Fasting Keto & Health Chatter | MY PLACE - POETRY , AFFIRMATIONS & MORE

The Hard Truth About Weight Maintenance After Keto

04 Jun 2025 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter Tags: #fasting #drfungtoronto #obseitycode, #keto #challenge #lowcarb #diet, diet, fitness, health, nutrition, weight-loss

Approx. 9 years ago, I finally found the key to my weight loss., in a nutshell, Keto & Fasting; and in the simplest form, intermediate fasting & carbohydrate reduction.

One of my most hidden pictures.

My heart sinks even now when I see this picture, this one very bad angle. Good news is…I had just learned about keto. YIKES who was this morbidly obese old lady!! OMG That was me 😦

The weight gain started for me just after I lost my mom to lung cancer in 2007. Just prior, I had successfully lost 70 lb through the Herbal Magic program. I then managed to maintain that weight loss for 3 years. As long as I took their “who knows what” pills to maintain my weight loss, the pounds stayed away. As soon as I stopped taking the supplements, the weight came back and a lot more of it.

I still can’t believe that I was capable of getting out of that body! I know that statement seethes of self contempt, and you are right! I felt like I was cursed. It seemed like a cruel joke the universe was playing on me. Each pound pushed me away from the person I once recognized. I was slowly getting swallowed into something and someone I barely knew or could stand to look at.

#extremeweightlos#keto #fasting #ketoexxtremeweightloss

I seldom took pictures of myself when I was heavy. This was at my work place in 2015-2016, just before my keto journey. I had been referred to a doctor who wrote a book about weight loss called “The Obesity Code.” I also received a referral to Dr. Jason Fung’s clinic in Toronto. Someone added it to the workplace share-drive. I was horrified! I deleted and saved it for myself as a motivation to get healthy.But I didn’t stay there. I have to really focus on that and maintenance is not easy. Maintenance is the hard part.

In approx. 3 years, I successfully lost 178lbs. Yes even while struggling through peri-menopause and post menopause.

I maintained a 170 of 178 loss for several years. I inadvertently gained a few of those “initial” lost pounds back. I felt I looked too gaunt at my lowest. The extreme weight loss created more wrinkles and loose skin than I hoped for. But I would rather be in normal size clothing with some loose skin rather than 330lbs!

My fittest year 2021

Yet I needed to stop losing weight at that point. I learned more about fasting and autophagy. I began fasting primarily for reasons other than weight loss. My skin needed time to regroup and catch up. My face especially became much older looking, which was so frustrating. after doing so much to look and feel healthy. However, now, years later, my skin has thankfully caught up

2020

2025

Weight loss and weight maintenance are not something that you can just stop doing. You have to continue to work on it forever for the rest of your life. It’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle change.

Truth is weight maintenance is all of our goals isn’t it? A lifestyle and a toolbox that is ever changing combined with and an attitude of gratitude & a decision to never never ever give up !! .

Dr. Fung & Megan Ramos helped me to find the key that saved my life!!

Today I see so many people lining up for drugs like Ozempic for hope to reach their quick weight loss dreams. The former Keto craze seems to be falling to the side as people are pumping these substances into their bodies haphazardly, hoping to lose weight magically. Certainly, they absolutely do. But I’ve learned a key lesson from losing weight naturally. Adhering to strict protocols with my diet is a fact as weight loss had taught me that nothing long-lasting is ever that easy.

Certainly, people absolutely do lose weight… I’m not sure what these outcomes are for maintaining weight loss, and the sad thing is I’ve also been hearing so many horrible things about side effects and heart issues and depression and who knows what else will come out of those shots that people are taking . I too understand the desperation of wanting to get out of the body that causes health issues and shame from the entire world, but is that really the solution?.

I’ve learned many key lessons from losing weight naturally. Adhering to strict protocols with my diet taught me that nothing long-lasting is ever that easy. Sometimes it feels like it was just literally yesterday. Sometimes it feels like it’s a dream. Other times I still feel trapped in that nightmare. I fear waking up 300lbs + again. I was so stuck in that body, dying, incredibly unhealthy, struggling and so very sad.

2023………..POST MENOPAUSE ENTERS…. duh duh duhhhhhh….

What are we gonna do now !!

2023 was a stressful year. I had gained 20 lbs and became post menopausal. My trusted weight-loss tried & trusted tools… no longer worked the same! I hit a plateau.

I started mad crazy Alternate Day Fasting in Jan 2025. I was able to peel back 12lbs of my weight gain. I did this by fasting 3 days one week and 4 days the next for 3 months.. Now Im hoping OMAD will do the rest as I move into One Meal A Day from June 2025, lets see what will happens now.

Maintaining weight loss is not an option, its a task and goal to continuously work on, Im worth it!!

Svelte – Belly blast program

17 May 2024 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter, Rants and Raves Tags: #extremeweightloss, #keto, #lumen, #MEREDITHSHIRK, #metaboost, #svelte, #weighloss #weightlossmaintenance, inspiration

Yay!! Day 4 ..made it!

Day four of what you ask. Well I would say day four of clean, healthy eating, vegan, no inflammatory foods allowed, no caffeine …and today I feel great!

