Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto

Episode Description: 

Our newest Peer Support Coach, Raquel, shares her story of healing multiple medical issues on her keto journey. Despite having a doctorate in nursing, and the best medical care available, Raquel had a long list of troubling medical issues: type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, constant fatigue, plantar fasciitis, thrombocytosis, high blood pressure, bursitis, and seborrheic dermatitis. But that was BEFORE she found my keto support. Fast forward one year, and Raquel is a whole new person! Listen to all the improvements she’s experienced and get her top tips for success.

Raquel Branom lives with her husband Kelvin on a 1.5 acre piece of heaven in central Texas. They have 2 grown sons who live nearby with her parents. Raquel is an advanced practice registered nurse and is currently the ICU educator for a large healthcare system in Waco, Texas.

 

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Transcription: 

Carole Freeman: [00:00:00] Guess what Raquel we’re live. Everybody. Welcome. Welcome to keto chat live. I’m your host Carole Freeman. I have a master’s degree in nutrition and clinical health psychology. I’m a board certified. Nutrition specialist. I specialize in helping women 40 plus follow a keto diet for sustainable weight loss.

Carole Freeman: And today I have a very special guest Raquel. She is one of our newest peer support coaches. So part of the tradition of welcoming them on board is to do a little interview and get to know them. You interview so welcome

Raquel Branom: Raquel. Hi, thanks for asking me. I’m so excited. This Plaza pause

Carole Freeman: backwards.

Carole Freeman: So I was after. I have to point where I, the opposite of where it’s like, Raquel, do you remember like learning to curl your hair in the mirror or you’re on,

Raquel Branom: I still don’t have, I’m still not good at it.

Carole Freeman: I’m always like you poke yourself in the [00:01:00] eye and it was always backwards, but then eventually your brain figures it out.

Carole Freeman: So I’ve been doing this long enough now that I know that. Oh, what I think is a way from me, like my brain goes, that’s how it looks like I’m pointing at you.

Raquel Branom: Yeah. We’re looking at my opposite hand at where I am. So that’s

Carole Freeman: yeah. It’s tricky. All right. Let’s get to know you. So tell us a little bit more about who you are, what you’re up to, who tells your little bit about your personal life, whatever you feel like sharing, but not too

Raquel Branom: much, we’ll be circumspect in how I’m sharing.

Raquel Branom: Actually I was. I was born in the Philippines, but raised in California. We moved here when I was about moved to California with us. So that’s six years old. So I’m a California girl that is now transplanted to Texas.

Carole Freeman: This last

Raquel Branom: year. Yeah. And we moved that here. Last year we’ve been in our home now for a year, as of the oh three days from now, the 26, 20, [00:02:00] 20 ninth. It will be one year anniversary and our house here in Texas, we moved here after I retired. And my husband retired from our jobs and came out and came out just before the big.

Raquel Branom: And that the experience of having no electricity, it was an adventure. And then I have two grown sons. My eldest Camera. And he just got out of the Marine Corps is a cap as a captain and my youngest my, my Cody, he he works for a big box store over here.

Raquel Branom: He manages the customer service area, which he loves to do. My husband is retired law enforcement. And maybe. And then when we got here, I was teaching online, but then my contract was done and I thought, Ooh, what am I going to do? I did not want to be bored. So I went back to work and and I really enjoy it.

Raquel Branom: And it’s keeping me a lot busier and a lot more engaged and working with with nurses [00:03:00] again, which I really enjoy. So I am a clinical nurse specialist with a doctoral degree now. And think of this. Oh, I love I’m a crafter. Papercrafts. I make lots of cool things that my husband thinks I should sell on Etsy, but then that makes it a business, which means it’s no longer an enjoyment.

Raquel Branom: It’s a philosophical thing with me. So I haven’t decided yet. But yeah, that’s something I enjoy is hanging out in my craft room and just making things

Carole Freeman: and that’s great. May I ask how old you are?

Raquel Branom: Raquel I’m 63.

Carole Freeman: Okay. Yeah. Excellent. Just so that people are watching, some of them will be like, oh, she’s just like me.

Carole Freeman: So

Raquel Branom: I got all this white hair. I decided to embrace the silver and stopped coloring my hair last year, last December, 2020. I said, ah, that’s it. No more. That,

Carole Freeman: I’ve seen that as a trend ladies, couldn’t get their hair done. And so then they’re like, what, if we all just band [00:04:00] together and make this popular, then we can do it.

