WEIGHT LOSS

  • My Keto Transformation: 32 Inches and 22 Pounds GONE. How I Did It– and How YOU CAN TOO!

    This Keto Transformation of Mine Will INSPIRE YOU to Try Keto I Guarantee It!

    keto transformation

    If you are looking for a keto transformation to inspire you, I’ve got you covered. And I have no problem saying that and feeling arrogant AT ALL! I’ve waited too long and worked too hard for this. My keto transformation WILL inspire you and this blog post will share how my keto transformation can be just as much a keto transformation YOU can achieve– TRUST ME on that one. That’s why you’re here right- doing research on the keto diet to see if it really works- to find a REAL PERSON with a REAL KETO TRANSFORMATION right? I did the same thing. I was super skeptical and didn’t want to do keto but it’s changed my life and transformed my body and I’ll never go back. So let’s get started with me sharing my keto transformation story from start to “finish” or – to where I am today (32 inches down and 22 pounds lighter) on December 21, 2021! WOOT!

    Why I Decided to Go on the KETO Diet in the First Place!

    The truth is I did NOT want to go keto at all. It was my new functional medicine doctor who “prescribed” this approach for me and after a lot of back and forth where she explained to me and had me read a lot of articles/books and listen to a lot of podcasts to understand– that the keto diet combined with fasting is essentially the magic bullet solution for women like me with hormonal imbalance and metabolic damage (i.e. the inability to lose fat). I finally took her word for it and just went for it. You see- for the past 5-10 years really…I’d been stuck. I’d been this woman who was just NEVER ABLE TO GET ANYWHERE with my fitness. I was always at different phases of “overweight”. Ever since my hormones had started changing around age 40, it had been an uphill battle for me. I’d started getting things BETTER by getting on bio-identical hormones, but the weight situation was STUBBORN. Most people who knew me probably wouldn’t describe me as overweight. They wouldn’t call me chubby or fat or say “she could lose a few pounds”– most people thought I was fit. I had the blessing or curse of gaining fat in all the right places– I just got curvier. I never got a big gut or looked HUGE. But I felt it. And in the last 2-3 years it seemed to get increasingly HARDER. It seemed that the harder I tried to diet and exercise, the fluffier I felt. So- Last summer I threw my hands in the air and realized that I had give up trying to solve this issue on my own. I hired a trainer and started a Reverse Diet. That was hard to do, trust me. Then I fired my last functional medicine doctor and hired my current doctor who is a miracle worker. She told me I’d need to keep doing the reverse diet for another 6 months before I could start dieting again. And last year at this time, I was getting married and in the depths of SOME SERIOUS ESTROGEN DOMINANCE. Y’all, I was seriously eating humble pie when it came to my body and my health. I had to throw my hands in the air and SURRENDER. I was not in control but I had faith in my new doctor. I really did believe in her. THANK GOD I CHILLED OUT AND DID WHAT SHE SAID. 

    This photo above was taken the week of our wedding in November 2020- in Austin TX. This was at the height of my estrogen dominance. My boobs had gone UP a size from 36D which I’ve been my whole life to 38DD and they were sore AF. You can see how much I’d gained weight in my hips and thighs, I was just THICK and I felt it. I was horrified when I saw this photo but I am so glad I have it now. Because I can tell you without question, my weight gain/boobs situation was not due to me sitting around eating junk food and not working out. You’re looking at the photo of a woman who until a couple months before this – was working out 6 days a week every week and eating 1600 calories a day every day and PUSHING IT in every day. Could not lose weight. At some point your body like not only pushes back but FIGHTS YOU. 

