When I Feel Like Quitting. (But not in the way you think)
/Weight Loss Fluctuations (2.17.2025 to 2.23.2025)
For several years, this space has been the preserve of all things relating to the ketogenic protocol. Before that, caseydurango.com was a site about area real estate. I was a Realtor® in those days, and it seemed fitting to write about what I knew. Then I lost a boatload of weight, and that seemed something about which I knew and could share. This post will not discuss food, carbohydrates, macronutrients, weight, or lipid profiles. It's a glimps into the 'behind the scenes' of how some of my days go. Most of those days are wonderful. I have had one of the most stupidly, over-the-top good lives of anyone. I have an embarrassment of riches in many ways.
Sure, advancing age has stamped my face with wrinkles, gravity taunts me, and My Lovely Mate can be infuriating in that he's very nearly perfect. (The cross I bear … ) But, as a viewer commented on a video I published one sunny spring day, me sitting beside our backyard pond, waterfalls gurgling behind, "That's a pretty nice life you have going for yourself there." Don't I know it!
Sometimes, though, I feel depleted.
Just as I think many people are like me, metabolically, we all have times when we feel so down that everything looks like "up" to us. Perhaps you can empathize with me —or possibly indulge me—in sharing that many days I strive to move forward, do better, feel better, and have a place in the ether that is at least a smidge of a positive force but simultaneously being aware that the imaginary finish line (and can we agree that that line is as illusory as the golden pot filled terminus of a rainbow) will always be over yonder? Always a few more days, weeks, or efforts in the distance?
It's the human condition. We're at once too cognizant and too unmindful. One moment, we know what we are all about, and in two minutes, we don't have a clue about our strengths or our failings. We hope we're super awesome while being sure we're warts on the ass of humanity.
Still, there are days I feel flattened by … by what? Sometimes I have no idea. Many of us can be laid low by those human life stories common to every era and area: hearts broken by faithless partners or thankless children, despair after losing a loved one to disease, misadventures or the natural end of one's days, an unfulfilling job and a crabby boss, and countless other vagaries of being mortals. Life is tough, even under the best of circumstances.
So, being a member of the human race, there are days I want to lay my queen down and accept that the universe, for that moment, won the game of life. Surrender seems inevitable. "Stick me with a fork. I'm done," to mix metaphors.
To be clear, these times that feel like defeat no longer lead me to order a pizza or two. I don't go on the hunt for M&M's or ice cream. Long ago, I abandoned the erroneous idea that food is the best way to comfort a bruised spirit. (To be clear, although we may say that we use food to cope with problems, we use food to not cope, to avoid issues. But that's a topic for another day.)
So, what's the point of sharing these thoughts? Maybe no point can be drawn; perhaps someone will realize that we all struggle. Everyone sometimes feels that there will not be another happy day. When we're in a dark or dismal frame of mind, it can seem impossible to imagine the light. The thing is, we can remind ourselves that we've been there before and that we emerged. The miasma gets burned off like the fog on a summer day. Things will be—and will feel—better. On bleak days, I use several tools: breathing deeply and deliberately, praying a rosary, and watching an episode of "The Office." Often, I cry. Sometimes, I write a blog post and get the thoughts out of my head and onto the page. And I remind myself that this, too, shall pass.
And if I can do this, you can do this. I promise.
A recent Youtube video from my channel.
Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, 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!