Carole Freeman: So it’s great.

Raquel Branom: People pay thousands of dollars to get this color. Yes.

Carole Freeman: Plus maintenance. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. You’re.

Carole Freeman: Well, Raquel, let’s talk a little bit about your, not a little bit, but a lot about your keto journey. You were one of my clients you’ve been with me for a while now. But let’s go back to before you started working with me what was life like for you then? What were your fears? What were the painful things like?

Carole Freeman: What was it that made you finally seek out keto as a solution?

Raquel Branom: Painful things. First things first being diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia thrombocytosis, which is too many red blood platelets in my blood cells, fatigue, the brain fog. Oh, sore feet.

Raquel Branom: I forgot to mention that. At what point is the pleasure of fasciitis that went [00:05:00] wrong with the excess weight that I was carrying? I was up I was up quite a few pounds. I was about 50 pounds over what I needed to be for my size. And I’m little I’m for just under four foot 11. And that, and then not being able to find clothes to wear that I liked it was, I didn’t want to go into the size sixteens, but I was wearing a size 16.

Raquel Branom: It was quite a bit. And I said, oh no that just won’t do, but I think also feeling as crummy as I did. Being there unhealthy and having to really monitor everything, including my diabetes, really. I was scared because my mother’s diabetic and see she’s in, she’s a type two, but insulin-dependent and has heart failure and has a pacemaker.

Raquel Branom: And I didn’t want to go down that same route and it frightened me. And then what really happened after that was that character. It was my age died. So she’s my why. Okay. A big why for me, because I [00:06:00] grew up watching her, I grew up with her group was, and to see that happened to her, to somebody I really admire greatly because of her grit and everything, but she lived a hard life.

Raquel Branom: I know she took, lot of other things that I did. I never. But just the fact that she’s a contemporary dying at the age that she did really was a big why for me. So that’s, that was that. And then I started reading about Ketoand watching videos and watching a few people. And then I saw Carole in a on what was it?

Raquel Branom: Was it a keto show or a conference that you were doing? And I was watching and I said, huh, Because I liked what you had to say and what you were telling us was so scientifically sound and I thought, I need to call her. So I looked down at the show notes and there’s your contact information? I went on your website and I made an appointment to talk to you about this program. In essence, that’s how I started my Keto Journey. That’s how a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto

Carole Freeman: And that was two here

Raquel Branom: two years ago. [00:07:00] Yeah. Yeah.

Carole Freeman: Excellent. So then what happened? I initially, when I work with people, it’s about a couple of month period. So we do a really intensive, comprehensive starter program. Do you remember back then, like what all improved, where you, what changes you saw?

Raquel Branom: Immediately it was, I was looking at, going through the rules. Which, those rules are so vitally important. It was like, oh boy. And it was so different than anything I’ve ever said and never said anything about calories or depriving myself of anything. It just meant that I would need to shift the way I thought about food and following the rules was really important. Rules are important so a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto. 

Raquel Branom: And what I noticed right away, which is some small things first. First thing’s first is my blood sugar stabilized. I wasn’t having the peaks and valleys. Second thing I noticed was that I dropped the weight pretty quickly at the very beginning. And then the third thing I noticed was that my vision cleared up, cause it was getting a little more fuzzy and I was having to [00:08:00] go up higher on my reading.

Raquel Branom: And it all has to do with, how much glucose you’ve got in your system. Your vision just goes. And so that was a big piece for me, because I love to read that as a, somebody that looks closely at crafting and I’m painting and things like that. My vision’s really important. So that was one of the things that said, okay, you’re on the right track towards your goal of a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto.

Raquel Branom: And then the second thing. Being able to buy. I think I said that I came down one bra size or something like that at one of our top, one of our coaching calls and stuff. I said, oh yeah, I can put down a whole bra size was cool.

Carole Freeman: Those little things and non-scale victories. That was the big,

Raquel Branom: yeah.

Raquel Branom: And that was a big thing too. And I think also putting my scale away in the other bathroom and only getting on there once a week really gave a boost. It didn’t tie me to the scale, which shifted the way I thought about the wins that I was getting. It was. Without that scale can constantly be there by worrying about the weight itself.That shift in mindset really helps a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto. 

