It’s been a while since I’ve talked about weight loss on here, and for good reason: I haven’t been losing.
As I mentioned back in February, my wife and I tapered off our excitement about following the semi-Paleo for several months. By the end of March, we were barely sticking to the plan. Then my wife went to visit her sister, and went with her to her nutritionist.
Cue the dramatic “BUM-BUM-BUUUUUUUMMMMMM.”
We’ve gone full keto — as in ketogenic. (EDIT: Okay, it’s “modified ketogenic.” Not a pure keto plan, but very similar.) Basically, drastically reducing your carb intake so that your body starts burning fat instead of sugar for energy. It’s supposed to be good for weight loss and controlling blood sugar (and seizures, apparently, which is weird).
I’m pretty sure I can already hear some of you health-minded folks loading up all your concerned comments about high-fat, high-protein diets. Hold your fire, please; I’ve been doing research, and continue to do research, so I’m aware of potential pitfalls with that kind of dietary shift. And to tell you the truth, there’s still some part of me that’s wary this is just a gimmick diet. But I have committed to my beloved spouse that I’m going to give this a real try with her, so I’m in for the penny, in for the hopefully-many-fewer pounds.
Know what I’m realizing? Carbs are everywhere. Everywhere. That breath of air you just inhaled? It’s full of carbs. Go ahead and mark it 8, dude.
Kidding aside, it’s been challenging to make the necessary adjustments, but I’ve also eased my way into it. (Someone’s got to eat the not-quite-on-plan food around the house. I am that hero.) But I’m getting down to the meat of the meal plan, so to speak, and it’s…not easy. I’m sure I haven’t even hit the hard part yet, but I’m seeing how it’s going to push me.
At this very moment, I’ve got a rumbly belly. Good thing is, my brilliant wife sent me with a bunch of chow to hold off the hunger pains. Thankful for her.
After a week or so of her fully on board, and me slowly coming on board, we are collectively down about 15 pounds. I know that’s just the big drop that happens on Week 1 of any new eating plan, but it still makes me hopeful. We’ll see in a month. (Yes, I’ll talk about this again.)
Not only that, but once I stop coughing up solids (I’ve been sick for the past week or so), I’m starting a Couch-to-5K program. Yeah, boy, getting back to run/jog/waddling.
It’s the beginning of May. Time to shake off the pollen-coated funk that’s knocked me down for weeks and get serious about getting healthy again.
Who’s with me?
The4thDave Blog 
You or I are terrible accountability partners. We both said we were doing this in January, and here I am in May and I’m on “Day 3” {again} of losing weight.
I’m sorta relieved to read your post and see I’m not alone. Wife is in it WITH ME this time, though, so I know success is on the horizon.
Nothing wrong with Atkins if it works for you. You want some advice? Do it it the way it was originally intended, without all the fake no-carb sweeteners so you can still feel like you’re eating dessert. Just enjoy the steak, bacon, almonds, eggs, cheese, etc. and forget bread and sweets.
Make lettuce wraps instead of sandwiches. Cover bowls of salad in taco meat instead of a tortilla. It’s rather easy if done with your wife. And eat a lot of the good veggies. That’s usually the first thing to be forgotten.
Yay, I’m so happy for you! I don’t know if you remember, but keto is my jive. In fact the other day I was thinking I should tell you about it, because I don’t think I have? But maybe I have. Anyway, this is the best lifestyle diet. It is so tasty. Fat is good and natural and healthy and sugar is crack. I need to do a blog post of my favorite recipes or something, for you guys to see. Lately I have been making some wicked awesome homemade ice cream.
Also Netflix had a great documentary on this. Fed Up.
About artificial sweeteners… I definitely do use them, just because it’s the difference between me being at a healthy weight and not. (I love dessert.) In a perfect world, everything I eat would be natural. Start slow, I say, stick to the core principles. Some people cut out diet soda. It helps them lose weight. Some people, like me, don’t need to do that.
I think you mentioned it when I posted about our pseudo-paleo attempts, but I didn’t follow up then. When I started looking into the plan and realized it was similar to keto, I remembered you had been using it.
Love the title, by the way. Took me a minute.
Thanks! I try to keep things fun here at the 4DB.
To clarify: what we are doing isn’t technically Atkins, because it’s controlled protein intake and higher-than-normal but still limited fat intake. I have target numbers to hit every day on the macronutrients. So it’s not like an all-out meat binge, because there comes a point when that’s bad for your system. (Duh, right?) High emphasis on organic/grass-fed/grass-finished meat, too. Basically, making sure what my “food” eats is good stuff as well.
And it’s not technically Keto because we aren’t eating pork, and there are some other food restrictions that Keto allows. We’re eating lots of eggs. LOTS. OF. EGGS. And lots and lots of vegetables. There is a HEAVY focus on clean food and cutting out processed things. The only artificial sweeteners we’re using are stevia and xylotol. It’s pretty intense, but it’s going okay so far.