Weight loss journey
I have already written about my battles with my weight in a previous blog. Some of us have unfortunately developed poor eating habits along the way and changing these is difficult. In 2021, I embarked on a keto diet, starting on January 1st. I lost 17 kg in all but in March, the following year, when I travelled away and then contracted Covid, those eating restrictions went out the window. By the end of 2022 I had gained all of that lost weight.
At the end of March this year I decided to resume keto again, after failed attempts at eating less and cutting out sugar. It was just too hard to cut out those carbs. I have always known I have a sugar addiction, but I do believe I have a carb addiction as well. And like all addictions, the only way I have found to beat them, is to cut them out of the diet completely. A little bit just fuels the craving for more, whereas none, after a few days, stops the craving altogether. It was like this when I smoked cigarettes. Cutting down to about five per day didn’t work. I had to give them up completely.
There is a very good keto Facebook page which I have been following, where everything keto is discussed. People share information and tips from their own keto journey. I have read that the weight loss is much slower for second timers and also there is often a stall a few weeks in. Knowing this is helpful because the advice that comes with this knowledge is to stick with it. I could easily imagine many people would throw the towel in if they weren’t seeing results. I am sticking with it. Before I went to the Mind, Body event I was stalled at a particular weight. While away, I was as careful as I could be with my eating, choosing a pumpkin soup both days for lunch and a Thai meal in the evenings – no rice, bread or noodles or anything else other than copious amounts of water. I was shocked, therefore, when I climbed back on the scales on the Monday, expecting to have lost some weight and found that I was instead, 1.2 kg heavier. I was also aware that some of this could have been water weight, retained when one eats carbs. My soup and meals probably contained more carbs than I had thought.
I went back to eating my normal meals and this morning, yay, my weight was 400gm less than the weight I had been stalled on, before I went away. Stephen and I had to go up town this morning. A parcel had been sent up from Wellington, via my brother’s friend. We arranged to meet at the supermarket. I decided to nip in and stock-up on some stores that were running low, seeing as I was in town. Stephen requested a filled roll from the deli section. These were the nicest filled rolls I had eaten in years – made every morning at the supermarket using their freshly baked rolls. I decided to have one too. Now this definitely was not keto. It will be interesting to see just how much damage this does. With the keto diet, it relies on us restricting carbs to about 20 grams per day, so that the body then uses the fats stored in our bodies, for fuel. Each time we eat carbs we slip out of ketosis, delaying the weight loss.
Now this deviation is my own fault. I am really serious about wanting to lose that extra weight yet I have to question myself just how serious I really am. We were in town, it wouldn’t have been difficult to have found something keto to have eaten.
However, I did deviate, but tomorrow is another day. For readers’ interest I am 5kg down on my starting weight. The goal is 20kg more.