100 Days of Keto- overview, weigh-in, hot pictures

This morning I reached 100 days of ketogenic eating and I was more than thrilled to see a -5 lb loss on the scale. I actually got on and off it three times because I couldn't believe it. I wasn't expecting 5 down in 10 days. This brings me to 31 pounds GONE since January 2nd.

If you're fat and tired of it, I highly recommend you back away from oatmeal, frozen dinners, healthy choice soups, 40-calorie white bread, Special K, and yes, even the apples and bananas of your youth. Reach for burgers, avocados, butter and oven-baked bacon. It will seem CRAZYTOWN at first, but you will flip the switch on weight loss. The other thing that struck me this morning is that this is one of the few times in my life I've stayed with something for more than three months, and I haven't paid anyone a dime. No pre-packaged anything, no meetings, no electronic dongles (I really enjoy the word dongle)- you just use the magical internet for inspiration and cook yourself stuff like this:

delicious-right?

For more info, reddit's keto FAQ is solid. Craig from ruled.me and this Swedish dude are also fonts of wisdom. Finally, this document is also an amazing, free, concise overview of what to do if you want to eat this way. When I first started I ate almost exactly like the linked eating plan- I didn't count calories and  stayed at 20-25 net carbs daily- eggs, butter, bacon for breakfast; salad with dressing and protein for lunch, meat and veggies for dinner. I ate until I was full and stayed away from grains and sugar. For the first few weeks I also stayed away from diet sodas and sugar substitutes- I recommend going as long as you can with no 'sweet tastes' when you first start; it makes the transition quite a bit easier.

After a month or so, I started adding too many 'extras' in the way of almonds between meals, cream cheese/splenda based desserts, and my dinners were pretty big. Despite the claims of 'you don't have to count calories'-yeah you do. If you look at a lot of the success stories of keto folks on reddit, even the big dudes are cutting their intake down to 1500-2000 calories per day. I believe in the science that explains how my body processes food in different ways- i.e. 3 eggs fried in a tbsp of butter which is about 300 calories keeps me full for 5 hours but a 300 calorie scone makes me hungry 7 minutes after I chomp it down. However, I also believe in calorie counting and that you must have a caloric deficit to drop weight. After a short stall, I started tracking with MyFitnessPal, and I'm now at over 70 days of solid tracking. A month ago I also switched things further when I started drinking bulletproof coffee in the AM and fasting through dinner. I've stuck to that eating schedule Mon-Fri for the past month, and if you look at my weigh-ins, you will see that since I've had my best month yet when it comes to pounds off.

I have a long, long way to go- I still have over 100 lbs to lose just to get under 200 lbs, but I am more motivated than I've been in a very long time to keep going. I'm motivated by the numbers on the scale, by my tight jeans becoming clown pants, by the way I look and feel- and I'm also proud of myself for stringing all of these days together. This past week has been about as tough as things get personally, but I didn't 'eat my feelings', I didn't abandon my New Year's resolution; I'm still going strong and I will be keto-ing no matter what into 2015.

Here is a comparison shot October 2013 vs. April 2014:

Can I rock a 'Joan' look for Halloween?

Happy but not comfortable