#29 Mary Roberts – Lost 106 lbs on Keto

I first saw Mary on Facebook in the Ketogenic Success group and marveled at her transformation. She was great at answering questions and supporting everyone. When I went to KetoCon in Austin, she was so helpful and just a delight to meet in person.

Hope you enjoy the episode 🙂

MEET MARY:

Mary Roberts is a 46-year-old wife and mother who spent the majority of her life battling sugar addiction and various stages of obesity. Through living a Ketogenic Lifestyle, she has overcome obesity and maintains control over her addiction and her health.

In addition to battling the “sugar monster” and the scale, she was diagnosed with high blood pressure and Type 2 Diabetes in 2008. Six years later she found herself, at age 42, weighing in at 260 pounds and suffering from fatigue, depression, frequent illnesses, and relying on various medications to control her conditions. She decided she couldn’t go on living that way, and she set out to make a change.

Today, thanks to Ketogenic eating and heavy lifting, Mary is a healthy 153 pounds with a good deal of lean muscle. She is no longer on any medications, has normal blood pressure, and controls her diabetes through the food she eats. She has essentially reversed her diabetes, and her diabetic symptoms – such as numbness in her limbs, blurry vision, aches and pains, or diabetic levels of extremely high blood sugar- are no more. She also no longer has sleep apnea, has stopped snoring, has no more asthma/allergy issues, and has not be sick with even a cold or the sniffles in over 2 years. Depression and brain fog are completely gone, and she now enjoys mental clarity and regular feelings of happiness, joy, and freedom.

Mary has a passion for helping others achieve their goals. She wholeheartedly believes that a Ketogenic diet heals and, when combined with working out, people can obtain their optimal health, because she has experienced it herself. She wants people to know that there is a solution to their problems. Her focus is on education and defining the Ketogenic diet, as well as helping people overcome their dysfunctional relationship with food so they can achieve their weight and health goals via a permanent lifestyle change.

Show Notes:

• 46 years old, married and a mother of three.
• Keto coach of Ketovangelist
• I had a lifelong relationship with food way back when I was a kid.
• It started affecting my weight in middle school and I went on my first diet in high school.
• I recently was thinking about it – the diet that I went on in high school was probably in starvation ketosis. Because I was never hungry.
• And all I was eating everyday is less than 400 calories.
• And I lost 40 pounds in 2 months. So I think I was in Ketosis way back then.
• It has been like an up and down roller coaster since then.
• And I think in ’97 I became obese and I maintained somewhere between 220 and 260 for most of my 30’s and my early 40’s.
• I started Keto when I was 42 years old.

HOW DID YOU FIND KETO DIET?

• Through my friend, Brian Williamson. He’s the Ketovangelist, the sponsor of KetoCon.
• We were friends prior to Keto and met him and his wife at church in the year 2006 or 2007, around there.
• I first heard the word Keto from him.
• I was familiar with low-carb; I’ve done Atkins a couple of times. I’ve lost the weight and gone off and gain it back.
• Four years ago, I was trying Atkins again.
• I told him I’m doing Atkins again and he was like, “forget Atkins, do Keto.” And I was like, “What’s that?”
• And so he told. I don’t even remember what he told me, but I remember going home looking it up and the rest is history.
• When I got close to my goal, he had not long before that started the Ketovangelist website and his Podcast, so he asked me if I’d be on the podcast.
• I’m the first Ketovangelist guest.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATKINS AND KETO

• Atkins was just like, the only thing I counted was carbs and it was more macros mentality, like whatever carbs that was fit in.
• That first week is pretty much Keto –veggies and stuff, but after that they tell you that you can increase your like 5 grams of carbs each week
• It’s like a carb lover dream.
• And so that’s where it went wrong for me because of course I would increase my carbs just like when I used to play the calorie counting game and try to figure out what I can fit in to my calorie count.
• I was figuring out what can I fit in to my carb count.
• I discovered somewhere along during Atkins that a 6 piece Mcnuggets has 13 carbs, so I was eating stuff like that, causing me to crave.
• And of course eventually you fully cave and it’s all over.
• The main differences are, it increases your carb over time. They don’t really specify the kind of carbs to stay away from except from the obvious – no bread, no pasta, no rice.
• But when you get further along in their phases they do say you could start having stuff like that in, which for me is just, I can’t do it, I’m an addict.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DID YOU NOTICE?

