From time to time I think about love, attachment, loss, reminiscences, etc., as they apply to foods I’ve enjoyed in my life before I moved to a ketogenic diet, when I left behind refined carbs that I’d loved—fresh-baked sourdough, ice cream, cookies, juices, pasta, tortilla chips, and on and on and on.
I hear people say “I couldn’t give up bread—I love it too much,” or “Don’t you miss waffles and maple syrup?” I’ve found a way to rethink such apparent losses. Although I no longer eat these things, that doesn’t mean I don’t still love them. When someone says “I love IPAs,” unless they’re downing a pint at the time, they’re loving the memory of it (and to some extent the notion that there will be more of it coming in their future).
Like many attachments, carbs perfectly illustrate a cyclic gravity, with the only escape being short periods of satiety. It’s hard to fully explain to those who’ve not experienced it, the freedom felt from leaving this carb planet’s gravity.
I sometimes tell the curious that I’ve not felt hunger for the past 18 months (when I first became fat-adapted), or describe how my mental focus has been so much better, etc. But this is more about rethinking what love is, and how it need not die in the letting go. I don’t need to consume something to love it, do I? With such great memories of these things, I truly feel I love them still…I just don’t eat them. Does this seem idea strange?
More and more, I gravitate towards [attachments to] things that benefit my health and well-being, things that don’t sink their claws of addiction into me. What remains when the attachment and addictions are gone are the memories.
Random thoughts.