Cravings, Keto, and my Cat

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Luna: she looks like a retired boxer. At 17+ years, she keeps on trucking. (She now eats homemade Keto food.

There are consistent questions and challenges posed by many people when they consider following the ketogenic protocol. And those same topics arise with folks who have been following the diet for some time. We have issues regarding food that can be so deeply ingrained, reinforced over years or decades that we can struggle to tease out what is real as opposed to that which we've been conditioned to believe. We grow to accept as gospel that meaningful change is nearly impossible for those of us who have strived to manage our weight, health, and general happiness, that weight loss after our twenties is too challenging to attempt—after 50? Fuggedaboutit!—and that we can't control cravings.

After all, they're cravings, right? 

What a powerful and overused word.

"Craving" something can give us a mental get-out-of-jail card. 

I know I shouldn't have eaten that, but the craving hit me hard!

We've all been there, pleading our case that whatever that morsel—or mountain—of food was, we were powerless against it.

A CRAVING, I tell you! It was brutal!

The thing is, we wouldn't accept having "a yen" for something as an excuse to indulge in unwise behavior in others. Imagine your life partner asking for a pass on stepping out on you because they really, really, craved the other person. [insert sound of a frying pan whomping someone's head]

Yet we tell ourselves that we struggle with, can't resist, are suckers for a craving. And there goes a doughnut down the gullet. 

What to do about cravings? It's what not to do that matters. Don't feed it. That's where my cat comes in.

One November morning, I was in the kitchen making coffee. My Lovely Mate sat at the table, reading. 

"Hey, look! There's a kitten at the door." I noticed her little head peering at me, her eyes barely clearing the bottom pane of glass in the 15-lite door.

"Don't you feed that cat," cautioned my husband.

There was little chance of that. We had long ago caught our limit of animals living in our house.

I went about my business, thinking the kitty would wander back from whence she came. A few minutes later, Mr. Cold Heart said, "Okay, she should have some water, but she can't come inside."

Again, I had already moved on from the subject. But I put a dish of water on the side porch, where the kitten had sat patiently since our eyes first met. Drink, drink, drink. I was already back inside when Hard-As-Nails Husband said that maybe it was too cold outside for such a tiny thing, and he reckoned we should let her in and feed her a bit. 

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After years of being indifferent to us, Luna now requires cuddling time with My Lovely Mate.

The next day I took her to get 'fixed' to prevent more strays from coming into the world and was told to keep her quiet for 24 hours. We could then release her on her stray way. We did. 

That was over 17 years ago. We named the furry squatter Luna, and she lived in and around our side yard all this time. We put out food for her on the porch. We'd see her for a bit now and then. She'd nestle under our azaleas. She occasionally brought us little voles she had caught, leaving the tiny corpses on our welcome mat. In the last few months, she has moved inside. She's frail, nearly toothless, and has decided that sitting on her benefactor's lap, purring, beats being aloof. 

Even with a sweet ending, the moral of the story remains: What do you about a craving? The same thing you do with a stray cat. Don't feed it.

Otherwise, it will keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back again.

Kittens grow into cats, and they can be pleasant additions to our lives. Cravings grow into poor eating habits. Those can become the opposite of nice additions. Waist circumference additions? Yes. Life improvements? Probably not.

The next time you think you must have some fries, a cookie—a family-size pizza—realize that a craving is not a life emergency. The craving will pass.

A cute kitten may not.  

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Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!

Staying on the Keto Wagon

In my private support group on Patreon, members can access a "topic suggestion spreadsheet" and—you guessed—suggest topics for the short videos I record every weekday morning. (After over 850 of these "snippets," it helps to have input about subjects people want to hear!)

