First Keto, then Fasting

I've been listening to old episodes of the Fasting Talk podcast every day and this morning I listened to episode 10. Jimmy Moore was telling how he had been traveling for a while and how he couldn't fast while traveling because of the stress.

Now that he was home, Jimmy said he was going to get in a full week on the ketogenic diet before getting back on his usual fasting routine.

That's a good notion. Being on a good ketogenic diet switches your body over from burning carbs to burning fat. It kills your hunger. When you have been doing keto for a while you find yourself skipping meals by accident because you are just not hungry. It's the ideal prep for fasting.

A lot of the people who have discovered Fasting and Intermittent Fasting were on a ketogenic or low-carb diet first. Adding fasting just came naturally.

I currently am in a bad state due to having eaten carbs on several occasions, including at a meal at my brother's house where the food choices consisted of spaghetti and garlic bread. I have found that if I go off my keto--- even 'just for one meal' I end up eating carbs for days or weeks. The food cravings wake up and I am not a person will anything in the way of willpower.

So I'm back on my keto diet, without the morning fasting, until I get on track. What fasting does, when I haven't been on keto, is awaken my hunger and cravings so that when my eating period starts I can't really resist the temptation to run to the grocery for chips or other carb foods.

Today I had some of my low-carb cheese pancakes, recipe found in the 1974 Dr. Atkins Diet Cookbook (Gare, Monica) with the delicious low-carb 'maple' syrup from this recipe: https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/sugar-free-maple-syrup/

 I've got some chicken parts so I can make my favorite baked chicken for lunch, and some chicken to freeze so I have the making for keto meals in the house. The secret to being a successful ketonian? Plan for meals ahead of time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While Jimmy Moore's excellent Fasting Talk podcast is no longer in current production, back episodes are still available here: http://www.fastingtalk.com/ There are also links there to the current podcasts, Livin' La Vida Low-Carb and Keto Talk.

Some days we shouldn't do our Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting, or fasting for less than a full day, can give many health benefits. But sometimes it's not the right thing for us on an individual day.

The easiest way to start off with Intermittent Fasting is going on a ketogenic diet, like the old-fashioned Atkins diet is at the Induction level. Ketogenic diets allow you to eat, and help suppress your hunger. On a good ketogenic day you may skip a meal by accident, even if you were a big eater formerly.

But Intermittent Fasting, or The No-Breakfast Plan, may not be the best thing to do some days. Here are some circumstances where that might be so.

When you have been getting hungry for carbs, and can't resist them at lunchtime.
Sometimes--- like when you are not in a state of ketosis (fat-burning) --- going without food in the morning makes all your ravenous carb cravings come forward, so instead of that great keto/lowcarb lunch you had in mind you run out and buy a bag of potato chips or a fast-food carb burger.

When you are hungry in the mornings.
Especially when you feel a lot of hunger that isn't going away. For me, this happens when I've been eating carbs the previous days. A good low-carb breakfast may be what you need.

Sundays.
Did you know that if you are Catholic, the "fasting" or food restrictions done during Lent are skipped on Sundays? That's because Sunday, the day of resurrection, are always a day of celebration. Sometimes making Sunday special by having a nice breakfast or brunch is what you need when you've been being very good on your Intermittent Fasting and your keto meals. If you are Jewish, of course you might use your own Sabbath for the special breakfast day.

Breakfast or Brunch with family.
If your family is having a bit of a reunion and celebrating with breakfast/brunch, taking part with keto foods can be a good thing. And the great thing is that there are low-carb foods that are a part of breakfast/brunch menus: eggs, bacon, sausage, ham.... Sadly, you can't trust restaurant omelets or scrambled eggs not to have carb additions like flour in them. But often this is the meal where you are likely to get food you can actually eat without going off your diet and feeling unwell.

What do you eat for breakfast-eating days?
Keto-diet acceptable foods, of course. Especially things you consider comfort foods. This morning I made myself a serving of Cheese Pancakes, baked in a muffin top pan so they wouldn't be so thin and runny. I also made a bit of maple syrup from maple extract, sweetened with Swerve sweetener. Very tasty. (Will share recipes soonest, but Cheese Pancakes are in Dr. Atkins Diet Cook Book of 1974 by Fran Gare and Helen Monica, and the maple syrup recipe I Googled for.)

Yes, I ate carbs.....

Over the past little while, I have slid into a habit of consuming carbs again. This is what happens: I eat a carb meal or snack, perhaps because I've been at a relative's home and there was nothing non-carby to eat. Or I just had a craving for a carby snack.

