My name is Patti Krahenbuhl, I am 52 years old , have been married for 30 years and have 2 amazing boys. I live in Tomah, Wisconsin and am a Plant Manager at a Manufacturing facility. I absolutely love the Milwaukee Brewers and the Green Bay Packers (sports fanatic). In the summer I love to garden and spend as much time as possible just taking in the beauty of the season, and in winter we spend every weekend possible on our snowmobiles also enjoying the beauty of a different season. My family is my everything and honestly my family of 250 employees at work are too. Life is amazing and I want to live and enjoy each moment and after finding Keto I feel I can accomplish this with increased vigor and peace.

Transcript:

Hello there, thank you for watching. My name is Carole Freeman, Certified Nutritionist. Today, I am here to introduce you to Patti. I’m really excited to share her story of keto transformation. Welcome Patti.

Thank you. Yeah, like you said, my name is Patti Krahenbuhl. I’m 52 years old. I am married, I have two adult boys. I’m a Plant Manager at a manufacturing facility in Wisconsin. I love, love, love sports. It’s my favorite thing. I love football, and baseball, so I spend a lot of time going to games, watching games. I’m an avid outdoor person. I like to run, and we snowmobile a lot in the winter time. Very, very active people.

Excellent, excellent. Thank you so much for the introduction, and it seems … A manufacturing plant in Wisconsin, it’s gotta be a cheese making plant, right? No.

Not quite. We make, unbelievably we make electric motors.

Oh, okay. Okay.

I’m a motor person.

Nice, wow. Okay, well I’m so excited to share your story. Thank you for the bit of a background. Let’s just start with, before you found keto, what were your weight and health struggles that you went through in your life?

Before I found keto, I think I had similar struggles to a lot of people. I would vary by 20 pounds here and there. I recently lost my parents, who I was very close with. I lost them both within three years of each other.

Oh.

At the same time, my kids moved out, and of course they went to college, and now they’re on their own. Then, I think the biggest thing at that point was I had started running, and I had seen a lot of success there in bringing my weight down, keeping it under check. I had a black lab that ran with me everywhere. She passed away, and so it was like the final straw. I quit exercising, I quit paying close attention to myself. I needed something to get me going again, and help me change my whole lifestyle.

I did a lot of research online, and I found keto, and I found you. It changed my life at that point. I was, I wouldn’t say very depressed, but I was going through some depression. I had gotten on antidepressants just to help me through the time. I just know I needed to do something different, otherwise my life was going to stay in that same rut. This helped me do that.

Oh, wow. Had you tried … Remind me, had you tried keto before you found me?

I did. I tried it on my own for about a month and saw absolutely no success. I really thought I was doing it right, and according to what all my research said. But, I just wasn’t getting anywhere.

Okay.

I looked for somebody to help guide me in the right direction.

That’s so very common with a lot of the people that we work with, is they tried it on their own, and didn’t get anywhere, had no success, and they can’t figure it out. Despite, I know that you put a ton of effort into trying to figure it out on your own. Then, what was it like then coming into my program, and getting support from me? Share what it was like when you first saw the approach. Did, sometimes people are skeptical like, “Oh man, this seems like too much work …” Or, not too much work, sorry. Or, “Too many rules. Why do I gotta follow this? This seems ridiculous.” Or did you say, “Oh finally, some structure, that I know what to do.” What was your initial impression?

I think for me it was, I love structure in my life. Everything in my life is extremely organized. The structure helped immensely. It was, let’s start from the basics, go through everything you can and can’t eat. What you shouldn’t probably even enjoy right now, because it might put you into craving other things. Just starting from the basics. I never really thought the plan was, I don’t know confining. I mean for me, I grew up on a farm so when you say I can have butter, and cheese as much, almost as much as you want to. Eggs, bacon, it was like, “Wow. I mean, how can I not be successful at this type of diet?” When, this is what my parents fed me my whole life. For me, yep, definitely the structure. It was great. Just having that person I could depend on to ask the questions of, ’cause before that point I had no one, you know? It was awesome, awesome.

