#14 Steve Pekar – Dropped 100 lbs with the Ketogenic Diet

Followers of the ketogenic diet love an Instagram favorite and all around fun guy, Steve Pekar aka keto_pek. Steve has an amazing success story, but it hasn’t always been Bacon and Butter (on top of his steak of course).

For many years, Steve suffered from a food addiction. The weight packed on each year. Then he found the ketogenic diet, and started enjoying his favorite food: steak. Steve became determine to be get healthy and lose the excess weight.

Steve recently celebrated his 100# ketoversary and did so in 11 months! He celebrated each month’s ups and downs, determined to keep the end game in mind and not give up.

Hear his full story on iTunes or the link above and follow him on Instagram @keto_pek

SHOW NOTES

• 37 years old
• Lives in Long Island
• Struggled with his weight for 19 years
• Had Hashimoto Thyroiditis
• Had also sleep apnea due to his weight gain
• He was also an over eater
• Found Keto and it changed his life

THE EATING?  WAS IT A COMFORT OR A BOREDOM THING?

• It was probably a lot of those things
• Now that I can have food, I buy and eat lot of food.
• I grew up in a great house where I always have food on my table and I honestly don’t know what caused it, but I just love the taste of food
• Also too with my Hashi and my sleep apnea, it was making me really drain, and so I have these issues that I really don’t want to do anything
• And then what happened at 8:30 at night is I run down to the street and go to Wendy’s and get those foods
• I felt so blah

HOW DID YOU FOUND KETO?

• I found Keto on reddit
• I was on reddit progress pics
• And I saw a guy who lost 140 pounds in a year with a before and after picture
• When I read up, he said he did it through Keto
• I had no idea what was Keto and the first thing I did was look up Keto
• And I was like, “You know this is something that I could do.”
• So I did a lot of homework on it.
  I tried looking to the different aspects of it, because I want to be educated about it.
• Then I started it.
• I got about two weeks in, it went really well and I found an excuse to get out of it because I think I went to a wedding and told myself that I’ll just do it again when I get back and I never did.
  That was July of 2016
• January 1^st of this year, I’ve gained more weight than I had in July
• So I started on January 1st and haven’t stop since
• I tracked my macros, but I also found myself lying
• I would lie to myself.
• It was my over eating. It caused me to being in denial about the thing that I was doing
• I would make my portion size smaller to fit my macros
• I would eat thing and not put it on my thing because it would not fit my macros
• I was able to stay Keto, but in the beginning it was very lose tracking because I was not really honest with myself
• Today, I don’t track. I just eat when I am kind of hungry
• I stay under on carbs but I still have trouble eat and still not over that.
• The tracking thing was kind of rough
• I do net carb
• Net carb seems a lot easier
• I told myself that I am going to do net carbs and see myself where I land with that and see how I do
• Basically, what I have done so far was successful
• I still do net carbs because it works for me
• Any kind of diet is a sacrifice and so I am able to live in the sacrifices of no bread, no sugar, or no whatever. But then you start restricting it down further and I am not sure that I would be able to in tune with
• I am in happy spot so I just stick to it

• I tend to only eat once or twice a day now
• I know that I stay under on carbs because I know the foods that I am eating and I kind of stick with the same foods, but I really don’t pay attention to where I’m at
• I have lost 95 pounds. It has slow down a little bit, but it is still going.
• It’s definitely been a great ride so far
• I feel amazing
• So many things that I used to worry about that I don’t have to worry about anymore
• Just as simple as, I used to hate to go to a restaurants that has booths, because I was never the kind of person that would fit into a booth
• Now, every time I go to a restaurant, I already fit in a booth
• I used to have to ask for seatbelt extensions and now the seatbelt fits perfectly
• I used to feel really big inside of a chair in an airplane and I used to feel bad for the person sitting next to me
• This last time, I felt more in just in my seat.
• I was able to put one seatbelt on and feel comfortable
• I was working out.
• I was doing a lot of walking, hiking and stuff like that.
• And one of the trip that I had gone was in Ireland, and I had tracked 64 miles of walking and hiking in a week that I was at Ireland
• When I got back, my knee was really bothering me
  So it bothered me enough where I couldn’t even walk a mile in my neighborhood
• I used to just go walk fro 6 miles
• I found out I had a torn meniscus
• So it kind of curb my exercising a little bit
• I know there’s other things that I can do that won’t involve the knee but that was kind of a little bit of bummer with me, because I was feeling better and was doing more cardio

