The Next Keto Challenge, A Year Without Sugar, and a Month Of Carnivore
Well, if you’re anything like me, you’ve eaten your way through the last month and have arrived at today feeling like you’d be just fine if you don’t eat another bite of food for at least a month. This is about the time of year people start thinking about their New Year’s resolutions, and it seems like for most people (including myself) that always includes something to do with health and fitness.
So if you’re in that same boat, and you’re ready to get healthy in the new year, come join our next 60-Day Keto Challenge! This upcoming challenge will be our third 60-day challenge, and it’s a great place to learn the ropes with the keto diet, to be accountable to others, and to get encouragement from others people who are walking the same path. The group is always filled with some people who are giving the keto diet a try for the very first time, and others who are keto veterans who can answer questions and give great advice to the new folks.
Lifestyle changes like this are always easier when you’re doing it with a group of people who are walking the same path. And if you stick with it, I have no doubt that you’ll see amazing results!
During our last challenge, we had some who lost over 20 pounds! But the weight loss is only half of the story. When people give up sugar and processed carbohydrates, they also see their aches and pains diminish (or go away completely), their blood sugar normalize, their skin conditions improve, their blood pressure normalize, and so much more. It’s really quite amazing!
If you’d like to read about my own non-scale victories after a few months on keto, you can find that info here…
So here are the details:
January 2020 60-Day Keto Challenge:
START DATE: Thursday, January 2, 2020
END DATE: Monday, March 2, 2020
DEADLINE TO JOIN: Sunday, January 5, 2020
REQUIREMENTS: The only requirement is active participation in the group, which at a minimum means that you participate in the weekly check-ins.
HOW TO JOIN: Join the 60-Day Challenge Facebook Group. You’ll need to agree to the group rules before membership is approved.
Click here to join the 60-Day Keto Challenge.
PLEASE NOTE: Even if you participated in the last challenge, you’ll still need to JOIN AGAIN for this upcoming challenge.
So perhaps you’ve gotten this far, but you’re wondering, “What the heck is the keto diet?” Well, in a nutshell, a keto diet is one where you remove almost every processed carbohydrate from your diet, and you eat natural, low-carb, whole foods. There’s a bit more to it, and I have a helpful guide that you can read here…
And if you’re wondering WHY a person would want to do that, you can find that info here…
And more here…
My Own Personal New Year’s Resolution
I mentioned in a previous post that one of my personal goals for this next year is to cut out sugar completely for an entire year. It was scary to actually say in writing, but I’ve decided that this is necessary for me. And putting those words out there for the world to see will help keep me accountable.
So here it is, once again.
My main health-related 2020 New Year’s resolution is to go a full year without eating or drinking sugar.
Someone asked me, “Does this include foods like pasta and potatoes that turn to sugar in your body when you eat them?” For my particular resolution, I’m not talking about those foods, although I have pretty much cut those foods out of my diet completely since I generally eat a keto diet.
For the purposes of my resolution, this includes actual sugars, as in, sugary processed treats — cookies, candy, ice cream, etc. This will include not only standard table sugar (sucrose) but also fructose (both fruit as well as high fructose corn syrup and any other form of fructose), glucose, and any other sugar that is added to processed food that causes a spike in insulin. I’m also going to cut out the keto-approved sweetener xylitol because it affects me personally by raising blood sugar and spiking insulin.
I’m not too concerned about lactose that’s found in diary products. Again, it’s mainly the sweet treats that I want to challenge myself to eliminate completely for an entire year, and heavy whipping cream doesn’t exactly fall into that category. 🙂
So if any of you are in the same boat and needing to eliminate sugar from your diet, let’s do this!! If I, a full-blown Dr. Pepper addict who was drinking about 96 ounces a day, could give up Dr. Pepper cold turkey for a full year back in 2012 (I actually went 18 months without it, and even now I only drink it about four times a year), then I’m pretty sure I can do this. I NEED to do this.
A Final Invitation
One more thing…January is World Carnivore Month. Matt and I have been gravitating from a standard keto diet filled with veggies to more of a carnivore diet (as in, animal products only), and it has been amazing for Matt. This diet has been amazing for thousands of people who suffer from autoimmune disease and so many other health and medical problems.
Anyway, Matt and I, along with my mom, brother, sister and niece, will all be joining World Carnivore Month for the month of January, and I’m sure there will be others in the next keto challenge group who will join us.
