I forgot I had this blog started and I haven't posted here since 2012.
Facebook has changed the face of blogging and life is chronicled there now. But I just wanted to put this here because this blog is linked to my Facebook @kelfamfitness page where we gather to discuss fitness and eating Keto, a phrase that didn't even exist as a food plan.
Tried Atkins 2004 or so -lost weight, started eating the Atkins branded snacks, got sweet tooth back and then eating like crap...put weight back on and then some.
Started this blog while doing Beachbody workouts (P90X) and eating lower carb. Eating lower carb except when binging on carbs. Became living proof that you can't out-train a poor diet. Stopped working out. Bounced in and out of low carb and binged on starches/sugars (junk food). Put on weight.
Fast forward to 2018. Step on the scale (something I avoided like the plague). 302 pounds! UGH! Start eating lower carb and binging less often. Get down a bit, bounce up and down. Still not exercising.
Then my mother-in-law sends me a TedTalk video by Dr. Sarah Halberg about reversing type 2 diabetes. Wasn't diagnosed one yet, but heading that way I am sure. this was September 2018. Begin Keto. Some success when i wasn't binging. Drop down to the 250s for the most part.
Sept 30, 2019 Emergency Surgery in Turku, Finland due to diverticulitis infection in my intestine gone rouge. Removes 2/3 of my large intestine and manage to avoid a colostomy bag in the process. Lose some weight due to not eating much during healing process.
January 1 - New Years Resolution...ride my wife's new Peloton Cycle every day (mind you probably worked out 4 or 5 times a year in the last few years). Enjoy the new bike and see progress, In late February join an erging group at the Neighborhood Club with rowers from Detroit Waterfront Rowing Association while still cycling
Pandemic hits in March 2020 I am spending lots of time sitting on the couch/chair between rides and eating late night. Binging on starches. Erg class cancelled due to pandemic but still cycling.
Feast of the Ascension, May 21, 2020, after seeing a post on Instagram challenging people to a 100 days of 100% clean keto, I attend noon Mass at a Roman Church (Episcopal Churches not allowed to reopen yet) and make a vow to God that I am going to do 100 days. Mark the 100th day on my calendar (in August). and start eating clean. Also decide I am going to add Intermittent Fasting with it (all meals eaten between 11am and 7pm). Weight on that day 257 (45 below my highest weight).
June 10, 2020 join Detroit Waterfront Rowing Association, get into a wider-style training shell (called a zephyr) with a group of 'intermediate' rowers - people who have some experience with rowing. I am slow and 244 pounds but glad to be back on the water rowing again after 33 years away from it.
Three weeks later I join the 'racing' group of rowers (no regattas scheduled for the pandemic anyway) and start riding my bike the 1.5 miles to the boathouse at 5 AM. Weight keeps coming off and I am starting to see some speed and distance happening on the water. Plan on joining the Penn Lightweight Alumni group for the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta at the end of October (surely the pandemic will be over by then, right?).
Big milestones during that summer include reaching the 100 days and by late fall am below 200 pounds in a LONG time! But the Head of the Schuylkill regatta cancelled due to covid and on the water season ends. I transition back to riding the Peloton Bike (I did use it every day until I started rowing regularly on the water in the summer) and to rowing on the ergometer, mostly at the Detroit Athletic Club (which during covid restrictions you had to make an appointment to use the gym).
MAJOR DECISION made some times during that 100 days challenge. Eating 100% clean Keto for those planned 100 days I realized that my cravings for starches/sugars was gone. No binging on pizza, other junk food. Once I started eating that crap in the past I couldn't get enough - hungry cravings for it! So I pulled out my workout calendar and marked off a second 100 days. And decided that I had to treat starch and sugar like I treat alcohol as an alcoholic in recovery (which I am). I am a sugar/starch addict and the only way to not have a relapse is to not use it at all. 100 days of 100% Keto had to become 100% abstinence for life! As of today's writing I am 604 days abstinent! Deo Gratias.
Winter 2021 training was interrupted for a few weeks when I had surgery to repair an incisional hernia as a result of my surgery in 2019 in Finland (initial incision in my muscle wall never healed properly and I could feel my intestines popping out) but I stuck with it throughout. My swim group team at the Detroit Athletic Club won the league championship that year - a first time for me in 20 years of participating.
Back on the water end of April with DWRA and weighing in my 180s, nearly at my first goal weight of 175 - what I weighed when I graduated High School. Now there was no 5 AM group practicing but I continued to come down weekdays at 5:30 when the water is calmest and less traffic on the river. On Saturdays I was joined by another guy to row in a double which was a nice change of pace. Half way through the summer I started rowing in a racing single, albeit a heavy wooden one, and occasionally the coach's elite racing single.
By mid summer I was lighter than my high school weight and got the crazy idea that I not only could race in an 8+ with my fellow Penn Lightweight Alumni, but I could actually make weight (160lbs) and row in a lightweight 1x race as well. When I told my wife this she actually said, "do you think that might be too light?" I never thought I would hear her say that in all the years I was obese and morbidly obese!
All accomplished one day at a time and by the grace of God, realizing I was a starch/sugar addict and that Keto was my solution and freedom.
