My Keto Why

Yes, I skipped a week or two. There was work involved. 12 hour workdays aren't conducive to keeping up with the rest of your life, but paychecks are nice.  And don't you just hate it when a blog you follow posts so often that you can't find time to read it all no matter how much you want to?! I won't do that to you.

I've been working as a traffic flagger, which presents its own challenges for bring any kind of lunch, much less a Keto-friendly one.  I will be writing something about portable Keto food, when I get that figured out. But for now I just want to post a list of reasons I eat Keto most of the time.  Because if you keep in mind your "why", it makes it easier to resist temptation.

• Weight loss. And my smaller clothes fit!
• I don't need Tums every night - or at all. I used to.
• No flatulence. For me, carbs cause that.
• I have more energy.  I actually feel like doing physical stuff.
• I have more endurance. I can work shifts that cause young co-workers to whine.
• I have better flexibility. I know this because I dabble at yoga, and it is SO much easier than it was pre-keto.
• I have better mobility. I no longer need to push up from seats with my arms. I can get down on the floor, and back up, easily. I can even climb over stuff.
• I have better balance. That's IMPORTANT. Also yoga.
• I can lift heavier stuff. The guy at AutoZone was impressed when I carried in the group 27 battery Thursday. So was I.  The last time I tried to carry it, it didn't work so well.
• My mind works better.
• My knees work better. I don't know how much of that is less weight and how much is less Inflamation, but I'll take it.
• My bladder works better. What I thought was an age thing (I'm 69, which is NOT old no matter what I thought when I was 30) is actually a carb thing!
• I'm not hungry so often and don't have to interrupt stuff I'm involved in just to eat.
• Keto food is delicious. Cutting out sugar gave me my taste buds back.

I couldn't have forseen that a year and a half ago.  I just wanted to lose some weight.  Keto On!

I've decided to revive this blog, because I've been revived myself.

April 4, 2018, I finished eating or giving away all my high carbohydrate food, and began eating according to the KETO way of eating.  If you've been to this blog before, you know that's not really a radical change from my intended food choices.  

And yet, it was.  The key is that instead of just cutting out carbs and processed food, Keto allows your body to revive its mothballed cellular fat burning mechanism, and the addition of burning fat for fuel, both dietary and body fat, removes the carb cravings and hunger and facilitates sticking with this way of eating.  Without the body constantly requesting food, specifically carb food, the only obstacle to sticking with Keto is between the ears.  Most days I can handle that.

And so, I'm 50 pounds lighter, more energetic, more flexible.

See this awesome bathtub?  It belongs to my friend Liana.  

Last year just before I started Keto, I visited her and soaked in this tub.  It was difficult to get into it and darned near impossible to get out.  

I am visiting her again this week, and last night I hopped into this same tub for a soak, and got out with absolutely no problem at all.  

If you're a skinny 20-something you might not grok how important that is, but if you're 68 and formerly 60 pounds overweight it is a big deal.

It was also a big deal last week when I locked my keys in my camper van.  Getting in required climbing over the antique school desk that blocks the only door that was unlocked.  And I could do it without any problem!

In the Keto Facebook groups I belong to, we call these NSV, non-scale victories.  Scales are notoriously unreliable. My weight as measured on my daughter's scale (I don't own one) fluctuates 5# on any given day.  But the fit of clothing, and increased abilities, and better health and energy - these things are how we measure success.

If you're doing Keto and have NSVs of your own, please share them in the comments.  I'd love to see and be inspired by your successes too.