I decided to be on the ketogenic diet as my new lifestyle. The keto diet mandates that you cut out all sugar and carbs, and replace it with healthy fats to train your body to burn fat instead of carbs. I tried it for a month before I was traveling, and the effects ultimately changed my life. I have now done it for a year, so here’s my personal anecdotal story of why this all happened. Some of this might be TMI but I think it’s important to understand what I was going through to understand how much of an impact keto had on me.
I discovered I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) when I was in high school, and recently learned that it’s something you’re born with. About 1 in 10 women have it, and the symptoms don’t always manifest until adulthood. The tell-tale sign was that I had really irregular periods. I went to check with a doctor when I had a little scare where my period didn’t stop for six weeks straight. The symptoms I experienced which I didn’t associate with the syndrome for so long were fatigue, extreme bloating, cravings out of this world, and weight gain. Let me explain more.
I was always tired. I did a test one summer in high school where I would intentionally sleep without waking up with an alarm for two weeks. At first it was about 12 hours a day (or more), and when my body had enough sleep from a years worth of school, it tapered off to 9.5 hours a…
