Left: Summer 2011 (age 45), Right: Summer 2016 (age 50)
Life before and after going keto
The image on the left was taken at what I would call “peak carbs” and the worst moment of my life as far as my health was concerned. This was around 18 months before starting out on LCHF. I remember struggling just to lift my young daughter who weighed only 5kg at the time. Indeed, lifting her and carrying all my own extra weight at the same time caused me considerable back problems, among many other things. These have now all gone thanks to a change in lifestyle.
The huge “life-changing” changes brought about by a simple change in diet & lifestyle means that I now look back on my life in two distinct phases; before & after going keto. The person before keto was an uninformed slob who didn’t care about much else other than where the next beer was coming from. He was suffering from metabolic syndrome and was rapidly heading towards becoming just another health statistic who would be lucky to see out his 50th birthday without a major “health incident” of some sort.
The person after keto on the other hand looks and feels much younger than he did 5 years ago. He is full of energy and can comfortably lift not only his own weight but that of his daughter as well. In practical terms, he is unrestricted by what he can physically do. Age is just a meaningless number after his name.
The Secret to Success
It’s so very simple, just ditch the carbs. But how many people can actually do that? The answer is very few. This has nothing to do with exercise and everything to do with what you put in your mouth. You simply can’t run from a bad diet and the older you get, the more true this becomes. Exercise merely complements and adds to the quality of my life and is NOT how I lost my weight in the first place.
If someone asked me for a simple formula to describe my current lifestyle, this would probably be it:
“95% diet/ lifestyle, 5% exercise, 110% effort”
Question for you since you are doing so well with LCHF… When you first went keto did you find it hard to exercise? Whenever I reduce my carbs my workouts suffer and I even feel tired walking up the stairs. During my contest prep when my carbs are low I am always tired. I love how lean my physique gets but I can’t seem to get past the tired feelings. I have researched this problem and have tried many different things but nothing seems to help. Any thoughts you can share would be welcome!! 😀
Haha, that “age old” problem 😉
No, I’ve never had a problem with that, whether running 10km or strength/ cct trg, because I knew it was coming, having read Phinney & Volek’s second book on lo-carb performance, see resources page.
It’s all down to hydration & maintaining plasma volume by drinking salt water or bouillon just before you start exercising. This compensates for your circulation expansion as you warm up and avoids you feeling weak or sluggish. Unfortunately, people confuse this as low blood sugar and so take on more carbs but the two things are wholly unrelated.
I’m planning on covering this in detail in the next couple of posts so be sure to stay tooned! 😉👌🏻👍
Thank you! I’ve read their book as well, but never really got into the bouillion thing… Maybe I’ll give it another try.
ProTip: except for cold winter days bouillon sux!
For all other times I use “neutral” High Five, Zero Tabs.
Just drop one or 2 of these into your workout drinks bottle of water and you can’t go wrong IMO.
I practically ran the Samarian Gorge in Crete last summer in 45 degC of heat with NO PRIOR TRAINING, only 1.5L of water and no issues whatsoever thanks to these 👍😉
https://lihfliving.com/2015/07/27/samarian-gorge-crete-no-fueling-issues/
Just wanted to say Carla that I in no way represent or endorse High 5. This is just the best, most cost-effective salt tab I could find. There are plenty of others out there. Just need to shop around.. :))
Thanks. Pretty sure we don’t have that in Canada anyway, so I’ll shop around for a similar one. Thanks for the tips. 🙂
Reblogged this on Low Carb in Lowlands and commented:
Veel verschillende mensen met allemaal dezelfde keto ervaring
Thank you Wim!
My Dutch is a bit rusty but I assume you are being complimentary 😉
Every word you say is true and should be heard by everyone. I have experienced exactly what you did and it feels so great to be healthy again. Pls ppl share this story!
🙂 🙂 🙂
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Nice to hear your findings! 🙂 I have nearly the same experiences and started LCHF after reading Eenfeldts book, the year was the same than you 2012. And never ever wanting back. I am forty years and have been now in best shape ever even though I have doing more sports when I was younger. Now I have only one problem… I found myself too often with 25 years boys when going out. I keep telling the truth about my age, but still… 😀 I have said to my friends that I have found Fountain of Youth and the name is LCHF <3
Hi Satu!
Thank you so much for your story and comments. Yes, there are “side benefits” to LCHF (LIHF as I like to call it these days..) as you have discovered! With me its the fact that people who don’t know me say that I look around 36-38, some 12-14 years younger than my actual age 😉 I agree, lo-carb is THE elixir/ fountain of life. It’s as if time has stood still, or even going backwards! 😉
By the way, are you based in Finland?
I am trying to set up a meeting/ speaking engagement in the Helsinki area. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please let me know via the contact page: https://lihfliving.com/contact/ or facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lchfliving/
You can do that in Finnish or English..
Thank you for your support and inspiring story. I look forward to perhaps hearing from you again in the future.. 🙂