One recent submission was from a who advised they kept "falling off the wagon" after about ten days following the ketogenic protocol. They had, in the past, successfully followed the diet. They lost weight, felt great, and all the good things that can come when one lays off carbs. But there was some back-sliding with the predictable results: weight gain, joint pain return, generally feeling lousy. But this time around, staying on track seemed more challenging. In their words:

"Hello, Casey. I have been restarting every 10 days since the beginning of November. I have done keto well and have lost 50 pounds in the past (several times), and now, as I'm older, I feel like I keep falling off the wagon. I cannot get away with anything - I can't have caffeine (can't tolerate it anymore), etc., and I gain weight super fast now. I have just been in a bit of a rut for several months where I start to get back on board, start losing, and then ten days in - I lose focus or something. I guess I'm wondering about being able to really establish this habit ... since I keep getting off course at the 10 to 14-day mark. Thank you!"

A conversation I had just had with another patron inspired my response. During a one-on-one session, they shared with me a point made by a medical professional who cautioned against using phrases like, "I fell off the wagon." That is a passive way of diminishing our responsibilities for our choices. Let's face it—we don't fall off the proverbial wagon: we jump. One of the few things over which we have control is what we decide to put in our mouths. Absent someone force-feeding us, it is our forks in our hands which we raise to our pie-holes.

It may sound harsh, the idea that we are powerless in the face of food. But, c'mon, y'all. After all, we've been through in our lives, as varied as our histories are, do we want to peddle the idea that we are helpless in the presence of cheese puffs, that chocolate bunnies staring at us with their creepy eyes render us defenseless? Are fries omnipotent?

No way! No matter our age, gender, or stage of life, we've been through harrowing things. We've buried loved ones, lost homes to bankruptcy, had partners betray us. People have broken our hearts. We've endured terrifying diagnoses and even scarier treatments. But we crumble when presented with a muffin?

Please know that I used all the mental dodges back in the day. I didn’t do myself any favors. Just the opposite. Look at my before photos to see where self-delusion got me.

"I’m stronger than a cookie" is one of the best-selling slogans on my teespring shop. It's on stickers, shirts, mugs. I bought a shirt myself. And what does that have to do with staying on the wagon? It comes back to what we tell ourselves. Words matter. And those we say to ourselves matter the most. We don't fall, and no one has the power to push us. We decide (whether we want to own that fact or not.)

A suggestion I made was to, first, stop repeating in their head how they’ve failed before. Replace it with affirmations, replacing negative with positive thoughts: I will stay on track for 11 days. Then devise a visual reinforcement for those 10 days. It can be marks on a calendar, post-it notes with numbers 1-11 on them, 11 marbles moved from one to jar another. Whatever inspires. Then, after getting to day 11 successfully, do it again. Soon, there will be weeks of success stacked up. And it becomes easier and easier.

We are strong. We have survived. We choose.

Now, stay on that wagon and enjoy the ride. The view is great from up there.

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Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!

Keto and the Cuckoo

OUR CUCKOO (BEFORE SHE GOT HER MINUTE HAND REPLACED)

We have a cuckoo clock. It's one of my favorite things, chirping throughout the days and nights since it was given to us by the grateful father of a German exchange student our family inherited. (That's a story for another time.) Cuckoo has hung in our kitchen, overseeing our lives for over twenties year. Comings and goings, graduations, parties, weddings, wakes. And innumerable meals. 

What does our Black Forest clock have to do with the ketogenic diet—the main raison d'être of this blog? Stick with me here. The metaphor is on deck.

Cuckoo has been ubiquitous in my life, heard in every room of the house, and even in the gardens when weather permitted open windows. 

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock ... *cheep! cheep! cheep!*

Cuckoo is the very definition of complex simplicity. Keep her chains pulled every day to ensure the pendulum continues moving side to side, and let the intricate mechanisms behind her face do the rest. (Can you sense the metaphor building?)

There came a time recently where the usual tiny adjustments to Cuckoo weren't enough to keep her going: a little nudge to the cabinet to make sure it was plumb, correct the placement of the maple leaf on the pendulum, up or down, to speed her up or slow her down—gravity has its effect on clocks as well as people—all to no avail. The ticking faltered again and again.

We're fortunate to have a clock specialist in our city. He brought my late mother's grandfather clock back to chiming health. Could he help poor Cuckoo, or was she beyond hope?