The problem is, I then get hungry for more carb foods. I'm not good when I feel hungry. I feel hungry in the mornings again so I'm not doing intermittent fasting and the no-breakfast plan. Then my blood sugar rises, I get depressed and feel lousy, and it gets worse from there.

And so I must STOP. I start making cups of tea in the morning because that makes it easier to fast. I make simple ketogenic/low-carb foods so that when I do eat, it's less likely to be carbs. I usually feel like heck when I'm going back onto my routine, but I know when I get through it I will feel energetic and be healthier.

I've listened to a Jimmy Moore fasting podcast to start the day--- even though he's discontinued that particular podcast it is still inspiring and I think I plan to listen to them all. You can find Jimmy's Fasting Talk podcasts at: http://www.fastingtalk.com/

The Christmas season, which evidently starts before Halloween now, is often a time when we have to eat other people's carby cooking or get cast out of the family. Some people think we should give in, just once. But for me, one carby meal leads to days or weeks of carb hunger. Maybe it's better for some of us NOT to eat carbs just-this-once.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the things I'm doing to get on track is making some bone broth. I had the major bones involved roasted and in freezer bags. I also had a few bags of leftover bones from pork chops or chicken. I filled up my BIG slow cooker (8 quarts) with bones and have got it going. I really want to get on a daily bone-broth routine which means making broth more often. Which means finding sources of bones. Not so easy around here.

My No-Breakfast Plan

I first came across the idea of a no-breakfast plan in a book called, I think, 'Fit for Life.' Much of the advice in the book wasn't good, but ever after I read it I felt free to skip breakfast if I wasn't hungry or was too busy to be hungry.

And then recently I read of the idea of Intermittent Fasting. Which can be the same thing as the no-breakfast plan. And I've been doing it most days ever since.

I have read many things about the benefits of IF, but there is one thing they don't mention: it saves money. By going from 3 meals to 2, you can save on your food purchases. Since ketogenic diet food is often pricey, and you can't pick some up at the local food bank, this will help you support your healthy living plan even if you are low-income.

Also, it saves the stress of making breakfast, eating breakfast, and cleaning up after breakfast. It really feels like you have less work to do.

Intermittent Fasting is not some new fad. The book illustrated above was written in 1900. I've picked up my own copy from Amazon.com --- it's available as a reprint, or from ManyBook.net for free in ebook form.

By sticking to Intermittent Fasting until lunchtime, and eating keto when I do eat, I've lowered my blood sugar from scary-high to almost normal. I've gone into ketosis, as I can see when I test my ketone level using my Ketonix breath ketone meter. And I've lost 6 pounds in about a week.

Contrast this to keto-alone. A couple years ago, I was doing keto every day, and my nephrologist was fussing at me because I wasn't losing weight. I tried to explain that since I was post-menopausal and diabetic, weight loss had become much harder. She thought that was just some lame excuse. I don't think she knew anything about diet other than to fuss at people who hadn't lost weight when she told them to.

She also responded to me saying I was doing low-carb by handing me a sheet for the 'DASH' diet and told me it was government-approved. She was an immigrant, maybe in India saying 'government-approved' would make people eager to switch diets. I did try to follow DASH a little but my blood sugar went up since it was a diet which provided no help in dealing with the actual problem of diabetes--- carbs.

So--- Intermittent Fasting works for me. And I now have enough energy in the mornings that I can keep busy and not miss having breakfast.

When I eat at my mom's house, she worries if I don't have breakfast. So, I make a cup of tea for breakfast. This seems to reassure her.

Tea also works when I am doing intermittent fasting at home. The ritual of making a cup of tea in the morning is soothing. A good replacement for the breakfast habit. And it seems to control my appetite. If I am feeling hungry in the morning and have a cup of tea, I feel very little hunger afterward, or the hunger goes away altogether.

I have to point out that I'm talking about plain tea. No milk, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners. That may be hard for people who are used to taking their tea with additives. But I've been drinking plain tea all my life, the way my mom and grandmother always did. You can not only endure it, you can come to prefer it that way.

What if your first morning of Intermittent Fasting is too hard, and you eat something by 9 am? Well, don't worry. Maybe the next day you can hold out until 9:30 or 10 or 11. I initially set 'lunchtime' at 11 but I'm trying to shift to 12 currently. Intermittent Fasting gets easier the longer you do it. I've gone to 2pm before eating some days without getting crazed with hunger.

