A Whole New Me

32 Comments / Weight Loss

How I went from this to this in 10 months!!!

By Lisa Santiago

For years I’ve struggled with my weight. Even as a kid, I would often find myself having a destructive relationship with food. Although I loved shopping, trying on clothes was no fun. Nothing fit right, or looked right for that matter. I knew how I wanted to look, and what I WANTED to wear, but because of my weight, I couldn’t.
As the years progressed, my relationship with food got worse. I often found myself binge eating and purging thinking it was helping, but it didn’t. At one point in high school, I barely ate anything. While I did lose weight, I was miserable and exhausted most days. Once I started eating again, I gained it all back, plus some.

MY STRUGGLE

As I got older, I became more confident in who I was and was ok with how I looked. I started having kids and gaining and losing weight. I even struggled with getting pregnant due to being overweight. Before getting pregnant with my second child, I lost 15 pounds which I feel helped me get pregnant, along with IUI. After my 3rd child, I was at my highest weight (way after birth), 199 pounds. It was shocking to see that on the scale. In November 2016, I went on a cruise and saw a picture that was taken of me on the cruise (the one above) and I was so upset with myself. I knew I needed to make a change for my kids, my husband, but most importantly, myself. Please don’t take this as me bashing anyone who is overweight. That’s not who I am and I can’t stand people who do that. I needed to do it to get healthy. My knees often bothered me and I couldn’t keep up with my kids.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

In January 2017, I decided that it was time.  I’ knew a few people who lost weight on Keto. So, I researched, chatted, joined groups and most importantly, prepared with groceries so I was ready to fight this battle.  I had my mind set that this is what I was doing and I was going to stick with it no matter what.  I remember having a conversation with someone telling her, “Once I get my mind set, I don’t cheat.”  I’m sure she just rolled her eyes at me (we were conversing through Facebook) and thought I wouldn’t stick with it.  

WHAT IS KETO

So what is Keto you ask?  It’s VERY low carb, high fat and moderate protein diet. You calculate how many grams of each you should be eating with a keto calculator and track your food.  No shakes, wraps, pills, starvation or spending tons of extra money on junk.  

HOW I DID IT

In the beginning, I was starving.  My symptoms from the keto flu (yes, it’s a real thing… basically your body detoxing from sugar) was tiredness and a bad headache.  I logged all my food into my fitness pal everyday.  I made sure I was eating enough protein, adding healthy fats to stay full, and making sure I was staying under 20 carbs.  I kept my meals simple.  Breakfast was eggs with bacon and cheese, lunch was a meat and veggie and dinner was a meat and veggie.  I ate a lot of grilled chicken but made it taste good by adding some cream cheese or topping it off with Rao’s sauce (only 3 carbs/half cup!) and cheese.  I stuck with it and lost about 6 pounds/month. I did some exercising, Fitness Marshall videos on YouTube. After about a month, I became fat adapted and wasn’t hungry a lot.  I cut out breakfast and now just eat lunch and dinner and fast for about 16 hours per day.

TODAY

So here I am today.  I’ve become a “lazy ketoer” and just eat keto foods.  I no longer track my foods because I know what I can and I can’t eat.  I’ve been maintaining my weight although I still feel I have room to lose some more.  I’m healthier.  I feel amazing.  I went from a size, “I’m wearing leggings everyday” to a size 3!

My best advice to people who want to start this journey is to think of losing weight as if you’re an addict coming off drugs.  Push through those first few weeks and once you do, and you have your mind set to stick with it, you will get through and see results!  Addicts are put in rehabs to help them stay away from all the temptation and detox.  If you can do that on your own, you will succeed.  With Keto you’re just eating real foods; meats, healthy fats, a LOT of bacon (because why not!), eggs, leafy veggies, and limited cheese and nuts.  Keep your meals nice and simple!  You CAN live without this or that.  You have to want the results bad enough to do so.  It’s been almost 18 months since I’ve started and besides a few bites of pineapple, I have not cheated once!  At this point, no food is worth the cheat.  The food I’m eating is satisfying enough that I don’t need those other foods I’ve left behind. Just got home from a cruise, and while temptation and comments like, “Oh just take a bite, or it won’t hurt you” happened a few times, I said no thanks and stuck with it!  I know many might not do that and that’s totally ok, but this is who I am!  Keto on! It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.

FAVORITE MEAL

Chicken Parmesan: “Bread” your chicken with Parmesan cheese.  Fry it in olive oil or bacon fat.  Top with Roa’s and Mozzarella and DELISH!  You won’t even know it’s not real breading!

Never in a million years did I think I would be where I’m at today!  Keto On!

“Everything you can imagine is real”

 Pablo Picasso

32 thoughts on “A Whole New Me”

  8. Janielle Smith

    Congratulations 🍾!! It’s not an easy thing to do and you are doing awesome!!

  9. Janielle Smith

    Congratulations 🍾. It’s not an easy thing to do and you are doing awesome!!

  11. Mary Tuthill

    You look fantastic! But what matters most is that you feel great! Thank you for sharing

  18. Megan

    Amazing!! I need to do this. Had baby #4 in October and I need and want to get back to a healthier weight for myself and my kiddos.

  31. Eileen gonzalez

    Omg you look amazing, i was on the fence about the keto but i am definitly going to try this….

  32. Dreena84
    Dreena84

    Because of your posts a few months back, I tried Keto and lost 16 lbs. It’s so easy and I always hope that when I tell people about it, that it’s not going in one ear and out the other because it really does work, unlike every other diet out there. Thanks for being an inspiration! I hope others try it, too! Congratulations on the accomplishment. It’s life-changing.

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