This post is part of a series about my Ketogenic diet: Month 1, Month 2, Month 3, Month 4, Month 5, Month 6, Month 7, Month 9, Month 10, Month 11, Month 12
January 18, 2016, marked my 8-month anniversary of starting my ketogenic diet. In some ways it seems like it has not been long at all, but when I reflect on where I was one year ago, it has been a very long time, and in a good way.
One year ago I was bedridden, again, for the second time, after that car accident in early 2014. The symptoms I was experiencing a year ago were even more debilitating than the pain and swelling in my legs that occurred right after the accident (which caused me to be bedridden in early 2014). One year ago, early in 2015, is when my Post Traumatic Hypopituitarism symptoms hit. The symptom list was long, and I’ve gone into a lot of detail in my past posts, but here is a partial list:
- Extreme fatigue
- Constant lightheadedness and dizziness
- Intolerance to light and sound
- Hypoglycemia upon any exertion, which caused memory problems
- Cognitive problems (verbal and written word mix ups, memory issues)
- Severe insomnia
- Insatiable appetite coupled with gastroparesis and GERD
Calm and Peace
Instead of a long list of health problems, now what I mostly notice is a feeling of calm and peace. Plus gratitude. Lots of gratitude. I’m at peace with food. I’m at peace with my body. My mind is calm and happy. I know from past experience that being “on a diet” feels like war. War against food and your body. War against appetite, cravings, and war against the scale. Regret, anger, hatred, and disappointment, too. Very little sense of calm and peace. But this feels nothing like that. I’ve learned how to harness the biological power of my body so that we are in sync. I know when, what, and how to feed my body so that it has a steady supply of what it needs. And in return, I get a steady supply of energy, calm, peace and gratitude. Keto is the ultimate mind-body dietary approach.
My next 90 Day Keto Challenge online program starts soon
Are you ready to experience keto for yourself? Do you have any of the symptoms I had, like chronic pain, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, an ever expanding waistline or an insatiable appetite? Might you enjoy eating bacon, butter, and burgers (no buns) while feeling better than you have in a very long time, perhaps ever?
I’m offering an online 90 Day Keto Challenge program that includes everything you need to start and be successful on a nutritional ketogenic diet. I’ll lead you through exactly how I’ve been successful on a keto diet, sharing all my secrets, tips, and tricks to success.
Transformation
“I bet you don’t recognize yourself!” said one of my friends. Actually, I feel more like myself than I have in a long time! When I look in the mirror, I finally see an image that matches what I feel like on the inside. I look like me again!
Over the last couple of months, my weight has been pretty much the same, which is reassuring, because I really haven’t been tracking my food much at all. I’ve just been sticking with the meal formula I’ve come up with and the foods that I know work for keto. I eat when I’m hungry and I stop when I’m satisfied. This is quite reassuring because I’ve had many people come to me saying that this way of eating, that a keto diet, would make me gain more weight, that it would “ruin your metabolism” and so on, which after all my research, I highly doubted. And after experiencing this diet for myself, I’ve found validation in the exact opposite being true.
To track my progress each month, I take progress photos, take basic measurements, and measure my body fat percentage. So even though my weight and waist measurements are the same as last month, I was surprised to see that I’d dropped another 3% of body fat over the last month. That turned out to be a gain of almost 5 pounds lean mass AND a loss of 4 more pounds of fat over the last month! I was pretty amazed. I must have lost inches in other places on my arms, legs, and torso that I’m not measuring. So overall, I’m in the “normal” categories. Normal BMI, normal waist measurement, and normal body fat percentage. It feels good to be normal.
Below is a before photo compared to what I looked like this year for New Year’s Eve. I was able to wear 4 inch heels and dance the night away. None of that would have been possible a year ago. None of that would have been possible without keto.
Fall Speech Available!
November 7, 2015, I had the honor of speaking at the Toastmasters’ District 2 Fall Conference in Redmond, WA. This was a dream come true for many reasons and I’m excited to share it here with you. You can watch my entire speech online now, for a limited time.
Next Goals
- Focus on increasing nutrient density in my meals
- Add weight training exercises
- Add cardiovascular endurance training to get ready for hiking and backpacking this summer
- Write a post about why I’ve changed my mind about mindful eating and weight loss.
- Write a post about why a Ketogenic Diet is far superior to an HCG Diet or Ideal Protein Diet.
- Continue to develop and expand my online programs on ketogenic nutrition adding an overcoming emotional eating program.
Lingering Health Challenges
While I’ve experienced AMAZING health improvements and body transformation, I am still experiencing a few lingering health problems related to that darned car accident from March 2014. I am having mild lightheaded/dizzy that seems to be linked to central and hypo- apnea. Unlike obstructive apnea (snoring and blocked airways), central apnea is related to the brain not sending the signal to my lungs to breathe. This seems to occur for me in the early morning hours, during the time when I should be getting my deepest, most restful sleep. This has improved gradually after seeing a chiropractor for the last couple of months, but my doctors have stated that central apnea is particularly challenging to treat. Just like with my CRPS and PTHP, I’m not giving up and still searching for a way to give my body the support it needs to reverse this.
In addition to the central apnea, I do occasionally experience randomly dropping items from my left hand. Plus stiffness and very mild pain in the front of my legs upon increased exercise. BUT this is no where near as severe as a year ago! It’s something I notice, but nothing that impairs my function nor keeps me from doing what I want to do. Thank you keto!
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