Please share tips just started and it feels like hell sometimes but trying to make this a new way of eating for longevity weight loss and health
Wish I could break the damn sugar carb addiction
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#22
Iāve found a few tricks
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Paulās method of promising yourself that you can eat anything you wantā¦ tomorrow. Repeatā¦ this is a great place to start.
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My method of disgust at the chemical and itās catastrophic effect on my quality of life and health. Thinking of pizza makes me sick to my stomach.
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Find a new addiction to replace the old one. Even a vice thatās not as bad will do for a time. No carbs? Beef up on protein and use lunch time to do resistance training instead. Fill the void with something else you can really enjoy.
Coopz
(Tony)
#24
Well day one down with ZERO sugar and very little carbsā¦ here we go again 
feeling a bit better today, my weight fluctuates between 84 and 87 kg, I was a number of years ago 103 kg and will never go back there
Diygurl19
(traci simpson)
#25
Iām addicted to sugar so itās difficult for me to use Erythritol so I have to try and not make all the nice keto snacks because it makes me want to eat all of it at one time or make it every day.
: (
JohnH
(John)
#26
Itās all a bunch of one-day victories, strung together over a long period. I donāt avoid all carbs. I love the carbs I eat. In the absence of all of the bad ones, the healthy ones become a treat.
Itās like āSalad! Broccoli! Brusselās sprouts! Yum!ā I love them, eat them, but they donāt trigger cravings or overeating. Kind of like what you would think we are naturally supposed to feel like, relative to foods.
Itās what happens when you remove the addictive (hyper-palatable) components. Your relationship to food slowly reverts to what it should have been all along.
jerikay
(Jerri Green)
#27
Thanks, Johnā¦what you have mentioned are awesome ways of coping. I am a TOTAL carb/sugar addict (always have been!)ā¦I started keto 3 months agoā¦not to just lose weight (I have gone from 146 to 132 as of now)ā¦but to be HEALTHY. I have gone from letting people knowing that this is my WOE to NOT letting them knowā¦they say so many negative remarks & Iāve grown so tired of itā¦and the thing is, they know nothing about keto! 
I really blew it tonightā¦itās the first bad carbs I have had for 3 monthsā¦made a huge batch of brownies for a neighborā¦but I had someā¦ugh! You know what, though? Iām sick to my stomachā¦literallyā¦is this what happens when you cut all the bad carbs & then have some? I feel horribleā¦think FLU. (plus Iām disgusted with myself) Andā¦I was stressedā¦not making excuses, but stress used to bring on all my binges on bad carbs. I keep telling myself maybe I should just be proud of the last 3 months, to just keep going & LOL put that bad brownie binge behind me. Iām not giving upā¦this is my first post here, and I really appreciate all the help I get from reading otherās posts. Iām going to keep readingā¦this has pretty much kept me goingā¦even thru people rolling their eyes at me, or telling me to watch some YouTube videos on the ādangersā of thisā¦I will get all my bloodwork in September & am SO anxious to see that. When I get discouraged, I come back here. Thanks for all the great postsā¦at least I know Iām not in this boat alone. Andā¦I will use these ācopingā skills with food. I love all these ideasā¦
Mo1
(Muhammad Nasim)
#28
I avoided sugar and all sweeteners for around 120 days. (I was doing a giant water fast at the time). I then introduced stevia and erythritol slowly (it took time to adjust to it) and now I use these for the sweet component. No reason you cant wean off sweeteners if you really need to. I donāt feel the need and given the sweet sensors are there on the tongue and I can indulge them without sugar, I havenāt found it to be a problem for me.
However in an addiction scenario I can completely see why someone might choose to cut any form of sweetener out forever.
goohsmom
(PSackmann)
#29
I stay away from sweeteners myself, especially after I finally broke the habit in my morning coffee. For me, itās one more step on the road to totally clean eating, or at least clean 90% of the time
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#30
I think if youāre losing weight easily and artificial sweeteners are helping you to remain keto compliant then they are not too bad. However, the data suggests that fat loss is more difficult with sweeteners than without. Keep in mind that sweet receptors are not only on your tongue but also throughout your gut and in your liver and pancreas, and stimulating them with artificial sweeteners increases uptake of glucose, reduces fat breakdown, and increases the rate of fat accumulation.
So for anyone facing a stall who still uses anything that tastes sweet, I highly recommend they try a month without any sweet things at all.
JohnH
(John)
#31
Donāt feel that way. Youāve been doing great so far. 3 months is outstanding - it means youāve been able to persevere through the hardest part.
Do keep telling yourself that. That is exacly the right message. The other you (the one that is being told) just needs to accept what the first you (the one that is telling you) is saying.
