May 4, 218 Update

May the 4th be with you! It's time for another update on my progress. I know it's been a while but these have been extremely busy months for me so even the few minutes this takes to write are tough to come by. The good news is, I have continued to make progress towards my goals. In my last update I celebrated losing 100 pounds, which was quite the benchmark. As of my last weigh in, I am now down 111 pounds! So in three months I have lost 11 pounds, which doesn't sound like a lot, but I like steady progress. I'm not trying to set any records for weight loss. Slow and steady wins the race and all that. I began working out not long after my last post and not only stalled, but gained about 6 pounds as my muscles began retaining water to combat the change in lifestyle. It took about 4 weeks for the weight to come off and my body to adapt, but then I began losing again at a quicker pace.

My workouts have been varied but enjoyable. I started off with HIIT training which is basically cycling intervals of high intensity effort with intervals of rest. I started on the stationary bike with high intensity for 30 seconds, then resting, (not completely, just low intensity) for 30 seconds. I did ten intervals like that at first and really felt wobbly afterwards. I am now up to 25 intervals of high intensity for 30 seconds and resting only 15. With my warm up and cooldown that means I am on the bike around a half an hour and feel terrific when I am done. When I first started my heart rate spiked around 180 beats per minute (BPM) in the first 5 minutes. Now, I don't get up that high without sprinting right at the end of the 25 intervals. I am also doing core workouts with crunchies, sitting medicine ball twists and upper body lifting as well. In addition, I am playing racquetball twice a week for 2 hours as well. I love this routine! But unfortunately, my muscles and 48 year old body don't always love it. In the past month I have incurred the following injuries:inflamed shoulder, sore left knee, strained oblique, strained hamstring and the latest just Wednesday, a pulled calf muscle. I am very frustrated that I keep breaking down when I want to ramp it up and do even more. On the other hand, I don't want to be stupid, push through a strain and turn it into a significant tear or do damage, so I am trying to be smart. I have backed off the workouts to let myself heal as much as possible. I believe once I get a baseline of strength, I'll be able to handle more strenuous activity more often. In the meantime, I have to be patient. For anyone that knows me, you know just how hard that is.

My meals and food have grown more and more simple as I progress. I am finding I don't need elaborate meals and recipes like I used to. I love the simple, easy meals that fill me up, are easy to prepare, and don't take much effort. I do love my pizza and my fat bombs. I am also in love with Robin's mug cakes, although I don't have them near as often as I used to. Once I get to my desired weight I'll probably switch to a little more carbs per day, making sure I don't go above 50 per day. For now, I am fasting until noon most days, then having two meals and making sure to be done eating around 6 pm. So technically I am intermittent fasting for 18 hours and eating twice within a 6 hour window.

So here are the numbers:

Weight - 256 lbs, started 367 lbs

Chest - 46 Inches, started 60 inches

Stomach - 44.0 inches, started 64 inches

Waist - 39 inches, started 54 inches

Mid Thigh - 19 inches, started 25 inches

Total pounds lost - 111 lbs, Total inches lost - 40 inches

Goal weight - 195, 61 Pounds to go

One Hundred Pounds!

It finally happened! I am down 100 pounds! I can't stop using exclamation points! I have stalled for about 4 weeks since I hit 270. Then I decided to switch a few things up and lost 4 pounds in 3 days. I'll get to that in a minute. I started this blog a few days before I began this journey in June of 2016. I set goals then to get to 195 pounds and wanted to get there a lot sooner than I will, but more importantly, my trend continues in the right direction. Keto has become such a big portion of my life. I have to keep myself from talking about it with everyone I meet. I would imagine there are quite a few people sick of the subject. You know who you are. :) I'll just apologize now because this subject is my new obsession. I feel so much better than that big guy on the right of this post. I remember getting the sweats for no reason. Getting help to put my shoes on. Dreading a trip up the stairs to my room. Taking 3 or 4 hour naps after lunch and waking up more tired than when I laid down. More than anything I remember being scared as I lost control of myself and just gave up. I knew I had less than ten years to live at the rate I was going. Now, I know I am eating in a way that will give me the best chance to live a long life. Perhaps it won't happen, but I'll at least live on my terms, able to move and chase my kids around and run up and down a basketball court again. I wouldn't have dared try such a thing just 19 months ago.

So what did I do? I have been fasting for 16 hours from 6 pm to 10 AM and eating three meals during those 8 hours since October. I hadn't lost anything the past month even without cheating and cutting out keto treats for the most part. Wednesday I decided to try fasting for 18 hours and to eat only 2 meals and be done by 6 pm. I also played basketball for the first time Thursday night. I lost 1 and a 1/2 pounds the first day, 2 pounds on Friday morning's weigh in and then 1 more on Saturday to hit the 100 mark! I feel so good too. I am not missing that extra meal. Intermittent Fasting is such a gift! I do get a little hungry at times but my body is already adjusting. The other thing saving me is my shakes. I love my keto fat shakes and most days use one as one of my two meals. My only beef with my shakes is needing to keep 4 ingredients on hand to make them fit as Keto. That may be changing soon. I'm very excited about this development, but will save any announcements for later when it is closer.

Weight - 267 lbs, started 367 lbs

Chest - 47 Inches, started 60 inches

Stomach - 46.0 inches, started 64 inches

Waist - 39 inches, started 54 inches

Mid Thigh - 20 inches, started 25 inches

Total pounds lost - 100 lbs!, Total inches lost - 40 inches

Goal weight - 195, 72 Pounds to go

1/19/2018 Update

It's the first update of the year! I know! Slacker! The good news is, I haven't been slacking in losing and staying on the plan. I went off for Thanksgiving and again for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Boy did I suffer the consequences. I gained no weight after Thanksgiving. But I gained a whopping 8 pounds after my Christmas follies! I couldn't believe it. I figured it would all come off quickly, but it took the better part of three weeks to get all the weight off again. Since then I am down another 3 pounds. So in the end I am down to a new low of 270. I am through the holidays and the worst part of my year for work and now can concentrate on healthy eating and adding exercise.

I continue to use intermittent fasting as part of my regiment but now mix it up a bit more. Before I was pretty much on a schedule of 8 hours of eating and 16 hours of fasting most every day. Trying not to eat until 10 AM and finishing by 6 pm. Now I am adding in a longer fast on Sundays periodically and some days not fasting at all. I think it is good not to let your body get too comfortable in any one thing.

I continue to add new recipes to the mix, this month trying a new cheesy cauliflower recipe and brats in a blanket. We are still gathering recipes for our cookbook but we are getting closer to putting it together. I have also started exercising this week, finally. I have heard many good things about HIIT workouts so I decided to give them a try. It was tough, but really got my heart rate up. I think it will be exactly what I need. HIIT stands for "High Intensity Interval Training." The basic concept is to go as hard as you can for a short burst then rest then go again. I think once I get back into some kind of shape and can add in some resistance to it I will really see more results. For now it will be good for cardio. As usual, most likely due to water retention, I gained a pound the next morning.

Here are the happy numbers

Weight - 270 lbs, started 367 lbs

Chest - 47 Inches, started 60 inches

Stomach - 48.0 inches, started 64 inches

Waist - 40 inches, started 54 inches

Mid Thigh - 20 inches, started 25 inches

Total pounds lost - 97 lbs, Total inches lost - 37 inches

Goal weight - 195, 75 Pounds to go

Just 3 more pounds to go until I am down 100!

11/4/2017 Update

It's milestone November and I am excited! As of this morning I have now lost 90 pounds!! That last pound just wouldn't come off. I have been waiting for 6 days for it to come off. That always seems to be the case when I am on the cusp of a new milestone. This last week I have been to 2 different parties with candy, treats and garbage being offered at every turn. It always helps to be close to a milestone at these times. But even if I wasn't I am enjoying this way of eating so much I don't want to indulge in the crap. This has also been one of the most stressful weeks of my professional career. I am not a person who stresses needlessly. I don't stress eat. That has never been my relationship with food. But this week would have put all of that to the test if any could have. Instead, I felt comfort in my Keto foods. I felt energy during my fasting times, and I had no trouble saying no to the many treats that would have been my downfall just 15 months ago.

Speaking of fasting. I have implemented intermittent fasting into my regiment the last few months and it has not only worked, it has accelerated my weight loss to a level I could only dream of before. As I looked back at this blog I realized I had lost only 25 pounds from January to the end of August. I say only knowing for some that would be a victory. But with more than a hundred to lose I considered it a snail's pace. At that rate I would be more than three years to my eventual goal and I want to get there a lot quicker than that if at all possible. I watched a wonderful video by Dr. Berg on Youtube about intermittent fasting with Keto and decided to give it a try. The idea is that whenever you eat, no matter how few carbs, you cause a release of insulin in your body which stops your weight loss. By limiting your eating time to a smaller window and going longer stretches in between eating, you allow your body to burn fat for fuel longer and even emit growth hormone which is great for both weight loss and healing inflammation. This helps with clogged or closing arteries and will reduce your bad cholesterol as your body will not need as much cholesterol to fight the inflammation caused by plaque from eating sugars and processed carbs (which are converted easily into sugar). I have been doing a 16/8 eating schedule for two months and so far, here are the results: first, I find it very easy to wait to eat until later in the morning, IF (Intermittent Fasting) works best when you don't eat for at least four hours after waking, I eat at 10 or 11 most mornings, then I eat a light late lunch and make sure to have dinner before my 8 hour window closes, usually around 6 or 7 p.m. in the evening. I make sure to follow my macros, which are 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbs (mostly from veggies). Second, I find I don't get the late evening cravings any more. After my last meal my system now shuts down for the night, knowing it won't have to work again until mid-morning. I don't feel tired or a lack of energy at all. In fact, I find I don't need as much sleep as I used to, which can be annoying. I find myself waking up very early in the mornings raring to go. Third, and perhaps most important for now, I have lost 14 pounds in the last two months since starting IF!! Considering the previous 8 months were only 25 pounds, needless to say I am thrilled to have found this secret to unlocking rapid weight loss while eating Keto. Someone on medications or with a history of eating disorders should probably avoid IF. And if you are losing at a good pace without it I would say to hold off and save it for when you hit a plateau. This is also best used only while in ketosis, otherwise you are just starving yourself. The power of IF is in the fat burning of ketosis. If you have questions about this please come join my Facebook group. Search for Robb's Keto Club and click to join. I'll add you quickly. Now for the happy numbers.

Weight - 277 lbs, started 367 lbs

Chest - 47 Inches, started 60 inches

Stomach - 48.0 inches, started 64 inches

Waist - 42 inches, started 54 inches

Mid Thigh - 20 inches, started 25 inches

Total pounds lost - 90 lbs, Total inches lost - 44 inches

Goal weight - 195, Pounds to go 82 pounds

I am now past the half way point of my journey. I started off with 172 pounds to go. I now have 82 pounds left. Considering I have lost 90 pounds already, I know I can do it, I already have. It is now a matter of when, not if.

