Yet Another New Low. This Is Wild!

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As I wrote in this previous post, I'm on my own for the month of October. My Lovely Mate is out of the country and there's no one here but us chickens. (Literally, 15 chickens and me. And the dogs...) And as I wrote and spoke about this this post, while I find the ketogenic, low carb/high fat diet, easy to follow in terms of the wonderful, luscious foods I'm allowed to eat, I struggle with trying to eat only when hungry. To be clear, I don't over eat ever. Not in the sense of polishing off a plate piled high. I used to do that. Often. And I'm going to guess many readers of this blog have done the same. No, I don't need much food these days. But eating out of habit rather than true hunger has been a challenge.

So, I reckoned that being on my own and therefor having absolutely no excuse to eat unless I really was hungry - can't blame my 3-meal-a-day eating spouse and all that food around me - would provide an excellent opportunity to test myself.

What I've found is that I really and truly don't need much food. And, to a large degree, have lost interest in it. What?! Me? Not interested in food? That's like a Kardashian losing interest in publicity. I might be much more like my Aunt Teensy (not an ironic nickname) than like my late father, known to many as Jelly Belly (also not ironic). I'll write more about my thoughts on Teensy and food and all that another day. For now, here's a quick video about today's numbers..

This is getting crazy! My 30 day 'experiment' is showing me that I've been eating more than I need when food is around. For more information on the ketogenic diet, see below.

I’ve been fortunate to have exposure to leading researchers, physicians and journalists regarding the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths. I welcome questions, comments and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Thanks!  - Casey

Results From My Day of Fasting

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As noted in this post from yesterday, I decided to do a fasting day. Well, fasting as I see it. Not a full on Gandhi, not a political protest fast. Just not eating food for a day. I did have coffee with heavy cream, Coke Zero (I know, I know. I should give up that stuff, too) and wine. I wanted to lose not only the couple or three pounds I had put on from a lovely, relaxing time at the beach when I simply ate more food than I needed, I wanted to lose the mental feeling of heaviness. I've gotten so used to going around with the wonderful sensation of taking up less space on this earth, having shed 85 pounds on the ketogenic diet, I wanted to get in front of going back to a place that had dogged me for decades - actually feeling weighed down. And not just because added mass caused a greater effect of gravity's force on me. I didn't want to return to that perception of being being pulled down inside my own head. I've gotten greedy for the sense of weightlessness I've enjoyed. To turn a phrase on its head. I wanted that Unbelievable Being of Lightness. (Apologies to Milan Kundera)

My Day of Fasting (except for the bug)

So I didn't eat yesterday, other than a swipe of deviled egg filling and a bug that flew in my mouth while I worked in the yard. I noticed that around 10:30AM I felt like eating but it absolutely was from habit. Not from hunger. That's when I went to work in the garden.

At about 1:35PM my I heard rumblies in my tumblie. In the old days I would have patted myself on the back for having gone without food long enough to allow my stomach to growl - I had gone for years at one point without having felt that sensation - but remembered that Dr. Eric Westman, one of the world experts on the ketogenic diet, advises that such sounds aren't hunger but rather a result of circadian rhythms. "It's been a while since you ate. You're off schedule. Here's your friendly reminder". I decided to time it and see how long this 'hunger signal' lasted. It was 18 minutes. Lordy. All those times I ate at the first sign of the elusive tummy growl, proud of my self-discipline (not) when all I had to do was wait a quarter of an hour and it would have passed. Oh well. That was then. This is now.

I went about my afternoon and before I knew it, 4PM was here. And in my past experience of fasting, which I've done a few times, once I get to late afternoon I'm golden. I got an invite to have wine on my dear friend, MG's, patio and that was my day. (Go ahead and say it: no one has it better than I. I'm aware).

I awoke this morning down 3.3 pounds. All good. But that wasn't really the point of this exercise. I wanted to feel lighter. Not just be lighter. And that was achieved. I slept really well - maybe a coincidence but I've been waking every 90 minutes or so for a while - and I simply feel today more like my NEW old self. The self to whom I've become accustomed over the last couple of years. The self I want to keep.

