My Bride 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 professionals that you trust for medical advice.

This page ended up being quite lengthy, so I decided to insert a summary before getting into the details.

SUMMARY
We managed to get healthy without drugs, without exercising, without counting, without macros, without apps, and even without cost. In short – a very simple plan. The only cost was the time invested in watching the free educational videos. We followed Dr. Berg’s videos and learned about insulin resistance and what it does to our bodies. We then followed his Healthy Keto plan (Low carb diet + Intermittent Fasting). We ate lots of good quality tasty food, until full each meal, including each day: 4 eggs, 7 cups of vegetables (covered in cheese and butter), moderate protein, and even desserts a few times a week. The benefit of reducing the carbs in your diet, we discovered, is that your hunger naturally disappears. When you are not hungry, it is easy to stop putting food in your mouth. We are eating better quality food, fewer times a day, and are much healthier. People congratulate us, but it was not difficult. It has been over 2 years now, and we are still healthy and thus at the same reduced weight. A big shout out to the FarmGirl.Work website for their low carb products which allowed us to continue to eat great tasting breads, cakes, pizza dough, waffles, cereals, pancakes, and even pasta. The improvement in our health has been massive. This is a lifestyle change to get healthy, and stay healthy, not a fad to temporarily lose weight. We have made sure that we eat a lot of varieties of food. The fact that it is high fat means that the food is always very tasty and filling. Yum.

DETAILS
After learning about how sugar (carbs) negatively 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, not weight loss. We experienced 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, reduced spider veins, brain health (dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc), increased energy, and better sleep. This plan that we followed gave us a natural loss of hunger making the journey quite easy. It is easy not to eat when you are not hungry.

When I began this journey, I was exercising every night. I spent 45 minutes to 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 one of the major factors that determines whether or not you will survive a bout with Covid. It often leads to diabetes and a slew of other medical issues. As I started following Healthy Keto food choices combined with intermittent fasting, I intentionally stopped exercising. As I got healthier, even without exercise, I lost weight. 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). I am wearing Small & Medium sized shirts instead of XL or XXL. To date we have both lost a combined weight of over 130 pounds. When I saw my doctor, he was very surprised, and he asked me how I did it, and he kept saying “congratulations”. My doctor is overweight, and his advice to lose weight had been one thing: eat more fish. Sadly, many doctors do not understand much about nutrition.

*See the first 2 photos below, for before and after evidence.

You may not believe me when I say this, but it has not been difficult to eat healthy. When you are not hungry, it is easy not to eat. We eat great tasting food in large quantities, until we are full. We even have healthy desserts. The reason the food is so great tasting is that it is also a high fat diet. I get to eat all of the things that most people say is bad to eat! At first I was skeptical … bacon, butter, cheese, mayo, leave the skin on, etc … seems like a dream come true! It is low carb, not no carb … so most of the carbs we eat are in the vegetables. We aim for 7 cups of vegetables a day. That along with a moderate amount of protein, fills us up nicely.

At the start of this journey, along with the healthier (low carb) food choices, we began with a 16 hour fast, by not having a morning meal. Instead we put coconut oil in our coffee (which helped to skip that meal). Once our bodies converted to burning fat, the hunger in the morning was gone. That took about 3 weeks. All of the weight we lost, was based on this format … eating 2 meals a day with a 16 hour fast.

Dining out requires some extra thought. It is hard to get the amount vegetables we enjoy in a meal. 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 made 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. Swiss Chalet has garlic green beans as a side as well as mixed vegetables and various salads. That with some chicken (no bun) is a decent meal. 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. When we went to The Keg, we had a Caesar Salad (no croutons), a 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 normally eat every day.

Do we go without breads, cakes, etc? Not at all. We don’t buy store made, but I bought a Kitchenaid stand mixer, so that I can bake low carb alternatives. I bake low carb breads, cheddar cheese biscuits, waffles, pancakes, 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 Cobs 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 food today due to a lack of appetite. We enjoy 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.

One thing to note … we do our best to not consume prepared foods as well as food with poor ingredients. There are a lot of products in the stores labelled “Keto” which may have reduced carbs, but we would not consume them due to their ingredients. Many of the recipes I see for Keto dishes use these products, but we are a little more diligent on the ingredients we consume. We still check the ingredients even if the packaging indicates Keto.

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 specifically weight loss. When I hear people say “I tried Keto, and it didn’t work for me”. When they say this – they usually mean that they didn’t lose weight. They never mention if their health improved, which is the goal. When I press them for more details, in every case, it turns out they were not following a true Healthy Keto plan. The plan we follow is Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto including intermittent fasting. I cannot speak to other Keto plans as I have only experience with this one.

When I started learning this plan, 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. Wow talk about poor advice. What we follow now 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 diabetes and 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, less often. We don’t count calories, worry about macros, and we don’t use keto sticks. We don’t feel hungry, and don’t starve ourselves. We don’t take medication to curb our hunger. This happened naturally … once we stopped eating carbs our hunger went away. This was the biggest and best surprise of our journey.

For us, this is not a “diet” we go on temporarily to lose weight. This is a lifestyle change to eat healthier so that we become healthier and then 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. Why would anyone choose to become obese after getting healthy? It has been 2 years, and we have not once missed feeling sick, feeling tired, feeling hungry, and feeling out of shape. We have more energy, sleep better, exercise more, and save on groceries too.


The Two 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 during the fasting period. You eat only during your non-fasting window which you are able to set for yourself. Any food, even what is normally good to eat spikes your insulin. Keep your eating within the window outside of the fasting period. So, if you are having 2 meals a day (lunch and dinner), your fasting period would be from after dinner until lunch the next day (14-16 hours). If you are having One Meal A Day (OMAD) then your fasting window is likely close to 20 hours.

Rules we also follow:
– Keep it Simple - no counting calories, no macros, and no keto apps or sticks
– don’t radiate your food (no microwave)
– bake your own breads, biscuits, waffles, pasta, chaffles, pancakes, etc – with Almond or Coconut 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.)
- Tap water – we only drink distilled water and add in trace minerals and electrolytes

Consume - Lots of Vegetables
- 7 cups of vegetables a day – we slather ours in butter and pink Himalayan salt
- Our favourites are Brussel Sprouts and Green Beans
- Avoid corn
- Eat berries (Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, Blackberry) and avoid/reduce 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 … You don’t get fat when you eat fat just like you don’t turn into a hen if you eat chicken.
 
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 and some protein), 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 intermittent 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. The first before and after photo was taken 5 months after we started our Healthy Keto lifestyle change.

When you first start this plan, if you feel hungry in the morning, it helps to put Coconut oil or MCT oil in your coffee. We did this at the very beginning.

At one point after months of 2 meals a day, Wendy and I both noticed at lunch time one day (the end of our fast) we were no longer hungry, so following Rule #1, we skipped dinner that day. Then the next day was the same, so although unplanned, we ended up doing OMAD (One Meal A Day). We have been on this ever since. So every meal is breakfast for us (breaking our fast). This was never something we wanted to do, but it just naturally happened with the hunger loss.

If you want 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.

Recipe Links
Cheddar Cheese Biscuits:
https://www.mundy.ca/Miscellaneous/Biscuits/