Keto was an answered prayer to me. Having been slenderish most of my life, I began gaining weight first with the loss of my dad and then 7 years later during the sickness and death of my mother. I was a miserable person.
I lost weight and gained it back several times over the next 8 years until I was the most unhappy person I knew. To cover it, I drank a lot to mask the feelings. I prayed urgently for strength and courage until one morning, at work, I found Ruled.me.
I read the website through and through and downloaded the 30 day plan immediately. I was able to follow those first couple of weeks without a problem and the weight started coming off. That was March 2018 and 97 pounds ago!
Thank you Ruled.me for the continued new recipes, Facebook group and showing me a whole new outlook on life. I go into 2020 happy, healthy and confident.
My Keto Story
Keto was an answered prayer to me and to my family. Having been slender most of my life, I began gaining weight first with the loss of my dad in 2002 and then 7 years later during the sickness and death of my mother. I was a miserable person because I am from the “Twiggy era” when we were taught that we had to be thin, thin, thin and that has stuck with me for life. I was obsessed with losing weight, the scale, my size, all of that, and my mind raced constantly on that subject like the song that never ends. Even being in that state, I continued to turn to food in hospital cafeterias, during the midnight shifts when everyone else was asleep, etc., and I even started to “sleep eat” a lot.
I lost weight and gained it back several times over the next 8 years. Already a drinker, I really began to drink heavily to mask the feelings of inadequacy and loss. I was everyone’s friend, always up for a party but dying inside. After a night of drinking ended, I had no “off” button to tell me to stop, so I would eat, eat, eat and then go to bed. I weighed 227 pounds.
I prayed urgently and fervently for strength and courage to change my life but would get up the next day and start over again on repeat. One morning at work I randomly found Ruled.me. I read the website through and through and immediately downloaded the 30 day plan. I had done Atkins, so I was familiar with the low carb concept but had no idea what a great change this would be for me. I followed those first two weeks detail by detail and started to lose weight. I bought all the pantry necessities, used the grocery lists and started preparing new recipes for the first time in a long while. (It helps that I really enjoy cooking. I got that from my mom.) I tried to make it into a fun routine, eating the dishes, deciding which ones we liked, discarding those that we didn’t like, and it just worked.
I ordered “The Ketogenic Diet” in softcover from Amazon. I again read it from cover to cover, making sure I understood certain concepts like “macro” instead of just glossing over them as I read. After that, I ordered two different keto cookbooks but found that they didn’t quite fit my style of cooking, so I began to collect and compose my own personal cookbook, starting with the 30 day plan recipes from Ruled.me and adding ones as I came across them. It is a simple 3-ring binder, separated by meals and then condiments, but it is well used! Again, my go-to recipes seem to come from the Ruled.me website, time and again. My husband and I love the Cauliflower Shrimp Curry which was introduced in week two I believe, and we keep a big shaker of that particular combination of spices mixed at all times. It is our go-to for flavoring meats for the smoker or grill. Our house BBQ sauce is found with the Pulled Chicken recipe and we use it on everything.
To come from the person I was that March to who I am today has been life saving. I knew that I had to choose a lifestyle and identify with it. I don’t know why I found Ruled.me, but when I did I knew it was the answer. In order to get to my current weight, I did set measurable, obtainable goals along the way. I was almost obsessive with following the directions. If the website said to buy NOW Splenda, then I bought that brand. I added all of the supplements that were suggested and I journaled everything! At first I used basic college ruled paper and made my own pages, and at year end, 2018, I purchased my first fitness journal, the Commit30 product. (Just opened my 2020 one yesterday.) I highly recommend this journal because it encourages you to set small goals. Each month there is a page for goal setting and a place to explain whether or not those goals were met. It is so much fun to see month after month and to be able to go back and review the progress.
All of this began in March 2018 and 97 pounds ago! Don’t get me wrong, I have messed up along the way, but this is too important to me and my peace of mind. Coworkers and friends have asked for advice and I tell them to go to the website, read it from start to finish and do what it says to do. Get an app on your phone to track your macros and use it religiously. Readjust your macros as you lose and use them. There have been doubters along the way who call keto unhealthy, but those people are the ones who are not educated in the facts behind the diet. My bloodwork went askew early in the process, but in September I was told that I had one of the healthiest lipid panels they had seen from a patient my age.
My journey continues daily. As I mentioned above, alcohol was a real issue in my life and I was able to put that down 18 months ago. I feel that there is a precious balance in my life of maintaining my keto lifestyle with my abstinence. I sometimes have a hard time believing that I wear a size 6, so I will order larger things, but even that mindset is changing. There have been struggles, but life is so much better now that I am able to get in the floor with my grandchildren and enjoy playtime, along with doing those crunches while I am down there. Keto on!
