How did you *finally* break the start/stop carb addiction cycle, and commit to keto long-term?

#1

There’s nothing new about this question, but I just need to get it off my chest. I feel I am on a merry-go-round of carb addiction and I cannot seem to get off. I have bursts of effort at keto, which last a week or so and make me feel really good. My longest streak was around 2.5 months and my carb cravings had basically disappeared. I was totally indifferent to junk food, it was like a miracle. That was maybe a year ago now. My current eating pattern is to eat moderately low carb for about the first half of the week, then I usually have a carb blowout on Thurs or Friday night, which is followed by several days of toast for breakfast, pasta for lunch, take away (pizza or Thai) for dinner and big helpings of cookies, chocolate and ice cream.

I am lucky enough to be pretty much in the middle of a normal weight range on the BMI chart (5’5” and 135 lb). I’ve been fluctuating by about 5 pounds up and down for 6 months or so. I lost 10pounds before that but in my life I’ve never been more than about 25pounds overweight. So I know I am fortunate in the genetic lotto. This is despite having a raging sugar and carb addiction basically my whole life (I am 37yo). My ongoing struggle with dependence on sugar and carbs feels in some ways like a defining feature of my internal life. It feels quite sad to admit that, but it’s true.

I also suffer from anxiety and have noticed this improves significantly on keto; possibly at a neuro-chemical level, but most immediately just from the feelings of self-esteem and motivation that come from not losing myself in food every night.

I know it is possible to finally break an addiction. I tried almost weekly to stop drinking for 15 years and I am now 2.5 years sober and don’t miss it one bit. But in retrospect drinking now feels an easier problem to crack - you can change your friends, change your habits, there are pharmaceutical aids, abstinence is very black and white. But food is everywhere, you cannot opt out! (I have a history of disordered eating and so wouldn’t try fasting, unless it came somewhat naturally, as it does after a while on keto). Every day, I am faced with this question of what to eat. This question is always there. The least thoughtful, easiest, most automatic answer is always carbs. It always has been. Part of me suspects I am at heart simply quite a lazy person, because often a large part of my resistance to eating well is purely just the effort involved. Physical, manual effort, but also mental effort. There are 30+ years of very well-trodden neurological pathways (highways even!) in my brain that lead me straight back into the food habits of a lifetime.

I thought that quarantine would be a great time to try and set myself up with good habits. I am blessed with a job I can do from home, plenty of space and time to cook, and accessibility to an abundance of good foods nearby. (I am in a town which is, fortunately, becoming less impacted by COVID by the day) It has, literally, never be easier for me to eat well. The conditions are all optimal! But somehow, I am still on this damn merry-go-round.

Has anyone else been in this place, and is there any advice you can give me for bringing it to an end and finally committing? Would something like Food Addicts Anonymous work for me? Their program seems somewhat compatible with keto? I feel dangerously close to giving up entirely, and slipping back into that old binge/purge cycle I know so well. Thank you for listening. All my questions are beginning to sound much the same. I am grateful for having a place to voice them.

(Shanda) #2

I cannot offer advice because I have not kicked it myself yet. This is my second round of keto.
I CAN however offer some encouragement and let you know that you are not alone. Stay strong. Try to remember how good it felt when the carb cravings became almost non existent and make the commitment to yourself to get back there.
Cravings never last forever. They always pass in time. Sometimes it just takes longer than other times.
YOU CAN DO THIS!

#3

If you find yourself hungry, feed the hunger. But feed it fats and proteins, not carbohydrates. My go-to is 2 slices of Canadian bacon on a slice of pepper jack cheese. Just fold over and eat.

(Todd Allen) #4

You may need to bring that same degree of clarity you have with alcohol to your food choices. I had to go cold turkey on many formerly favorite foods. If you don’t allow yourself even one bite of your problem bingeable foods you will soon not miss them much like alcohol.

#5

I think that the self isolation makes it MUCH harder to keep to the Keto WOE! Basically because there isn’t much to do and I live like from meal to meal. Also the apprehension about contracting the illness itself gave me low grade anxiety that I feel the need to soothe with sweets. Thankfully at least I remain with artificial sweeteners but still - this illicits an insulin response too
I can only think of 2 things to consider at this point.

