Hi all!!

My one year keto anniversary is coming up on October 13th I believe. I am going to be out of town for that week so I decided to post this a bit early. I am off for a few days. HURRAY! And this is one of the things I had planned to do. I am hoping this post will help someone out there navigate through the ketogenic way of eating and get some insights for support, food and ideas that might help. Also want to give a big shout out to this forums members. I couldn't have asked to be around a more supportive and caring bunch! It was because of you all I took the leap of faith.

I started my weight loss in end of July beginning of August 2016 with straight CICO way of eating. Did it work? Yes. To a degree. However I found myself constantly STARVING and so tired ... so danged tired. As a 5'6", 198lb, 54 year old woman MFP set me up with around 1300 calories to lose 1lb a week. I felt that was fair as a lightly active older woman. For a couple of weeks I played around with macros and trying to find more to eat for less, etc, etc. I was hitting a wall with being tired and hungry all the time. To be fair, being tired was one of the wake up calls for me to drop some poundage to begin with so it wasn't just lower calories that caused that particular issue. It just seemed to make it worse.

I did some investigating in the main forums and out and about on the internet to try and nip this stuff in the bud when I ran across Keto. I thought it was crazy! I mean c'mon, who lives with out breads and pastas right? Don't get me started on potatos, chips and sugar. That's all normal stuff, right? I was looking for balance, not restriction. I also was looking for information on pre-diabetes because of my husbands 6.1 A1C number. Here comes that keto stuff again and I am all about no fad dieting so I ignored it. Until I couldn't anymore. Two months into the CICO stuff I couldn't hack it and was ready to give up and just be fat. Tired doesn't even come close to what I was experiencing. Weightloss was very slow. I was tracking and logging and weighing and measuring my brains out for about a 4lb loss over 2 months. After tons of research, asking to join this forum, asking questions and reading every possible sticky and info given in posts until my eyes bled I decided to give this "fad" way of eating a try. I am so, SO very thankful that I did and 6 months later my husband followed me and began eating this way himself. Thank the Gods because cooking two different meals every day was a PITA!!

After about a month I started feeling ... well normal. All the things I attributed to aging such as being tired and not sleeping well and having no energy began to fade. I had my mis-steps as everyone does at some point but all in all the process was easy. I paid attention to my salt. Had NO "keto flu". I continued to log my food and stay within calories and around 20grams net carbs. Weight started to literally fall off. My sleep apnea started getting better and I was feeling fantastic within about 2 months. Now, a year later, I feel like I did when I was in my 30's. My mind is clear, my body WANTS to exercise, I have steady energy all day long. I get up at 4:30am work from 7-3:30 get home about 4:30pm and deal with our animals, make dinner, make sure the dog gets exercise AND myself through cycling or kettlebells, whatever strikes my fancy that day and I have energy for ALL of it. I no longer think or feel I can't make it through the day. This way of eating has been a blessing! I reached goal weight (130 lbs) in May and have been maintaining this way of eating even now and will continue to do so. BTW my husbands A1C is now 5.4 ... both of our health marker numbers are in the good to ideal range! I still believe in CICO but have learned the make up of that differs for each individual. I also will never be someone who advocates eating 800 calories a day because "I'm not hungry." Have I had days like that? Yup! And it's fine. The problem comes into play when this lasts for longer than a couple of days. It can and will be damaging IMHO.

What I have noticed with this way of eating is I believe it puts off people who are on a budget. The following is more geared towards them because I think it's important to understand you do NOT have to break the bank to eat this way.

Grassfed vs NON grassfed - Is it necessary? No it isn't. Do I believe grassfed is better? Yes I do. But if you can't afford it, don't let it stop you. We take an extra fish oil capsule to help balance out the more Omega 6 problem that can occur in non-grassfed meats. I buy grassfed when I can but if it's not in the budget I don't fret about it. Same with Organics. Yes I like them better. But my checkbook doesn't always say I can afford it. I buy what's on sale and what I can reasonably afford and have done just fine. Fish can be crazy expensive. I buy tuna on sale and sometimes shrimp and salmon but those are rare times. Make this way of eating fit within your budget and don't fret if you can't afford the expensive stuff.

Keep your food choices simple to keep your economics in check. That doesn't mean you have to eat "boring". Learn to use spices and different foods that pair well together and you'll enjoy this way of eating a LOT more than feeling pressure to put up a fancy dinner every night. I don't always have time to make sauces and my own mayo and all that other stuff as you can see from my schedule. Find brands of food you can rely on and read the labels. Bertolli's Alfredo vs Rao's for example. Virtually same carb count but much much cheaper on the pocket! When Bertolli's is on sale I can often get 4 jars of it for the price of one jar of Rao's. Big difference!

On sweet deprivation - This is going to be unpopular probably but ... Okay so I am coming at this from a person who is lucky enough to not have diabetes. Yes hubby was pre-diabetic and we do watch what sweetners I use because of that but we are not into deprivation. If I want something sweet I will make it and use Stevia or something else I have around to give me that taste I am looking for. There is NOTHING wrong with it as long as it doesn't mess with your blood sugar or cause you a binging problem. For ME binging gets started with one potato chip. I don't have them in the house any more for obvious reasons but I can relate to the binge effect of certain foods because of that. Know yourself and know what you can and can't do.

I hope I was able to help someone out. Relieve some doubts and not manage to tick people off! That's not what I was trying to do. If there's questions, feel free to ask!

Keep calm and keto on my friends!