keto

Life After Keto

Hey, y’all.  🙂

It’s been so long again since I’ve even opened the blog. 

It’s the same ol’ same.  Health hell a hundred different ways.  But mostly digestive system. 

It was 2 years ago this week that I was put on those 6 months of antibiotics and I’ve never been the same since.😢

I’m seeing a new GI doctor 2 hours away next week so I’m trying to be hopeful that maybe she will have some answers.

One good thing that has happened recently is I finally stopped obsessing over keto. 👍 🧁 Keto / lchf messed me up so much.  I got so emotionally attached to the idea of it being the ‘best and only right way’ and for the last two years I’d spent way too much time trying or wanting to get back to it. Only to get worse and set myself back every single time I tried. 

For whatever reason my body cannot tolerate meat or fat anymore without carbs to buffer my stomach.  I know there will be those of you who will say I didn’t try hard enough or whatever.  You’re wrong.  I’ve done nothing but obsess and try for the last two years.

No more.  For real this time.

That’s actually why I haven’t been posting on insta for the last 6-ish weeks. I’ve been forcing myself to stay away from all the keto talk on social media.  So many of my favorite follows are from my keto days and I just couldn’t allow myself to backslide.

Because…

Yes this is an actual published book. I first read it back in May when we took a little pre-summer trip to my beloved galv. 

I tried to start practicing it that week…and I did.  I ate all the thangs.  😋

But then before I even made it back home, I was already obsessing about trying to force keto/lc/carnivore as soon as I got back.  And of course, I tried.

Several more times.  Each time my stomach ended up worse than before.☹️

Don’t you dare ever call me a quitter. 😉

The final straw came in August.  It was record heat. The house air conditioner broke and we got a new car on the same day. I was outside transferring all the stuff from the old car and I ended up having a mild heat stroke.  It was beyond scary.  That day I was in the middle of my millionth time trying to force keto and when I overheated I started throwing up the worst grossest stuff yet.  That night I said enough.  The next few days I stayed bundled up in blankets drinking coke icee and re-reading the F*ckit book.

It’s an easy read and should be relatable to every single person who has ever tried to out diet their DNA.  

It’s taken me 37 years (allegedly 😉 ) but I’m finally done fighting mine. 🎈

It was hard and I talked myself into “trying keto just one more time” many times but thankfully I didn’t give in.

Keto / LCHF and carnivore are fantastic in the right body, but I won’t try again because my body is not the right body. Even (when?) I finally get some digestive answers I’ll always have Lupus. And I will always be on some kind of meds. Most of which need some carbs to buffer the stomach. 

That’s the lot I’ve been given in this one short life.  I’m done fighting it. 🙂

This is not in anyway a paid endorsement. I purchased this book on my own and it was worth every cent.  There are other books that fall in the anti-diet category (I read two others) but most of them are still focused on weight loss. This one is not. 

I can’t waste whatever time I have left on this earth worrying about the size of my clothes or a number on a scale.

ps. I’m still following all of my favs because I like you for reasons beyond how you eat. 😊 If you eat keto that’s great. If you WW that’s great too. If you’re vegan…cool. If you’re preachy about your chosen food I’ve already unfollowed you. 🙂

Y’all have a great weekend. 😊

Here’s were you can find me on insta where I’m usually more active. 👍

Just a Little Update

Hey, y’all. 🙂


It’s been forever again. 🙁

The TLDR version of the rest of this: health hell for 15 months…all kinds of tests…finally found out what was wrong…new med…feel like a new person…back on keto…super happy.


I have been to hell and back with all the health stuff. 🙁 Every time I thought I was finally turning a corner boom the lupus would hit me with something else.


I also made myself worse by eating wheat/gluten for months. In October I had to have an endoscopy and colonoscopy to try to figure out why I was coughing up and passing blood. So I wanted him to look at the celiac stuff while he was in there. I’ve tested positive twice and negative once. I’ve honestly never really thought I had it because I’ve never fully reacted to wheat the way I read about other people reacting to it. So anyway for the test you have to eat wheat for weeks (which turned into months). I did and of course it didn’t end well. At all.


BUT we finally seem to have some answers to all of the digestive issues. It hasn’t been my stomach (well not the primary cause anyway). It’s been my pancreas. I’m not producing the enzymes to break down food and after all the testing my dr put me on this miracle med:

I’m not exaggerating when I say this saved my life. Emotionally I’d slipped to a dark and scary place. I didn’t want to live in so much pain anymore.


I hadn’t slept thru a night without reflux in 15 months. I was on so much stomach / acid blocker meds and was having breakthrough reflux almost every single night. Basically the way I understand it now is that I wasn’t producing the enzymes to break down my food and that was in turn causing my stomach to way way way over produce all the acid.


