#45 Mena Freed – Down 45 lbs with Keto

Meet Mena Freed:

In the 90’s I was a young married woman going about my life in New York.  I had two beautiful babies, first my daughter Mikaela and then my son Jack.  After the birth of my son Jack I fought with depression, I know many of you can relate.  Juggling life, two young children and fighting the fog of depression is not easy.  Shortly after, my marriage fell apart and I found myself a single, working mom in 2000. This is when my medication roller coaster started.  I was placed on anti-depressants which helped initially to get my life back together.

Happily, I found love again.

I started dating my now husband in 2005.  And you know that saying, first friends make the best relationships? Well in my case, it’s true.  I had been friends with my husband Dave since 1992, and fate knew what she was doing bringing us back together.  Dave and I married in 2007 and I am so glad to have him by my side.  Things seemed to be going pretty well, but my health wasn’t cooperating.

At the age of 31, I was given the shocking diagnosis of cervical cancer.  The treatment plan was for me to have a hysterectomy but my ovaries would remain.  Hormonally, I felt ok.  I was so happy I was cancer free! Around this time I also lost my father to Renal Cell Carcinoma in 2005.  This was such a hard loss, he was only 53 and I was mentally and emotionally unprepared to face the rest of my life without my father.

Emotional eating seemed to be becoming a problem for me. I either over-ate or starved myself. It was a lose – lose battle.

Fast forward a few years and in 2006, with no qualifying characteristics, I had to have my gallbladder removed.  The onset of sudden symptoms sent me into an emergency surgery for removal.  During that surgery, my bile duct was left open, causing bile to fill up my entire abdominal cavity.  This created a chain reaction from my organs.  They couldn’t function with the bile fluid surrounding my tissues.  My organs began to shut down and I almost lost my life.  The medical team promptly performed another emergency surgery to close my bile duct.  While I was being operated on for the bile duct issue, the surgery team noticed a cyst on my right ovary and they decided to remove it as a precaution to prevent ovarian cancer.  My health at that point, went even further downhill.

My life was never the same

It was a tailspin of more surgeries and more and more medication to repair other issues.  The resulting complications from a typical routine procedure, compromised my immune system, my digestive system and my mental health. For the years after this I was at my darkest place in life.  I ended up being diagnosed with chronic inflammation, chronic migraines, chronic pancreatitis (with the probablitiy of developing diabetes), acid reflux, IBS a ton of auto-immune issues, hormonal imbalances and a complete lack of energy. With my health down the tubes, I turned to food for comfort.

All the medications I was on were making me worse, but I depended on them.

Medication ruled my life and in hindsight they were only creating more problems.  Surgeries ruled my schedule, I had 13 in a four year span.   I was depending on doctors and health professionals to help me. In reality, more problems were being created within myself and my body.  I continued to turn to food because it was the only thing in my life that wasn’t complicated. I eventually became very complacement living this sad life, creating social anxiety and withdrawal.

By 2015, I had gotten to my heaviest weight.  I didn’t care anymore.  In November 2016, I received another diagnosis.  After being sick for a couple of weeks I was diagnosed with Bile Acid Reflux. The solution was more medications, more side-effects and more problems! My Gastro-interologist wanted to perform a major stomach surgery to redirect my bile duct.  I had had enough. I didn’t want to put myself or my family through any more than we had already been through. I hit rock bottom and it all just clicked. 

I needed to make a lifestyle change and I needed to do it NOW.

I started researching on this disease and everything turned to NSNG or Ketogenic Living. In January 2017, we started NSNG (my family included) seeing minimal results and small improvements in my symptoms. In February 2017, we went all-in with a ketogenic lifestyle. From that day forward, I have never looked back.  This was the “miracle drug” that I had been looking for. I have now lost over 40 pounds and 35 inches. I’ve managed to reverse the signs of aging, heal my body, improve my life, increase my energy levels.  I have a new zest for life!  My husband has managed to kick his blood pressure medications as well!  But most incredibly…

I am medication free from all the issues I was diagnosed with. I am symptom FREE!

