I had some sardines and an avocado for lunch today. With celery.
It was really good, even though I didn’t actually think I liked sardines that much.
I think my tastes have changed on the ketogenic way of eating. More than that, I think I’ve been willing to allow them to change.
I am eating sardines because they are keto friendly and because they have calcium. I am writing about them because they — more specifically, my reaction to them — is making me think.
Long story short: The medication I’m on for thyroid hormone replacement and cancer suppression threatens bone density, and my doctor and my research both agree that nutritional calcium is preferable to supplements. I looked up high-calcium foods. Sardines are way up at the top of the list.
I really don’t know what to do with them. So today, I had some with half an avocado and a stalk of celery. The celery tasted sinfully sweet, although that is probably only believable to people who are fully keto adapted. The avocado paired well with the sardines. Fat and salt. Next time I’ll add some tomatoes, olives, and spicy mayonnaise, and maybe a couple of pieces of a hard, dry aged cheese.
It surprises how thrilled I’ve become at the taste of simple, whole foods.
It seems like there might be a life lesson in here about being willing to let go of what we think we think.
As a practical matter, it’s important to be both narrowly committed and open-minded when starting out keto because this way of eating at first seems impossibly restrictive. Ice cream, pizza, pasta, all junk food, diet soda, chips, french fries, bread…. all on the “do not touch list. But if we leave ourselves open to changing, change will come, and it may surprise us.
This happens all the time with kids: They hate vegetables or pickles or olives or beer, and then they grow up, and all of a sudden, they don’t. Of course, almost all of us have things we really detest. For me, it was always only one food: peanut butter. I detested even the smell of it in anything — it in cookies, Snickers bars, M&Ms — and I have never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my life.
The first time I tried peanut butter in cooking, I was climbing Mt. Elgon in Uganda, and my husband had a jar of it. Our guides disappeared into the woods one evening and brought back a basket full of leaves. They said if Dan would contribute some of his peanut butter, they would make a stew to share, so Dan happily agreed. I only tried it because I was too polite to decline. Plus I was hungry from hiking all day, and we were cooking over a fire with our guides, sharing a meal made from greens found in the forest…. Which means I was willing to like it. And so I did.
Since then, I’ve enjoyed peanut butter in satays and sauces, but never like most people eat it — out of the jar. But my tastes have changed with keto, so, all in the spirit of scientific inquiry, I thought I’d try and see if the change extended to peanut butter. The results: I can’t say I love it, at least not yet… but found that I could eat it for the first time in my life.
Tastes change… if we let them.
The ketogenic way of eating has changed my insulin cycle and my metabolism, and my body is responding accordingly. That’s certainly part of the equation. But change also seems like something that I have had to allow to happen.
And when tastes and ideas and opinions change, our world changes — whether it’s our nutritional world, our artistic world, our family world, or our interpersonal world.
It makes me wonder what else might happen, if only I could let it.
Makes four servings. About 8.1 net carbs per serving. Prep time: 15 minutes chopping and measuring. Cook time 20 minutes sauteeing + 40 minutes simmer + 10 minutes sitting time This recipe is low carb, gluten free, dairy free, and paleo, and can be part of a low iodine diet if you use iodine-free salt and serve over cauliflower.
I am writing fast because I can’t wait to share this with you! This lovely curry can be as spicy — or not — as you want it. Like all Indian-influenced cooking, it benefits from cooking the spices in order and giving it the time to unfold.
Ingredients
4-5 boneless/skinless chicken thighs, about 1 pound, sliced, flavored with salt and pepper (1/4 tsp each)
1 pound eggplant (about one medium), peeled and sweated with salt then patted dry and chopped
2 medium leeks, chopped
2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes (best results with three large ripe Roma tomatoes)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 – 1.5 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
2 Tbsp butter
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 red chilli, chopped fine (use discretion as to how much)
2 tsps of cumin
2 tsps of coriander
1 tsp of garam masala
1 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
Freshly chopped cilantro as garnish
Instructions
Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat.
