For as much as I do "get it", I'm still amazed at how easy it is to pretend otherwise and stray into a pattern of eating less than optimal. I've figured this much out...
1) There are some foods I simply cannot have. They were binge foods for years, so they are 'problem' foods (aka trigger foods) for me. I have to abstain and I do. By and large these were my favorite, top of the list, foods from my carb eating days. These were mostly processed, fiberless, sugar sweetened goodies that I liked to indulge in on a regular basis. These are foods that hammered my system with sugar and gave me an amped up desire for more. Food that compels you to eat too much is not food that I should be eating. When I truly "can't eat just one" of something, then that food needs to be out of my food rotation completely. Cookies, candy, snack cakes, bread, French fries, juice, and sugar sweetened soda have no place in my food rotation. I can make reasonable LC substitutes for most these items, so if I feel the need for a treat, I choose the low(er) carb alternative.
2) There are foods that I do have in my food rotation that are borderline "problem" foods. Nuts, peanut butter, extra dark chocolate, coconut oil, pork rinds, LC protein bars, LC cheesecake etc. are all very calorie dense and I will gain weight if I indulge in them on a regular basis. While these foods don't hammer my system with sugar and don't seem to cause any metabolic issues, they do often hit the 'more, more, more' buttons in my brain. I'm not compelled to overeat as much as I would be from a truly junky treat. The cravings are not intense. It is more like they fail to be consumed with an off switch. Having a little does not bring satiety like a good low carb meal would. These foods do offer more variety in my diet and I am not yet willing to scratch them from the food rotation forever. But I do better when I don't have these foods everyday.
3) When I am in the zone with LC, eating good food at deep keto carb levels everyday, I feel at my best and naturally want to eat the appropriate amount of food to maintain a healthy weight. When I'm in the zone I'm loving this WOE and feeling terrific. So why don't I just stay there? That is a question that I haven't figured out yet. Inevitably I will make food choices that take me out of this awesome LC zone. Eating more carbs makes it harder to eat within reason. Carb creep results in weight creep. The more carbs that I have in my diet the more hovering around the kitchen pantry I do. When I keep the carbs very low, I forget about eating and stay out of the kitchen. I get the best, longest lasting satiety when I stick to eating real food and avoid the carbs.
By abstaining from the worst of the worst foods for me I have been able to do a reasonable job at maintenance over the past year. I have put some weight back on, but I have not come close to falling off the rails like I did when cheating on junk was a regular part of my diet plan. Choosing to keep some 'gray area' foods in my rotation is what is what is bringing on the weight creep, though. I've made such foods too much of a daily thing. They are a habit. An expectation. A craving for a daily treat. I still feel in control of my WOE eating this way - but weight stability is not automatic. If I want to lose these extra pounds that I've put on over the past year, then I know what I have to do. I need to ride the VLC zone again. I need to put some of those 'gray area' foods into timeout for a while. Perhaps I should abstain from these foods for 100 days, too. Eating clean keto through the rest of 2017 just might be the reset that I need.
Last edited by khrussva : Tue, Aug-29-17 at 08:47.
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