I want to help people.  I want to inspire woman, in particular, to live their best life.  We only get one life and through my struggles, I have found my passion.

SHOW NOTES:

ABOUT MENA

• I am 45 years old, a wife, a mother of 2 college kids
• I love family, I love cooking, I love sunshine and sunsets
• My workouts are my therapy
• I just love life in general now that I have taken this turn in this new lifestyle
• I live in Oneonta, New York

KETO JOURNEY

• My journey started back in February back in 2016
• At 31 years old, I was diagnosed at cervical cancer, it was weird time of my life
• I was single mom at that time as well
• So it started at a very young age of 31 with my battle of health issues
• In 2006, I had a sudden onset of gallbladder disease
• Had to remove my gallbladder and the surgery got the bile got open, I almost die
• It was like one of the trying time of my life
• The bile had set on my organs for so long it started shutting my organs down, so it left damage
• It took me a good 3 year with a gastroenterologist to kind of get myself back on track with the possibility of getting diabetes because my pancreas was so damaged from the bile
• So that has cause the whole digestive issues from the on, and it was continual, and it was another medication
• From 2006 to 2016, I battled with major digestive issues
• I had 13 surgeries in 10 years
• I was also battling with a lot of hormonal thing
• The final straw for me though is when I went to the doctor in November of 2015 and he told me that I needed another stomach surgery
• And I did not want another surgery, I did not want to add another medication and said that there’s got to be another way
• So, I started researching and everything kept coming back to the Ketogenic diet
• So, I decided to take the leap and I never looked back
• Zero medications, no more surgeries, and I found that Keto healed me from the inside and out
• I have been very successful without a gallbladder with this lifestyle
• I have lost 35 inches and 45 pounds
• For me, the journey was not even about the weight loss, it was about healing.
  The weight loss just came with it – bonus
• Before Keto, I was very inflamed. Chronic inflammation, digestive issue, hormonal imbalance, chronic migraines, joint pains – a lot of it
• The migraines was the first thing I have noticed that seem to disappear from me
• The inflammation was also one of the big things that I noticed, and the energy was sky high
• Within 30 days I saw a difference of the inflammations
• In the cleanse, I ate fermented food but after the cleanse I pretty much went into a simple Ketogenic lifestyle because I implemented it to my whole family
• I stick with 75 and 25 for my macros and about 1500 calories a day because I do workout
• I count net carbs
• We use MCT oil and Himalayan salt for my salad dressing

FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT KETO

• I feel like Keto is like an age reversal
• I feel younger, I don’t feel 45
• Every other day, I do HIIT workout on a treadmill or on a spin bike
• I incorporate some yoga and core activities because that is my trouble spot
• I do yoga two time a week
• I do Yoga by Adrienne
• I started doing yoga at night before bed and it is amazing

TOUGH SPOTS

• When I was getting closer to my goal weight per se, I did start running into problems like plateau. In a plateau, you stop losing inches and weight
• So I started doing an egg fast. I did a 5 day egg fast and I was shocked. 6.1 lbs in 5 day on a egg fast
• Since I don’t do dairy, I did not add the 4 ounces of cheese that you are allowed for a day
• But with an egg fast, you have to have a minimum of 6 eggs per day, a 100 ounces of water an 1 fat per each egg that you eat
• The possibilities are endless
• You can make deviled eggs, crepes, buffalo omelets
• There’s a lot of recipes on Pinterest and Google

ADVICE

• Keep it simple and just eat real food
• Focus on over all health and well being, not just losing the weight and have a lot of patience and trust in the process
• It is a journey; it is not a fast fix. It is a lifestyle and it is sustainable
• In moderation, everything is okay

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE MEAL

• My favorite meal is a nice arugula and spring mix salad and some radish, and cucumber paired with a protein.
• Maybe a rib eye, chicken thigh or fish

HOW CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU?

• Instagram: ketomena
• Website: ketomena.com
• Facebook: Keto Mena

Check out the previous episode of Be Well, Be Keto with Todd White here

Comments

comments