Add the mustard seeds, and heat until they pop.
Add leeks and fry till softened and turning brown, about 10 minutes, deglazing pan with stock if necessary.
Add more butter if necesary, then add the garlic and ginger and chicken thighs and fry until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
Add the chilli and cook for 2 minutes.
Add cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric and tomato paste. Stir until the chicken is evely coated.
Add the eggplant, chopped tomatoes, and stock and stir.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until eggplant is softened and sauce has thickened, about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Remove from heat and let sit for about 10 minutes.
Top with chopped cilantro and serve over sauteed kale or cauliflower rice.
Makes six one-cup servings. About 9.3 net carbs per serving. Prep time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: about 40 minutes. Easy dairy free version: just use all olive oil instead of a mix of olive oil and butter, and omit the cream at the end).
I grew up with mushroom soup: My dad was Czech, which meant he shared the European passion for fresh mushrooms straight from the woods. We made our mushroom soups with whatever we happened to pick. If we were “mushroom hunting” close to home, that meant field mushrooms or inky caps (which we called “shaggy manes”). If we went out into the woods somewhere, we brought home paper bags filled with morels or large meaty mushrooms from the boletus family.
But a warning: Our rule was always “When in doubt, throw it out.” Most mushrooms are non-edible, and some are poisonous. You learn mushrooms one at a time, and the only mushrooms you should eat are those you know for a fact to be edible — which, for most of us, means buying them at the grocery store.
The recipe below combines my central European heritage (cream sauce!) with flavorful Mediterranean spices, although it can be enjoyed without the cream. Either way, it is delicious.
Ingredients
6 Tbsp unsalted butter or extra virgin olive oil: We recommend a half and half split.
1 1/4 pounds chopped mushrooms. We recommend a mixture of your favorites, including some highly flavored ones such as cremini, oyster, and shiitake. If you only have button mushrooms, you can add a few dried mushrooms for more flavor.
1/2 pound finely chopped shallots
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp fresh chopped thyme leaves
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of allspice
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp black pepper
5 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth
5 oz baby spinach
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 cup cream (combo of heavy and light cream is good)
Directions
Cook the shallots and mushrooms in two batches. Heat half the butter/oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add half the mushrooms and half the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally until the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are browned. (10 – 12 minutes). Set aside, then repeat the process with the other half of the oil/butter, the mushrooms, and the shallots.
Combine the cooked mushrooms and shallots in the pot. Add the tomato paste, thyme, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and allspice. Stir, then cook on medium heat until fragrant (about one minute).
Add the vegetable broth, salt, pepper, and lime juice. Stir and bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 20 minutes.
Stir in baby spinach, and allow it to wilt, then add the cream and adjust the seasonings.
N=1. Which means: We are all different. We all have to find what works for ONE person: Myself. Yourself.
I don’t think what works for me will work for everyone, but I’ve had a remarkably easy 85-pound weight loss, in part because I got a lot of advice from people who shared the strategies that contributed to their success. So — since I’ve now been doing this for just about 2 years — I am passing on some of the strategies I found most useful. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary in the details, but here are a few things that might help you begin your keto journey.
I cleaned out the kitchen. I did keep some standard kitchen items (sugar, flour, ketchup, oatmeal) because I have a lot of guests, and I don’t expect everyone to eat what I do. But all the flour, rice, pasta, cereals, sugar, honey, molasses, maple syrup (etc.) went into its own cabinet where I don’t have to look at it.
I kept track of my carbs for the first three months, writing down everything I ate or drank and the number of of carbs. Some people also track all their macros (ie, grams of protein and fat in addition to carbs) but counting carbs worked well enough for me. I kept carbs to 20 a day at first, sometimes going up to 25 or 30. I now range from 20 whole carbs a day to 30 net carbs.
I scoured the Web for recipes that looked like I’d love them, and found more ideas that I can use in a lifetime. Nothing makes a diet easier than loving the food and being satisfied with it.
