We are Kzoo Keto

We started the Keto lifestyle together as a couple on January 1, 2019. As a way to keep ourselves accountable, we dedicated our YouTube channel to our journey. And our hope is to be able to help out anyone who may have questions about starting Keto and/or staying Keto strong. To give inspiration to any who think they can’t do it, or struggle with making the decision to start their own journey. We have been more successful than we thought, even if we still have some ground to cover. We’re riding the high that comes from the mental benefits, and are marveling at the weight loss benefits.

Click here to follow our Keto lifestyle on YouTube.

Our Whys

Greg – Hello, My name is Greg, and I have always had a weight problem.

I was always thicker than the other kids growing up. I didn’t feet fat until middle school when I was wearing a size 34 in 7th grade. I’m not sure why that stuck with me then; maybe because I was a bit more fashion trendy, and middle school is rough.

In high school, I started doing a lot more sports – football & basketball, and I also started working 3-4 days a week at a local grocery store. I went through a growth spurt, which allowed me to remain the same weight as middle school, around 180-190 lbs, but drop pant sizes and feel a lot better about myself. We will call that the glory time. 

Now, my diet wasn’t great, I really wasn’t conscientious at all about it. I ate whatever I wanted, fast food and pasta galore, and I couldn’t even spell the word vegetable. 

I met the mother of my children at 19, and at 20 we were going to have our first kid, causing me to drop out of college and get a “real job.”  Due to her family struggles, she moved in with my parents & I until I was able to afford a place of our own. That experience in a word? STRESSFUL!!! 

I started gaining weight then, not a lot, but I was less active due to a desk job and most of my hobbies included sitting (computers mostly). When my daughter got more active, my activity level also increased. I was able to maintain my 200 lb weight for quite a number of years. Then things got stressful again due to a promotion at work. My wife and I were fighting all the time and we were expecting another child. 

Right before hitting 30 I had an awakening, I was around 260 lbs and I was having some serious chest pains regularly. I was scared. I thought I was having a heart attack, and I even stumbled into my co-worker’s desk and told him to call 911. With him being a volunteer firefighter, I thought it was the best option I had. The ambulance came to check me out, and I got a few days off of work. I was told to go to the doctor as it was heartburn, BUT I had high blood pressure and need to get it checked out. I really hadn’t gone to the doctor since I was under 18 living with my parents.

It was acid reflux (GERD), as well as my sedentary lifestyle and my sedentary hobbies (computer games, board games) catching up to me. Although obese, I was often told by my friends (when weight came up and how much I weighed) that I wore it well.

It was at this time that I began to be a bit more aware of what I was eating and doing to myself. I was given blood pressure meds, anxiety meds, and acid reflux meds. I was told it was fairly common at this age and I felt like it was par for the course for my age; the ripe ole age of 30.

I come from a long line of STRESS-EATERS, although I thought I had it mostly licked by refusing the sugary sweets, and opting for more meats and starches. But I still slowly gained weight. 

In 2007, at the age of 33, my wife (mother of my children) and I filed for divorce. It was mutual split but it shook me. Not for the reasons you might think, but the realization hit that I had to work on my appearance again, and I was given time away from the kids to do that very thing. I was also forced to cook my own meals, as my eating out budget was greatly depleted due to child support for four kids. It was a few months later that I realized that I actually liked cooking…I found it to be my artistic outlet. I had no prior artistic side, you see I almost failed at kindergarten due to coloring outside of the lines, and  the inability to draw a straight line (ok not really). After learning the basics of cooking, I actually found that I was quite good at it which encouraged me more.

Over the course of the next six years, I was able to maintain simply by being somewhat active with my kids (by this time my sons, who were the youngest were very active, as most are).  I was also traveling a bit for my job(s). I still had a smaller budget of money for dining out, so I was experimenting with foods I never thought I would eat, let alone enjoy. 

You see, I wasn’t a sweets guy, I was a savory guy. Meat and potatoes were my go to and I had a tendency to over indulge. Traveling for work and not having to pick up the tab myself assisted with that quite a bit. Pop or soda was my crutch, although I could tolerate heavily sweetened coffee, it certainly took a back seat to Mountain Dew.  I even convinced myself I was a “Healthy” FAT guy based on conversations with my doctors, who I was forced to see regularly due to medicine refills.

It was at 39, and after a couple failed relationships, I met Stacy on Match.com. We kind of liked each other a little bit, like an old friend reacquainted but better. We had our first date and then seven consecutive dates, one right after the other for the next seven days. Still working from home though, I ate out A LOT, especially for lunch. But the kids (my girls, who were late teens at the time) and I made dinner often, and forever present was a Mountain Dew. 

