What's your secret?
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I've always told myself I have terrible will power and an addictive personality. I can honestly say I've never even taken one puff from a cigarette because I had convinced myself that I would immediately become a chain smoker. I used the same excuse for my sugar habit and all of my fails fed into that. I would go low carb in the past, or do weight watcher points at a 1100 calorie limit and I would fill up on fruit (healthy right) and just crave more sugar and when I would eventually fail I told myself I was right, no will power. In a way I was right. I feel like I'll always be a recovering sugar addict, like I should introduce myself that way...Hello, my name is Annie and I'm addicted to sugar... but for the first time, with this woe, I'm finding that it's not so difficult saying no to the sweets and carbs. I'm still new at this, only a month in, but this time feels different to me and I'm so hopeful.
Reading all of your comments is also a huge help and my husband is a chef so he creates me wonderful KETO and LCHF friendly meals. If it weren't for him I'm pretty sure I'd be eating eggs and bacon for every meal!0 -
14 months into keto only I know what you all are posting about. There no real cravings. Now I may get hungry and remember the nuts is have out in the car but the junk sweets setting in the break room have not attraction to my mind.
This freedom from carbs that came a year ago at the age of 63 is really a great thing. Those of you who did not wait that long really are going to have an edge over your peers for life. Chemical soup is descriptive.0 -
No secret. My friend and her husband had been eating this way for well over a year. I was curious. I did my own research and found this WOE is helpful for inflammation. I suffer from Fibromayalgia, Lupus, and RA. No medication I had tried helped with the lack of energy, inflammation, brain fog, and pain. I decided to give the diet a try. Within the first month, all of my symptoms had improved AND the excess weight was just falling off. Now about 11 months later, my pain has been reduced by 95% or better. I can concentrate. I have lots of energy. I'm exercising daily instead of collapsing on the couch after barely surviving my work day, and I'm down 83lbs!
Last week, during the Thanksgiving holiday, I was not as strict on my carbs as I usually am. I paid dearly with joint pain, all over body aches and just lack of energy. Amazing how I never knew about carb intolerance before....0 -
glossbones wrote: »
It's so funny isn't it? I walk right past that carbage without the signal ever reaching my brain that it's "food" and could be eaten.
To me it even smells funny now. If I go down the cookie/cracker or cereal aisle, I can smell it, and it doesn't smell like food.
A patient brought in a couple bags filled with White Castle burgers for the employees, and I used to looooove White Castles, but I couldn't take the smell, I had to push the bags to the other end of he table so I could eat my lunch w/o having to tolerate the smell...0 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »When I compared fighting off a sweet tooth to my Daughters fight to keep her type1 under control, it suddenly seemed quite silly to feel like it's hard to simply not stuff sugar down my throat.
When I compared it to my Dad's fight against lung cancer and how sick and exhausted he feels. How much he struggles to consume the most basic amounts of nutrition because everything tastes aweful due to chemo, I couldn't allow myself to be so weak that I couldn't say no to "just a little treat" after observing his strength.
When I compared it to my Neice's battle against addiction that cost her 3 years of her freedom just as her daughter became school aged. Hearing her speak so openly now about her recovery and how every day is a new battle, but one she is ready to face because she appreciates each day so much now that she is healthy and drug free... I couldn't dare say something so stupid as "I failed to kick my sugar addiction because it's too hard".
THIS! So many people get into the 'poor me' mindset without realizing just how privileged we have it. The fact that I can jump on my phone and have instant internet and type this whenever I want? Huge privilege. The fact that I can walk into my local grocery store and have half a dozen different flour types (let alone, brands) from which I can choose? Even larger privilege. Then there is the 'I am not in a food desert; I can get up and walk to a store whenever I need to...I can get up and walk that distance...I can walk...' There are so many little things we take for granted and our health, as mostly 'first worlders,' is right up there. People can become so callous and superficial in the dieting world; it is great to keep perspective and empathy for others in mind and then use those experiences as motivation. It keeps us connected and mindful and helps us educate and pass on not just good eating habits, but empathy. Kudos for thinking outside the box.
Sorry, off-topic. I just had to comment.0 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »When I compared fighting off a sweet tooth to my Daughters fight to keep her type1 under control, it suddenly seemed quite silly to feel like it's hard to simply not stuff sugar down my throat.
When I compared it to my Dad's fight against lung cancer and how sick and exhausted he feels. How much he struggles to consume the most basic amounts of nutrition because everything tastes aweful due to chemo, I couldn't allow myself to be so weak that I couldn't say no to "just a little treat" after observing his strength.
When I compared it to my Neice's battle against addiction that cost her 3 years of her freedom just as her daughter became school aged. Hearing her speak so openly now about her recovery and how every day is a new battle, but one she is ready to face because she appreciates each day so much now that she is healthy and drug free... I couldn't dare say something so stupid as "I failed to kick my sugar addiction because it's too hard".
