I was talking today with a coworker about the ketogenic diet. She was interested in knowing what I was doing to lose so much weight since the beginning of the year. And I didn’t mind sharing. In fact, I’d say that the problem tends to be getting me to shut up after I get started talking about keto.
As much as I love keto and as much success as I’ve had with it, though, I always try to remember to share that not every diet will work the same for everyone. And I think that’s a good thing for everyone to remember for a great many things in life.
When I first tried losing weight a long while ago I tried simple calorie restriction. It’s worked for many a person, but not for me. I lost a little weight at first but after a short while my body just adapted to the lower calories by slowing down my metabolism. I was tired and cranky all the time. My cravings went up, and soon enough I just broke and went back to eating what I used to, and lots of it because I was starving.
I tried creating a caloric deficit from the other side of the equation, increasing the calories I burned each day via more exercise. Again, I lost a bit up front, but then I just started feeling hungrier all the time and eventually broke again. And I felt terrible to boot as I know that lots of people have lost weight this way. So what was wrong with me?
Over the years I tinkered with lowering calories and increasing caloric burn in shifting amounts but it all wound up right back reaching the point where I lost the willpower to keep at it. So eventually I just gave up trying for a while.
Then a few years ago my friend wanted to try the Whole 30 plan. She felt it would be easier if she had an accountability buddy to do it with her and asked me if I would go Whole 30, too. I got a copy of the book “It Starts With Food” by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig. I liked the premise of it and felt it was something I could stick to for 30 days, especially if my motivation was to help a friend. So I told her I’d be happy to try it. I dropped a lot of weight quickly and was really happy with the results. I felt better and had way more energy. It’s a great diet plan that has worked for a lot of people. I highly recommend it and have included an affiliate link to the book below (just click the pic).
The problem came after the 30 days was over. If I had continued to follow the Whole 30 eating plan I have no doubt I’d have continued to lose weight. The worst mistake I made was after the 30 days was up I decided to reward my willpower with a mocha, as I couldn’t have one for the last 30 days. It seemed innocent enough. After all one mocha wouldn’t erase all the success I just had. And it’s true, that one mocha didn’t. But the mocha I had a few days later, and the trip to Dairy Queen I justified using the same “just one” principle, plus other justifications slowly led me back to my old habits. So the diet was great, my desire to stick to it wasn’t. The only difference was instead of reaching a breaking point where my will just snapped, it was more a slow downhill slope that eventually created enough momentum to knock my willpower out.
This brings us to January 1st of this year. I started the keto diet. Like with the Whole 30 I wanted to be prepared by studying up on it. So I purchased a copy of “The Ketogenic Bible” by Jacob Wilson and Ryan Lowery (there’s also an affiliate link for it, just click the pic). And I started doing research online, including following people on YouTube who were living the keto lifestyle. And a friend of mine had great success with it so I was really excited to see what it held in store for me.
The best part was that I knew I wouldn’t fall into the same trap I had with Whole 30. Although I do enjoy one day off from keto a month, I knew the rest of the month I needed to be strictly keto. Unlike the Whole 30 where one mocha wouldn’t wipe out all the rest of the proper eating I was doing, one mocha on keto stops the diet in its tracks. Doing that for one day a month is ok because it won’t override the other 29 days of staying keto. But it’s definitely knocking you out of ketosis on the day you do it. A day of fasting after my day off and I’m quickly back in the game.
And it’s worked. I’ve steadily lost weight on keto. Sure, there have been a couple of upswings in weight since the beginning of the year, but I’ve still managed to lose a lot of weight. Because I’ve stuck with it. I’ve found what works for me. I clearly needed the disciplined nature of keto so I couldn’t allow myself to make excuses.
Which is why I titled this post “Your Great Experiment.” Not every diet your friends have had amazing success on will work for you. Or the supplements that your friend has taken that increased her endurance while running may not move the needle for you at all. Or running itself may be a terrible exercise choice for you.
The thing to keep in mind is, just because one thing didn’t work for you, doesn’t mean you’re destined to fail at all things. Thomas Edison famously stated that he didn’t fail 10,000 times developing the lightbulb, instead he discovered 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb. He experimented with a lot of different methods and one finally paid off.
So treat your life like a great experiment to find your best version. Try this, that, or the other. Figure out what works, and keep it. Find out what doesn’t work, and discard it. But keep running the experiment every day. Eventually by implementing all the things that work, while not wasting time on the things that don’t, you’ll arrive at your best version of yourself.
Was I happy I had failed so many times before? Of course not. But I kept running the experiment and eventually found what works for me. And now I keep running the experiment by continuing with keto while trying new things like meditation (it works and I’m keeping it) and supplements (a lot don’t work so I don’t waste my money on them, but a few have shown promise). And I’ll continue to run my experiment until my final day so that when my time comes to an end I’ll leave with a smile knowing I’ve done everything I could to be my best version. Have a great day.
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