Recipe: Coconut Cream/Milk Flatbread or Pancakes, Pizza Crust

Updated 1-27-20  What if you are keto and want to eat a sandwich? I used to use Healthy Life brand 'low-carb' breads but they were about 6 grams of carbs per slice and contained grains. So eating 1 slice lead to eating more and going off low-carb.

This is a recipe for low carb flatbreads that are good for making sandwiches. I shared this recipe on my other blog before, but I keep working on it and, hopefully, improving it. It's gluten free, and dairy free unless you add the cheese mentioned below or the whey protein powder instead of the egg white protein powder. I now also add ground nuts (nut meal, nut flour) to cut down on the protein amount--- if you are nut-sensitive, just omit that and use 1/4 cup of the protein powder.

1 Tbsp EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil (0 g carbs, 0 grams fiber, 0 grams net carbs)

3 (large) eggs (each: trace carbs, no fiber, trace net carbs)

3/4 cup coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk (cream: 12 g carbs, fiber 4 g, net carbs 8 g: milk: 4.8 g carbs, 0 fiber, 4.8 grams net carbs)

1/8  cup [1 and 1/2 Tablespoons] ground pecans or ground walnuts  (pecans: 1.9 g carbs, 1.3 g fiber, 0.6 net carbs; walnuts: 1.4 g carbs, 0.7 g fiber, 0.7 g net carbs)

1/8 cup unflavored egg white protein powder or whey protein powder (mine was 0 carbs, check label)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or Vege-Sal or Herbamare (sea salt seasoned with veggies)

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Add ingredients to a mixing bowl and use electric egg beater to beat it for 2 minutes. 

Use olive oil pan spray on your Yorkshire pudding or muffin top pan. Then, add about a 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil to each depression in your pan. Pour 2 Tbsp of batter in each depression in the pan.

OR use a 6.5 inch cast iron frying pan--- use the pan spray and olive oil as above. Use about 1/2 cup batter to make something in the shape of a low-carb tortilla.

Bake about 10 minutes in a metal YP pan and 12 minutes in a ceramic YP pan. Metal pans are better as they brown both sides. For a cast iron frying pan, try 12-14 minutes. Keep an eye on them and don't let them get too brown.

Let them cool down in the pan. If you own/are owned by cats, find a place for them to cool down where the cats can't get to it--- I use the metal racks in a disused oven or a shelf in a cabinet. 

If you are using a small oven and can only get 1 muffin top pan in, DON'T pour the second pan until just ready to bake. 

I mostly use these flatbreads warm, so I make sure not to let them get browned in the baking--- I prefer them a touch under-done, and I also eat the flatbreads cold as a sandwich sometime.

YIELD: will vary based on the size of your eggs (farm-fresh eggs can range from peewee to bigger-than-jumbo in size.) I got 26 Tbsp of batter last time I made it.

SERVINGS: 2 pieces of the bread from a YP or muffin-top pan, 1 of the larger tortilla-sized flatbreads (fold in 1/2 for sandwiches.) 

STORAGE: put in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, or a freezer bag in the freezer. Write the DATE on your bags!!! Heat the flatbreads for eating in a 325 F degree oven for about 5 minutes or until the butter melts. Or heat a minute or so in a George Foreman grill. Yes, you can heat them from frozen quickly--- they are thin. (And delicate. Which is why you will want to MELT the butter on to it and not try to spread it.)

EQUIPMENT: 

For the small flatbreads you will need a Yorkshire pudding or muffin-top pan. I like the Tala brand, which at the moment I can only get from Amazon . uk. They delivered it to the US okay, though.

For the large flatbreads you will need one or more cast iron frying pans of about 6 and 1/2 inches in size. Since the flatbreads need to cool in the pan you will need multiple frying pans in the desired size. Since I only have the one, I will have to get more cast iron frying pans soon.

I also bought a 2 Tbsp measure from Amazon. I think it was meant for measuring coffee into a coffee maker? Anyway, it's great for measuring batter into the YP pans. 

VARIATIONS:

CHEESE BREAD: I put about 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese in each depression in my muffin top pan, and then pour in the batter. This is a tasty version of the bread and one I like--- I just shredded the cheese for a batch this morning. (I also buy pre-shredded cheese for this purpose.) But of course if you don't eat dairy you should avoid this option. You can also add the cheese after you have made some flatbreads, add a bit of butter and heat in the oven or George Foreman grill. You can make a grilled cheese sandwich that way--- with bacon bits or bits of cooked ham if you like (and aren't keeping kosher or halal.)

