I could do cream, I have in fact, when out of milk. I still used to put sugar in it though. 6 months of no sweetener may reset my sugar sensitivity, and hopefully I can drink it without any sugar - cream, yes that would be fine if that is what I need after the 6 months.
Thanks.
Srinath.

You need to find your own way, but we here will always say sugar is NO.

If fruits are OK in the maintenance stage I'd probably switch to a tea+pineapple or tea+kiwi or tea+raspberry mix chilled in summer. But in winter, probably not, hope I can live with less sugar or maybe stevia or sucralose. So far the cravings for that seem to have not diminished at all. Hey as long as I'm not craving twinkies I guess its progress right ??? no ... Oh damn.

Anyway the overall better health of the under 20 gm carbs is just awesome, forget 20, I am for the last 2 days, under 10, and no shakes either. Real food, and under 10. Eat like a hunter gatherer, and you'd barely hit 10.
Thanks.
Srinath.

Tea + fruit = tea + sugar. You know that, right?

Tea + heavy cream may be a much, much better idea for you.

So no fruit for the rest of my life ? That seems a bit harsh.
Now I may switch to stevia or sucralose. Let me properly keto and phase 2 and 3 and 4 it.
I am thinking I'll stay in Phase 1 till I drop to ~190lb. I was ~ 219 on labor day, so now that I have cut out the shakes, and hence not eating anything sweet at all, let me see where I am on 30th Sept (my original end date for Phase 1) and see if I have to stay in phase 1 longer. I am eating real food now, and no shakes, so maybe I'll truly lose weight and truly regain sugar sensitivity (to the point of being able to drink tea without any sweetener).
Thanks.
Srinath.

It's a funny thing about fruit. It's partly a matter of habit I think.
I don't eat much these days. Mostly it's red berries, which I think are pretty OK, especially the not so sweet ones.
I used to eat apples by the ton as a kid but these days it's so rare to get one that has the right texture and taste, at least in the supermarket. I'm almost always disappointed with them now.
Lemons are great for flavouring and thickening cream sauces. That's one of my favorite cooking hacks. So simple and so tasty!

Dr Atkins "carbohydrate ladder" allow reintroduction of berries at rung 4 so you can see if your body lets you eat them and still lose weight, and other higher carb fruits later on, so you may find your body is happy with small amounts of fruit.

What lulumae and Elizellen were saying is true, both parts.

If you don't eat fruit for a while--not the rest of your life, necessarily, it becomes less of an issue for you. I went out of town this w/e, and bought a small package of blackberries before I left, for tall, thin Husband. I ate two on Friday night. He, who could inhale tons of fruit before I stopped buying so much of it, still has about 1/3 the package left.

Not because he can't or shouldn't eat them--his carb tolerance is much higher than mine--but because he's out of the habit of eating fruit.

Fruit isn't bad. But it IS high in carbs. So rather than thinking that you must deprive yourself of things you love for the rest of your life, make a decision to set some of them aside for a time, because they currently are higher in carbs than will help you toward your goal.

~Elizellen: That is me and Bananas. I used to eat tons of those, and all the dozen + species we would get in India, and my favorite was the simple big one we get everywhere in the US. Now I cant stand nearly all of those.

My favorite fruit is raspberry and kiwi in tea, and pineapple in or out of tea, cherries for plain eating and when dried - craisins and figs.
The less sweet black berries or blue berries I probably wont want to eat in any real quantity.
Strawberry is supposedly very very good for diabetics etc etc, I can eat those as well, not high on my list of must eat fruits.

Anyway, someone who knows a bit about diabetes suggested I do "intermittent fasting" could someone explain what it is and what it would do, and I will be googling it, but I cant input all the context and my history in that.

Thanks.
Srinath.

Craisins need to be on your permanent NO list. As should pretty much any commercial dried fruit. They are ALL heavily sugared, and if you are addicted to carbs, as most of us are, they are just plain a bad idea.

I know this from sad personal experience. Two winters ago, I had regained 2 lbs of the 20 I'd lost in about a year, over Christmas time. No problem, I thought; I can lose them again, and more.

Then I started eating dried fruit, something I'd stopped eating for well over a year. "Just a handful of dried pineapple," I'd tell myself. Half the bag later, I'd feel ill. But somehow manage to finish the ball later than day, anyway.