Raquel Branom: I could focus in on a really good wins or the other ones. The non-scale, [00:09:00] the non number wins that I was getting, which was feeling better, sleeping better. I wasn’t having night sweats. My blood sugar was more consistent. My blood pressure was going down and it really, yeah. Not having the scale there and then getting on the scale once a week or maybe even every other week.

Raquel Branom: It was like a nice surprise. It’s oh, look at that. And, but it was mostly the other things that really helped. So cause that number will go up and down depending on how much fluid you got on and all kinds of other things.

Carole Freeman: Welcome to a live viewer. I can see that we’ve got somebody watching in the keto chat lifestyle group.The show is about a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto.

Carole Freeman: So please join us. Tell us you’re here, where you’re watching from. We love having you part of the show. I can tell there’s somebody here. I can’t see who it is though until you actually leave a comment. So that’s why I’m joint. Let us know you’re here. Welcome. We’re so glad you’re here to hear Raquel’s success story.

Carole Freeman: Oh, they just left. Oh, no. It’s oh. I called somebody and they hung up on you. Oh no. There’s two people now. So welcome to [00:10:00] it. Mary’s there. These people are on YouTube. So welcome to the show. Give us a comment, let us know where you’re joining from. We’re exploring Raquel’s keto journey. It’s about a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto. She’s been with us for a couple of years and had some remarkable changes and she’s just come on board as one of our new peer support coaches too.

Carole Freeman: So I wanted to introduce her to everyone officially. So w so you’ve been with us a couple of years. You’ve had tremendous success in the sustainability of this lifestyle. What was it that really made you stay on with us? Sometimes people just do a diet for a couple of months and then they just are like, damn done with this.

Carole Freeman: So like what are your, I guess I should ask it this way? What are your secrets to being able to stick with it for this long?

Raquel Branom: I think it’s paying attention to what my body is doing and. Seeing the difference and there’s subtle. But I think it’s also putting myself first on those and I have the advantage of having grown children and I have to worry about them.

Raquel Branom: My husband’s pretty independent. My parents are independent and side or [00:11:00] have, but I, so I can focus on my own development, my own growth and everything. But I think the biggest thing for me was all the physical changes that I was having. It was. That’s what really did it. And then also keeping my why always in the forefront.

Raquel Branom: That’s what really helps. And I have to admit that yes, I’m human. There were times when I would drift away and then I would catch myself and I go not good. And then and then get back on it again. So I’ve done a few things, like being on the crew and then also doing the the get on stuck program.

Raquel Branom: Just to get back on to remind me of why I’m doing this and remind my body of why I’m doing this because our bodies, they adapt to very strange things that occur to us, and what we do to it, it will start to habituate to certain things that. Oh, no, we really want to go back to the other thing.

Raquel Branom: That’s even better for our bodies, but I think the other thing that really convinced me that above and beyond my own diabetes, being under control and re and slowly changing [00:12:00] and reversing and lowering my A1C. Was the platelets that the one that probably surprises and freaks me out a little bit, because how amazing it was because I was really high.

Raquel Branom: I was way above normal for my, for the number of platelets. And those are the little cells that cause blood clotting, which it’s a very it can be a scary thing to think that, oh, blood clots strokes, those kinds of. But I think probably I was about a year into my keto journey that I went in and I had my quarterly appointment with my hematologist.

Raquel Branom: I actually had a hematologist because of this condition. I was not on any medication. He was watching it. We couldn’t find anything wrong where it was coming from. There was no genetic, nothing. I went through all kinds of tests. It was crazy. And he had gotten my blood tests before, before my appointment.

Raquel Branom: And he came in the [00:13:00] room with this really puzzle block at his space. And he goes, what are you doing? I said, What do you mean? What am I doing?

Carole Freeman: Is there a moment where you’re a little nervous? Because

Raquel Branom: the way his face looked at that God I’m in trouble. Something’s wrong with me? I’ll know, my blood counts are bad or something, but he said, you’re normal. I realized that a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto. 

Raquel Branom: I said, what? You said your platelets are normal. What are you doing? And I told him, I said he goes, what did you do differently? What have you done differently? What? And I said and I racked my brain a little bit and I said I’ve been eating the keto lifestyle, the keto diet. And he goes, what?