Stacy’s very picky diet was a relief to me at first as I always thought I was super picky, and I felt normal around her.  

We moved in together and that’s when  a lot of the happy struggles seem to get left behind, so I started gaining weight again. I hit 300 lbs fairly quickly and after hitting 40, it started impacting me in a number of ways.

I never expected my weight to impact my ability to tie my shoes, or wear jeans (the belt digging into my belly fat), and I started gaining weight at somewhat of an alarming weight. I switched to a mostly stretchy wardrobe (stretchy waist). Not having to travel much at all allowed me to work in my pajamas, only changing out to go to lunch somewhere…..or not, drive-throughs are AMAZING!

Money also became a bit more plentiful then as we had dual income. Being a foodie, I was excited to try new things. And those new things brought Stacy around to being a bit more open about her diet also. 

The Starbuck mochas and frappuccinos got me enjoying coffee more, although it wasn’t any better with all that sugar, it was a gateway to coffee and perhaps away from the Mountain Dew finally…OR was it both? Yes, it was both. I gained even more weight on empty calories, and with Stacy being a light sleeper, I ended up getting a CPAP device – mostly for snoring, but mild sleep apnea was able to bring it home. At that time, you couldn’t have a CPAP device prescribed just for snoring. I was 320 lbs at that point, and a bit miserable with my weight, but happy with how everything else was. My doctors started bringing things up to me a bit more, and I no longer felt like I was a healthy, fat guy. They kept prompting me for changes but didn’t really offer much other than more coffee, less Mountain Dew. I listened and toyed with it a bit, but it was hard. And when it came to food, the easy road was the one most followed.

I continued to balloon up to 371 lbs, and putting on my socks was an ordeal every morning – like I was running a marathon. I opted to get some slip on shoes, you see….rather than facing the issue, I just found solutions around the problem. (It’s what I do as an IT guy after all, JUST REBOOT your computer.) Then suddenly something hit me! I wanted grandchildren some day. I wanted to see them, and spoil them. Going this route everyday was somewhat questionable…my cholesterol levels were OK, but I was likely pre-diabetic; although the doctor didn’t come out and tell me that. And going for a long walk, even on vacation, left me worn out for a day or more. I was stuck, and I didn’t want to miss out on all this stuff. Hell, I couldn’t even fit on rollercoasters that my kids loved, I had to wait at the exit line. I remember being 275 and not being able to go on the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios. It didn’t impact me as much as it probably should have. Later, I decided it would be time for a change. I cut out soda and dropped a quick 10 lbs…..then I started drinking soda again and gained 15. UGH!!

My boss had lost 150 lbs not once, but TWO times in his life. Although he didn’t say the word KETO, he did say LOW-CARB, HIGHER FAT, and I started listening; asking a few questions here and there. After getting back from our trip to Maine last year, I was following several YouTubers who were covering drones and tech. One of them, a guy by the name of Jerry, had made a very touching video about weight loss and how his life depended on it.

I related a lot with him and the struggles. He was quite literally speaking about me when he was tearing up and sharing his experiences. He even used his weight as a gimmick on trying out things (bikes, scooters, a mountain trail, etc).

Stacy wanted a new mattress pretty bad, and it was hard to find good data, so we looked on YouTube and found a few couples doing reviews on it. Stacy and I both looked at each other with the same though in our heads. We could totally do that WAY better! Well maybe it wasn’t quite the same, I was thinking I could do that way better, and she was probably thinking the “we.” So we created a YouTube channel and asked our friends to subscribe (some did), and our first review was the Purple seat cushion. I like photography (as does Stacy, and we had just bought her a super awesome camera) and have done a number of family videos over the years. So it was fairly easy to do, and considering I’m a tech guy, I figured it out. That is what started our review channel, but it took Stacy a long time to get onboard with being personal on it. And we had very drastically different ideas on what would make a successful channel. I know I’m getting a bit off track but trust me, its relevant.

Anyway, Jerry made it known that he was going go Keto because he had to lose 50-75 lbs in order to reduce risks in an upcoming surgery. To know that he was actually 15 lbs lighter than I was, at roughly the same height, I knew I had to do something.

So I turned to YouTube once again, but rather than typing in the keywords: drone, purple mattress, or Sony camera, I typed KETO, and was immediately brought to Keto Connect’s channel. Matt and Megha do a great job of breaking down what Keto is, and how it’s a sustainable life style. I was addicted to the knowledge, but more importantly, it gave me hope – a different way of looking at food. I quickly found several more channels talking about it; Dr. Berg and Thomas DeLauer were among them, and I was absorbing Ketogenic knowledge quickly. Although some things were different between the channels, I felt like this could be the exact thing I needed. Don’t get me wrong, I said to myself many times,” but you love bread.” Then I said to myself, “If you can give up Mountain Dew, then you can give up bread…” 

I shared my life changing decision with Stacy and the kids. While the kids knew it was going to impact them (negatively), they were still very supportive.