I bought new-to-me cooking supplies like flaxseed, coconut oil, coconut flour, xanthan gum, psyllium husk powder, nut flours, and whey protein powder.
I stayed away from dessert substitutes. Yes, I’m human, and I had, and have, a few of them once in a while. But while “fat bombs” and baked treats are all the rage on some keto sites, many of them use sugar substitutes, which are a whole issue unto themselves. (Some create an insulin response in some people; others can act as slippery slopes.) It’s important to start thinking differently about food and let yourself develop a taste for the core foods of this way of eating. Best to treat sugar and dessert substitutes with caution.
I weighed myself everyday, but I understood that daily weight swings of one and two pounds were normal. So I averaged my weight every week. The weekly averages showed a nice, steady downward trend. Some people advise against daily weigh-ins, but it kept me focused and paying attention. And — and THIS was a huge departure for me — I weighed myself after any days or weekends where I ate more than normal. (I used to avoid that kind of bad news; now I embraced it and met it head on.)
I measured my waist, chest, and hips weekly. This is something suggested by folks who avoid the scale, on the theory that your body is changing but the scale sometimes doesn’t show it right away.
I tried on clothes that used to be (or still were) too tight. I rearranged my closet by size, and got a huge morale boost as clothes that used to be too small became too big and had to be given away.
I decided on a combination of supplements based on books I read, my blood tests, and my perception of what seems to work for me.h
I poured olive oil on practically everything. It’s a healthy fat and it makes me feel full.
I learned the rules and followed them. No grain, no pasta, no bread, no rice, no potatoes, no (or extremely rare and limited) starchy or high-carb (in-ground or root) vegetables, no added sugar, and very little artificial sweetener (I use Stevia). But I also realized that it was sometimes difficult to avoid absolutely all added sugar, and that tiny portions of foods with added sugar (like ketchup or steak sauce) wouldn’t undermine me — as long as I used them sparingly. (For example, a tablespoon of ketchup in a recipe that serves 6 people.)
If I danced on the edge of the rules — starchy veggies like turnips, sugar substitutes for a desert, or a bigger than recommended portion of fruit — I made sure I kept the rest of the foods that day super strict.
I cut back on going out to eat, because too much restaurant food has hidden carbs.
I took low-carb goodies to dinners at friends houses — enough to share, and enough to be sure I wouldn’t feel deprived. I told people about my eating limits when invited out, and I made it clear I didn’t expect them to cater to my needs, but that I didn’t want them to feel bad if they made something I couldn’t eat.
I kept keto snacks (mostly cheese and meat roll-ups or nuts and pumpkin seeds) with me when I traveled.
I allowed my hunger to dictate new eating times and portion sizes, which ultimately led to eating only two meals a day: a late morning brunch and dinner in the early to mid evening hours.
I joined online forums for recipes, mutual support, and information about supplements and nutrition science.
I read about a dozen books on various aspects of nutrition and health… including books that challenge low-carb ideas. I wanted to immerse myself in the science and understand the pros and cons.
If I had a weight loss stall, I went back to basics: Right now that means bacon and eggs in the morning, a medium sized portion of fish and meat with veggies and/or salad in the evening. And I keep pouring on the olive oil!
I read labels and learned all the sneaky words for sugar.
I bought “real” foods (single ingredients) instead of food products (multiple ingredients).
I’d love to hear what has worked for you. Please add comments.
Good luck, and remember — Nothing tastes as good as good health feels.
Net carbs 1.3 per serving (sausage gravy only). Prep and cooking time: 10 – 15 minutes. This recipe makes 2 servings. (Our breakfast included one biscuit, half of the gravy mix, one egg each, and 2 Tbs salsa).
This is a two parter: Start by making a batch of keto soul biscuits. Ideally, you’d make a batch over the weekend, and keep them refrigerated and ready to use throughout the week.
