I Have Keto Flu and Keto Rash - Pray for Healing and Provisions

SUMMARY
This message is rather long so here is a summary.

During the first few days transitioning onto the keto diet, there were some strange symptoms that came and went quickly.

Then during the second week, I noticed odd symptoms that did not go away fast. Those details follow including what I learned about the probable causes and solutions that I discovered by watching many videos on Dr. Berg's Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123

The bottom line is that previously my body had been gaining energy by converting the sugars and carbs when I was eating whatever I wanted all day and all night. But by both shifting to the keto diet and with intermittent fasting, my body is turning to the fat stores in my body. Those fat stores have been holding toxins. Those released toxins are causing the symptoms of keto flu and keto rash.

There are nutritional supplements to help my body both deal with the fat more effectively and to remove the free-floating toxins from my system.

I have been learning about all this and making applications the best I could.

There is an end to when the fat around my belly and liver will be removed. That will take a while. Then my body will operate more effectively. The inflammation will decrease, the mental clarity will increase and I will have more energy.

I gave away groceries or threw out those that are not on the keto diet. Then a neighbor gave me some banana pudding. I just 3 bites have caused my body to freak out. So it went down the garbage disposal.

It is a long time until the end of this 90-day trial. Then I will evaluate the results and make changes from the recommendations of Dr. Berg https://www.drberg.com/. I trust him because he teaches so well online about every facet of the keto diet. He has 2500 videos so I can drill into any detail. He has helped thousands of patients for many years and refined his recommendations based on their results. His Youtube channel has nearly 3 million subscribers so others trust him too. I cannot objectively evaluate the guidance he has given millions of people that experience amazing transformation unless I am faithful to abide by his core guidelines.

I am requesting your best prayers for God to grant me wisdom and guidance in the coming weeks as I deal with the keto flu and the keto rash.

I am requesting your best prayers for me to do all the needed fundraising to afford the nutritional supplements and other aids to get through this challenging passage.

I remember that my grandfather had crippling arthritis in his hands. He kept a huge bottle of aspirin by his chair to cope with the pains. Many of my senior citizen neighbors have painful arthritis and are taking all kinds of pain killers. The keto diet has greatly decreased arthritis in his patients.

I do not want to be leaning on artificial aids for the rest of my life.

I seek to remove the causes of the pains instead of masking the symptoms.

Thanks for all your prayers. God is answering prayers in His way and in His timing.


CONTEXTS
My weight remained the same from high school until a few years ago.

I lived in a homeless shelter for 3 years from 2014 to 2017.

I paid 10 dollars a day for 3 meals a day, access to a hot shower and slept in a huge room of a converted warehouse with more than 100 other men.

The meals were filling but not made with the best ingredients.

The shelter was near the convention center. I walked to the library or community college each day. During those walks, I was exposed to all the exhaust of cars, buses, and trucks.

Before I entered the homeless shelter I would go 5 to 7 years between visiting the doctor for minor complaints. While in the shelter I went to the charity hospital about every 3 to 4 months to get a prescription for respiratory or skin troubles.

While I was there I gained about 25 pounds that were mostly in my belly. I move into this apartment 2 years ago and the weigh has remained. I needed to buy pants with a larger waist.

Also during that time, I began to have chronic pains in my right shoulder and neck.

I did not go on the keto diet to lose weight. I was satisfied with a little pouch that only I noticed.

BUT as I researched the keto flu and the keto rash this all became important, that I will explain later.




KETO FLU SYMPTOMS
Recently I woke up with a dry mouth. That has rarely happened in my lifetime.

I recognized that I had stopped breathing through my nose and by only using my month so it became dry.

During many recent days, I woke to go to the bathroom and found that I was very congested. Previously I could use some saline mist and vitamin C to knock that out. But that has not been working lately.

I have suddenly had a mild cough and then with just a little cough syrup, it went away. Every other time I had a cough it continued all day and all night.

Previously I needed to wash the sleep out of my eyes a few times a week when I woke. But lately, I have needed to wash some gunk off of my eyelashes several times all day and night. Plus I have needed to use eye drops.

Also, I have had hours when I felt strangely sluggish or my body felt weak all over. Then it just went away.

For decades I had caught the flu every 2 or 3 years and it lasted 2 or 3 days. This is not like any of those times. This has been ongoing for more than a week.


KETO RASH SYMPTOMS
Small red patches have suddenly appeared in different places on my arms and legs.

I used various lotions, as well as tea tree oil or apple cider vinegar to gain relief.

That kind of rash has never happened before for me.



CAUSES ACCORDING TO DR BERG
I have viewed many videos by Dr. Berg  https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123 related to the keto flu, the keto rash, and fatty liver.

He teaches that when I have been removing sugars and the abundance of carbs from my diet as well as using the intermediate fasting this has shifted how my body operates.

Previously my body got energy from processed sugars and carbs. These days it processes fat including my fat.

That fat has had toxins stored that are released. The keto flu and the keto rash are just how my body is coping with the toxins.

My lungs, sinuses, eyes, skin, and other parts of my body are dealing with unfriendly chemicals on their way out of my body.

