How I Lost 105 Pounds and Beat Anxiety

The moment Lisa Carroll blinked her eyes open, she felt the same sensation she did every morning: her heart pounding frantically in her chest and a sense of impending doom closing in on her. Something is really wrong, she fretted. I just know something bad is going to happen.

Lisa’s anxiety was at an all-time high. But when she sought help from doctors, they only offered to put her on more medications to mask the problems. “No way,” Lisa said, putting her foot down. She was already juggling a pile of prescriptions — and the side effects they caused — for other ailments. (She’d even tried 13 different blood-pressure medications until finding one that worked!) “I wanted to get to the root cause of my issues.”

Multiple diet disappointments were also spiking Lisa’s stress level. “I just kept gaining and gaining and didn’t understand why.” In truth, her insulin resistance and fatty liver disease were making her body hold on to fat. “I felt hopeless, like I was betrayed by my own body.

”Then Lisa tried the keto diet. With her anxiety nagging, Lisa admits, “I was worried that although keto had worked for other people, it wouldn’t work for me.” But to Lisa’s surprise, the approach had immediate effects. She lost 10 pounds the first week, and she noticed less puffiness in her face and fluid retention in her legs. “I was thrilled. There was this feel-ing of intense relief,” she recalls. “I finally felt that I was gaining some control over my life.”

One thing was clear to Lisa: She didn’t need a diet that triggered unnecessary stress. So she did her research and found smart shortcuts to make the keto diet work for her busy lifestyle of balancing marriage, motherhood and her healthcare career. For starters, Lisa decided to take the guesswork out of this new life-style and began using urine Ketone test strips to ensure that her body was burning fat. “It was so easy!” she says.

Lisa also saved time by skipping snacks and breakfast, which was possible because her two daily keto meals were so rich and filling. “I was never hungry!”

To make the diet easier, Lisa grilled her week’s worth of meat on Sundays and assembled individual containers filled with the meat and prewashed lettuce for grab-and-go lunches. “Knowing what I was going to eat and having meals prepared took the guesswork out of eating healthy,” she says, “especially when I was busy.”

Those time-saving keto hacks helped Lisa lose 105 pounds and 60 total inches from her body in one year. Now she tells everyone, “You’ll be surprised by how effort-less keto feels. It can be adapted to any lifestyle.” Along with the weight, Lisa also shed her health problems. “I no longer experience anxiety. It’s been a complete mind flip.”

That fresh optimism inspired a new, flexible career. “It broke my heart that the medical community could offer me no help. So I left a 20-plus-year career in healthcare and became a certified health and ketogenic life coach,” says Lisa, who founded KetoRevolution.org to spread the word about the therapeutic benefits of the keto diet and to help others who are struggling to lose weight. “I think we all long for a life of meaning,” says Lisa. “I feel so fulfilled now. I never would have imagined that my struggle would be used to help someone else’s pain.”

Knowing she’s been to the other side and back, she cheers, “My mind-set is completely different and my life is incredibly rewarding now. I feel so fulfilled!”

This article originally appeared in our special print edition, Keto Over 50. You can purchase the magazine in full on Amazon, $12.87.