  1. Find Ersatz foods to your all-time favourites. Like I make an excellent mac and cheese with cauliflower now, and my Thai curry is served with cauliflower rice which tastes just like regular rice to me. I also buy some keto sweets online at netrition.com so at least I try to keep it keto even if my carbs are sometimes closer to 30 than 20g/day. I am not really happy about it but these are unusual times.

2, Watch some youtube clips by Dr Ede or Dr Lustig to understand how our body is suffering by the constant inflammation caused by insulin production. There are correlation versus causal arguments discussed, but I have oftentimes heard that cancer is an element we are more susceptible to with a chronic inflammation in the body because it effects our immune system detrimentally. Also Dr Lustig talks about how it isnt even obesity alone that plays a role. There are actually thin people who also have metabolic syndrome, and the most important factor is a fatty liver, which it seems many thin people can have too without even knowing it.

Sometimes scaring ourselves can be a motivator do the right thing.

#6

I always say this but it’s true: it’s very individual what helps… In my case, there was my health-consciousness. At some point I felt the need to change, I read about things, my body clearly informed me that a lot of carbs isn’t where it feels well so it was easy to go low-carb (not keto, I wasn’t ready for that) and staying there (exceptional days happen but I don’t stay there).
Commitment is vital for me and not only for me, clearly. I still eat whatever I want, I don’t resist temptations so I need to want a new lifestyle - for life. If I know that I WILL do it because it is right, it even changes my desires, my attitude, everything! Sure, harder times can happen but if I am determined, things get easier with time. Falling off the wagon (since I went keto first)? That happened zillion times, I didn’t even mind but I didn’t go back to high-carb and especially didn’t stay there. Some break works for some of us… I always considered myself as a low-carber, not a ketoer. But my average carb intake went lower and I needed this.

I can’t help with cravings as I never really had a problem with them.

Laziness and easy answers? To me, it’s eggs and smoked pork now :slight_smile: Not carbs. It’s surely different in the beginning but train yourself as I did. Teach yourself better options. (I always loved fat and protein, though. It was tough to train myself to eat less fat but it’s not a problem for most people.)
In the very beginning, I stopped consider several food groups food. That was useful but it was like a switch, I was lucky and very determined.
But one is weak sometimes. Some tips may help, we probably need our own. I could mess things up if I chose whatever when hungry. When I am hungry, I eat my normal food first. Even if I eat more carbs, it’s not when I am hungry and less controllable, that wouldn’t end pretty. Let’s get somewhat satiated and think about it later when we are calm ;). I even had times when I decided that fine, I don’t restrict myself but my first meal should be right and strict enough. Or every second day. Sometimes we can’t accept no forever but delaying it works. I don’t work well with too lax rules. Or too strict ones. Balance is needed.

Maybe have some very very tasty and proper, always available go-to meal for the times when you get suddenly hungry or upset or whatever makes you grab some carbs. And eat that and think what you want, what you need.

Sometimes we need to ban things. Sometimes we need to keep them in moderation. It’s individual regarding both the person and the food item (and the point of the jorney…), I have the former relationship with certain items and the latter with others and these things change.

(Vic) #7

What Helped me the person that introduced my to this, Introduced me with a 30 day challenge to eat near 0 carb

Said eat eat as much as you need just meat for 30 days

Now I was not 100% perfect but mostly a lot of Bacon,prosciutto, Chicken,Salami, Chop Meat, some steaks, shrimp, ham,Butter ohh the Butter, Only I did have a little asparagus or spinach with dinner and some cheese to have with some meals but not as a stand alone and I was very careful not to have too much cheese though

I did not for the 30 days touch nuts, or anytype of Keto treats nothing sweet, No artificial sweeteners

I stayed under 10 carbs for the whole 30 days

I was told after the 30 days I could experiment a little more carbs up to 20 nuts and sweeteners to see
what effects me just not to fast and not too many tests at once

Most importantly Eat when hungry When I eat Make sure I eat enough, Don’t snack but eat a meal

And don’t eat when not hungry

In my first 4 days or so I eat a lot even to the point of nausea, But I needed to from there I started to gain control a little here and a little there

After the 1st week I started eating less and less, I started to be able to go 3 hours then 4 then 5 then 6 then 8 Hours between meals without getting hungry