Then whip up the sausage and gravy mix, maybe cook up an egg on the side.
Ingredients
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 pound Italian sausage, crumbled
3/4 cup light cream
1/2 cup water
1/4 – 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Melt butter in a skillet, then add crumbled bits of sausage on medium high heat.
When sausage starts to brown and bits of it start sticking to the pan, turn down heat and deglaze the pan with water, a couple of table spoons at a time. Continue adding just enough water as necessary to keep pan smoothly deglazerd. Cook until sausage is completely done (not pink), about 8 minutes depending on size of sausage bits.
Slowly add cream, about 3/4 cup. Add about 1/4 cup of water.
In a small bowl or glass, mix 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum with 2 tablespoons cold water and stir until it forms a gel. (There may be lumps; just do your best).
Add the gum gel to to gravy and stir in. Stir on low heat and give it a minute to coalesce, then adjust amounts of cream and water to taste and preference for thickness.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Microwave biscuits til they are warm, then pour gravy over them and serve with an egg on the side.
\Net carbs. About 3 per muffin Prep time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 30 minutes. I did not invent the idea of using whey protein powder as a substitute for flour: Low carber Gloria Koch did, and her invention has since spawned a flood of recipes from sweet to savory. (Search for “Low Carb Soul Bread” on Google or Facebook to get started.)
This variation, in muffin tins, works as a biscuit, a muffin, or even as a substitute (though not an exact match) for Yorkshire pudding. It works well as the biscuit part of biscuits and sausage gravy. It can be made in a variety of sizes (Larger sizes need more cooking time) and shapes. Regardless, it needs a mold because the mixture itself is too liquid to hold a shape. Hence, muffin tins, muffin top pans, brownie pans, bread loaf pans, are all worth exploring
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces softened cream cheese
3 Tbsp melted butter
2 1/2 Tbsp avocado or olive oil
2 1/2 Tbsp whipping or heavy cream
2 eggs + 1 egg white
1 cup plus 3 Tbsp unflavored whey protein powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
Sesame seeds or grated Parmesan cheese to taste
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325F.
Grease a muffin pan (or other baking pan)
In a large bowl, mix wet ingredients (cream cheese, butter, oil, cream, eggs, and egg white).
In another bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (protein powder, baking powder, xanthan gum, garlic powder, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar).
Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and lightly whisk or blend until just combined.
Fill each muffin mold about 3/4 full. You’ll probably get about 9 muffins, so fill the other cavities with about 1/4 inche of water
Sprinkle tops with toasted sesame seeds and/or Parmesan cheese.
Bake 30 minutes, golden brown on top and firm to the touch. Remove and let cool in pan 15 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Note that cooking times vary according to size of the mold. Thinner portions need less time.
Carb Count
Serves 9 (average muffin size). About 3 net carbs per muffin.
Approximately 3.4 g net carbs. About 10 minutes prep time and 50 – 60 minutes bake time.
Too good to be true?
Will they turn out well or won’t they?
Skepticism. That’s my usual response to keto recipes substituting for favorite non-keto baked goods. A fair number of recipes I’ve tried have been a bit disappointing — quite frankly, they taste just close enough to the real thing to remind me how much I used to like it. But some substitutes hit the mark. This is one of those.
Here’s the original recipe, found on one of my favorite keto sites. As usual, I changed it up a bit to try to solve some problems other testers had with it: I add coconut flour and I use whole eggs, not just egg whites. And I used salt and caraway seed as a topping rather than sesame seed, but toppings are a free-for-all zone, so follow your taste buds.
These rolls have the texture, density and taste of a whole grain bread. I’m not a big fan of the taste of psyllium husk, but the small amount here doesn’t overwhelm the flavor. These rolls can be used as burger buns (although you’d have to divide the dough into only six portions rather than eight for them to be big enough). You can also make them long and thin so they’ll work as hot dog buns, in which case, I’d probably take 5 minutes off the cooking time.
