Next update on the diet, a ketogenic diet called Wahls’ Paleo Plus. I started down this path, as well as removed some other things from my regular eating schedule, in an effort to cut down on the number of migraines I’d been having.

Despite having two migraines this week (or one that just lasted for a really long time) I’d say this week was ultimately a success. The migraine was caused by stress, not by hormones. This means that, despite still having migraines this week, the diet has ultimately led to fewer migraines. (Frequently, this being the second week after my period, I’m still having lots of menstrual migraines. This week, I had none of that type of migraine.)

So – yay fewer migraines!

Now, y’all may be wondering about that word “cleanse” up there. As you may or may not know, I don’t believe in “cleanses” – not the kind where you drink nothing but sugared juice for a week. Your body does an incredible job of cleaning out the garbage already. Don’t over stress it or put too much garbage in, and you should be fine.

However.

This week, I’d liken the diet to a cleanse, or what a cleanse is supposed to be.

I think I’ve mentioned before that the bio-identical hormones that I take seem to be working better. That something in my original diet was blocking them. This week, I’ve stepped down even further in my dosage, going back to my original dosage of hormones.

Ditto with the thyroid medicine, which you may recall I doubled last October. Upping my thyroid medicine stopped all migraines that weren’t menstrual migraines. But I got my blood tested this week, and my T3 level is way too high.

The weirdest thing that happened this week? Caffeine suddenly started affecting me differently.

I’ve been having this exact same level of caffeine for years.

Overnight, this level of caffeine became too much. I got nervous, shaky, my heart was racing, etc.

So I cut my caffeine level by 1/3, then by 2/3. (This drop in caffeine levels probably contributed to the migraines this week as well.) So back down to essentially one cup of coffee or anything caffeinated per day.

I’m doing great now on that lower level.

One of the things that I recently read concerning ketogenic diets was that while it only takes two days of low carbs to put your body into ketosis, it takes 4-6 weeks to become truly keto-adapted, to see all the benefits of this diet.

Guess where I am? This last Monday was the start of week 5.

The other benefit that I *finally* appear to be seeing? No longer being so hungry.

One of the benefits always touted with this sort of diet is that it’s so satisfying! You’re never hungry! If you’re hungry, you’re doing it wrong!

Bullshit.

It wasn’t until this last week, when I probably became truly fat adapted, that some of my hunger cravings went away. I was eating all the fat I was supposed to eat, but it only occasionally felt like enough.

Yesterday, I didn’t eat lunch. I had a few fat bombs sprinkled throughout the day. But that was it. And while I was hungry once dinner arrived, I wasn’t fall-down starving.

I am aware that as part of this diet, I’m supposed to only eat twice a day. I tried that at the start. Made me crazy and unhappy and angry. Maybe in another month or so I may try it again, see if I can get enough fat in the mornings that I won’t be as upset with not eating during the middle of the day.

A big part of the problem is that my natural eating pattern is: medium breakfast, large lunch, small dinner. Suddenly trying to stuff myself at breakfast didn’t work for me. Then doing it again at the end of the day.

We’ll see. Maybe I’ll just do an intermittent fast during the week. I’ve tried that before: once a week I would eat breakfast and have coffee, then not eat again until breakfast the next morning. That worked well for me some weeks, not so good other weeks. I never saw a lot of benefit from it, and it kind of made me crazy, so I stopped after a couple months.

So again, we’ll see what works and doesn’t work. My body is different than your body, than other people’s bodies. What works for me may or may not work for you, etc.

For right now, though, a ketogenic diet where I’m lightly in ketosis and I’m eating a hell of a lot of veggies, plus organ meats, plus fish, and fat, of course, seems to be the ticket.

We’ll see how things go over the next week!