Srinath, if you can educate yourself on the carbohydrate contents of EVERY fruit that you feel like eating, you will learn which ones are safe and which are not. It's as easy as googling the following: "(name of fruit) carbs". That's all you need to do.

Strawberries, for example, have 1.4 carbs per large berry--and that's pretty much all that's sold, these days.

A cup of pineapple chunks is 22 grams. And a mere 40 grams (1/3 cup) of craisins has 33 grams.

Intermittent fasting means going for periods of time without eating. It is excellent for insulin resistance because you don't secret insulin during this time. I do it daily by not eating between dinner and lunch the next day. There are many patterns. Dr. Jason Fung gives and a good explanation below. Also, I love his videos. Search his name on YouTube to see some.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/intermit...ons-and-answers

I read up on IF, and I'll do that starting tomorrow. I cant believe I didn't find out sooner about that, I lost a good 5-6 days where I was eating 3 eggs in the morning whether I felt like it or not. thinking I had to eat them and not drop under 5gm carbs a day.

Tomorrow I'll start that.

Thanks.
Srinath.

I'm a fresh fruit fan. dried fruit is not a big draw, however of those, figs and craisins top the list. I could live without.

Pineapples - weird thing is, I love that spine in a pineapple, the chunks etc etc, they take that out, I'd probably buy the whole fruit and cut it myself.

Raspberries as well have about the same amount of carbs as pineapples. Kiwi's as well. 3 oz have ~10 gm of carbs.

So my cold sweet tea would probably work well with 3oz of raspberry, kiwi or pineapple, maybe even less, probably a lot less. Its good then when I do that in summer after I get to the phase 4. Winter, black coffee or bulletproof coffee should keep me going. Next time I have to worry about sugar in tea would likely be 2017 November. Good. I like that.

I should really worry about this when I get to that stage. For now, I'll drink black coffee and be cool.

Thanks.
Srinath.

Srinath - many on this forum practice intermittent fasting (IF). It can be daily like Ccat explains by timing your meals properly or it can be a 24-36-48-hour fast or longer. Best to start out with shorter intervals. As Ccat does, you can eat two meals a day, typically a mid-day meal and then an early evening meal. So, if you eat at 12:00 and then at 5-6:00 every day, you'll be doing an 18-19 hour fast.

When you're burning fat, you really don't get hungry like you used to when eating carbs. In the beginning, there are hunger sensations, but those are usually psychological and usually occur at times when you used to eat. So, have a cup of unsweetened tea or coffee or water. Once you're used to this routine, you can then extend your fast by skipping your mid-day meal or your evening meal and eating 24 hours later. That's a 24-hour fast. Work up to it slowly, and you'll find you become surprised because you're not hungry.

IF is very beneficial for cleaning out your metabolic waste products, and there are studies that demonstrate that food restriction based on meal timing and fasting extends lifespan. It's not just about weight loss, but IF seems to get many over a weight-loss plateau. There are lots of discussions about IF on this forum. I'll try and find one in particular that applies to what you're doing.

I did a 18 hour today. Easiest thing for me, I have in the past done some fasts as in I'd leave the house 8 am after waking up ~7:55 am when I was motivated to run off somewhere and buy some audio or motorcycle but ... I'd usually grab coffee or sweet tea to help me on the drive.
Today, I nailed it like a champion. Several weeks of being under 20 gm carbs had me already burning fat. So no ill effects. I drank Hazelnut coffee, which tasted better than I remember in the recent past cos I was drinking harvest spice - and my old favorite was Hazelnut, and I happily went to 2pm, didn't bug my wife for my 3 egg breakfast. Awesome.
I'd try the MCT oil + Butter in coffee, I already have tried butter in coffee, and it nicely slides down, so MCT should be a breeze. Ate my chicken+arugula+spinach+olives, mushrooms, onions salad, a whopping 6-7 gm carb X 2 6 hours apart.
Tomorrow lunch ~ 2 and dinner ~ 7 should work well, and repeat X 1000. Fun and very doable.

182lb - Here I come. Last measure, I had 36 to go. Heck, I'd stay on this diet clear into the 160's if I had to. This diet is not depriving myself.

Thanks.
Srinath.