My husband and I both have full-time jobs. I am in healthcare, and he is a business owner. We are both in our upper 40’s and want to be as active and healthy as possible. It was close to 3 years ago that my husband came across the Ketogenic diet while looking for something to help alleviate pain and inflammation.
In his 20’s and 30’s, this wasn’t an issue. He was able to do all the activities he enjoyed, like playing tennis and the drums in a Heavy Metal band. Fast forward to his early to mid 40’s when all of this started to catch up with him, and there was the possibility of needing surgery.
I was also in my early 40’s. I had tons of fertility issues, constipation, inflammation, weight gain, skin issues, leaky gut. I felt miserable. I had several surgeries to reverse the female problems caused by hormones that were probably partially related to my diet over the years.
Where does everyone go to look when we have questions now? The internet, of course, so my husband started to look things up on how to get rid of inflammation naturally. At the time, neither he or I had heard of the Ketogenic diet. While at an appointment with a medical specialist, he mentioned an ancestral diet, also suggesting that we minimize our intake of processed foods and common allergens like dairy and focus on healthy sources of fat and protein. Miraculously, while researching what my specialist just told us along with ways to recover from injuries naturally through diet and exercise without the daily doses of Ibuprofen or Tylenol, he kept seeing Keto mentioned. Not knowing what Keto even was, he thought he should backtrack and research what kept popping up. Immediately after reading up on Keto, specifically, some of the new studies and case histories, my husband became excited and wanted to learn more about this diet.
One night he started to tell me about it. I too became intrigued. I felt like what he was telling me sounded too good to be true, and I didn’t feel too hot myself. We had already tried several things like Paleo and juice fasting. They seemed to help some, but they were both too hard for us without a lot of time to prepare the foods, and we didn’t stick with it. We also tried Weight Watchers for a bit. We were hungry all the time and didn’t like that the diet allowed so many processed, nutrient-poor foods and preservatives already widely known to cause inflammation and disease, so we stopped doing it. For us, it wasn’t just about losing weight. We wanted to feel better, live an active life and try to resolve issues naturally.
Married for ten years at this time and I have put on about 22 lbs, and he had put on about 30. Even though we thought we were eating semi-healthy, slowly the weight was creeping up. It wasn’t just the weight gain but all the things that came along with it. Being tired, brain fog, aching joints, lack of motivation, skin issues, etc…. We knew we needed to do something before we required prescription medications and surgery. I was on thyroid medication and wanted to see if I could get off of it.
One night my husband suggested that it may be the time for us both to sit down and learn about Keto. We read articles, hundreds of medical studies, journals, and watched videos and listened to related conferences every night for months. He wanted to make sure we were going to do this right, so we didn’t do the opposite and make things worse. We set a start date. First, we had to get rid of all of our processed foods in our pantry, cabinets, and refrigerator. We had way more than we could have ever imagined. Next, we had to go out and buy groceries. Once we had accomplished this, we began our new lifestyle. We never looked back. It was the best decision we ever made.
In the first few months, I had lost 17 lbs, and my husband had lost almost 30 pounds, but more than even the weight my mind was clear for the first time in over ten years. I always felt like I was in a fog. I was not able to listen to a conversation fully. My mind would drift off on car rides. I felt numb minded. I couldn’t even carry on a conversation with my husband on our 2 ½ hour car drive to visit my family. His inflammation was gone. The pain he had inquired about with the surgeon had subsided, and he would no longer need surgery.
I took myself off of the thyroid medications that I had been on for eight years. My Dr. advised me that I would need to take the medication forever, but I just felt like it wasn’t helping me. Initially, I had all the symptoms of hypothyroid, but my TSH numbers were not terrible. The medication would be because of my symptoms. I started to think maybe my diet had caused everything and I wanted to test it, so I took myself off and eight months later had bloodwork. I went to my Dr. and told him I had taken myself off, and he looked at my numbers and couldn’t believe it. He said I was an inspiration. He could see how good I felt and that I had lost weight and now with my numbers, he told me I no longer needed the medication and that I would not need to see him again unless my symptoms returned. He said, believe me, you will know if you need to be back on the medication. It has been almost three years, and I haven’t had any of those symptoms.
My husband and I decided we wanted to help other people feel as good as we do now. We did help several of our friends. Our families were a little harder to convince. Most of them decided not to try it, even though they could see the difference in us.
In the past six months, I was diagnosed with Stage 1 invasive Lobular breast cancer and found out that I have the BRCA2 gene. This gene is likely the reason I developed breast cancer since it was hormone related, but I had also taken around ten years of fertility meds, so I believe it was a combination of things. Luckily I was on the Ketogenic diet, so this kept my glucose levels down. Glucose feeds cancer, and I honestly believe this diet is what helped prevent me from needing radiation and chemo since the disease did not reach the lymph nodes.
We have decided that by starting this blog, we could let others know what we have done to make ourselves grow as individuals. To pursue our dreams of being healthy, active, and positive so that we can share these gifts with people. We want to enjoy our lives, but we want to help people in the process of it all. So if you are interested in learning more about how we have changed our lives over the past several years to become much healthier and happier individuals, please read our blog.
Remember, before starting any new diet; you should always consult a physician to make sure it is the right fit for you. Not all foods work the same for everyone, and you may have to modify it for your individual needs. Type 1 diabetics aren’t generally good candidates because they are insulin-dependent.
Thank you for stopping by, and we hope you enjoy our blog!!!