    Embracing the Keto Way of Life

    By May 2021 my doctor told me I was eligible to diet again. That’s when keto came up and my resistance came up. But I finally went for it. Now at first, I was sloppy keto big time. What do I mean by that? Well, the truth is, I kind of lived on keto fat bombs (this one recipe I made that satisfied my sweet tooth big time) and spinach dip. Like THAT IS ALL I ATE for the first few weeks. Y’ALL– THAT IS DUMB. But-  can you lose some weight that way? Sure. You can also lose weight doing a lot of dumb s**t but– don’t do it. It’s not healthy or sustainable. My own husband was like “babe you can’t live on spinach dip”. So that’s when I started doing some instagram stalking– looking at other keto people and I wanted to find HEALTHY people and see what they ate and how they worked out and so on. I found a lot of cool fit healthy people and that’s when I discovered how many people were down with the exogenous ketones— and that’s when I got reconnected with Pruvit and ordered like 75 boxes of ketones (thank God I did they have changed my appetite and cravings FOREVER!!!) I followed a bunch of people, ordered some cookbooks and started shopping at Trader Joe’s for some keto staples– I got creative with my meals- I diversified. Pinterest is your savior here– all you gotta do is go to Pinterest and type whatever it is you want to make and add the word keto to it, there is a keto version of every recipe out there it’s crazy! With each week, this keto life became easier. Here’s how it went. I did that sloppy keto in May- wasn’t taking it seriously but started to see/feel leaner. Decided to do this for real, and do it right and measure/weigh myself when we got back from our vacation, starting June 1st – I placed my first ketones order and was ready to get serious and level up. After I started drinking the ketones 2x a day, I noticed a massive difference in my energy during the day (which is significant because I have had adrenal fatigue problems for years and just prior to taking ketones I was having to take a nap every day at 2pm for like an HOUR– not anymore) and my CRAVINGS and APPETITE are forever changed. I am simply not ruled by food anymore. I never snack! Seriously. It is LIFE CHANGING. I believe so strongly in these ketones — of course I became a distributor. So– see me to get you and your loved ones started-  your life will never be the same. I’m telling you. Also- I never had “the keto flu” or “keto breath” or constipation. None of that. But– Steve and I have always put fiber in our coffee and inulin so maybe the fact that we had already been doing that, prevented the constipation situation. I also focus on food diversity– making sure to eat salads and TRYING TO eat more green vegetables (but you gotta watch it, you’d be SURPRISED how many green veggies have carbs!!!) So- again, each week, eating this way — 50g of carbs or less, 50-60g of protein and the rest healthy fats (1600 calories) became SO EASY. I can still drink (I do ketones with hard alcohol or drink Sauvignon Blanc) and I eat amazing food and never feel like my life sucks simply because I’m not eating bread. I have steadily lost weight at about a pound a week– with a few weeks where I was at the same weight but losing inches. Then I added in these TRIM supplements I take now (yea, you’ll want to ask me about them and yea you’ll want to get on them and yea I’m a distributor too, you knew that was coming!) and I was surprised how that jump started the weight loss again- within the next week I was down 2 pounds and 3 inches. It’s legit. Here we are in December- I am walking around feeling more confident in clothes (and out of them) than I ever have in my entire adult life. I’m 2-3 pounds away from my first goal weight and all of this happened with me BARELY WORKING OUT (that was not the plan by the way– was dealing with migraines).

    Who Am I?

    keto before and after transformation

    Y’all- the photo above is one I shot very quickly, because I wanted to have one shot of me in workout clothes similarly posed, to show the difference in my body today vs that photo of me last year at the height of estrogen dominance and while I was in the weight loss waiting room. So forgive the informality of these photos but they make the point- and I am also LOL-ing at the instagram one below– my eyes are bugging out!! You know why– probably because I was in shock. Y’all I’m not lying. The past 5 years or so I have AVOIDED FULL LENGTH MIRRORS at all costs. I hated how I looked and didn’t want to face it. So when I was on this trip and had this full length mirror in my cottage and saw myself I about died! The difference is remarkable, my whole body shape is changing! This is what happens when your hormones get corrected — the areas where fat was deposited previously – release the fat. LADIES— I AM TELLING YOU. If you are like I was– struggling, and doing excessive cardio and dieting and killing yourself and wondering WHY CAN’T I LOSE WEIGHT— trust me that I have learned what the fix is. You gotta get your hormones addressed (and I have just the doctor for you, she takes telemedicine appointments!!) but you owe it to yourself to do this keto + fasting + ketones + supplementation thing I’m doing. I’m getting certified as a keto coach I’m so passionate about it– who is ready to take that first step and be in a keto challenge with me in January? Leave a comment if you want information because this can be your year. Look at me- I started off this year feeling UGGGGHHH and I’m ending this year feeling like a supermodel! you can SO DO THIS. What questions can I answer about the keto diet? Happy to help!

    keto diet before and after 3 months

    But Wait, There's MORE!

    BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

    If you enjoyed this post, I’m guessing you’ll want to check out these other posts as well. What I typically eat in a day on the keto diet: CLICK HERE. Hypothyroidism and Losing Weight, Why They Aren’t Mutually Exclusive: CLICK HERE. Is Losing Weight After 50 Possible? CLICK HERE. You should also check out my FREE Keto Kwik Start Guide if you haven’t grabbed yourself a copy yet: CLICK HERE to do so.

