By: Amy Cleary

Sitting down with famed artist Bobbi Pike in her beautiful artistic home, The Herald  investigates a lifestyle which has been gaining momentum across Canada and has finally found safe harbour in Newfoundland. 

Pike begins explaining the ketogenic lifestyle with a smile. What exactly is it?

“That’s a good question isn’t it? The easiest way to explain it is traditionally 99 per cent of the population is running off of sugar,” Pike begins. 

Re-Training Our Bodies

“Your body takes the sugar and turns it into energy and that’s how we go throughout the day. With the ketogenic diet, what happens is that we are re-training our bodies to do what it naturally does. Babies are born into ketosis, so it’s not some strange oh my God what are you doing to your body. It’s our natural default. We are re-training our bodies to go back to the way it was back in our ancestral days when the caveman roamed the earth. There was no cookies or lollipops. It was healthy fats. It was meat. It was green leafy vegetables.” 

Pike continues, explaining how the lifestyle works on the inside, sharing that a trip back to biology class would be beneficial. 

“What they taught you was if you put your food in your mouth it goes down through your mouth and it ends up in your belly and it is then turned into waste.” 

The easiest way to describe it in the terms of a ketogenic diet is instead of one compartment, there are two. “So, what you would have is your refrigerator, which is your tummy, and then you have your extra reserve, which would be your freezer. So, when you’re eating a sugar fuelled diet, that’s what’s in your first compartment and as aong as you’re eating sugar it’s continually coming, getting full, you never access your fat. So, anyone who’s trying to lose weight, obviously this is what you want to get to is the fat. The second that you cut off the sugar it automatically unlocks this door. Boom! You’re withdrawing from your fat reserves. You’re 100 per cent fuelling with fat,” said Pike.

Since being involved in this lifestyle change, the medical benefits have been unbelievable, she says.

“I’ve had issues with high blood pressure. Funny story, I just went back for my checkup a little while ago, and the doctor puts me up on the examining table and she takes my blood pressure and this look of concern comes across her face. My heart is pounding, I’m nervous anyway. How are my numbers going to be? Is it bad? Because I can feel my heart beating. 

“She said to me ‘No you don’t understand, it’s really good,’ so she took it again, and that’s coming from a person who’s had, you know, I was on a double dose of blood pressure medication. So we’ve cut that in half for now, just because we didn’t want to do the big shock to the body and I go back to her in a month and we are going to re-evaluate at that time. She’s 99 per cent positive that she’s going to take me off it all together,” said Pike

Like anyone starting something new, you have to start at the beginning.  

Nagging Nelly 

“When it comes to anything dietary, you want to really dig in and figure what’s this all about. I did all my research and there was still this little nagging Nelly or a little doubt in the back of my mind and I finally went to my doctor for a regular checkup.” 

Since Pike found out about the lifestyle, and started to look for information, she came to the realization that the information was unorganized. Pike took it upon herself to fix the problem by creating the website Eastcoastketo.

The website has articles and recipes for any seasoned or beginner in the keto lifestyle. One of the top trending topics on her website are how do I begin this great lifestyle change, and Pike shares her answer. 

“When you’re starting off on the ketogenic diet, a lot of what you’re going through is you’re detoxing. You’re getting the sugars out of your system, you’re getting the chemicals out of your system. So, we recommend, that you stay away from any of the natural sweeteners, we recommend that you stay away from any fancy recipes. What you’re going to do, is you’re going to stick to the outside of the grocery store. You’re going to go grab your vegetables. You’re going to grab your meats. As long as you stick to the healthy fats, which you’re going to get in your meats and that sort of thing, and green leafy vegetables, you’ll be fine. Later on down the road when you’re further in the process, that’s when you start with your fancy meals,” said Pike.

With any new way of life, there will always be opponents. Pike has a simple answer for them.

“You know what, I have a quote, and I just used it this morning .. when I saw it, it was so strong, and it had such an impact on me. It’s by a gentleman named Alvin Toffler. ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn’ and that’s what it comes down to,” said Pike. 

You can find more information on Eastcoastketo website or the Facebook page Eastcoastketo. Sample our recipes of Keto on page 28.