The 1st couple weeks was hard, I remember sitting in my living room watching TV fighting with myself Because I always eat snacks at that time, I wasn’t hungry but I wanted to eat so bad and it didn’t feel natural at the time this was day 8, I thought it would never end

But it didnt take long after that the change started to happen

By the end of the 30 day I felt a ton better had much better control of my hunger, I had regained satiety signals, I felt like I had super powers

Most importantly most of my carb cravings had gone

(Khara) #8

Hi Camellia. I can relate to almost all of your story. You’re definitely not alone. I don’t have an answer unfortunately. This is your path and it will look different from everyone else’s.
Like you said this addiction deals with food and we simply cannot completely eliminate food. I’m really not qualified to say this but I too feel like other addictions look “easier” to recover from. Easier is a relative term here. I’ve watched it first hand and I know it’s not easy for those afflicted. But the relative part is they can completely eliminate the component from their lives. No drugs or no alcohol for example. We simply cannot eliminate food. We will always need to be putting something in our mouths to sustain life. Yes we can eliminate certain trigger foods but this is a very cloudy gray area. Some foods don’t trigger and then they do become one. Other dishes might have an ingredient that can be a trigger. Consuming meals prepared by others is always a battle. People seem less understanding and supportive of someone with a food addiction versus someone with a drug or alcohol addiction. Sober people won’t gift a drug or a drink to a substance addict but they will gift cookies or candy or cake to a food addict. It is a constant battle with not much understanding or support by society in general. Like I said, I don’t have an answer, but I do understand completely. I understand the on again, off again track and it is exhausting.
Keto is the closest thing I’ve found for “help”. But because of the nature of a food addiction keto is hard to stick to. Lots of falling off the wagon. My personality is all or nothing. I have to be very obsessive and vigilant in staying keto but then that can become unhealthy. It’s a tough balance.
I’ve never tried Food Addicts Anonymous. Not sure I’ve heard of that one. I have tried OA (overeaters). Honestly my experience with that program is that I found very little recovery. It seems the percentage of people who’d found and maintained success is very low. And I understand why. But unfortunately this makes for very few mentors available. It felt like the blind leading the blind. Your area and different meetings may be very different. I hope! I have not written off OA. It does have its merits and is a beneficial support. I will say I have found more hope in the original program of AA. I’m not a member of AA as I don’t qualify. But I have friends and family who are and so I feel comfortable in the community and enjoy events or meetings where there are speakers sharing their story of recovery. It’s strange but listening to an alcoholic share is much more relatable to me. Except I just relate with a different substance. I have seen more long term recovery in that program. I hear very poignant stories and see much more hope there. I see people really working their program and a large community of support. It is not just about will power. It’s really about living life and how to do so as our best self. While I don’t have an exact fit recovery program when it comes to food, I would encourage anyone struggling in this area to try them out, whatever is available in your area. You will know yourself if it’s the right fit for you.
Best wishes. :sunny::evergreen_tree:

#9

Thanks everyone. I feel very humbled by your thoughtful and caring answers, I could relate to each and every one of them.

I think that, in all honesty, I have not really been viewing this as an addiction. I mean, it absolutely walks, talks and feels like an addiction, but I haven’t really been taking it that seriously. I’m not in denial, as such, but I have found it quite easy to excuse and dismiss falling off the wagon every single week because, Hey! At least I’m not drinking/ smoking/ taking drugs! I deserve this! It’s only food! Etc. But what I’m starting to see is that actually, this is another frontier of addiction. It is another form of disrespecting my self and escaping from reality, so that I don’t have to be here and now and the discomfort and ambiguity that often brings. Food is the next phase, the next challenge, and (I hope and pray) I am finally beginning to be in a position to deal with it. I don’t think I had a chance of facing the reality of food when I was still fighting those more immediately urgent and destructive habits like alcohol and cigarettes. (God knows what habit I will turn to if I get the food under control… online shopping, probably!)

Yesterday I had a better, lower carb day than I’ve had for a while:

B= 3 eggs, bacon, tomatoes; 2 coffees with lots of cream
L= few nuts, couple bites of some beef mince I was cooking (not hungry)
D= big taco salad (beef, cheese, lettuce, homemade guacamole and salsa)
Post dinner snack= cup dairy milk with sugarfree chocolate powder + 2 pieces sugarfree chocolate.

