Grieving Food?!

(Jen) #1

Day 3 and I just cried because I can’t eat pasta. Is that normal? I am determined to make keto my lifestyle, but feel like I’m grieving certain foods from my unhealthy eating. Did anyone else feel this way when they first started?

(Ron) #2

LOL, probably just about everyone!:rofl:
Just remind yourself what that stuff has done to your healthy body and why you want to change.
When the cravings start like that, suppress them with a keto treat.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Keep strong and KCKO!!!

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #3

Nope…not one bit. Because I knew those foods were killing me.

(Jen) #4

I was crying while eating a yummy steak shishkabob with butter on it. My fiance gave me a hug and let me cry on his shoulder. I’m proud I still ate keto while feeling that way. I guess that’s a small victory. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Jen) #5

I’m trying to rethink my pasta equation. It’s always been pasta = comfort and good memories of childhood. Now I’m trying to think pasta = poison. I hope it will help.

#6

Absolutely, yes. I had to grieve not carbs (because I gave them up gradually over the past decade), but rather I had to grieve the loss of food as a comfort, as entertainment, something to look forward to, etc. Food was always there, rain or shine. And now that I’m not only eating less in quantity, but less often, I feel a real sense of loss. Not just carbs, but the entire ‘food’ thing. I know certain parts were killing me (and why I did give it up), but I still miss aspects of it… but toxic friends have to go.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #7

That’s exactly the way you should look at it. I’ve been fat adapted for 9 months. I’ll never be a sugar burner again. My health is too important to me and my daughters. :blue_heart:

(Lauren) #8

I’ve been keto just over a year, and I still sometimes grieve carbs. Especially pasta and chocolate. Especially during shark week. I mostly grieve not having the carb comfort food. I still miss frosted flakes and oj. It does get easier though.

(Liz ) #9

THIS

I felt totally bereft even though I knew I was escaping an addiction. It was very confusing. It does get easier.

#10

What helped me was looking at it this way, “I’ve spent XX years eating this stuff, I can go a few years without it.”

Those few years are to speed up the recovery process of all those years with high insulin.

Are you never going to have it again? I would say no. My plan is, after a few years, just modify the food pyramid where carbs are the peak and fats are the bottom. You now know the secret to great health so use wisdom to modify it at your leisure.

#11

Is there a feeling of sigh chocolate cake, real pizza or whatever, sure, but I found this transition easier with substitutes.

I make fathead pizza, cauli mash, shiritaki pasta (there is a trick to cooking it, drain, rinse and dry fry) and keto desserts once in a rare while if I am in the mood. I am usually not. Other pasta options are zoodles and spaghetti squash. Rao’s is the lowest carb sauce in a jar

Knowing I can have these helps and I rarely need them or even want to bother making them

#12

I think it’s like giving up any addiction - when the substance or activity is gone, on some level you still want to participate, even though it was harmful. Feel what you feel, grieve what you need to grieve as long as you need to, then get on with it.

Right now it’s just after 6 pm, and I’m not hungry. I had no breakfast, a late filling lunch, and I don’t think I’m going to have dinner. And it’s ticking me off because, well, I’ll be missing dinner - and I’ve always enjoyed meals.

#13

I can relate - food is very emotional and neurological habits die hard. The fat adaptation journey has some profound food-related primal changes to it!!!

Considering that most of us in industrial culture weren’t gestated by fat-adapted mothers, and many of us missed out on mammalian essential fatty acids during our early developmental years with minimal mother’s milk and lots of artificial formula corn syrup etc - we’re reclaiming nourishment & health - and it may even be at a level that our own mother never had and her mother never had etc. That’s really sad on one hand. HOWEVER, most all of our great-great-grandparents generation and further back did have low carb primal nutrition at least in their early childhoods.

So, it’s like we are leaping back across generations to a state of brain healing that our genetic pool used to have some time back (and 99% of human history was land-based aboriginal egalitarian!). I know for myself, I felt sadness both in saying goodbye to certain comfort foods and anxiety in attaining levels of brain nourishment and rejuvenation that my own mother never had the opportunity to. On a primal level, it’s a deep integration process I think. There are some other threads in this forum about triggers around anxiety and PTSD that may come up during the fat adaptation process.

Having keto-nourished brains is a human birthright, but many of us have had several family generations of the standard industrial diet, and so this way of eating invokes a pretty epic re-embodiment/homecoming process that our biology goes through and returns to us the functionality that we were biologically meant to have.

So, back to comfort and comfort foods … mine are mac n’ cheese or Ravioli require advanced ketogenic noodle making (egg based recipes), but as of yet I have not found the time/energy to bother learning. So… have been without my beloved Ravioli for almost a year now.

As a wee child, the sugary cans of “Chef Boyardee” spaghetti-Os and ravioli my mother would feed us kids when she got them on sale ended up having a special place in my heart. In later adulthood, I used to buy Annie’s organics for a ‘healthier’ replacement for a once a week easy-peasy quick comfort meal which I’d always improve with foodie spices and exotic cheeses.

But now in LCHF/keto, no more Annies!!!

Zoodles don’t do the emotional trick - and Simple Mills almond flour pizza crust doesn’t either, though it’s really nice to be able at least have pizza. However - I’m super grateful that at least the food cravings subsided by month 3 keto… and really, I hardly ever think about Ravioli or Chef Boyardee now LOL

This way of eating can be very creative, as evidenced by the many keto cookbooks and online recipes - for those that can focus on chef projects. It requires a bit of planning that I have no bandwidth for - so I usually stick to simple cooking with a new style of grocery shopping. I just miss the occasional easy box or can of dinner - LOL it’s absurd but true. What a “problem” to have, actually, when my body recomposition is off the charts, my brainz feel so good, and food-as-medicine is helping me live my best life :sparkles::herb:

(Lisa marie t) #14

I was missed bananas n mangos.sourdough bread
I don’t miss potatoes… rice …wraps.pasta
I got my meat cheese…bacooooooon…veggies baby boy choy I love. …so those great things make up for lack of carby stuff

(back and doublin' down) #15

Grieving is a feeling and a process. You’ll bounce through the stages - denial, bargaining, anger, depression and eventually your pinball will settle on acceptance. And…grief is a feeling and feelings can come and go. Meanwhile, make a list of all the fabulous flavors totally enjoyable in this WOE and say “Jen, you can have all the bacon you want.”

#16

I get waves of a kind of mournful resignation.

I have, over the last 3 decades given up the following, in this order
sugary foods
really starchy foods
alcohol
gone lowish carb
gone lower carb
gone very low carb
gone keto
given up caff coffee
then caff tea
then decaff coffee
then decaff tea
then gluten in any way shape or form (including when it crops up in keto foods)
and more recently given up veg

It kind of sucks.

At the moment I am doing carnivory with tiny amounts of very dark chocolate.
Wonder how long til the choc goes?

The upside?
Each food I eliminate makes me feel a bit better.
But I do sometimes ask if I will ever find a sustainable balance.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

I still crave sugar, but I sure don’t miss it and the effect it had on me. I eventually stopped craving alcohol, some years after my last drink, so I expect the sugar/carb cravings to subside—eventually. :bacon: