Ashleigh’s story
I started Keto January 2020, not for any health reasons but just a general want to lose some weight after Christmas.
Up until my 20’s I had struggled to put on weight, but after suffering a major depressive episode which lasted some years, I was prone to putting weight on extremely easily due to the medication and the poor metabolic health my body was in during that time.
I was never a big carb eater nor am I a sweet toothed person, so it was really easy to adopt a Ketogenic lifestyle.
At first I tried reinventing all sorts, but over time realised that I didn’t need to do all of that and meat was my go to, adopting a more ‘Ketovore’ lifestyle as time went on.
I haven’t found this way of eating restrictive at all… I found food tasted better and enjoyable again (probably because now I was using full-fat items rather then their low-fat counterparts) and I was eating the food I enjoy, meat and dairy. I don’t miss anything else now. Equally, I found this way of eating liberating; though I was not on medication by the time I started Keto, I was still relapsing and suffering with bouts of depression and anxiety and negative thoughts were still all too common. I didn’t really notice it until I was speaking about it with friends some years later, that actually, I haven’t felt that way now for some time and having conducted more and more research into the gut brain connection, I can safely say that changing the food I eat, ensuring I have a healthy gut, has restored my brain health ten fold. I function cognitively now as well as physically and I have never been more self-aware yet totally at ease with the person I am now, today.
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