My previous post I detailed about a recent program I purchased by a fitness coach called Meredith , program Metaboost#metaboostconnection by #svelte.

There are many options offered by this online fitness coach, however the one that I chose involved a one-day fat flush followed by a 3-day belly blaster program…. Followed by another 7 days of clean eating.

This not a vegan program, however, in the first 4 days there are no dairy or eggs, yet you are permitted to have lean protein.

I just finished the first 4 days so I’d like to give a small review on that. But first let me do some whining.

It seems like lately this girls weight just wants to go upward and outwardm I’m almost feeling desperate as all my go-to’s are not working for me to get off these 20 lb I gained.

Skipping back through my life , my lifelong pursuit of working on a healthy weight and a healthy metabolism, I’ve been led down many roads.

What Ive learned is, I can take what I like from the programs, and leave all the rest, no regrets no real expectations.

Ultimately, I’m just working on learning about my own health and how my body works specifically.

So working towards eating a daily meal plan , after following an alternate day for 4 years, I realized I absolutely enjoy eating every day and maintaining my weight. And this is something that I’ve learned just this past few months

Truth is, I didn’t believe that eating daily and not gaining weight could happen; that I could leave keto or alternate day fasting and not blow back to that 330 lbs that I was 8 years ago. However, I’ve learned just since February it appears I can maintain my weight and eat everyday.

I will continue to enjoy fasting as well , so I’m learning to incorporate intermediate fasting with these different new techniques as I work on losing these 20 lbs.

In February this year , I began using the #Lumen device. This device helps measure your CO2 and determines whether or not you are in sugar burning or fat burning. The eating plan that came with this device suggested eating everyday to increase your metabolism and provides low carb, high carb and super high carb days based on your reading so that you can learn to carb cycle and challenge your metabolism.

I was very curious about what that device would tell me about my metabolism .

What I’ve learned and according to what I see based on my #Lumen readings is that I have a fairly flexible metabolism and I easily switch between fat burning and carbohydrate burning .

Bonus!! Some people using the Lumen have a very hard time getting the readings I get and I would have to believe it’s because I followed a keto low carb diet for so many years.

I admit, I gained those 20 -23lbs honestly over the last year.

Just after entering postmenopause, and with so much going on in my personal life, I became a weekend warrior last summer consuming ice cream and pie far more often than I should… which of course I knew was a bad idea at the time .

While practicing ADF (alternate day fasting ) I always chose one day on the weekend where I had had whatever I wanted, even if it meant getting severe bloating and inflammation . Foods like pizza, pasta and most complex or processed carbs seem to be really impossible for me to digest. In turn, what happens is my abdomen, ribs, back , legs and almost every part of me aches 4 days later as my mid section expands blowing out like a 9-month pregnant woman causing me almost unbearable pain… And doing this to myself every weekend for years it used to be everyday but now just every weekend for years, so I can’t even imagine what I’m thinking.

Brain screams “Oh I can tell you! I want to be normal. I just want to eat whatever I want. I guess just like everybody I want all that I want … Even when we know our bodies don’t agree”.

The inflammation typically lasts for about 3 or 4 days , or often until I eat like those foods again.

Ive maintained my 170lb weight loss allowing myself to gain 8 lb from my lowest weight because I felt too thin , and it seemed as long as I had only one naughty day a weekend to my weight maintained,

I felt I could manage and live with the inflammation that happened from eating carbohydrates & sugar . Each Monday the scale taunted me with an alarming weight gain of 10 lb (or more) however, my clean keto & ADF diet during the week , the scale would be back down on Friday and I would lose those 10 lbs of water weight, which is what it appeared to be…thus maintaining my weight and I was basically happy with this.

Yet my body had other ideas.

When I began using the #Lumen in February, I began eating everyday and I noticed that the inflammation response lessened. Yes The inflammation was still there however it was still there only when I ate processed foods or high carbs on the weekend . I began getting less inflammation as my weight only increasef about four or 5 lbs( instead of 10) over the weekend. I also began maintaining my weight and have maintained my weight despite the fact that I’m eating everyday and still having a cheat day on the weekend , so I’m pretty happy with that

Now let’s get back to this felt #svelte plan…..

So drum roll please !!!

After my 1-day fat flush the scale moved 4lbs !! Wow… That’s pretty good because what was happening prior to that was it was taking Monday to Friday for me to lose the 4 to 5 lbs of inflammation, this time it came off overnight!! Wow!

I also wanted to say that the recipes and smoothies that were offered in this program were absolutely delicious and it really made me excited to try something different.

The results offered as testimonials from #svelte program were reports that some lost over 8lbs overnight, with the average closer to 4 or 5 lb which is still pretty awesome as that’s where I was.

As I eat very healthy throughout the week, I really didn’t give a lot of hope to think that this change in eating would move any of the weight that’s been on my body stuck now for more than the past 6 months.

However, let’s have another drum roll please !!

Results are in from my 3-day belly booster!! Yes I’ve lost another 5.8 lbs which is pretty darn amazing!!

Yes, that’s a total of 9.8 lbs from Monday to Friday!!

