A New "Diet" Journey

I have dieted off and on my whole adult life. For every 10 pounds I would lose I would gain 20. Though I didn't have a scale when Nickel and I married I weighed in the neighborhood of 150  and nearly three years after moving to Tulsa I was in the neighborhood of 195.

Weight is just a number and one shouldn't be obsessed with it. True, but I find that this number is also a good way of gauging how the direction my life is going. After battling the winter blues I decided I needed a change. A co-worker mentioned that she was thinking of going on either the Paleo or Keto diet. I did a modified Paleo diet a few years ago and actually really enjoyed it, except for not being able to eat cheese. I saw that cheese was acceptable on Keto so I suggest we go with the Keto as I wanted to do it. What I didn't know about keto could have filled an entire library but with a little research and meal planning I set off to the store with my list.

So we started this journey on March 19, 2018. My meals consisted mostly of eggs, meat and vegetables. I cut out bread. I cut out sodas (goodbye root beer). I cut out sugar.

But, not entirely. Cold turkey leads to cranky Leslee and the keto flu. I maintained drinking a cup of coffee most days, though I did experiment with different ways of having it prepared. In the end I decided that if I MUST have coffee I would order either a short or tall caramel machiatto, preferably sugar free, which still isn't keto but was the best I could do. I had a tiny root beer float a couple of nights when the sweet tooth attacked. Despite all these trips off the wagon I managed to lose six pounds my first week! What? It was totally water weight but it was so encouraging to see the scale going in the direction I wanted it to go and I finally got back into the 180's which was a personal goal.

Week 2 I began to understand keto better. I started to see this not as a diet but as a way I could actually live the rest of my life. Maybe.

Week 3 has had a few challenges. The weight isn't just falling off me like during the first week. It has slowed down to 2-3 pounds a week, which is actually still really good. One thing I would love to avoid is excess skin from dropping weight too fast, if you know what I mean.

I hope to be able to check in soon with more progress and updates.