Wendy and I have just completed our second year of a lifestyle change – which is the result of educating ourselves about Insulin Resistance. This web page is not medical advice or advice of any kind, it is just a description of our journey. Always consult doctors that you trust for medical advice.

After learning about how sugar (carbs) impacts our bodies, we decided to start the journey towards better health. We have altered what we choose to eat in order to become healthy. We eat healthier in order to become healthy, not to lose weight. The weight loss just happens to be a natural byproduct of getting healthy. Our primary goal is health (immune system), not weight loss. There are many benefits of health, not just weight loss, but weight loss for us was the most visible improvement. Other benefits include: a robust immune system, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar levels, no more headaches, no spider veins, brain health (dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc), increased energy, no hunger cravings for food, etc.

When I began this journey, I was exercising every night. I spent 1 hour every day on the treadmill. However, I was not getting any healthier. Yes, my heart was getting a workout, but I was getting less healthy by the week. My BMI was over 31 which is considered obese. Obesity is the greatest factor that determines whether or not you will survive a bout with Covid. As I started following Healthy Keto food choices, and got healthier, I lost weight without any exercising. My BMI fell from the obese range to the overweight category. I then reintroduced shorter periods of exercising (HIIT), and continued following healthy eating choices. Today my BMI is in the normal range (21.7). I am wearing Small & Medium sized shirts instead of XL or XXL. To date we have both lost over 60 pounds. When I saw my doctor, he was very surprised, and he asked me how I did it, and he kept saying “congratulations”.

People do not believe me when I say this, but it has not been difficult to eat healthy. We eat great tasting food in large quantities, until we are full. We even have healthy desserts. Some people pay to have small packages of frozen food delivered every month, which they eat after radiating it, and then starve themselves until the next tiny meal. Our vegetables are never radiated, and are slathered in salt & butter & cheese. We put bacon on everything! LOL (see photos below of some of our meals).

Dining out requires some extra thought. Some restaurants today have Keto dishes. One of those is EggSmart. They have Keto meals right on their menu. At East Side Mario’s they have an option for $2 to get any pizza with a Cauliflower crust. That with an all-you-can-eat salad is a great option. Mr. Greek has Souvlaki that comes with 2 sides as well as a Greek Salad. When we order this we get grilled vegetables as both sides. Chipotle can be Keto, if you substitute the rice & beans with extra lettuce. Fire Pit has a Souvlaki & Greek Salad dish that you just tell them you don’t want the toast. Most restaurants will substitute carb options. For example, Sunset Grill will substitute their toast with a sliced tomato. We went to The Keg recently. We had a Caesar Salad (no croutons), 20 ounce steak, a side of grilled mushrooms, a side of hot veggies and a side of their cauliflower mash. The 3 cheese butter was slathered at will. It was too much food, so we took half the steak home for a second meal. However, even with 3 sides of vegetables we didn’t get anywhere near the 7 cups we wanted.

I bought a Kitchenaid stand mixer, so that I can bake low carb alternatives. I bake low card bread, cheddar cheese biscuits, waffles, pizza dough, pasta, and chaffles (cheese waffles). Having discovered the FarmGirl.work website was a great find for low-carb mixes. One loaf of Rye bread that I bake has the same carbs as one slice of bread from a regular loaf. We eat lots of veggies (aim for 7 cups a day), as well as a moderate amount of protein. In the beginning we were eating 4 eggs a day each, but we are not eating as much today due to a lack of appetite. We choose vegetables, and high fat proteins. We don’t count anything, we just make healthy choices. Basically, no bread, pasta, rice, and potato. And of course no prepared foods even if the say Keto on them.

Our knowledge growth started with our discovery of Dr. Eric Berg’s Healthy Keto plan on YouTube. Please note … there are a lot of Keto “diets” out there. This plan is for better health, not weight loss. When I hear people say “I tried Keto, and it didn’t work for me”. When they say this – they mean they didn’t lose weight. They never mention if their health improved, which is the goal. When I press them for more details, it turns out they have never been following a true Keto plan. One person said when they tried Keto “I had rice every day”, and “I couldn’t eat all that meat”. I don’t know what they were following but neither of those are Healthy Keto. It is not high protein; it is high fat. You don’t eat rice, period. It is no wonder it didn’t “work” – as they were not even trying it. So, beware any time someone says they are on or tried Keto. Get more details. I do not endorse all Keto plans, I am only endorsing the one we follow: Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto including intermittent fasting. When we decided to give this plan a try, I stopped my 1 hour a day on the treadmill, and just focused on changing my eating.

