After 23 weeks of keto, changes are still happening, progress is still happening, inspiration is still happening, and I couldn’t be more grateful!
First, I’ll share my stats. After 23 weeks of keto with #NOPE (no off-plan eating), I have lost 32.2 pounds. My body fat percentage has gone from an estimated 60% to a measured 50.5%, and I’m still losing inches even when the scale is moving slowly. As usual, I’m absolutely thrilled!
We’re still using all the strategies that I’ve covered in previous blog posts to keep costs down, and this is extremely important now that all five of us are eating keto at home. My pattern of re-evaluating strategies did reveal something last week though. A couple dairy items that we use here frequently turned out to be significantly less expensive at Aldi, and I wasn’t aware of that because I hadn’t taken the simple step of asking my husband how much something cost. This oversight meant that we were spending an additional $.88 per quart on heavy cream and an additional $.43 per quart on half & half. While this might not seem like a big deal, it adds up to about $160 worth of savings per year. That’s not insignificant.
Nothing much has changed in the day-to-day implementation of my journey, but I haven’t been thinking a lot lately about my long-term success. In fact, it really struck me this morning as I was listening to one of my favorite podcasters talk about his keto journey. He’s lost about 45 pounds in six months, and he was talking about how he still had more weight to lose. He was talking about how he was going to tighten everything back up again, start measuring and tracking EVERYTHING, and he expected the rest of his weight to come right off. As I was listening, I couldn’t help but think that he was looking at keto like a “diet”. Follow the steps, count the things, restrict and suffer, and results shall be had. It’s not like that at all for me now though.
I have no idea how many times I’ve said stuff like, “Keto isn’t a diet. It’s a way of life,”, and I really meant it each time I said it. It wasn’t until I was listening to Jack Spirko talk about his journey though that the true meaning of that statement really clicked with me. For me, keto isn’t weight loss, diabetes reversal, or health gains. While all these things are a biproduct of eating a ketogenic diet, at it’s very heart, keto for me is sobriety. Keto means that I’m not ruled by an addiction that has the power to overtake or even end my life. This means that I can’t think about in the context of “working the system” to get to the finish line that is my goal weight. I have to think about it from an addiction perspective, and I really think that’s why it’s so different for me this time.
Do I want to be thinner? Sure! Do I want to keep my diabetes in the past? I absolutely do! The fact is though, if I don’t actively manage my addiction to carbohydrates, none of that stuff matters because I’ll relapse and then I’ll be fighting that awful uphill battle that is painful and destructive, and I’ve been down that path too many times already.
If my long-term success is built on the goal of maintaining sobriety, I’m happy to accept slower progress that’s not the result of “working a diet”. That may not be acceptable for some, but I’ve tried all the other things and they didn’t work long-term. This seems to be different, but of course, I won’t know until more time has passed. I refuse to get cocky.
In the meantime, I continue to push along, learning and growing as I continue to heal. And I hope that by sharing my journey, I can help folks in their own journeys. There’s nothing special about me. I just made a choice and decided to stick with it. Anyone can do that, and the benefits help you build confidence to keep going. What we do matters!