My Keto Journey:
Hello Everyone,
My name is Jayson (aka JayLo), its great to meet you. This is my Keto journey. It all started on a cold day in in the late 1900’s….well that’s a bit too far back. Ok, it was July 2011. I had reached the highest weight in my life 318 pounds. I was in all kinds of bad shape, so I decided to do something about it. I chose to cut out all the usual carby suspects and exercise. I quit eating potatoes, candy, bread, pasta, rice and soda. Not Keto, but definitely low carb and I did very well. I lost down to the 220’s. I was quite proud of myself. This was the first time I had lost a significant amount of weight.
Over the next few years my life changed quite a bit. I went back to college for 4 years to get my degree, which I did. In 2017 my spouse and I moved halfway across the country and most important, in 2018 we became the caregivers of a beautiful 2 week old baby girl. Over this time, I slowly went back to my old ways and my weight went up to the 260’s (maybe more I will not get into that).
OK, Jayson. Thanks for your life story get on with it. OK, OK, calm down that’s just a quick background of how I came to the Keto woe.
So in September 2019, at a physical I had to have in order to start the adoption process, my doctor informed me that my A1C way up in the 10s and I was headed for insulin injections and potential complications from Diabetes. My doctor told me to go home and get on the Keto diet immediately or else. So I did.
It was tough, the cravings were insane, I did not know what I was doing, and I did not know anyone who was doing Keto or even who had done Keto. I did a ton of research online, watched videos, read books, listened to podcast, found an app to track my carbs and did the best I could. Long story short, it worked for me!
In February of 2020 my weight was down to 175 (a little lighter than I probably needed to be) and my A1C was well inside the normal regular person range at 4.9. Also, we had adopted our little angel.
Then just 1 month later we had a tiny little world wide pandemic! Well……things went OK for about 7 months. My weight was about 185 and my A1C was still 4.9. Then we all caught Covid! I mainly had the gastrointestinal symptoms (cramps and well the other fun things that go with that) also I could only taste sweet things. The only thing that would stop my stomach from aching was to be eating something almost constantly……so I did…for weeks. I gained a little weight. And then I spent the next few weeks stressed out of my mind because many people I knew were getting sick and I stress ate….a lot. So gained a little more weight. The next few months I went up and down with my weight as various crises came and went.
That brings us to now Mid August 2021 and it is right at 2 years since I started my Keto journey. I am finally getting around to starting my podcast which I began planning a year and a half ago. I still have some pounds to loose to get back in the 180s but nothing like before. I hope that by sharing with y’all it will keep me motivated as what looks like the second wave of the pandemic is starting to descend on us.
Jayson