Slippery slope alert: The buns are low in net carbs, but they do have quite a bit of fiber (see nutrition information, below). So if you count whole carbs, having one of these means the rest of your daily intake has to be super strict. I count net carbs, and the approach that works for me is to treat foods with high amounts of fiber and sugar alcohols as special treats and limit them. So on a day when I’d have this bread, I’d avoid other treat foods like fruit or big portions of higher-carb veggies or anything with sugar alcohols.
Ingredients
1¼ cups almond flour
5 Tbsp ground psyllium husk powder. Note: some people report that psyllium husk powders can have an unpleasant purple color. I used Now Healthy Foods brand, and there was no weird color.
2 Tbsp coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1¼ cups boiling water
3 eggs
Your choice of sesame seed, caraway seed, course sea salt, or rosemary to taste: 1 – 2 tablespoons
Next time, I am going to try these with some other additions such as fine-chopped olives. And, OMG, garlic bread can be back on the menu!
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and add the vinegar.
Bring the water to a boil and add it to the dry ingredients while mixing with a hand-held electric mixer.
Add the eggs and vinegar and continue mixing, about 30 seconds in all, just enough to ensure a good even mix.
With wet hands, shape the dough into the desired form. This recipe makes 4 =- 8 buns, depending on the size needed. Dividing into 8 makes ideal dinner rolls.
Put the rolls on greased parchment paper on a baking dish.
If you are adding toppings (salt, caraway seed, etc) sprinkle them onto the rolls and press gently so they stay on.
Bake on a lower rack in oven for 50 minute–60 minutes (shorter time for small or narrow shapes; longer time for bigger, thicker buns). When they are ready, they will look nicely brown and will feel firm when tapped. I divided into 8 rolls and baked for 50 minutes.
What do you mean, changing my diet to law-carb is going to help me lose weight? Or reduce my diabetes? You must be high. What about the food pyramid? And the American Heart Association? The American Diabetes Association, for crying out loud! Even my doctor says this is a fad diet. Besides, diets don’t work. Everyone knows that. I’ll just cut back. Get to the gym a bit more. No need to go to extremes. Haven’t you heard? Everything in moderation. I got this.
Stage 2: Anger
Why me? It is freaking unfair. Everyone else can eat whatever they want, but I have to give up everything I like best? Pasta. Potatoes. And pizza? (No effing way am I giving up pizza….) Give up dessert? Chocolate cake and apple strudel and Girl Scout thin mints and Halloween candy? These people are insane.
Stage 3: Bargaining
A few cheat days are okay, aren’t they? I mean, just a couple of cookies. It was my daughter’s birthday, for crying out loud. You’re being unreasonable. Nothing in life is black and white. Besides, whole grains are supposed to be healthy. And fruit, too. Okay, so I’ll just have the fruit. And I can do that net carb thing. So I can have the sweeteners and the nut flours and make some dessert. I’m doing low carb. Really. Except for these chips. But there’s a game on, I mean c’mon. Be reasonable.
Stage 4: Depression
Low-carb flu sucks. Going out to dinner sucks. And now some idiot tells me I have to be on this way of eating for, like, the rest of my life. I might live longer, but who wants to live longer if you can’t eat food you love?
Stage 5 Acceptance (and Delight!)
Hey, this food isn’t so bad. It’s been days since I’ve had a craving for bread. Or pasta or sugar. And foods are starting to taste better than I ever noticed before. I’m satisfied with less. I don’t find myself needing to snack between meals.
…And my pants are starting to feel like I might need to find a belt.
…And I don’t need to take naps in the afternoon
…And my blood sugar is coming down
…And so are my pulse and blood pressure
…And I’m getting off some meds I thought I’d be on for the rest of my life
… And I’m going broke because I have to buy new clothes.
Remember: Nothing tastes as good as good health feels!
This is a quick, simple, and flavorful dinner with a prep and cook time of about 15 minutes. Serves two.