Yeah. One of the things I promise when people come in to working with me is that I’m going to show them how to get rid of cravings, right? Get that bulletproof willpower so that it’s easy to stay on track. Did you find that was the experience compared to when you were doing keto on your own?

Oh, definitely. My husband is definitely a potatoes and bread type of guy. Once I got in this program and I knew the defined rules, and what I could and couldn’t have, I didn’t even … I didn’t have that same temptation anymore, you know? I’d be like, “Nope, can’t have potatoes. Nope, can’t have bread. I’ll make it for you, but I’m not going to, I’ll just have what I can have,” which was more than sufficient. That just, it really helped define for me how to set up the rules in my life. And, it took those temptations away, definitely. I had no cravings after the first couple weeks. It was incredible.

Sweet, nice. I love it when all the things I promise come true.

They did, they did.

Yeah, so let’s talk about than, during the time that you were running through my program. What results did you see?

During your program I lost about 25 pounds. One thing that I had a hard time adapting to is, I always thought you had to exercise a ton to get in shape, and actually have a flat stomach. You taught me, and you reaffirmed the fact that you don’t have to go running. I mean, it’s not a bad thing, but it does make a difference. I had to lay off on a few of those things, and actually felt myself relax for the first time in a long time.

Oh, that’s great.

And, not have to take that hour or two of my day to set aside for exercise. And, I could still see the weight just falling off. The way I felt, and I believe I told you this at the time. I tend to be, I have high expectations at work. When things go wrong, I didn’t realize how much people saw it in myself that, “Oh, she’s not happy.” I actually got compliments that, “Wow, this machine has been down for two days and you’re not even upset.”

Oh.

I mean it just, the difference in how you feel here is, I can’t explain it. It’s just amazing. I mean, you just feel at peace.

Yeah.

I know you stress that a lot, but until you’ve felt that peace, I had no idea what you meant. Yeah, what a life changer.

Oh. Yeah, oh my gosh. I love that so much. Not only you’re getting this quality of life, but it’s rippling out to everybody, co-workers, and I imagine your family as well felt that too.

Yeah, I believe so. I mean, at home I didn’t talk … I try not to bring work home, but yeah, I think my husband and I still struggle with what he believes is a balanced meal, and what I believe is a balanced meal now. But, I mean we work it into our daily schedule, and he still can eat what he wants to eat, and he’s actually tried a few more vegetables, and he’s willing to do things that he never did in the past. I mean, that’s helped a lot at home also.

Yeah, wonderful. Well great, did you notice any other … The mental clarity, the calm and peace, 25 pounds weight loss. That’s fantastic. Any other things, energy, pains and aches going away, or?

I never really had much for aches and pains. I was good about trying to keep my muscles still going, and running really helped with that before this. One thing, I never have slept well at night. I’m able to sleep much better now. Even though my husband is a heavy, heavy snorer, I still can get up, go to another room, and I fall right back to sleep. Which, I never could before. It’d take me two or three hours, I’d be exhausted. I sleep much better. That definitely falls into my next day, and it makes me happy, those around me happy. I look better, I feel better.

Yeah, oh, that’s fantastic.

[crosstalk 00:09:57].

Yeah, wonderful. Anything else that you have noticed that improved that was a surprise?

Well, like I mentioned before, I was feeling a little bit depressed. I’ve gone off all that medication, and I feel great. I mean, that was a huge boost for me, to know that I could be happy again because I was definitely in a rut. Now I’m at peace with myself again, so that was nice.

Oh my gosh, that’s, yeah that’s fantastic as well. I love that. That’s another thing I talk about in the beginning is that, “Oh, you know, depression, anxiety, mood, just really improves on keto as well.”

Yeah. Yeah, I have to do a lot of talking in front of a lot of people at work. Sometimes, I’ve never been petrified of that, but there’s a lot of times where it’s like, “I just don’t want to do this today.” Now, you put a microphone in my hand, and when I gout on the shop floor, and I feel like singing a song rather than, you know? It’s a strange confidence that this peace has given me, you know?

Yeah.

