Let Me Introduce Myself!
Every once and awhile I think it’s nice to do an introduction blog, since new people are joining our keto community all the time! I always love hearing how people find their way to Keto In The City, so please comment below how you found me!
Hey, it’s me, Jen :)
I’ll get into my keto story in a bit, but first off I am a busy, single mom who lives in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. My daughter is 16 and my favorite thing in the world is watching her kick butt on the volleyball court. I’m already stressing out about the fact that she will be leaving me in 2 years!
By day I’m a Creative Director at a marketing agency, so I get to come up with ideas for a living which is amazing and I’ve gotten to create some really fun stuff for my clients. I’ve been in the world of advertising for 20 years and it can be crazy stressful, but it’s fun and I love it!
I moved to LA 9 years ago on a whim because after many, many years in the mountains (Boulder, Denver and Santa Fe) I was ready for life at the beach and I’ve never regretted it for a second. I love LA so much! I’ve also recently bought a house in AZ close to where my parents live which I got to remodel and now I rent it out on Airbnb. So I also love the desert!
How Did I Start Keto?
When I was 19 years old I was diagnosed with 2 autoimmune disorders within 6 months of each other. First came Psoriasis and next came Psoriatic Arthritis. I was home from college for the summer, I woke up one day and couldn’t move anything. My neck, my arms, my legs, they all felt totally frozen. My dad has Psoriasis, so he knew about Psoriatic Arthritis and had a feeling that’s what was happening. I hadn’t heard of it yet, but I was about to become very familiar.
So to make a long story much shorter, I got pregnant with my daughter when I was 25. Being pregnant made my autoimmune issues freak out more than usual. So after I gave birth I was on the hunt for new options and I ended up trying acupuncture by a doctor who had reportedly fixed John Elway’s shoulder (I’m a HUGE Broncos fan). This doctor is the first one who recommended I stop eating sugar. He said sugar was inflammatory and was making my skin and arthritis worse. It was the first time any Dr or anybody else had ever mentioned the connection between what I ate and how I felt.
So I listened! I started Atkins soon after that (it was super popular at that time, this was 2005-ish) and started feeling way better. Ever since then I’ve been conscious about what I ate, but sometimes I fell back into a standard higher carb diet. One of those times was about 5 years ago. I started having inflammation issues again, mostly in my gut, my doctors thought I had Crohn’s Disease but the tests kept coming back inconclusive.
After all of these tests and no real answers, my mind instantly went back to how I was eating. I didn’t go back to low carb right away, first I went gluten free. After just a couple weeks of eating GF, I started noticing improvement. Then I started reading, first The Grain Brain and then the Bulletproof Diet book and then I started researching online and the word keto/ketogenic started popping up. I’d never heard of it, but I looked into it more and realized it was similar to Atkins, but with more of a focus on quality foods and higher in healthy fats and so I started right away. 4 1/2 years later here I am :)
Accidental Blogger
When I started keto I had no intention of starting a blog or Instagram, I was just trying to get healthy. About a month into my keto journey, I started an anonymous Instagram account so I could stay accountable. I knew my friends wouldn’t care to see constant food pics, so I started a new page. I was surprised to find other keto people on Instagram, even back then there was a smaller, but awesome group of people.
So I’ve been posting ever since:) Eventually I started a blog because it was easier to type up recipes on a blog instead of on Instagram. I love coming up with recipes and also sharing my favorite keto items at restaurants around LA and when I travel.
Then one day a woman called from a a book publisher and she asked me to write a cookbook. I was totally confused at first why they would ask me, but I said yes anyway because I figured it was a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. So I wrote The 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook which came out in January 2018 and have written 3 other keto cookbooks since then. It has been a crazy, unexpected journey and I definitely never thought switching the way that I ate would lead to so many new experiences and getting the chance to connect with so many amazing people!
Keto-ing Through Quarantine
The last few months have been the toughest of my keto journey and I’m guessing a lot of you can relate. At first I stayed on track easily, but then slowly but surely the stress started sneaking in and so did the carbs. At this point I KNOW I feel better eating keto, but that doesn’t mean I always make the right decision. I thought I might be able to eat some higher carb foods here and there and be ok. I know lots of people who do that. Maybe they have a “carb up” or “cheat meal” every week. Maybe they go all out on holidays. But I never did, because I know my personality. I’m an all or nothing kind of person. I’m not the type who can eat a donut or a piece of normal pizza and then go right back to my keto ways. The carb addiction is real, and if I eat it one day, the next day I want more and more. My eating is also very tied to emotions for me and again, I know I’m not alone in this.
A lot of craziness is happening in the world right now and for me everything that is happening with racism was the trigger for me. I spent a good 3 weeks just indulging in anything I wanted, trying to feel comforted. But a couple weeks ago I knew I had to make it stop. I thought back to my autoimmune issues and everything I’ve been fighting for over the years to feel better and I snapped out it. I share this because I want everyone to know that sometimes you might fall off the keto wagon. As I mentioned I’ve been eating some form of low carb for 13 or 14 years and there have been long periods of time mixed in there where I fell off. But the most important part is finding your way back to the way of eating that allows you to be your best self, your healthiest and most optimized self- and for me that’s keto!
So I’ve got a few extra pounds to shed once again, but that’s ok, because i know what I need to do to accomplish it. I know what foods my body responds best to and it makes me feel great to feel in control of that again!