Sticking with Keto

(Pat S) #21

Yes, I can get caught up with some mental cravings. I have to really think about what is going on in my life at that moment.

(Karen) #22

Cycinging carbs + keto= fatkins diet for me anyway. As long as I walk the narrow keto way I don’t step into the craving mire.

K

(Christopher Avery) #23

Congratulations on saving your life. That’s about as big of a NSV as there is.

You’ll figure out the carb cravings. It looks like you identified a possible culprit, your sweetener. Try Kerrygold and/or coconut oil in your coffee instead of sweetener.

(Ernesto Llorente) #24

So Tommy, this is a typical day of food for me. at 5 am I eat for breakfast four to five pieces of bacon and three fried eggs sunny side up (fried in the bacon fat, of course) with a cup of coffee with 2 servings of full fat cream and one serving of coconut oil. Around 9 am I eat half a bag of pork rinds with water…around 12 noon I eat one can of tuna with mayo and broccoli with olive oil and water. around 3 to 4 pm I eat the other half of the bag of pork rinds and then for dinner what ever my wife cooks except for any carbs not keto approved. Then before I go to bed, some almonds or some strawberries with full fat cream or full fat whipped cream in order not to wake up with hypo.

(Steven) #25

I love chocolate and that has been the one tough thing. I found ChocZero bark and squares and they satisfy all my sugar cravings. Very minimal net carbs, and tastes great. Try the Keto Bark Dark Chocolate Coconut. I went Keto cold turkey four months ago, and have pushed through it, even when family and friends give me a hard time. I have more energy, and a clearer mind, as well as losing 40 pounds. I am off all my blood pressure and cholesterol meds as well. Sticking with the Potassium Citrate that I take for kidney stones, and prescription grade fish oil. I have another 10-pounds to go, and losing about 1-pound a week now. Do not give in to your cravings!

(Tom) #26

Firstly, I’m not an expert, and whilst I was in danger of becoming pre-diabetic, I’m not diabetic, therefore filter what I say through your own experience and some proper medical advice…!

However that makes me question two things. Firstly there isn’t much time in your day for your insulin levels to come down. Say you go to bed at 10pm, you’ve got 7hrs over night, 4 hours after breakfast until your snack, 3 hours to lunch, 3 hours to afternoon snack, 3-4 hours until dinner, and 2-3 hours before your bedtime snack. A typical week day for me will be nothing from about 9pm until 1pm the following day, so 15 hours for my insulin to fall off, and then nothing for another 7-8 hours until dinner. Some people here do OMAD (One meal a day) and swear by it. You might be surprised at how not hungry you are.

If you haven’t read it already I really recommend you read Jason Fung’s book The Obesity Code, it’s really good, and talks about the importance of fasting. Combined with a keto diet when you do eat, fasting is a pretty powerful thing.

The second thing is that for me that would be a large amount of food (I’m 6’5ish, 110kg and pretty active, run 2x and swim 3x a week). You talk about hypo - are you diabetic? In which case someone with more knowledge than me should chime in on that, as luckily I’m not in that boat. If you are, do you measure your glucose and therefore if you get some ketone strips you can measure blood ketones - a bit of self experimentation on how your body reacts to sweeteners etc would be helpful too.

(Ernesto Llorente) #27

Hey Tommy, thanks! Yes, I am a T2D since January of 2017, however, since on LCHF (trying to get as close to Keto as I can) I’ve able to bring my BG down, and I am off all of my BG Meds even my BP meds. That took only three months. Yesterday I did my first 20 hr fast and 4 hours of eating. And I felt pretty good. At one point I thought I was having HYPO symptoms and when I check my sugar it was 94, so I guess its all in my mind. Had my first meal at 4 pm and BG was 69 after lunch it was 74, later had bacon with eggs, and then chicken breast with broccoli which was my last meal at 8 pm. Woke up this morning with a BG of 116. I am fasting again today and will continue to experiment. I will look into Dr. Fung’s book Obesity Code.

(Tom) #28

Excellent, keep up the experimentation, it’s all about working out what works for you! I wouldn’t be surprised that with a bit of fasting you’ll feel less hungry once you get used to it. :slight_smile:

(Stacy) #29

“you know what happens when I am alone”

This jumped out at me. One of the things I have been working on is being honest with myself. We have cookies and crackers and candy in our cupboards. I know where the ‘extra chocolate’ is stashed. The old me would eat healthy in front of people and then sometimes, when alone, would think ‘I’ll just have a bit’, or ‘I’ve been so good, I deserve it’. This time I have had to fight my ‘alone demons’. The ones that come out to tempt me when I know no one would see me cheat. It’s hard. being honest with myself is really hard.
One of the things that helps is making myself take a moment to log the item in MFP BEFORE eating it. How bad do I really want that Oreo (or 12) when I see what it does to my macros. That alone has saved me a few times.
The other trick I have is fat - if I’m stalking the kitchen, glancing at treats, hovering knowing at some point I will break, I make myself eat something keto immediately. For me, it’s spicy pepperoni. It’s fatty enough and has a strong flavour - it instantly takes the urge to cheat away. I no longer want the cheat items.
The last trick up my sleeve is a hot drink. There’s something about a strong coffee or tea that resets my mental hunger feeling. Not sure if there’s science there but it works so I employ it when I am needing it.
Hang in there - it’s not all or nothing - if you screw up try again. Find things that work for you and use them (I have a friend who, if she really wants to eat crappy food, will make herself look in a mirror while she eats. It works every time for her) whatever you can find to help you, one decision at a time. It’s not that you can’t have these things…it’s that you don’t want them anymore.