Raquel Branom: What’s that? So I got to do it to Toria Lakita, and he just went. So he’s going to do more research on that one. See if that was something that he would want to see about it, because really when you think about. And then it abnormalities and blood. It all [00:14:00] goes back to inflammation.

Carole Freeman: No.

Raquel Branom: Maybe my bone marrow was making too much of this stuff because it wasn’t.

Carole Freeman: Yeah. I just want to, pause her and reiterate this for our viewers, that listeners that, I remember that day when you came on the coaching call and got to report that your blood was normal. So this was, she went from, they didn’t know what was going on, but basically very high platelets, which put her out of high.

Carole Freeman: Having a heart attack or stroke, basically. So they were watching it. They didn’t know what else to do. And just following a keto, low carb lifestyle, it went to normal. And I just want to pause here because so many people, there are so many myths out there about keto being dangerous and being bad for your heart. But as you can see a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto. 

Carole Freeman: And we’ve got several cardiologists actually. Put their patients on low carb, lifestyle. So just, one more piece of evidence that when I interviewed Dr. Ted Naiman out of the Seattle area, when I asked him like what gets better? When you put people on a low carb or keto diet, he says everything you can measure gets better. That’s how a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto. 

Carole Freeman: So [00:15:00] I’m just trying, part of the work that I’m doing here is this dispelling. That are out there about this being not helpful or a dangerous or bad for your health type of thing. And it’s not. So for those of us clinicians that are doing this, people like me and Raquel that are helping people follow this, we just see all of these things.We see, in Raquel’s case, a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto. 

Carole Freeman: Get better. I forgot to read my medical disclaimer, so I’ll just do that now, just so that we don’t get in trouble here, but this show is meant for educational entertainment purposes only. It’s not medical advice nor intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any condition. If you have any questions or concerns related to your spec, special medical condition maybe try Syria or something.

Carole Freeman: I dunno, but no seriously consult your professional healthcare. Oh, your personal healthcare professional. I’m like, what did I type there? All right. We’re covered now. So

Raquel Branom: I

Carole Freeman: was chatting with the one of my clients earlier today who was just like but what about this? And isn’t this? And I’m like, no, that’s actually, those are good changes you’re seeing there.

Carole Freeman: So thank you for sharing that. And I still [00:16:00] remember that day that you got to report that. And everybody I work with gets their own unit. Experience of surprises, the things, again, better most ladies are working with weight. Loss is one of their top things, but then like you, we get all these other oh, and that got better too.

Carole Freeman: That’s

Raquel Branom: amazing. So many cool gifts that I’ve gotten from being on keto and it’s, to me, it’s It’s beyond anything else. It’s like this gift that I’ve given to myself and I’m putting myself as a priority for this, that I can be around for my family. And and then for me to continue the work that I do and it’s a wow. I can’t believe that a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto.

Raquel Branom: I it’s, yeah. It’s been a really great experience. Yeah. Yeah. There’s times when we were human. I’m human. I think sometimes people think I’m not human, but I am human that And I slip, we all do. It’s called drift, or our minds can only do so many things at a time. And but it’s, it is again what you do with [00:17:00] that.

Raquel Branom: The risk, the responsibility that I take for myself, when that does happen is to get back on and do this. And the other thing is do this with grace and without blame and without beating myself up. Over it because my goodness, this is a journey. It’s not a one and done thing. This to me, this is how things are going to be.

Raquel Branom: And this is how I’ve structured my life to be. I’ll just say the F saved a lot of money by bringing my own lunch to work because the cafe, the cafeteria here. Oh my stars. I love the hospital and everything, but, and dieticians are wonderful, but what they put in that cafeteria for the employees.

Carole Freeman: Oh, yes, I can. I can only imagine I’ve seen inside too many hospital cafeteria, so it

Raquel Branom: just is not. And Bible and yeah, we’ve saved for my not buying [00:18:00] lunches and things quite a bit by bringing my lunch and pre-planning everything. And, oh, Carol, I’ve been tracking in criminal.

Raquel Branom: That’s another win for me because I used to struggle with that. I would just go days when I go and then, but now what I do now is I flipped my switch a little bit here. I use it to preplan my day. So it’s already recorded on there for breakfast. I have an, a. I have some, maybe, a slice of cheese and I have my coffee and I plan all my entire day and that’s what I eat and that’s why I stick to, and it’s it.

