bacon

First of all this post is dedicated to my darling friend Noni who started on the ketogenic diet less than 2 weeks ago and is already having amazing results. She is rocking this thing. But when I got her e-mail this morning I knew I had to grab her and say, “Girl, get a GRIP!” You see she wrote to me because I have been helping and supporting her with this change, sending videos and answering questions, and just generally waxing poetic about keto. BUT when she wrote to me this morning, “I love you more than bacon!” I knew she had entered what I call the “Swooning on Keto” phase. You see Noni and I have been cooking and eating together most weekends since 2016. Bacon is one of our most favorite foods in the world, we fit it in to every meal we can. And bacon is big on the ketogenic diet. (I’m sorry vegetarians, and vegans, many of whom are in my own family. We raised our family vegetarian and I was one for many years but I went back to eating meat and feel worlds better. It is my choice.) It is just so amazing all the wonderful food you can eat on keto. People focus on what they have to “give up” but when you see what you can eat it’s a no brainer! Anyway, back to Noni. I had to write her back right away. This is what I wrote…

“Honey, get a GRIP!!! You’re talking about bacon!

I should have warned you about the ketogenic diet! It makes you happier than many people can handle, it makes you all blissy to the moon and back, it just makes you walk on air and feel better than anyone ever felt. Oh yes, you lose weight, you get healthy, you don’t hurt anymore, ALL of that, but you walk around with a silly smile on your face that no one and nothing can wipe off and I’m telling you it can be dangerous.

Be careful, this is a whole new way of life like you never imagined. In the end losing weight is only a tiny part of it. I hope you can handle it. Just look at you, talking about BACON like that!”

I am hereby declaring the ketogenic diet The Happiness Diet! I know many people may be tired of me talking about keto, and I understand, I truly do. I used to get downright irate when people presented me with yet one more diet as if it would help me, finally, lose all this weight I had been carrying for so many years, and God Help Me when people starting going Whole 30 last summer and telling me about it my head nearly blew off! And I know that in life there is never one right way for everybody, but DAMN if this diet isn’t creating the most amazing miracles in my life! And as I said to Noni it’s not just about weight loss, health markers being transformed in ways you may have given up hope on, and the mental health changes that I myself have experienced and which helped me go off the psych meds I had been on for decades, no, it is so much more than that. I am telling you, right now, and forever, that when you eliminate sugar and almost all carbs from your diet your body goes through a transformation that will downright startle you. It is a kind of magical alchemy. You will begin Swooning On Keto.

I have — though yes, I’ve talked a fair amount about going keto and what it’s done for me — always felt a little sheepish about talking about it because I myself have been so resistant to other people promoting diets to me, I have hated it, but there’s a huge difference here. You see every single diet that I’ve gone on since I started struggling with my weight in gradeschool (And I’m 63 now folks!) has been solely about losing weight. I never thought about changes in my health, although as one grows older and health issues crop up that becomes something you think about, but I would say that for me I just wanted to be thin again. I just wanted not to carry this weight. It’s just about all I thought about. I obsessed about it. And I never really thought about mental/emotional changes, or spiritual, but I can guarantee you that these things have been a downright startling part of the transformation for me. You can hit what I call a Keto High when your system is unburdened by sugar and carbs and it changes you more than you ever imagined or dreamed or even hoped for. It is as if you step out of one life and into another one. At least this is so for me, and for so many others I have met.

I started getting braver about talking about these changes with the ketogenic when I witnessed my two best friends, who were not ready to go keto when I did but have watched me on my journey and finally decided to try it. They both had significant health challenges as well as weight issues. When they finally did go on the ketogenic diet their health challenges started changing so fast, within a week, and getting better with each week as they go along, that they have been startled and are on keto for real now. I always say “Each one, reach one,” and I can’t say that, live that, and not write about how this diet makes miraculous changes. Casey, whom I follow, talked about a 90 year old woman who went keto and is having incredible success. It is never too late!

So here we are. It is such a delight to see my friend Noni swooning on keto. It is so much fun to watch as these changes happen. My friend Jeff, who went on keto shortly after I did and whose life has been totally transformed by it, brought me two pounds of mussels yesterday to celebrate the miraculous way keto has changed both of our lives. He said I saved his life by sharing my journey with him and then being there for him once he decided to try it. He was very close to a heart attack or stroke, I was really afraid for him, his whole body was so swollen up he couldn’t wear his rings and could hardly get shoes on. He’s lost 20 or so pounds but the swelling was gone in the first week and his overall health has improved so much, he looks so good, people are absolutely amazed when they see him. Everyone who had seen him was worried about him, now they are incredulous at the changes. There is no way this diet can be described as anything but a miracle. I can see why Noni wrote me the e-mail that she did, but truly, her love is misplaced! It’s not me she’s crazy in love with, it’s what the ketogenic diet has done and is doing for her. It’s just a fact.

So here we go, my friends and I and so many other people today, we Keto On! and watch the endless miracles as they come. We are blazing new trails in our lives. This is so much bigger than anything I ever dreamed or imagined, this is keto.