Starting Keto October 2017 at 333 pounds
July 2018 down 46 pounds, and, sigh, these are just
dreadful pictures, sorry, and I wasn’t able to pinch
the dress in on both sides on the bottom so you could
see that I NOW have a WAIST, but I do!
On July 11, just about a week from now, I will have been on the ketogenic diet for 9 months, and I can truthfully say that I have not had ONE bite of anything not on the ketogenic diet since I started. I have been disappointed that I have not been losing weight faster but I guess I am losing weight at the rate my body wants to lose it, but there have been a number of “Non-Scale Victories (NSV)” including no longer being in the diabetic range — after being pre-diabetic for 3 years but blood sugar is in the normal range; my blood pressure is now normal — I would soon have been on blood pressure meds had I not gone keto; an amazing, unexpected thing was that when I had my teeth cleaned a few months ago the hygienist said, “Wow, your gums aren’t bleeding, your mouth looks great!”; and probably the biggest victory for me of all has been that after decades on psych meds I am off all of them, nothing short of a miracle. The research on keto and the brain and psychiatric issues is amazing and, though I had a lot of weight to lose, what got me on this diet. And oh there is so much more.
I am now keto for life which I knew just weeks into it. The health changes and the new lease on life this diet (and I hate that word because it is not a diet in the sense of doing something to lose weight, it is a whole lifestyle change) gives you are something so phenomenal there really is no going back. Go back to what? Being sick and overweight and on multiple medications? I am on no medications of any kind and I feel better than I ever imagined I could feel. And I don’t know how long it will take to lose all the weight I want to lose but it is coming off steadily and I have come to accept it. I saw something funny on Facebook this week that I shared with my keto group, it made me laugh and it is spot on, “Your body is not Amazon Prime. It is not going to show up in 2 days.” Amen.
And the thing about the ketogenic diet is that it is not, despite what some people think, a “weight loss diet,” though you will surely lose weight if you follow it correctly, the ketogenic diet is a diet wherein your body changes from burning glucose for fuel to burning fat for fuel. If you overeat even perfectly ketogenic food you are not going to lose weight, you have to watch how much food/calories you consume. But more than the weight loss issue is the tremendous amount of healing, in more ways than you can count, that your body goes through. From brain fog and inflammation that go away very quickly in the first weeks to all manner of serious illnesses and ailments the ketogenic diet is nothing short of a miracle.
And I really urge, in fact, I’ll say it, beg you to watch the documentary, free on Netflix, The Magic Pill. It is not just a “Here’s what you eat and here’s what you don’t eat” kind of film but shows everything from aboriginal people whose lives and health were terribly impacted when white flour, sugar, coca cola and such were introduced. All of a sudden they had diseases they had never ever had, and when health researchers came in to help them turn their diet back to their natural way of eating the diseases started to go away, to children with autism whose lives were changed dramatically on this diet, to people with serious asthma, diabetes almost off the charts, even a woman with cancer whose cancerous tumors shrank and disappeared with no chemo, no radiation, only the ketogenic diet. Cancer feeds on sugar. I can’t properly discuss the science behind it all but if you see this documentary you will learn things that are mindblowing.
What I want to say is this. In my lifetime I have eaten primarily the standard American diet and it made me fat and unhealthy and contributed to a lifetime of serious mental health issues in a devastating way. I have also been a vegetarian, a vegan, even a raw foodist. I have been a member of Weight Watchers so many times I have lost count. I did Nutrisystems and just about every diet you can think of — I COULDN’T STICK WITH ANY OF THEM! And even when I lost weight I did not get healthy. That is a huge huge HUGE issue. Most weight loss programs are centered on losing weight, NOT getting healthy. Have you ever lived on the cardboard food Nutrisystems sends out for example? I actually lost a good bit of weight on Nutrisystems at one point but I didn’t get healthier or reduce my psych meds or any of the other things I have achieved now. And these diets are not sustainable, not for me. The fact that I have stayed on the ketogenic diet for 9 months and never had one bite of non-ketogenic food is nothing short of a miracle. That I have stayed on it and committed to it for life is something I have never been able to do with any diet in my 64 years. I will repeat, this is nothing short of a miracle.
Okay, this is not a blog about the ketogenic diet and there have been and will be very few of these type of posts, and there is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, that I have hated more in my life than someone who got up on their soapbox and proselytized about the diet they follow, it made me crazy, especially when I was nearly 400 pounds at one point and in terrible shape. I didn’t want to hear it. Well I’m going to tell you what, I could not live with myself if I didn’t share, from time to time, the ketogenic diet with you dear reader, because it is not just helping me lose weight it is saving my life, it is helping me be saner than I have in decades, it is giving me a life I never thought I’d have. And the ketogenic diet is not focused on a destination, X number of pounds lost, it is a journey for the rest of my life to be as healthy as possible.