Raquel Branom: Doesn’t allow me. To cut it to send what I think. Oh, maybe I can now it’s not here in chronometer it’s I put it there. I got to commit to that. That’s what I’m eating. So I’ve been able to track which, which has been, always been my, my, my challenge is tracking and

Carole Freeman: that’s great. Thanks for sharing [00:19:00] that tip.

Carole Freeman: Cause I know that works there. Several of our ladies that find that really helpful if they preplan their day. You already know that’s going to be perfect macros for you. And if you try to deviate from that, it’s gonna, you’re gonna make yourself more work for yourself. So it’s easier for that. So thanks for that.

Carole Freeman: Yep. Another thing you mentioned too, you mentioned a couple of internal phrases that I’ll just explain to our viewers and our openers too. So you you mentioned that, some of your, the things that have helped you get back on track when you straight a little bit or the crew, which is what our annual membership is. It certainly helped a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto.

Carole Freeman: Our initial short-term really comprehensive program. Then we have a longterm support membership that inevitably in Dubai, probably the people that are in that are the ones that are able to stick with it longer. You mentioned another program. We do occasionally to the get unstuck program, which is a high-protein protocol that helps people accelerate things, too.

Carole Freeman: So it sounds like one of your other. Tips or secrets for long-term sustainability is just engaging with other people that are doing, want to do. It’s how a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto.

Raquel Branom: [00:20:00] exactly and staying within the community and and sharing those back and those ideas back and forth with each other. But it is a kid it’s a principles of everything.

Raquel Branom: And just keeping the basic principles of keto in mind, always. And And making it work. I think what’s really nice about, about what we do at the fast track and everything else is there’s enough variety ability to vary some things within the 10 rules that for me, I wasn’t, I’m never bored with the food because there’s ways of making things really different and putting a little variety and things.

Raquel Branom: And then it really helps to have a supportive family. It helps a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto/ And my husband is super supportive. In fact, he. Last night. Cause we, he, he could, he’s the one that cooks cause he’s retired. So he gets to be, he gets to be the househusband. So when I get home I opened the door and I say, Lucy, I’m home. [00:21:00] That’s cute.

Raquel Branom: He’s funny. And then he comes, oh, there was one day he came out wearing an apron. It was a stairwell. I fell out laughing so hard. He was wearing one of my aprons. But last night he. Big chicken for dinner. And we finished it because I was hungry. I said, I need a new proteins. I said, he goes what do you want for dinner said, I want a big piece of chicken breasts because that’s the biggest, I said, I don’t need protein.

Raquel Branom: So he did. And then he said, oh honey, we don’t have anything for your lunch tomorrow. What do you want? I’m so I don’t do we have a hamburger? Patty frozen. So he cooked for my lunch for today. So I had a burger and cheese for. A hamburger, Patty with cheese and some grilled onions and mushrooms on top of it.

Raquel Branom: So that was my lunch today. I know.

Carole Freeman: Oh, I love it. And haven’t, you also influence some of your son’s too.

Raquel Branom: Yeah. So [00:22:00] my youngest son is doing his own keto also not as consistent, he’s 29. He’ll do what he wants to, but he knows that he knows the principal to be. And my older one now there’s my, this is he while he was overseas and doing a lot of working out and everything like that he he.

Raquel Branom: Basically carnivore on his food and that, and the kids like a brick wall. I can’t find any loose skin to pinch, so I try, but there’s no there’s, I can’t find one anywhere. And then my parents, my mother is also doing keto and so she’s been able to drop her A1C to 6.0. She’s dropped her insulin.

Raquel Branom: I think oh my gosh. It’s way down on her pub. It’s wait, her basal rate is really low. Oh, great. Oh my gosh. And so she’s 89. And go on strong. My dad is [00:23:00] 99 and doing well, the only thing in there last, and they both eat a low carb, high, fat, moderate protein. The only thing that’s a little is the cholesterol is a little high and their blood pressures are a little high.

Raquel Branom: The 89 and 99, I’m not going to fuss at him for that. So

Carole Freeman: doing pretty good. They are. They’re

Raquel Branom: doing really well. They’re both pretty straight.

