I think we all know society, and know how people naturally react, socially.

I once almost bought a t-shirt that said keto on it, and stopped. I don't advertise my eating plan in any way. Why? Because I'm huge, and I know this will make it look bad, and I respect lowcarb and don't want to give it a bad representation -- in part because I feel like it saves lives and I don't want to interfere with that. I can't wear a sign around my neck listing the zillion medical symptoms that low-carb resolved, or a ticker like a forum profile with the pounds I've lost so far, to caveat it.

The thing I find frustrating is when I care about someone, and they are killing themselves with food, and their assuredly smart but ignorant doctor is supporting this suicide. Having to stand by and limit oneself to the occasional calm comment rather than a food-zealot rant can be so difficult.

With rare exceptions it isn't just that people don't know the solution, it's that they don't actually want one, or they don't want one that will require they get off their primary addictions (grains and other sugars).

Or they are simply willing to take their doctor's advice to take a drug every day for the rest of their life instead of "eating steak" (which one friend's doc said with disdain, as if that was a totally-crazy thing to do. And as if any low-carb diet consists of nothing but that or something).

I confess I somewhat judge shopping baskets, but not in a way of disdain, just in a way of sadness, especially when I see fat children walking around with the mom and a basket full of breads, pastas, premade foods and ice cream and so on.

I wish I had known about lowcarb when I was 24 and gained massive weight suddenly (likely a lipedema symptom, I was oblivious back then). I worked at a blood bank as a 2nd job, and the nurses all assured me I should reduce my protein and eat whole grains and count calories because calories were what really mattered. I lived on a snickers and diet coke for dinner for a long time, and on whole wheat spaghetti with a tiny bit of light canola oil and herbs, when I would nearly cry for wanting meat. I finally said F-- it and just ate whatever I wanted, which added to my weight but also restored strength and reduced misery. When I found LC and realized that every bodybuilder worth a whit had known this since the dawn of time I was appalled that the world around me -- every form of media, school, every "expert," etc. -- had preached the polar-opposite approach to eating all my life.

I think there is some cognitive dissonance with LC at times. Most of the time I have no issue with it. Love the food, fills me up, keeps me satiated, and I'm lacking sufficient appetite sometimes anyway. But there are times I start feeling a sort of "deprived anger" -- an emotional thing -- about not being able to eat something I want, in specific or a genre. I am not sure where this comes from. The only reason this does not put me off LC generally, is because

a/ the high carb foods I love most have gluten/glutin and make me horribly ill anyway now so I can't eat them even when off LC, and

b/ the sudden massive water gain I get for my own health reasons makes my back hurt and makes me feel miserable fairly soon, and

c/ I've arranged to have a high-carb period twice a year (end of Dec and start of July) so if there's stuff I want I can add it to a list of things I "can" have -- but later. Temporarily. That's for the emotional part. But a/ makes that a limited option and b/ makes my body plead for it to end soon.

It doesn't really matter, in the bigger picture, if I never lose another pound. I wouldn't be losing much but muscle on any other form of diet and I'd be a lot more miserable. But at least -- if I eat LC properly, as opposed to lazily -- my body gets the base nutrients it most needs.

I'm only alive today because a long time ago a cardiologist recommended the Protein Power book to me, and -- lurking for a long time first -- I found this forum. I have a strong sense of gratitude about that.

PJ

My family practitioner recommended and got me started on low carb.

Not so much disdain as frustration and sadness. I had a good friend who died of a heart attack in her sleep at the age of 65. She was one of the people who told me that she could never give up the foods that I had stopped eating. She was not hugely fat (I had started out much fatter than she was) but she was overweight and all her weight was concentrated in her belly. I'll never know whether a lc diet would have allowed her to live longer but it may have and it certainly couldn't have hurt. From what I remember she was on a smorgasbord of drugs, the usual suspects, statins and bp drugs I believe. This happened over 5 years ago. It still makes me very sad especially since it probably didn't have to happen. She took the drugs that the doctor prescribed but couldn't change the way she ate.

I think some people are under so much bodily and emotional stress that they can't actually recognize easily when they feel better on a better diet and that's why they fall off. I have had gradations of this in my life but, generally, I know when my body is working and when not. BUT if I get sick or injured or have massive stress, that goes out of the window. I think the same kinds of factors that cause other issues for people - depression, anxiety, high stress jobs, autoimmune disorders, etc. - shortcircuit that essential biofeedback required to stick to a diet that is actually nourishing.