I will check back in with more pictures in another 3 months or so. Until then, please do watch The Magic Pill, just to see an interesting documentary if nothing else. And if you, like me, are on the ketogenic diet I will say what we all say, Keto On! There is no other life but this for me.
The Experiment ~A 365 Day Search For Truth, Beauty &
Happiness: Day 1 ~ Introduction To The Project
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda
i am so happy for and with you maitri. keep on doing what works, and celebrate your amazing ability to STICK WITH IT! the only thing i honestly don’t understand (and i haven’t studied KETO with any seriousness, nor yet watched the documentary) is how there can be so much bacon in the diet, when i have been taught how very bad bacon is for us. maybe the bacon is somehow balanced by other things, i honestly don’t get it. so educate me, ok? (ps. i don’t eat any meat, so even if i went on keto i wouldn’t eat bacon, i’m just trying to understand.)
xo
ka
Thank you darling Ka, my dear, dear heart friend…
And yes, I understand, bacon can be scary, it is also very helpful for me on keto. I think the thing that I am learning is that there are tradeoffs and one day I won’t be eating bacon anymore. But for now bacon is better than sugar and carbs and what they do to your body. Tradeoffs, choices. And my daughter Rachel is vegetarian. And other family members are vegan. And there is a website that has a keto program for those who are vegetarian or vegan, so there’s that. Know this, when you eat sugar or carbs your body has to release insulin to deal with them. Bread, grains, and other kinds of carbs turn into sugar in your body which causes insulin to need to be released to deal with them. I was blown away, like BBBBBAAAAAMMMMMMMM when Dr. Westman, who has dealt with this in his clinic at Duke University for a LONG time said, “Your body doesn’t know, when you eat a piece of bread, that it is not eating a Snickers bar.” Bread turns into sugar in your body as do other grains and rice and beans and many other things. And sugar is killing. People have known that for a long time. And the thing is Big Pharma loves Diabetes and all the rest because these are big industries and they have a vested interest in keeping you sick. Oh God, it’s huge, I’m sorry. I haven’t been an activist in years but I could be because of this.
Inotherwords bacon is the least of your worries. Don’t eat it. But do know that sugar kills, sugar makes people sick, and there are a lot of big conglomerates who have a vested interest in keeping people on sugar, on meds, etc. It’s scary.
And here are links for vegetarians. I gave this to Rachel. You don’t have to eat meat to be keto…
https://www.ruled.me/comprehensive-guide-vegetarian-ketogenic-diet/
I love you sweet one, that’s why I’m bold enough to share these things…
M. xoxox
nice job girl! 5 years ago I was 375 pounds I got the medical help I needed to get my thyroid to working. But I also went back to organic and making as many things I put into my body. I had a great garden until we moved here so now I buy from local farmers. eggs are organic and fertilized. we eat organic chicken … the beef and fish is frozen and not from the usa so I don’t buy it. I buy the wild planet tuna naturally pack any way you get the idea. I even made my own lard from the pork from the local farmer. but he sold and went to florida.
slowly the weight started to come off I am down to 220 now and my muscles are getting stronger..
any way I have been eating right, walking and stretching more… little things like shopping I came push the cart and walk up and down the isles on my own now and even pay for the groceries! what is the best thing I did was give up smoking over 3 years ago.
I pay attention to my mind , body and soul… I write and draw for my mind, I stretch for my body and my soul I meditate and I read.
I will look into your keto more anyway in a few years charlie and I will sell this house and find a nice lot of lands and start to raise our own food and i hope to grow and begin to teach others how to can, how to milk a cow and pour off the milk and separate the cream and how to make butter and cheeses and yogurt.
how to collect eggs and raise chicken for our own meat. same with beef and pork.
anyway i have small plans and hope to teach a few along the way that want to help us.
on the farm even as a child I watched and learned. It never felt like work picking whatever was ripe and putting it into my decorated girly pink basket. nor did it feel like work when Aunt Bea would put the cream in the jat tighten down the lid and she would shake it first and then had it to the oldest of my cousins and they would start singing and shaking it and the on the the next kid i was the youngest on the farm so i went last .. by the time it got to me we had butter and I got to hand it to aunt bea who then used these wooden paddles and form the butter to fit into the round butter dish and set it on the table…
anyway I feel it is so important to pass on our tidbits of knowledge to those that want to learn… any who I have gone on long enough.. i just think it is wonderful that you and me and other women like us are taking back our health and creativity and finding our way to happiness..