There’s no intimidation like I used to have, just by, “Oh, what is everybody thinking of me, what are they …” You know, “Do I look bad today?” Now I’m like, it’s whatever. I feel great, so I think I project the fact that I feel great.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Oh my gosh, so great, so great. Oh, so you’re not running two hours a day anymore, you’ve got this calm and peace, you’re no longer worried and obsessed about your body and food. I’m curious now, how has that changed … Now that you have two more hours in your day and all this mental space, what are you doing with all that extra time in the day, and energy?

Well, I’ve always loved gardening. I have some very beautiful flower beds now, that I spend a lot of time in. I’m working on redoing some patios outside. Just a lot more outside work that I don’t feel like I have to go, “Oh, oh, I gotta get my hour run in so I gotta take off.” Honestly, I still do a lot of walking, I lift weights. But, I don’t feel that necessity like I used to. That had become an obsession at one point in time too, that I wouldn’t go places just because I had to work out. If I missed that hour, I really chastised myself over it. Where now it’s like, no, as long as I’m up and about, moving around, and happy with what I’m doing, I’m good. You know? I’ll sleep good, and my body will stay the same tomorrow.

I love that, it’s so great.

Less worries.

[crosstalk 00:12:54]. Freedom.

Yes, freedom. Definitely.

Oh, great. Well, Patti. Okay, so let’s talk then a little bit about you finished my program, you went off. I always use the analogy of you take the training wheels off, and we send you off to ride the bicycle all by yourself. How is that, going off on your own, without the support of the group and the community?

For a few months it was great. I maintained my weight, everything went very, very well. Then, dang it, baseball season hit and I started going to some Brewer games, and there’s always beer at Brewer games. I like to partake in beer and wine when I get an opportunity, and I guess I let the rules slip. I always thought, “Well, you know, what’s one extra beer today?” You know? “How will it change my life?” It did change my life. I know that I have to maintain the right structure, I have to limit myself in areas where I didn’t force myself to in the past, and that’s where the 25 pounds came in, that I had added on. The feelings of yuck in the morning, you know, when you wake up.

Yeah, without that support there, and reminding me that life is awesome when you stay on this plan. I guess I let it slip a little bit, and I found that I needed this reassurance, and support, and just talk about what I’m going through because I don’t have a group in my area that’s on keto, or even honestly has even heard of keto. This is something new, I’m trying to spread the word at work that this is a great thing, and try it. Yeah, having the support is very, very crucial to me.

Yeah. Well, I’m really excited that you’re coming back to help be one of our peer support coaches. So, not only get to inspire others, but then that gives you that continuing support and community. Being an example for other people is pretty motivating to continue on that journey. [crosstalk 00:15:20].

Yeah.

But, then we get to help you also remember, I talk about in the beginning when you start out, tapping into why this is so important. I know now that we’ll get to focus for you on that freedom that you experience.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

And, the peace, and the calm, and being able to get off your medications, and all that. The better sleep, and just how it ripples out in all the areas of your life. I’m really excited that you’re back with us, and get to support everyone as well as continue on your healing journey.

Yeah, I’m truly excited as well. I thank you for this opportunity.

Yeah.

Look forward to it.

Patti, was there anything else that you wanted to share about your experience, your journey, or keto right now?

I think another thing I’d like to share is definitely talk about it. When we have our group phone calls, admit what your problems are, and ask the questions that, even though you think it could be maybe embarrassing, or intimidating. Ask the questions, because if you’re experiencing something that is giving you some grief, you know somebody else probably is too. But, you’ve got to say it out loud. Look for the support, you know? That’s what we’re all here for, is to help each other. Don’t be embarrassed by the questions you have nagging you in the back of your head. Ask them.

Yeah.

Somebody has been there, definitely.

Yeah, I love that. That’s so great. You’re right, ’cause some people are afraid to ask or speak up for themselves. Just, we’re all here, we’ve been through what you’ve been through, and we’re here, a big community, holding hands and ready to support everyone.

Yep.

Yeah. Great, great tip. All right. Well Patti, thank you so much for sharing your story, your journey. Thank you for being here to support everyone. Really excited about having you with us.

Well thank you, I appreciate the time. It was great talking to you.

Yeah. Well thanks everyone for watching. We’ll see you soon.