Carole Freeman: Now Raquel, we’ve never talked about this and we’ve never mentioned your, upbringing the Philippines before. So I’m curious, were there any struggles as you started keto with foods that were your cultural favorites from your childhood and a lot of those are very hard, high carb foods.

Carole Freeman: What was that like? And how did you navigate that

Raquel Branom: rice? Was that, was it, eating those high carb foods, the starchy. It’s very common in the Philippines. That was at the very beginning. It was just almost in order for me to make, to be able to do that. I just had to [00:24:00] completely knock it out of my kitchen.

Raquel Branom: It went out the door and went elsewhere. And knowing that, and we’ve talked about things like there’s certain triggers that we avoid in order for us not to have those flashbacks or cravings and things to stuff. So anything that looked like that was out the door. Okay.

Carole Freeman: So are you saying.

Carole Freeman: Cauliflower rice didn’t work for you at that point.

Raquel Branom: Now, in fact, now it still doesn’t work well for me to have cauliflower rice because, but I can do mashed cauliflower. Okay. Because it doesn’t work the same new, it doesn’t work the same. I don’t have the same relationship with the.

Carole Freeman: This is. So I love this, that I asked you about this Raquel, because it really that’s a lot of what I lecture or teach people about is that your brain can’t really tell the difference.

Carole Freeman: Like it just knows that race gives you a big dopamine endorphin [00:25:00] rush in your brain. Spikes your blood sugar makes you feel happy and don’t be for a little while, but but the cauliflower rice like look similar enough that your brain just thinks, no, I want the real thing. And so thank you for sharing that experience too, because, and that’s one of the things I, like to teach people is like anything that caused you to crave something.

Carole Freeman: You’re going to have less challenges of fighting cravings if they have the craving of the first place. Okay. That’s interesting. I see how that helped a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto.

Raquel Branom: And the all, and it could be visual or textural because the taste is so different, but it’s that visual a terror. The textural thing that, that usually gets me just yeah, I think that’s my, that’s one of the biggest things for me.

Raquel Branom: And then other things

Carole Freeman: can I add for me to, I’m just having myself about texture too, because in the beginning I was trying to make these sometimes people will say these like chia seed pudding things. That kind of to me, it’s the same texture as like a tapioca pudding. And I just I would have the same thing.

Carole Freeman: I can’t eat those things because it just makes me feel like I want to shove it in my [00:26:00] mouth. Same thing. It’s a texture thing. My brain’s no, I think this is real pudding. So it’s I don’t like, I don’t like that feeling of feeling insatiable in a food.

Raquel Branom: I know it’s really a very weird thing.

Raquel Branom: It’s about what our brains remember and what relates it to, because there’s always that either that emotional or situational thing that we relate things to, and then they’re tied to them. Food is tied to events in our lives that way. And. And so that comes with the cravings and things like that.

Raquel Branom: Now, certain triggers and things. And and I just blessed the day that I discovered salt and having salt in my water that I can sip on all day really helps with, I’m sorry, I’m moving the camera. My, when I’m on my cell phone. So yeah, having this big, old thing with salt in it, it’s been really.

Raquel Branom: A big lifesaver for me regarding because it really cuts the craving [00:27:00] for sweets. I never would have thought it that way, but that’s really a very interesting phenomenon.

Carole Freeman: So one more question. Fantasy world, where you never found our supports. You never discovered Keno. Where would you be right now?

Carole Freeman: This isn’t fun.

Raquel Branom: I probably would be on insulin with a higher blood pressure medication than I, I have not changed my blood pressure medication and dose for the last, since I was 45 probably have a lot more aches and pains than I do have I had. During my, during the, a period where I did a little bit of a drift away, I started having bursitis in my right hip.

Raquel Branom: Since probably over the last six, four months since really getting back. And then now since this is like my second week of the fast track reboot, I haven’t had fat. It’s gone, no aches on my hip. The other thing too, that I so I probably would not be [00:28:00] able to walk as well as I do. I’d be having, I’d have to wear all kinds of orthotics for my plantar fasciitis.

Raquel Branom: And if anybody’s ever had that pain, it radiates all the way up through your body and they probably would be in a lot more pain. Oh, I would probably have seborrheic dermatitis or psoriasis and my skin cleared up. Okay. Because, and I find that found out that I’m allergic to soy, which I don’t have on the keto.