Happily, she' back home, cleaned up, her chains are shiny, and the wooden components have a rich stain. She now even has a minute hand! (Yet another long story.)

The real work, though, is inside the cabinet. It turns out that her delicate works were gummed up and grimy. I learned that just a little check-up every few years is in order.

Alright though. What is the connection between Cuckoo and keto? When she was reinstalled at her vantage point overseeing our lives and started back with the ticking and chirping, she sounded different. I realized that her sounds to which I had become accustomed before were not at all how they should have been. Her now smooth, clear cheeps were in contrast to her pre-cleaning. She had been clanging before. And haltingly so. I had gotten used to it, not noticing the changes because they were gradual—chronic, if you will, instead of acute. Cuckoo was sending signals that changes were needed. *CLANG JANGLE CRACK*

And now the allegory arrives.

Our bodies are let us know when things aren't right. From joint pain to weight gain, blood sugar to blood pressure issues, brain fog to heartburn to depression, the signals are there. The changes for the worse can be so gradual as to be unnoticed. We get used to the clangs of our joints. Putting on ten pounds turns into an extra fifty. Our moods can't seem to come out of the basement, and having energy is a nostalgic memory. 

For me, all those messages from my corporeal self were ignored and for too long. The solution was to eat the food I am designed to eat. The ketogenic diet has brought me to good health—no more clanging.

I guess one could say I cleaned bad health's clock. 

That metaphor might be too tortured, though.

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Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!

Change. It Does a Body Good (v2)

When I transitioned this blog from writing about my former career to writing about my experiences with, and understanding of, the ketogenic diet, the first post was titled "Change: It Does a Body Good." I was leaving the comfort and security of the past thirty years. It was a leap of faith—a big one. Like, a humongous pole-vault into the unknown. So I decided to approach things with an optimistic attitude. 

Fortunately, the hopefulness was proved well-founded by the ensuing years. Having felt a failure for so long—a failure inside my head, not in my life—because I had been unable to lose weight. Imagine being a success in most areas, having a successful marriage, children, and career but rating oneself as a loser based on body weight.

Ha! Who am I kidding? Most of us have done that. I was among good company.

All changed when, after years of weight-loss attempts, I gave up. But I knew I was on track for a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes, and I couldn't abide the thought of having to take insulin to treat it. My search for a way to avoid led me to Dr. Eric Westman's 'white coat video.' His message rang true. It landed with me. 

From that day in 2014, I've never looked back. Now, it's time to roll with change again. In truth, my life has been about perpetual, dramatic change for all the intervening years. Weight-loss, improved body-image, regained self-confidence—not to mention that my job is now talking and writing about and making videos about the protocol. I didn't see that coming seven years ago!

So, what's changing now? Loads. Of course, we know that life is change. If we're lucky, that is. When I look back to my past and reflect on who I was, how I behaved, my reactions to the world, there is not one point-in-time in which I would want to be stuck. My life morphed, and so did I. 

Granted, some divergences from our path are more jarring than others—children coming into our lives comes to mind—but things shift all the time. Even subtle changes add up and become profound.

Where I currently find myself is in a place of contentment. Yes, that's right: peaceful happiness. To write this is nothing short of a sea change in itself. While I've had a great life, inside my brain, there seemed to be a slow simmer of anxiety and chronic depression. It wasn't every day, nor every week, or month. But one doesn't need to experience these feelings all the time to realize how debilitating they can be. What were the reasons for a high-achieving, gregarious, fortunate person to feel the weight of sub-surface dread? 

I have no real idea.

My morbid obesity was probably a contributing factor, not only because—let's face it—who wants to be morbidly obese? But I now realize that the physiology involved when I consumed carbohydrates wreaked havoc with my brain chemistry as well as that from the neck down. I made changes, and thus, I was changed.

Now the continuum is extended. Things around have seemed somewhat settled over the last couple of years, yet they are different. My days have a pleasant rhythm to them. My Lovely Mate and I, long-married, enjoy the payoff of having made it together low these forty-plus years. I'm gratified and humbled to be making a living talking with people from the far corners of the globe about regaining control of our lives and health. It's all good.