Thanks #MEREDITHSHIRK, You are right, this program does work!

Typically I do lose a regular inflammatory weight of approximately 4 to 5 lbs each week between Monday to Friday, but not 10, not since I eat daily that is.

.So that means I’m down a net of 5.8lbs … Wow! I’m pumped!!!

A little secret I’ll admit is the sugar addict inside of me has been collecting chocolates as I plan my next cheat day!! I know I need to work on my sugar addiction and I know that I’m just hurting myself. So as soon as I get this sugar addiction under control hopefully I won’t have to deal with this inflammation anymore.

I sometimes try to tell myself that I’m self-harming when I’m eating chocolate and chips etc but I do look forward to cheat days as that’s when I comfort myself with the things that I grew up feeling comfort with.

I’m not sure if I can manage a fully clean diet at all times without having some cheat days.

However, for now, I will continue for the next 7 days to complete this #svelte because they are so many more tips & recipes then I’ve seen another program so I am still very curious.

I did not buy their fitness program or the connection to their live community as it cost an extra $27 Canadian per month to access and I’m already paying the $27 a month for the Lumen community to access which is ridiculous of course, but they are really helping me and part of my journey it seems, so I have some decisions to make in the future about which platform works best for me.

Well what’s ahead ..

The next 7 days is more clean eating still dairy-free.

I’m really missing my cheese and butter.. but maybe this is the way I have to go in order for me to at least get off these stubborn pounds.

For those that are using this #svelte #metaboost program, they report that they lose 10 to 15 lb and over the full 11-day program …and as long as I can keep fighting off the Doritos and chocolates that keep appearing in my life it looks like it could be possible to get my weight back under control.

Wish me luck !

Written by

Corrina

Spring Reset! Metabolic Reboot!

13 May 2024 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter, Rants and Raves Tags: #challenge #megaboost #fatflush, #keto #health #lchf #dietdoctor #lowcarb #diet, #weightloss #svelte

So here I go one more time with my spring reboot .

Today is Day 1 .

My plan is first to do a fat flush followed by a highly nutritious 10-day plan offered by this company I have been checking out online.

Well, who is the lucky service provider?

This time it’s a company called #Svelte.

I’ve been watching this very fit lady online for many months now. The buy-in on this product line/ business is more or less similar to other fitness programs, however the focus is around foods what Meredith calls “mega influencers of our metabolism”, claiming you need just a few simple ingredients in your diet to get into the best shape possible!!

So why not try out some of Merediths recommendations, I’m ready and open to learning all that I can about my metabolism!

There was a cost for the fat flush program combined with the 10-day meta boost program, plus a hell of a lot of upselling links videos when trying to sign up which I found to be really annoying, however the plan basically says anybody doing this reboot / cleanse should easily lose between 10 and 15 lbs in the first 10 days.

Since I really want to lose about 20 lb, this would be perfect for me and I hope that at the end of the day, it will be well worth it or at least I’ve come out of it and learning more about myself.

The Lumen device I purchased a couple months ago has also been helping me learn a little bit more about how my metabolism operates. So now all I need to do is to get on track with getting my metabolism to work with me in terms of my diet and exercise as better than it did before.

I’m attempting to look at the science behind my metabolism as the key knowledge that is missing from my knowing as I need to figure out why my body doesn’t burn fat the way other people’s do. Certainly being insulin resistant doesn’t help, but I believe there’s other support out there that can be more knowledgeable with teaching us how to naturally boost our metabolism without paying the extra $300 a month for additional products and or supplements.

So wish me luck!

Today is my first day of my fat flush and then tomorrow I plan to start my 10-day ( spring reset) tomorrow which really involves a lot of vegetarian foods , smoothies and what Meredith refers to as the five “mega influencers” that are the PowerHouse of fat burning( for women in my age group especially).

I’ll never give up trying, stubborn as hell I know.

I don’t think it’s in me to actually give up . Ive never stopped trying as I’ve struggled with my weight my entire life . I’m always open to adding different diet or exercise regimes to improve my diet and exercise goals. I plan to continue maintaining my weight with the ultimate goal and further success of getting , maintaining and being forever in the best shape of my life.

Written by

Corrina

My journey

11 May 2024 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter, Rants and Raves Tags: #adf, #challenges, #extendedfasting #weightlosssuccess, #fasting, #keto, #lowcarb #diet #extremeweightloss, @basalmetobolicrate

I seem to beat myself up all the days long!!!

And of course this statement stems directly from my own rumination about my weight loss /gain and maybe this also false idea about how other people feel about my weight loss.

Realizing my thoughts are created from the space between my ears, I wish I knew how to silence that voice and find a way where I can stop beating myself up. Instead Id like and focus more on a self-love direction while turning a blind eye to that voice inside my head and try ignoring what I feel are unfair standards of what normal looks like.

The whispers in my mind certainly are not just imaginary ; they come from my experience with people and a knowing of how people sometimes react to people who are obese or even to those who have lost an extreme amount of weight like I have.

