Returning to Health

#21

If we had an AA-like thread here for coffee addicts, I would pop in, I need every help I can get.
I keep deciding to quit coffee… In my more realistic and hedonistic times, minimizing it. Not drinking it until lunch (3pm) at least!!!
And when I think about it again, I am on my 10th coffee at lunch :frowning: (I actually had 2-3 no coffee until noon days last time but then I reverted back to my old habits. It just comes back when I am not looking, it’s almost scary.)

Carnivore helped with all my food addiction. It did nothing to my coffee one. I feel pathetic and weak :cry: (Just for a few seconds then I remind myself it’s not a big enough deal to beat up myself about it. Not hedonistic, not useful anyway.) Stupid coffee.
The fact that it doesn’t affect me (I stay just as a morning zombie with coffee. or any time zombie but I have it worst in the morning) and that I consider it mostly harmless works against me. I don’t have a really strong motivation to quit it while I definitely overdo it and I see it a (slightly) negative thing. I don’t worry about the caffeine as it’s surely minuscule, I drink the weakest coffees :smiley: Hungarians rarely do but I do. A small cup of my aunt’s coffee would have been enough for 20 much bigger ones for me… Even I don’t drink that many per day. She drank SUPER strong ones but still.

My SO drinks 3-4 coffees per year. Good for him. (I do love creamy/milky/eggy coffees, I don’t want to go that low… But I probably would need some long coffeeless time to sever some connections in my brain regarding coffee. As I stopped drinking coffee before, for a short time. I was glad, I drank some for fun - and I just couldn’t stop again for a long time.)

I don’t get the usual positive results from keto (it’s harder when one already felt pretty healthy on high-carb and there were years between high-carb and keto) but when I went real low, my relationship to food changed and I noticed then that it was quite important. I thought I had old bad habits and no self-control but it turned out changing my food items immediately changes a lot of these… I deeply appreciate carnivore (or just staying close. I can add tiny extras and still get the benefits) since.

(Allie) #22

I’m keeping the coffee.
It’s my only vice… yeah I accept it’s maybe not ideal, I know I would feel better without it, but I choose to keep it.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #23

LOL! :coffee: :rofl: :bacon:

(KM) #24

I have to say, I’ve tried quitting coffee. Maybe it’s like any true addiction, the physical craving goes away, but the sense that life just isn’t as enjoyable remains. I don’t like how life feels without coffee even if my body feels relatively ok. So, bring on the caffeine, thank you.

(Geoffrey) #25

I quit drinking coffee for a month when trying to figure out some gastrointestinal issue. This was pre-carnivore. Then went back to drinking it after that one month and found that I just didn’t care for it anymore. I’d lost the taste for it. During that time I had taken up drinking hot tea.
When I started eating carni I figured I’d stop the tea also but it only took a couple of days to figure out I missed the caffeine.
So now I just drink one cup in the morning and I make it bulletproof to make it healthier.

#26

I don’t crave coffee, it just leaves some emptiness behind…? I can replace it with cocoa (even less carnivore so nope) or tea (way less effective but warm liquid vs warm liquid :D) but coffee is just special somehow. It’s the odd thing where I imagine it being nicer than it truly is (except sometimes. sometimes it’s about as good. cream usually have some role in it).

(Oh my cup before me still have some cold coffee, I finish it now. I think I make it my last today, it’s almost midnight and I should go to bed. I don’t always drink coffee at night but sometimes it happens. My aim is not drinking it until 3-4pm so the duration gets smaller. If I start, it’s harder to stop. I don’t even have what I have with food that if I eat really much using the right items, I stop for the day. I can drink coffee any time when I am not asleep.)

