Seagulls are migratory. Duh. Please disregard my recent post re: missing seagulls. Feeling dumb. Maybe I only think of the gulls when they aren't around, which leads me to believe that they've left permanently. Although I swear I haven't seen this many in years, it could all be my faulty perception. I've been seeing flocks of them in parking lots again, so either they've migrated into town right on schedule or my writing about them brought them back. Probably the former. Otherwise, we live in the Matrix.
...though that might not be such a crazy thing to say right now, what with the way the world is going currently.
So, dear reader, last Saturday Husband and I began eating keto again in earnest. He's not been feeling right lately, and there's always the worry that the leukemia will come back, as it's right around that ten-year mark where the doctors said it might come back again. His blood pressure has been high, as well, but taking blood pressure medication often makes him feel really off. Therefore, the best thing to do is to eat right and lose weight, which tends to solve a lot of health problems with very few (if any!) negative side effects.
Me, I'm just fat and hating it. I'm not curvy, I'm not pleasantly plump, I'm not "more to love." I'm just fat.
Fortunately, initial results have been swift. In the last six days, I've lost seven pounds, and Husband has lost five! I know that, for me, the first ten pounds or so is water weight and not actual fat, but I know that eating this way is helping my body get fat adapted, which will allow me to start burning fat in a few days--albeit at a slower rate than this first week. Seeing the scale drop so quickly, though, helps me to keep at it so that I develop new habits. My waistbands are a lot less snug and far more comfortable right now.
We're doing a combination of dirty keto and intermittent fasting. This has proven to be the best for me because it's a very natural way for me to eat. I'm not a fan of eating breakfast (though I love breakfast-for-dinner), and I hate grazing on tiny meals or snacks all day. I would rather eat a lot and feel really full in one or two meals than have six or seven small meals from the moment I wake up to the time I go to sleep.
Having said that, eating very small meals with carefully balanced proportions of fat, protein, and carbs every two-and-a-half to three hours (plus a regular meal once a day) did help me lose fifty pounds (23 kg, or 3.5 stone) a couple years ago, so it's not like it doesn't work. I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the wonderful woman, Linnea, who got me onto that and supported me both monetarily and emotionally during that time. But I can't sustain that way of eating for the rest of my life. It was so hard after the first couple of months. I was often just so hungry! Plus, the products for that particular program are really expensive, I hate the taste of most of them, and I simply cannot justify spending that much money on just my own food every month. I decided the only way to sustain my own weight loss and weight management going forward was to learn how to do it while eating real food and to quit fighting against my natural instincts.
Eating multiple small meals a day works really well for my MIL, however. She's had her gall bladder removed, and frequent small meals feels better for her. If she eats the same foods that I do, she also loses weight. So I'm not saying eating frequently is the wrong way. It's just the wrong way for me.
Here's what I do (and I've done this before, which is why I can tell you about it as if I know it will work. Because it works for me. Even if I'm starting over once again because I got tired and lazy the last time):
I don't eat before noon--and often not before two o'clock--and the only thing I have before my first meal is water (plain or flavored), herbal teas, and a can of diet soda (yes, I know it's terrible, but I'm only going to tackle one addiction at a time right now. Plus, being able to look forward to a frosty ginger and lime diet Coke keeps me on track.). When I do eat, I scarf down plenty of the foods on my to-eat list. I don't count calories, I don't weigh my food, and I don't count my macros right now (I will later, when I'm closer to my goal weight). I eat until I'm comfortably full, which, as I go along, has been easier to gauge as my body isn't being flooded with sugar and, which suppresses my ability to tell when I'm full. I find I'm eating less now than I was a week ago but still feeling satisfied.
Within my eating window--which can be eight hours one day and six hours the next, whatever I feel like doing--I have two meals. Sometimes I'll do just one really big meal for the day if that's what I feel like (or if time gets away from me). After my last meal, I don't eat anything until the next day.
I love stuffing myself, which is why I've become overweight, because I stuffed myself with the wrong foods; but, again, I don't feel the need to try and fix that about myself if it means I have to force myself to eat in a way that is unnatural for me and that I can't sustain. If intermittent fasting with one or two very pleasingly adequate meals works for both my psyche and my body, why try to force myself into eating patterns that just don't work for me?
