Welcome to the first installment of my eight-part blog series – Keto Heals. This series highlights the top health markers improved, reversed, managed, or completely healed through my Keto and Intermittent Fasting lifestyle.
When I started out on my journey, I absolutely loved reading success stories. The stories, like mine, on Diet Doctor kept me going throughout my entire journey. I hope my story will inspire you on your journey to better health and wellness.
(Disclaimer: I am not a health care professional. I am writing about my personal experiences to encourage others to research a low-carb lifestyle. You should always work closely with a health care professional to manage your health. I work with three MDs to manage my health: functional medicine, cardiology, and sleep/pulmonology. They treat my metabolic dysfunctions along with monitoring my important blood markers routinely. Keto or LCHF may not be an appropriate way of eating for your metabolic health or other health needs. Please check with your personal health care professional before making any changes in your diet.)
I know you’re exhausted but try to stay alert for this story of healing. You CAN journey through life with amazing energy!
This where my journey to health begins! I pray it will inspire and motivate you to an energized life.
Someone recently asked me “what was your life changing moment that started your journey?”
That’s easy! Exhaustion. Bone-weary brain fog every single day of my life. My energy was completely zapped, and I had very little room for joy in my daily life.
This journey started with my trip to Colorado in September 2015. I’ve written about this a bit in my very first blog post. Returning from my trip in beautiful Colorado had me exhausted and humiliated because I was unable to keep up on my husband’s activity on mountain trails. I waited for him at the bottom of the trails. I was fully deflated once back in Michigan.
Fatigue, humiliation, depression, deflation – well, I think I’ve finally had my wakeup call! I was ready to start taking control of my health!
First, I had to deal with the constant fatigue. I slept horrible on this trip and kept my husband up all night with my voracious snoring, so I decided my first step would be a visit to the sleep doctor. My husband had been nagging me for years to do this (poor guy!).
I started reading about the importance of sleep on our overall well-being. I knew I had to get better sleep. Deep down I knew that I would end up needing a C-Pap machine, but I was desperate for better sleep.
Being compliant to using a face mask every night is a hard thing to do, I know. However, I was willing to try anything. I received my C-Pap in December of 2015. I used that machine faithfully every day until the summer of 2017 (stayed tuned for the future blog on my Obstructive Sleep Apnea healing).
As I began to feel a little rested, I was able to start tackling the next steps in my healthy journey. Over the next year I was able to commit to more in my journey because I was “feeling” slightly better, like I could actually function throughout the day.
I took the next step to quit refined sugar, read labels and quit processed foods with added sugar, and I actually started moving my body in a weekly class with friends. I could do all this because my brain fog had lifted a wee bit.
I did see some real benefits from these first few steps of better sleep and quitting sugar. I did feel better, but I definitely was still in an exhausted stupor daily.
My weight loss was crawling…oh, it was so painfully slow! I only lost 18 pounds in 9 months before I discovered Keto and Intermittent Fasting. I sure do wish I would’ve found the TRUE MAGIC of going full Keto or Low-Carb/Healthy Fats (LCHF) from the start of that journey.
Getting back to the point of this blog post. I was still exhausted. I still slumped after lunch at work. I still wanted to climb into my bed after work for a power nap. I still had zero energy to do anything fun with my family. I was still annoyed that I had to go up the stairs to get to my bedroom. I was still morbidly obese.
I took my daughter and her boyfriend (who I adore, so he gets to travel with us), on a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that summer of 2016. The UP is “God’s country”. Loads of outdoor stuff to do. We were at Tahquamenon Falls and they wanted to do the eight-mile hike from the upper to lower falls. I would not have been able to do this. No way, no how, no ENERGY. So, I took a chair and a book and waited for them at the trail head. I was questioning why my “quitting sugar” efforts were not paying off like I had hoped.
As I reflect back on all the side effects of my decades of obesity and metabolic dysfunction caused, I can specifically identify a list of everything my constant fatigue caused:
- Unkept home
- Constant napping
- Career stagnation
- Poor sleep rhythm / sleep apnea
- Avoiding social situations / anxiety skyrocketed
- Poor planning for nutrition and feeding my family
- No physical activity with kids, hubby – through their sports careers, etc.
- Sitting out on fun activities – like hiking, exploring, even simple paths at parks
Besides the miserable trip to Colorado with my husband, I have so many regrets about not being active with my kids during their childhood.