The acid blocking meds are known iron blockers and my iron also plummeted to dangerously low levels.


2 DAYS on the CREON and I was like a new person. The stomach pain…the horrible never ending reflux almost immediately gone.


I went back on keto and feel like a completely different person.


So where I am now…

I started keto / low carb high fat on September 6, 2018. Between then and October 2, 2017 I lost almost 80 pounds. Then the ear misdiagnosis and all the unnecessary antibiotics sent me on a year long spiral.


I gained 35 back.


Happy to have not gained it all back but also not happy ya know?

Anyway that’s just a long update that wouldn’t fit on insta where you can find me more regularly. 🙂

It’s Been Way Too Long

So hey, y’all.  🙂

I can’t believe it’s been 6 months since I’ve even opened up this page.  I’ve been active on insta but just not here.

All that stuff with the ear and antibiotics and all that crap just really messed me up.  🙁

I’ve been back to lchf / keto since May 2nd.  It’s been…interesting.  A little different from the first time around.

I got almost all of the awesome keto benefits right away but I didn’t get the weightloss like I did when I originally started in 2016.  The first 2 days I lost 4 pounds and then a few days later gained it right back and then just stuck there.  It’s crazy because I came from eating basically nothing but sugar and carbs.  I should have had a huge woosh.  Something is clearly going on with my body.  I was keeping my carbs below 25…and most of the time much lower.  Something’s up.

I posted this pic on instagram May 14 and wrote about it there but it’s like almost all of the weight gain went right to my upper body.  I can’t stand it.

 

 

This has had me so emotionally messed up for weeks.  My first degree is is Early Childhood and I’ve always been a huge child advocate.  I can’t believe I live in a country that would lock littles in cages…and that a large number of people think that’s perfectly fine.  🙁   It’s so disgusting that I’ve almost run out of tears (and words).

If I make it to Heaven one day I hope so very much that there is a viewing area where we get to watch these horrible horrible pieces of shit…and those who voted them into power…burning in hell. I hope that so so very much.  I’ll plop myself down with a bottle or 10 of wine and enjoy the show.  😉  Thoroughly.

Participate if you can. If you can’t and want to do something to help…donate.

 

Alrighty that’s all for today.  🙂

Y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon.  🙂

Mastoid Bone Infection

Hey, y’all.

It’s been a while again.

Just wanted to write a little bit today about what’s been going on.

I’m going through some very serious health stuff.  🙁  Last time I wrote about how I was seeing multiple dr’s and getting a bunch of tests run.

It turns out I have a very serious bone infection.

The mastoid bone.

I’m on a ridiculously high dose of antibiotics to treat it for SIX MONTHS and they are just rough. Rough, rough, rough on the stomach / digestive system.

I’m still eating sugar free / low carb but not strictly keto right now. I’ve raised my daily carb count to 50g / day and am allowing some potatoes to try to buffer the stomach a little bit.

I’m so very glad we got this figured out now since I probably won’t have health care soon.

PSA for the day…

If y’all ever have persistent ear pain with no visible inner ear symptoms please press your doctor to investigate deeper. This has been going on for me for several years. My inner ear always looked fine when doctors would look. I would always been massaging around my ear and you could feel the inflammation (but NOT a huge red spot which would have been an instant clue). Anyway with my SED Rate being sky high all the time all of my doctors thought it was just lupus related temporal joint inflammation. (Which it turns out I actually do have too.)

But the main problem is that I have a chronic mastoid infection not acute. The only way to have seen this would have been with a ct scan or mri. (Which is how this was finally diagnosed.)

So please, if you ever experience anything like this (or especially if your kids do since ear infections are so common with the littles) please press for more testing and maybe it won’t have a chance to get so deeply embedded / infected.

From the very bottom of my heart, thank you so much, President Obama for getting me the health care that allowed this to finally be diagnosed. The testing was long and costly. Without the pre-existing condition coverage mandate that allowed me to get excellent health care this would still be undiagnosed. Thank you, thank you, thank you…and thank you again.  🙂

And to the @sshole who followed you (and those of you who put him there) and are now condemning plenty of us to certain deaths…you are an even worse disgusting piece of garbage than we ever thought you were.

And guess what, y’all…you know what’s gonna happen now? Every single time people need heath care they’re going straight to the ER. Y’all know who’s gonna pay for that? You. You will pay for it in the form of higher priced everything related to health care.  Y’all go ahead and enjoy that.

Always and forever. 🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Sorry no food pics or recipes today but I do have a few in the works…just need to tweak and don’t have the energy right now.

Y’all have a good weekend. 🙂

 

One Year Anniversary

Hey, Y’all. 🙂

It’s been a while again.

