Last summer after peak covid, I ballooned up to 224 pounds. I saw a photo of me at a cookout and I had a definite belly which really motivated me to do something. It was starting to affect my sleep as I’d have to start rolling over to sleep on my sides, because laying on my back was uncomfortable. A couple of my buddies had just started either a keto or paleo diet and after hearing what they were doing it didn’t sound so terrible. I love me some meat and cheese so I started trying to do a keto diet in July.
I quickly realized unless I cooked at home I couldn’t get in enough protein to go completely zero carb. At the end of the first week I felt so hungry no matter how many cheese sticks, beef jerky, or pork cracklins I ate it didn’t help, I had to run to In n Out for a burger. I improvised a bit and cut out all the carbs I could, no pasta, no pizza, no fries, virtually no bread, no candy, no beer, no breaded meats, and went for BBQ brisket, steak, pulled chicken, hot links, and drank only Diet Coke / coffee / tea. Instead of beer my drink of choice was rum and diet soda which had surprisingly few calories, yet very tasty. I lived on In-n-Out 3 x 3s and Flying Dutchmans on the weekends which certainly got me protein and fat. Eventually the hunger calmed down and while sometimes I felt hunger it was easier to ignore, much unless the first week. Admittedly I was very lazy and did not hit the gym at all so I probably could have lost it a lot quicker if I was active.
A pound here, a pound there the weight started coming off. I plateaued at 201-203 around the holidays, but finally hit 199 this weekend. I’ve now basically gotten rid of my covid weight and back at the weight I was at when I was going rucking in the summer of 2020 to originally lose weight. I’d love to get back to 180 again, we’ll see.
It was rather amazing to realize just how much carbohydrates we eat out of convenience. Hit the convenience store, potato chips and a soda? carbs. candy? carbs. Fast food, burger bun? carbs. french fries? carbs. Breakfast? pancakes, toast, biscuits, waffles, potatoes, oatmeal, cereal, juice? all carbs. It also turns out carbs are really cheap compared to only eating proteins, my cost per meal went up a good amount during all of this.
