I meant to eat well and exercise a lot after my thyroidectomy. I got one out of those two right. Even though I was training for a triathlon, working out all the damn time, I didn’t change my eating habits. In fact, I’d say my eating habits got WORSE. I work for a company that gives us breakfast, lunch, snacks and offers amazing desserts and a permanent ice cream sundae bar. DANGER! DANGER! OINK OINK OINK. I have a hard time saying no to cookies, and man, they know how to bake a cookie here! Plus, there are soda dispensaries on every floor with coca cola. I love coca cola. LOVE.

Alas, I pigged out on all these options before my surgery, thinking that I would turn my diet / eating habits around right after. So I started to gain some weight right before the surgery, and gained a tiny bit more (because of eating habits, not the surgery) after. I got to my highest weight of 163 pounds. I am 5’10”, for the record. So obviously, I was not ‘fat’. But for me, I was very unhappy. Sure, all my clothes fit the same (but I always buy larger than I wear, thanks to body dysmorphia). So I had to do something. That is when some of my friends starting posting about their weight loss via a ketogenic diet.

So what the heck, I tried it. And it’s been three weeks and I’ve lost ten pounds already! The first few pounds are all water weight, but dang!!!

Quick keto summary: Keep your carb levels around 20g a day (MINUS the fiber). No pasta, rice, bread, processed carbs, anything with gobs of sugar. Your body will use that instead of your fat stores for energy. When you go into a state of ketosis, your body will use the body fat instead. And carbs make you retain a lot of water. Already lost a few inches, too, on the waist and thighs.

Now, I haven’t started getting back into heavy work outs since the triathlon, so I DO think I will resume eating certain carbs when I resume endurance sports.

Here are some high level bullet points of interest on how the keto diet has changed my eating world view:

Basket o’ goodies I get delivered at work

I actually COOKED this. Myself. Without getting severely injured or dying! It’s eggplant pizzas on top of spaghetti squash “spaghetti”. It was SO good!

• Tons of meat and cheese. SO much meat and cheese. I never want to eat another cheeseburger again. If you love meat and cheese, this is the diet for you
• Because I dislike meat and cheese, I’ve had to start working with a lot of (low carb) vegetables and get creative. My work gets ‘organic, local farm veggies and fruits’ delivered weekly for a small fee. So I signed up. And I’m eating the low carb ones and giving away the high carb stuff (potatoes)
• I cook now! I haven’t cooked in years, unless you count microwaving a Lean Cuisine. I have learned what to do with a turnip (dip), fennel (sprinkle in salad), spaghetti squash (turn into spaghetti, covered in butter), eggplant (roast), romaine salad, etc.
• I have learned about foods I never knew existed, like shirataki noodles. They actually DO TASTE LIKE PASTA! I drowned some in alfredo sauce last night with roasted eggplant and dang, it was good. SUPER low calorie AND low carb.
• I don’t crave carbs or sweets at all. Bread? Meh. Pasta? I got shirataki noodles or spaghetti squash. Sweets? Greek yogurt, some berries and splenda, and I’m good.

I use MyFitnessPal (email me to add me as a friend!) to monitor my carb, fat, calorie, etc intake. Helps me understand what the carb count is on food. I also read labels like crazy now, and it’s amazing what is in the food.

I will report back when I hit my target weight.

This is how my cat hunts for food. She sits by the bowl and stares at me. Not sure she would survive in the wild.