But that's not why I started keto.

I started this Steemit account primarily to share keto-friendly recipes of my own creation and/or adaptation. But first, I would like to talk a bit about how I came to embrace a ketogenic lifestyle.

This post is long. If you'd like, you can skip to the last section ("My mission"), in which I share my mission and my promises to you all.

Denial and confirmation

About 4 years ago, something happened that changed my life forever. I was twenty-three years old. For months, I had disregarded the mounting evidence that something was not right-- at all. I couldn't see straight. I required unhealthily frequent visits to the restroom. I was thirsty all the time. I was inexplicably tired after meals... and worst of all.... I was losing my cognitive ability. I am a software craftsman by trade; my brain is my most important asset. Yet, my memory and critical thinking skills were in a rapid decline. I found I required more and more time to solve various problems which were seeming more and more simple in retrospect.

Having felt like this particular brand of garbage for a while, and having done my Internet research, I had certainly given the implications of my symptoms a thought or three. Regardless, I had told myself it was impossible for me to have diabetes at the age of twenty-three. It had to be something else. Diabetes was something people got when they were forty, right? Certainly there was time between now and then to fix things? Maybe I was just pre-diabetic.

One day, as I walked through my local Wal-Mart, I suddenly felt as if I were going to die. I was having trouble breathing and gathering the strength to walk. I resolved to buy a blood glucose meter and perform a test. After getting home and chugging three 20oz bottles of water (a common routine), I performed my first ever blood glucose self-test. After clumsily pricking my finger with the lancing device (ow!) and filling the test strip, the meter seemed to "think" for an eternity. Finally, it read "360". My worst fear had been realised.

I had diabetes.

Acceptance and panic

I stared at the number on the screen in front of me. 360. I tested again... and again... and again. There was no significant change. I bought a different meter. Still extremely high. I stopped eating entirely for a day. Still, my fasting blood glucose reading never dipped below 200 mg/dL.

I had diabetes.

The weeks that followed were possibly the darkest of my young life. I spent the days and nights in front of the computer in a flurry of research. My performance at my job declined as sheer panic set in. My research indicated that within ten years, I would begin seeing more serious complications:

• My cognition would continue to decline.
• My pancreas would stop functioning completely and I would become insulin-dependent.
• My limbs would require amputation.
• My retinas would detach, leaving me blind.
• I would lose my kidneys.
• Eventually, my heart would fail early, sending me to my grave probably no later than fifty years of age.

In a panic, I cut out all sugar and a large amount of carbohydrates from my diet. Now, this was a very sudden change for me. I was extremely addicted and my diet consisted mostly of simple carbohydrates and sugars at the time. Breakfast cereals and Hot Pockets were a popular dinner combo. I ate the fun-sized Reese's Peanut Butter Cups like popcorn. I still vividly remember breaking down crying into my now-fiancée's shoulder in the middle of the grocery store upon the realisation that I couldn't have everything bagels anymore. I had eaten one almost every day for years. It was my thing. Wake up, toast an everything bagel, go to class or work, get home, probably toast another one.... maybe pour a bowl of Cap'n Crunch... nuke something from the freezer... you get the idea.

It was actually during this initial burst of panic that I discovered the concept of the ketogenic diet and, along with it, a very-low-carb meal replacement product called Keto Chow. I even made an early attempt to adhere to keto, but that failed for various reasons I'll discuss another time.

Return to denial

Over the next couple of months, I started to feel better. I stopped testing my blood sugar and began to make eating decisions based on "how diabetic" they made me feel in the following hours. I began to convince myself that I had solved the problem; that I was young enough that my sudden change in lifestyle had cured my diabetes. I started wondering whether maybe I had just been dehydrated, or had a faulty meter. Slowly but surely, my wondering turned into a blind, illogical conclusion that my diabetes was somehow not a problem anymore.

