I started keto in April 2018 and it’s really been like a revolution in my life. For around the last eleven years I’d always been at least overweight, and for perhaps half of that, I’d been obese too. I had played around with LCHF (completely oblivious to the science behind it, it was just a personal experiment) and it worked well but I fell back into bad patterns. This time around it feels far more like a lifelong WOE and simply how I live now.
On to some great non-scale victories I’ve picked up so far five months in - I hope others who are still considering whether to start keto or not can read through these and see that it’s more than just straightforward weight loss.
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Goodbye, inflammation in my knee! About four years ago I had an awkward fall in a park in my local area and my left knee took most of my body weight and slammed into the curb on the roadside. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, but years later, my orthopedic surgeon believes it was probably the start of all my troubles with my knee. Within the space of a few years I managed to dislocate my knee three times, all doing mundane things (crawling under a desk to readjust one of the legs; putting on some jeans after a shower - yeah, I know; climbing over an indoor baby fence to get to my little one at the time). The last one was terrible - I was really obese at that point and it took several paramedics to get me lifted into the ambulance. I was so heavy that I was dropped on the way down the steps which dislocated my knee again. After surgery to repair a lot of damage to the knee, it seemed a lot more robust - but with the frustrating side effect of a LOT of pain. Not quite constant but enough hours of the day to give me grief, and driving long road trips would be agony by the end. I gave up thinking it would be any better. Well, five months into keto, it’s like I never had any trouble with my knee. I put it down to losing the weight I have so far, but really believe my knee was extremely inflamed and I’m enjoying one of the great benefits of keto.
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Goodbye, excessive sweating! When I was still a teenager I was diagnosed with palmar hyperhidrosis, the medical term for excessive sweating in your hands. It was frustrating in so many ways and not something I wanted to grow up with. I had some surgery, an endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy, where they basically deflate one of your lungs and work around it to cut some of the nerves that control sweating, and burn the ends so they won’t work any more. I woke up with bone dry hands, I can’t explain how amazing that felt. Then I realized I had one of the annoying side effects I was warned about, compensatory sweating. Told it was temporary, it lasted pretty much forever - I now found the rest of my body (especially my abdomen, armpits and feet) were always sweating, even when a room was nice and cool, for example. Even weird things like smelling spicy foods could set me off. I got used to things, found ways to cope and ease things and it hadn’t bothered me in a major way for a while. I only noticed recently that it hasn’t been bothering me because… it hasn’t been a thing. Again, I think losing weight has helped a ton here, but I wasn’t overweight when I first had the surgery and experienced compensatory sweating either. Thanks, keto, somehow!
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Goodbye, high glucose! I learned in October 2016 that I’d finally pushed things to the limit and was diagnosed as T2 - that’s where I first started experimenting with different dietary choices and ate (what I realized in hindsight) something very similar to a LCHF diet. I lost weight but went through some really hard times and ended up reversing most of my gains (typical), and felt I’d never be healthy. I was prompted in April this year to finally check in and see how things were going and take my health seriously again. The lab confirmed my HbA1c was 10.1 (ouch) but my PCP heard some of the changes I’d already been starting to make (keto) and told me to stick on that path. I was also referred to an awesome endocrinologist who was completely onboard with keto, IF, EF and avoiding unnecessary medications. Checking back in at the lab in August my HbA1c was now down to 4.8.
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Goodbye, fatigue! I love my job, I love my family, and I love helping others. That stretches me across a lot of things every day - I get to work before the sun rises, I get home early enough to pick up my daughter from school and spend time with her, and I help others with running their businesses or managing other needs. I used to get SERIOUSLY tired on a regular basis though burning the candle at both ends. Now I’m more productive, I have more stamina, I can think clearer, if I really want to dedicate myself to a task I can fast (which is super easy and gives me more consistent energy than when I’m IF or feasting), and I’m simply a really calm person now. I don’t get tired and I sleep easily, even though I’m still putting in the same hours for everything and starting my day really early (waking up around 4 or 4.30 in the morning).
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Goodbye, inches! Last week I got bored of drilling holes in my old trusty belt and finally went out and bought myself a new belt that fits much better. It’s amazing how the weight loss has been accompanied by pretty consistent loss (in inches) all over my body. My face seems to be picking up most of it the past month but now my belly is starting to look less Homer Simpson. I might have to sort something out with my wedding ring soon because it slips so easily off my finger now, when I simply couldn’t ever remove it before.
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Goodbye, cravings! This is by all means my favourite NSV. I struggled a lot with eating in the past - whether finding excuses easily to chow down on food (big social gatherings, buffets, celebrations, etc), eating mass quantities of food for emotional reasons, or simply thinking all day about eating something I knew wasn’t healthy for me but would taste so good. For example I’d get through the day working hard on something knowing I’d “reward” myself with a huge amount of chocolate in the evening. I’d feel guilty about eating something like that so might even do it when nobody was around, e.g. while walking the dog. Keto has COMPLETELY reset my metabolic system, my needs, my desires, my signals. I have no desire to eat “dirty” carbs, there is simply no part of me that misses anything like bread, pasta, noodles, chocolate, sweets, ice cream. I was actually surprised how strong that effect was and figured I might need to bake up some of the delicious looking keto dessert recipes I often see posted here, but the desire for sweet things has disappeared so much that I even avoid sweeteners as much as I possibly can (I still chew gum sometimes, the brand I use containing xylitol). It’s amazing though how “clean” my signals are about my hunger and what I really need, and how simple electrolyte management deals with most problems. Fasting is something I thought I’d never engage in and I engage in IF on a daily basis and EF whenever I feel like it (averaging a few days a week, perhaps).
4.8 (August 2018) 