My Keto Journey: Losing 15lbs Doing Lazy Keto

Important side note ~ This article was written by the previous owner of the site but the information in here is valuable and her results are amazing. With her permission, this article will stay on the site.

My keto journey so far is pretty amazing. I stumbled upon this diet purely by chance in a blogging group of mine. People were reporting that they were having success blogging about this new diet.

I hadn’t heard of the diet before and continued about my business as normal. I was working on starting a brand new blog of my own that was supposed to be a beauty blog.

I was also introduced to private label content at this time. This is content that people write and sell to bloggers who turn around and publish this content as their own. It saves them time of having to research and write their own articles. One such PLR author had just released a keto diet article bundle and instantly my spidey sense went off.

I wondered if I could also write about the ketogenic diet and have success with my new blog. I purchased the bundle and put out a few posts on what was supposed to be my beauty blog.

Much to my surprise the content did very well but I felt like a fraud because I’d never tried the diet and here I was writing about it. I decided to go ahead and give it a shot so I could at least understand what the heck I was writing about.

Besides, the diet boasted some pretty amazing benefits and I wanted in.

My Keto Journey: The first 30 days on the keto diet

Around August 2018 I decided to start. The problem was that I was in a new social circle that had me out at the bars quite often around this same time. I challenged my friends to go 30 days off alcohol with me in support so that I could try out this diet for at least that period.

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I took my before picture coming in squarely at 200lbs and went off trying all the yummy keto recipes I was discovering on Pinterest.

I was following the diet pretty strictly and was doing well. I could feel the difference in my energy level and I could feel the looseness in my clothes just days in.

In fact, that’s when I started to research keto insomnia because I was having trouble sleeping at nights. Turns out I needed to add magnesium to my keto diet so I purchased a magnesium supplement to take at nights and that helped tremendously.

I went on a hike on August 18, just 10 days after being on the diet and I could FEEL the difference.

For someone who wasn’t active at all, I was expecting total death on that grueling hike. But somehow the diet propelled me to push through like a champ and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

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The hike ended at these waterfalls and I was really loving being out in nature, enjoying the beauty of my country and having the energy to take it all in.

I was also able to go on the hike and then swim around in the waterfall’s natural pools without feeling incredibly hungry and worn out, like I usually would after such activity.

I love that the keto diet regulates my appetite so I don’t get these horrible hunger pangs of the past.

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I was 8lbs down just 2 weeks later, woohoo!

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Incorporating alcohol on the keto diet

It was around this time that things began to get rocky. My friends cracked about the whole drinking thing and of course, so did I. My kid was on holiday in another country so I had all the time in the world to go bar-hopping with them in the nights.

I kept my drinks skinny at least. I only allowed myself rum, which is carb free, and soda water, also carb free. However, alcohol can knock you out of ketosis which means you’ll have to spend time getting back to that fat-burning state.

This inevitably slows down the rate at which you burn fat. I was still doing pretty well on my diet however so I know I was still losing weight. I’m not sure when it was that I hit my low of 185lbs because I never took a picture of that since I was no longer following the diet strictly.

My clothes were definitely making me feel the benefits of the diet and letting me know it was still working. This dress for instance, I hadn’t worn in over 2 years because my stomach would bulge out unless I wore a corset underneath and that just wasn’t something I wanted to do in a casual day dress.

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Here I was slipping the dress on and not having to worry about my belly bulging out more than my boobs and causing me to look 6 months pregnant!

I was ecstatic, to say the least. Still, I did not continue on with strict keto. I incorporated it into my diet but had lots of cheat here and there. This was enough to maintain my weight steadily and made me realize that I didn’t have to do a strict keto diet all my life to maintain a healthy weight.

I was liking the diet even more at this point!

Will the weight come right back when I stop keto?

When dieting, usually it’s so restrictive that it’s not sustainable for long periods of time.

This is why I believe in balance. Finding a way of eating that you can stick to for life is important to maintaining a healthy weight for the rest of your life.

I realized that the keto diet was onto something. It taught me that carbs, even healthy ones, are being consumed way too much in our diet. We don’t have to completely go strict keto to lose weight, all we have to do is cut back on the amount of carbs we eat daily and increase the amount of healthy fats and vegetables we eat and we’ll be good.

A strict ketogenic diet is a medical diet after all, used for people suffering from serious diseases and ailments. If you’re relatively healthy and simply trying to lose or maintain a healthy weight, a strict keto diet is not necessary.

I know this is true since even though I had stopped strict keto, I did not gain back any weight. When I stopped keto, I was definitely eating healthier thanks to resetting my whole appetite and taste buds. I was eating more fruits and vegetables than before keto and was still eating low carb.

I had stopped eating bread, sweets, rice, flour, pasta, cereals altogether and had drastically cut down on the starchy vegetables (like yams and potatoes) I was eating.

Just that change was enough to keep the weight off even though I had started eating peas and beans again, was enjoying oatmeal again, was having sugar in my tea again and was eating my favourite fruits again.

I had found a good healthy way to eat and I was very happy with that because I felt like this was a way of eating I could sustain all my life.

What happens when you start to eat carbs again?

So I was enjoying my new way of eating when my birthday and the Christmas holiday season came around and I threw out all reason and went H.A.M.

That’s when the weight finally started to creep back on. I enjoyed putting on back those 8lbs and I’m now at 192 again and ready for another round of strict keto then transitioning into my version of lazy keto AKA a low carb lifestyle.

It took me over 2 months to pack on those 8lbs so I don’t think that’s too bad. I am in keto recipe groups on Facebook and often hear people going on 2 week vacations and coming back 10 or even 15lbs heavier. Clearly they went all in?!

I can’t understand it but I am happy to have found this diet and my happy medium. I’m excited for the next 90 days to see where the numbers go and what other benefits I derive from this life.

Related: How long should you stay on the keto diet? Here’s why I cycle on and off keto.

Are you on the keto diet? How are you finding it so far? Let me know in the comments.

Not yet a keto dieter? Get started with my quick start guide for free below.