[NOTE: This is the first of a series of posts that will cover issues and ideas that have more to do with our lives than with our weight. Feel free to suggest ideas from your own experiences of how life is different after following a ketogenic diet in ways that a number on a scale simply cannot measure.]

Losing body fat is the most common reason people start the ketogenic diet. Body weight, clothing sizes, feeling like a failure to the human race if one isn’t as close to looking like the smiling faces on the covers of magazines as possible, these are all powerful drivers. But beyond whatever a bathroom scale reads, there are many changes that are not easily measurable.

This inaugural installment of “Beyond the Scale” discusses a seemingly innocuous behavior: being able to cross one’s legs. A proper leg cross. Like people do the world over. A position you may have not thought about once in any of the hundreds of thousands of times you’ve done this but one which, in my inability to do it, was a source of silent shame. Oh, I could hoist one leg over another by grabbing on my trouser leg and pulling, hoping my grip wouldn’t give way, resulting in the offending leg snapping back, loudly smacking the floor so that all around could see my failed effort at doing what is unconscious for so many. But just sitting, lifting one leg and resting a thigh on the other? Nope. 

I hadn’t been able to cross my legs (that one knee over the other thing, mind you, and not two ankles hooked together like the ends of bungie cords, straining to pull apart) in years. And I mean years. Decades. My short little legs were just too heavily padded from my gluteus Maximus - emphasis on Maximus - to my ample cankles. It would be mortifying to sit in public or at friends’ homes. While others around me could chat and visit in social settings on porches, in living rooms, at cocktail hours at our favorite spot, their normal legs crossed, carefree, I would be sitting awkwardly trying to figure out what to do with my dangling participles.

And then one day it happened. I looked down and saw it: crossed legs. Later that day I could hardly wait for My Lovely Mate to get home so I could show him. I’m not sure he could truly understand what a momentous thing it was for me - he’s never passed a day of his life where crossing his legs was anything he needed think about any more than he did about blinking. But he was pleased for me. I’ve written about this before, with an accompanying photo of me legs crossed, whilst in a cramped airline seat, no less!

And to this day, crossing my legs is something of which I’ll never grow tired. And it is but one of the ‘new normal’ aspects of my life in which I revel.

If you’re not there yet, keep going. If you’ve long since given up on trying or even hoping to get back some of the tiny things in life that allow us to feel normal, keep going. If it’s been so long since you could - or would - do some activity or attend and event or try something out of your comfort zone that you can’t remember what those things might be, keep going.

If I can do this, you can do this. I promise. Honor bright.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher or PhD but rather a I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all.  I welcome questions, comments and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!