If I can pass along anything to any younger readers, it is this. Please learn how the Keto, LCHF, and/or Intermittent Fasting can help you regain your life and energy. This is truly a passion of mine – leading the younger generation. Including my own kids. Don’t wait! You can find links to all my favorite resources on my Keto 101 page.
Keto has been the most wonderful anecdote for my exhausted life. When I ate the SAD diet (standard American diet), my “healthy lunches” were mostly carbs! Eat your whole wheat bread and fruit they said! They are full of nap inducing nutrients for someone with my metabolism. I was a round the clock sugar burner! Eat carbs, crash, need more carbs with those mid-day snacks, crash, pasta for dinner, CRASH. A vicious cycle for sure.
Now my body runs on fats for fuel. My insulin is controlled. I’m no longer in the vicious roller coaster cycle of crashing and burning and craving carbs. Running on ketones provides me with AH-mazing energy ALL. DAY. LONG! It’s true. People look at me like I’m crazy, but it’s one of the most amazing benefits of this fat-burning lifestyle.
I started feeling increased energy when my body slipped into ketosis! You will start feeling more energized in ketosis, I promise!
I’ll end this post with the story of my TRIUMPHANT MOMENT – hiking with my daughter in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland. If you’ve read my blogs about my Ireland trip, you will recall that that three-week trip was a lifelong dream. I decided to do it as a reward for my successful journey to great health.
In June 2018, 100 pounds thinner, health restored – I planned a big hike for our very last day in Ireland. I CLIMBED my first mountain ever in the Glendalough National Park. Eleven miles round trip on the “White Trail”. Up steep inclines and down steep inclines.
I wasn’t sure how well I would tolerate this hike, so I didn’t pack too much weight in my backpack. I ended up doing this hike completely fasted, as I had so much energy I didn’t need food for that day long hike.
It is hard to articulate the sense of accomplishment when I reached the summit of that trail (as pictured in this blog header). I did my best to share with my daughter those feelings. I want her to never live the exhausted life like I did for three decades. I want her to stay healthy and fit. I am positive after the three weeks we spent together in Ireland on our mother daughter trip, that she has a good sense of the importance of living a healthy life to enjoy it to the fullest. I will always treasure that time of building our relationship and modeling healthy choices. Plus, if you twisted her arm, she would probably tell you that she had a hard time keeping up with her energetic mom. I do know she was exhausted at the end of that day! Ha!
So, as you can see, I can enthusiastically exclaim that Keto has completely healed my exhaustion. I can get up at 5:30am every day (even weekends) and have energy to go, go, go for 18 hours of the day. I generally average about 6 hours of good, solid sleep every night. I never need naps and I could hike eleven miles a day if I had to (take me back to Ireland and I will!).
Now I can update my list from above! All the negative repercussions of living the exhausted life can be turned around for the positive:
- Upkept home and enjoying being hospitable
- Never needing naps
- Excitement about my work and passion for this Joyful Keto Life journey
- Incredible sleep – appropriate ratio of deep, REM, and light sleep
- Participating in social events with much more frequency, anxiety disappeared
- Planning and cooking meals at home every day for my family – and enjoying it
- Being active with my family and friends – no more making excuses
- Never, ever sitting on the sidelines again!
I want to pass this energy on to you. If you’ve made your way through this very long post, congratulations! I hope that it will ignite something in you to really seek out how this Keto or LCHF lifestyle can work for you. Being a fat-burner provides so much more energy than that temporary rush from being a sugar burner. Get off the roller coaster of burning sugar and crashing and then needing more sugar. FAT BURNING is for the WIN!
I am living proof that there is a cure for constant fatigue! I have been restored and my joy in living has been recaptured. Joy is contagious and it’s my goal in my life to pass it on to you.
Do you feel you are in fat burning, high energy mode? Share your stories below. I love to hear them.
If you enjoyed this blog, I would be so honored if you would share it with your friends and family. You can also find my blog posted on my Facebook page “Joyful Keto Life”. Please like my page and share. Also, please subscribe to my newsletter list below to be kept in the loop! Don’t forget to “Choose Joy”!
