Are you eating habits catching up to your age? Read my story.

Today, June 17th marks my 1 year of Keto/IF anniversary. Here's how it went down for me, and why I'm eternally grateful to Dr. Berg. In 2020, I was working as a surveyor. The job required me to be on my feet walking around for 40+ hours a week. At the time, I was quite overweight (5'7, 195 lbs). My thought was that all the walking would help me lose weight, and help me return to the fairly athletic person that I was in my early 20's (I'm 30 now). However, I noticed something very odd and disturbing as I continued to work: the fat around my midsection was expanding, and my calves were noticeably shrinking, at a rapid pace that was extremely unsettling. It got so bad that I ended up having to quit my job, as I simply couldn't walk the necessary amount to fulfill my hours without being sore for days. I had been consuming Dr. Berg's keto content and others on YouTube for some time leading up to this, but never fully committed. But at the time of quitting my job, I purchased Dr. Berg's book "The Healthy Keto Plan" and read it front to back. Everything made sense. So the following Monday, I knew it was time to take the plunge. If you do something the right way the first time, you never have to really try again. That was my case, thanks to all the information I absorbed. I had no problem adjusting to the diet whatsoever, and this is coming from someone who just before was absolutely ABUSING sugar and refined carbs, and specifically at night. The weight loss for me was steady and consistent for 3 months straight. at that point, I was down 20 lbs. I knew after just the first couple of weeks that this diet was entirely sustainable, and I planned to ride the keto train as far as it would take me. It's now been a full year, and I've lost a total of 30 lbs (from 195 to 165 lbs, and probably more fat loss than that, as I've gained some muscle mass along the way!). I have no plans to quit this diet: it's now my default way of eating. There's been a small handful of times that I've reintroduced carbs or "cheated", but those times have all been very few and far between, and typically a conscious choice in the name of self-experimentation. Humans are not meant to consume a lot of carbs, period. My advice: learn from Dr. Berg, find your strengths, capitalize on them, and keep things as simple as possible. I'm a picky eater of epic proportions, but similar to Dr. Berg himself, I have no problem eating the exact same meals every single day. That was my strength to capitalize on, and this gave me a very clear path to follow every day. Pasture-raised eggs cooked in grass-fed butter, organic spring mix salad, macadamia nuts, zucchini and squash cooked in olive oil, beef and salmon, sea salt, and potassium powder. My body runs on these things now. Through this lifestyle, I've gained complete control of what was essentially my worst, most unhealthy impulse. You may become amazed at the things you discover about yourself emotionally while doing this diet. You begin to learn how emotionally charged our unhealthy eating habits are, and your mental health will likely improve in spades as a result. It's led to me breaking toxic thought patterns in many other areas of my life, and I've seen improvement in areas that I'm not even actively trying to improve in as a result. Thank you to Dr. Berg, and I wish all of you Keto newcomers the best of luck in your own personal journeys. Life really is great here on the Keto side. Shoutout and much love from Springfield, VA.