MARKING THE FLATBREADS: if you make some salt-free or dairy-free and some with salt/dairy, sprinkle some sesame seeds, poppy seeds or caraway seeds on the top of the flatbreads before baking to mark the different kinds.

PANCAKES: Heat your flatbreads with butter or coconut oil, and a bit of sugar-free maple syrup or else cinnamon and stevia powder or Swerve. 

PIZZA CRUST: Add the low-carb pizza toppings of your choice and heat. If the toppings need some extra cooking you may need to cook them before adding them as toppings so you won't get the crust too brown.

PASTA: An old Atkins recipe book used a similar recipe, cut up to serve as pasta. I made 'mac and cheese' this way once.

NUT BUTTER SWEET ROLL: I add about 1 Tbsp nut butter or peanut butter, a bit of butter, sprinkle with cinnamon, and add Swerve, usually brown-sugar Swerve. Heat in 325 F degree oven until butter & nut butter melt, fold in 1/2 and eat. 

WARNING: If you are addicted to the carbs in 'real' bread, this will not satisfy your carb cravings. Just stick to your strict Keto * Low-Carb for a while--- that's the way to stop your addiction and the cravings.

Broth of Life -- bone broth from a powder

I love bone broth, and I know it's good for me. I can even have a cup of bone broth when I'm fasting (according to The Complete Book of Fasting.) I really try to have a cup of bone broth every day.

But--- making a batch at home takes two days. And it's hard to buy soup bones around here. And sometimes, as in last year when I was sick for about a month, I just can't do it.

When I was visiting Bob Martin's blog I saw an ad for Broth of Life dehydrated organic bone broth. I went to Amazon.com to purchase it. And saw it was 31.99 for a 1.6 ounce jar. But I bought it anyway, in the chicken broth. You can also get lamb or beef broth.

When I got it home and made my first cup, it was bland and watery, even though I added Himalayan pink salt (1/4 teaspoon.) And the powder did not dissolve all the way. So--- I read the directions. It said one teaspoon of the broth powder to 100 ml of water. So I tried measuring the water.

100 ml isn't much. I poured out 200 ml and turned  the measuring cup around to find it was only 3/4 of a cup. So I guess 1 teaspoon is not enough for a full cup.

Because of the undissolved powder bits this morning I soaked the broth powder in the water for 15 minutes, then heated in the microwave. Even though I stirred a lot, there were still a few undissolved bits. Tomorrow I think that I will soak it in HOT water for 15 minutes and see how this goes. But the 1/4 cup of salt was the right amount. A little less than the sodium amount in grocery store broth powder. But it tasted salty enough.

Even so, Broth of Life has its place. What if I get sick again? The broth powder is expensive but at least it isn't too much of a trial to make a cup of broth with it.

I think homemade bone broth is better, though. I just used up the last quart of bone broth I had in my freezer so it's time to make more.  But when I run out of my Broth of Life I'm sure I will buy another jar of it.

NOTE: it is recommended by many authorities, when you are first going on keto or on Atkins Induction, or when you are fasting, if you don't feel that great (keto flu) you should drink a cup of broth. But grocery store broth powder is dreadful, full of additives you don't want. Better to get Broth of Life, or make your own.

Making Atkins Diet Revolution Rolls in a Muffin Top Pan

One of the earliest bread-substitutes low-carbers have used is what Dr. Robert Atkins called "Diet Revolution Rolls." The recipe is actually older than that. It's also in the Settlement Cook Book as 'Diabetic Bread.' That book dates from about the 1940s.

The secret of making it is to use a muffin top pan to make it. A picture of one of mine is illustrated. I have two like this one.

This is a Yorkshire pudding pan. It is pretty much interchangeable with a muffin top pan. They are available in different sizes.

Diet Revolution Rolls

3 eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons of cottage cheese
1 package of sugar-free, carb-free sweetener (VERY optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Separate eggs. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Mix other ingredients with yolks. Carefully fold egg whites into egg yolk mixture.