Installment 2 Keto Heals: {Obesity}
Installment 3 Keto Heals: {NAFLD | Fatty Liver}
Installment 4 Keto Heals: {OSA | Obstructive Sleep Apnea}
Installment 5 Keto Heals: {Migraines and Headaches}
Installment 6 Keto Heals: {Inflammation and Joint Pain}
Installment 7 Keto Heals: {Metabolic Syndrome}
Installment 8 Keto Heals: {Insulin Resistance}
I’ve created a free resource for you with my favorite five tips for your weight loss success. Grab it here:
5 Tips to Jumpstart Your Health and Wellness Journey
I enjoyed reading about how you got your energy back. I have down low carb before, but didn’t stick with it because I actually had to cook and I don’t enjoy that. This time, I am going to try and find the beauty and fun in cooking so that I can fix meals that will be what I need and my husband can join in the fun. I have about 80 lbs. to lose and I am 61 yrs. old. I have 24 grandkids that I want to “keep up” with, I NEED this.
Thanks so much for being willing to take the time to share!
Arlene
Hi Arlene! Thank you so much for your comment. I’m happy you are back to low-carb! I used to hate hate hate cooking and now I LOVE it! I have a new satisfaction knowing I’m cooking healthy meals. I do keep it simple during the work week, but I love to try new recipes in the weekends.
24 grandkids?!? Holy WOW! You go, granny. Pretty soon those kids will have to keep up with you.
Best wishes and keep commenting!
Choose Joy!
Christine
Thank you for sharing, l have been off Keto’s for past 5 months and have need to get back to it, you are inspirational thank you Denise
Hi Denise!
My pleasure. Have a blessed day!
Christine
Christine,
Yours is the first success story I read on the Diet Doctor website. I came across the website on a mad search for a healthy way to eat. I was following my then doctors recommendations only to find that I kept gaining weight on the HCLF way of eating.
I dove into all the videos, articles and success stories in a few days. I recently ordered Dr. Jason Fung’s book; The Complete Guide to Fasting and am on page 88 in just a day and a half! I can’t put down this amazing information.. and I will never go back to the way I once lived.
I began this new journey on December 6, 2018 (less than two months ago) and I am amazed at my energy transformation! I love to cook so KETO eating is an amazing way to cook and I found that eliminating the sugars and bad carbs was much easier than expected. I truly was afraid that I would fail. No fail. Only continued success.
Christine, it is so powerful and wonderful that you shared your story. I love your blog and will continue to read through my transition. My beginning weight; 260 CW 246 and have lost so many inches already! Thank you for sharing your joy and passion.
Peace to you! Tanya
Hi Tanya!
Thank you so much for commenting! I am so excited that you have found the Keto lifestyle. And I’m happy to see it didn’t take you long to realize the amazing benefits. I did HCLF diets for 30 years! OHHH, what misery they caused me. Keto is a true blessing! Isn’t the energy transformation just unbelievable? I know it’s hard to explain and people don’t believe me ;), but it’s true!
Dr. Fung’s work is amazing. That man changed my life just through his public sharing. I hope to be able to thank him personally some day!
I’m super excited for you – I can feel your enthusiasm coming through your comment. Please stay in touch and keep me posted. You’ve totally got this, Tanya!
Peace and JOY to you!
Christine
Hi Christine. I have come across your website from reading your success story on DietDoctor. It is wonderful to see your transformation! Your energy just leaps from the page as I read this blog. It is truly inspiring to ready your story of transformation. I will be reading all of your blogs in the upcoming days. I am writing this with tears as this would be something I would dearly love to achieve but somehow has eluded me. I am the same age as you with 60kgs to lose. With very similar symptoms. I started keto a month before christmas and lost 4 kgs but have put it all back on due to Christmas, birthdays and school holidays here in Australia. I had decided to start Keto again this week using an app to help “Carb Manager”. And I am a somewhat confused. It shows all the macros etc but has a calorie limit which is the total opposite to what Diet Doctor recommends. (no calorie counting). I have a couple of questions I hope you don’t mind answering.
1. Did you use only Diet Doctor and their meal plans etc?
2. What were your biggest hurdles at the beginning?
I have 4 kids and hubby to feed daily which I find hard. My husband feels this keto diet is not healthy, too much fat.
I would like to get to the stage of having ‘lots of energy’ and losing weight.
Your joy is evident in your photos!
Keep blogging!
Hello Ali!
Thank you so much for writing – I love hearing from people finding and/or re-finding Keto!
