MY FIRST BLOOD KETONES TEST

I've had my blood ketones testing monitor for a week now, but I just got the strips last night.  This morning, I tested for the first time and threw in a blood glucose test just for good measure and to get a more complete picture of what is happening in this crazy body of mine!

Getting all the supplies together was a little overwhelming.  So many packets and boxes and instruction sheets!  And what you see here does not even include all the stuff for the glucose monitoring.  You can use this meter for ketones and glucose, but then you have to recalibrate it for the two different tests.  I already have a separate meter for glucose, so I decided to just use the two meters side by side to make the process go faster.

And talk about drama!  I have not pricked my own finger for almost a year, and I got scared at the last moment.  Since the meter was new and had to be set up and calibrated, it took me awhile before I actually did the pricking, and the whole time my anxiety level was going up and up.  What a baby I am!  I finally worked up the nerve and did the test, trying to make one finger prick give me enough blood for both tests.  After doing the ketones test, the little, tiny hole in my finger snapped back shut and I had to prick another finger for the glucose test.  When I test again tomorrow morning, I'll turn the lancet up a little bit to make a better hole so I can get a bigger drop of blood.

So, at long last, I know that I am in ketosis!  According to Phinney and Volek, nutritional ketosis is achieved with a blood ketone level of between 1.0 and 3.0.  This morning, mine was 3.1.  Success!  I really wish I had tested it before I started this new way of eating, so I could see the change as it happened, but I was too impatient to see some results.  I guess I made the right choice, but it still would have been nice to know.

My fasting blood glucose this morning was 81 and my 1.5 hour postprandial (after eating) was 76.  Both excellent numbers!  Especially considering that, when I was testing last summer, my fasting level was an average of 88 and my 1.5 hour postprandial was an average of 95.  At that time, I was eating an average of 102g of fat, 71g of protein and 49g of carbs.  Since then, which has resulted in these new, good numbers, I have almost doubled my fat, decreased my protein by a third and cut my carbs a little more than in half.  And I'm losing weight and inches and feeling good.

Ketone Meter and Glucose Meter - I'm locked and loaded!

I only bought 20 ketone testing strips (at $2 each), so I will not test every morning.  I will test for the next five days, and, if I am seeing consistent results, I'll back off and only test every three days or so, and then maybe once per week.  I'm not going to post my results here every day unless something goes wrong, so if you are following my results here, assume that everything is fine unless I tell you different.  I will post my overall results on Sunday, as usual, along with blood ketones and glucose.

Here is an amusing little side note:  Well, maybe "amusing" is not the right word.  Anyway, I officially entered menopause 11 months ago, at the age of 55 and 3/4.  Day before yesterday, after being in deep nutritional ketosis for about a week, I exited menopause.  And I'm heading in the opposite direction!  Sorry if this is too much information, but, at the age of 56 and 3/4, I am all "meno" and no "pause."  I wonder if anyone else doing this has had a similar thing happen, or if this is just my crazy body being crazy once again.

So, in honor of my backwards journey through time, enjoy Joan Baez singing, "Forever Young."



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