Caro On Keto: Why Did I Decide to Follow the Ketogenic Diet

      I have struggled with weight loss my entire life. I cannot remember a time when I was ever thin, I mean like really thin. I have been thinner, but not like JLO thin. As a child, I was always 'chubby'. Like most women, I struggle to meet a certain requirement. Although curves are in, my curves are not thin enough. It always comes back to this.

    Over the years I have explored multiple ways to try and achieve a thinner figure. People are mean and opinionated. Being overweight hurts. It has become a part of the way I think about myself, dress myself, and how I interact with others. I feel less because I do not fit a societal mold. After various depressions from grief of death of loved ones in my teens, I decided to research ways to lose weight. I knew that I had to reduce my food intake and exercise. This was my first attempt. I was 17, getting over my brother's death, and overly determined. After I learned to deal with my brother's death I was able to be successful and went from a size 18 pants to size 10 in about 3 months. I could not tell you my weight cause I did not use a scale. I reduced portions and exercised excessively for 3+ hours daily. Yes, DAILY!

      After I became an adult and was juggling work and college, my eating habits became poor again. I am a stress eater. College was stressful. Work was stressful. Life was stressful. So I ate. There was no time for exercise. So an increase of calories with no burning, resulted in weight gain. I went up to a size 12.

     I was a size 12 in pants until my pregnancy. After my son's birth I was a size 14. Surprisingly, I did not gain more weight. Even through the stress of motherhood, I was able to maintain my size for about 3 years. I exercised, took supplements, bought diet plans, and memberships to 'groups' to ensure my weight loss success. I tossed money left and right. I exercised daily and was able to lose 20lbs. I even won a 'runner-up' prize. I felt great!

     That next summer, I lost an important part of my life. I lost my father to pancreatic cancer. A year before I had lost another brother to the same cancer as my father. This was a wake up call. Three days before my father passed I discovered I was pregnant. I remember weighing myself at the hospital while caring for my father. The scale said 198. By the end of my pregnancy I was 240. I did not really grieve my father during my pregnancy, because I did not want to have complications. It was the moment My husband and I present our new baby to my mom only that I realized, my dad was really gone. There was no way he would have missed that.

     The feeling I felt in that moment stuck with me. I spent years grieving for my dad. Destroying my body eating junk and not caring. Seeing my curves expand and not caring. I then thought about that day in the hospital where my dad was missing. My sole thought in that moment was I want to be there for my boys. This is why I changed.

     I began researching diets, I came across the ketogenic diet. I followed many instagram accounts, saw very specific words and abbreviations for keto things, which I further researched. On September 2018, I decided to give it a try! I lost 45lbs in 4 months.

    Why did I start? I started because I did not want to get diabetes. I want to avoid the same fate as my father, I want to be there for my family. All changes and adjustments are hard, I was no stranger to this. Keto was just another one, however it was a positive and rewarding change!
As we all know, change and adjustments come with hardships. Stick around to get the inside scoop!

Follow my journey on Instagram: @Caro_On_Keto