During my research, he mentioned the fatty liver. I saw his videos on that. He said that pains in the right shoulder and neck can indicate a fatty liver because the liver is on the right side of the body. That makes sense to me.

As I reflected on when and how I gained this weight that led to the homeless shelter days. I was both gaining pounds while exposed to all that exhaust at close quarters for years.

Also, that was a very stressful season of my life. And stress can produce toxins in the body.


MY NEXT STEPS
I took notes on the many videos of Dr. Berg that I watched. I have purchased some of the nutritional supplements he recommended and I have others in online carts to buy soon.

A device that could help me sleep better at night is a bed wedge. It is a triangular foam unit to put on my bed. As I put my pillow at the top then the gentle slope will cause the mucus to flow down instead of stuffing up my sinuses.

My focused attention has been on making this transition and dealing with the symptoms.

There are many groceries that were removed from my kitchen and many new ones that were added.

I have felt afraid to take an honest look at my finances.

I think that my savings are exhausted.

I am not certain what items in the shopping carts can wait until next month.

It has been a long time since I did fundraising to meet my needs. I dislike that process. I must admit that I need help. I must be humble and vulnerable.

But that is the only way forward.

So please pray for me.

May I come to objectively understand my real needs.

May I be led by the Holy Spirit in who to ask and how to ask.

May God bless me with more than enough money to get through this transition.


CONCLUSION
This is just my story. It is just my reporting on what has been happening to me. It is my way to connect with others and to enroll in prayer support.

Every person is unique. The history of what happened in their body before starting the keto diet is unique to them. They may have fewer or more toxins in their fat than me. They may deal with the keto flu and the keto rash symptoms differently. Some have a higher and others have a lower tolerance for pain.

It is not my purpose to persuade you or any person to go on the keto diet.

I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has led me down this path for the sake of my long term health.

There is a short term price to pay to remove the toxins from my body. Then my liver will be able to function far better.

I empathize with those who start and stop the keto diet. This is not easy or fun.

However, I am committed to staying on it until September 25, 2019. Then I might make changes.


THANKS again for all your prayers.

Shalom
John

Celebrating New Beginnings -- Report on My Transition to Keto Diet

About a week ago I began to transition into a keto diet.

My purpose was to decrease inflammation that leads to the pains in my right hand, wrist, and forearm as I use the computer mouse.

It got to where I would need to stop in about 20 to 30 minutes to massage my hand. And then it was painful to go back to surfing the web.

Also, I have had stiffness in my neck and shoulders for a long time that I hope too will decrease as the inflammation decreases. 

As I researched keto diet I noticed testimonies of more energy and greater mental clarity. I want both of those. 

So far this transition has involved much online research and buying books by Dr. Berg https://www.drberg.com/ He offers hundreds of Youtube videos about keto diet https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123  and nearly 3 million subscribers. 

Along this path, I discovered that most of what I had been eating was not the best for my overall health.

Dr. Berg taught what happens when I ate what I was eating and why changing not only what I ate but when I ate will be helpful.

He advocates intermediate fasting. That means not eating any breakfast but waiting as long as possible to start eating.

Previously I would eat as soon as I woke up and I would eat many small snacks all day and all night. I would eat a little when I woke in the night to go to the bathroom. That was not the wisest path according to his understanding of how the human body works.

I am not here to convince you to use the keto diet. 

What you eat is your choice. And know that all choices have consequences. And stated differently; what you sow is what you reap.

This is a report on my new adventure. 

Note that I have committed to do my best to follow the keto guidelines of Dr. Berg for 90 days. Then after September 25, 2019, I will evaluate my experiences and results. I will continue or make changes at that time. 

During the first few days, it was very painful as my body adjusted. 

Internally I could tell that this was a profound shift. 

While the sensations were unpleasant my body was assuring me this a good way to go. 

I probably would have had fewer symptoms if I had more gradually transitioned what I ate and when I ate. But that phase is behind me. 

There were short moments of lightheadedness and overall weakness.

There were short moments when I felt like I did when I got drunk in college as an unbeliever. 

These went away in less than a minute when I just sat or stood still. Those symptoms have not returned. 

Also during that time my thoughts and feelings went on short roller coaster trips. But that has not repeated not since then.

Yesterday I went to Walmart to shop for groceries for the first time since transitioning to the keto diet. I was armed with a list of what to buy based on inputs from Dr. Berg and many others online. 

It was strange to walk past the items I had previously bought. 

It was a learning experience to find the things on my list that I had never bought before. I did not know where they were in the store. Then when I got to that section there were so many options to consider. Previously I could shop for groceries half asleep because I bought the exact same things every time. 

I had never bought cabbage for myself before, but I did yesterday.

I had never bought butter for myself before, but I did yesterday.

I had never bought cream cheese for myself before, but I did yesterday. And I found that I really like just a spoonful of plain cream cheese.

Dr. Berg strongly advocates lots of salads. Others online are not as keen on salads. So I bought a few bags of prepared salads. I had bought these before but half the time they would spoil before I completed the contents. And this time I found that there was far more chewing with my full dentures than I had remembered. So salads might not be a big part of my future eating. 