Carbs per serving: 5.2 net carbs. Nutrition info at bottom.
Ingredients
One medium green or red bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
2 links or 8 ounces of fresh chorizo
2 ounces grated cheese (Mozarella, cheddar)
3 Tbsp fresh salsa
2 Tbsp full fat sour cream
1 cup black soy beans
1 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper,1/2 tsp Ancho chili powder. (Adjust spices to taste). *
1 Tbsp green onions
*items not included in carb count because they have negligible or zero carbs
Directions
Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise and poke holes in the bottom of them for drainage.
Stuff the peppers with the fresh Chorizo sausage (remove from skins if in links).
Cook in microwave on high about 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan heat the black soy beans . Cook on medium until hot.
When peppers and meat are done in the microwave, remove from microwave . Spoon and reserve the fat and juices that have collected in the pan. Then sprinkle about one ounce grated cheese over the meat. Return to the microwave and cook about another minute until cheese is melted.
Drain the beans. Add the s;pices. Add the fat from the pepper pan. Stir.
Assemble
Put a layer of lettuce on each plate.
Follow with a circle of the black soy beans mixture
Place the pepper/meat combo in the middle of each plate
I did not start out to write about health, weight loss, ketogenic eating, and metabolic syndrome. And 18 months ago, when I started losing weight, my sole goal was to crash-diet so I could make the weight limit to go paragliding — I wasn’t concerned about health or a long-term lifestyle change.
That I am now being asked by friends, friends of friends, and perfect strangers for diet advice is about the weirdest thing to happen in a long while. I am not a diet guru… I am just a person who found a way to lose weight that seemed easy and satisfying. And I’m writing about it here because putting everything in one place is easier than responding individually to lots of people. Plus, I’ll have all my recipes in one place! (Once I get them up)
It just goes to show that life doesn’t always happen as we plan.
The adventure that presented itself last year had nothing to do with rock climbing or scuba diving or skiing, and everything to do with the kind of conversations middle-aged people have about their cardiac health and their cancer treatments.
I am not usually a fan of selfies but getting into a size 10 pair of jeans after losing 85 pounds was a very big deal! Even if you figure that vanity sizing played a role.
Yuck.
Happily, David and I are (I hope) on the back side of those issues for a while. He has to watch his blood chemistry numbers and I have to watch my cancer markers, but while we are watching, we can get back to living. And I’ll get back to the fun adventures soon, weaving food, hiking, travel, skiing, music, and all that fun stuff into this hodge-podge of a blog.
I keep saying this, but it’s important: I am not a diet expert. I am just one person with one story about what worked for me. (And David makes two!) At the same time, I approached this new body of knowledge the way I approach everything: I read a shelf full of books, I dived into a hundred websites, I learned as much as I could — and then I started writing about it.
I was especially interested in the question: If the ketogenic way of eating is so successful and works so well, why do so many people give up?
The following observations may be helpful as you start — or continue, or maintain — your journey.
First, this is not a diet, it’s a way of life.
Diets don’t work. We all know that. On this way of eating, if you follow it, you will lose weight. Other metabolic issues like high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and some blood lipid numbers will probably improve, too. But if you go back to doing what you did before, you will go back to having the results you had before. I remind myself of this every single day.
Expect some bumps in the road
There’s a learning curve and an addiction to overcome. Apparently (according to the books I’ve read) wheat and sugar act on the brain’s addiction centers. On an MRI, they light up the same places where opiates hang out. (This is my non-scientific understanding.) So when you go off high-carb foods, there is a withdrawal process that can make some people feel quite ill for a day or more. When I first ditched the carbs, I crawled into bed for two days with general lethargy and a feeling of utter disgust at the prospect of eating more meat and vegetables. My stomach demanded toast, oatmeal, pasta, bread…. and threatened dire consequences if I didn’t give in. But I got over it. I’d advise getting started by throwing out all the off-list foods and stocking up with the biggest variety possible of on-list foods that you love. And if you feel ill, just tell yourself that “this too shall pass.”
