hCG Day 30 – Electrolytes

Hey Effective Community!

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! If your family is anything like mine, these types of holidays mean backyard barbeques with friends and family. All major functions revolve around food in my family. This weekend was no different. However, I was able to stay relatively “on protocol” with my diet by eating hamburgers wrapped in lettuce and hot dogs with no buns. Mustard instead of ketchup. Raw veggies instead of coleslaw. You get the idea. It really is possible to still be present at these type of occasions without derailing your own goals. However, if you did happen to partake is something particularly wonderful, please drop a comment below and let me know what it was…I will live vicariously through you!

Today, I am going to let you in on a little dirty secret of my current hCG journey. On Friday, I derailed BIG time. I am talking “run over by a Mack Truck” BIG time. I had THE WORST headache of my life. I have never been diagnosed with migraines (mostly because I only get them once every couple years, so I’ve never seen the point of telling my doctor), but, in my professional opinion, that’s what this was. I had a headache, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. I was basically OUT OF COMMISSION. Some of the first comments I received from friends, family, and coworkers was that my diet was to blame. I honestly didn’t have the brainpower at the time to really think about it. Since then, though, I have done my research to find out if that’s actually true. Unfortunately, it is….but only partly.

I tried my usual headache remedies on Friday, such as ibuprofen, tylenol, B-complex vitamins, water, and sleep…lots and lots of sleep. What ended up actually helping me was bananas. I know…GASP!…I went “off protocol” and had some forbidden fruit. But, that, coupled with some electrolyte solution, helped. Why?

I typically drink electrolyte solution approximately 2-3 times per week. The one I drink has 9g of sugar (carbohydrates) in it, which is actually a lot better than some of the more common ones, as you can see below. However, I chose not to give up 9 of my daily 30g of carbs for a drink. BAD CHOICE! And I’ll tell you why!

Electrolytes are the collective term for nutrients we consume that are electrically charged ions. These include sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Together, they work in the body to regulate fluid balance, brain function, and muscle contractions. As you can imagine, an imbalance of these things can lead to some pretty nasty symptoms (including all those I had on Friday). Taking my research a bit further, I learned that ketogenic diets (diets low in carbs like our amazing hCG protocol) can actually cause an electrolyte imbalance more quickly than a typical diet. This is due to the actual process of your body creating ketones leads to diuresis (loss of fluid through pee). Through that process, you excrete (pee) more sodium and potassium. Making it imperative that anyone on a low carbohydrate diet replenish these nutrients. Oops. This would be why the bananas and electrolyte solution helped me so much…potassium and sodium!

I am still not really “ok” with giving up almost a third of my daily carbs to a drink. I want to eat them! Once again, I have done some research for you and found three wonderful low carb electrolyte drink recipes you can make at home.

Please use these and don’t succumb to the severe symptoms of electrolyte deficiency like I did. I suffered so that you don’t have to.

Drink up!

~Becky, FNP-C