And for me, wanting to keep myself is a greater achievement than any number on the scale.

Now, shall i eat today or not? I don't know. In the end, the point is that food is no longer the boss of me. I've made food my bitch.

So there.

You Can't Judge A Pork Rind By Its Cover.

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Having been following the ketogenic, low carb high fat (LCHF) diet for some time now, and having found a measure of success, I feel pretty confident about food choices. I enjoy the allowed foods (see an informal two page list here of what those are) and once I got into ketosis found resisting non-allowed, carbohydrate laden foods pretty easy to avoid. As noted in previous posts, eating out and travel haven't proved to be stumbling blocks. Just keep my carbs below about 20 grams a day, moderate protein and eat only when hungry. Got it down pat, right?

Enter devious food marketers.

While on a recent road trip with Lovely Mate - he's also in ketosis and knows what foods are okay to eat and which aren't - we stopped to get some gas. In the bad old days we would have gone inside the attached convenience market to grab some snacks: chips and/or pretzels, maybe some cheese puffs and sodas. You know, travel food! (I cringe when looking back) But, now being old hands at eating low carb, we know better. While I was tanking up the car, he went inside to grab some pork rinds. For the uninitiated, convenience stores are renowned for having the broadest variety of these keto-friendly snacks. They may be called cracklins or chicharrones but all are essentially fried pork skin. No carbs and very crunchy. Some are plain (my least favorite as they tend to be TOO porky for me) while you can find hot & spicy, salt & vinegar, barbecue flavor. You get the idea. So into the store went Lovely Mate, charged with getting something out of our norm.

He returned to the car with a couple of choices and off down the highway we continued. Later, we tried the vinegar and lime. It was a brand I'd not heard of before and they were pretty good. Much less porky and quite light. Yay. That sustained us for the next few hours. When we arrived at our destination, started to unpack and settle in before heading to the beach to dip our feet in the ocean and taking a long walk, we opened the other bag.  "Hot Chili Pepper & Lime Chicha-rrones".

 

Wow. They immediately tasted different. VERY light and crunchy. We agreed we might have found the winner. Then it happened. We noticed the small print....

My eyes about bugged out of my head. I actually ran to the sink and spat out the fake pork rinds. Then looked at the nutrition info...

Gadzooks! Fortunately, neither LM nor I had eaten more than a couple of these horrid little saboteurs. But the message was driven home. Even if one is pretty well versed in eating low carb, label reading on packaged food is really important. Keep in mind that this package is supposed to be "chicharrones" which is Spanish for pork skins. They were in the same section as the other brands and varieties of actual, true pork rinds. This is a cynical attempt at this company to capitalize on the growing low carb and ketogenic diets. But you can bet we won't be taking any unfamiliar product at face value again.

[As an aside, some folks think looking at the sugar grams listed on the nutrition facts label will tell you if the food is approved. It's not. Carbohydrate grams is the key.]

Eating whole, non-processed foods is always best. But there are times when you just want to ride down the road with your Old Man and munch on snacks and sing along with songs in the radio and laugh. Our search for the perfect pork rind continues. And you can bet we'll be checking them out thoroughly. Fool me once...

If you have a favorite brand or flavor, please share. And be careful out there!

I’ve been fortunate to have exposure to leading researchers, physicians and journalists regarding the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths. I welcome questions, comments and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Thanks!  - Casey

"Just One Cookie Won't Hurt!" (Low Carb and Temptation)

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"Just One Cookie Won't Hurt!" (Low Carb and Temptation)

It's everywhere: temptation. Often it's benign, like when your office environment seems to have opened a Krispy Kreme branch in your break room or at restaurants where you're presented with baskets of warm yeast rolls or tortilla chips before your tush is even nestled in the booth. That's hard enough. But there are times when the inducement feels like it's directed at you personally. When people around you are either insensitive to your efforts to avoid certain foods or, worse, might be actively trying to sabotage.

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