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So much has happened in the last month! Exciting stuff, stressful stuff, along with some emotional baggage stuff. I’m in a place of gratitude for all of it.
This post is part of a series on my ketogenic diet: Month 1, Month 2, Month 3, Month 4, Month 5, Month 7, Month 8, Month 9, Month 10, Month 11
Speaking Engagements and Walking in High Heels in the Rain
I was extremely excited to be able to speak at two different events on November 7th, 2015 about my healing journey with a ketogenic diet.
At District 2 Toastmaster’s Fall Conference, I did a 15 minute “TED talk style” talk where I shared how as little as 10 seconds can have a huge impact in someone’s life. For me, 10 seconds was how long a distracted driver accelerated until smashing into the back of my stopped car. And after the accident, I began using social media to document my ketogenic diet that I used to heal from the chronic pain and endocrine disorders caused by that accident. I discovered that as little as 10 seconds in social media can have HUGE impact, a huge positive impact (if you so choose) on educating, influencing, and motivating people to change their mood and behaviors.
Later that day, I navigated over to the University of Washington campus to speak at the Epilepsy Foundation Northwest’s Fall Conference. It was dark, raining vigorously, and my car that was on it’s last legs. It overheated on my way there, so I ended up walking the final mile to the building I was speaking in in 3 inch heels. It truly was an adventure. And although it was a great challenge, I was grateful the whole time that I could even walk, let alone in 3 inch heels, just a year prior, I could not have walked that far. My presentation that afternoon was on the ketogenic diet to treat epilepsy, and how to do it in a healthy way. (The presentation was recorded, and once it is available on the Epilepsy Foundations NW’s youtube channel, I will post a link here.)
I love speaking, teaching, and conducting workshops, so these opportunities made my heart sing. It truly was a dream come true and I look forward to many more opportunities like these.
Dairy Free November Challenge and Acne
I had some blood work done a few weeks ago (I will post more specifics about this later) and decided to try a dairy free challenge for the month of November to see if it would improve my results. I made it about 5 or 7 days, and then caved. I’m still eating much less dairy than I was before, but not 100% dairy free. My son however, who is 20 years old and also keto and decided to try a dairy-free month along with me, has stuck with it. He suffered from scaring cystic acne all through his teenage years and it was always evident that dairy aggravated it for him. After going keto a few months ago, but not cutting out dairy, his acne was the best it had been his whole life. But he discovered that cutting out dairy too, nearly eliminated his acne. He was sold on dairy free keto and I admire his tenacity.
Emotional Baggage Weighs a Lot
As you can see from the captions on my photos below, I didn’t lose any more weight this month (see my comments below about Weight Loss Progress for an explanation of water balance in the body). I’ve been very busy this last month, working more, preparing speeches, etc. and have not been weight or even tracking my food much and simply eating intuitively. So on the one hand, it is really nice to see that my body weight will be stable once I move away from strict tracking of my food. That I will be able to move into maintenance without trouble. However I found that this weight plateau brought about some emotional challenges for me: unresolved judgments from others, fear of old habits creeping back in, and thoughts about body acceptance.
One of the things I’ve noticed coming up is an internal dialog about past comments about my weight when I was this weight in the past. I’m normally pretty confident and even at a higher weight, I felt like I was a worthwhile person. So it has been interesting to watch my mental dialog with random thoughts and phrases coming up of things that people actually said to me. I remember going on a coffee date with a doctor about 10 years ago. When we met initially, there was obvious chemistry. On our date, he made some comment like, “most of the girls I’ve dated weight 128 pounds.” I was struck by how odd it was that he knew EXACTLY how much his past girlfriends weighed and that they all weighed the same. I was also insulted by him implication that I was much heavier than what he normally dated. Memories like this and others seem to be flooding my conscious mind at times.
Another emotional challenge I’ve found myself facing over the last month of weight plateau is fear that I will some how slip back into old habits. What if I am not bulletproof? I fear that it would be easy to gain all the weight back and go back to my old unhealthy patterns if I am not careful. Or not mindful. I feared that this plateau was a sign of old patterns returning. What if I was stuck at this weight and never lost any more?
Body acceptance is a third area of emotional baggage that I faced this month. In opposition to my fear of never losing any more, I entertained the idea that I could be happy at this weight since I was obviously much happier and healthier than I’ve been in decades. Could I be content and happy with this weight? Am I healthy enough? Of course my body is good enough as it is, but can I attain a higher level of fitness and health? I have really enjoyed the feeling of empowerment that keto has brought me in being able to choose foods based on how they make me feel long term. Eating for fuel and health instead of chasing cravings. What would it be like to let go of chasing better health?
Apparently I have some unresolved body weight and body acceptance work to do. I think I’m in a very healthy place to be doing so. One of my biggest life lessons while recovering from this accident was patience and acceptance of slowing down and letting what ever is, be. Allowing the rate of healing that was appropriate for my body. I think this emotional baggage is another piece of that lesson in slowing down and accepting and allowing.
What Am I Eating?
Here is a screen shot of my Instagram, (@HypnoticNutrition) where I post all my food, drinks, snacks, etc. If you want to know what I eat every day, that is the best place to check it out. You can download the app on your phone, or you can simply look at it from your computer (you will have to create your own account, and when you do, add me as a friend!). I’ve started posting short videos with my cat, Penelope on there, just for fun. I typically start out my day listening to some dance music on Pandora, which gets me moving and dancing a bit. Penelope always hangs out with me while I get ready in the morning, but looks perturbed about my choice in music and dancing. I’ve also been promoting Epilepsy Awareness Month with Instaquote because a ketogenic diet is fantastic for treating epilepsy and reducing or eliminating seizures.
Weight Loss Progress
My weight has been stable for about the last 3 weeks. I’m at about 50 pounds lost, give or take 5 pounds. It appears that I gained weight from last month based on the scale number alone, however anywhere within 5 pounds is not weight gain, but the imprecise maintenance of the water balance in the body. I had another plateau like this a few months back. I think the photo collage below may appear that I gained weight the last month, but I think that is simply the perspective of the photo because my measurements are the same.
What Next?
Keep calm and keto on!
I’ve starting seeing more clients, both in person at my office in Redmond, WA, USA, and over the phone/Skype for implementation of low carb and ketogenic diets. For the new year, I will also have group programs that combine keto and hypnosis, which will be offered both online and in my office in Redmond. If you’d like to know more about any of these services, send me an email at Carole@HypnoticNutrition.com.
Keto Carole 