Moderation is not the road to health; it is the road to hell
I think most people react the same way I did when I first heard about this: shock and outrage. No pizza? No pasta? No beer? No potatoes? No sugar? Restricted fruit? Limited root vegetables? And a whole other list of thou-shalt-nots. Surely one cookie once in a while can’t hurt? And for some people it may not.
But the folks I’ve talked to who are having the most trouble with this way of eating are those who keep telling themselves that one little cookie can’t hurt. They are the ones who tell me they are cutting carbs — even as their hands are in a bag of chips. (This literally happens!)
This is a judgment free zone: Eat what you want, do what works for you. But don’t lie to yourself and then ask me why this way of eating doesn’t work!
Personally, I’d love to be able to eat the occasional cookie — or better yet, French bread, or apple strudel — but that doesn’t seem to work for me. I think for those of us who are prone to metabolic syndrome, moderation is too slippery a slope. And some writers, like William Davis (of Wheat Belly fame; see the booklist) believe that modern wheat has been engineered in a way that makes even minuscule amounts toxic to most people (though some can handle it better than others).
I was a little bit rebellious at the beginning of my journey. I refused to give up lattes (I did go from 2 percent milk to whole milk, but milk of any kind is avoided on a strict ketogenic diet, though full-fat cream is okay). I kept drinking wine (allowed, but not recommended on a daily basis, especially at the start). My salads were bigger than recommended and had more stuff in them, which added to the carb counts.
But almost immediately, I saw how well this way of eating worked. I changed over to cream in coffee, abandoned my daily glass of wine, and counted my carbs even more carefully.
Your tastes will change
As time has passed, I’ve noticed that the occasional fruit I have tastes much sweeter because I have no other sugar in my diet (and because I have fruit so seldom). I easily pass up bread and pasta: It now strikes me as empty filler fortified with nutritional additives. The food I am eating tastes fantastic. Flavors pop more. Quality matters. I have always enjoyed food, but now, I seem top enjoy it even more.
Keep an open mind because you may just find that foods you used to think you hate taste pretty wonderful.
“Calories in-Calories out”
Traditional thinking is that people with a weight problem need to simply get over their gluttony and lose weight by virtue of managing their calorie intake and exercising more.
The low-carb view is that weight problems occur not because of a lack of willpower, but because the carb-insulin cycle goes into overdrive, putting excess glucose into fat cells and then activating hunger signals to replenish the blood with yet more glucose… which then gets put into yet more fat cells.
One of the attractions of low-carb is that we don’t have to count calories. However, that doesn’t mean that a low-carb way of eating is a license to pig out! Calories still matter. The magic of a low-carb diet is that it feels more satisfying, so we eat fewer calories. And a ketogenic diet encourages and enables our body to use its stored fat for energy (a process that cannot happen when we consume too many carbs our insulin starts the one-way process of stuffing excess glucose into fat cells).
Portion sizes change
One of the ways this way of eating works for weight loss is that ingesting fats is satiating. So I feel more satisfied with smaller portions. I’ve had to rethink what a portion is. It is much smaller than it used to be. As I follow the advice to “eat when hungry, stop when fill,” I find myself skipping the occasional meal and leaving left-overs for another day. And it has nothing to do with will power.
This will happen over time. At first, I just: Cut. The. Carbs. That’s it. Then I listened to my body. It started saying “thank you.” Then it started behaving differently around food. This is the first time in my life I have felt that food and I have a positive relationship.
Your family may be an obstacle
Many people, particularly women (the traditional caregivers) have trouble sticking with a low carb diet when others in the household are still eating favorite forbidden foods. Some people succeed in converting other people in their household (after all, if carbs truly are bad for us, do we want to serve them to people we love?) But if that doesn’t work, many people find that making simple dinners, with carbs served separately from the rest of the meal, works. So we low-carbers can have steak, Brussels sprouts, and green beans, and our carb-eating families can have add a baked potato. I was lucky that David went on this way-of-eating with me (and it turned out, with his health issues last year, HE was lucky he did it, too!) Finding good tasting substitutes for favorite foods also works. I’ll be sharing recipes starting in a week or so.