Stacy chewed on the news for several days before she finally declared she was going to do it with me. I spent the end of November and early December planning how to start Keto, collecting as much info as I could because I felt I only had one chance at this. I did have an ace in the hole – I enjoyed cooking and I was good at it. I found tons of recipes for Keto dishes and how to’s which encouraged me that I could make this work. I even got excited about it.

December 1st, I began lowering my carbs to +/- 30g per day. I kept track of what I was eating knowing that 20 carbs would be the goal, and I wanted to see how it impacted me. When I started feeling fatigued, I would increase my carbs a bit and it would go away. After 2 weeks of that, and having all the info I had, I was ready to go full-time Keto. But Stacy wasn’t ready, she wanted to wait until the 1st of January like we planned. However, I was adamant that I wanted this change now!!! Like, right now! I started without her, and I’m sure she secretly wishes she would have started with me, but she wanted to get her last hurrah in of mac & cheese (three times lol).

Needless to say, it has changed our life for the better. Our YouTube channel that we were dabbling with is now almost 100% Keto. I’ve lost a total of 60 lbs in only three and a half months (three months hard Keto), and I’m feeling better and more full of energy than ever. I’m no longer taking my blood pressure or acid reflux medicines, and I can put my socks and shoes on without feeling like I ran a marathon. I’m excited about my health and well-being for the first time in a long time, and I see a future with me controlling my food/weight, rather than it controlling me.

Hello, my name is Greg, I’m in control of my food, and it’s lowering my weight.

Stacy – since my early teens, I’d always been just a little bit more than most of the girls my age, but I didn’t really have much of an issue with it. Being a little healthier didn’t really start to bother me until I hit about 180 pounds in my early 20’s. I had a crisis for about a minute, then I moved on and accepted my newfound fate.

Fast forward 12ish years – the ups and downs on the scale and clothing sizes ending up at about 270 pounds. At one point, I lost about 60 pounds in three months time due to unhealthy eating, or rather not eating, as I was going through a particularly rough patch. I was then at the lowest weight (213 pounds) I had been in about ten years.

I made it through the rough patch and found happiness with myself. I accepted that I may have to go it alone as a single parent because I didn’t want to settle for mediocre. Then I met Greg through Match.com, and it was like meeting someone I’d known my entire life. So my happiness got happier, and I started eating on a regular basis again. And I bet you can guess what happened….yep, the weight came back – with a freakin’ vengeance. I ended up gaining more than I had lost. Isn’t that how it always happens?

My Facebook memories kept popping up and I’d see huge differences among the pictures from the last five years or so. That, coupled with the fact that I was so tired all the time, and suffered from brain fog to the point where I thought I was losing my mind, made for a very depressed Stacy. I did try going to a gym for a while a couple of times, and I also tried other types of diets/lifestyle changes, and they worked for a little while, but didn’t stick. For me, it’s difficult to do these things on my own, even with the support of friends and family.

I also believed some of my problems came from a sterilization procedure I’d had a few years before meeting Greg. I thought a hysterectomy would remedy it, and I was looking forward to feeling good, and back to my old self again afterward. After the surgery, I did notice some of the issues dissipated a bit, but some didn’t at all; and then I got to my highest weight of 308 pounds. Frustrated, I again accepted my fate, figuring I’d just have to find a way to live with it. Fake it til ya make it, right?

Close to the end of last year (2018), Greg started talking about how he wanted to do Keto. I’d previously heard of it, but only enough to say I wasn’t interested because, as everyone else says, “I like bread.” He’d decided that he was going to start it after doing some research because he had reached his end point with being overweight. As he explained his plan and how it works, I thought about my struggles before and how difficult it was to do that on my own. I decided what the hell, who needs bread anyway? I should support him and reap the health benefits as well. Plus, I hate cooking, and I didn’t want to have to cook for myself every night – we all know it would’ve been instant mashed potatoes and pretzels. Hahahaha!

But for real? Going Keto, and making this lifestyle change has brought us closer, and created our biggest supporters in each other. In sharing our journey with anyone online that cares to follow or just take a peek, keeps us accountable. We’ve been blown away and overwhelmed by the support we’ve received from the online community along the way. I don’t see us ever altering from this new lifestyle.