The Diet

Yesterday a reader had sent me an email or left a comment and said it was hard to get back on the keto diet, or any diet for that matter I suppose, after having been off it. I don’t think so simply because I feel so much better when I’m on it. I have not gotten to my goal weight, I have not gotten great results from my blood tests so I still want to accomplish those two things.

There are two things that are hard for me: Day and night! No . . not really. What’s hard for me:

• When I’m in Missouri – I cook for Chad, Nicole and Addie. We go out to eat and some of the places, it’s hard to eat healthy. We go eat sushi and Addie and I share a couple of varieties. They both have rice. If I go out to eat anywhere, I’m having a Dr. Pepper. Addie likes to bake with me so we usually bake a cake or cookies, or both, depending on how long I’m there. Chad likes to make root beer floats because he really does make the best and I’ve always bragged about his floats. I could stick to the diet but part of enjoying my time with them is doing the things we’ve always enjoyed doing together so I don’t worry about.
• When Vince and I are traveling – When I travel by myself, I take cheese sticks, pepperoni, salami, boiled eggs . . I eat in the car while going down the road. Vince wants to stop – McDonald’s, Mexican restaurants, Italian restaurants, Panda Express. Yes, I could eat keto food at those places, but I don’t. Again, we travel so rarely, we just eat and enjoy it.

One thing that really helps keep me motivated with the diet, whether we’re just getting back on it or been on it for several months, is to watch some of the fat people documentaries. Last night we watched one where there were two men, about our age. They both went on this program with the help of several support members in the medical field. One started out doing great, lost a good bit of weight but after a few months slacked off. By the time they did his blood work again, all his markers were worse than when he originally started, and they were bad then. The other man, he had been so miserable with himself, that his wife of many years had left him. He snored horribly and she said there was no way she could sleep anywhere in the house with his snoring. He did great on the diet. I don’t remember how much he lost . . I think it was about 80 pounds; got back in the jeans he wore in college, stopped snoring, went back to running marathons and was running them in shorter times than he had done 10 or 12 years before. He turned around his heart disease and pre-diabetes. Those kinds of stories make me want to keep eating healthy.

There are tons of those shows on TV. We only have Hulu and Prime so that’s where Vince finds them. Some can get a little weird but there are plenty that seem “normal” and are very encouraging.

So, we’re back on the diet. Surprisingly, I’ve only gained 3 pounds and we’ve really never gotten 100% back on it since I left for MO in mid-May. I always said that it isn’t what I eat but it’s what I drink (Dr. Pepper) that caused me to gain weight. I’m still not drinking them like I used to. I may have been having 3 per week but for the next few weeks, I’m back to having none.

Once again, I’ll begin showing what we’re eating and doing our weight loss reports – not to brag about what we’re doing but hopefully to encourage those who need a little encouragement.