These perceptions that I have are consistently perpetuating the shame I still carry having been morbidly obese for almost 10 years. Even though it may not be society making those negative comments directly at me, the impact of what I know to be true is that women are expected to look a certain way. Despite wanting to be seen as a strong woman /feminist with a lot of self-love for myself , I still absorb and reflect negativity at my own image every day.

The year 2007 was a very hard year for me. I lost my mom to lung cancer. I had also left my toxic marriage the summer of 2006 and now carried the weight of being a single mom with two small children in a basement apartment. Let’s just say I certainly was not living the dream!

It was a year later that I met my boyfriend who didn’t seem to have a problem with the current or notably monthly increase in weight gain which came on rapidly after we first met . I remember it seemed that every bite of food stayed on my body from 2007 onward. Having a man beside me that didn’t seem to care about my weight was new to me, and I’m sure that somehow contributed to my acceptance of my weight gain and what was happening in my body at that time.

A few years back just before I became married, I decided to do a weight loss program and had lost 80 lbs in 8 mths. The goal was always to find and sustain healthy weight however this goal was one just to lose weight so that I could feel good in my wedding dress.

The 80lbs weight loss from the Herbal Magic diet was managed for approximately 3 years, and low and behold surprising enough as soon as I could no longer afford those magic tablets, the pounds quickly rushed back on starting in 2007 , and even more than ever before.

I was stuck in what I called a fat suit that the zipper was broken on.

Im also pretty sure those herbal magic tablets also contributed to my now continued digestive issues and bowel issues that have never improved and remain a constant issue in my life

Booming upwards and outwards , I rapidly gained more than 150 lbs in just a few short months. I had no idea how this craziness happened to me. Truth is I was so unhappy , I hated myself at that time . I just lost my mom. I had a failed marriage and an ex husband who was still harassing me and I also quit smoking.

I remember at some point looking in a mirror, I did not recognize who I was at all . I was the saddest girl ever. I still can’t stand looking at the pictures of myself in those years , I feel so angry about it because those years when I raised my children, were amazing years!

It’s funny how our choices haunt us for years and years.

I never really knew how to eat. I’m still trying to figure it out.. What I have learned is the uniqueness of my own journey, we all have one.

I’m still doing my best to learn to love myself and I guess that’s all I can really ask of myself right now is to do my very best.

Written by

Corrina

Body Dismorphia

30 Apr 2024 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter, Rants and Raves Tags: #attitudeofgratitude, #behaviour, #bodyimage, #bodymetamorphosis #appreciationofself, #challenges, #contentment, #dietdoctor, #metamorphosis, #selfimage, attitude, beauty, dreams

Do you ever feel like you don’t know who/ what others see when they actually look at you? or have you ever wondered “what do I really truly look like?”

Well I do!

You would think that by now at my ripe “mature” age of fifty five, an age some would refer to as a “grown up” or “middle-aged”, that I would, at least have this answer!

Nope.

I had imagined and hoped one day that this little girl, who is still actively inside me rattling around ,would know the answers to those childhood questions by now.

I’m not sure if this is what a person would refer to as body dysmorphia, but I’m pretty sure that some of what I’m talking about maybe closely related to that definition noted on psychologyblossom.com/what-is-body-dysmorphic-disorder/; definition , “body dysmorphia is characterized by preoccupation with intrusive and persistent thoughts about one or more perceived flaws in one’s physical appearance”.

A little more research may be required, but in many ways I still struggle with my perceived flaws and physical appearance. Sometimes I feel like people can see my inside thoughts and harsh self judgements on the outside, and sometimes what I feel on the inside is not so great. In fact, like all of us, I’m the worst critic I have.

My inner self , that little girl who struggled with this sense of ugliness, sadly acquired through my formative years; still seems to be looking for answers and validation.

All my years growing up I insisted and demanded to know “who do I really look like!! Is there anybody else out there in the world like me?”. I remember feeling lost, alone, ugly.

I remember when this all started, the whole banter around who I looked like. I’m not sure if this was just regular family conversation or if it was just as simple as I must not have looked like anybody else in my family?? I guess I just wanted to fit in.

As I got older I was told “oh you look like so and so.. or I would catch the end of adult conversations where you would hear stuff like “yeah she looks like auntie Jose’s girls”, yet it seemed that I did not feel grounded in who I was as a child in this world.

Now years later, here I am, in some ways still struggling with those same feelings and thoughts.

I look at myself in the mirror and I know I see an image but if I’m at work, the lighting is different (aka that terrible fluorescent lighting in the bathrooms) there I see a different image. And then again if I take a selfie depending on set camera filters etc, then all the sudden there’s a different image. God forbid, anybody should catch me off guard with a quick pic snap that I didn’t expect as the camera grabs an angle and terribly distorts the who I believe I look like, to an instead image that may have me looking way weird! It seems, no matter what the fact is around how everybody has a bad picture moment, my negative self-talk and the fact that I easily and often see myself like this monster, doesn’t seem to go away.

Now let’s add on the extra layer of menopause that there is no escape from and takeaway some of that self-confidence I build with my successfully accomplished weight loss . Sure why not!!

