I’m also tracking my progress on Instagram (@ketoesq), with more daily stuff. Since this is my sports law website, I try not to clutter it up too much with my daily ramblings and pictures on weight loss. Of course, I’ll document my milestones like below!

Previous #KetoLife updates:

January 30, 2019.

March 15, 2019.

In my last update since I started the #KetoLife, I had officially broken the 200-pound barrier. Which isn’t a number that has any medical meaning, but we do like to deal in round numbers, and I’m no different. So that was a big deal, since I legitimately can’t remember the last time I was under that number (probably around 2015/2016).

That was on March 15, and it’s taken me about six weeks exactly to lose 10 additional pounds. That’s not *too* bad, given it’s about 1.7 pounds lost per week. But I was also plateauing a little bit right after I got under 200.

That was probably due to several factors.

• Obvious answer: I’d already lost a fairly signifiant amount of weight, and it will get harder to lose it, just because there is less to lose.
• Hard answer: While I was mostly sticking to my carb threshold, I was still going over it on occasion, which probably kicked me out of ketosis more frequently than I would have liked. That probably stalled my progress to some degree. Especially in early/mid March, I was still drinking a decent amount of beer and having the occasional cocktail that had some sugar in it.
• Supplemental answer: Too much sitting on my butt.

Granted, there wasn’t much I could do about the obvious answer, but I decided to get something done about the other two items. So, I made some adjustments.

• Drastically cut down on booze: I’ve basically given up beer and cocktails with sugar/juice. My go-to drink anyway was sugar-free red bull/rockstar and vodka, so if I’m having some drinks I’ll do that, or have a vodka/soda. They still have some calories, but essentially no carbs at all. That said, my alcohol intake is pretty minimal these days anyway; mostly Sounders/soccer-related events.
• Stricter adherence to my carb/macro limits: For those who may not know much about Keto, it’s important to track and calculate your food intake. You only go into ketosis when you’re consuming 20 grams of carbs per day or less (give or take a couple). That’s what allows your body to burn fat. Basically, two slices of wheat bread would put you at/over your limit for the day. So anyway, you have to make sure you’re not eating foods that can overly boost your numbers. So I started using a food tracker to make sure I wasn’t slipping up. There is a Keto-dedicated calculator which lets you determine what macros you need to hit for your age, weight and activity level, and MyFitnessPal and Chronometer both let you track your foods to ensure you’re not going over your limits.
• Exercise: More exactly, cardio. I hate cardio. Loathe it. Unfortunately, due to my bum shoulder (I was diagnosed with a labral tear), I cannot do any upper body lifting until I complete physical therapy. So, to the treadmill/elliptical it was! Actually, I hate it a bit less these days, because I’ve consistently been at it since the beginning of April, and have been averaging 5x per week. So my endurance is significantly improved, and it assists in burning calories and fat. I may even be able to start “jogging” before too long! Diet is of course the overriding factor in losing weight, but exercise will tone the body and help eliminate the flab.

So those changes in the last several weeks have really accelerated the weight loss as you can see. About 20 pounds to go!