What’s your motivation?


#1

I’ve always been amazed at how we can all embrace and benefit from keto/LCHF with obviously very individualized starting points. I’m really curious to know what the general or most common motivations are in this community.

For me it was fixing a pre-diabetes problem and has morphed into a health and longevity motivation. Weight control would probably be next in line- though I did not have much weight to lose. Lastly- but not least at all is my relationship with food now- enjoying the taste and being full after eating and not hungry and not tired after eating. No longer having those insane cravings and being able to fast.

Respond if you want- weight loss, diabetes, heart disease, General health, longevity, cancer, performance or whatever is your motivation- anything not listed.

Cheers!!


(Laurie) #2

I wanted to do keto (although I called it something else) to lose weight. But I wasn’t motivated enough to stick with it.

Then I developed reactions (gut issues) to most plant foods, including carby ones. That motivated me to stay on the path.


(Robin) #3

Fortuitous events. Had doc appt, saw my weight was 218. Same day, I saw my ex (of ten years) and he was a slim looking as the day we met as kids. I was flabbergasted. And he introduced me to keto. Answered every question and supported me for the first several months.He is a very intelligent person and had done all the research about keto. He was my forum, before you guys. I believe he saved my life.
Benefits… lost over 60 lbs in 17 months. Better mental clarity. My arthritis is better and just feel better in general. PLUS, my favorite part is absolutely no cravings anymore.


#4

My motivation was initially like any other of the million diets I’ve tried: to lose weight. Then I discovered, to my delight, that keto/LCHF actually helped me to resolve the underlying cause of my constant weight cycling - addictive eating of sugar and carbs. It removed cravings and helped me lose my formerly raging appetite for those foods. Once I started feeding myself properly I stopped the extreme bingeing too. Although occasionally I still pig out on keto desserts, in general my relationship with food is vastly improved.


(Karen) #5

Curiosity i think. I had tried various ways of eating from vegetarian to juicing and during my earlier years tried every fad diet and even resorted to pills to increase metabolic rate to lose weight gained in my late teens.

About 15 years or so ago I started eating according to my blood group and found that really suited me. I am O Group which is the meat eater… handy because I love meat.

I have an addictive nature and would regularly binge on one particular type of food or sweet or cake. I have had weight issues from my late teens when I started working and could eat or drink as much as I wanted. I hasten to add that I have been in control of my weight for a long time now and when I started Keto I wasn’t over weight but I know if I don’t watch what I eat carefully I pile on the pounds … the addictive nature comes into play there.

Keto seemed to be a natural progression from eating according to my blood group as I just needed some variety. I had got into a rut of eating ryvita and cheese and just couldn’t be bothered to cook for myself. I knew I needed something more healthy to keep me functioning especially as I am an avid fitness and exercise bod.

Started it in May 2020 and initially lost a few kilos but then started putting it back on and a bit more. My addictive nature getting in the way again. I got cravings like mad with fat bombs etc. November 2020 I moved on to Carnivore. Cravings stopped immediately and I found it just fit in to my lifestyle so well. I don’t even have to watch my weight now as it controls itself! If I have a hungry day I eat as much as I want but I don’t have many hungry days now. Love this way of eating and love the ketogenic family on here as they are so lovely and friendly. All my earlier questions were answered and now it is like a daily journal. Part of my daily life!


#6

Just so over feeling icky, and bloaty, and sluggy tired and not interested in doing much anymore the older I got and the few more lbs I put on.

Just wanted all that changed to a better daily lifestyle. For vanity sake, sure wanted those lbs gone too :slight_smile:

No medical issues. I just wanted a better physical life.


(Will) #7

First and foremost for me is that I believe my quality of life and overall health will be greatly improved. Losing weight by changing my way of eating instead of “ going on another diet” seems far more likely to show long term success


(Marianne) #8

That was my motivation. I was eighty pounds overweight and felt gutted by my appearance. I was ashamed for my husband to be seen with me (he has always been fit and slim). That feeling was with me every second of every day. Talk about depressing, notwithstanding all the physical ailments I had (aches/pains, hbp, high blood sugar, a-fib, fatty liver, etc.). To compound the depression, I had lost all hope of ever being able to lose it, let alone keep it off.

I don’t often “pray,” or appeal to God, however, before starting, I prayed earnestly for God to show me a way; I really did. Within days, I was surfing Yahoo news, as I always do, and a success story was featured as one of the articles. I think they may have mentioned dietdoctor.com. I read the story and then went to the website and read each of those stories 2-3 times over. I knew most of these people were bona fide food addicts, and that this actually worked for them - and that it wasn’t difficult. For the first time, I believed in this solution and that I could do it. Within days of that, I found this forum. I lurked for a couple of weeks here before starting but then set a start date and jumped in. Other than following my macros (in the beginning), I didn’t have much more of a clue about anything or what I was doing, but people here explained things and helped me. I truly consider finding keto to be a direct result of divine intervention and my personal miracle.


(Allie) #9

I don’t have motivation anymore really, it’s just my normal way of living :woman_shrugging:


(Robin) #10

So, really… Normality is now your motivation. That alone is enough!


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #11

Avoiding Type II diabetes was my primary motivation, here. I am attached to my fingers and toes, and have no desire to part with them!

I did effortlessly lose some weight, as well, which was a great added bonus.