Wow! Yes those extra pounds were gained with more than menopause , as there was pie involved and definitely ice cream, but now it seems like I’m stuck. I can’t get out of these 20 lbs.

I heard about the menopause weight gain. That’s why I tried so hard to lose my weight before menopause . I can definitely say that I’m still surprised with my weight gain as since I was able to manage my weight about 6 years ago, having lost 178 lbs. And I really didn’t expect to ever gain back 20lbs or more as I’ve been in maintenance for several years. When I achieved my goal and my weight loss to get to 155 lb, to my lowest weight of 152 approximately 4 years ago, I was still unhappy as my flesh and skin fell from my bones, too skinny in my face , neck and chest. I didn’t like the way I looked however as I went up about 7 lbs, I felt a little bit more comfortable. That’s where I stayed for the last 5 years and approximately 160 lbs.

Well that’s changed in the last year.

I’ve been struggling with a 20 lb weight gain, actually closer to 25lbs if I’m being completely honest with myself ( from my lowest weight) and even last night while I was trying to take some pictures to compare myself to last year, as I roll close to my “start of my keto journey anniversary date”, May 1st, I can’t help but hear all of those negative Nancy’s and naysayers in my head.

Last night I went from bedroom to bedroom, bathroom to bathroom, mirror to mirror to try and get authentic images of what I really felt I looked like…or at least an image that matched my feelings from the inside, yet I could not get that image. Even with the weight gain, I feel so much fatter on the inside than I do on the outside.

Although I did go up a dress size, actually two dress sizes ( cuz I love the stretchy everything), so I do tend to wear comfortable, usually stretchy clothes. And if I really want it to be honest, I’m sure that that 12 I’m wearing is more likely a 14, but I really didn’t like being a size 8 and I am a little sad that I squeezed out of my size 10s a few months ago, but I’m holding steady out of 12.

Last night I took many pictures and I could not help but think why do I look so different in every mirror? Why can’t I get one picture that looks or shows me the same image. Yet there I was, standing , looking, wondering….hmmm… why can’t I look the same twice in any mirror why? To me I see images that all look different, so I don’t know if it’s my mind or if it’s the mirrors paying tricks on my mind.

Written

by Corrina

Lumen & Me

27 Apr 2024 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter, Rants and Raves Tags: #dietdoctor, #drfung, #extremeweightloss, #health #lchf, #keto, #ketolifestyle, #lchfchallenge, #lowcarb #diet, #lumen, #lumendevice, #weightloss #abundance #healing, health

Arggggg Still struggling ..ugh!

So here we go!. I think it’s important to provide some insight & personal reflection on this new metabolic device that I had recently purchased.

I call the Lumen device my accountability tool ; as it seems like all this tool is actually doing for me at this time is reading a printout of my current metabolism, and not that much more.

It’s been just over two months since I began blowing in the lumen and started as recommended the “eating every day lifestyle”.

I say eating everyday because I typically practice (ADF) alternate day fasting, a lifestyle I followed for approximately just under 5 years; a lifestyle which directly followed my 3year keto journey and low carb lifestyle. So eating every single day for these last couple months is quite a change for me, as I haven’t done that for many years.

Just in case anyone’s curious. Yes I have gained approximately 2lbs more, that’s not so bad considering I usually don’t eat everyday , and not so bad as I am trying to follow the Lumen guidelines.

Truth is , I purchased the Lumen on a whim ( like most things in my life). And it actually caught me off guard a little bit with the cost as it turned out to be much more expensive in CAD than I would’ve liked.

The Lumen also comes with an app in the form of a monthly membership ( I just received my bill and it’s approximately $26 Canadian a month, again more than I would like to pay).

I really believed upon purchase that this app part of Lumen( the plan basically) was optional, however, it turns out it’s Lumen recently changed their rules and the membership is no longer optional and you cannot opt out of the app support. It’s now a must have to go with the device or else the device is basically redundant.

So as it’s too late for me now, I would suggest reading all the fine prints before you invest.

On the day I purchased the Lumen device; my overly excited pointer finger punched that purchase button so fast I didn’t even realize at first that the product was offered from a US site, and a few minutes later I realized that the exchange rate would have me paying a much higher cost than I initially thought.
Even then when I realized the cost was in the U.S.funds, I was still curious and excited about the Lumen thinking that it was somehow a ketone reader.

I knew the cost would come through on my credit card soon enough and I would have to look at it; however, for now I soothed myself by saying that it’s okay to treat myself with the money that brother had given me for Christmas.

I have great hopes that this Lumen device would assist me with my health journey, yet 2 months later, I’m still not so quite sure of that.

The idea of an additional tool/device in my life was not really something I was looking forward to, however with that being said, I was still super hopeful that this device would give me some answers, answers to why my metabolism is such a jerk.

Every morning I blow into this little device and with the combination of the paid app, of course , it gives me a reading that provides me details of how my metabolism is operating and “tells me” if I’m in fat burning, sugar burning or a mixture of both. The numerical value on the breath reading represents where my metabolic system is at that time and based on your morning reading, the Lumen identifies which macros would work best for you and whether it’s a low carb, high carb or a boost day, which is super duper high carb day .