And some people are just more apt to change. I find it a curious thing why some people are able to change basic habits and modes of thinking and some not.

This, absolutely for me, too. Someone asked me yesterday how I look so young. I always say "genes" but it's really because I don't eat grains. Hands down, no questions. But I am still very fat so I never say so. But I am much healthier than I was before low carb. So I don't talk about it much unless it comes up because someone has to serve me food. I feel like I'm a bad example. But I'm actually a very good example. I ran an amazing ten mile race when I weighed 230. I keep myself healthy and fit enough to teach a sport. I lost a thousand minor health issues by eating this way, from skin rashes to tooth plaque. Unfortunately, people are not that interested in feeling great so much as they are obsessed with thinness. Hence, Jenny Craig and gastric bypass.

You know I think there is something to the whole blood type vs type of diets that work with people? I know people that respond well to counting calories and other that do well with LC. For me LC always worked best and like stated before it is like my 3 time to lose significant weight. Whatever gets you healthy and for us its LC.

I think the earliest year I did a LC diet was about 2003? again in 2010 and now. In 2003 I lost from 210 to 172 pounds. In 2010 I was 270 to 220 pounds. This time I want to get to 200 to 190 pounds. If I can get lower even better but I would be happy at 190.

I will say it has took a lot of years for the medical industry to come around to the LC diets and it is funny how many people still think it is unhealthy.

I find it almost as difficult to eat LC at a restaurant as eating at someone else's home. The only upside is that instead of being limited to whatever the hostess has provided, I can actually choose the lesser of the evils on a restaurant menu.

The other day, DH wanted to take me out for lunch, and since we live in Pa Dutch country, he wanted to go to a nearby restaurant where pretty much everything on the menu is traditional Pa Dutch style food - meaning lots of sugar and starch. In this area, using traditional Pa Dutch recipes, even what would normally be basic unadorned food (such as applesauce) will be laced with tons of sugar. I finally settled on a cheeseburger, no bun.

The server asked me which side dish I'd like with my burger, but even though there were about 20 options on the side dish list, not a single one of them was remotely LC - there wasn't even any cottage cheese on the list, even though there were 5 potato options, 3 or 4 corn options, applesauce, legumes, and various battered deep fried veggies, but nothing remotely resembling a green vegetable. I asked about the "mixed vegetable" option, hoping it would be a LC friendly broccoli/cauli or zucchini/bell pepper mixture. But noooo.... it was the old fashioned corn, peas, lima beans, carrots, and green beans mixture. I gave up and told DH to feel free to pick a side that he'd like in addition to his own meal and side(s).

So our meal was served, and I was given a bunless burger topped with cheese, with some limp lettuce, a couple thin slices of under-ripe tomato (it's January, tomatoes are going to be picked completely green more than 1,000 miles away, and gassed during shipment to give them that not-quite-red color), and a dill pickle spear. I ate my burger (which was filling enough), but only one bite of the dill pickle, since I'm not that wild about dill pickles right now. (I seem to have developed an aversion to excess saltiness)

Meanwhile, DH was plowing through his plate with mashed potatoes piled high over a little bit of turkey, topped with those same mixed vegetables swimming in flour thickened gravy, plus corn fritters and macaroni and cheese on the side, while telling me that he admires my willpower in sticking to my diet.

He just doesn't understand that there's really no willpower involved. Not only do I stick to LC because I feel awful on starches and sugars, I've been LC for so many years now that it would take a lot more willpower to force myself to eat the kind of meal he ordered. These days, I wonder how I ever ate that flavorless stuff all the time, almost to the exclusion of real food.

Ouch, eating at a PA Dutch restaurant is almost as challenging as eating at a pizza restaurant. Good that you exercised your options and opted out of the carbage, which is probably 90% of the menu. In certain parts of the country, restaurant fare is challenging if you're low carb. I travel to Wisconsin to visit a client occasionally, and it's a challenge there as well. I'm ok if there is steak on the menu, but it's a crap shoot sometimes.