I needed to forget everything I thought I knew about nutrition. I was always told that fat was bad, remove the skin from your chicken, don’t eat butter, don’t eat bacon or fatty meats … and avoid all salt.

This is a low carb, high fat plan, combined with intermittent fasting. I would recommend watching his videos multiple times, to get familiar with the basics. He also has a whole bunch of Recipes and Cooking Tips. My recipe for cheddar cheese & garlic biscuits is a modified version of his recipe.

I hope that if you are unhealthy, and want to get healthier to be able to fight off diseases like Covid, you will give Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto plan a try. I call him “Ice” as he is like an “Ice Berg” of nutrition knowledge … what I knew about nutrition was like the tip of the iceberg that you can see. What he taught me was the big part under the water that you cannot see.

We do eat a lot of delicious foods. Even big desserts. We feel full. We are just eating better food. We don’t count calories, macros, and we don’t use keto sticks. We don’t feel hungry, and don’t starve ourselves.

This is low carb, not no carb, however, most of our carbs are in the vegetables we eat.

This is not a “diet” you go on temporarily to lose weight. This is a lifestyle change to eat healthier so that you become healthier and you stay healthy. The weight loss is a byproduct of eating healthier. Someone asked me what happens when you stop eating healthier? I am not sure why someone would choose to eat unhealthy food, especially after knowing what it does to your body. It has been over a year, and we have not once missed feeling sick, feeling tired, feeling hungry, and being out of shape.

Covid is a great motivator to get healthy and stay healthy. This plan makes the journey enjoyable, and satisfying.

 
Low Carb Rules
Rule #1 – Don’t eat if you are not hungry. This sounds absurd, but as your body adapts to burning your fat, you don’t have the same food cravings you did before. This came into play for us as explained below.
Rule #2 – No snacking. You eat only at meal time. Any food, even what is normally good to eat spikes your insulin. Keep your eating within the window outside of the fasting period.

Rules we also follow:
– Keep it Simple - no counting calories, no macros, and no keto apps
– don’t radiate your food (no microwave)
– bake your own breads, biscuits, waffles, pasta, chaffles, etc – with Almond flour (not wheat)
- no alcohol
– no smoking
– do not weigh/measure yourself more than once a week



What foods do we eat and what do we avoid?
Avoid – bread, potato, rice, pasta (that includes meat that is breaded, croutons, etc.)
Consume - Lots of Vegetables
- 7 cups of vegetables a day – slathered in butter and salt
- Our favourites are Brussel Sprouts and Green Beans
- Avoid corn
- Eat berries and avoid other fruits
- Eggs are great - 4 a day was our goal when we were having 2 meals a day
- Salt is important – (Pink Himalayan, not table salt)

High Fat – This is the best part … These are all good: Butter (not margarine), Cheese, Bacon, Mayo, Heavy Cream, Chicken with the skin ON, the least lean ground beef (happens to be the cheapest)
 
Intermittent Fasting
Fasting is so good for your health and your brain. We started with a 16 hour fast - basically 2 meals a day (no breakfast). We would eat a lunch (4 eggs each with a bunch of vegetables), then dinner (more veggies and some protein). The time from dinner until lunch the next day is about 16 hours… remember no snacking.

When we stopped eating the excess carbs we used to eat, something amazing happened. We lost our cravings for food. This makes fasting very easy. As we continued with our 2 meals a day plan, our bodies began to burn fat instead of burning what we had just eaten. As our health improved, the weight came off steadily every week.

When you first start this plan, it helps to put Coconut oil or MCT oil in your coffee.

At one point after months of 2 meals a day, Wendy and I both noticed at lunch time (the end of our fast) we were no longer hungry, so following Rule #1, we went to OMAD (One Meal A Day). We have been on this ever since. So every meal is breakfast (breaking our fast).

If you need to be in better health, I hope this is an encouragement to you. We eat delicious tasting fatty foods, until completely full, and are never hungry. This is an easy, enjoyable way to get healthy, and as a result become healthy.

On a final note, good health is not as important as the health of our eternal souls. If you are not saved, my prayer is that you would address this need first. As Jesus said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his soul?”

Many Blessings.