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  • Hypothyroidism and losing weight: How I lost 22 pounds after being STUCK for years.

    Hypothyroidism and losing weight: they aren't mutually exclusive. Learn more.

    If you are like me, you’ve probably thought that hypothyroidism and losing weight were indeed mutually exclusive things. I’m here to tell you that this is not true, and in fact that you can be losing weight with hypothyroidism. I’m living proof: I’ve recently lost 32 inches and 22 pounds (since June 1st of this year) and I have hypothyroidism. Having hypothyroidism and losing weight isn’t EASY, that’s true. It requires extra effort and some sacrifice. But if you are willing to do the work, losing weight with hypothyroidism is within your grasp. After reading this post, you’ll realize that hypothyroidism and losing weight can go hand in hand, if you practice the right diet and are supplementing (I’ll get into all of that below) and addressing your hormones. Let’s not wait any further, let’s get this hypothyroidism and losing weight discussion GOING shall we– that’s what you came here for, right?

    What Most Women Don't Know About Hypothyroidism and Weight Loss.

    best diet for hypothyroidism

    What most women don’t know about hypothyroidism and weight loss is that (and this is strictly my opinion and my experience talking- but backed by my doctor’s experience and opinion backed by her extensive research/data)– your hypothyroidism is far LESS the reason for your inability to lose weight than you think. WAIT, WHAT? read that again. It’s not a typo. So many women think hypothyroidism and weight loss is a perpetual cycle of going nowhere and the reality I discovered is that- -it’s not the hypothyroidism situation that’s the problem. We’ve all been focusing so much on our thyroid and ignoring what we should be focusing on; INSULIN RESISTANCE. Crazy right? I remember my last functional medicine doctor saying something to me like “I don’t know if we’ll EVER be able to truly repair your thyroid….” and I was devastated…..I think that’s because we’ve all read and heard so much about hypothyroidism and that it means you can’t lose weight. So when we find out we are hypothyroid- which MOST OF US ARE– we obsess about fixing that. And we read everything about thyroid and fixing the thyroid– has this been you? Is that what drew you to this post? I get it. I was there for YEARS until this year. Or actually until last October when I hired my new doc and she said “it’s not your thyroid that’s the problem with you losing weight, it’s your insulin“. 

    Why Insulin Resistance is the REAL problem, not necessarily the thyroid situation.

    So, please know as you read this post, I’m coming at you from my own experience– and my own experience, if you are new to this blog is this: for the past decade or so, I have been on the weight loss STRUGGLE BUS. Even though I am a fitness fanatic, love working out and even enjoy eating healthy and dieting – and even though I have constantly been on a diet for the past decade (literally nonstop) and have worked out for 6-7 days a week 1-2 hours a day- I was always 20-25 pounds overweight. A lot of people thought I was “fine” because I was just “curvy girl” but I FELT every pound. I could not lose. Even when I started seeing functional medicine docs and getting on bio-identical hormones, I’d lose 3-4 pounds but gain it back. I had a brief period in 2017 when I did the HCG diet injections where I lost a good amount of inches (not pounds) but I gained it back (my doctor explained when I met her that until I fixed my hormones, that would continue to happen– I’ll be interviewing her on my YouTube channel on these topics so stay tuned, she can explain it better than I can for sure)– I just strugggggglleeedddd!!! And last year the end of the year was the LOW POINT, I clearly had some major ESTROGEN DOMINANCE going on (see before photo below)– MY BOOBS went up a whole size and I just couldn’t fit in anything. I had to go up 2 sizes in jeans and workout pants– it was the worst feeling……BUT when I hired my current functional medicine doctor and did my first consult with her she told me I had to give her 6 more months of working on my hormones — and during that time I was laying off the hard workouts, I was in a REVERSE DIET and I was prepping for the “right” to diet again. You see, I had to take a break from dieting after all those years. But in that consult, my doctor told me my primary issue to focus on was FIXING MY INSULIN. And I later learned that when women enter into perimenopause their bodies essentially automatically become insulin resistant– so all of us should be moving in this direction as we experience hormonal imbalance that comes with aging…..

