It is inevitable that when one embarks on a new dietary regime, the focus falls on what we weigh. That makes sense if the reason for making a change is to lose weight. This often leads to weighing ourselves—a lot. What does the scale have in store for me today?
Read MoreChange is challenging. Change is scary. Change sometimes seems impossible. This is true whether considering applying for a job in a new field, deciding to sell a house, breaking up with someone, switching to decaf coffee. And when the change we seek is as fundamental as the food we eat—and the potential effects on our health and bodies—we can find ourselves with thoughts that have become our default position: I can't do this.
Read MoreWe all know the routine: we conclude that something about our life needs to change. It might be purging our home of all the detritus that somehow made just "appeared." Maybe it's making better use of our time than checking in with whatever social media outlet has hypnotized us lately. And, of course, there is the quest for health, happiness—and being able to sit on an aluminum lawn chair without fear of it buckling under our weight—which many of us have followed for years. (Who am I kidding? Decades, not just years.)
Read MoreLuna: she looks like a retired boxer. At 17+ years, she keeps on trucking. (She now eats homemade Keto food.
There are consistent questions and challenges posed by many people when they consider following the ketogenic protocol. And those same topics arise with folks who have been following the diet for some time. We have issues regarding food that can be so deeply ingrained, reinforced over years or decades that we can struggle to tease out what is real as opposed to that which we've been conditioned to believe. We grow to accept as gospel that meaningful change is nearly impossible for those of us who have strived to manage our weight, health, and general happiness, that weight loss after our twenties is too challenging to attempt—after 50? Fuggedaboutit!—and that we can't control cravings.
After all, they're cravings, right?
What a powerful and overused word.
"Craving" something can give us a mental get-out-of-jail card.
I know I shouldn't have eaten that, but the craving hit me hard!
We've all been there, pleading our case that whatever that morsel—or mountain—of food was, we were powerless against it.
A CRAVING, I tell you! It was brutal!
The thing is, we wouldn't accept having "a yen" for something as an excuse to indulge in unwise behavior in others. Imagine your life partner asking for a pass on stepping out on you because they really, really, craved the other person. [insert sound of a frying pan whomping someone's head]
Yet we tell ourselves that we struggle with, can't resist, are suckers for a craving. And there goes a doughnut down the gullet.
What to do about cravings? It's what not to do that matters. Don't feed it. That's where my cat comes in.
One November morning, I was in the kitchen making coffee. My Lovely Mate sat at the table, reading.
"Hey, look! There's a kitten at the door." I noticed her little head peering at me, her eyes barely clearing the bottom pane of glass in the 15-lite door.
"Don't you feed that cat," cautioned my husband.
There was little chance of that. We had long ago caught our limit of animals living in our house.
I went about my business, thinking the kitty would wander back from whence she came. A few minutes later, Mr. Cold Heart said, "Okay, she should have some water, but she can't come inside."
Again, I had already moved on from the subject. But I put a dish of water on the side porch, where the kitten had sat patiently since our eyes first met. Drink, drink, drink. I was already back inside when Hard-As-Nails Husband said that maybe it was too cold outside for such a tiny thing, and he reckoned we should let her in and feed her a bit.
After years of being indifferent to us, Luna now requires cuddling time with My Lovely Mate.
The next day I took her to get 'fixed' to prevent more strays from coming into the world and was told to keep her quiet for 24 hours. We could then release her on her stray way. We did.
That was over 17 years ago. We named the furry squatter Luna, and she lived in and around our side yard all this time. We put out food for her on the porch. We'd see her for a bit now and then. She'd nestle under our azaleas. She occasionally brought us little voles she had caught, leaving the tiny corpses on our welcome mat. In the last few months, she has moved inside. She's frail, nearly toothless, and has decided that sitting on her benefactor's lap, purring, beats being aloof.
Even with a sweet ending, the moral of the story remains: What do you about a craving? The same thing you do with a stray cat. Don't feed it.
Otherwise, it will keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back again.
Kittens grow into cats, and they can be pleasant additions to our lives. Cravings grow into poor eating habits. Those can become the opposite of nice additions. Waist circumference additions? Yes. Life improvements? Probably not.
The next time you think you must have some fries, a cookie—a family-size pizza—realize that a craving is not a life emergency. The craving will pass.
A cute kitten may not.
Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!
In my private support group on Patreon, members can access a "topic suggestion spreadsheet" and—you guessed—suggest topics for the short videos I record every weekday morning. (After over 850 of these "snippets," it helps to have input about subjects people want to hear!)
One recent submission was from a who advised they kept "falling off the wagon" after about ten days following the ketogenic protocol. They had, in the past, successfully followed the diet. They lost weight, felt great, and all the good things that can come when one lays off carbs. But there was some back-sliding with the predictable results: weight gain, joint pain return, generally feeling lousy. But this time around, staying on track seemed more challenging. In their words:
"Hello, Casey. I have been restarting every 10 days since the beginning of November. I have done keto well and have lost 50 pounds in the past (several times), and now, as I'm older, I feel like I keep falling off the wagon. I cannot get away with anything - I can't have caffeine (can't tolerate it anymore), etc., and I gain weight super fast now. I have just been in a bit of a rut for several months where I start to get back on board, start losing, and then ten days in - I lose focus or something. I guess I'm wondering about being able to really establish this habit ... since I keep getting off course at the 10 to 14-day mark. Thank you!"
A conversation I had just had with another patron inspired my response. During a one-on-one session, they shared with me a point made by a medical professional who cautioned against using phrases like, "I fell off the wagon." That is a passive way of diminishing our responsibilities for our choices. Let's face it—we don't fall off the proverbial wagon: we jump. One of the few things over which we have control is what we decide to put in our mouths. Absent someone force-feeding us, it is our forks in our hands which we raise to our pie-holes.
It may sound harsh, the idea that we are powerless in the face of food. But, c'mon, y'all. After all, we've been through in our lives, as varied as our histories are, do we want to peddle the idea that we are helpless in the presence of cheese puffs, that chocolate bunnies staring at us with their creepy eyes render us defenseless? Are fries omnipotent?
No way! No matter our age, gender, or stage of life, we've been through harrowing things. We've buried loved ones, lost homes to bankruptcy, had partners betray us. People have broken our hearts. We've endured terrifying diagnoses and even scarier treatments. But we crumble when presented with a muffin?
Please know that I used all the mental dodges back in the day. I didn’t do myself any favors. Just the opposite. Look at my before photos to see where self-delusion got me.
"I’m stronger than a cookie" is one of the best-selling slogans on my teespring shop. It's on stickers, shirts, mugs. I bought a shirt myself. And what does that have to do with staying on the wagon? It comes back to what we tell ourselves. Words matter. And those we say to ourselves matter the most. We don't fall, and no one has the power to push us. We decide (whether we want to own that fact or not.)
A suggestion I made was to, first, stop repeating in their head how they’ve failed before. Replace it with affirmations, replacing negative with positive thoughts: I will stay on track for 11 days. Then devise a visual reinforcement for those 10 days. It can be marks on a calendar, post-it notes with numbers 1-11 on them, 11 marbles moved from one to jar another. Whatever inspires. Then, after getting to day 11 successfully, do it again. Soon, there will be weeks of success stacked up. And it becomes easier and easier.
We are strong. We have survived. We choose.
Now, stay on that wagon and enjoy the ride. The view is great from up there.
Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!
@ Casey Durango 2024
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