THIS! So many people get into the 'poor me' mindset without realizing just how privileged we have it. The fact that I can jump on my phone and have instant internet and type this whenever I want? Huge privilege. The fact that I can walk into my local grocery store and have half a dozen different flour types (let alone, brands) from which I can choose? Even larger privilege. Then there is the 'I am not in a food desert; I can get up and walk to a store whenever I need to...I can get up and walk that distance...I can walk...' There are so many little things we take for granted and our health, as mostly 'first worlders,' is right up there. People can become so callous and superficial in the dieting world; it is great to keep perspective and empathy for others in mind and then use those experiences as motivation. It keeps us connected and mindful and helps us educate and pass on not just good eating habits, but empathy. Kudos for thinking outside the box.
Sorry, off-topic. I just had to comment.
Thank you!
This perspective really helped me create the "carbs are not food" mindset that I needed in order to make a lifelong change in myself.
I no longer feel like I NEED to satisfy every single tiny desire/craving I feel. It's ok to tell yourself no. It's actually very good to tell yourself no when you what you want isn't doing anything for you.0 -
my cholesterol is VERY high (my total is over 400 as well as my triglycerides) my dr put me on statins. i was on them for one week. i thought i was going to have a heart attack one night, my chest & head hurt so bad. i was vomiting literally all night. the next morning, i told my husband, SOMETHING has to change. i can't take these another day! i go back to the dr on april 25 and i am hoping the HCLF diet will have made the necessary changes to my lab work!0
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Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
And, yes, it does require a bit of a paradigm shift. We've been amazingly brainwashed, these last years, to assume that bread, pasta, cereal are the center of every meal. It's not a meal without grains we're basically taught and told.
^^ this ^^
growing up, my mother did cook balanced meals, but EVERY MEAL had bread or crackers. TONS of rice and cereal; we would even have cereal & toast for dinner sometimes. and we avoided fat at all costs. it is still very difficult for me to wrap my head around eating fat when it was pounded into me to be "fat free" for the past 45 years.
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[quote/]
For me, the "secret" was probably a combination of my doc recommending statins /quote]
When you say that your doc recommending you to do statins, did you then research it on Google, find out it was bad and in that search ~ one website led to another and you found out about Low Carb? (forgive me if I missed something here...)
I would find it hard to believe you think statins are a good thing?
Just asking, not argueing...
[/quote]
i'm hi-jacking this post
my dr not only recommended statins, but i actually started them, took them for one full week. my mother has had about 3 heart attacks and about 2-3 strokes (they can't keep track anymore) and my blood labs are SO AWFUL, my dr had me scared to death. he told me i would end up with the same fate as my mother if i didn't act now. i had tried to put it off about 6 months, but last blood labs were so bad (A1C was .1 away from diabetic and both my trigl. and total cholesterol were >400)
i have the MTHFR gene mutation, as well as triple X syndrome (not a great as it sounds! LOL) as well as PCOS. through my research into correcting my MTHFR, i came across books on vitamin supplementation, and low-carb dieting. my husband had tried Keto in the past, and when i saw it in a book, it reminded me, so i decided to give it a whirl. i am dedicated to it 100% and do NOT even THINK about cheating. NOTHING is a temptation to me. (please note that i realize i haven't been doing this very long, only a few days)
will find out on april 25 when i go for repeat blood labs!
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MyPrimalLife wrote: »my cholesterol is VERY high (my total is over 400 as well as my triglycerides) my dr put me on statins. i was on them for one week. i thought i was going to have a heart attack one night, my chest & head hurt so bad. i was vomiting literally all night. the next morning, i told my husband, SOMETHING has to change. i can't take these another day! i go back to the dr on april 25 and i am hoping the HCLF diet will have made the necessary changes to my lab work!
The recent Bulletproof Radio episode with Mark Hyman briefly discussed what he recommends for people with already really high cholesterol. May be very helpful for you.
They discuss using more olive oil and omega 3 and less saturated fat, but not stopping it altogether and Mark and Dave both mention some things that help to reduce the ldl, like certain starches and activated charcoal.
I'd give it a listen.0 -
My secret is fat.
My secret is heavy whipping cream and real butter. Cheese, bacon, steak, pork rinds! My secret is eggs. Real, whole, eggs, not egg whites. My secret is real mayo and real salad dressing and regular sour cream.
I eat the chicken skin.
I get sour cream AND cheese at Chipotle.
The dogs don't get the fat from the edges of my steak.
