In June of 2016, I was sick of being tired all the time, having no energy, struggling to stand up from a floor-seated position, and having to take OTC meds for constant acid reflux. The straw that broke the camel’s back was seeing a photo of myself after a long hike and tree-climbing expedition. I was depressed at how heavy and knock-kneed I was. I called a friend who had been very successful with LCHF and told her I was ready to do what needed to be done.
I wasn’t 100% sure how to eat because as a vegetarian, I didn’t eat red meat, pork, chicken, or beef. I decided to add fish and other seafood back to my diet to make this work, and I figured out how to move forward by spending a lot of time reading and researching online. I spent a lot of time on the Diet Doctor’s site and listening to 2 Keto Dudes. My spouse and teen were supportive but completely not interested in joining me.
One day about two months after making the switch to low-carb, my size 14 pants were loose. I couldn’t believe it—8 weeks! It was around that time, people started asking if I was losing weight. From August to November 2016 , I dropped more weight and more pants and shirts sizes. I was just not very hungry and found that I could go many hours between meals. That’s when I knew I was really fat-adapted. In February 2017, an online mentor advised intermittent fasting at that point in my journey, so I started fasting 18:6 or 16:8 (missing breakfast) each day, and I switched to black coffee. I wasn’t actively fretting over wanting to lose more fat, but fasting was definitely the missing puzzle piece to make this a long-term, sustainable way of eating. It just felt right, and by that point, I’d made the move to an even lower-carb state: <20-30g per day.
My journey has been slow and it took a little over a year and a few months to get to goal weight (I actually surpassed my original goal weight in December of 2017), but my perspective is that I’d much rather have slow and sustainable than fast and furious. The way I see it, the time it took was like a “training course,” teaching me how to choose nutrient-dense food, to avoid fatty coffees/fat bombs, to order in a restaurant without over-analyzing, to prep, to try new foods, to stay off the scale and go more by how I feel, to get some light exercise, to eat vegetables I used to avoid, to take targeted supplements, and to truly internalize that this is about more than weight loss: it’s about life health and well being.
These days, I pay it forward by moderating and offering practical advice in a large online FB group as well as in the 2KD forums when I can. I support (Patreon) 2KD, Cholesterol Code, Optimising Nutrition, and of course the site that got me started— Diet Doctor (annual membership). I continue to learn via vetted books, blogs, lectures, and peer-reviewed articles from the experts in the field, and I never miss an episode of 2KD, The Obesity Code, or KetoWoman. #55lbs