I mainly write these posts so I can go back and look at my progress along my journey - but also in the hopes that I can help inspire or motivate someone else who may happen to come along and find my posts.

Keto is not new to me - though this go around I've certainly taken the time to look at all of my past mistakes and learn from them as I began this new chapter in my life.

I've ensured to keep up with my electrolytes, which completely eliminated the "Keto flu" for me this go around. In the past, I always spent the first 3 days absolutely miserable - migrains, severe hunger, moodiness, the works.

This time, I've felt pretty amazing from the start!

I've also been counting calories this time, a major mistake from my past journeys that I didn't do. There would be so many times I'd stop losing weight completely or even gain and I just couldn't understand why! Afterall, I was keeping my carb count low, why wasn't it enough? Looking back, I was easily consuming 2,000 calories a day, which was causing a gain even without the carbs.

I want to quickly mention that I do not do any sort of exercise. I am a full time delivery driver and the majority of my days are spent sitting.

I started my journey at 213lbs and today I weighed in at 205lbs. I know, I know, there's a lot of water weight being lost in there with some fat loss. But that is still 8lbs off my body. That's equivalent to a Labrador puppy, or a 12" cast iron pan, or a 24" computer monitor. You get the idea, haha.

My average daily calorie intake for this past week was 1,171 and my average daily carb intake was 12g.

I've also included intermittent fasting, with most days being 21:3. 21 hours not eating and only a 3 hour window to eat.

My size 18 pants were borderline strangling me (size 20's fit better, but I refused to admit that I needed to go up a size) and now they are comfortable and just a smidge away from being borderline too big!

On Saturday, I was able to cut my heartburn medication dosage in half!

Being on the Keto diet is more than just weightloss for me. It's for helping with my food addiction, my mental health, and the inflammation that comes with having severe arthritis.

I'm excited to see where this incredible journey will take me and the many new life changing results I'll see along the way.