Fat for Fuel?

"You're going to be eating mostly fat? There's no way that's healthy!" And five months ago, I probably wouldv'e agreed. For so many years we were , in general, conditioned to believe that fat is bad. I was in the grocery store the other day and found it near impossible to find full fat whole-milk yogurt. Everything was low-fat. I eventually found it hiding in the corner, ashamed. When I reached for it, I got a funny look from the shopper next to me stocking up the super sugary version (low-fat yogurt-bleh!).

Why Keto?

There were a few factors that led to me becoming a "keto-er".

So in an effort to combat my Lupus symptoms naturally and lose weight I spoke to my father, master researcher, genius with an IQ of 156 , and fighter who was/is battling stage four cancer and is no longer taking meds/insulin for his diabetes after going the homeopathic route. I told him all about what I wanted, no, needed to do. He introduced me to Keto. I had heard the term before from an insta-friend who had lost weight. But other than that I knew nothing about it.

My dad encouraged me to do research on the diet because he had, and learned some "awesome" new things. I was incredibly reluctant. But after constantly hearing, "Did you look it up?", I did. I felt like I had been punked. All the years of trying to cut back on fat…all the dry chicken breasts… all the flavorless cooking sprays… But the best part of my research is how everything made SENSE. So I could cut back on my flares by eating more flavorful, less inflammatory foods? It sounded too good to be true.

So, I revisited my insta-friends page. She had PCOS too. And she was kicking it's butt. I was so encouraged by her story, and now that I knew exactly what keto was I was even more impressed with this way of eating. I had spent years trying to figure out how to lose weight and treat my PCOS and Lupus symptoms as effectively as possible. I gave myself one month to research extensively about the effects of anti-inflammatory diets in people with neurological and autoimmune diseases, and was duly impressed. I think I found something I could potentially stick to that could help me lose weight and cut down flares.

Progress

My first week of keto was pretty good. I had changed my thinking and was ready for this to work. My body seems to constantly be constantly trying to work against me, so I set a goal. I said I would give myself four months to see some change, maybe just a few pounds, but more importantly a change in how I feel. My first two weeks of keto were flare free. And in just over 2 months I had lost a little over 30lbs, 2 inches off my waist and hips, and 1.5 off my thighs. Even better, I was having maybe one really bad flare once every few weeks. That's HUGE. I understand keto is not for everyone, but I truly believe it is for me. As cliché as it is, I have to believe in myself. I'm trying to become a better version of the old me. I want to do the biking, kayaking, hiking. I miss it. And I'm on my way to being healthy.