People freak out when you say the words "intermittent fasting," as if you're going to starve yourself and wreck your metabolism. It's what Science has currently told us to think, even if Science keeps changing...its? their?...mind about food in drastic ways over the decades.
Everyone fasts if they quit eating at, say, seven at night, and then not eating until seven the next morning. That's twelve hours right there, even if you were sleeping through most of that time. That's still fasting! And yet, people freak out if you say you fast every day for at least sixteen hours. A 16/8 intermittent fasting day (where you fast for sixteen hours from your last meal and have an eating window of eight hours) is basically just skipping breakfast. And no, skipping breakfast is not a bad thing, contrary to the currently popular opinion.
Some people combine intermittent fasting with alternate-day fasting, where they go every other day with no food at all and do really well with both weight loss and the healing of many types of health issues due to chronic inflammation, diabetes, and more. I'll probably try alternate day fasting in the future, just to see if it helps me get over a plateau or if I feel better when I do it that way.
Not everyone should fast, but for many people, intermittent fasting is beneficial.
The bottom line is, weight loss is all about keeping your insulin levels low as long as possible in the day. Intermittent fasting helps keep your insulin levels low for most of the 24-hour day and allows your body to adapt to burning body and dietary fat for fuel instead of relying on constant glucose injections from sugary and high-carb, low nutrient foods.
While some people don't worry about what foods they eat during their daily meal or meals while intermittent fasting and still see positive results, I prefer to combine intermittent fasting with a keto diet. I can't control myself when I'm eating sugary, high-carb, low nutrient foods. I have no discipline at all in that situation. Eating HFLC (High Fat/Low Carb) or keto (dirty keto, in my case) helps me stay on track.
I avoid:
~sugar and simple carbs.
~grains.
~legumes (for now).
~starchy vegetables (in the future, I will allow myself a little more of these).
~hydrogenated fats like vegetable oils.
~snacking between meals.
I eat:
~tons of non-starchy veggies. I try to eat at least four or five cups of veggies with each meal, both raw and cooked. If I'm only eating one meal, I try to get at least seven cups of veggies, though it gets hard to stuff it all into my belly along with my protein, which is why it might take me a couple hours to get through a meal if I eat only one meal in a day (OMAD).
~adequate protein. You don't need a huge amount of protein to keep you feeling satiated and give you energy. For one meal, I'll have a serving of meat that's about the size and thickness of my palm, though I'm not really measuring. I stop eating when I'm full. But if I want another slice of bacon, I'll eat another slice of bacon! Fight me!
~good fats. I don't eat spoonfuls of coconut oil or anything, but I cook my foods in moderate amounts of avocado oil, coconut oil, butter, lard, or bacon fat, and I never use vegetable oils. I also use heavy cream in my herbal tea if I've already broken my fast. If I have a salad, I use a fatty dressing like bleu cheese, if I want; or I make my own vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil, whatever vinegar tickles my fancy, and some dried herbs. I do not avoid cheese, even if I don't overdue my consumption. I needs me some feta on my salad! Good fats give me energy and help me feel satiated for hours and hours at a time.
~sugar substitutes like monk fruit, stevia, erythritol, xylitol, etc. that won't spike my blood sugar.
~keto versions of baked goods that use almond or coconut flour and sugar substitutes, such as Fathead Dough (which is absolutely amazing as a pizza crust and tastes almost like the real thing). I limit even the keto versions of desserts, however, as those are always a little higher in carbs. My sugar cravings have pretty much disappeared now, so I'm not dying for dessert anyway.
I'm feeling really good right now. I always do when I eat this way. My only problem with keeping this up is that eating well requires a lot of preparation and planning, and if I don't do the planning, it's a little too easy to start eating like crap again, which inevitably leads to rapid weight gain for my middle-aged, peri-menopausal, hormone fluctuating body. Having Husband fully on board--and Sophia and Elannah, as well, who frequently eat keto--really helps. Husband's health is very important to me, and that gives me motivation to keep going even when I would probably start slipping on my own.
I'll let you know how it goes. Please pray for me. I'm not always strong.
No comments:
Post a Comment