For the last two weeks, I’ve been doing my best to follow a ketogenic diet. I haven’t approached it casually, either. I’ve been logging everything I eat in an app, weighing portions, checking nutrition labels, and making conscious decisions every time I sit down for a meal. The app even tells me whether a food is considered keto-friendly, and as far as I’ve been doing everything the right way.
The only thing I’ve been eating that even comes close to making me second-guess myself is the plain Greek yogurt I have for breakfast. Even then, it’s supposed to fit within my daily goals. Nothing about my meals has felt reckless or like “cheating.”
If anything, I’ve been more disciplined than I have in a long time.
I’ve lost a little weight, which is encouraging, but not enough to carry me on motivation alone. Today, I decided to buy some ketone test strips. I figured they would be reassuring. I’d see that I was in ketosis, know everything was working as intended, and keep going.
Instead, the strip told me I wasn’t in ketosis at all.
It’s amazing how much doubt can fit into a tiny piece of paper.
Now I’m sitting here wondering what I’m doing wrong. Is it the yogurt? Is my carbohydrate intake still too high? Am I eating too much protein? Not enough fat? Are the test strips wrong? Is my body just taking longer to adapt? I don’t know, and that’s the frustrating part. When you don’t know what’s wrong, you also don’t know what to fix.
The temptation, of course, is to throw my hands in the air and order a pizza.
There’s a voice in the back of my mind saying, “If two weeks of effort didn’t even get you into ketosis, then what was the point?” I know that’s not the right way to look at it. I know two weeks of eating better isn’t erased by one disappointing result. I’ve still lost some weight. I’ve probably made healthier choices than I would have otherwise. Those things matter, even if the little strip says I haven’t reached the milestone I was aiming for.
Still, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like failure.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll take a closer look at my food log. Maybe there’s something I’ve overlooked. Maybe I’ll discover it’s the yogurt, or maybe it’s something else entirely.
Whatever the answer is, I hope there is one. Because I can deal with making a mistake. What I struggle with is not knowing what the mistake is.