A new beginning!

Oh Patrice you must be exhausted  sweetheart. My heart goes out to you reading your introduction. Giving your all to your daughters, husband, work, gym, home...... no wonder you haven’t time to think about food let alone eat properly.

Well one step at a time, your life is going to change. 🙌

Hello 👋 and welcome to the forum. You’ve done well to find the App on your first day~ it took me nearly 3 weeks and the first 2 are definitely the hardest.  

Firstly I am not an expert, I am now Week 9 ~ Keto 24.6lbs lost, 20 to go... years ago, I was morbidly obese though so feel the fear of ever going back. I have read, watched videos, listened and tried to learn. I can offer you a crash course of pointers from my own perspective that have stood out to me and offer you encouragement. There are physicians who are members & post here regularly.

1/ whilst exercise is essential for our well being it shouldn’t be your focus until you reach the fat adapted stage. Research shows it does not induce nor sustain weightloss alone. Your body has a lot to do changing over from burning sugar (glycogen) from carbohydrates & sugars you eat to burning fat and during this time you can suffer keto flu. We’ll help you through. But resting if it strikes is more important than getting to the gym - that will come when you are buzzing with energy!

2/ always ensure you have Keto friendly food to hand. When you become fat adapted, you won’t be hungry all the time and you will be able to think about making something different & delicious to eat but meanwhile... we get starving still ~ so eat. It is bliss changing to being fat adapted. I never even think about breakfast and am finding lunch is getting later and later ~ 3pm yesterday.

Make yourself a really nice coffee, put your feet up and spend sometime reading through posts (looking at your schedule I guess the time you would normally be at the gym will do for now 😂🤣) . What starts off on one topic often leads to multi strands of conversation. Don’t hesitate to jump in and ask questions or chip in. Under low carb chat there is a thread, favourite self education that give links to all sorts from recipes, reading, videos etc. With such a lot to learn it can seem overwhelming especially when your life is crammed full already ~ but you are so worth it!

Rooting for you from North Yorkshire, England 😀

Have any energy? ~ instead of the gym go for a lovely autumnal walk with your fabulous husband & little daughters 👨👩👧👧🍁🍂 

It's especially difficult with children in the house because they like their carbs. I don't know how old the kids are but you can show them your new lifestyle and have them help prepare the meals. Teach them that diabetes is killing us with the carbs out there. There are studies of families with children on ketogenic and the children even shown to function in school Better. I realize it's difficult to pack their lunches but family dinner time can be without bread and starches. Employ your significant other to help hide the children's snacks, etc. this may help. I have a really hard time boiling up some Mac and cheese for my family. I have now refused to make it. Someone else has to. Lol. Just keep the prize" on the mind and you will be looking at yourself in the mirror in a whole new light. I keep a small pair of jeans in my dresser - then when I lose inches, I get another small pair. That's my motivation now. Don't look at the scale for awhile. It can only depress us further. I keep a lot of bacon on hand and make up a bunch and freeze it up. I am always baking up thicken thighs or what have you for ME and leftover chicken gets mixed in real mayo, for ME.  My go to thing to eat when busy on the go. I throw in hard boiled eggs sometimes. The urine sticks will help you at first to know your on the right track and can give motivation.  Yes, we kick ourselves for not turning that stick another color. That means we just get back to eating fat and protein again. Hang in there.  We have to get you through the keto flu. That's coming up. For some it's okay to deal with but if you feel like you have the flu your doing well. The body is flushing out the sugars.