It's a shame what people consider healthy today. The years of brainwashing will continue to linger for quite a while in certain regions. How can you do the opposite of what your doctor has been telling you for years. The feeling of disdain should be directed to those advice givers who have access to current nutrition information and knowingly ignore that by continuing to deliver the same message that has been harming people.

Fortunately, most restaurants I go to will have cheeseburgers on the menu. Usually, I can get a salad in lieu of fries, or because I'm not crazy about salad, I'll just skip the side or pass it off to someone else at the table. The only restaurants I sometimes have trouble with eating low carb are Italian. I've been to two Italian restaurants over this past year that haven't had meatballs on the menu. What's up with that?

That was me with my father. Especially so since it was my stepmother who thoroughly banned any such tactic. Later, she refused to listen to me about statins, so poetic justice, I guess, but highly distressing in any instance.

However, we are all changing the culture, and that's the kind of effort that WILL pay off by shifting the parameters of "What we know that isn't so."

I think it takes attention and practice to attune ourselves to body signals. I have met people whose skill is so rudimentary about this that hurt/no-hurt is their sole understanding, and I know medical people who back me up on this.

These are the ones who say "I can't live without bread!" because they know the lift they get from comfort foods, and just can't imagine living without mood help. The fact that they can get mood help more reliably does not occur, and they don't believe it when it is suggested.

I don't know if they do. At least I had no idea about the high sugar gave me until I'd been eating low carb for about 3 years. I can remember the exact moment I realized it.

I was driving back to Philadelphia from DC after picking up my college son for his Spring Break. I-95 got shut down due to high winds and we spent literally 16 hours in gridlocked traffic - nowhere to go, nothing to do. We even had to shut the car off so we didn't run out of gas. Just sat there. Hour after life sucking hour. Staring at the tail lights (also off) of the car in front of us. I desperately wanted a glass (or two) of wine. All of a sudden I remembered I had in the back of my van a giant bag of Cadbury Eggs that I had purchased for the Easter baskets and hidden there to keep them away from the kids. They weren't wine, but they would do the trick! I tore into that bag and immediately felt better. A real sugar high! Just what I needed. I could wait out my time in 1-95 purgatory with some relief.

Until that moment, I thought I just liked the taste of bread and sugar. I don't think I ever realized the actual mood lift a sugar rush gives me. I have since. And like the addict I am, I will sometimes chase that feeling I got on I-95 last Spring.

I can understand that because I'm sort of that way about my daily pots of coffee. I actually can go without - but I don't want to. I make the coffee so weak I could easily switch to decaf & probably never notice. But it's sort of a placebo - I tell myself I'm getting caffeine so I must have more energy.

When I found out I was t2 diabetic & learned about lc & portion sizes, I was very resistant. For some reason I had no difficulty dropping sugar & grains, but portion control has been an on-going challenge.

Eating out can be difficult. My husband is supportive, but after all these years is still pretty clueless. There are certain restaurants I will go to because they do have lc options for me that are tasty (I hate sacrificing taste!), but refuse to go to ones that won't let me make changes to menu items. Unfortunately, those are some of his favorites.

There was steak on the menu, also chicken breast and tilapia, but the steak said it had a rub on it (I don't know of any rubs that are not spiked with sugar, and I didn't want a good steak to be ruined with a sugary rub), the tilapia had lemon pepper, and the chicken was "delicately seasoned" and grilled - again, I can guarantee you that the seasonings used on those had sugar in them, and around here, often grilled means it's breaded or flour coated, and pan/grill fried. It's simply expected in Pa Dutch cooking. A burger just seemed like the safest option to avoid all that.



I don't mind pizza places - I just eat the toppings off the pizza, and leave the crust. Embarrasses DH that I do that, but that's his problem that he feels the need to bring it to the attention of the server that the crust is very good, but I can't eat it. It shouldn't matter to them whether I eat it or not (especially with the gluten free trend), just like if a customer orders any other food and leaves half of it on his plate for some reason.


The thing is, most of the food at that place wouldn't be considered healthy by anyone of any dietary persuasion, because it wasn't vegetarian or vegan, wasn't low fat, wasn't low cholesterol, wasn't whole grain, and obviously also not LC. People don't go there for any kind of healthy meal, they go to satisfy their cravings for lots of old fashioned starch and sugar.