What brought me here.

In January of this year, I had set a goal for myself to beat at least 200 lbs by my 50th birthday on April 30th. I had been successful in losing weight a few years earlier, but then life took a nasty turn. My wife was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer and the outlook did not look good. It was a stressful time but with lots of support from friends and family near and far and terrific doctors I am ecstatic to say that my wife has been in remission for three years now and still going strong.
During this period of time we had family members visit and help out where they could. They would make terrific meals and with her family being from the midwest they were large portion size meals which were delicious. How could anyone resist that? Not me. So of course I fell off the diet and fitness wagon because my focus was only on my wife at the time. Over time I had slowly regained all the weight I lost plus some. I was now approaching the dreaded half-century mark and I was feeling and looking like crap. To make things worse people within my age group that I knew or heard of were dying from heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and obesity. I kept thinking that I needed to do something and lose weight and get healthy or I may not reach my 60 birthday.
My rejuvenated wife had joined a fitness group and they would have these challenges to go along with their fitness routine and she asked me to join her in one of these challenges. It was the 21-day challenge which was a healthy form of meal planning and fitness routines. So after a week or two my wife and I had lost a couple of pounds as expected and everything was going smoothly. Well one day at work somehow the discussion came up with a co-worker of what my wife and I were doing and she had only said one word. “Keto” and how successful it was for her aunt and uncle. What was Keto? To be brief it is a low carb, medium protein and high healthy fat way of eating. I will save the rest for another story down the line, but for now, I will tell you how all that brought me to here.
I had never heard of Keto, but it sounded interesting so when I got home I immediately began my research on the Internet which led me to Keto related sites, forums, Facebook and Instagram Keto Support groups. I signed up and registered everywhere to get more information. Along the way I also discovered Keto related podcast and YouTube Channels. All of these resources helped me reach my goal weight plus and additional 15 more lbs down by my birthday. It was great and as of this day I am 55 lbs down. I felt and looked great as if I was ten years younger.
So during this journey of information digging something else happened.
I was listening to an episode of “The Ketogenic Athlete” podcast and one of the host referred to an entrepreneur podcast called “The Tim Ferriss Show”. On one of his episodes, he interviewed a few authors who discussed their methods of writing their books which got me thinking of writing I did when I was younger. Mostly essays for courses I was taking, but I liked doing them. It got the creative juices flowing when I wrote them. In this particular episode
one of the authors referred to Medium.com as a great place for sharing creativity in writing and being reviewed by your peers so I thought I would check it out. I liked it so much that I became a member and have submitted a few articles of what interest me and I have more in the works. I still listen to Keto related podcast but have also subscribed to writing podcast to gain more knowledge and improve my writing skills.
It is so strange how one thing can lead to another and stir up old passions and revive your creativity after all these years. I now try to write something everyday, even if it is just a few sentences and when time permits I try to add to them and develop something more. I am even thinking more of writing short stories. Who knows, maybe it can develope to something more.
