Say Hello to my Fat-Burning Friends! Keto and LCHF Success Stories.
UPDATE: July 6, 2019
Introducing – my dear friend, Lisa! Most recently honored as the Grand Marshal in her hometown Independence Day parade. I am super excited she received this honor! I asked her to please share her story with all of you…so here it is!
After being overweight for over 25 years, at age 61 I was tired of it! The motivation in the beginning was to look respectable for an upcoming diabetes conference with my daughter at Disney World, Florida. In January 2018, I began keto – small successes began immediately!
In March I found myself at Kohl’s buying blue jeans. My pre-keto size in jeans was a size 22. I was happy to try on a size 18 and bought them. When I tried them on at home, my husband said those are TOO big! I said, “well I don’t want waste money, but I don’t think I can wear a size 16!” I went I exchanged for a size 16 and they fit. How exciting after only two months of living low-carb!
Another amazing early Non-Scale Victory (NSV) was in how I dealt with the aftermath of the holiday season. There was a lot of chocolate, sweets, and danish cookies in my house. I successfully blocked them out of my mind (I am no longer eating sugar!) In the past, those danish cookies would’ve been gone in two weeks. In April we still had almost a full can of danish cookies! I’m still in awe with this NSV!
I should mention that Christine is a very dear friend of mine. Her weight loss was one of my biggest motivators! She is also my biggest cheerleader and support system. Seeing that she changed her health completely and loved being on this way of eating – that was all the inspiration I needed.
By June I was buying shorts and capris in size 14 which I hadn’t seen since I was 32 years old. I went to the conference at Disney and could get in and out of the rides very easily! In our big group of 15, I was in the “small” group and had to be paired with one larger person for some rides! Me, a “small” person! By the way, I’m now wearing a size 12. From size 22 to 12–it just seems incredible!
Losing weight was just one of the great benefits of keto. Another health benefit was the reversal of acid reflex. I had never even told anyone about the acid reflux, I just thought it was a normal part of life as so many people suffer from the reflux (now I know it was because of my standard American diet). Emotionally, the mental healing is the greatest victory. I feel more confident about myself and I really believe that people take me seriously now. I receive so many compliments on my weight loss, and I always make sure to point people to the physical and emotional healing besides the weight loss. Weight loss, of course, is an amazing benefit – but like Christine says a lot “it’s a great side benefit to all the other healing!”
I’m now nearing retirement and at 62 I feel better than I felt when I was 40. I’m going to enjoy the next chapter of my life. Christine mentioned that after 30 years of being in charge of the parade in my city, I was the Grand Marshal! It was so fun to sit next to my daughter and son and not worrying about people saying “oh, look at that fat woman”. Some people hadn’t seen me in 20 years (I’m way healthier now than 20 years ago!) – so it was exciting to share my new way of life with them.
I know that this will be my way of eating for the rest of my life. Sometimes there’s temptations, but every day I try my best with the support of my family and my friend, I will continue to live my best life yet!
Lisa, thank you so much for sharing. I would like to add that Lisa watched me improve my health for a whole year before she jumped on board with low-carb living. She will be the first to tell you that I never “nagged” her, I just silently showed her by example how she would someday change her health (I knew she would–because I was praying for her all the time! She had no choice in the matter. HA!).
Lisa, cheers to you and your upcoming retirement. I’m so beyond words thrilled for you and your new found freedom in life.
UPDATE: July 1, 2019
Whoa, I can’t believe I haven’t updated this page in over a year. I have so many friends and family finding success in low-carb living–I need to make sharing their stories a priority.
Today’s update comes from my pen-pal (remember those from our childhood?) Gayle wayyyyy on the other side of the world. She lives in Australia and we have been corresponding for the past year. I’m always overjoyed when I hear from Gayle!
She is one of MY biggest encouragers. I know she prays for me and she sends me spiritual messages she believes will encourage me, and they always do. I fully believe that God’s timing is always perfect–even in the little things like sharing blog posts that someone needs at that moment.
Anyhow–Gail has been on her own joyful journey to healing. Please do me the honor of reading and sharing her story! You never know who you might bless by sharing one story that may resonate with someone needing healing.
GAYLE–I’m so excited you are feeling better. God bless you abundantly my friend and sister-in-Christ!
Click the link to see Gayle’s story on Diet Doctor!
How Gayle managed to change her life to the better at 66
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I have fondly nicknamed my little group of Keto and LCHF friends my “FBFs”. My FAT-BURNING FRIENDS. It’s a little play on BFFs…get it? I have a group of friends (and some friends of friends) in a private group that I originally named “Sugar is the Devil!”. Because, let’s face it – SUGAR is the devil in our journey to health and wellness. This is my Keto Crew, my Keto Tribe – my Fat-Burning Friends.
Can you feel the JOY?!?
Keto is so fun with a group of friends. I really hope if you are reading this that you have some supportive people in your life. If not, feel free to interact here – I’ve made some great virtual Keto friends on this journey, too!
It was a little hard at first making Keto friends. As people started noticing my significant and fast weight loss, they started asking questions. I like to joke around and got a huge kick out of faces when I told them I eat bacon every day. Yes. Really. Bacon every day! Bacon is LIFE! As each week in my Keto journey passed, I added them into my Keto Crew one by one. Bacon is a strong pull, y’all! Put some bacon on a stick and they will follow! Anyhow…now I have a lot of Keto friends and they have all blessed my life. It’s just wonderful having people in your life that truly understand the weight that obesity and metabolic dysfunctions have on your spiritual, physical, and emotional health.
The other day I hosted a luncheon with my FBFs after church. It was a fabulous time. Everyone brought a unique Keto or LCHF dish, and we all got to sample what we liked. And by sample, I mean there was so many dishes that we really did have only about a tablespoon of each thing. Gotta watch for that carb creep! We shared recipes, talked about the triumphs and trials of walking the walk in our Keto life, and had lots of laughs.
We will be meeting at least monthly to do something like this. Our focus is going to be some sort of bible study fellowship. We all agree that we want to get healthy – spiritually which leads to physically which leads to emotionally which leads to our joyful keto lives!
Our joy is overflowing, and I give these friends a lot of credit for their dedication and desire to keep chugging along to better health. I’m so proud of all of them (and many more not pictured), I wanted to share them with you! Here’s some pictures of our gathering – the food spread and some group shots.
Some of my FBFs were agreeable to share their stories! I am so proud and happy for their successes! Check out their beautiful transformations:
Linda: After starting the Keto/Intermittent Fasting lifestyle I finally lost the final 25 lbs I’d been trying to lose for years in less than 2 months effortlessly. I’m still amazed by how great I feel and how easy it was to take the weight off and keep it off!
Sandy: Since starting my Keto WOE in October 2017, I have lost 55 lbs and 40″ as of this morning. I was feeling sluggish and the onset of diabetes. That is all gone! More energy, able to walk long distances without hurting, sleeping much better and less which allows me more time to serve others. Making new friends and able to help others. Spiritually, I have more joy and peace and happiness which allows me to show others as I continue to seek Him! God is good!
Christina: 70lbs down, no more using a cane to walk, no more need for pain meds in order to sleep!
Dottie: Improved health markers include no more IBS symptoms and approximately 35lbs lost.
Aren’t those amazing transformations?!? I hope to add more stories to this page as my FBFs dare to share!
Share your successes with me via my CONTACT page. I absolutely love reading success stories!
And as always, Choose Joy!