Reducing Inflammation & Starting a New Lifestyle: Barb's Keto Story - ketolibriyum

Reducing Inflammation & Starting a New Lifestyle: Barb's Keto Story

Barb was able to reduce her inflammation marker from an 8 to a 1.4 eating a keto diet. She is also off of ALL of her arthritis medications and started jogging again since starting keto. She's lost 66 lbs so far and plans to lose about another 20 - 25. We're proud to share a touching and motivational story from one of our fellow Ontario keto-ers. You can follow Barb on Instagram @betchacanketo - from the words of Barb, 'Keto on friends'! 

 

My name is Barb Sullivan-Croucher and I was a sugar addict!  I was the typical yo-yo dieter; gaining and losing weight in a vicious cycle for most of my life. In 2016, I was trying to help my mother battle cancer and knew it was important for her to cut out sugar.  I had heard of the keto diet and I thought it would be good for me to do it with her as I had hit my heaviest weight and knew that sugar was an issue for me as well.  Unfortunately, my mom lost her battle in January 2017 and I gave up on the plan for a while. 

Barb

In early 2018, I circled back and started reading more about the ketogenic lifestyle and decided it was not only the best way of life for weight loss but that it would also help me with my Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms.  I used to be very active but after suffering a couple of injuries I had given up on exercise. 

My husband said he'd do the plan with me and, at first, I wasn't crazy about the idea.  He had tried diets with me before and had stressed me out when he was hungry and didn't know what to eat.  Getting off sugar was the hardest part for me.  It took about two weeks and then I felt my energy increasing and the brain fog lifting.  The food was satisfying and the cravings disappeared. 

I have this thing about goals - a love/hate relationship.  I know goals are important but I don't want the pressure and feel like I tend to self-sabotage.  It was important to know the steps but I needed to make it a lifestyle I could live with.  That meant ‘lazy keto’ was my best option - watching but not actually writing anything down.  I stuck to the food I knew I could have and kept the net carb count as low as possible.  Sure, I probably could have lost weight faster by being more strict but would I have stuck with it?  Probably not.  This works for me and that’s all that matters. 

In a small keto meet-up run by some local business owners, including Gloria from Ketolibriyum, I learned about a book that changed my life.  It’s called The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung.  It debunked a lot of weight loss theories (ie: low fat and frequent small meals) and opened my eyes to the benefits of intermittent fasting.  I discovered that eating keto and doing intermittent fasting is a perfect pairing!  I took Fitness and Health in college over twenty years ago and while it was disheartening to learn that a lot of information out there is incorrect, this new information just fuelled me to keep fighting. 

I had a checkup with my Rheumatologist a few months ago and she was very excited to see that my inflammation marker had dropped from an 8 to a 5.  I’m off of one of my arthritis medications and I’m eager to see her again next week as my blood labs show that my inflammation marker has now dropped to a 2.  I’ve even started jogging again!  I’ve lost 62 lbs so far and plan to lose about another 20 - 25. 

My husband has stuck with it as well and was surprised to also lose over 60 lbs.  When people ask him how he did it, he says “I just ate whatever my wife put in front of me”.  He feels great and looks fantastic!

People ask us all the time if we cheat and eat carbs sometimes and the answer is ‘No’.  We don’t need to!  We feel great and don’t really miss anything!  If we want a dessert, there are so many amazing keto recipes out there or we can buy them locally.  Keto on, friends!

 

Through meeting so many amazing people at our store and events, we've found that stories, more so than facts or research, inspire and evoke the most change. We'd be honoured to share your story on our blog and inspire others to make a positive change in their life. Want your story to be featured on our website? Email aria@ketolibriyum.ca! 

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