And I don't let anybody tell me otherwise.0 -
Secret: this isn't a diet. This is the way I eat0
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Keeping some type of sugary candy (twizzlers, spice drops, gum drops,skittles, starburst, etc) stashed in almost every nook and cranny. The all-sugar addiction was way too much. I had to put myself in rehab - low-carb rehab.0
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@MyPrimalLife what else can you tell me about correcting an MTHFR gene mutation? We found out this fall that one of our twins has it (they're 7). His developmental pediatrician put him on L-Methyl folate but is there more I should know about this? he also inherited DH's super-low HDL and has hypotonia, anxiety and some developmental delays.0
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I sabotage my progress with sweets/sugar. I love not feeling enslaved to it anymore as my body no longer physically craves it. It's very liberating. I want health more than anything and I will do what it takes to keep these 20+ lbs off. It's not easy or fun, but it's worth it.0
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My "secret" for staying on plan is once I went paleo over 3 yrs ago, processed foods became a big no-no. I have always been a sweet junkie and turned to fruits. I shudder to think of ingesting the carbs now that I did then!
Once I decided to take the leap to Keto it really wasn't that hard, after going through fruit sugar withdrawl.
I still eat everything I ate on paleo, I just shifted the amounts I eat to fit my macros. Oh, I did add a little dairy, since doing keto, which I had given up on paleo. I'm thinking about giving it up again as I'm not convinced I'm benefiting from it. I started using it again when i first started keto as I was having a difficult time meeting my fat macros. I've been doing keto for awhile and am more comfortable now. I think I will do just fine without it. 0 -
I have been a single mom since my son was 1 year old. My son also happens to have special needs. Him and I share a very close bond and he relies on me for a lot. I just could not imagine if something were to happen to me and I would not be here for my son. Even the thought of it makes me sad. I need to get healthy not only for myself, but for him, so that I'm here for a long time to come to see him grow and learn. I just wish I hadn't waited 10 years to do so.0
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@kimmorrow30 some of us will do things for others before we do them for ourselves. Best of success at eating and moving so you can be there for your son a very long time. I wished I had started at the age of 23 rather than 63 but 18 months into this way of eating my health and health markers are better than 20 years ago.0
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dulcitonia wrote: »Secret: this isn't a diet. This is the way I eat
@dulcitonia after yo yoing weight for 40 years I decided to stop dieting because it was making me worse but instead eat for health. I think your secret is the best way to go.0 -
My secret has been to be honest with myself and to cut out the crap. In the past I would try to fudge a bit on what's on plan or off plan. Saying a food was the best option available so it would have to do and I wouldn't count it as a meal off-plan. By being more honest with myself it has helped me stay on plan better. I was out to eat with my son and had some fried cheese sticks. I ate two, then figured I better look them up and they were 9 carbs apiece. That put me at 18 for the two of them. I then ate a 3rd one. Still less than 30 carbs. But, I marked the meal down as off-plan because I knew what I was doing. Overall, a meal with less than 30 carbs is great in the scope of things, but for me, it wasn't on plan. That level of honesty has helped.
The other thing that has helped a lot is to cut out the crap. By crap, I mean things like Atkins shakes, protein bars, anything with "diet" in it, artificial sweeteners, or anything that's not just real food. So many things have additives or artificial stuff in them and I think those things cause me to retain the desire for carbs or sweets. That's all gone now. No desire at all for the doughnuts, bagels, candy, or whatever else is set out at work. It makes life so much easier.
I guess one more thing to mention is the wonderful people here at the LCD forum. I've made a lot of friends and there is so much encouragement here that it is wonderful. It helps keep me focused an on track.0 -
My secret has been to be honest with myself and to cut out the crap. In the past I would try to fudge a bit on what's on plan or off plan. Saying a food was the best option available so it would have to do and I wouldn't count it as a meal off-plan. By being more honest with myself it has helped me stay on plan better. I was out to eat with my son and had some fried cheese sticks. I ate two, then figured I better look them up and they were 9 carbs apiece. That put me at 18 for the two of them. I then ate a 3rd one. Still less than 30 carbs. But, I marked the meal down as off-plan because I knew what I was doing. Overall, a meal with less than 30 carbs is great in the scope of things, but for me, it wasn't on plan. That level of honesty has helped.
The other thing that has helped a lot is to cut out the crap. By crap, I mean things like Atkins shakes, protein bars, anything with "diet" in it, artificial sweeteners, or anything that's not just real food. So many things have additives or artificial stuff in them and I think those things cause me to retain the desire for carbs or sweets. That's all gone now. No desire at all for the doughnuts, bagels, candy, or whatever else is set out at work. It makes life so much easier.
I guess one more thing to mention is the wonderful people here at the LCD forum. I've made a lot of friends and there is so much encouragement here that it is wonderful. It helps keep me focused an on track.
Great method!0
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