Today I am very happy and tomorrow I will be happy cause it is the 4th! and charlie and i will be home doing whatever we feel like doing ….
eating whatever is in the cupboards maybe my meat sauce and spaghetti and some homemade bread…
my dream is to get my weight down to 120 but will be very happy at 160 .. i got a few more years yet to reach that.. I think I can add some of your keto into our diet …
I am so happy you are losing weight but I am mostly amazed at the strength you find everyday to reach a gold small and large and it make me feel like I am not alone Maitri.. hugs and giggles and a soft dance around
Oh Julia honey what a delight to read all of this! And down to 220! That is amazing. I’m so proud of you and so happy for you. This morning I weighed 286.8, that’s a new low for me. And I have little goals set all along the way. The first big goal for me was to break 300 pounds and I thought it would never happen! And my next goal is 283 because that will be 50 pounds off and I’m almost there! Then the next goal, which will take awhile, is 250. My ultimate goal weight — and like you I don’t know that I can reach it — is 145. I would so love to get there but I tell you for many years I was around 200 and I looked good at 200! So I will just keep doing what I’m doing and my body will tell me where it wants to be. The wisdom of the body is a powerful thing.
And all your plans for your farm are just incredible! I didn’t grow up on a farm and don’t have that kind of knowledge and I am alone, I don’t have a partner in life as you do, and those kind of plans and dreams require a partner. I think it’s wonderful that you have Charlie. I really look forward to watching you achieve this dream.
Have a wonderful 4th of July! Enjoy your lovely day together! 🙂
Thank you for all the great information. Have a happy 4th!
Thank you so much dear Marge, Happy 4th of July to you too honey! 🙂
Maitri that’s just amazing, it really is. Keto is completely transforming your health, I love your enthusiasm for the keto way of life. And yes, I can see you have a waist in your third picture, you’ve lost such a lot of weight! Well done, and thank you so much for sharing! Happy 4th July. xxx
Thank you so much dear Jenny. Keto truly is transforming my life, I am delighted and amazed. I never thought I could feel this good! And it just gets better all the time.
And I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July too. Enjoy the day! 🙂
Hello Maitri,
Your weightloss victory is wonderful. Kudos to you for your efforts! I am so happy for you. This is a major milestone. I must say I have been having some interest in the ketogenic diet as I follow a nutritionist called Trudy Scott who attends nutritional psychiatry conferences. I also have bipolar and was put off originally because it included lots of coffee on the diet. I don’t want it stimulating my adrenals. I discovered if I went off coffee my flight and flight response was reregulated to normal. If I drank coffee I felt agitated and fearful. I did not want a fear response in my body after enjoying that space being free of fear after ditching the coffee. I have heard peoples symptoms are significantly lessened with ketogenic compared to the control groups. It does look optimistic. I wish you well Maitri, you are losing those kilos and this diet seems to be working for your physiological makeup and many people are experiencing the same thing out there! Make sure you have a sensible back-up plan with your bipolar and can turn to a shrink if it does not work out. Just play it safe, I’m not trying to dissuade you just making sure you have a safety plan xxoo I am so pleased for you. This diet is obviously working and it fits in with your routine so it may be the thing for you, just have a contingency plan just in case, you don’t want to risk it even though you are getting these amazing results.
Leeanne,
First of all I found it most curious that you think you have to have “lots of coffee” on the ketogenic diet? That is not true at all! Many people who do keto do drink coffee but just because that is their preference. Many are not coffee drinkers at all! Coffee has NOTHING to do with keto, I assure you!
Next, while I am off all psych meds I went off of them with supervision and I am still under supervision. I am in therapy every week and now I see the PA who managed my meds every 3 months with the knowledge that I can call him any time and come in sooner if I need to. I have NEVER been unsupervised in this. I would not go off medication willy nilly — that would be terribly dangerous — nor would I not take care of myself. I assure you I am very responsible. Also, I don’t know if you know this though I have certainly written about it often here, my daughter is a psychologist and keeps close tabs on me. We talk and text daily and she is here at least once a week. We don’t live far from one another. I am well looked after on many fronts I assure you. There is no danger here.
Now I will caution you to make sure you take the time to really study and look into the ketogenic diet because it seems you have gotten some very bad advice, again coffee has nothing to do with the ketogenic diet. I have been on this diet for 9 months, have read and studied about it extensively, and follow a woman who has been on it for years, I get videos from her every morning and she has well over 100 videos on youtube. Her name is Casey Durango, and she has worked very closely with Dr. Eric Westman from Duke University who is one of the big doctors in the field and has treated people using the ketogenic diet in his clinic for over a decade. Dr. Westman’s “White Coat video” is something I advise people to watch when starting keto and I will put Casey’s links here as well…
Dr. Westman on the ketogenic diet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNZsfluh0Uo
Casey Durango
https://caseydurango.com/
Casey’s YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrgWwBHZYlZ9oOs5EoI7CFA
Casey at Patreon where I watch her daily videos every morning
https://www.patreon.com/GoKetoWithCasey/overview