It has be a significant time since I written in this blog.
I first thought I'd be chronicling my lifestyle changes as I changed it in small ways.
Instead I changed a huge part of my life of my life by giving up sugar and starch for the past 3 months. That endevour seem to take up all my energy to keep up. So this blog fell by the wayside.
The effort paid off with more than a twenty pounds weight loss but more importantly my size reduction makes putting on a seat-belt again possible. (It is the little things that motivate me.)
But as pleased as I am with the results, I'm worried that it is coming at the cost of my health.
You see, I lost the weight by following a pseudo Ketogenic diet. I say pseudo because the advocates of this lifestyle will tell you that your food needs to be GMO - free and grass-fed and organically produced. (Which is all code for expensive.) "Keto is more than going to Wendy's and throwing away the bun," they say. (Which is pretty much what I was doing.)
I realized as I continued this diet I was missing something and it was more than just my sweet tooth crying out to be fed.
Most of the proponents on YouTube admitted that the diet has drawbacks and they were more than happy to sell you the supplement that fill the holes that were missing from this meal plan.
Now I'm not dissing these people, I'm grateful for the information and services that they offer because I realized the Keto may be a good idea for fighting cancer and for young men who are trying to achieve a certain look or sports performance.
It doesn't seem to be good for women who are interested in their fertility. The same goes for intermittent fasting. Which I also looked into and tried on a limited basis. While both these strategies seems to be okay for guys under fifty, but not so much for gals of any age.
Being a woman over fifty, I'm not so worried about my fertility at this point. I am however concerned about my longevity and more importantly my mobility, which is what started me on this journey in the first place.
So that leads me to my search for a "plan" that will get me what I want.
I started the Ketogenic plan in support of the eating habits my Dad had adopted to fight his cancer. Now my sister has been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and I am looking in to the Schwarzbein Principal.
Not too many gurus promoting this plan on YouTube and that is because it does not purport to be about quick weight loss which is the motivating factor for most other plans.
Even the first Schwarzbein Principal book was designed for those suffering from Type 2 Diabetes. Dr. Diane Schwarzbein put out the "Schwarzbein Principal II" for the rest of us looking into our endocrine system's health.
My original "Plan" (Plan-W) was to lose my excess weight over the space of four years. 200 pounds at the rate of a pound a week. I'm already at my February 2018 goal of 336 pounds. I was hoping to achieve those goals through the 3 "W"s - Water; Walking and Wake
The first "W" I've pretty much started. I'm drinking water as my beverage of choice. I still need to add water rich foods to my diet but I've been improving on that too little by little.
The second "W" I've got to confess I haven't worked on at all. I need to start walking. Even if it is for five minutes around the cul-de-sac on my street.
The third "W" stands for waking up in the morning. Originally I had a goal to get up each morning at 5 AM so I could write this blog, but as I researched I found sleep is a key factor in the body using its fat stores. So I change "Wake" to emphasize getting enough sleep so I wake naturally. (Hopefully around 5 o'clock in the morning.)
There is a now a fourth "W" that I have added. It stands for "Write-it-down". I need to document my journey as I navigate through all the information out there.
So I am rededicating myself to writing this blog.