Over the next few years I continued to avoid sugar. However, carbs crept back into my life in various ways. I discovered a product called "carbohydrate blocker", extracted from some kind of bean, which supposedly helped to block metabolism of starches. I allowed it to enable my relapse into carbohydrate addiction. I began routinely consuming sugar-free candies and baked goods in excess. After a while I stopped taking the blockers. Eventually.... I stopped counting carbohydrates entirely and just sort of lazily checked to see something wasn't loaded with sugar.

Finally, early this year, I found that I was feeling like garbage again. Once more, I found myself staring at my screen knowing that I had the skills and talent to solve the problem in front of me, but that I could not force my brain to work. I decided that I was going to give Keto Chow another try-- I would consume nothing but that, just for a week, to see if I felt and performed better.

Keto II: Electric Boogaloo

I distinctly remember promising a co-worker and friend of mine that this was only a short-term thing and that we'd be back to our favourite lunch spots before he knew it. I was just trying this for a week... just to see if it made me feel better. Well, I had to break that promise, because it did. It made me feel so much better, as a matter of fact, that I decided that I would spend the rest of my life living a ketogenic lifestyle.

Now, to people who know me personally, this announcement was met with equal parts surprise and skepticism. I had, after all, announced that I was cutting out sugar and carbs 3 years earlier, only to have my carbohydrate addiction make a fierce comeback. But I've been living a ketogenic lifestyle for over half a year now, and I have no intention to stop, ever.

Just feeling so much better was enough to keep me keto for life. However, a month or so ago, I purchased a blood glucose meter again. I had long suspected that my diabetes may be in remission, since I had stopped experiencing symptoms a short while after committing to a ketogenic lifestyle. It took some serious self-convincing, however, for me to actually check. But when I did.... I was elated at what I found:

Since I purchased my meter in October, when consuming fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, my blood glucose has not exceeded 120 mg/dL. It is not uncommon for it to be lower than 100 even after eating.

Now, I have to stress that there is no such thing as a cure for diabetes. At the time of this writing, anyone selling you that line is either a liar or a wishful thinker overexcited about some studies on rats. However, there is no indication that I will not be able to maintain those numbers long-term on a ketogenic diet. And if I do maintain those numbers, science suggests that my diabetes will not progress. I will never deal with any of the terrible complications I listed above. My diabetes is, effectively, in remission.

My mission

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, it is my hope that I can help other people (especially those with diabetes) to discover and embrace the ketogenic lifestyle as I have... and I want to help them realise that very few actual sacrifices are necessary.

I love food. It's how I managed to reached my highest weight of around 270 pounds. But I didn't stop eating good food when I started keto. In fact, I truly believe that my diet has only gotten more delicious since I made the leap.

You see, the ketogenic diet, unlike paleo, is 100% rooted in scientific analysis of the way the human body works. This means that things are not off-limits simply because they are not "natural" or "whole". In fact, one of my upcoming posts on this account is going to be a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Now, there are a lot of keto recipe blogs out there... but I have a couple of promises to make to hopefully set myself apart and win your trust and support:

1. My macro counts will always be accurate to the best of my ability. This is the biggest one for me. Too many "keto" recipes out there provide misleading carb counts. I have found grave errors on even the most trusted sites. Let me be clear: keto is not some silly fad I am doing to be cool. It is my way of life, so that I don't feel like garbage and so that I may one day live long enough to retire. I will not compromise on this.
2. I will provide blood glucose readings. Before and after eating exactly one serving of the recipe. This should hopefully help to reinforce the calculated carb count and ensure that these recipes are diabetic-friendly as well.
3. I will not compromise on quality of substitutes. If I don't think it stands up to the carb-ridden version, it won't go here. Unlike some of my keto brethren, I truly believe that "carb replacement therapy" works-- but only if it's done right. It has to be as good, or better, than the original. Obviously, taste is subjective, but I will do my best.

I look forward to being a part of your community. Thank you for your time.