I use Carb Manager and I am teaching myself currently in how to share an instructional video for my readers. I am not very tech savvy, so trying to figure things out. I hope to have this lesson available soon. In the meantime – DO NOT stress about calories! The calorie calculator is built into that app – I would just ignore it. Some days I eat 1200 calories, some days I may eat 1800 calories. I eat until I’m satiated and the main thing I count is carbs.
In answer to your questions:
1. To start, I used the Diet Doctor 2 week challenge. I did not make every recipe they had on the 2 week plan – I just picked a few that I knew I would enjoy and repeated those over in the two weeks. Here’s a link to what my typical meal-planning and eating looks like: https://joyfulketolife.com/my-keto-plate-meal-planning-101/
2. I started incorporating Intermittent Fasting right away – so my biggest hurdle was getting through “routine” meal times and learning to recognize true hunger. This is a bit of a mind game since we’ve been conditioned previously to eat at “meal times”. I quickly realized I was NOT hungry. In order to push through the mental game – I encourage you to keep busy! Organize a drawer, purge a closet, clean your basement, read, knit, etc – find something to distract your mind and your mouth!
I have a hubby, one son, one daughter and her fiancé (he doesn’t live here, but he eats here all the time 😉 ) to feed, too. Now, they are all old enough to feed themselves when needed, BUT the mom in me always wanted to make sure they had a plan for their meals. It eventually becomes easier to prep their food even while fasting. If your husband is open to reading or watching videos – show him the science. Here’s a very short one that is really popular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ
Stick with it and I guarantee that the energy you gain will be AH-mazing! Be a fat-burner keeps me going all day long.
Thanks again and don’t forget to CHOOSE JOY!
Christine
Hi my name is Tammie and I just came across your information on the diet doctor. I was just looking at Google and the site was there. I am in the same boat as most of the people that come on here. I am sitting on my couch most of the time tired and having issues with diverticulosis, high blood pressure and not a lot of energy. I also have a fatty liver diagnosis. And definitely a good 60 pounds to lose. I know quite a bit about low-carb because I have read Dr. Atkins books. And I have done his diet plans before and they are very similar. He “does” encourage to eat a lot of fat because it makes the body burn fat faster. And I also like Dr. Eric Berg who is online. He is very balanced in his meal plans etc. {And Dr. Berg has an amazing low-carb bread that is also gluten-free on his website.} I just have not initiated doing it. It is too easy just to eat what is available. And going to restaurants is so much easier than fixing food at home. A bad habit I’ve fallen into. Anyway; I’m reading over your information. It is very impressive. And I know that I will start on the intermediate fasting ketogenic diet soon. I have started an exercise program just this past Wednesday. It is an exercise program I learned about years ago called the “Michael Thurmond six week body makeover.” The exercise program uses stretch bands and a chair and a door and it works amazingly so I am doing that on Monday Wednesday Fridays. I am determined. I turned 60 this past July and I feel like I have good muscle tone still.{ despite the fact that I had a complete hysterectomy two years ago } And so I want to get my body under control before it gets out of control for good. Most of my family and friends say I still look in my late 40s or early 50s and that I just need to get this weight off and exercise and I will look 30. 🤔☺️🥰 That’s an encouragement when people say that to me,.. but it still does not motivate me enough to get me to do it. But reading your posts And seeing other people’s experiences hopefully will propel me to make the changes necessary. Thank you for your hearing out my message, and I hope to send positive messages in the future about my success at intermediate fasting/keto genic dieting for life. Sincerely Tammie ❣️💞💝❣️
Hello Tammie!
Thanks for reading and commenting! I love hearing your stories.
I totally hear where you’re coming from about lack of energy. I would love to have all those years back that I sat on the couch or on the side-lines of life! But, I’m so happy now to have crazy, tremendous energy – I can’t be too upset about the past. God has surely blessed me with an energetic future.
Sounds like you have a good starting knowledge of low-carb living. I eat strict Keto and practice intermittent fasting, BUT my passion is for encouraging people to QUIT SUGAR, processed food, and excess carbs from your diet. When you do that, you will certainly change your health!
Keep up the strength training – I think us women really need more and more of that as we age!
If the thought of jumping all in all at once is overwhelming to you – I suggest baby steps. Give up all white sugar, sweets, treats – first. Then pick something else to give up like pasta…and so on! Before you know it – you’ll realize how horrible sugar and carbs were making you feel and you will be on your way.
I look forward to your updates!
Blessings,
Christine