Raquel Branom: And so now I don’t have it. There’s so many cool

Carole Freeman: things that happened.

Raquel Branom: Amazing.

Carole Freeman: Yeah. What are your what are your colleagues? I know you’re re retired from where you were working before, but what did they think about this crazy diet that you followed and all the changes?

Raquel Branom: This is Texas. I work with nursing ed, nurse educators down here and in Texas it’s I’m in a [00:29:00] totally different environment.

Raquel Branom: So one of my cousins. Oh, my gosh. Do you mean to tell me you’re going into ketoacidosis? And I said, oh my goodness. When we educate you, it’s not that. And then of course they all go out to lunch and they all get cans, everything that’s so high carb and. Looking at the food and my stomach is making, crappies and stuff and I’m go, okay.

Raquel Branom: I just need something with protein and me. So I usually will get something with a high protein and then salad based or vegetable or something like that. And somebody else will eat the chips. Cause I.

Carole Freeman: Do you have some good barbecue locations around you?

Raquel Branom: Tens? Really a lot of good barbecue places and many of the places we’ll barbecue, the stuff without the sauce for you.

Raquel Branom: So there’s two ways that you can get your, and right here, it’s brisket is king. Yeah. Yeah. I love brisket. And I’ll eat a lot of that because that’s good protein right [00:30:00] there. And we have my husband and I have three favorite places we like to go to. And then also there’s a a pokey place here too.

Raquel Branom: So I get the pokey bowl without the rice greens on and then good salmon and all the proteins that go on. Oh, yeah. Yeah, really delicious. And they, and this place has non soy sauces to Portland. They have aminos. Oh, nice. I know that was a surprise. So that was nice.

Carole Freeman: All right. Anything else that you want to leave everyone with?

Carole Freeman: Any tips you have for success, anyone considering keto or anyone struggling with keto?

Raquel Branom: Like with any kind of change, if you’re, if you haven’t done this before, you’re new to this, it takes attention. And I think and we, and especially women are not used to putting the attention on our stuff.

Raquel Branom: And putting ourselves as a [00:31:00] priority, but I always used to think of, if I don’t take care of myself, who’s going to take care of my family if something happens to me. And that was a big thing for me. And I think my best advice is to just disappear. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.

Raquel Branom: And as why I’ve stuck with it, as long as I have, even though through all the peaks and valleys of things, but again it’s knowing what’s happening in my body. I’m happy where I am. Yeah. Could I, drop a few more pounds? Yes. It’s that pesky 10 pounds. I can’t seem to get rid of. But it’ll come at some point.

Raquel Branom: My body will just decide it doesn’t need it anymore. But all the other things that I have going is the fact that my A1C puts me at a pre-diabetic state. My insulin level is normal at 12, which is nice and everything else is normal. So to me, that, that means a lot. And that will keep me. Doing [00:32:00] this, because I just think that I want to live to a hundred.That’s how a Filipino Nurse Gets Healthy with Keto.

Raquel Branom: That would be cool. My dad, I think, is going to live to a hundred and beyond, so I figure, I

Carole Freeman: should know. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here and all your soul, all your support and welcome aboard as one of our brand new peer support coach. So that role for our clients is that Raquel’s one of the ladies that get to mentor people as they come in and start keto.

Carole Freeman: So if you’re somebody who would like to have Raquel as a mentor, as you started. keto check out my website, KetoCarole.com. Carole has an E on the end. It’s the very fancy French spelling. You can read all about my journey and check out more about Raquel and see if it might be a fit if you’d like that support on your own journey as well.

Carole Freeman: And yeah. Thank you everyone for watching. We’re going to wrap this up and we’ll see you on the next show. We’ve got another episode coming on. This was a bonus episode, an unplanned or unscheduled, but we’ve got one tomorrow. January 27th, I’m going to be, [00:33:00] what am I talking about? I’ve got on my list here.

Carole Freeman: Oh, I’m going to be talking about how to lose weight, how to lose weight on keto without counting calories. So calories. I’m talking about that. Our next episodes. So come back and we’ll see you again next time. Thanks Raquel for being here. Thanks for everyone for watching and listening. We’ll see you next time.

Carole Freeman: Bye.

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