Hope your summer ended on a great note. 🙂

If you’re not following along on Insta we’re all safe and dry here from Hurricane Harvey.  We had about 14 inches of rain spread out over 4 days.  Friends and family weren’t so lucky. Please continue to keep Houston and the Texas coast in your thoughts and prayers now that the media attention has died down.

 

Reddit ftw today. #DACA

I mean seriously, y’all take a look around you today at the garbage in your lives who want innocent kids sent to places they’ve never even set foot in…and honestly how many of them are willing to take low paying jobs where they’d actually have to do something? Anything?

GT, doesn’t it seem like you could just roll this quote out every other day now?

Reminder this is my space. If you don’t like it here…don’t let the door hit ya…

Reminder 2:  if you’re disgusted today (and every day)…join us. A lot of people are already putting in the hard work RIGHT NOW. Funnel the anger you’re feeling today (and every day) into meaningful action. 🙂

Let’s see…since we last met I’m loving

Blackened salmon.

Blackened Cajun salmon.

Dump nachos with chichies.

Mug cakes and brownies.

ICE CREAM. 🙂 This is called Bubblegum Bliss and it’s from a book called The Keto Ice Cream Scoop by Carrie Brown.  It is so unbelievably good.  It totally got me thru all the hurricane nerves.

Yeah, Minnesota. Stay in your lane. 😉

SO…

A year ago today I quit sugar and all grains cold turkey. Technically the calendar date was Sept 6th but it was the day after Labor Day and today is the day after Labor Day so I’m calling it year one in the books. 🙂

Those first 2 weeks were pure hell. I seriously thought I was going to die. But then the magic kicked in and my head started to clear.  I spent the first 7 weeks doing pretty much hard-core keto. I lived on hamburger patties, cheese, chicken wings, blue cheese and mayonnaise.

I took the day off for my birthday in late October and then the next day went back to the way I was eating but removed diary.

I spent the next 60 days dairy free and edged more into paleo style eating.

And that’s when this whole thing got harder. Introducing more foods and allowing maple syrup and potatoes really set me back a little. I started jonesing for the next off day and inhaling every potato I ate.

I kept losing weight just fine but mentally I was out of it. I was just going thru the motions and counting down the days til my next off day.

In total from Sept 6, 2016 – April 16, 2017 I had 8 off plan days…on purpose. I planed for them.

On April 16, 2017 I went back to what I was doing in the beginning…Keto (25 net carbs or less) and haven’t looked back. I haven’t had one off plan lick, bite, taste, etc since then and don’t plan to anytime soon.

What changed?

Well I stopped making it harder than it needed to be. I like food. I like cheese. I like sweets. I like to cook.

And now I do. For me I think it’s far better to just go make me something safe and on plan (like a mug cake or brownie or ice cream) than to tough it out and then end up inhaling every real sugar sweet in sight on a planned off day.

Since I stopped making it hard…it’s easy. The other people in the house eat carbs all day long. I eat out with other people…and never flinch. It’s honestly just how I eat now. I don’t have to think about it anymore I just do it.  And that freedom feels amazing.

I’ve lost 73 (point 4) pounds but even more important than that my iron is up for the first time in YEARS. I have energy for the first time in YEARS.

It still hasn’t helped my lupus / inflammation pain as much as I’d hoped it would and I’m going thru some inflammation stuff right now (why I was getting the MRI the other day) but I’m hopeful that eventually I’ll get those benefits too.  Autoimmune stuff is just…hard. 🙁

So here’s the newest before / current pic. Left – shopping for fall 2016 Right – shopping for fall 2017. I didn’t buy the current dress because I don’t pay full price for anything. 😉  I’m having some issues with my vein surgery so that’s why I’m having to wear the black compression stocking again which totally sucks in this heat.

I’m still struggling to see the current me. I still see the left side me a lot of the time.

I’d like to lose 30 more pounds (15 would put me a couple below ‘normal’ and then 15 for a buffer) but if I stay right here I’m just fine with that. I’m going to keep on keeping on and let the weight land where it lands. I don’t plan on restricting my food anymore than I am now so I’m sure things will slow down but I want this to be something I can easily maintain…so I’m not chasing a number or a size. If I get there great if not I’m so far better off now than I was on the left…I’m good. 🙂

Tomorrow is Mama and Papa B’s 48th anniversary.  I say this all the time but in the grand parental lottery we hit the super-duper power ball. 🙂  One number to the left or right on either side and…I shudder. We were so lucky to grow up in a home with two PEOPLE who are still head over heals in love with each other today. (Notice I said people there because…love is love, y’all.) More than anything I want to thank them for raising us in a home that taught us kindness, respect and empathy for those with less than us. Mama B’s a saint and Papa B is our comic relief.  I love you both more than words on this silly blog could ever express. 🙂

Ok that’s enough for today, y’all. 🙂