ROUGH SPOTS

• I hit tough spots all the time
• The first one was obviously the stalls
• By January I have lost 17 pounds, by January I lost 12 pounds but by April I lost 3 pounds
• Here I am starting doing the math. I was losing 15 pounds a month and thought I’ll be down in no time, and all of a sudden, I stepped on a scale and haven’t lost anything or you gained or stayed the same
• I have always tried to just tell myself that I trust the process, what happens and what I am doing so I try not to go drastic on it
• The stalls that I definitely struggled with but I always tell myself that you’re doing the right thing, you’re doing better and just got to keep with it
• I take pictures, measurements and I also do look for those non-scale victories that people talk about
• I love cooking Keto and I love the foods that I can eat
• The food is great and the way I feel is great too
• It’s definitely giving me a lot of energy
• I try to go to bed early and wake up early, and it is a lot easier now because I don’t have sleep apnea anymore
• I don’t snore when I sleep anymore, I don’t have to use a CPAP machine and when I wake up I feel refreshed and good.
• Before I was diagnosed to sleep apnea, I apparently was not dreaming.
  They said that I stopped breathing 59 time in an hour
• I tried not using my machine anymore and I kept on waking up great.
• Now, I don’t use the machine anymore
• I do have an endocrinologist that I used to see every six months
• After she saw what I was doing, looked into my blood work and everything like that, she basically said that I am good for a year
• I have been feeling good as far as my Hashi has gone
• I have less episodes where I feel down and dragging
• Before taking medication for Hashi and Keto, I used to feel like under water
• I never knew why I was feeling this way
• When I found out about thyroid disease we started medicating it and it took a while to find my sweet spots
• With Keto, I have been feeling good.
• There are some days where I feel like I am drowning a little bit, but it is definitely less frequent since I have lost the weight and switched to this way of eating
• I’ve tried every diet known to man and there was this clinic that had this medical weight-loss.
• They did blood work and they said that something doesn’t look like for my thyroid and I need to see a specialist
• I got an appointment and they did their own blood work and they said I have Hashimoto

ADVICE

• Be educated
• The diet is not the easiest and you need to understand how it works fully in order for it to work
• Make sure that you don’t misunderstand something
• Trust the process
• If you stall out just make sure that you stick with it and don’t make drastic changes
• I do fasting, but I am doing it for the health reasons
• If somebody do it for the wrong reasons, then they will get overwhelmed with it
• I tried to tell people that they should not make drastic measure and just continue what they are doing
• Do some other little things.
• Like, instead of having a snacks in between breakfast and lunch, maybe don’t have the snacks
• Make little adjustments
• A lot of people compare themselves on other people, but it is not the same for everybody
• There’s no miracle pill, there’s no miracle thing. It takes a lot of hard work and it takes time

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

• Get my knee fix
• Continue what I am doing
• Try to start incorporating more exercise into it as well
• I want to feel fit and healthy
• I am already feeling better and I wan to continue it

FAVORITE RECIPE

• I like simple things
• I run to a steak a lot and chickens
• Just simple proteins
• I love making side dishes
• I love cutting out Brussels sprouts with bacon and coconut oil
• I love making something called cheesy asparagus.
  It is basically asparagus mixed with cream, parmesan cheese and top with mozzarella cheese
• Another go to is a cream spinach
• There are so many different variations of things that you can make, so I really don’t have a favorite one
• The beauty about Keto is that it is all free
• There is nothing that you need to pay for
• You can get all the information about it and all the research for free
• You can fine recipes for free
• I make some food and can’t believe that the food I am eating is making me lose weight

FAVORITE QUOTE

• The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best is now
• Wake up, set a goal, smash your goals, go to bed, wake up the next morning and do it

HOW CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU?

• Instagram: @keto_pek

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