So it turned out that yesterday was the first day of my period.
I wasn’t expecting it. I felt too good for that. It was kind of a surprise. Plus, it was seven days early.
However, I remember a time when my periods used to be that mild. When it was always kind of a surprise because I had little to no symptoms beforehand. Probably back before 2013.
Yesterday, I was slightly out of it, instead of having major brain fog and fighting for words. (Wrote 3500 words yesterday!) I had mild cramps that went away after I took Tylenol, instead of wanting to curl up with a hot pad and never move. I had didn’t have to take a nap in the afternoon, and instead, was social and stayed out late. (Okay, so I did kind of still want to take a nap, however, I didn’t have to take one in order to function.)
Is this mildness caused by the ketogenic diet? I don’t know at this point.
What I do know is that I feel better, in general, than I have in a long time.
In review:
My August cycle was pretty awful.
September wasn’t much better.
Started the ketogenic diet mid-September. It took me a couple of weeks to get it locked in.
Early October cycle was bad, but not horrible.
Late October cycle is really mild.
This is a good trend, but I still don’t have enough data points. If the next couple cycles stick with this mild theme, I’ll feel as though I have enough data to make a judgement.
I was thinking about it yesterday. What if it is the ketogenic diet that’s doing all this goodness?
That means I stay on the diet, pretty hard-core keto, for quite sometime. According to what I’ve heard and read, it takes about a year for a woman’s body to settle in after menopause actually starts. Which means I’d probably stay keto for a year after my periods ended. (And who knows when I’ll actually slide into menopause? I’m so ready for my endless summer to start!)
A year after I actually hit menopause, I may experiment with the diet some more, see how I feel on just low carb instead of full on keto. (I’ll never go back to eating SAD, or the Standard American Diet. I would expand my range of carbs, though, to 100-150 grams of carbs per day, instead of less than 50 grams.)
It may turn out that I’m keto for life. That’s a little hard to face, honestly.
Right now, I have one day per week when I eat more carbs and deliberately go out of keto. (From everything I’ve read, that’s what works best for women in perimenopause. And it appears to work really well for me.)
Maybe instead of having a single meal that isn’t compliant, I will allow myself to have a lot more carbs that day. I’m unsure how that will make me feel physically, but psychologically, that might be what I need to be happy on this diet.
Or in other words…Mmmmm. Donuts. Or muffins. Or scones. Once a week. Make a batch and keep them in the freezer, thawing one out once a week.
That actually sounds like a really good plan.
Because while I feel so good physically, facing a lifetime of this diet is daunting. Maybe I’ll feel different three months from now and I’m still doing well. We’ll see.
I hope that your Tuesday is going well, that you’ve had a good week so far.