I had a dessert/snack that I didn’t even want, if I think carefully about it. Milk is a particular weakness of mine, and I’m not sure the sugarfree sweets are a good idea. Bit of a gateway really. I’m a bit scared to give them up entirely, but I’ll see how today goes. It was still a better day, food wise, than most I’ve had of late.

Thanks again everyone for your wisdom and support.

(Not a cow) #10

Funny that I love cookies and ice cream, even doughnuts, cake and all the other baked goods that are available for desserts or treats, but I don’t crave them anymore. If they were healthy for you I’d be eating them, but over the last 3 years I have gotten over that feeling that I need them to feel better. I used to crave maybe 10 different items, at least 5 of them were standard go to’s on a weekend, as a reward for making it through the week. Most of them, now, are a mere fleeting thought when I see them advertised on tv or discussed in a forum topic.

How did I do it ? Well it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t quick, many times suffering set backs like you, with a two to three day binge of my favourite, but I always went back to Keto. Usually on a Sunday and I might even make it a week and a half, before one of those cravings would take me to a place I shouldn’t be, but I kept trying.

I also went 18 weeks strict, became fat adapted, and still blew it, on a two week long carb binge. I found that when I had chocolate fat bombs (dark chocolate, cream cheese and whip cream) available, it would keep me from going out to the candy store but then I would eventually cave. I have two weaknesses left, jujubes and milk chocolate, but the rest of them are history, my history that is.

So it’s not a success story yet, just a work in process. I heard carnivore will help cravings, and I hope it does, I have been off and on carnivore since December, but my two weaknesses always get the better of me. I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now, I’m a full week and a bit, strict, with no interest in cheating, and I think I’m good for another week, and I will get rid of those other two junk foods.

My hint is to commit to a way of eating, Low carb, Keto, Carnivore, at all costs, but forgive yourself if you get caught up in the carb train for a day or two. Get back to your commitment and your WOE

Eliminate most of your triggers, some of your favourites, and maybe pick a few that you will have in a pinch, but none of the others. You can only cheat with those 2 or 3 that you pick. When you fall off the wagon, limit it to so many days ( you pick 1, 2 or 3) then get back on and try to make it through a strict week. Hopefully 1 week will become 2.

Obviously the best advice is to bite the bullet, and stop with the loaded carb foods, keep it under 20, and white knuckle through the cravings. It worked for me the very first month I started Keto, 1 full month strict Keto, and I loved it. That was January 2018, then 18 weeks strict in May 2019 and I loved that too, but here I am with those two devil candies holding me back. But not for long …

Keep up the fight Camellia, the good feelings on Keto will eventually outweigh the bad on Carbs !

#12

I can relate and went the route that Vic0628 stated above by going Carnivore. Lately, increasing fat for satiety. Also I keep ISOPOOFs on hand for a sweet snack and make Protein Powder ice cream.
However, it is an ongoing process to remind myself that I feel better without carbs and dairy.
Good luck with your battle and stay the course.

(Vic) #13

Keep in Mind I am saying this what was said to me to do for first 30 days and it has helped me tremendously in transitioning

However it was also told to me I could add slowly some carbs after the 30 days with nuts and other keto things and after I got used to that I now just stay under 20 carbs most days

Just the first 30 I stayed as close to 0 as I could

(T) #14

Have you tried some alternate day fasting? We have been doing fasting in Mondays and Fridays during the quarantine for the past few weeks. This finally helped me to cut out eating dark chocolate treats. I had been buying a small back of treats here and there. I went ahead and bought powdered unsweetened cocoa and said to myself- if I need chocolate, will have to make a keto treat such as hot cocoa or coconut milk pudding. I have eating more of that pudding on my non-fasting days, but it is lower in carbs and has helped reduce cravings for chocolate and nuts. The total fasting days get me hungry for bacon and eggs, and doesn’t seem to spur hunger for carbs. I would recommend swapping out the tomato in your breakfast for cabbage- awesome to have some shredded cabbage cooked in bacon fat with salt and pepper! I do green cabbage with a little onion, or red cabbage, cook til just softening. Very tasty and no spike in carb cravings. That has become my go to breakfast or brunch.

Hugs and best wishes!