Nora has been cruising along as 3.25:1 for the last 3.5 weeks. Her wean schedule calls for going 3 to 4 weeks at each step down. Originally we thought that we would keep 3.25:1 for 4.5 weeks, because we started mid-week and will make changes on the weekends. She is doing so well that we decided to go for the next step down last Saturday. All is well!

We’ve been looking forward to 3:1 from the meal planning angle because many of the whole foods that make up the backbone of Nora’s diet are well above 3:1, like avocados, cream cheese and macadamia nuts. There are a few others that are at or near 3:1 that now will support the ratio instead of dragging it down, like walnuts. I suppose “so much easier” is really a matter of perspective. After doing it for a few days we can see the difference between 3.5:1 and 3:1.

This month’s ratio change brings her up to 26 g of protein, her full requirement for a kid of her age and size. Her carbs will only come up 0.5 g. That means that this month we adjust to getting more cheese and meat in her diet, and the step downs after this will be marching up the carbs while decreasing the fat.

I like to have at-ratio popsicles made for easy afternoon snacks. I didn’t re-do any recipes for first step down, but I redid them last weekend to get to 3:1. It made me realize that we don’t have a lot of at-ratio recipes for her. Instead we build meals around various foods that she requests, adding the necessary fat to the meal in other ways. I recalculated her berry frozen yogurt pops and chocolate chip frozen yogurt pops and made a batch of each at 3:1 this weekend (note that the linked recipes are at 3.5:1, but decreasing the cream or increasing the berries, yogurt or protein powder appropriate changes the ratio). Very little has changed in those popsicles, Nora won’t even notice the difference, but now we have a stash of snacks to get us through a few weeks.

This is a short and sweet update, so here’s a fast keto-fact observation: Nora very rarely ever passes gas. If she does toot or burp, it’s a huge hilarious surprise! Maybe other keto-families have noticed this phenomenon too?