Help! How to get away from that nasty sugar and back to Keto


(Julie) #1

Hi -
I was doing well with keto and IF from July 2017-November. Losing weight, feeling great. I’m not sure if I was fat adapted, as I was only measuring my weight and occasional keto sticks.
November I started a plateau. Small amounts of carbs over the winter. Now, I’m back to crazy amounts of sugar every day. I wake up each morning determined to be abstinent. I’ve been listening to all the podcasts, reading the forum, facebook groups, etc. But everyday something happens and I eat the sugar again.
I know I feel better when abstinent. I know eating sugar makes me crave it again. Ugh so frustrating.
Any tips, support, anything would be appreciated,
Thanks


(Liz ) #2

I had to treat it like an addiction, because for me it is. I went cold turkey & white knuckled it through withdrawal. After 4 days it got easier, after 7 I felt clean. With the physical cravings cut off, I needed to work on my habits & emotional eating which I did by researching online & keeping a diary of triggers & figuring out alternative activities.

You need to decide why you want to stop eating sugar & what that freedom is worth to you. Then laser focus on that goal. Don’t deprive yourself of Keto foods at the same time. Letting go of sugar is not a punishment, it’s a gift to yourself.


(Steve ricci ) #3

For me it’s a process, something triggers the urge then i just stop. Once in keto its easy again


(Thomas) #4

This sounds exactly like me.

I did keto, IF (23-24h usually), and EF (3 days max) last summer/fall and lost a lot of weight and inches. I’ve even got a couple of other people into it. Through the winter I’ve slowly going back to sugar and carbs, less IF, and no EF.

Every morning, I’m determined that today is the day I’ll stop carbs and sugar, and start IF/EF. However later in the day (a couple of hours or to supper time), I just don’t care and crave it and give in. I know I want to not eat that stuff, but I end up eating it anyway. I don’t even have food at home, but will either go out and get something or stop somewhere on the way home.

I just need to get a few days or a week off the carbs/sugar, so I can get used to not eating it, but haven’t been able to. The scale has been going the wrong way lately and my mood swings are so frustrating! Maybe the warmer weather coming soon and more sunlight will help. I’ve never used ketone level testing, and thought about buying the blood tester to possibly motivate me (for my data analytics side), however it is expensive, and it may not do the trick.


(Rob) #5

Like @LizinLowell said - treat it like an addiction. There are other practical things you can do to battle it. As an addiction, it sounds like stepping down isn’t going to work. That’s what I did but it doesn’t sounds like this will work for you.

  1. In preparation, remove the carbage from your house. Give it away to people you need to maintain a relationship with but secretly don’t like!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
  2. Research the science a bit more to the point that you realize that for you, carbs are a form of poison. This really helped me when I had the odd craving or faced a social carb challenge. I don’t love carbs any less, but I wouldn’t eat an uncontrolled quantity of them (without making an informed conscious decision e.g. I’m gonna eat that cake at a birthday) any more than I would take a swig of lovely rat poison or bleach. For me, carbs are pretty toxic (at least until I get more metabolically healthy). For you, if you are very overweight or have a related chronic condition (T2, CVD, etc.) consider them as the same. If you are pretty lean and healthy, then consider them as an allergy. Even if you had a mild allergy, you wouldn’t eat the allergen.
  3. Use the classic addiction mantras, as often promulgated by @PaulL like “I WILL have XYZ (carbs, in this case) again, BUT TOMORROW/NOT TODAY”. It means you never say never (sounds more hopeful to your addicted lizard brain) but you still stay away (for today). Say that every day, and hopefully, tomorrow never comes :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

The other massive motivating factor for many around here is to have a health scare. I sincerely hope you don’t get one of these but realize, if you don’t address your issues, you might? :scream:

Best of luck.