My Keto Diet Story

This is not your typical keto diet success story. In fact, I didn’t start keto to lose weight, so there are no amazing visual transformation before and after photos.

But I get a lot of people asking why I do keto, so I thought I’d share my story here, hidden deep in the jumble of keto recipes on this site, so I can share it when I get asked.

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It Didn’t Start With Keto

Sugar and Moods

I realized after I’d had my first child, that my sugary treat consumption drastically affected my mood. This was a pivotal discovery for me, since severe clinical depression and obesity has appeared in our family history, and I did not want that to happen to me. Finding out that I had control over a small part of the presentation of this disease gave me encouragement.

Complete Molar Pregnancy: Nutrition?

My second pregnancy ended up being a complete molar pregnancy. An ultrasound was performed and I was scheduled the very next day for a D&C to remove the mass of cells that should have been a baby and that would have turned into cancer and metastasized all over my body if it hadn’t been found in time.

This was devastating to me, and I almost immediately began searching for a cause. What did I do wrong? After reading every medical article and abstract I could find on complete molar pregnancy, I found that there was no specific known cause, but it is suspected that it has to do with a nutritional deficiency of the mother.

Gestational Diabetes in Third Pregnancy

I had gestational diabetes with my third pregnancy. I don’t know why this is so hard for me to admit. Probably because I’ve always tried so hard to follow what I thought was the right health protocol. With all of my pregnancies, I also had pretty average (maybe slightly above average?) morning sickness.  

Having the solution-bent brain that I have, I was my own guinea pig, trying all sorts of remedies and diet tweaks to see what would work. I even tried those bracelets that are supposed to push a certain pressure point and relieve the constant stomach irritation.

Nothing worked, but avoiding certain processed foods, high carb foods, and gluten was the closest I got to relief. Now that I’ve found keto and am done having kids, I wish I could go back and experiment with keto and morning sickness! If you do, please let me know how it goes!

Period Regularity

When I was younger, I always had erratic periods. When I began making yogurt from home and eating it almost daily, my periods almost immediately began to come regularly for the first time in my life. It was also the year I started having vegetable gardens and playing in the dirt.

That was one of the first signs I recognized that maybe food could change some things for me.

Uveitis? Autoimmune Disease? Dry Eye? Inflammation.

A sudden acute eye pain that became regular at night and was first diagnosed as uveitis, a type of iritis, treated with steroid drops, and then diagnosed as a possible symptom of an autoimmune disease, possibly psoriasis, by my GP, and then downgraded by another optometrist as dry eye (the correct diagnosis–phew!). What they all agreed was that it was caused by inflammation.

Occasional High Cholesterol

I also experienced high levels of cholesterol at a couple doctor’s visits, even though I’m a moderate exerciser.

Grab some keto fat bomb recipes to tide you over while you read!

Non-Weight Loss Benefits of the Keto Diet

I never used keto for weight loss, though I generally say I’d like to lose 10-15 pounds.. I’ve been one of those people who are blessed to naturally enjoy exercise and whose body didn’t betray them after pregnancy. I am aware of how lucky I am–I have many loved ones whom I’ve heart-achingly witnessed their constant struggle with weight gain and I secretly cried watching The Biggest Loser.

Even though my own weight struggles have been incredibly minor compared to others, there are so many other, smaller issues that I didn’t even really accept as problems until I started researching and making small changes and started seeing improvements.

Like most people, I just accepted the accumulation of health problems as confirmation that I was getting older. Isn’t your body supposed to atrophy as you age?

I detailed all the improvements to my health that happened in one year just from taking my first keto step of eating gluten free here, if you’d like to have a read.

Scrutinizing the Keto Diet on My Journey

If you have heard anything about keto, you’ve heard that it’s great for losing weight. But you’ve also probably heard that people are using it for seizures, inflammatory diseases, ADHD, anxiety, PCOS, lyme, heart disease, diabetes, psoriasis and other autoimmune conditions, celiac disease, cancer, depression, etc.

I want to know if the ketogenic diet is all it’s cracked up to be. So far, I’ve seen great things happen.

If you’re like me and don’t want to drink the kool aid without knowing what’s in it, you’re in the right place. I will examine this diet from every angle to see how it holds up to scrutiny, so stick around, browse our articles and recipes, and let’s get healthy together!

(Actually, just don’t drink kool aid, period. Definitely not a keto-approved beverage.) :)

If you don’t know what the ketogenic diet is, you’ll want to start here with a list of keto diet articles for beginners.

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