    The Best Diet For Insulin Resistance and Weight Loss (and Hypothyroidism!)

    hypothyroidism diet plan

    I’ve told you my background. I was truly desperate to get to NORMAL. I was willing to do anything and probably at the point where I thought that nothing would work. I felt like a freak to be honest. I felt broken. I mean, here I was eating organic healthy foods all the time and working out and I was overweight. I could only wear 1/8 of the clothes in my closet. I was not comfortable naked or on a beach. I hated it. When my doctor finally told me in May of this year that I was cleared to diet again I was like SOCK IT TO ME DOC and she emailed me my macros and they were…..keto. KETO??? WTH?? Y’all. I was so not into this you have no idea. I had made fun of keto. I thought it was a joke. I thought it was the diet that people who aren’t serious about being healthy do. But the doc gave me all this data to support why it’s good for women over 40 with insulin/hormone imbalance and so I begrudgingly decided to do it. FAST FORWARD TO TODAY I am 32 inches and 22 pounds lighter. I literally do a double take in the mirror about every day. I look better now than I did in my twenties. I’m 4lbs away from my goal weight. It’s been the easiest “diet” to do– I eat a diverse selection of amazing tasting foods– my husband is NOT keto and we still enjoy cooking together and eating together without having to do ‘his and hers”. I drink alcohol. I haven’t cheated once. I don’t feel the need to “go off” this diet. It’s my lifestyle now and in fact I’m becoming a certified keto coach early in January so I can coach other women with a certification behind me. I’m so passionate about getting the word out because I TRULY BELIEVE THIS IS THE MISSING LINK FOR WOMEN AGED 40+ with hormone imbalance– because you probably have insulin issues and when you go keto– BAM– you solve that problem! EASY PEASY. All those years I spent wasting my time chasing down how to solve thyroid issues when it was all about INSULIN– funny thing is when I FIRST got my first set of bloodwork done it showed I was insulin resistant and I remember that was the one time I did research and cut out corn/potatoes gluten etc and lost 10lbs FAST……and a year or so later I added that all back in. ;-( I forgot about it. I never will again. NOT EVERY WOMAN HAS INSULIN PROBLEMS but– if you are that woman who cannot lose weight— you — I’m telling you- you’d be crazy to not consider RUNNING DOWN THIS PATH. Grab my hand, I’ll run with you and be your guide. I know this can change your life like it did mine. WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE ABOUT INSULIN RESISTANCE AND KETO AND SUCH? HOW CAN I HELP?

    But Wait, There's MORE!!

    BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

    If you found this post helpful, you’ll probably like these as well: How Can A REVERSE DIETING PLAN Help With Weight Loss? CLICK HERE.  How to Reverse Insulin Resistance Naturally. CLICK HERE.  How to lose weight after 40. CLICK HERE.  To get my FREE Keto Kwik Start Guide– CLICK HERE
    bit.ly/KellysKetoKwikStart 

    I also launched my brand new online course= Kelly’s KETO BOOTCAMP– a self-paced video tutorial course teaching you everything you need to know on how to do KETO the right way like I do so you can lose weight while enjoying YUMMY foods and adult beverages: IT’S JUST $99. Click here to start today! 

    Lastly, if you are interested in a more personal approach, I offer LIMITED one-on-one coaching. I only book 1 hour of my day M-F so these spots go fast. Email kelly@kellyolexa.com to inquire about packages and specials.


    Also– join my FREE Facebook group- A YEAR OF YOU FIRST where I’ll be hosting weekly Facebook Lives with Q&A and giveaways and more: CLICK HERE

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  • Eating 1200 Calories and NOT Losing Weight? Here’s Why.

    Still eating 1200 Calories and not losing weight? Read on to learn why.

    eating 1200 calories and not losing weight

    If you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight, I understand why you are frustrated. You’ve probably been told that eating 1200 calories and not losing weight is not possible– you must be doing something wrong. You’ve probably told yourself you need to add more cardio. You’ve probably thought about even cutting those calories lower- am I right?  DON’T! If you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight, there is a reason! Based on what I’ve learned, 1200 calories is TYPICALLY too low for most women ESPECIALLY if you are working out in addition to eating 1200 calories. Where this idea came from about the 1200 calorie a day diet I don’t know- but use this blog post as your red flag. The reason you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight is because you are likely undereating and overtraining like I did for years — you PROBABLY. need to slowly up your calories through a reverse diet (I suggest you do this through a qualified trainer….I recommend Alex Mazzurco who I used– you can inquire with her here) and heal your body. You’ll be surprised how your body will recover and rebound when it is FUELED!! We’ll get into that later in this post. Just know that LIKE YOU– I too was once eating 1200 calories and not losing weight. I too was frustrated and angry. But I learned why it wasn’t working. In this post I’ll share what I’ve learned has worked and how I have now transformed my body at age 52 and recently lost 24 inches and 18+ pounds and am still losing and will likely hit. my goal weight of 138 in the next month or so! EASILY– the way it should be. Weight loss should be a death sentence and 1200 calories a day is close to it. Let’s dive in and learn why 1200 calorie a day diets are not a good idea anymore, shall we? 

