So, this is me. What you see here is a gradual progression of the last 12 months of my "face". Starting with the top left corner, which was just over a year ago, when I was near my heaviest. Then on the bottom left, you have a snap of a slightly smaller me that was taken in August of 2018. The top right is from October of 2018 and finally the bottom right is from January of 2019. This is the first part of the crazy journey that has been on going for years, but is finally starting to stick in the last 4 months.
Just 4 short months ago, I began eating differently than I ever have before. See, normally I start looking like the guy on the upper left. Then I crash diet until I look somewhere between the guy on the lower left and upper right. After dropping down about 30-40 pounds in a few months, I start to repeat the process of getting to look like the guy in the upper left again. It's my life cycle and it's just how it's been for a number of years now. What happened differently this time was a completely new way of looking at food and what I ate - and it seems to be working for me much better.
So before you freak out when I say the word - KETO - hear me out. I know that the Ketogenic Diet gets ripped apart in mainstream media and fitness people site all sorts of studies and give opinions on why it is awful for people, but quite a bit of what they say isn't exactly correct. If I listened to what people say about Keto, there's no way I would do it either, but, as I said, that's only half the story. Keto isn't a license to eat all the bacon you want nor does it say to consume all the calories you can eat in one day. Keto also has various versions, all with different requirements and ways of doing things that sometimes cross over and sometimes don't. Keto has become a generic pop term that people like to dismantle before actually hearing out the people that are trying to stick to it.
With that in mind, here's what "My Keto" looks like to the outside observer:
- No processed sugars - no candy, soda, etc...
- Keeping carbohydrates to a minimum at meals - usually around 7g.
- Consuming higher amounts of natural fats - both animal and plants.
- No excess snacking.
Now, you may look at this and wonder, what guru wound't agree with a diet that limits sugar intake, cuts down on snacking and increases natural food intake, but there are plenty of people that think that Keto simply means wrapping all your food in bacon and covering it in mayo. Some people see it that way and others are actually changing how they view food and how they eat daily. That's where my change happened, even though it's completely backwards from everything I've ever thought before.
First, I'm eating a bit more at meals (instead of more, smaller meals), snacking less (instead of having more smaller snacks), skipping meals when not hungry (instead of forcing food to keep from getting too hungry) and staying away from anything processed (instead of liquid meals or shakes of some kind.) It's really strange and different, but my body is reacting well, I feel better, my blood pressure is down and I'm consuming far less sodium, cholesterol and, for lack of a better term, crap, than I did before.
So, since August, I'm down 62.8 pounds and I'm going to keep on keeping on with this way of eating, even after I hit my goal weight. At some point, the losses will slow, my body will find it's natural weight and I will be happy with that. Until then, I look forward to becoming less of a man than I am today and keeping myself that way into the future.
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