So, what should change? Nothing should, nor does it need to. But changing it is, nonetheless. The reason I wanted to re-enter my life was to re-enter my life. That may seem obvious (as well as repetitive) but many of us get so caught up in researching how to lose weight, how the diet works, what expert says what, the minutiae of the food, etc., with hopes of making our lives better and rejoining the world. The thing is, sometimes there is so much of the former that we forget about the latter. We spend more time and energy on the process and don't recognize that we can start enjoying the results.

To that end, I am expanding this blog—and my days—with life beyond keto. Note: not life after keto. There is no after keto for me. But things that interest me that energize my creative self and have nothing to do with carb-counts are taking on a greater focus. Besides writing about and creating videos about the ketogenic diet, I'll share posts about our garden and chickens. What do we eat? What I'm reading? I'll share some of my favorite things and other Behind the Scenes things. I hope you get some useful ideas from this site. I will be enjoying the process of learning how to create quality and varied content. 

Let's embrace our successes, challenges, and Life Beyond Keto. 

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Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!

Meal Idea: Meatloaf

It is generally not my practice to discuss meals or recipes. Concentrating on food is, in my opinion, counterproductive to the benefits derived from following the ketogenic protocol. That is, release from the tyranny of constant and intrusive thoughts of food is liberating. Trolling the web, YouTube, websites, and cookbooks for images of, recipes for, and meal plans make food precisely what we don't want it to be: the center of our lives. "A cast-iron skillet, some reserved bacon fat, a hunk of meat, and it's dinner! Now, move on to the rest of life!"

Whenever people suggest that I write a cookbook or make cooking videos, my usual response is that it would have to be titled Casey, the Lazy Cook, Cooks Keto. I'm not an adventurous or even an interested cook. And the idea that instructions on how to cook a simple meal made me shake my head. "Who doesn't know how to roast a chicken?"

How very arrogant of me, I'm embarrassed to admit.

A friend gave me some feedback after I casually disparaged people who had to research how to make scrambled eggs. "You know, there are families who rarely have a meal that doesn't come from fast food or a convenience store. Not everyone knows how to cook, even the basics."

Color me chagrined and humbled.

Having made my resistance to food videos, posts, and recipe books clear, let me share with you an ironic twofer - a recipe and meal idea. This one comes from an off-hand comment made by My Lovely Mate a couple of months ago. He recalled how my late mother, who lived with us for about ten years, would happily prepare meals for our busy household. Both of us worked, three active children, a couple of dogs and cats, and we really appreciated her efforts. (Not only that, she'd often have a cocktail waiting for me when I came home at the end of the day. Score!)

"I miss your mother's meatloaf," he said while scrolling through news items on his iPhone. 

Note: the sAUSAGE WE USE IS BREAKFAST SAUSAGE (JIMMY DEAN BRAND, TO BE SPECIFIC) THANKS TO A READER FOR asking the question! 😉

"Uh, okay." 

I don't know that he realized he said that. It was more like a thought that slipped out without him noticing. We haven't had meatloaf since Mom lived with us.

The next day I put together a real-life, old-fashioned, home-made, rib-sticking (can I squeeze more hyphenated words into this sentence?) entrée. It is dead simple, keto-friendly (Yay! Another hyphen!), and satisfying. Meatloaf is a forgiving dish, so play around and get things to suit your taste.

I use Rao’s Marinara Sauce and a Pyrex loaf pan. But, again, work with what you have.

We get about 6 good-sized servings (it’s hyphen-city today …) The approximate per serving nutrition numbers, based on my calculations are: 340 calories; 21g protein; 37g fat; 3g carbohydrate (total, not net 😉)

One of the great things about this protocol is that the food is basic and truly simple to prepare. And the best choices are often the most economical. So, experiment. Jump in. Don’t be afraid. Grab your own cast-iron skillet (or air fryer, grill, or campfire), throw a fatty source of protein in the mix, and enjoy!

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Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!