Hi! I’m Denice Conley! Helping people has always been a passion of mine. After being a practicing Occupational Therapist for 5 years, I decided to pursue an equally challenging career as a stay at home mother. Like many people, I have always struggled with my weight. As a result of serious complications suffered during both of my pregnancies, followed by blowing out my ankle, my weight and health hit rock bottom. After two ankle surgeries and subsequent rehabilitation, I decided I needed to make a change to my diet and health. I knew that was the only way I could keep up with my energetic little boys. I was already familiar with the low carb/Keto type diets because my husband had a lot of success losing the weight he had gained when our children came along. I decided to commit to the diet and lifestyle and learn everything I could. I decided to chronicle my journey on Instagram at first simply as a way to hold myself accountable. As my following grew, I began to realize it would be a place to not only share my journey, but to fulfill my passion of helping others. Today I am working on sharing information and encouraging people to find better health through diet and fitness. My motto is, “strive for progress, not perfection”.
My personal philosophy on diet and fitness is not an unrealistically strict one. I am not the type of person who loves spending hours at the gym everyday and eating boiled tasteless chicken breasts. I am a foodie who loves flavor and spending time with my family. With keto being a lifestyle change for me, and not just a diet, there are times that I eat things that aren’t perfectly keto and that’s ok! Moderation is key! Once I accepted that everything won’t always be perfect, it became easier to embrace and stop the cycle of guilt. This doesn’t mean that I eat an entire pint of ice cream at one sitting, but if something has a gram or two of carbs, even if it comes from sugar or grains, I may eat it as long as it won’t kick me out of ketosis. That also means that I have the occasional bite or two of sugar loaded sweets on special occasions. My fitness philosophy is similar: Don’t force yourself to do something you hate doing. That will be difficult to sustain. Instead, find something you enjoy doing, and do that as often as you can. The best exercise program in the world won’t work unless you are able keep doing it. I am living keto in the real world as a busy mother of two. I take it one day at a time just doing the best I can, even if it’s not always perfect.