As a person who is definitely insulin resistant, I only realized after I purchased the Lumen, that it was not a ketone reader, but instead a metabolic reader. I was still very excited for the first month to see whether or not I had a flexible metabolism.

In some ways Ive learned to absolutely love Lumen because it is 100% accurate in telling me that I am not in fat burning and when I am in fat storage mode.. and of course, most people who have been following the keto diet or low carb diet also can tell when you are probably not burning fat because of your consumption of food, however, what I find very helpful is that being a keto low carb lifestyle person for almost 8 years, I always wondered how long it would take me to get back into ketosis once I stopped eating sugar or once I had a better day that was more low carb or healthy.

The Lumen device really surprised me in learning about my own metabolic flexibility, and I truly believe that the numbers and readings that it provides are 100% accurate.

There are many, many people who have been using the Lumen for many years to help them with their weight loss goals, metabolic flexibility and just overall health. I do believe that it provides all of these features and it’s not a weight loss tool. It’s just a reader that provides you with insight on what’s going on with your body and for sure I have learned a lot in the last 2 months.

But I also learned that my body is still very different from other people and even though I may be following the macros correctly according to their Lumen when it comes to protein and fat, I certainly can’t always eat the amount of carbs that it suggests because I know I’m insulin resistant. Some people may have a metabolic flexibility that when they are high in flexibility they can still burn fat easily, but because I’m insulin resistant it seems that my fat burning is not that easy and that in order for me to burn fat, I still need to stay either keto or really not eat anything after 4:00 p.m.

The end of the story of this story is that I do believe the Lumen is extremely helpful to my overall understanding of what’s going on in my body, which I really love. I’m also not regretful that I purchased this device , which turned out to be over $200 CAD. However I am pretty pissed about the fact that I have to pay $26 a month just to get a reading from this device. I’m going to do a little bit more research but I understand that it can’t be used without the app and it’s not really fair. If you already know what those numbers represent when you blow into the Lumen device, to continue to pay for the membership ongoing is really not really that inspiring, and I actually feel mad about it.

If you know that you’re blowing high numbers and you’re not in fat burning then naturally you would just reduce your carbs for the next few days until you blow a low reading, therefore not needing the app to consistently tell you what to eat because it’s based on the reading. Eating low carb usually means that you will blow a high fat burn and a high score means that you are not burning anything… Pretty simple science.

However even with knowing the science and how the Lumen works and how it can work for me without this app, I am still forced to be paying over $300 annually to use this app. And of course I’m going to have to keep investing in it for a little while because I paid close to that cost alone just for the Lumen device.

Knowledge is power but reading to fine prints is also important.

Written by

Corrina

One positive change I’ve made in my life

10 Apr 2024 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter Tags: # positivethoughts, #dietdoctor, #drfung, #extremeweoghtloss' #extremeweight lossmaintenance, #lumen, #meganramos, #weightloss #keto, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1904

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.” William Arthur Ward

I can’t believe it’s almost been 8 years since I started my journey of Keto, low carb, alternate day fasting extended fasting and now recently adding in the Lumen device: which early stages appear to assist with managing and viewing my metabolic flexibility.

I will never be more thankful or grateful for the words of the famous #DrFung and the article that I read at work that one fine day in Toronto… A captivating article that 100% drew me in “Dr. In Toronto finds cure for obesity “; which of course led me to the first book that he wrote which was “#theobesitycode”; a game changer for me, the book that saved my life, the doctor that saved my life.

I can’t even say enough about how thrilled I am and how at times I still can’t believe that this actually happened…. What is that? Well it is extreme weight loss and maintenance that’s what it is!

Basically what I also believe is that this whole thing was a wee miracle being gifted to me after a prayer to ask for help with finding a cure for weight loss and health management. For those of you that keep a prayer journal then maybe you’ve heard of this sort of thing before. But this was my first experience and my first request in my prayer journal was to help me find a cure for my

Can’t believe it’s almost been 8 years since I began this journey; my prayers answered just one week after I penciled it into my prayers journal. But that’s a whole other story of miracles and help from the other side that I may come back to about another time. I will never be more thankful or grateful to find that article that day

This past year I put on a few pounds and now “unfortunately” I am still am struggling with a gain that has gradually reached a point of a full 20 lb but by bit adding since July 2023.

As a post menopausal over 55 female, I’m disappointed yet proud of myself to maintain at 158 lb loss and as disappointed as this 20lb gain is, I can still be proud of myself and should be still proud of myself. Yet there’s days that I’m beating myself up and saying the most terrible things about myself that I would not say to anybody else ever. So here’s some self-love and acknowledgment :).

Way to go!!! What you have done is no less than an absolutely, amazing accomplishment! With just some small direction from Dr. Fung’s amazing clinician Megan #meganramos, you manage this and did it all on your own. You just followed some guidelines and online groups ..you didn’t do what they told you to do ( the medical community ) which was to get a surgery for big gals like you…no I knew there had to be something else. I’m so damn proud of myself!