#12

@PaulL

Paul did you see the new news report on a ‘cure’ for Type 1 they put out this morning?

from stem cells injecting new pancreatic cells in and it ‘fixing’ the Type 1 people off big crash death issues and not having to take insulin daily

but side issues, have to be on immune suppression drugs for life too so ‘not that great cure’ they are sayin over it all…haven’t had time to any info on it, just a news story I saw this morning and thought, darn I have to check into that

touting it as a ‘cure for Type 1’ out there now…find it interesting tho


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

Haven’t seen that. Though I don’t like the idea of staying on immunosuppressive drugs, the production of insulin in the pancreas has a lot of benefits that one doesn’t get from administering insulin by injection.

Diabetes Type I is a very different disease from Type II, and they probably should not have been given the same name. But the focus was on glucose, naturally, since at that point, insulin hadn’t even been discovered, yet.


#14

oh yea they sure put out why type 1 and ‘a cure’ against insulin and a normalized blood sugar and more is super important to a type 1, etc…I didn’t ‘get to hear a ton’ cause I caught it in mid stream but I have to go out and research more on it.

I just hate that word ‘cure’ ya know. but advances are happening.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #15

Well, to me, a cure would be finding out why the immune system decided to attack the pancreas, and fixing that, but that’s just me.


#16

Originally it was fat-loss. It never happened but I saw this is a nice direction :slight_smile: In the very beginning when I went to low-carb, I wanted to lose fat (and I did then) BUT if I already started to focus on my woe more and read various things about styles that seemed okay for me, I realized it’s time to start my big journey towards my ideal, sweet spot woe! I keep improving in average, I have worse days but no way I could go backwards longer term.
So it’s mostly health and well-being but losing fat is kinda important too, I just never was in a big hurry. I never was obese, maybe borderline and I did want to lose fat more then. And now when I kinda had enough of my 8 years stall (and sometimes gain but I am bad at gaining just like I am bad at losing. I am awesome at stalling while overweight).

My first priority is still health and I have some tiny hope than maybe one day I will have some normal amount of energy instead of my usual low and rare extreme low. I already had better moments, maybe…

And well, fun and joy, always. I am a hedonist so that’s very, very important. I want to be a near perfect hedonist, eating whatever gives me the biggest joy. And food that my body doesn’t like clearly not like that. But as my best food is the tastiest at the same time, I only need to train myself out of wanting the tasty, not good food :slight_smile: It’s not as easy or hard as it may seem, it’s complicated. But practice makes better :smiley:

I can relate to what @Shortstuff wrote too. I never did food things out of motivation, actually. I never could sacrifice things as I don’t do something out of motivation. I do it out of joy or curiosity or yep, because it’s how I live and I can’t just change it (apart from having off days here and there). I don’t keep myself on keto or on carnivore-ish, I just… Can’t eat differently, only temporarily and that feels off and I inevitably come back to feel right.
Even in the beginning, it was okay while lasted, never had to find some motivation to do it as it wasn’t bad and wasn’t hard apart from missing my vegs too much sometimes.

Oh and I think it’s motivation that I am better mentally on extreme low-carb. It’s only regarding food, I don’t feel different otherwise. Carbs mess with my mind somehow and I am hungrier, I want sweets etc. (And if I eat sweets, nothing gets better. Not hedonistic at all :frowning: ) Compulsive eating emerges, I lose my perfect satiation and satisfaction… Nope.
But I don’t get much from these negative carby side effect on OMAD so that’s a good way to mitigate the problems quite seriously. So I have anti-motivation to stay on track all the time. Still, I know it’s important for my health to stay very low-carb most of the time. And I would do even sacrifices for health, I just don’t need to do it (or I don’t know about that), lucky.

I really, really like my food. I can’t always eat enough eggs and meat and fat, it would be very bad to lower their amount due to stupid carbs! :smiley: Or not lowering anything just starting to overeat massively again… I hate that.

So I have motivation but I don’t really have urges to raise carbs so motivation or not, I do keto most of the time anyway as it’s the easiest and best.

I wrote joy and fun. It’s not just the joy of eating. I am curious and love experiments :smiley: They help a lot. (But everything is an experiment. Eating a ton of sugar is an accidental experiment to me… But all my planned ones are strict :slight_smile: It’s fun! Of course I choose my rules well as I don’t resist temptation. But well planned experiments help with avoiding temptation.)

Maybe it was too complicated but me and food is complicated from some viewpoint. From others it’s simple. I just eat whatever I consider right or whatever I fancy or whatever I am compelled to (the latter is always stronger). Okay, it’s not simple.

This forum kinda motivates me too…? Whenever I read about people eating right and enjoying it, I feel more tempted to do the same. I follow my own desires but they aren’t completely unrelated to everything that isn’t me. So the forum helps a bit. Maybe motivation isn’t the right word for this.


#17

Cognitive function. My ability to focus on academics has skyrocketed on keto and I wouldn’t give that up for anything.


(Robin) #18

Yes!!! I experienced severe brain fog with meds I was on after breast cancer surgery etc. I felt like I was deep diving into Alzheimer’s. I told my doc I was choosing brain over boobs. Easy choice. Soon to hit that magic 5 year mark and no recurrence. And NO regrets. A sharp mind is number one in my book. I can work on all the rest.


(Robin) #19

UPDATING MY MOTIVATION. While making a list of folks to notify of my change of address…I realized I finally weigh what it says on my drivers license! LOL


(Traci Simpson) #20

For me I had been on phentermine for 4 years and when I stopped I started gaining weight, and coworkers were bringing in treats and I ate all of it. I started feeling very badly. Lethargic, tired, depressed and needed to do something. I came from a fitness background and was paleo for several months in the past, had my own garden etc., so I thought I just need to reset, so I started going back on primal blueprint to get motivated again and came across low carb. I’ve cured my chronic trigger finger, increased my energy, mood and well being. Last year after going carnivore I fixed my high blood pressure and discontinued my BP meds.