10/11/2017 Update

It has been another successful month on Keto. I continue to watch the scale descend. I continue to feel my clothes fit better, looser and in some cases right off. I've made a few trips to donate my old plus sizes already and pants I bought just this summer are already starting to feel baggy and starting to sag. More even than the scale, these #NSV's (non-scale victories) are really important to me as I continue on. I continue to study and research as I proceed down this path, taking in studies and documentaries on what the food industry has been doing to us for the past 40 years and even beyond. As the world has switched away from real food to the processed, easy, stripped down garbage we are consuming, we are entering a health crisis the size of which we have never seen before. Yet, the medical professionals seem to be stuck in the past, (at least the majority of them) still preaching low-fat, low calorie diets and prescribed pharmaceuticals as the way to fix this epidemic. In other words, we need more of exactly what has caused the problem in the first place. I shudder when I think of what I fed my family for the past 24 years. Cereals made of processed flour so devoid of any nutritional value that they have to add synthetic vitamins back in. Look on the box of your favorite breakfast cereal, see if it says it is "fortified." That is a fancy word for "we had to add in some vitamins so we could call it healthy." Yet, there is nothing healthy about cereal. Shredded wheat is just as bad as Fruit Loops, perhaps more so because at least with Fruit Loops there is no deception.

I highly recommend the documentary on Youtube called, "What's With Wheat," it was an eye-opener and showed me what has happened to the staple food in the world's diet today. Our wheat today is not the same as it once was. It is a hybrid that has been modified for yield, not nutritional value. Then we take it and process what little nutrition there is left out of it and call it flour. After watching this documentary I walked through the cereal aisle of my grocery store and felt like I was walking through a den of vipers, trying to poison me. I don't shop in the middle section of the grocery aisles barely at all any more. I shop around the outside where the real food is.

So here is the good news! I am down 4 more pounds since my last post, or in other words around a pound a week. I like that pace. I'm not setting any records, but this is sustainable and I feel terrific. The inches are also coming off as you'll see below.

Weight - 283 lbs, started 367 lbs

Chest - 47 Inches, started 60 inches

Stomach - 48.0 inches, started 64 inches

Waist - 42 inches, started 54 inches

Mid Thigh - 22 inches, started 25 inches

Total pounds lost - 84 lbs, Total inches lost - 42 inches

Goal weight - 195, Pounds to go 88 pounds

I lost 7 inches this month!!! 3 off my chest and 4 off my stomach! I know that's a lot of exclamation points but I can't help it. This is why I measure as well as weigh. The scale doesn't show everything that is happening. I incorporated some lifting and exercise bike into my routine so I know that helped. You won't always see your progress on the scale. Sometimes you won't see any. But the tape measure and the before and after pictures will show the difference and the results of your work. Although I have to admit I don't consider this work any more. This is easy, it's fun. I love eating this way and these inches and pounds are gone forever. I'm never going back!

9/8/2017 Update

It's been a very busy summer so I apologize for not posting for more than 2 months. The good news is I have not only stayed on plan, I have discovered some amazing new ideas that have made this way of eating so much simpler. As I mentioned in my last post I have switched to a keto lifestyle which has more of an emphasis on healthy fats, moderate protein and low carbs. It was a subtle shift, but I like the way If feel and although slow, my weight loss is steady. I am losing about 3 pounds a month right now. That isn't sexy, it isn't going to set any records or win the Biggest loser competition, but it is working. I have been doing a lot of research on the keto way of eating and finding so many other health benefits to this over and above losing weight.

Keto has been shown to reduce the effects of dementia in Alzheimers and pre-Alzheimer's patients. The following is taken from a larger article found here about Keto and Alzheimers Ketosis for Mental Decline Although research is still needed on the subject of ketosis and mental decline, there have been a number of small studies done in around the last decade showing how a state of ketosis can provide value for patients who are cognitively impaired: A study with 20 people who had Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment were given a placebo or medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). After 90 minutes, ketone levels were increased in those given the MCT. The higher amounts of ketone levels correlated with greater improvements in memory [1]. Five years later, another longer and larger study was done with 152 patients who had mild Alzheimer’s. Those taking a ketogenic compound showed improvements in cognition 45 days later [2]. We also know that ketones themselves have been shown to be neuroprotective [3], which is a good sign when it comes to prevention of mental deterioration over time. In addition, inflammation, diabetes, high cholesterol, and other poor health signs are all major risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s. These are all conditions that can addressed with a balanced, well-planned high-fat and low-carb ketogenic diet.