Written by

Corrina

Learning to love again❤️

20 Aug 2020 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter Tags: #healing, #keto #intermediatefasting #drfung #dieting, #obseitycde #weightloss #successfulweightloss #extended fasting, #shame #poorselfimage #fasting #adf #thefastingmethod, inspiration

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So today I bravely removed my cloak of shame and posted a picture of my pre-keto body on Facebook (and beyond) for all the world to see. 🙀

I’ve been struggling lately with trying to love myself, I mean truely really love myself. I know I have been terrible with the negative self-talk and I want to change that. I know I consistantly fail at honouring my success and lifelong struggle with my body image and expressing gratitude to myself for my achievements.

I am willing to change that; to be vulnerable enough to let other people see the me as I was four years ago, a morbidly obese person stuck in a fat suit that I could not unzip for 10 years. (My apologies for the harsh words self).

I have been very successful in my weight loss, having started from a morbidly obese person, to now being a person that is less than 20lbs away from being in a normal BMI.

Damn time to celebrate I’d say!

Starting four years ago..with a total lifestyle change in my eating habits…I have lost to date 164.2 lbs.

I should be damn proud!! But instead I hide those horrible pictures as I never felt like it was not me anyway ..not the me I knew or the me I wanted others to see.

You know it was only recently again that somebody pointed out to me the negative talk that I had been rolling out about my body. And of course I know that I do this all the time, in reflection, but I can’t seem to stop myself.

This person pointed me to a beautiful womans Instagram account for motivation. So upon inspecting this account, the first images I saw were of this flawless beauty , for all intents and purposes what I would tend to be everyone’s dream girl.

Just strikingly beautiful!

However upon further inspection of her account I was shocked and flabbergasted. As what you see on her page upon further inspection, what layed beneath the beauty was there for all the world to get ready for this!!

Imperfections, stretch marks, cellulite..oh my!!😯

Just terrible, terrible angles showing all of her bits and wobblies exposed for all to see… and done in such a way that they could only be purposely unflatterin..certainly the selfies and pictures that I would delete immediately and never look at again..

Yet I was in awe.🙏

Certainly still beautiful , still amazing sexy… yet so normal however also not the norm!

Not what I have been groomed to believe a beautiful body should look like…and certainly not the body that we would ever Post online or allow anyone else to see outside the privacy of our bedroom or bathroom or drinking party.

Instead a real life person with a flawed body, both beautiful and real.

Just this one person’s account has helped me so much in the last couple of weeks with realizing that no matter how perfect we can look on the outside or with our clothes on..nobody is really going to know what our body looks like and every single angle and every single second of the day.. The Good The bad and The ugly..yet we judge ourselves by those angles that we see and furthermore what society tells us beauty is.

I may never be a pin-up cover model, and I may never be the ideal vision of beauty or perfection but I’m willing to be kinder to myself. I am willing to understand that what I say to myself is more important then the images society measures my body against, so much so that I decided to post a picture of me at my heaviest weight perhaps not even my heaviest, but close to my heaviest.. for all the world to see, where I came from to where I am.

And no not just a the recent pic of my recent 64.2lbs lost in the last year, but of the entire 164.2kbs I’ve lost in the last four years.

I still feel that pain of my shamed self screaming loudly…nooooooo!!! As I know somehow it was musta been my own fault that I became that heavy ..but no it wasn’t..my body just happens to metaboliz food differently and the doctors of today are just so brainwashed with the standard diet that there was no room to believe that there are other ways to eat until recently.

So going forward I’m going to instead just accept my wobbly bits, my stretch marks, my cellulite and wrinkles that have come from this weight loss because realistically this is just a road map of my journey with this body in this human form and really it’s nothing more than that.

My human experience and a body that consistently has been met with trauma confusion and despair …has been through a lot.

I am a woman and I want to accept myself as a woman who has accomplished a great deal towards achieving an improvement in health and wellness so that I can continue this journey in life and hopefully inspire and motivate others to do the same.

I love myself I love myself I love myself.. fake it till you make it baby❤️

Written by Corrina Leblond

Aug 09/2020

Images from Google.

Keto Dec- January Updates

12 Feb 2020 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter Tags: #keto #fasting #adf #drfung

I have to say I was more than surprised when I stepped on the scale and saw that whopping -5lbs loss for the month of December. I have to say I almost feel like my ability to loss weight is now unstoppable… now that I know the secret that is, fasting works!

See the source image

There was a time in my life when I would have not been so excited with a 5lbs loss, but considering it was a season of festivities & eating, I still think I did AWESEOME!!

I was very concerned that the scale would have gone up but it didn’t so overall for the month I was very pleased.

The past few months since I have been practicing the ADF (alternate day) fasting, I have been finishing off each of my month end with a 5 day fast just to clean up any left over water or weight gain from possible overeating( like Christmas carbs) just to have a good outcome and to ensure weigh loss each month. This month I also slide into the first week of January for my cleanout fast however only completed a 3day fast instead of a 5 day fast as I needed to get that weigh in completed for the month. I did the 3day fast from Jan 2-4th with my weigh in on January 6th, 2020.

Anyhow, onwards & downwards.

Keto on!

Written by : Corrina Leblond

Dec Updates : My Struggles between the me I want to be and then me I still am.

