Welcome to my new healthy spot!
If you are reading this, you must be wondering why a poetesse and linguist is talking about health and wellbeing… Here is a reason why: there’s a need to be fulfilled. It just came to me and clicked when one of my three musketeers Edickson González (Aka: Eddie for me) asked me recently if I had experienced ketogenic diet.
He had been looking for a whole year someone who could write about Ketogenic Diet.
And boom 💣 Eureka! I was in front of an opportunity to talk about more topics other than erotic poetry and literature. In this way, help people like you to learn how to have better options for food. So, I thought why not having myself talking about my own experience? So, here I go…
My Story
In 2017, I had some medical check up done and, as a result, doctor found my tyrode small. Therefore, I needed some hormonal tests (for a woman on her late 40s, it’s pretty normal, as a consequence of modern life, stress and such and such…)
Diagnosis: hypothyroidism (I thought it was the contrary, cause I used to eat like there was no tomorrow, and I wasn't a fat person then).
At that moment, no physical signs appeared. A year later, previously to my trip to Buenos Aires, I began to lose my hair.
There’s nothing to worry about. You have a lot of hair.
-my hairdresser said-, and right after, that statement came out of her mouth: That’s normal.
💡 Regarding to hair loss, the American Academy of Dermatology says:
It’s normal to shed between 50 and 100 hairs a day. When the body sheds significantly more hairs every day, a person has excessive hair shedding.
Once I took my trip to Argentina, I continued to lose hair, despite of looking better, healthier. I began to gain weight. (I’ve always been a good foodie). Most of my diet was italian: Pasta, pizza, pasticcio, and also pastries, cookies (Chocolinas and others) tiramisù cups (these homemade for breakfast or dessert) always in my fridge. In Argentina, it's almost a ritual having sweet for breakfast (Old me loved medialunas or chocolinas with a mug of coffee).
A day came… I made my mind: I had to cut off sugar. So, I started with coffee. No sugar at all in my espresso. Less galletitas for breakfast. Although argentinian packed coffee at supermarkets is not that good (awful, disgusting, I must say), having it sugarless was fine for me. No traumatic at all. That’s the only thing I started doing… But then…
Coronavirus jumped onto the stage.
In 2020, as everyone knows, Covid-19 landed to infect the world. Being at home 24/7 didn’t affect me, however, my hair shedding got worse. For my mental health, that was nothing... That seemed to affect most women with long hair. I spent time reading info about it on Twitter.
After a while, some words came to me:
That's because of the global health situation. Your body is stressed. It is in permanent state of alert. Once the cause of stress goes away, hair loss will stop.
During those days, four things were important:
- Getting hydrated
- Sunlight exposure
- Eating well
- working out routines.
“Mr. Keto” met me on the road.
(Yes, he MET me at the very begining of the carnivore path)
Mr. Keto is a loving nickname I call someone I met in 2011, my friend and coach in other topics who does not speak about ketogenic diet (in fact, all his tweets about this were deleted) but, he used to be giving insights and tips on that kind of food when pandemic began.
He is a living example (so I am) that Keto works… if you have discipline and consistency.
After quitting sugar, the next step was dropping carbs. Even though, he always strongly recommended not to cut off both sugar and carbs, but sugar or carbs, I took the first option; replacing that on my plate with:
- Proteins
- veggies
- Healthy fats (advocado, nuts,etc)
- Seeds
- Cheese, etc.
Intermittent Fasting: A powerful habit.
The first time I heard about fasting was from Katherine Fulop in an interview on argentinian TV. After that, Mr. Keto talked about his records in fasting. Then I understood it was an important part of this food style.
Naturally, we fast for a 12:12 period (12 hours for eating and 12 for fasting - from last meal of the day until next morning.)
In ketogenic diet, you should to eat at least 3 times (at least, as most people do)
I actually have 2 meals + a healthy snack in a 16:8 plan (16 hour-fasting -and sometimes more than that- with an 8-hour eating window)
I use an app for this, but I always forget to pause the timer when starting to eat or begining my fasting.
Fasting helps control sugar levels in blood after 4 hrs in absence of carbs, preventing also, insulin spikes (just in case 😄)
Protein prioritization as a prerogative.
Losing weight is not about skipping meals. It’s not about eating less or remaining starving. Losing weight in a healty way is about:
LEARNING how to eat well.
KNOWING what is harming your body. This damage results in any or all of the following:
- swelling body
- stomanch bloating
- heartburn
- constipation
When you think you are just fatty, you’re not. Maybe is inflammation caused by what you eat. In my case, after working on oil projects, salty and windy environments, being in contact with gases such as ammonia and others, eating truck driver food.
I dropped carbs and sugar and prioritized proteins:
- lean meat
- poultry
- pork
- eggs
- jam, prosciutto, mortadella...
I changed ingredients for cooking my meals:
No vegetal oil, but:
- Ghee (clarified butter)
- olive oil
- Natural fat (eg: oil from chicken skin).
So, my days went by being ketovore. On October 16, 2020, on my 51st birthday, I’d lost weight (I don’t know how much) after 3 months.
Up to date, After 3 years, I don’t take any hormone suplement. I don’t count calories. I don't live restrained by food
I go to parties and allow myself to eat different, avoiding those things I already know my body can't stand.
A friendly reminder:
Life is not just beautiful.
It can be also Ketolicious!
💡 Content and information provided on this page are not intended to replace medical advice.