In addition to mental disorders, Ketogenic diets have been proven to reduce and even reverse type 2 diabetes, lower risks for heart disease, starve out some forms of cancer and reduce inflammation of the arteries. Cardiologists are now admitting that the low-fat guidelines published in 1977 are killing us. Look what has happened since those guidelines were published. An obesity epidemic, type 2 diabetes spreading like a plague across America and an increase in heart disease, inflammation, and Alzheimers despite years of low fat foods, low cholesterol products and food pyramids preaching the gospel of high carb, low fats diets as the healthy approach to eating. This is also despite the fact that cholesterol levels can be lowered through statins today to almost any level we want. Yet those lower cholesterol numbers have not lowered the incidence of heart disease or people dying from heart attack at all. In fact, those numbers have increased as fat consumption and cholesterol numbers have come down.

So what does all of this mean? It means that science is not always right. Science knows what it know for now. What I can tell you is that I feel better than I have in years. I feel full, satisfied, energetic and, oh did I mention? I am now down 80 pounds since I started this journey! I know this is the way to eat for the rest of my life. Cutting out sugar and processed foods has made me healthier, happier and more healthy than ever before. I now feel like I can live well into my 80's and 90's with a quick mind and a body that can sustain me. This way of eating is not only saving my life, it is presenting me with a better quality of life for the years I have left. What a blessing to have found it!

Weight - 287 lbs, started 367 lbs

Chest - 50 Inches, started 60 inches

Stomach - 52.0 inches, started 64 inches

Waist - 42 inches, started 54 inches

Mid Thigh - 22 inches, started 25 inches

Total pounds lost - 80 lbs, Total inches lost - 37 inches

Goal weight - 195, Pounds to go 92 pounds

6/27/2017 Update

My one year mark has come and gone and I am going strong. In fact, stronger than ever. My weight loss had stalled for quite some time but I stuck with it, wondering if I had reached the point where I just couldn't lose any more with Atkins. I began looking into modifications of the low-carb lifestyle and found a better way. Since my last update several things have happened. First, on a bad note I realized my scale was malfunctioning. I thought I was losing but I wasn't. When I finally got a digital scale to replace my broken one I realized it was off by more than 18 pounds. I was very discouraged to have to start back up at such a high number again and get down to what I thought I already achieved. The thing that kept me from giving up though, was how good I continue to feel. I feel so much better than I did a year ago. I look at that picture right next to this post and remember the 3 hour naps after lunch and waking up feeling like I needed another nap. None of my clothes fit. Tying my shoes was an ordeal. I sweated for no reason and the thought of climbing the stairs was torture. My back hurt, my knees hurt. No thank you on ever returning to that again. So I put on my big boy pants, (which are 5 sizes smaller now) and got to work. I began researching a keto approach to eating which has more of an emphasis on good healthy fats, not as much protein and simple ingredients. I can't say the results came right away, the weight loss was slow, but it did come. But as of this morning, 15 of those pounds I thought I lost but hadn't are really gone now. I weighed in this morning at 293. This week I have been cutting back on my dinner time portions and including a fat bomb or two at dinner to make sure I have plenty of healthy fat for the evening. Boy has it worked! I've lost 4 pounds in the last 5 days! I don't expect that kind of progress going forward, but I'll take it as long as I can get it. I've set a goal to lose another 26 pounds by the end of the year. That would mean I've lost a hundred pounds since I started. At that point I would still want to lose nearly 75 more, but I will be well on my way. Right now I am down 74 pounds since I began. I have lost the equivalent of my ten year-old daughter in a little over a year. Pretty amazing stuff, especially considering I haven't even begun to exercise at all yet.

Weight - 293 lbs, started 367 lbs

Chest - 51 Inches, started 60 inches

Stomach - 54.0 inches, started 64 inches

Waist - 44 inches, started 54 inches

Mid Thigh - 23 inches, started 25 inches

Total pounds lost - 74 lbs, Total inches lost - 31 inches

Goal weight - 195, Pounds to go 98 pounds