04 Jan 2020 Leave a comment

by Katz in Fasting Keto & Health Chatter

Image result for body dysmorphia

So yeah…December updates…

Well so far I have no scale number to reflect on for December as I am delaying stepping on that cursed digital platform as I have been struggling through December with many low carb keto fails.

In reflection I crashed, I burned and ultimately fell face first into a season of guilt, sweets, chocolate , pizza, cookies… whatever I could devour really that was in my field of want, and no not every day….but more than I should have…and Im good with that. But a wee little voice inside my head keeps judging me on my cheats and for that reason I both feel guilty and also aware that my struggle tends to be more with myself😒 than with food.

I’ve also come to wonder if that term “foodie” is just another word for “food addiction”..which may in fact be just another way for the food industry to further allow and promote continued poor choices by again giving people a cute “go to name” that highlights & encourages food/sugar addiction in an unhealthy way.

No matter how much I feel like a picture of health & wellness with my recent weight loss…when it boils down to reality I know this regular struggle to resist foods & sugars is not mine alone. I constantly need to remind myself not only are these delicious morsels not only not good for me and cause me weight gain ..they also cause me loads of unnecessary inflammation.

I’ve been monitoring myself a lot ..trying to be accountable and such as I try to figure out the whys behind my own behavior. It seems to me even though I know even one bite of sugar and processed food can lead me to more, what I actually hear in my head each time is “its okay, you deserve it, its only one slice, one ice-cream, one bagel, one chocolate bar, may as well eat that too, you already ruined your morning, afternoon , day, weekend etc”, which of course is never good as what follows is guilt, self disgust, more negative self talk, inflammation, weight gain, food coma and lack of motivation to restart after just one mishap….or more, depending n my mood that is.

I’ve summarized that my behavior and returning self sabotage cycle can only be due to a sugar addiction. I have had my share of watching others who struggle with various forms of addiction and my love of sugar and sweets can only be addiction, no different; same excuses, same overindulgence’s, same CANT STOP behavior.

No matter how strict a person is with their diet of choice I’ve always felt it was normal to have a bad day here and there, which I do of course . Moving forward instead of beating myself up maybe I can just bring more awareness to reducing my indulgences instead of shaming and or adding more guilt.

Food has always seemed to be an issue in my life. From early on our family struggled with having enough food and of course coming from a life of fisherman and farmers I was far too young when I realized some of the animals I loved so very much were being slaughtered for food, which always left me with a sense of “I cant eat my friends”. As I grew up (determined not to eat animals) and into my vegetarianism, food was always a big issue, especially considering that I was always the odd one out coming from a very meat-atarian non vegetarian home; being guided to what a truly healthy diet looked like seemed impossible. I was always the weird one that no one in my family related too or shared the same feelings of not wanting to kill and eat an animal , which haunted me as a young child.

Thank God the world has changed and gotten smaller with the worldwide web as now I see there are so many more like me now.

When measuring my collective knowledge over the years of nutrition and actually experiencing what my body actually needs ..and struggling with understanding food nutrition, I even had nutritionists and naturopaths lean into pointing me towards eating meat..like there were no other options but to eat meat to be healthy..I discovered recently this is not true. Diet is simply just a knowing of discovering the basic nutrient macro knowledge and finding how to fit in what is needed to keep this machine ..our body..running smoothly..and I suppose we all need to find our own path.

So the struggle has been real for me from the moment I tried to learn about how to eat to the most recent anger I felt a few short years ago when my Doctors dietitians office pulled out fake rubber veggie & food to show me what a proper size plate should look like, ugh.

See the source image

This past season I purposely, intentionally decided to self-sabotage and many times ate my way to trying feel good within my emotional self telling myself I deserved it, its Christmas , New Years pie…ugh..but truly do I deserve to sabotage myself like this over & over?

In reflection I’m still unsure of why I really self-sabotage through my diet as the outcome really sucks, as I tap on my over-bloated distended belly that is cramping in pain and feeling the intense sense of un-wellness, hmmm..and to top that off… not only is my digestive tract in distress many other parts of my body suffer from the onset of an additional intense inflammatory response that always follows that “I deserve this” day , hour or weekend…do I really?

I had a very rough month financially and emotionally and for so many reasons my diet and health intentions were further shadowed by the increased darkness and decrease of sunshine and added stress we all face during December month.

So maybe Im just too hard on myself??

What I do know is that I am surrounded by incredible people, unforeseen circumstances and amazing healing opportunities that are free of charge and within my grasp at all times ; tools I can reach for are meditation, inner journey to further self-awareness, links to so much healthy eating opportunities , facebook support groups, as well as my knowing I need to add more value to my own worth and really remind myself what I do deserve and that I also deserve to stay positive and healthy.

The days that still become cloudy are also usually blessed with people I love and help me hold myself accountable to myself until the sun and my motivation comes out again.

I have so much hope for 2020 that no matter if the sun is out or not I know I can still continue on my journey building on my success, even if there are potholes in the road ahead.

Written by : Corrina Leblond

Image: https://fitoru.com/do-you-or-someone-you-know-have-body-dysmorphia/