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When I was a martial artist, I learned the invaluable lesson "it's the little things that makes it work." So I admit, yesterday I had a planned, thoroughly thought out cheat day. I went over my 20 carb limit and had 35 carbs.
I have been on enough diets to know that the most difficult part of dieting is not the initial weight lost, but the long-term daily grind of keeping it off. It is too easy to fall into my old ways and gain back everything I had lost. On a calorie restricted diet eating mostly carbage, my weight went from 280 lb to 213 lb. But when my life circumstances changed, I gained almost the entire 67 lb back. With one's life in tatters, it is really hard to weight out all your food and eat dry chicken with wilted spinach. Yuck!
So when I cheated yesterday, I learned a couple of things.
First, I learned that my cheat didn't mean what other people mean by cheating. While my carbs were higher than normal, I still avoided breads, pasta, doughnuts and all the other things I used to crave. It was too hard getting into ketosis to mess that up.
So when I cheated, I don't mean flout the rules free-basing cookie dough in the bathroom. I mean become flexible on the limits within the spirit of the diet. So, I allowed myself to be flexible on my personal carb limits while still maintaining a completely low carb diet.
Second, by sticking to a ketogenic lifestyle for 2 months, I've discovered that my tastes and cravings changed. I don't crave bread, pasta, or doughnuts any more.
While I was waiting for dinner last night, I told the waiter to take away the fresh baked complementary bread but leave the butter. And it was a long wait, so I snuck a taste of the butter. AND IT TASTED SO GOOD! The other thing I had last night was a glass of diet coke. IT TASTED NASTY. It tasted like I was drinking formaldehyde.
On the way home after my "cheat," I rode in a cab where the driver was also on a "low carb" diet. He achieved amazing results, but I noted how he cheated every weekend by consuming loads of bread, cake, and doughnuts. Not all "cheat days" are equal. I just wonder how long he can sustain it.
While the weight I have now lost (or lost again) is gratifying, I think the change in who I am and what I now like is more significant. And this may promise something that no other diet or lifestyle before could offer, sustainability. I even now crave salad. For some this might be a little thing, but it's the little things that make it work.
View Diet Calendar, 08 September 2018:
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1635 kcal
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Fat: 113.02g | Prot: 80.67g | Carbs: 16.21g.
Breakfast: Clover Leaf Seafood Sockeye Salmon, Egg, Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Mayonnaise, Canned Crab. Dinner: Fried Egg, Avocados, Grimm's Mennonite Style Farmer Sausage, Bacon (Cured, Pan-Fried, Cooked). Snacks/Other: Rum, Rum, Dairyland Whipped Cream, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened). more...
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