#27

I really enjoy my one cup of coffee in the mornings. I have changed to organic, and I think I will stick to my little cup of happiness for now. :slight_smile: I might tinker later, but I accept my Coffee Anonymous label (even though it really should be R.A. for ribeye anonymous as much as I eat them!) :joy:
I purchased tickets to the Hack your Health (ketocon) conference for 2024. My husband agreed to join me with some positive words about keto, so that’s a win. I attended Low Carb Houston in 2019? I think that’s when, and enjoyed the speakers. I hope this will be similar! Plus unlike most Texans, I actually enjoy Austin and all of its weirdness :joy: so just that alone will be fun!
I had a deep tissue massage Friday morning and felt like I got hit by a bus yesterday. My appetite was absent for most of the day, but I did eat a late night burger (no bun) from Freddies. I feel a little better today and somehow the scale dropped to one pound away from my next goal. Yay!

#28

Day 3 of our family vacation and I am doing great to sticking to low/no carb. I really can’t wait to get home and make a ribeye…but I’ve found alternatives and honestly am doing better than I thought I would. Hubby has also stuck to low carb also which makes me happy and proud of him.
I had labs done this morning with the ownyourlabs website. I know they won’t be great but it will be a 6 weeks into this record, and they will be better than 6 weeks ago. I know I will be happy I had them done for later.
3 more days of sunshine and family and then back to start a carnivore challenge in September. With coffee. :blush::sweat_smile:

#29

We are home from vacation and I had a nice big plate of ribeye yesterday. It was delicious!
My labs are back and I am so glad I had them done. My hba1c was 6.5 (meh!) honestly it is lower than I had anticipated. I hate to think of what it probably was in July. My liver tests are literally half the numbers they were 6 weeks ago! Amazing! I am thrilled by knowing there is healing going. My lipids were better overall than my last test one year ago. I will do labs in another 6 weeks to help keep me informed and motivated. Nothing has ever kept me motivated to stick to a better way of eating except for what is now- my HEALTH. I’m never going back to eating garbage. There has absolutely been a switch flipped that wasn’t in the last 29+ years of gaining and “not caring.” It’s like a fog has lifted and I have strength, motivation, and energy I never knew was possible. I can’t wait to see what the next 6 weeks holds for healing.

#30

You go, girl!

(Robin) #31

This sort of story is so inspirational. Thanks for sharing. And YAY for you.
You got this!

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #32

@ healthoften

Fantastic work. Another Keto success. OK so you may want to do more, I think that goes for many, if not most Ketonists here.
I’m having a big pot of coffee everyday and I don’t care how good or bad it might be! … because compared to my previous diet a pot of coffee is nothing.

(Edith) #33

I feel the same way, but I do it with Crystal Light flavor packs in my water. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t eat junk, I gave up caffeine, I exercise almost every day. I want my one vice. If that helps keep me on tract, and gives me some pleasure, why the heck not? Okay, well, it might give me cancer some day, but I’m not going to worry about it now. It is my guilty pleasure.

#34

Thank you all for the encouragement! :blush: I am down 15 pounds as of this morning! Whoohooo! I started 30 days of carnivore today. I am curious to see how I do and how I feel. I really haven’t had much veggies or ketoish “snacks” so this hopefully will be a challenge, but not a super hard one. Today lunch was 2 Ribeyes on the grill. I feel like that will be my meal(s) most days! :grinning:

(Geoffrey) #35

As a carnivore I’d like to welcome you to the tribe.
Light the fire, burn the beast and be happy.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #36

Great line! I’m probably going to steal borrow it sometime. :grin:

(Geoffrey) #37

You’re welcome to it brother. It just might be my tag line for now on. :fire:🦣:yum:

(KM) #38

Just an FYI for everyone, I signed up to be informed about the Hack Your Health ketocon conference for 2024 and they sent me a free (email) gift - a keto success foods list. It’s not perfect but a reasonably good chart on one page of high fat foods, protein rich foods, low carb plants, and low carb condiments.

Keto Success Foods List

I think it’s a pretty good newbie reference chart! And I’d also suggest that instead of driving oneself crazy asking if you can eat x y and z, this list is comprehensive enough that you could use it to design your own menu, keeping in mind to limit the items in column 3.

#39

I have a shorter chart that hangs on the fridge door that I got on Amazon. The list is more limited but has the number of carbs and other macros added. It’s all I have used to drop the weight, and I only used the carb count. By now it’s not even needed.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #40

I posted your list in the Newbies forum, in case it helps.