I was still having those lingering issues with sleep...maybe not quite the same, but close. That changed this summer after a couple of things happened. The first was that my mother had a stroke, most likely do to being overweight and mismanaging her diabetes. Hers is a case where she progressed from type 2 to type 1 diabetes and it most likely could have been prevented by being more careful with food choices and getting exercise. She is mostly back to the way she was before the stroke, but is now confined to a nursing home because she can't perform all of the ADLs (activities of daily living) without help. She's probably going to live a long time, but unless she can lose a lot of weight and get more mobile, she may never go home again.
Not long after that, I finally went in for a general physical. It had been quite a while, so I figured it was time. I had been starting to have apneas again, but I knew it was weight related like before (post surgery). I had cycled up and down with weight over the past 5 years or so and I just couldn't stick with the usual diet and exercise plan. I had been back up to close to 260 and down to 240 or so and up and down and up and down...you get the picture. Well, this skinny doctor told me I should lose some weight, especially around my belly, which is where I carried most of my extra weight. I agreed because I knew that was the only way to get my sleep back in order. He also did a routine blood screening and would contact me with the results.
Well, If I wasn't committed before the blood test, I certainly was after I got the results. My blood glucose level was in the 'pre-diabetes' range. Quite frankly, that scared the hell out of me! My cholesterol was a little high, but not as alarming. The doctor reiterated his suggestion that I go on a diet and lose weight.
I started with more of a Paleo diet approach, but with the other typical diet characteristics. Calorie restriction and lots of exercise. I wasn't looking forward to 3-5 days at the gym and being hungry all the time, but with the recent events and the test results, I was going to do whatever I had to (for a while anyway). I lost about 5-10 lbs over the first 3 weeks, but the more important thing that happened during that time was that I did a ton of research. It started out with trying to see if I was doomed to turn into a type 2 diabetic with type 1 in the more distant future. At first, it didn't look good until I searched for something like "is pre-diabetes reversible" or something to that effect. What I started finding gave me hope that I could not only stop the progression of diabetes, but quite possibly reverse the entire process. (This is where I start sounding like someone who drank the kool-aid and recorded an infomercial). This miracle diet promised amazing results if I would just take it seriously and give it a fair chance. As it turns out, after reading more about this diet, it really isn't a miracle at all, but rather it simply takes advantage of your normal body processes to burn fat. You may be thinking, "He's talking about Atkins! Phooey!". Well, not quite. It's actually the Ketogenic lifestyle. I say lifestyle for a reason, but more on that later. In my opinion, Atkins doesn't go far enough with carb restriction to be truly effective and tries too hard to keep feeding you sweets.
Before you disregard keto as another fad diet, I would encourage you to do a lot of research. I was very skeptical myself at first, but I decided to give it a shot. Besides, what's wrong with a diet that lets you have bacon and eggs every day for breakfast! Part of the problem with the Standard American Diet (SAD) is that it's completely wrong and was developed by a doctor who ignored any data that ran counter to what he wanted the results to be. It was rushed through and the food pyramid was born. The problem with that is the pyramid is about the worst way to possibly eat and along with processed and sugary foods is responsible for the obesity and diabetes epidemic we are facing today.
I'm going to encourage you do to some research using the links that are at the bottom of this post. Once I started living keto, I noticed a lot of positive changes within just a month or two. I continued to lose weight at the rate of about 10 lbs per month, but I wasn't hungry while doing it. I was only going to the gym about once per week (and skipping weeks when it was busy). I noticed my back and neck weren't as stiff and sore. One odd thing was how my hands felt thinner and more limber. There are a lot of other things that changed more subtly, but I have not had one bad side effect other than taking too much MCT oil on occasion. I know I was joking about calling this a miracle diet earlier, but in some ways it does feel like a miracle. Once my wife and I got used to eating and living this way, it was so easy and kinda fun to experiment with new foods and seeing how changing things up affected weight loss.
When I saw the doctor, I was back up to about 256 when I weighed in on April 5th 2017. Today, I weighed in at 210.6 lbs. That may not seem like a lot to some, but I figure I have at most 10 lbs to go before my wife starts getting concerned about me being 'too skinny'. If you are wondering how this is all going to affect my blood test...well, so am I! I go in for a follow up (after a quick bout with Lyme disease) on Wednesday and will ask for a blood test again. I have checked my blood sugar quite a few times with a home meter and I am usually well under 100 at any time during the day; after fasting overnight or even after eating. If you do keto right, there isn't anything to turn into glucose. And your liver will make all the glucose your body needs. For those of you who will click on the links and learn about keto, I am fully fat adapted and can go for whole days without eating and I don't feel any real drop in energy levels while doing it. It's a great way to live!
So, while this info is great for the people who need to lose weight to reduce or cure their sleep apnea, it does nothing for those who were like me and had to have the MMA surgery to correct a bone structure issue that was really the cause of sleep apnea. For you folks, I still can't stress how much the MMA surgery helped me. I'm not like some who got such a complete reversal that they have no issues. Even now, after losing about 45 lbs I still can't sleep flat on my back without some moderate apneas from time to time. But, with that weight gone, those issues are so scattered and minor that I feel normal.
There are so many other benefits to living keto that I have no plans to go back to eating carbs after I hit my weight loss goal. I will definitely cheat a little (I miss chocolate ice cream!), but I am sold on the keto way of life. I would encourage you to talk to your doctor before starting any of this, but make sure they back up any concerns with real science...not just the crap they read in a text book 20 years ago in med school. I am still amazed at how so many doctors offer such bad advice to their patients on so many things. Do your own research and take control of your health.
I will try to remember to post my blood test results as (hopefully) proof that this way of life has had the desired affect on more than just my weight.
As promised, here are some links with what I thought of as good information.
There are quite a few good articles on this site
Some other sites I thought were pretty good.
A couple of podcast sites
If you want to read a medical study….
A Keto-friendly pizza recipe
(Recent addition) Intermittent Fasting