Find great foods
At this writing, I have been on this way of eating for about 18 months and I totally and completely love the food. Do I occasionally chaff at restrictions? Yes, especially when I am traveling or socializing. The foods I can’t/won’t eat at literally everywhere. Avoiding them makes me one of “those” people…. you know, the ones with all those picky dietary limitations that ruin the meal for everyone else. I try to stay quiet. I pack my own food so I don’t arrive a t a cocktail party starving only to find that every canapé has carbs.
But I have found a lifetime’s worth of recipes that look delicious. Food seems to taste much better now that it isn’t dulled by carbs. Find foods you love and you will never miss the foods you used to love.
Shop the aisles
This isn’t news. The closer you get to real food in its simplest form, the better the chances that it’s good for you.
Most keto groups I am in recommend organic chickens and grass-fed beef to be sure your meat doesn’t have hormones and antibiotics in it. Be careful with cured meats and deli products; they often have added sugars. If you do venture into the aisles (mayonnaise? salad dressings? pickles?) read labels. Know the 60 different words for “sugar”!!!!
Don’t freak out about the cost
Who can afford wild-caught salmon, European cheese, and grass-fed beef? Surprisingly, David and I aren’t spending any more on this way of eating because we are no longer paying for processed foods and grains, and of the rest — yes, our meat and fish bills are more expensive, but we eat less. It seems to have mostly evened out.
Most of what we think we know about health is probably wrong
If you talk to the average person on the street and they tell you they are “eating healthy” they are probably doing the exact opposite of what I am doing. And if you ask your doctor what “eating healthy” means, the answer may be the exact opposite, as well. (I am lucky that my doctor is on board with a low-carb way of eating, but many doctors are most definitely not okay with it. Quite honestly, I chose my doctor because a friend of mine told me his office would support a low-carb diet.)
It’s important to know that the ketogenic diet is the opposite of the high-carb low-fat approach recommended by the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, and most government agencies. The writers I have been reading also take issue with traditional mainstream approaches to cholesterol and how lipid tests are read and interpreted and acted on (usually by prescribing statins).
The ketogenic diet breaks pretty much every “healthy food” rule we’ve been taught for the last 40 years — eat more fruit, eat healthy oatmeal, avoid full-fat foods, don’t touch the bacon, vegetarianism is healthy, avoid red meats, pull the skin off the chicken.
I am not going to argue whether this way of eating is healthy (these books and online resources do a much better job). We each have our own medical and metabolic issues and you will have to come to your own conclusions. All I can tell you is David and I have together lost 160 pounds. My A1c (the diabetes marker) is in the “super-optimal” range. David’s diabetes diagnosis was reversed and his A1c is in the normal range. My last blood pressure was 115/70 (technically declared “awesome”) and David’s is normal as well. I won’t get into cholesterol, because that’s a whole other controversy, but I am satisfied with our numbers.
From doctors I’ve spoken with, it seems that one reason that they aren’t always enthusiastic about this way of eating is that people, (being people) fall off the wagon and undo all the good they have done. For me, the decision to stay on the wagon is easy. Would I rather be healthy or not?
This is not one-size-fits-all
Some of the writers I’ve been reading seem to think that this is the right diet for everyone. I am not so sure. I know plenty of people who seem to do just fine eating carbs. And there are plenty of variations. For example, there is a lot of overlap between paleo diets and keto. Or between the Mediterranean diet and keto. And Whole 30 and keto. I am not coming at this from a “my way or the highway perspective.” If keto works for you, great. If some variation works for you, great. Maybe my experience can help. And if you can tolerate more carbs, good for you! Enjoy a pizza for me.
Ingredients
Ingredients
