Two posts in one day! This is just a personal update on my keto-progress.
My husband and I have been attempting a ketogenic diet for about a month now.
Keyword: "attempting".
We attended a convention on Nov 7-9 that set us back a little, not for a lack of trying but for a lack of healthy fats available for consumption. Example: the breakfast buffet at the hotel offered us the glorious choices of low fat yogurts and fat free milks. I can only imagine the standard-American-confusion of anyone nearby who had heard my exclamation of disappointment at that. Also, we are "zen" foodies in that we will typically accept and at least take a bite or two of what is offered to us, even if it is cake, and there were a few parties at this convention that we attended. Summary: we fell off of the wagon a bit.
First, I'd like to make a huge note here - NEITHER of us has lost weight. Our bathroom scale today says that I am 176 lbs (my height = 5'7") and my man is 185 lbs (his height = 6'), which is roughly what we started at. I am not hugely disappointed in that fact, at least not yet, since we both are rather sedentary (lack of daily cardio and weight-bearing activities) and I don't expect much until we make a serious effort to change that. I'm interested to see what will happen if I start a daily WiiFit regimen or something...
Now, the good news but first I must explain my history a little. Ever since I hit puberty at the tender age of 12, I have felt old before my time. My metabolism slowed to a crawl, I had no energy, and I blew up to 160 lbs. This continued as I went through my teens. I saw the majority of my peers run around with youthful vigor and the ability to eat the SAD (standard American diet) with wild abandon without a care in the world about gaining weight. Meanwhile, I was overweight, generally uncomfortable due to near-constant abdominal bloating and irritable bowels, and felt tired most of the time even with getting adequate sleep. Oh, and I was constantly hungry. I would think about food all of the time, especially when under stress. I became a stress-eater and ballooned to 170 lbs. When I went away for school, something intriguing happened. I was suddenly having to walk everywhere to get to my classes and the food at the cafeteria was terrible so I ate only enough to be satisfied. Over 2 years, I dropped down to 145 lbs, which is to date the only time in my life I have truly seen my body's actual shape. I moved back home after school and gained it all back within a month, much to my extreme dismay.
When I began working at Whole Foods Market 6 years ago, I naturally began to eat a few of my meals there as well. Suddenly, my bloating and irritable bowels became intermittent rather than constant. I investigated through experimentation over time, and identified an intestinal allergy to the common food additive, soy lecithin, which reliably caused immediate gas buildup and diarrhea within 30 minutes. With the irritable bowels mostly explained, I began avoiding everything with soy lecithin in it. I gradually developed an interest in the paleo diet when I realized I may have gluten insensitivity as well. I finally did a 3-month gluten-free test earlier this year and, towards the end, I felt better than I have felt since my high-energy pre-pubescence. Over this past year and further experimentation, I have realized that my body's enemies include most commercial grains, legumes, and SUGAR. My energy problems begin to normalize when I cut carbs, as I did in my gluten-free trial. All of this information left me in a prime state to accept the "radical" notions of the ketogenic diet when a friend recommended the book"Keto Clarity" to me.
As much as paleo simply "makes sense" to me from a scientific, nutritional, and evolutionary perspective, keto does as well. We all have to find the diet that work best with our bodies, generally based on our genetics, of which mine are mostly from northern cultures who historically would have eaten in this way. Of course, I had to test it. My husband was ready to embrace it as well, since he had been 145 lbs before he recently quit his 40-year nicotine cigarette habit in January and, without the artificial metabolism-stimulation and appetite-suppression, consequently gained 40 lbs.
Today, I am proud to say I NO LONGER think about and crave food constantly! In fact, I hardly ever do think about food now aside from deciding what to prepare. This is a radical change for someone who has been tortured daily by constant carb cravings for almost 20 years. It is a strange and unfamiliar sort of bliss, I have to say. Additionally, this is the third day in a row that I have skipped "lunch". Not that terrible sort of meal-skipping that involves depriving oneself, but rather a "hey, I'm actually really not hungry at this appointed eating time" kind of thing. These things alone are amazing enough that, even if I don't lose much body fat, I am much happier on the whole and I have more sustained energy at 30 than I did in either my teens or my twenties. And I'm thinking... that may just lead to the weight loss I am seeking with a few lifestyle changes. We shall see.
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