Earlier this week, I shared on Facebook about how my love of gaming helped me on my weight loss quest. As I was trying to think of what to share for this week’s entry, I felt that maybe a different audience would like to read about my journey. I hope that from reading this, if you’ve struggled with motivation to begin or stick with whatever your quest is, you’ll find a way to keep your eyes on the prize.
On April 1, 2018 I began a journey that was necessary, although I did not believe that I was mentally ready for. I adapted to the ketogenic diet. I thought that it would be hard for me to stick to because I loved my carbs, especially potatoes. I jokingly told Dawn that I’d need to treat this like I was in a 12-step program, complete with chips to commemorate how many days I was “clean”. I had first heard about keto from Leah and had observed her success, but I loved potatoes too much, so there’s that. But Dawn had been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and her doctor suggested keto for her.
Recently, my doctor told me that he wanted to focus on my weight, so this seemed like perfect timing. Soooo, after a very tasty keto Easter meal, with dessert, I decided to give it a real try. After a day of eating clean, Dawn surprised me with a coin the next morning. And then with another coin the following morning after eating clean… and so on from there. Then, she asked me what did I want to redeem the coins for after X amount of time. I didn’t know how to answer – I was just focusing on not eating tater tots for lunch!
Well, fast forward to the following Monday and I turn in my coins for seven days of eating clean and I get a brushed copper D4. (That’s a 4-sided die for the non-gamer readers.) See, I enjoy playing role playing games and you need all kinds of dice for them and Dawn, the wonder that she is, found a way to keep me on track. Now, in that week’s time I had lost a pound or two, but the bonus was that my left knee, which had been in pretty much constant pain for a couple of years, was feeling good. I later found out that pain reduction was a side benefit of keto. So, I stuck to it. My wife continued to give me coins for when I ate clean, and I ALWAYS ate clean.
Which, brings us to the photo above and eight weeks later. I am now down 34 lbs and in possession of a full set of brushed copper dice, plus a custom made leather dice bowl that I treated myself to. The bowl was needed – metal dice are LOUD! Now I no longer need the chips, keto is just what I do. I feel better than I have in a long time, wearing clothes and doing things that I wasn’t able to do three months ago… life is good.