I am 29 years old and have been overweight my whole life, and for as long as I can remember so have my parents. Which is very difficult as both my brother and sister are normal weight and almost skinny. Well, last year I dislocated my left knee and had to have an operation to remove the loose cartilage from beneath the patella. After the operation, I received grim news. My orthopedic surgeon informed me that if I did not start losing weight – I would need a knee replacement within 5 years or less. Needless to say, it changed something within me.
I immediately started looking at diets, and a friend suggested Keto to me. Upon further investigation, I found ruled.me and started saving all your recipes. I fell in love with them, they are delicious and easy and best of all they are extremely healthy.
My parents started this process with me in August of 2017 and to date, I have lost 60 pounds; my mother has lost 62 pounds and my father has lost 55 pounds. I was borderline insulin-resistant and my sugar count is currently at 4.5!
But the story doesn’t end there. Two months into this way of living and people around us have started to notice the change. My sister has started this diet and lost 15 pounds. Friends at work have started it as well, my friend has lost 37 pounds!
Keto has changed my life forever, and that of my entire family! Thank you for your great site and wonderful recipes!!
1. What tactics did you employ to help you get to your goal? What did you find helped you get to your goals best?
I think that what really helped was the knowledge about what Keto is. If you understand the basics, that you change your body’s energy source to that of fat, then you change everything. Once I understood that I could fully commit and go into ketosis which launched my weight loss.
2. What is the most impactful change you’ve made to your diet and why do you feel it’s been the most important?
Besides the fact that I cut out most or all carbs in my diet, the biggest impact has been the no sugar. I used to drink at least 4 or 5 500ml Cokes a day and also sweets and chocolates and then 2x teaspoons of sugar in my coffee of which I also drank 2 to 3 cups a day. So that has been my biggest challenge and also my biggest accomplishment. I can truthfully say that I haven’t had any sugar in over 5 months! 🙂
3. What is the best single piece of advice you can give to someone that is just starting out?
Fat, fat and fat. You need to replace the carbs and sugar with as much (natural) fat as you can tolerate.
4. How do you feel your life is now that you’re at your goal?
I am not at my goal yet, but so close I can almost taste it! That said, my life has changed 180°! I have energy, I want to live and do things, I want to go out and experience life! Where before I would just sit at home and mope…life is a lot more fun when you’re not the fattest person around. For the first time in my life, I can smile at the face in the mirror and not cringe.
5. What do you consider the biggest change in your day-to-day life?
Not constantly thinking about what I’m going eat. And also no sugar
6. What did you do to find support throughout your journey?
My biggest support came from my parents, who started this journey with me. It is extremely important that the people you love, and that love you do this with you, otherwise they will drag you down again. But also thinking ahead. You need to make plans and provision for everything. I buy everything I need at the beginning of the month, make up meals and portions and freeze them ahead of time.
7. What do you currently do to manage your day-to-day diet?
I have learned that our bodies are extremely complicated and that I should never feel deprived. That’s why your site is so brilliant. I don’t feel like I’m on a diet and my body never feels like I’m depriving it of a delicious meal. My mother always used to tell us that your body knows when you are depriving it, so it’s preparing for ‘starvation’ – which means the first thing it holds onto is fat. But, when it feels like its having a great time, it lets go of the backup plan! I hope this makes sense!
8. What is your favorite keto recipe from www.ruled.me that’s become a staple?
It has to be the pizza base made of chicken…I absolutely love it!!
9. If there is one thing that you could do differently during your journey, what would it be and why?
I don’t actually know? If you had asked me what would I have done before I started this journey, my immediate answer without hesitation would have been to have started it years ago. But I love this journey, way of eating and lifestyle…I wouldn’t change anything about it. It’s easy, fun and long sustaining. What’s not to love about it?
