I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I have a friend who decided to lose 30 pounds in 6 months safely and easily through serious carb restriction. He was super focused on insulin spikes and glycemic index. I would try to get him to have a beer with me and he’d be “NO! I am sticking to this diet! Out with ye, Satan!” He’s a dramatic guy like that. His father died recently and I attended the funeral Friday after which he’s all, “Let’s go eat Mexican food. You can’t say no to me, my dad just died and I’m sad.” I’m all “Dude, I made a spread sheet and I’m mapping exactly what I can and can’t eat. What the hell can I eat at a….” Then he interrupted, “They have a full bar and I’m buying.”
So Friday I ate Mexican food. It was mostly chicken, veggies and sour cream so I didn’t screw anything up but I couldn’t have the dinner I had wanted. I’m still not getting my fat level to where the formula says it should be but I’m experimenting and learning about with new sources.
Oh! I tried unsweetened peanut butter! I expected it to be terrible (in the jar it separates into gritty peanut tar and liquid slime) but I stirred the jar up with a stout butter knife and slathered it on some lavash bread (go look by the deli at your local wal-mart it's mostly flax and 1/2 the a carbs of all other bread-like things). The first bite progressed like this: "Ew, that looks like baby crap", followed by "Oh! That doesn't taste right. Where's the sweet?" and then the peanut flavor hits and the sugar-programming cuts out and BANG! What awesome new thing have I just put in my body? I love peanuts. I could have eaten two or three of those. I knows it's all in my head, but so is the candy craving. You are thinking sweet and wanting sweet. It's all in your head.
This brings me to an update about my long term goals. I initially changed my diet to lose weight and to see what effect removing simple sugars from my diet had on me psychologically. With regards to the later, the psychological change has been noticeable and I’ll write more about it when I have time to consider what I want to say. With regards to the former, I have lost most of the weight I had planned on and now I am looking for a natural plateau. That’s why I thought this was a good time to try a ketogenic diet. I had heard about it but didn’t actually get any good info until I listened the Tim Ferriss podcast with Dominic D’agostino
That led me to more reading and research. It’s a fun experiment and that’s why I’m doing it. I still get to spend time in the kitchen cooking for myself and I still get to eat the foods I like. (It’s very pro-bacon)
But I don’t think a hardcore ketogenic diet is going to be right for me in the long run. Then I listened to Mark Sisson on the Joe Rogan podcast this week. He takes a very pragmatic view. He is definitely controlled-complex-carbs but he continues to say, over and over, [paraphrase]eat based on where you need to be[/paraphrase]. So, if you are healthy and happy keep on with whatever you're doing.
I will stick with the ketogenic diet for a few more weeks and try to get my fat intake levels up. Right now it’s just helping me lose weight without being hungry, without spiking my blood sugar, and while leaving me with plenty of energy for the stuff I do, but it would be interesting to be able to maintain a body with fat as pretty much the only exogenous source of energy.
It would also be interesting to make and eat a pie or lasagna.