Have you ever started a diet, done the whole salad with chicken and lots of water plus exercise, and it actually it all worked out, you lost the weight? Yeah, not here… I’ve lost a little bit of weight but it’s happening with hiccups and it’s going slower than an old snail on Ativan! I wish it wasn’t that hard, but that’s what it’s been. Still, I’ve done some digging and I’ve found a few reasons why the weight loss is not happening that fast or that easy. I don’t know, maybe some are having some trouble of your own, and maybe this can help.

Disclaimer. My findings are related to me, and I found them on my own on Google and without a doctor. If you’re going to make any changes to your diet or apply whatever I’m doing, do your own research, and make sure you check with your doctor first. What I’m doing may or may not work, but I’m trying to find what applies to me. Do the right thing for you.

Alright, down to business. So, after trying supplements from two MLM companies, diet pills, diet after diet, I decided to actually do some research and go with the best not so much diet, but lifestyle. At some point, I came down to realize that I didn’t want to be taking pills, but to make actual lifestyle changes. I told you I’m a widow mom of a 7-year old boy, right? This is why I must be healthy, I mean it’s not really optional for me. Alright, my chosen diet was the ketogenic diet. It is really a whole change in lifestyle, not just a fad. We’ll go into more detail with what ketogenic diet is in a different post, but for now let’s say that keto is 5% carbs, 20% protein and 75% fats. This formula gets you in a state of ketosis which leads to fat burning and you lose the weight! Ha! Not happening here!!

Well, I started the ketogenic diet. Yay!!! I soon discovered that my body was going through some not so funny changes. For one, I had to be near a restroom pretty much within a 10 minute window after eating or suffer the consequences. It was ridiculous! Whenever I went to a Brazilian restaurant and ate half the cow, I had to run home and then run to my restroom. I already knew my body doesn’t digest protein very well. However this time, it was different. I had the yellow runs, and pardon the explicit term. I thought I wasn’t keto adapted, I thought I had a bug, but this was weeks into it and I was still having the same! Googled it, one article led me to another and I found it!! Digestive enzymes! I was about to just quit the keto diet, I thought it wasn’t for me but then I found an article with a few things to try to and among those, ox bile enzymes. Tried them, tried the probiotics, the electrolytes, more water, and voila. Eventually my body got more used to what I was eating, but if it happens again, I have all of these helpers ready.

Another thing that happened was heartburn. Before keto, I had heartburn once or twice in my whole life. Now, a little after eating a keto meal, hello heartburn! Oh good grief! Besides disgusting, it is so annoying!!! Let’s say I had breakfast, off to the kid’s basketball game or to church and I’m having this nasty heartburn that wouldn’t go away no matter how much water or tea I drank. Again, I googled it and found that my remedy was hydrochloric acid supplements, lipase, amylase and bromelain enzymes, and digestive bacteria like lactobacillus acidophilus. Tada! I follow the instructions for the enzymes, and this mama is more than a happy camper.

Then I got really bad acne. I’m 43 years old. Barely had acne for 43 years and now I have a teenager’s face covered in acne. REALLY?! Yes, you got it right: I googled it. I found an article that offered a solution to the problem, and unveiled another issue that I hadn’t paid attention to. I thought I was just losing my marbles and my patience, I thought I was suffering from cabin fever by being a widow single mom with an active kid stuck in the house during the winter, or the lack of sleep or something like that, but this what I had acne, mood swings, night sweats and all of the above lead me to a hormonal imbalance, maybe menopause symptoms, but more like an estrogen excess that is driving my life insane! So the solution, besides probiotics, omega-3 and a lot of water, was DIM supplement. Dim supplements deals with the overload of estrogen getting rid of it so your body gets into a healthy estrogen balance. Just started taking this supplement, I’ve had the side effects that come with the detox a body goes through, but looking forward to enjoying life without the insanity. Also, guess what? There’s this thing called estrogen dominance which means fat gain, bloating and water retention. Guess who has all of the above??

My worst issue may be my lack of sleep. I work nights, it allows me to be a mama during the day. I wish I had a built-in mariachi band to help me out, but that’s not a possibility so this mama has to do it all. So sleep is the most affected here. Somebody rings the door (there’s a sign on the door already that nobody seems to read!), or the dog needs to go outside or come inside, or I sleep in episodes or can’t sleep at all. Googled my issue, and found out that if you don’t sleep at least 7 hours, good luck trying to lose weight! This is awful!! It doesn’t matter how good I am with my eating, if I don’t sleep enough then I don’t lose the weight! Good grief!

Last but not least, activity level. More so, my sedentary lifestyle. My work involves my sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours on weekdays. I get up and move every 2 hours, try to do some speed walking or rowing or some yoga in between work and the rest of my day, but sometimes it’s not possible because things happen, and again, it’s just me. Then I’m trying to sleep, and when I can’t, I stay put because I have to fall asleep, and it’s a never-ending cycle of my butt being down the whole time! Well prolonged sitting comes with plenty of problems among those, it’s the weight gain! Which is why I try to move when I can and do exercises to both lose weight and reverse as much damage as I can from being on my butt the whole time.

Alright, so far these are my issues, but I’m not giving up or quitting. I’ve found great solutions while googling my symptoms, going from one forum to an article to different doctor’s opinions. Nowadays, everything you need to know or find out is online. Thank God! I’m tracking my activity, I’m tracking my sleep, I’m tracking my eating. It’s really hard sometimes, but I’m trying to set my priorities straight and work around what happens daily. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, I was hoping it wouldn’t be such a pain in the butt, but I’m being persistent. At the end of the day, if I’m not healthy this boat sinks and that’s not an option. I have a kid and a dog depending on me. I’m working on improving not just my health, but by preparing ourselves to help others in their journey to a healthier lifestyle. Both the kid and I have been praying for all this, for mama to lose weight, and I think I may be on the right track finally!!

Remember, don’t take my findings as the law. I’m a mama that googles everything, reads a lot, I educate myself. Do the same. Talk to your doctor, what applies to me doesn’t necessarily applies to you. You may be taking medication or may have something else going on. Do your homework! I hope however, that my weight loss issues might have helped shed some light on why you may not be losing weight…

Thank you!!!