My Weight Loss Journey + Keto Challenge

So, I thought I would finally get around to writing about my weight loss journey, as I have finally got a laptop to write a page on my blog! hooray! :)

So I am going to introduce myself and my journey, and write this for anyone interested in my weight loss journey! My name is Abigail and I am 23 years old. The highest I have ever weighed has been around 14st 7lb or about 205lb. Which was about 3 or so years ago I think, could maybe be a little less!

My current weight as of today, which is the 10/09/17 is 11st 6lb - 162lb. My goal weight is to be about 9st or 8st 10lb. My lowest recent weight I have ever been was 10st 6lb, and that was last Christmas. I am 5'6 1/2, I have an autoimmune condition which is similar to multiple sclerosis, endometriosis and a gluten + dairy intolerance and In total, I have lost 3st - 42lbs.

Pictures below -

Top - Me now, and bottom picture is me at over 14st!

Keep scrolling down, for my weight loss journey :)

Update - It is now the 01/10/17 and I am now 10st 11! :)

So the highest I have weighed is over 14st and let me tell you, it was a miserable time of my life! I retreated from going out, in fear I would be mock or laughed at. The fact I was overweight led me to eat my feelings, and stuff my face with pizza and copious amounts of Ben & Jerry's ice cream! I yo-yo dieted from one fad to the next to severe restriction, but in the end, I usually would end up where I would lose a stone, then gain it back and the cycle repeated itself for about 2 years! I finally realised that I was gluten intolerant as I kept getting severe chest pain whenever I had anything with gluten in, to the point I wouldn't be able to move from agony. I gave it up, I was on low carb at the time and was having loads of cream and couldn't understand why I had such bad stomach troubles everytime I had it in my coffee or what not, Duh! Dairy intolerance, I also cut out soy as that gave me a bad stomach too. Plus it's GM and anything like that I can cut from my diet I will.

It was around this time, that my illness kicked in (autoimmune) and I had my first set of 'attacks' I left a former partner, and moved back to my hometown. This move made me ditch the junk food, the gluten and dairy and stick to just healthy eating. I cut all the unnecessary carbohydrates out of my diet and sugar and started dropping weight. I was doing amazing, I opted for the low carb approach as that is what works best for me, and was doing great I got down to 10st 6lb last December, but then had a laparoscopy to search for endometriosis. The day after I shot up to around 11st 9, I put it down to obviously inflammation and what not, little did I know that it would cause a massive stall in my weight loss for the next 9 months! I guess my body, due to the autoimmune condition didn't recover as well as most to the surgery. I tried everything from low carb, to eating fruits and just plain healthy, to nutrishakes and such to no avail. Yes I felt a little better but the weight loss, was at a standstill.

So here is what I did.

I started buying organic meat, and veg (mostly when I can the veg as I am always missing the delivery dates!) I started taking coconut oil, turmeric, (for inflammation) Black cumin seed oil, and numerous amounts of other vitamins to help my condition - I prefer natural cures as opposed to pills from the doctors, I recently literally a month ago today joined a keto fall challenge, hosted by Lynn Terry online and I am currently in a Facebook group with hundreds of others, and it's free. We are all participating in this challenge together until December, which might I add keeps me very much on track. Now I have always had the low carb approach, and was getting very frustrated, i'm thinking to myself why am I not losing weight? I don't eat cereal, biscuits, bread! I was so frustrated and was on the verge of just not bothering, it had been 9 months of constant low carb, and I had very much had enough, and wanted to gorge, apart from the Saturdays where I would devour bacon and maple syrup crisps, I never ate badly. My carb content was about 20-60g per day. Then this challenge popped up and I thought wow! Ketosis, I completely forgot about that! Where your body goes from burning glucose to burning your fat for energy! Say what?! This couldn't possibly work, I'm thinking to myself, I mean I've done low carb for the past 9 months surely a little lower carb wouldn't work for this stall. Boy, I couldn't be more wrong!

I started the challenge at 11st 9lb in exactly 4 weeks today, I have gone down to 10st 11lb. YES, I have moved out from my 11 stones, and I am now back into my ten stones, I can scarcely believe it myself. I have lost a total of 12lb, that's 2lb off an entire stone, how have I found doing keto. Keeping my carbs to 20g per day? Super easy, it has quite simply been extremely easy. See I had done keto in the past when I first moved back home, and I did it all the wrong way which was basically consuming protein none stop, not eating really any veg and basically barely any fats (not intentional but extremely essential) What was happening, was that my body was shaking, headaches and I was literally on the verge of collapsing one day walking back from the shops, I genuinely thought I was going to blackout! Skip ahead a few years, and I am doing it the right way, I've done heaps of research literally hours and hours and now I am consuming tons of healthy fats from avocados, coconut oil, nuts ect.. protein but not overdoing it and tons of greens! My keto flu lasted approx about 4-5 days before I started getting over it!

I am constantly full, I blame or should I say thank the bulletproof coffee's I drink each day. For anyone who doesn't know what a bulletproof coffee is, it's a normal coffee I make mine with unsweetened almond milk, a little Truvia I then add 1tbsp of coconut oil (I get the unflavoured as I know it's not as good but I genuinely have tried extra virgin and the taste and smell makes me puke!) and 1 tbsp of butter (dairy free) I then whizz it up in my blender, and there you have it. Practically a very frothy latte substitute, which tastes absolutely delicious. The bonus for me is I have found a way to take coconut oil which I actually enjoy! Another trick if you can't stand the taste is to add it to ice cold apple juice from the fridge! I have tried adding coconut oil to numerous drinks throughout the years, and this is the only other drink where the taste is virtually undetectable! But obviously doing keto, I had to skip the apple juice thank goodness for discovering this coffee! Another bonus for me is in the past month, I have noticed my eyelashes and hair growing very thick and very quickly!

I have been tempted to go out of keto with alcohol and such, but I have resisted because quite honestly I am so determined to get this weight off by Christmas. I feel so determined and my mindset is super strong to stick to this. My goal is 9st but honestly, I would be happy at just 10st! In fact I am already happier than I have been in a long while, in regards to my weight.

So there you have it my weight loss story, I will add more to this and go into more detail another day. Currently it is 01:55 here, and I really should get some rest! But if you have any questions about keto, or where to find the challenge just pop me a message!

(I don't claim to be any nutritionist and such, I am just an average gal who's spent the past few years, obsessed with everything natural and health-related!)

#weightloss #weightlossmyjourney #keto #ketosis