• I felt satisfied and I no longer suffered from hunger.
  It was freedom.
• I no longer felt compelled.
• At first, I was a little like, I don’t know about this high fat thing because I was fully indoctrinated into, fat make you fat and you got to eat low-fat.
• But then over time I realized, you know what? I’m not hungry. I’m not dying. I’m not falling down at the end of the day, wanting to throw myself on the couch anymore and take down a 3 pound peanut M&M’s.
• This always happens to me like with Atkins.
• I would lose about 40-is pounds give or take, and that would be where I get stuck.
• So of course, I get frustrated and automatically I would quit.
• This time though, I expected it.
• And this time I’m just going to push through.
• And so I did. When I hit the 40 pounds, I got stuck for 9 weeks
• I did not try anything, I did not try to do egg fast or fasting or any of the other things that we hear to try to break stalls, and I just kept going. Because I knew I was doing the right things.
• This was just some set point that my body had to get past and eventually, it did
• It took me 2 months to lose a 106 pounds and I have been maintaining that for 36 months now.
• I workout 5 days a week, I lift heavy weights and I do more cardio these days because my coach makes me, but it’s only 10 to 20 minutes because I’m not a real big fan of cardio.
• The first 5 months, I did no exercise because I had a history of exercise and trying to lose weight.
• I thought I needed to do cardio, that, that was how to lose weight..
• I needed to eat low calories and low fat and I needed to do cardio.
• I would attempt to these cardio workouts that were way beyond my ability and my fitness level. So of course every time I did this my heart felt like it was going to explode, my face will turn red, I could not breathe, the asthmas would kick in and I would just feel like totally defeated and miserable and I would always end up leaving the class early.
• When I embark on the weight loss this time, I decided I wasn’t going to do a exercise until I got weight off, because I figured it would be easier then.
• 5 months later, I started exercising; I started cardio because that is all I need.
• I started Jane Fonda style, like doing things on my floor – leg lifts and jumping jacks. And I would just put on my favorite 80’s music, and I would move around, run up and down my stairs, run circles in my family room just to get moving.
• And then somewhere along the line I realized I needed to do weight lifting.
• I joined the gym but I still don’t go directly to the weight room. I used the machines and I did that for about a year before I switch to strictly compound movements and going into the weight room and using barbells ad dumbbells.
• If I knew then what I know now, I would’ve from day one just gone and lifted heavy.
• I do legs twice, I do push and pull and I do like my own thing like a total body.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE?

• Be all in and just go cold turkey, and don’t prolong the agony by trying to ease into it. Just get yourself immediately down by 20 grams of carbs a day.
• Just be all in.
• I’m real basic.
• Bacon and eggs and avocado, pork belly, rib eye with butter, Cobb salad with extra avocado and bacon.
• When I do recipe, I do use the recipe calculator.
• I do eat vegetables, but not a lot. Definitely not a daily thing.
• This summer form July to mid November I did the carnivore experiment.
• Where I had zero vegetables this 3 or 4 month period.

YOU DO ANY FASTING?

• I do. Anywhere for 16 to 24 hours usually. And I do the occasional extended fast of 6 days.
• And on day 6 I ran a 5k.

YOU DID SIX DAYS WITHOUT FOOD, HOW DID YOU FEEL?

• I felt amazing. I felt freaking wonder woman.
• Physically it’s not a problem, it’s totally mental because I like food and I like to eat and so you miss that whole experience, but I felt physically fine.
• The first 96 hours, I just had water only.
  From 96 to 144 hours, I drank coffee with heavy whipping cream a couple times a day.
• I did my workouts as usual; the only part that was unusual was I did my 5k.
• I lost over 8 pounds, but now I’ve gained like 6 back.
• We all want to lose more weight, right? Who’s going to reject the weight loss?
  But I don’t really do it for that. I do it because of my insulin and blood sugar control.
• I like to deplete stored glucose; I like to see my insulin levels go down.
• I do it for the way it feels and the sense of accomplishment.
• The 6 days was my new record, but I have done several – 3,4 or 5 days before.
• I check my blood sugar everyday and then every 3 months, I get my fasting insulin tested just to make sure it’s not in the level of insulin resistant.

