Munkers

Not TMI at all! Taking care of yourself after years of treating yourself poorly is a BIG deal and absolutely something to get emotional about! You are an awesome human being and you are worth having a strong, healthy body. I'm so happy that you're on this journey.

Ketosis and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) are two different things. Ketosis is a normal and healthy process used by your body to maintain energy and blood glucose during fasting. Your liver can only store so much glycogen and once that's used up, your body needs another source of energy and it turns to fat. In order to breakdown the fat into something usable, your body breaks the lipids down into ketone bodies which can then be used for cellular metabolism. Diabetic ketoacidosis is a condition in which your blood sugar SOARS (like 300-500 or more) due to insufficient insulin and ketosis continues in an unchecked/out of control manner. As your blood sugar increases, it changes the osmolarity (solute to solvent ratio) of the blood and excess sugar is dumped into the urine along with all of your sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes. Now that you're losing electrolytes, your body can't maintain hydration and things are often further exacerbated by vomitting. During this process, your body is continuing to dump ketones into the blood stream in amounts that exceed your body's ability to buffer and maintain pH. (Your pH drops into more acidic ranges, hence the name "acidosis.") At this point, I wouldn't worry about ketosis. Follow the meal template and experiment a little with how fruit and starchy vegetables impact your energy, mood, and satiety. For me, fruit early in the day wrecks my satiety. It's less impactful in the evening. Sweet potatoes and other starch-heavy items are awesome though and adequate fat is absolutely crucial to keeping me satisfied. Tinker around with how much fat and protein you're eating at each meal and if you find yourself ready to just chew your arm off, then eat. It's not unusual at all for folks new to the Whole30 reporting that they need four or even five full template meals to keep them going in the early days. Your body will figure it out and your hunger will level back out.

Leftover pork ribs with homemade barbecue sauce, a hardboiled egg, and roasted kabocha squash. This was my "wow, I kinda failed to prep for the week" breakfast and involved foraging for whatever leftovers I could find.

Wow, Shannon! You got so much color on your bok choy that I thought they were roasted potatoes at first!

I'm curious about how you steam the potatoes prior to finishing them in the skillet. Are they partially or fully cooked? How long in the steamer?

Cauliflower and curry are best friends. I've eaten pretty much the same breakfast every day this week: shredded cabbage, sweet potato, protein, maybe another veggie. Today it was leftover shredded pork, diced sweet potato instead of shredded, and leftover roast green beans along with my cabbage. Seasoned with 21-spice, a bit hit of salt, and some avocado oil. There was leftover lamb shoulder in the fridge, but I've decided that I can't handle lamb first thing in the morning.

Oh man... I WANT that burger!

Didn't think to snap a picture, but this morning's breakfast was a big, overflowing handful of shredded cabbage, a bit of shredded sweet potato, leftover rotisserie chicken, and some avocado oil. Jazzed it up with some 21-seasoning and downed a glass of strawberry and mint infused water.

If you are taking/using your BC as directed, then you should be fine. Spotting does not mean that something is wrong or that your birth control is no longer effective. Spotting is actually considered a side effect of hormonal birth control and can happen to any person at any time. Inconvenient? Yes. Cause for alarm? Not really.