It was also a valuable lesson, or reaffirmation of a previous understanding - that stress is one of your triggers for eating unhealthy things. Which means that you have a new tool available to you: stress management! And the good news is, there are lots of ways to reduce stress.
I also did a lot of study of the āother sideā to see what their concerns were. I even played the game of āassume what they are saying is true, and now imagine the world in which it is true.ā Which is a way of shifting your own point of view, and you can often gain insights or even fully understand the other side of an argument.
And then I considered whether the criticisms, even if true, mattered. Most of them did not. For example:
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It works, but itās hard to stick to. So if I can stick to it, which I have been able to for over 8 months, then this is not a concern.
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The only reason it works, is that all diets work if you stick to them. Ok then, so it is no better or no worse than anything else in that regard.
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The only reason it works is because your food choices are so limited, you reduce total calories consumed, and the only reason diets work in the first place is through calorie reduction, no matter what diet it is. While I donāt agree with this, the exercise here is to assume it is true, and see if that would change anything for you. I am pretty sure that I DO consume fewer calories than I did before. Because I donāt OVER eat. My eating is now a response to appropriate hunger signals. Like I am on a really effective diet pill, with no pill. So if this is a criticism, itās a badly chosen one.
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You feel horrible because of the āketo fluā during adaptation. Yep, I agree that is certainly a drawback. For maybe a few weeks. Which is nothing in the big scheme of things, and once you are past it, you are past it. So a non-issue for me.
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It raises your cholesterol and cholesterol is bad for you. Ok, this is one I donāt just dismiss out of hand. It does raise cholesterol. There is some dispute on whether or not high cholesterol is bad for you. It also lowers triglycerides, which is good for you. I was taking a statin before I was on this diet, which by sheer chance I had run out of before I started, so I got my first blood tests done 6 weeks into keto, which was about 4 months off statins. Total cholesterol was about 235, with LDL too high, HDL too low, triglycerides were good but not great. Ok, thatās pretty much what my numbers looked like before I had ever started statins, so keto (for me) is somewhat neutral. Plus at the time of that test, I was only down about 20 pounds and so still weighed 300. So, back on statins, and numbers all look fine now. (I plan to re-evaluate this every so often. If I am under 200 by this October, when I am scheduled for my next annual physical, I am going to quit the statin again for 3 months to see how the numbers look without them).
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It may work, but nobody can stick to it long term. Apparently this is true of all diets, so this is a valid point. Losing weight and then keeping it off long term is hard. So again, based on the assumption that there is truth behind this, I did a lot of research for studies of people who were successful at long term weight loss, whatever the method of losing the initial weight, and looked to see what their tactics were. I am diligently trying to incorporate what I learned from that research into my approach. Google āinstrumentalization of eatingā to see some of the studies. Bottom line: people who changed their relationship with food, and made it into a tool (instrument) of nutrition and health, were successful. Other factors included monitoring (tracking of intake, regular weighing and measuring), and maintaining a stable weight for a solid year to establish a new set-weight point.
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Other points I picked up is that all of the āgoodā diets share a number of components with a healthy keto diet: they all stress eating real foods, made from real ingredients, avoiding sugars, replacing starches with healthier choices, managing portion sizes, and avoiding processed foods and artificial ingredients. They even tend to overlap a bit on which fats are healthy (olive oil, avocados). Where they differ is in the details of what to replace unhealthy carbs with, and what other fats are unhealthy. Ok, so I shade towards the middle ground. I like olive oil and avocado oil (and avocados). I try to get in my leafy greens and colorful above-ground veggies. I eat berries regularly (but not daily) so I am still eating fruits and fiber, but those that are on the keto diet. Almost like I am doing a Venn diagram of where Keto and Mediterranean overlap, and staying kind of in that area.
That got really long, sorry. My point is - DO listen to the naysayers, look for kernels of truth in what they say, do further research. Decide if you would change anything you are doing based on what you learn. If one group of people say āit works because it restores normal hormone functioningā and another group says āit works because you reduce caloric intakeā - what I get from that is, no matter what the mechanism, everyone seems to accept that it works. Which is what I care about.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#33
My favorite snacks at the moment are pork rinds. Also, buttered Brie.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#34
And keto āfluā is totally avoidable. I was fortunate enough to have been warned by Dr. Phinney in one of his videos. I increased my salt intake a bit, and never had a problem.
This is the criticism that really gets to me. So far, Iāve been eating a ketogenic diet for over two years, and in the diet world, that is extremely long term. How long do people generally stick to most diets?