WHAT IS YOUR FASTING GLUCOSE?

• I like it to be between 70 and 100 every morning.
• But there are definitely times that I still experience the dawn phenomenon or if I eat too late the night before. It just depends.
• 2 to 3 hours you wake up your body starts trying to prepare so maybe your blood sugar get a little too low so it secretes your dumped glucose.
  And I try not to stress too much about that because it goes down and it’s normal the rest of the day.
• Keto strips are kind of pricey so if my blood sugar is over a hundred in the morning, I won’t check my ketones, because I don’t want to waste the strip.
• But if it’s under a 100, I will check my ketones.
• A lot of people think that the ketones have something to do with weight loss and they don’t.
  I think it’s more of an energy thing, supplying your brain right fuel and stuff. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to lose weight.
• There are plenty of people in Ketosis who don’t lose weight.
• I would like to reduce my body fat percentage and I’m going to have to lose a little bit of weight in order to do that.
• I’m actually working with Robert Sikes he’s my coach.
  We’re trying to figure out what’s going on.
• I don’t know if it’s my age, but my hormones are crazy and I’m just kind of hanging steady. My macros are like the lowest they have ever been, and I’m just ling hanging at the same number.
• My goal is to get down between 20 and 23 percent body fat and my macros between 27 and 29 right now.
• It’s not that I’m not happy where I’m at
  I’m goal-oriented, so I want to have something to work towards.
• I want to push myself, I want to see what can I do, what am I capable of.
• I’ve done the no dairy thing like multiple times and I don’t know why I tried it more than once because every time I do it, nothing changes.
• I would do it on the oven on 350 for an hour in a half, which will come out super crispy. But now I use my air fryer, which I love.
• I will put it in the air fryer with 375 for 30 to 40 minutes.
• All I do is season it up a little and throw it in the air fryer.
• I don’t like spicy foods at all.
• Honestly for me and it is a controversial topic; it’s the no cheating thing.
• I’m a huge advocate for just keeping it cleans.
• Keep your Keto real food.
• I know Keto is increasingly popular and there’s of product you can get. Like, shakes, bars and all these things. But, I’m just a fan of, just eat real food, don’t cheat.
• Just be 100% committed.
• There’s a lot of ways to lose weight, right?
• But Keto, I don’t really look at it for weight-loss, I mean it definitely does that but first and foremost, it’s definitely healing.
• Keep it clean and don’t cheat and that gives you optimal results.

HOW DOES KETO CHANGE YOUR LIFE?

• I’ve been off medication almost 4 years.
• I no longer have high-blood pressure.
• I don’t have anymore asthma and allergy issues
• I don’t snore anymore and I don’t have sleep apnea.
• I had psoriasis really bad on my abdomen and on my scalp, and that has cleared out.
• I don’t have new breakouts and I’ve only been sick one time in the 4 years I’ve been Keto.
• I do feel younger. Just life in general – everything is better.
• I got rid of 2 medicines.
• Certainly, I’m not taking over the counter stuff anymore.
  I don’t need Ibuprofen everyday because I feel crappy. I just feel good.
• My husband is Keto.
• He has been Keto a little over a year.
• He has never have weight problem though.
• He did it because he wanted to see how it would affect.
  He just feels better.
• He realized that carbs did not make him feel great.
• My youngest son who still lives at home, he loves the Keto meals that I make but he is not Keto because he can’t stop with the desserts.

HOW CAN WE FIND YOU?

To Find Mary:

http://ketomary71.com

Instagram – @ketomary71

Facebook.com/ketomary71

Previous podcast episode of Be Well Be Keto here with Dany Vega

Comments

comments