Wellness is more than weight loss.
Why I personally will never do the Keto diet.
Does anyone want to be overweight or obese? I know that I don’t.
Many of us are overweight or obese, but I’ve never once thought that being overweight is a good way to live.
That’s because I know that being overweight significantly increases my chances of developing serious health problems during my life, it’s also uncomfortable, and it certainly doesn’t enhance my appearance or improve my self-esteem.
As I write this, I am actively working to lose weight and go from obesity to normal. But in all my efforts to discover greater physical wellness in my life, I remind myself that wellness is more than just weight loss because I could have a normal weight and waistline and still feel like hell.
If it were only about losing pounds, any fad diet or extreme measure would work…For a while at least.
But true physical wellness isn’t a destination I will arrive at once the scales display the correct number, for me wellness is ongoing and it’s not just looking good but feeling good. Anything I achieve or progression made I want to be sustainable. This is where I think I’ve gone wrong in the past.
There are some whacky ideas out there for how to “get that summer body” or “lose 50lbs in ten weeks”. Everyone seems to have discovered the silver bullet. They claim that “All you have to do is…” or “you just have to eat…” everything from drinking apple cider vinegar to eliminating carbs is in the marketplace of ideas.
But in my mind, many of the quick, simple or extreme ideas have the same problem. None of them ever seem to be sustainable.
No doubt I could lose weight and even do it quickly on any given fad diet or regime, but I’ve seen my fair share of yo-yo dieters who make quick progress but also make a swift regression.
I’ve observed that things which grow quickly often die quickly.
So I’m not in the market for anyones rigid regime that’s unsustainable.
This is perhaps my greatest grievance against the Keto diet. I know it’s currently the popular thing, but it’s unsustainable.
It’s unsustainable in my opinion because the diet is filled with harmful animal based products and it forbids almost entirely the consuming of carbohydrates, the very thing my body and brain needs to flourish. Carbs are my bodies preferred source of fuel for essential systems and organs, especially my brilliant brain.
In effect the keto diet wants me to starve myself of carbs until my body starts to panic due to a lack of good, necessary fuel and has to resort to using fat as a lesser fuel source instead. I’m sure it’s a little more complex than this, but after my reading and understanding, this is my basic takeaway.
You’re welcome to disagree, but keto to me sounds dangerous, foolish, and above all unsustainable so I personally have not and will never subject my body to such an extreme diet.
I do see why the keto diet is popular. Who doesn’t love fat? Fat is literally the easiest way to make things taste good. It also does what it says on the tin, I’ve personally seen people drop a lot of weight really quickly and that’s appealing. But that which comes off quickly often returns quickly.
I’ve taken years to build and maintain this gut of mine and whilst I do believe people can lose weight rapidly, safely, and sustainably, I feel it’s ludicrous to believe I can undo decades of creating with a short stint on the keto diet.
Not only does my diet need to adjust, but more importantly so do the behaviors, habits and desires that drove me to obesity in the first place. These will never be undone or recoded by my going on an unsustainable diet.
Being overweight stinks and I understand the desperation we sometimes feel to get it under control. But I’ve observed and concluded that unsustainable extremes are not the solution.
I don’t have all the answers but I’m learning for myself that the key to discovering and maintaining better physical wellness is to take steps that I am able to sustain before taking the next.
All the best,
Let’s start a conversation
Have you observed lasting weight loss because of the keto diet, either personally or from watching someone else?
P.S. Just so you know
What I’m sharing are my own opinions, thoughts and experiences. What has worked or is true for me may not be so for you. All advice or opinion, even from ‘experts’, should be taken with a pinch of salt because there really is no substitute for the difficult challenge of thinking and discovering truth and our own answers. One size never fits all and there are no silver bullets. So take what resonates and works for you and disregard the rest. But please join me in continued reading, listening, discovering, and above all, thinking for ourselves.
What is wellness?
For me, wellness means developing, improving, and taking care of my body, my mind, and my spirit.