JohnH
(John)
#35
I had done Atkins back in the late 90s, so I knew what to expect. So I just strapped in and rode it out. I wish I had read up on the electrolyte replacements sooner.
jerikay
(Jerri Green)
#36
Thank you!! LOLā¦John, I NEEDED to hear this. You know, it really bothered me what others would sayā¦even tho I KNEW they did not know anything about ketoā¦or the āscienceā behind it that makes it work. I did read 3 books firstā¦2 by Drs., before I found any keto groups on the Internetā¦this one & a support group on Facebookā¦taking a ābreakā from FB for about a month nowā¦every once in a while I need that. The thing is, there are a ton of healthy foods on this WOEā¦and the last time I had some āinsulting remarksā was from a lady I knew, that I ran into at the grocery storeā¦LOL I had some āCracklinsā in my cart (for a good snackā¦no carbs)ā¦and some ribeyesā¦she said, āJerriā¦OMG, all that fat!ā Did I say anything about all the processed food or all the packages of Oreos in her cart? NO. Plus, she is a friend and I care about herā¦she has had 2 bariatric surgeries & is now at her highest weightā¦I would NEVER say anything to hurt her feelings. But WHY do people even make the remarks? I want to be HEALTHYā¦thatās all! (and the weight-loss is a big āplusā for me, it getās me back to where I used to be when I was at a healthy weight) Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCHā¦this forum helps me so much. Itās as if, sometimes, certain people WANT you to give upā¦to failā¦so you can be miserable like they are. I donāt want to be like thatā¦and also, I do listen to them, I want to be sure & eat āhealthy fatsāā¦maybe I should leave those āCracklinsā & ribeyes out of my cart? I donāt eat them often. I do eat salads with the veggies Iām allowed, I drink a lot of waterā¦eggs, and yes, baconā¦once in a while. This is still hard for me, but Iām doing the best that I can. I do use the olive & avacado oilā¦what are your thoughts on LARD? And organic butter? I do use thatā¦LOLā¦I even made my own, itās really good. I donāt use a ton, but I have fried pork chops in itā¦bad idea? I mean I donāt buy it (the lard) , but isnāt that what the cracklins are fried in? Isnāt that pork fat lard? I donāt eat any starches at allā¦and the longer Iām on this, the less I crave the stuff Iām not supposed to have. Andā¦the people that say, āOh come on, Jerriā¦you can have thisā¦or have thatā when Iām with themā¦and they know itās all the food Iām not supposed to have on ketoā¦theyāre my friends, but also miserable with their weightā¦I donāt want to hurt their feelingsā¦but theyāre into ALL the sweet stuff, the pastriesā¦and to be honest (except for those brownies!!), I have NO desire to eat them. Anyway, Iām starting to rambleā¦am kind of a ā3rd shifterā & need some coffee here!! Thanks for all the awesome advice ā¦Iāll definitely use it!! This forum is greatā¦and I appreciate the help, because I can sure use it!!
JohnH
(John)
#38
Pure, non-hydrogenated lard actually has quite a good lipid profile - high in mono-unsaturated fats, low in Omega-6 polyunsaturated, and less saturated fat than butter.
I eat beef (which would include ribeye steak if I could afford it - usually hamburger or sirloin), bacon, eggs, butter, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, other seafood - all of that stuff. And broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, bell peppers, squash, cauliflower, mushrooms, chard, brussels sprouts, pickles, olives, avocados, tree nuts, onions, garlic, berries, lemons, limes, yogurt, almond milk, whipped cream, chocolate, many kinds of cheese. Really, a much wider variety and healthier choices than before I started.
I manage portions and frequency of consumption to keep everything in line. Just because something is āallowedā doesnāt mean you eat it in unlimited quantities, or even every single day. Just use your brain and common sense. You can eat small amounts of off-plan foods if they are not triggering to you. Some people do well with more carbs, some with very few or none. Itās really an individual journey for each of us.
I am lucky enough (or unlucky enough, depending on your point of view) to not have a group of friends with whom I dine, so I donāt have to deal with peer group pressure to do unhealthy things.
But just be proud of yourself for what youāve accomplished so far and keep on working to create a better self. Youāll get where you want to be.
jerikay
(Jerri Green)
#40
O.k., thanks so muchā¦this forum really gives me motivationā¦I WISH we had a āKeto support groupā around here, where I liveā¦like all the other groups, but shootā¦we donāt. Closest one I saw was Chicagoā¦and thatās like 150 miles from hereā¦LOLā¦thatās OUT. We have every ādietā group a person could imagine here, along with nutritionists, etc., I would gladly go, even though Iām not a big ājoinerāā¦but for keto? Yes! The advice here, tho is so wonderfulā¦and reading about similar problems & battles that others haveā¦no oneās alone in thisā¦and that helps a lotā¦big time. I just wish some of the ānay-sayersā would at least look into keto and see all the healthy food we can eatā¦instead of putting it down. I never criticize how someone eatsā¦I might see how unhealthy it is, but I just keep quiet. Oh wellā¦Iāll just try to keep calm & keto on! 