Since about July 24th, I have been on a diet. I have had a few days where I did not keep to it but for the most part I have been very good about sticking to it. The Ketogenic Diet. On the surface it seems easy enough. But there are some things you don't expect when you go on it. Let me attempt to sum up the diet quickly. It is basically a way to get your body to run on fat instead of carbohydrates. You lower the amount of carbohydrates you take in per day to an amount MOST people are not used to (I do 20 net carbs). You avoid sugar as much as possible. You keep the amount of protein that you consume to a minimal level (unless you are doing considerable weight lifting). Here is this part that is different, you make up for all these by increasing the amount of fat you consume in your food. This will help you to feel full. Sounds easy enough.
The problem is that we as a country have been hooked on sugar for a long time. It is so ingrained in the way we eat overall that you probably don't even realize how much sugar is in everything you consume. When you start looking at how many carbs are in the foods we take for granted, you start to see how it would be easy to gain weight or have a problem with sugar. I try to stay under 20 net carbs a day. A 12oz can of soda; 36 carbs. Things like this blew my mind. So if you drink a 24 oz soda, you would have 3 days worth of carbs on this diet. How full are you after drinking a bottle of soda? It is crazy. What makes it harder, for me at least, is that I enjoy the foods with carbs. I enjoy a soda. Even though it is bad for me. I was fortunate because I gave up soda about a month before I started the Keto diet. I feel that would have been the biggest hurtle for me. Not to mention that I have a sweet tooth (much like others in my family). It makes it hard to go into a store when you are bombarded with choices that are filled to the brim with high fructose corn syrup or some other form of sweetener.
However, let me say that this diet DOES work. In the time that I write this, I have dropped 2 pants sizes and the current one is very loose on me. I am in the market for a new belt (or about to make new holes because I ran our of holes to tighten). I'm about half a size away from the next size down on my pants. I have had to pull clothes that I had planned to donate because they were too small so I would have some clothes that fit better. I do not sit hungry throughout the day (as with a lot of other diets). I do get hungry but I can go longer between meals. One day I had to work a lot of hours and visit sick relatives and I only ate at 7:00am not eating again until 1:00am the next night (about 18 hours) and only had water to drink. From what I have read, this diet will work even faster if I increased the amount of activity that I am able to do. This has been tricky due to taking the time not being very convenient.
So the next step in my improvement will be to increase my activity. I had attempted to run in the mornings at the end of the summer. This was working until I overdid it and hurt my foot. This got me out of the habit and caused me to not get started again. I have put together some things to make my own "backyard weight room"; a sledge hammer, a couple 5 gallon water jugs. I need to get some heavy chains and an old tractor tire which will give me plenty of stuff to work with. If you know where someone might acquire those for little to no money, please let me know.
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