When life at almost 350 pounds (159 kilograms) became unbearable, this Arizona woman began searching for a solution and stumbled across a diet theory that fit her lifestyle. She started by swapping fast food for healthy, tasty alternatives and was wowed by the transformation.
Realtor Chelsey Bishop, 38, lives in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, with her partner of 20 years, 40-year-old Michael Kramer, who works in construction.
Ms. Bishop grew up as the oldest of three siblings in a low-income household that suffered from food insecurity, and this rough start followed her through life.
Morbidly Obese
In her early 30s, feeling extremely unhealthy, Ms. Bishop said she felt like she was “on the verge of dying young.” She was eating around 5,000 calories a day in at least three high-calorie meals. She ate fast food on her commute to work, and again during breaks at her sedentary office job. She began avoiding her loved ones, embarrassed by her size; even trying to lift her body onto a bar stool was “mortifying.”
In 2016, when her father passed away, it hit her hard. “It wasn’t all because he was very overweight, he was also a drug user,” she said, “but he was only 60, and in my mind, I’m like, ‘I’m halfway there.’”
Ms. Bishop’s fear was compounded when her doctor put her on medication for hypertension. She still felt like “a joyful person at a large size,” but her father’s passing, her social limits, and her health troubles began to weigh her heavier than almost 350 pounds did.
The last straw that finally helped her get on the transformation journey occurred during a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, on New Year’s in 2017 with her partner.
“We didn’t fly because I was too scared to fly. I felt like I was going to be too fat,” she said. “We drove from Arizona to Florida, and when we got up there I was immediately experiencing foot pain from carrying around my large body. I spent pretty much the entire time with bloody blisters.”
After standing in line for a long time to ride The Mummy, when the lap bar came, the harness wouldn’t latch.
“Mike starts trying to push it down over my body, then the ride attendant tries pushing it down over my body, and I’m now holding up the entire ride. ... I volunteered to get off, and the look in the ride attendant’s eyes was incredibly harrowing,” she said.
Discovering the Keto Diet
“I came to the realization that every single bad thing that I was experiencing was self-induced, self-inflicted,” she said. “I was just completely ignorant about food, exercise, and weight loss, so I thought my only option, being 200 pounds (90 kilograms) overweight, was surgery.”After attending a “bariatric surgery presentation,” Ms. Bishop realized that the surgery was intended to make her stomach smaller which would ultimately force her to eat less. She then thought that she needn’t have to risk her life in surgery but instead could achieve the same results on her own.
Ms. Bishop was scrolling through Facebook when she came across a distant friend’s weight loss transformation. Her friend had followed the ketogenic diet—a diet based on switching the body’s fuel source from glucose and carbohydrates and replacing them with body fat.
In February 2018, at the age of 32, weighing 340 pounds (154 kilograms), Ms. Bishop began keto.
Her former favorite breakfast, a chocolate Long John and large caramel iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts, plus cream cheese bagels from Starbucks, was replaced with a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin from McDonald’s without the muffin, and coffee with half-and-half and sugar-free sweetener.
Lunch, formerly a burger and fries from any fast food eatery near her place of work, was switched to a medium-grilled, lettuce-wrapped chicken sandwich, or a burrito bowl without the tortilla.
Dinner, for example, a chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes from Texas Roadhouse, became a large Cobb salad with hard-boiled eggs, bacon, and cucumber, or steak with loaded broccoli on the side, or pork chops with a side salad, or pizza toppings served on low-carb chips.
Seeing Results
After limiting her carb intake to 20 to 30 net carbs a day, Ms. Bishop began to notice results.“You have less spikes throughout the day of highs and lows, and from an energy perspective, you just feel generally more stable,” she said. “It’s also very satiating for your hunger.”
Ms. Bishop soon found that she was so sated that she sometimes had “absolutely zero desire to eat breakfast.”
“When I started keto, I knew that I was not about to take on a whole new lifestyle. I wanted to try to mimic my current life, but do it in a ketogenic way,” she said. “We don’t have kids, so going out to eat together was like our entertainment. ... I kept eating out at restaurants, I kept my three meals a day, but I just made the swap: everything that I ate was keto.”
Ms. Bishop’s new approach to food was not without its challenges.
“Not picking up a donut, it’s not physically hard, it’s mentally hard because your brain wants to pick up the donut,” she said. “Thankfully, especially now, there are just so many options available for substitution!”
Six months into her transformation, Ms. Bishop began to notice changes and found that her body was shrinking in size.
The following month, Ms. Bishop returned to her doctor for blood work. She had reduced her A1C glucose count from a concerning 5.8 to a safe 4.7. Anything over 6.0 is considered diabetic. In addition, her blood pressure had normalized as a result of losing weight, and she was taken off her medication.
Body Positivity
After 12 months of following the keto diet, Ms. Bishop had shed 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Although she still weighed 240 pounds (109 kilograms) she “felt amazing.” Suddenly, daily tasks such as walking to the mailbox or around the grocery store, which had previously left her with sore feet and shortness of breath, were no longer challenging.
She also felt it possible to incorporate exercise into her new regime.
“It was all about easing into it,” she said. “I started at work, just taking a walk around my office park for 10 minutes a day, and I felt so good that I was able to do that and not feel miserable. Then I would increase that to 15 minutes, to 20 minutes, and eventually, I was walking every other day, maybe most days whenever I had the time.”
Five years after starting the keto diet, Ms. Bishop has maintained a total weight loss of 175 pounds (79 kilograms).
“I never had a weight goal,” she said. “My goal was always just to feel healthy and live a long, beautiful life and that was something that I did not have.”
In the past, she said she struggled with any lifestyle change, however since losing weight slowly and steadily she has been able to handle any obstacles.
“It’s going to require discipline and commitment. ... I was willing to look at that and be like, I had 30 years of eating whatever I wanted, I can handle some healthy restrictions right now,” Ms. Bishop said. “I can pass on the rolls and the bread for as long as I need to, to turn my health around, and those things will still be there if I need them occasionally ... that’s kind of how I stayed motivated!
“I feel like it is so much about perspective because I don’t feel like discipline or restriction is unhealthy in any way when you’re in a place of super morbid obesity, and clearly ended up there because of a lack of discipline, a lack of restriction, and, frankly, a lack of knowledge about what you’re eating.”
Another way Ms. Bishop has stayed motivated in her journey is by taking a photo in the same shirt every month. While her visible progress escaped her in the day-to-day, her cumulative progress was undeniable.
She is also proud to champion her own brand of body positivity.
Full Circle
Ms. Bishop’s weight loss journey came full circle during a March 2023 trip to Universal Studios in California. She and Mr. Kramer returned to “The Mummy,” ride, and this time Ms. Bishop had a wonderful time. It felt “amazing.”Ms. Bishop now accepts all social invitations and is happy to pose for photos, which she was mortified and embarrassed to do in the past.
Owing to her weight, before her father passed away, Ms. Bishop took zero pictures with him during her adulthood. This is something she regrets until this day.
“I regret that every day of my life because I have almost no pictures of him and me together,” she said. “Now I am in every picture. I love it ... because I don’t have a size that’s restricting me from being able to enjoy myself.”
When her sister got married in Kansas City, Ms. Bishop had another opportunity to reclaim a past trauma: she flew for the first time since losing weight.