    1200 Calorie Diet

    Why you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight.

    Before we go any further, I want to say that I’m writing this post from MY EXPERIENCE. Everything here is written in my OPINION. I’m not writing this as if this is in medical journal– this is my opinion based on a lot of reading and data and information from trainers and doctors– so you do with it what you will, my goal is always to help you make better informed decisions, not to suggest that I am the only right perspective out there. 

    The reason you are (probably) eating 1200 calories and not losing weight is– if you are like I was for years– you are probably UNDEREATING (1200 calories is incredibly low, that’s the lowest anyone should go for daily caloric intake) and OVERTRAINING. 

    If you are exercising daily 4-6x a week and burning even 200-250 calories, you are overdoing it and your body is in WTH mode. 

    Whether you call it “starvation mode” or cortisol-is-getting-jacked-up mode or whatever, things are NOT GOOD. Your body is not being taken care of…..and ultimately, IT WILL FIGHT YOU BACK. 

    You’ll start to gain weight around your middle. That’s the cortisol/stress reaction. It happened to me. Your body and your mind are STRESSED THE HELL OUT that you are so active and UNDERFED and then — you are probably wigging out every day WORRYING ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT– so you are adding extra anxiety– and THAT is affecting your cortisol. This becomes a hurricane of bad hormonal activity underneath the skin. 

    If you add in anything else like taking antibiotics, birth control pills, anti-depressants, or any other kinds of prescribed drugs….that plus any kinds of fake foods with bad chemicals…..that plus all the lovely environmental factors affecting our hormones….you’ve got a tsunami of madness going on preventing your body from performing as it should. 

    Crazy right? IT ALL ADDS UP. But see, this is the BIG PICTURE stuff that we all don’t think about — for years I ONLY thought about my workouts and my calories. 

    It took me years to understand the “bigger picture” part of things…..how much my anxiety and my STRESSING OUT ABOUT MY BODY and losing weight was ADDING TO THE PROBLEM and jacking up my cortisol and messing up my hormones. I didn’t realize that because I was on The Pill and Spironolactone, my testosterone was suppressed and that was making it very hard to lose fat. I didn’t know that all the antibiotics I was on were creating a nightmare in my gut. I didn’t realize that 2 hours of training a day was overtraining. I didn’t realize how much of a binge eater I had become. I didn’t realize a LOT. I hope that by sharing here– I help a lot of YOU wake up. The more we talk about these things the more we can get past them. 

    The bottom line is this– starving ourselves or close to it and overtraining and being obsessive about our weight loss is a road to destroying our health. I was DESTRUCTIVE to my body for years and had to UNDO a lot…..I want to SAVE YOU TIME!! Don’t make the mistakes I did! Stop eating too little! Eat more! Lift heavy- focus on rest and recovery and self-care…..you’d be amazed what that will do for you. 

    In my future blog posts, I will go into greater detail on what that looks like. In other words– how do we get away from this diet culture that’s been around for decades of 1200 calorie diets (there is nothing wrong with a diet ok??) and get to a place where we respect and understand our bodies more and give ourselves more GRACE and TIME and understanding and stop the whole COMPARISON thing…..these are all lessons I have learned and practices I’ve adapted that have helped me tremendously in my “new” life. 

    I’m not the overwhelmingly insecure woman I was 3 years ago. I’m happy to share how I got here. So be sure you are subscribed– I’d love to take you with me. 

    Tell me where you are right now– are you currently dieting and eating a really calorically LOW diet? Does it freak you out the idea of a reverse diet and healing? Or do you know that’s what you need? What questions can I answer? Let’s stop treating ourselves like crap and running ourselves in the ground all for the sake of losing weight. Fitness is supposed to be FUN. I’m losing weight now and — I’m eating foods I LOVE, enjoying adult beverages, working out actually less than ever, loving my life and feeling GREAT..this is how it should be!! No more feeling dead to the world and stressed out all the time! Cheers to that!!! 

    1200 Calories Meal Plan

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    But Wait There's MORE!

    BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

    If you enjoyed this post — it’s highly likely you’ll want to check out these ones as well. I recommend the following: Why I Said NO to the 75 Hard Challenge: CLICK HERE. And How to Lose Weight After Age 40 CLICK HERE. And My KETO Transformation CLICK HERE. See you soon! 

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