Keto diet

Sometimes we can get too comfortable with our lifestyle, and not take as good of care of ourselves as we should.  It works ok when we are younger, but as we age, it can hit us pretty hard...
For me, after being very healthy all my life, moving into my 60's pulled me up short.  I am sure a lot of it was the stress we have gone through, some of it is genetic, but some of it also was just not trying hard enough.  And I had always felt like I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle.
Arthritis has taken a toll on my hands and especially my feet.  When my feet were bad enough that my chiropractor suggested if I didn't do something, I would end up crippled, I went to a podiatrist.  I found out there I had a broken bone - a stress fracture, and I also had severe arthritis in my feet.
So I tried several things, apple cider vinegar, which works better than you can imagine, diet, supplements, so on.  It helped, but I was still in a lot of pain.
I researched and researched.  It all kept coming back to diet, supplements and....weight loss.
Gulp...
Okay, while I wasn't WAY over weight, a BMI check showed me that I was, in fact, on the wrong side.  Barely, but over.  And at 124 pounds, my 4 foot 10 inch frame was at the highest weight I have ever been unless I was pregnant.

During all this, son Beau dragged me off to the half price book store, and while he browsed, I picked up a copy of the Atkins Diet.  Beau himself had lost a lot of weight with this diet as a young boy.  Since  the book was only about $2, I bought it, and started the diet after Beau headed back off to Colorado.
Seeing a picture of myself from the back made me more determined than ever.  I didn't realize I looked like that...

The first four or so days were kind of hard, but I kept remembering that picture...

After four days, I quit craving sugar.  After a week, I wasn't hungry anymore, and had to make myself eat.
I was very strict, and only cheated twice, because of my birthday.  And I did that very small.  One cupcake, one very small ice cream dessert.
I bought keto strips three weeks into it.  Those let me know how well I was doing, and inspired me to do better.

I found a facebook group called "low carb and loving it" which is helping me tremendously.
On that site, in the files, I found a four week meal plan, which so far, has been so good.  It has the shopping list all planned out, and the recipes are delicious.  Even my kids are eating them.

I lost 6 pounds the first two weeks, then stalled.  For two more weeks, I didn't lose anything, although I was pretty sure I was losing inches.  It occured to me that although I was low carb and in Ketosis, I was eating a LOT of meat and cheese and those have a lot of calories.  So I downloaded an app on my phone, and now I track carbs AND calories.  My weight loss started back up, and this past week, I have lost two more pounds.

Friend Irene would be so proud of me!  She challenged me to lose back down to 100 pounds.  We shall see.  105 is my goal.
And no, that's not too low, according to the BMI scale, that's about half way in the middle for someone my size.

So what do I have to show for all this?  More energy.  More clarity.  Better sleep.

And less pain.  I have gone from one Excedrin and six Advil's a day, to one or two Advil's a week - maybe.  And that's huge!!

My next goal is to get this figured out enough to feed all of us this way.  The kids like most of the food so far.  I need to get more recipes for desserts, and I think I will have them hooked!

If you have tried this diet before, I would love to hear your experiences!!