Lori Ballen's story

Lori Ballen’s self-esteem took a devastating hit after the dissolution of her 25-year marriage. The difficulty of starting over affected her health, too:  enough that her weight reached 213 pounds.

But she didn’t give up. Instead she was inspired to make huge changes in her physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. And as things lightened up, her motivation eventually became “I don’t want him to be able to say I got fat!”

Her weight-loss journey actually began accidentally. After blepharoplasty on her eyes, her doctor insisted that she stay away from any canned or boxed foods for several weeks and Ballen noticed the difference in her body immediately.

“During my recovery, I noticed I had very little swelling. The doctor said I healed better than any of his previous patients,” she said. “[So] I began exploring ‘clean’ eating and stumbled upon keto.”

Like many, Ballen had tried various diets, and those had made her weight yo-yo between 125 and 213 pounds. She came across Dr. Berg’s videos while researching keto on YouTube. From his videos she learned how to eat correctly for her own body and how to incorporate intermittent fasting, which became a huge part of her journey.

With the support of family and friends (her brother and sister-in-law also lost 40 pounds recently on keto) Ballen kept herself motivated by setting goals and achieving them, whether the next achievement was fitting into clothes or seeing results in the mirror.

“I had bought clothes at the beach just before I gained weight,” she said. “They were too tight by the time I got home from that vacation. I took them out and each week I tried them on until they fit again, and then became too big!”

Staying focused can be tough, especially when it means saying no to social outings. Ballen knew her triggers when it came to food and found it beneficial to avoid those situations in order to stay on track.

Now she is reaping the benefits of her keto lifestyle. Her list of benefits includes mental clarity, more energy, zero heartburn, and feeling excited to be active and moving around—but taken all together the result is that she feels like a different person, inside and out.

Favorite Way to Exercise: Ballen loves circuit training and HIIT workouts.

Favorite Keto Recipe: “The good ol’ BIG salad is my favorite go-to,” says Ballen. “But I’ve gotten pretty good at keto chocolate chip cookies with greens, collagen peptides, and MCT oil, too!”