KETO BLOG SERIES
ORIGINALLY POSTED MAY 18, 2020
A multi-series blog on our keto diets
- Part 1 – Keto Diet – Where to start (acceptance)
- Part 2 – Keto Diet 411 (the science)
- Part 3 – Keto Diet – Intermittent fasting (the musts)
- Part 4 – Keto Diet – the good the bad and the ugly (before and after pics)
My keto diet – where to start. It makes sense to start with background about my own personal weight and work-out history. I’ve always been a very active person. I exercise regularly, maintain a healthy lifestyle but never (ever) have been able to lose weight (I’ve maintained weight but never really lost weight). Trust me, I’ve tried every pill, gimmick, diet out there. Not until I changed the way I EAT, did I start seeing results by following a keto diet. Working out was not what changed my body but eating differently was.
Workout History
I started running in 2005 as a stress reliever for a divorce. Running to relieve stress turned into running to train for and compete in several marathons. Once running became boring, I started cross training. Thus, the triathlon phase of my life began. I hit my triathlon goal in 2016 after I trained for and finished an Ironman triathlon.
Through all the training; running, biking, swimming and lifting workouts I never lost weight. I was in varying states of being “in shape”. My body shape changed some, I ate what I wanted, but my weight never changed. I was in a perpetual state of maintaining my weight and that was fine at the time.
Workout Wall
In 2016, after the Ironman, I hit a major workout wall. I didn’t want to look at or think about going to the gym, working out or exercising in ANY capacity. I was completely and entirely burned out. My new routine became working all day (in an office sitting at a desk), coming home at night, cooking dinner before couch surfing Netflix into the night. I was a lazy slug and I LOVED it!
A Slug Life
Fast forward living the “lazy slug lifestyle” 2.5 years later to 2019. Eating what I wanted with a sedentary lifestyle caught up to me, as it would most people. In June of 2019, I was nearing a number on the scale I hadn’t come close to seeing since my college days when I was victim to the Freshman 15 (in reality it was probs closer to freshman 50! Fer realz. Cheap beer and 2AM taco bell runs in college is a waistline killer). I digress…lets get back on point.
The day I got home from vacation I decided to make a change. However, I was still not motivated to exercise. The workout wall is real! Therefore, I knew I had to drastically change my diet. Something I have never done before. On July 1, 2019 I started to follow a KETO diet and intermittent fast. This is the first time in my life that I have lost weight from dieting.
What this ISN’T!
This is not a “how to”, “what to”, “need to” blog. It’s a “what I did” blog. I’m not a dietitian, health professional or nutritionist. I just know what worked for me and am sharing how I lost 20 pounds without going to the gym.
Keto diet - where to start
Where I started: Acceptance
With any diet or lifestyle change you need to start somewhere. Here is where I started in committing and accepting a change in my life and my relationship with food.
- I accepted that I don’t get it both ways. To lose weight I had to change my diet, exercise again or preferably a combo of both. For me, I was in an exercise rut so changing my diet is what I accepted to do differently and commit to it fully.
- I joined a Facebook group – I joined the group “KETO DIET for WEIGHT LOSS”. I found the content helpful with pics, motivational stories and recipe ideas. I look at it at least twice a week. Have never posted but find the info on there mostly relevant and helpful. Mainly, a community of people on the same diet with similar struggles, concerns and achievements I was experiencing.
- I didn’t cheat – First 3 months I was dedicated and did not cheat AT ALL. By six months into the diet (lifestyle) I formed a habit of “not cheating” and have no real urge to do so.
- I tracked everything I ate – For the first three months I used the free version of the Lose it! app and I documented everything I ate. I also entered in food BEFORE I ate it to see the carb amounts. App helped me stay in my macros (grams of protein, carbs and fat I allowed myself to eat per day). Will detail tracking in later post.
- I recognized food may get boring – I am not a kitchen person or creative cook. There are a lot of Keto recipes that are delicious. I however, am not patient or a good cook to execute them. Therefore, I accepted eating the same thing repeatedly the same way without much variety for the first 3 months. Getting used to not having variation was the hardest part of this diet. If you are a good cook and like to be in the kitchen, you should have no problems here.
- I accepted stalls and slow loss – At first this was very frustrating. I saw on the FB group people losing 10-25 pounds the first month! I quickly put that into perspective of where my starting point was to where many of those people’s starting point was. I weigh myself every Monday. The first 3 months on average I lost .5 – 1 pound a week. I also went through 2 stalls (where I lost 0 pounds for 2 or more weeks). I accepted it as progress and did not allow the lack of loss to derail my motivation to stick with it.
Part 2 – Keto Diet 411
My next keto blog, part 2 is Keto Diet 411. It will look at the science behind keto and how it works. Understanding the basics about keto makes it easier to stay accountable with the food you are eating and why.