KETO or CONSEQUENCES
/Weight Loss Fluctuations (10.20.2025 to 10.26.2025)
There's a common meme that starts with "It's all fun and games until … "What comes after can reference anything from "… somebody gets hurt," to "… one of you falls in love." The idea is to make weighty issues soft around the edges. Humor to deflect seriousness. And speaking of weighty topics: "It's all fun and games until you have a foot amputated due to complications from Type 2 Diabetes."
Okay. That leapt from glib to gloomy. But it's apt. We make excuses for eating chips and churros, candy bars and canola, French fries and fluffernutter sandwiches, naively telling ourselves that, sure, we might be a few pounds heavier than we were before, but we're healthy. Mostly. We use phrases like "fat and happy" to describe ourselves when asked, chuckling about not being a teenager anymore. And who wants to be a teenager again? (I sure don't, but that's because I was an idiot back then, not because having a strong heart and lungs and fresh joints wasn't a good thing.) The bottom line is that we often approach dealing with our life choices by kicking them down the road. We channel Scarlet O'Hara, brushing off the obvious truth of our circumstances in favor of thinking about it tomorrow, "After all, tomorrow is another day." While that concept may seem resilient and hopeful, tomorrows start evaporating until we're left with a stack of todays. And we need to get a handle on things—today.
During a monthly chat with one of my one-on-one coaching patrons, we were talking about how they continue to struggle with consistently remaining on the ketogenic protocol. They know the benefits. They want to shed some weight. They don't feel the emotional associations of food and feelings that some of us do. During our sessions, they've wondered why they don't do what they know they should do and what they indeed want to do. Over time, I've asked probing questions, offered my perspective, and suggested solutions based on my understanding of their situation. Then my smart, accomplished patron offered, almost just thinking out loud, "Maybe the problem is I haven't felt any bad health consequences yet."
[Insert image of glowing light bulb hovering over my head.]
With their insight, I realized that had been my experience as well. I was overweight, obese, and morbidly obese from my mid-twenties until my mid-fifties. During those three decades, I made unsuccessful attempts at all the methods with which many of us are familiar. Low-fat, juicing, move more/eat less, plant-based, etc., I knew since 1977 that low-carb worked for me, when I was in college and wanted to lose the few pounds I had gained over the first year-and-a-half of living on campus.
Why didn't I, a bright (my idiot teenage years notwithstanding), accomplished, and motivated person, just do what I knew I should do and what I wanted to do? Because, just like my patron, I hadn't felt the health consequences of my food choices. I would joke that I was the healthiest fat person you were likely to meet. And I was.
Until I wasn't.
It was all fun and games until I realized I was a lump of a person, with aching joints, looming diagnoses of any one of a menu of chronic issues, and a bad attitude. It wasn't fun. And it wasn't a game. My tomorrow was now my today.
That was January 8, 2014. For me, it boiled down to keto or consequences. It worked out well for me. I'm healthy and fit; I take no medications. If I can do this, you can do this. I promise.
(I still sometimes have a bad attitude. But that's a story for another day…)
Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!