If you’d like more info on the carnivore diet, these are some great resources…
Dr. Shawn Baker
- Website
- Book — The Carnivore Diet (affiliate link)
- Shawn Baker interview on Joe Rogan podcast
- Carnivore Diet success stories
Dr. Paul Saladino
Mikhaila Peterson
(Suffered with many debilitating autoimmune diseases since childhood, and found that the only thing that eliminated symptoms was a carnivore diet. Any plants added to her diet cause symptoms to return.)
Sally K. Norton
(Educator on the topic of plant toxins.)
There are so many more resources, but those are a good start. 🙂
FYI, I’m not going to debate the carnivore diet. 🙂 It has helped thousands of people suffering from serious health issues, and it can help so many others, so I’m trying to spread the word. If it interests you, try it. If it doesn’t interest you, move on. If you DO want to try it, January is a good time since it’s the third annual World Carnivore Month. You can join us in the keto challenge group because several of us will be doing the carnivore diet instead of the standard keto diet.
One last thing…
On a totally unrelated note, everything in my Etsy store is 10% off through the end of the year with the code HOLIDAY10. Click here to visit my Etsy shop.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I love that you do this. I know I can’t expect you to change your format just for me, but I sure do wish you could do this on Instagram instead of Facebook so that those of us who have deleted our Facebook accounts can participate. Wishful (and selfish, I know) thinking. Want to add that I have been doing Keto for 9 months. Have lost 30 lbs, have tons of energy, and I don’t ache anymore. Yesterday I cheated and binged on sugar carbs as part of Christmas. Within hours I was distended and uncomfortable, and both knees were acting up. That rum cake was tasty but in the end wasn’t worth it. Merry Christmas!
Funny – but the same thing happened to me. My auto-immune diseases are almost in remission – based almost entirely on eliminating grain and sugar. Yesterday I decided to have some dessert and within minutes, the symptoms came flooding back. I’m oddly grateful for the experience because it just further proved I’m on the right path! Best of luck on your journey!!
New Year is always a great time to start new habits 🙂. I lost 52 lbs from April, 2017 to Jan 2018. Gained back 3 lbs this month…. ugh…. but it won’t stay 😉. Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year to you and all the family.
The meat-based food system requires more energy, land, and water resources than plant-based foods. Curious how the carnivore diet would be sustainable from an environmental perspective?
None of that is true. That’s exactly why I said I wouldn’t debate this topic here. And again, I WON’T debate that topic here. If you want an education on those very topics, look at the resources I provided. Join any carnivore group on Facebook and ask that question, and you’ll get all the education you could ever want on the topic.
I’m considering carnivore too for the inflammation reduction, and also because Dr. Ken Berry said that he has never, in all his years of practice, seen a single patient do carnivore whose hormone levels did not return to what they were supposed to be. That’s big for me. But if not carnivore, at the very least will be doing Keto.
I’ve been keto for over a year, almost 2. My blood pressure went down, my weight went down, my arthritis in my knees was no longer a problem. I have had a very naughty month and carbs have been a huge part of it. I need to jump back onto the keto train, counting numbers and all. I am looking forward to joining you all!
I went from trying vegan for three months with no noticeable changes, to hearing about carnivore and trying it faithfully for three months. I thought it was the most insane way of eating until I started reading more about it! And guess what? I absolutely loved it. I felt amazing, joint pain gone, teeth felt cleaner (I know that sounds weird but they did!), old injuries healed up, some scars improved, breathing improved, snoring stopped, energy improved, I built up more muscle, and my thinking was so much more clear! I lost 25 pounds. I could tackle tasks that in the past would have sent me into a tail spin. First week was the hardest. And there are a few things to get used to, like your bathroom schedule will be completely different! And it is a more boring way to eat, but it is simple! Oh, and all the promoters of carnivore are right, the rib eye is king! There is something about the way the fat is marbled in it…I never got sick of eating it. After three months I slowly started switching over to more of a keto diet. But after a year I found I’ve been cheating too much and need to shake things up again! And some of my joint pain is coming back. I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for the last month or so….and that’s been a very interesting experience! I’ll think about joining the challenge and doing it carnivore style!
Hello.
Hope it isn’t too late to join! I have been on and off keto over the past few months. Just restarted and thought how great to find a challenge. 60days – you’re on!