I just wanted to write this for any newbies coming on board. I know when I started the keto/low carb WOE, I was impatient and frustrated because I thought it was going to be a magic weight loss fix. All I had heard about keto to that point was that it was helping people shed crazy amounts of weight.
But, I didn’t lose much weight…just a pound here and there. Sometimes I gained! At a few points I was like, why am I doing this? Not much is happening. I felt like friends and family were asking themselves the same thing but didn’t voice that to me. There I was cutting out foods I had eaten my entire life, and I still looked pretty much the same weeks into it. Meanwhile my friends were dropping 2 lbs a week on WW and other popular diets.
But I continued to KCKO because a) I don’t have a ton to lose anyway (maybe 20 lbs.) and this just feels to me like the right way to eat. I enjoy the food. I would partake in the carbs occasionally, at a special event or occasion, and at first those rogue eating experiences felt really good and exciting. I’d take a bite of something carby, like bread, and feel that familiar rush of “yum!” and I couldn’t stop. I’d eat too much and feel so sick afterwards.
But after awhile those same foods I used to crave didn’t bring me the same level of satisfaction.
Now I’ve been eating this way for 3 to 4 months and I realized that my entire relationship with food has changed. I have no more cravings for snacks or sweets (even keto sweets for the most part, which I used to crave a lot at the outset). I can go all day without eating and feel fine - I feel great, actually. When I am sad or happy, I don’t immediately think of turning to food to self-medicate.
This is after decades of emotional eating, binge-eating, and boredom eating. Up until a few months ago, I would graze all day, just mindlessly stuffing crackers or chips into my mouth. I was always hungry. And I’d eat even when I wasn’t hungry. My next meal was always on my mind!
Not only have my cravings ceased, but real food tastes so much better to me. I made a cucumber salad the other night with a few grape tomatoes and oh my, it tasted like heaven! And after years of overeating at every meal, I have this ability now to eat to satiety instead of eating as much as I can until my stomach is overly full and uncomfortable. I eat and just somehow know when to stop.
Not to mention I am never bloated anymore, my skin is clear and glowing, and although I am not dropping a lot of pounds on the scale, my body seems to be sorting itself out - slimmer waist, flatter tummy and less flab. And of course more energy.
Sorry this is so long, but I just wanted to throw all of this out there for those of you who may be at the start or a few weeks into it and feeling frustrated. I want to underscore, like many on here have explained, that these changes TAKE TIME. The kinds of changes I described above - those are the magic of keto. It’s not fast and furious weight loss (if that happens for you, it’s just a bonus). I believe this WOE has the capability to repair years of damage from the SAD and reprogram your brain and body to eat in a way that supports optimal health.
So newbies, KCKO - you’ll be so glad you stuck to it!
. I trust the process, but I still need to be reminded that it’s sllloooooowwwww going.
That’s my biggest problem in all of life-; binges. I want this to stop. Was doing well o Keto, then messed myself up again. Getting back on the wagon.
