today” has a way of making you a little bit queasy! So I’ve been trying to focus on my portfolio a little bit less these days since I already feel quite stressed out haha. I know there will be recovery around the corner and days where I can celebrate some big gains. Just gotta sit through the uncomfortable drops sometimes as stocks don’t just go up, up, up.

#90ketodays - week eight weigh in results

Starting weight: 161.2 lbs

Week one weigh in: 157.6 lbs

Week two weigh in: 159.2 lbs

Week three weigh in: 159 lbs

Week four weigh in: 160.7 lbs

Week five weigh in: 164 lbs

Week six weigh in: 164.7 lbs

Week seven weigh in: 164 lbs

Week eight weigh in: 166.7 lbs

Total weight lost past eight weeks: +5.5 lbs

Well shit guys. I know a lot of people will tell me to practice kindness with myself and I am, but having this online journal makes sharing this extra annoying. To be fair I didn’t really feel great when the scale hit 155 lbs a year ago, so you can only imagine how 10 more pounds feels and it isn’t great! Let me be proof that no matter how much you work out, you simply cannot out work a bad diet.

My days are all melding into one right now, and I’m not the kind of person to throw on an outfit and makeup just to take a picture for social media. With literally NOTHING going on but working from my bed room, helping my kids with remote learning, and ugly basement workouts I don’t feel like I have anything interesting to talk about right now (hence my somewhat quiet social media right now.)

So while I may be quiet these coming weeks/months, I am just going to keep my head down, focus on the things that matter, and hope that I find my momentum with my diet again. Stick with me.

If you’d like to drop your covid weight you should join me!

Feel free to tag me on Social Media and use #90ketodays so I can check in on your progress! Feel free to start at any date – even if I’ve already completed this challenge.

As always, I appreciate you reading and checking in on my journey! If you have any questions that you’d like answered about these next 90 days, please leave a comment below.

Thanks!

Joanna

Find Keto to be complicated!? Click here for my easy to follow, step by step keto guide

Read more about my #90ketodays on these other blog posts

Check out these other posts from my 90 day keto challenge