Also, I had placed an order with Vitacost https://www.vitacost.com/

Vitacost is like a huge online health food store with nutritional supplements and healthy foods.

The many guidelines point to uses of all kinds of oils. So for the first time, I bought coconut oil from Vitacost.

Also, I bought turkey jerky, olives and bone broth from them as well as other things on the recommended lists.

Eggs are strongly advocated for the keto diet. So last week I asked and was given a dozen duck eggs. The owner of this apartment complex has 3 ducks here on a remote corner of the property. The maintenance man gave me the eggs. I scrambled some and hard-boiled others. If this provision continues then I will explore other ways to cook eggs.

I talked with a neighbor that has relatives who sometimes bring to him an abundance of catfish. He said he will give me some of his surpluses. So cooking fish that will be another part of this overall adventure.

In order to stay true to my intentions and minimize my temptations to go backward, I have purged my pantry and fridge. I have set aside items that are prohibited on the lists to give others when the container was not opened. I threw out the items where the container was opened.

WOW, that was a giant step forward in my commitment to this adventure.

At some level, this feels like relocating to a foreign country. If I had moved to Japan, Mexico, or Iceland then that would be a radical lifestyle shift.

For another image, it is like I have started to remodel my kitchen. The old has been removed and I have begun to gradually replace with the new. This will become my hub for taking care of my body.

For much of my life, I treated my body like a donkey that was here only to carry around my head. I knew the theory that there was an important connection between my physical health and my mental health. I took some steps to care for my body. But lately, that has become a higher priority.

CONTEXT

There is always a wider and deeper context to such a major transition.

When my hand was hurting I researched options. I found that there are compression gloves to support the hand and wrist. That was in my Save for Later list on Amazon for weeks. But a lifetime of depending on such aids was not appealing.

I used the massage and acupressure methods but those did not last long.

There are all kinds of creams and pills for joint pain. If this was a recovery from an injury then that would be appealing. But I do not want to buy such products for the rest of my life.

I have always sought to take the best possible care of my body. When I learned the science of what I had been doing to my body was not optimal then making improvements was the next right step.

During Lent for the last 2 years, I have fasted from the intake of news and commentary. Both of those 40 day seasons were peaceful and informative. I had greater peace of mind. I recognized that I was giving away my attention to matters of national and international affairs that I could never change. This taught me to focus on what I could change.

What I can change is how I use my time and money. I can change what I eat and when I eat.

I have an overabundance of research and plans for an online enterprise to serve international college students starting this fall. But I have been leaning too much on caffeine during this season of preparations. As the next chapter of my life unfolds I need to have my eating habits and pantry in good order. Then I hope there will be a steady stream of energy to persevere through the various challenges that are bound to present themselves.

This is why I feel motivated to plunge into this keto transition for this 90-day adventure. For me, it is like getting my body in shape for a series of marathons as I launch and lead an online membership community.

PRAYER

Basically, I have been moving ahead one day at a time.

This adventure has been unfolding in ways I could never have predicted.

Thankfully there are those like you who have been praying for me during this transition and long before now.

I request the continuation of your very best prayers. This seems like a smooth report, But without help from God, I know that I would have quit long ago.

Today I understand the basics of the guidelines. There is much more to learn but those are just details that might prove useful later.

Ultimately every person is unique. The foods that work well and poorly in their bodies vary. So what is ahead for me is much trial and error. I am willing to experiment with what I eat and when I eat. May God grant me wisdom and discernment as I find my way along this path.

After weeks and months of experimenting, I want to come to some smart conclusions.

I desire to gracefully establish healthy habits about eating.

I want to learn more about cooking in ways that will best support my keto diet.

As the online enterprise to serve international college student unfolds I want to have a reasonably well-stocked pantry and fridge with foods that I know are best for me. Then most of the experimenting will have been completed and my eating will support my main priority.

I have been plunging ahead. I have been spending money in new ways. I have not been cautious about how the new purchases will impact my needs to pay my regular monthly bills. Pray for all my financial needs to be met during this transition.

BASICS
What I mentioned to people that I was transitioning to keto diet they said that they had heard of it but did not understand it. I cannot give a super brief summary here.

I have watched dozens of short videos about the keto diet. One of the big advantages of being retired is that I have lots of time to research. 

Here are links to the 2 best introduction videos.
Out of the 2500 videos on the keto diet by Dr. Berg here are his 2 introductory ones.

Dr. Berg's Healthy Keto Basics: Start Here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMZfyEy_jpI

Dr. Berg's Healthy Keto Basics: Step 2 What to eat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBqpaAKtnXE

It is not my intention to persuade you to use the keto diet. I share these links so that you will have a general understanding of the subject. It might come up on the media or in conversations.

Out of the many blog posts that I read about the keto diet the attached  PDF by Dr. Berg was the simplest summary. You can get an overview of what he and others recommend. 

Just maybe you will modify what you eat based on this and maybe not. But at least you will be informed. 

CONCLUSION
It has been very helpful for me to process all these thoughts and feelings by putting them into words that I shared with you and others. Some people process by talking and I process by writing.

THANKS for being there to read this.

THANKS again for all your prayers.


Shalom
John