Magic

I made through my 24 hour fast today and it wasn't super difficult. Because I maintain a ketogenic diet, my body is primed to burn fat (instead of carbs) for fuel when I'm not eating. The extra ketones I am creating by eating low carb and moderate fat are helping to prevent muscle wasting and glucose responses, while my body renews cells (autophagy). I ended up having a few episodes of growling stomach at the 17½ hour mark and again at the 18½ hour mark, but they passed quickly. I drank cold black coffee, plain water and unsweetened herbal tea. I broke my fast shortly after noon with my normal lunch, tuna with cream cheese wrapped in a sheet of seaweed. Yum! My body buzzed when I ate and I was perfectly satisfied with a normal sized meal. This morning while walking my dog, I tripped on uneven sidewalk and fell on my hip and elbow. I was embarrassed because there were cars going past but this was well before sunrise so hopefully they didn't see me. I bounced back up quickly so as not to make a scene. Despite having 3 layers of clothes on (it was only 43 degrees F this morning) I managed to scape my elbow and my hip was hurting and snapping during the walk home. I get mad when I get hurt, as if the universe somehow wronged me, but today I just marveled at how lucky I was that I didn't get injured. If I hadn't gotten on this path to a healthier lifestyle, I can't imagine the damage a fall like that could have done to me! So today, I made a choice to focus on the positive because I have spent my whole life focusing on the negative. Today was supposed to be a strength training day but I wasn't sure how it would go since my forearm, elbow and hip all felt swollen. But I remembered back to a Mindy Pelz video I'd watched recently that said if you lose weight slower it could be because cortisol is higher in the mornings. Besides delaying your morning coffee 1 hour (because caffeine also raises cortisol) she said one of the best ways to help burn off that cortisol is to exercise. I knew my adrenaline and cortisol were high after falling, so instead of not working out because of the fall, I decided to find a strength workout with no weight. I chose a pilates workout from my Peleton app. It's included in their strength training program so I still count it as such. There was a lot of focus on abs, and I tend to dread that but it's because my abs are weak. So I challenged myself to stay with it. After I finished my workout and went upstairs to start work, I realized that I hadn't even thought about my fall since I got home, and I wasn't sore anymore. The body is an amazing thing! I regret not taking measurements at the beginning of the month but I did take measurements September 5 and have lost an inch in some areas in just one month. I have lost a total of 8 inches off my waist and 9 inches off my hips since I started this 2 years ago, and have lost a total of 47 pounds as of today's weigh in of 159.0. Today I did a BMI calculator just to see where I'm at for comparison. I don't put total faith in it as a measure of health, but before I started keto my BMI was 40.2, morbidly obese. Today it is 31.0, which is at the low end of obese. I figured out that I have to get to 153 pounds or less to just be "overweight". That's only 6 pounds away! I think I would have to get down to 124 to be considered a "normal weight" according to BMI. That sounds unrealistic to me, but I am eating this way as a lifestyle and don't plan to stop no matter what weight I am. Other than motivating myself with challenges, I don't really care how long it takes to get to my goal weight, whatever that may be. That time is going to pass whether I am losing weight or not, and eating this way makes me feel so much better than I did eating whatever foods numbed me. There's no magic outside of yourself. I started keto when I didn't feel ready, and once the biochemical process of detoxing from sugars was complete, I stopped craving it. It makes my food issues all but disappear. What a fantastic sense of peace it brings to not obsess over food! I am feeling really grateful lately, that I had the gumption to try keto, that I dove in when I was still partially rebelling against the idea of another "diet". I am grateful for the doctors who are sharing the knowledge on YouTube (Ken Berry, Annette Bosworth, Mindy Pelz, Jason Fung) so I can understand the science behind it and how to work that knowledge to my advantage. And grateful that keto is a way of life instead of a diet, and surrounded by an amazing community. After all these years of struggling I finally found what works for me, and I wish the same for everyone who has struggled to lose weight.