Two months ago my husband and I embarked on a journey that
has resulted in a huge lifestyle change. We began and are still taking part in
a ketogenic diet lifestyle change.
What is a ketogenic diet?
To get you started I have listed some resources that Nate
and I are frequently checking into. Yes… I’ve listed reddit as a source, but
please don’t let that scare you away.
In a nutshell the ketogenic diet lifestyle change is
as follows: of your daily calorie intake 70-75% of those should be calories
from fat… yes FAT, 20-25% of them should come from protein, with 5-10% coming
from carbohydrates. CALORIES ARE NOT RESTRICTED, but you should be mindful of
what you are eating.
But wait… Isn’t this just Atkins?
More or less, yes it is, except I am not spending tons of money
buying premade meals containing who knows what still hiding inside them. I am
taking charge of my own life and body by choosing the right path for me.
Why the ketogenic lifestyle change?
As with any diet lifestyle change, I started with the
personal problem of being overweight. No one was telling me this or saying
anything nasty to me, but in all reality I was 5 foot 8 inches and 193 pounds…
do some number crunching for yourself and you will find that a size of that
proportion is in fact overweight. I also had a friend’s wedding approaching and
my bridesmaid dress did not want to fit, so I knew I had some work to do.
After complaining to my husband at how horrible I feel about
myself and how crappy I look, he finally took it upon himself to propose to me
for the second time. Only this proposal was quite different, this proposal
would not lead to a lifetime of love for each other, but rather a lifetime of
love for our bodies. Let’s rewind about 10 months ago…
We were on our way to being married and I was sitting at a
plateauing weight of about 178-180 pounds. I had been stressed with wedding
planning without real time to think about eating everything in sight. After we
exchanged I Do’s and settled down into what would be our day-to-day lives I
started thinking about being more “health conscious.” We would go grocery
shopping and I would immediately seize all of the 100 calorie, low/reduced fat,
lean foods that were lining the shelves. I started taking part in replacing one
of my meals a day with a protein shake to help myself cut the calories. I was
making healthier choices for my body… or so I thought. Over the months I
watched my weight fluctuate from between 178-180 lbs to 180-183 lbs to 183-185
lbs until finally I had reached my breaking point of stepping on the scale and
reading 193 lbs. What had I done to myself? I was leading a fairly active
lifestyle while eating all of these healthier foods! (There is where my
problems were growing.)
If you inspect all of these so called “healthy” foods, you
will notice all of the added sugar these companies put in to compensate for the
lack of fat. Why do they add sugar? The companies add in the extra sugar to
make the food taste better. When they get rid of the fat, they get rid of the
flavor, so they need to replace it with sugar. So while on this very high sugar
diet I unknowingly put myself on from lack of education, I was becoming
addicted to sugar. A lot of people may say that a sugar addiction is pure
fiction, but when I first started my keto diet lifestyle change and
kicked all sugar to the curb, I found myself balled up on my kitchen floor throwing
a major tantrum with my husband because he wouldn’t let me take a step
backwards and eat a girl scout cookie that was staring me in the face. If
wailing for a cookie on the kitchen floor in front of your husband isn’t a sign
of a problem then I don’t know what is.
After that I vowed to do something differently, and I can
proudly say that two months later I have said sayonara to sugar and I have
dropped 20 lbs! I am feeling more active and better about my body. I am not
constantly hungry and wanting more snacks all the time. I am not going to lie,
it was very difficult in the beginning weeks. There are temptations all around,
and not everyone is considerate towards your dietary needs. You will need to
look out for yourself and plan ahead if you are participating in any sort of
special occasion where there will be a lot of sugary snacks/drinks. It is your
job to work around what is going on, not make everyone work around you. You
need to have discipline… if you want to make this lifestyle change, then you
need to take charge.
I am by no means an expert in this field. I am only doing
what I feel is the right thing for my body. If you are interested in making a
lifestyle change for yourself such as this one please please PLEASE do the
proper research and consult with your physician if you need to do so. I only
know what this has done for me, and I can only share that much. I call it a lifestyle change rather than a diet for 2 reasons: 1. you really do need to change up a lot of your life if you are used to eating the way I once ate, 2. I personally feel that diets have a negative stigma associated with them.
Mrs. Imparato
P.S.
If you have not seen this documentary, then I highly recommend it. "Fed Up"
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