Spray your muffin top pan(s) with olive oil pan spray. Put about 1/2 teaspoon of a good oil (olive oil or MCT oil) into each depression in the pan. Fill each pan with equal amount of batter. Bake for about an hour.

from Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution page 225
Carbs per serving (6 per recipe) .5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Separating Eggs

I'm old enough to remember when women learned to separate eggs as a basic kitchen skill. NOT ONE SPECK of the yolk can get in to your whites. I usually separate eggs by using the eggshell of the eggs, but using an egg separator is better. My mom got her egg separator from some business that was giving them away, with the business's ad printed on it, but they don't do that these days. I bought one at a store somewhere. Here is what mine looks like:

You have to beat the egg white for minutes, not seconds. If you don't have one of those expensive stand mixers, your arm will get tired. I use a regular electric mixer. I guess you could beat the eggs by hand with a whisk if you are very healthy and can't compel your husband or kids to do it for you. ;)

There are loads of YouTube videos that show you how to make Atkins Diet Revolution Rolls. Before you try making your own, maybe you should watch a few. Here is one:



I have made these rolls in the past, will probably do so again, but I hate separating eggs. At least once I got that fatal speck of yolk into the white and the whites wouldn't whip up. I baked them anyway. They were not great.

I have read a recipe called 'cloud bread' which mostly just stretches the batter from 6 rolls to 12. I've made these, they are flatter but good. I use one 'roll' for the top of my sandwich and another for the bottom.

Cucumber sandwich

Take 2 pieces of the rolls out of the fridge. Put mayonnaise (homemade is best) on both sides. Salt the bottom piece (these rolls are salt-free, so bland). I put seaweed flakes on the bottom as well--- I love seaweed. Put cucumber slices on the bottom piece. Cover bottom with top, eat and enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Sad Truth 

I have made these rolls from time to time for years. But I'm lazy when it comes to separating eggs. Recently I have been working on no-egg-separating rolls, which I will be sharing on this blog soon. But this recipe is a low-carber's staple, and so I thought it best to share it first.

Dr. Atkins Diet Cook Book, 1974

One of my favorite Atkins cookbooks is this, the first one. It was written in 1974 by Fran Gare and Helen Monica. The reason I like it so much is that unlike later Atkins books, it doesn't call for Atkins brand ingredients that are no longer available and were never available where I live. It has to use real food!

It contains several recipes I use a lot. There is the cheese pancakes on page 81. I have a notecard at that page where I cut the recipe down from 6 servings to a single serving. I've tried a lot of low-carb pancakes but this is pretty good.

Another recipe I use is the baked fish loaf on page 140. Again I've cut down the recipe from 6 servings to single serving. My version uses a can of tuna (packed in olive oil, from WalMart) as the fish. It's kind of a replacement for my mom's carby tuna casserole. Sometimes I add a few canned mushroom pieces and a spoonful of frozen peas to the mix to make it more Just Like Mom's.

It also has, on page 238, a hot chocolate recipe that I based my own, much better hot chocolate recipe on.

There are other recipes I haven't yet tried or tried only once. Such as: Mock Potato Dumplings, Devilled Salmon Eggs, Beef Stroganoff, Moussaka, Pasta, Mock Macaroni and Cheese, Brownies, Peanut Butter cookies, several flavors of ice cream.....

The low-carb world has changed a lot since this book came out. But there are a lot of things to try in here. You may have to adapt to get rid of ingredients we no longer think are healthy, such as soya powder. But there is a world of things to try in this book. It's also kind of a must-have for a really COMPLETE low-carb cookbook collection.

How do you get a copy since it is so long out of print? Well, I got mine poking around in used bookstores and thrift shops, but that was a few decades ago. Today I'd look at Amazon.com and Ebay for a copy at a good price. I've seen one at over $100 dollars. Don't pay that! I've ALSO seen copies at around $3. Keep checking the used book sources---NOT the rare book ones, they will be overpriced.

Intermittent Fasting makes my house cleaner

One of the things I love about intermittent fasting is that it doesn't just make me healthier and lower my blood sugar, it makes my house cleaner.

How does it do that? Well, I don't have to make breakfast. Which means I don't have to clean up after breakfast. I don't have a working dishwasher and my kitchen sink faucet doesn't work, so I have to wash all dishes I dirty in a dishpan on the table, and dump the used water in the backyard.

Not eating breakfasts--- and sometimes skipping other meals--- lowers my burden of dishwashing and kitchen clean up. And the time I used to spend doing breakfast can be spent doing other neglected housecleaning chores.

Now, I will never be a great housekeeper. I'm just satisfied with being better than the people on that 'Hoarders' TV show. But the little-bit-better that I become because of intermittent fasting shows.

Another way fasting can help is that it gives you more energy. That can also contribute to house cleaning. But I must admit that in the last few years I get less of that extra energy than I used to.  When I first started doing Atkins, the energy rush I got when I went into ketosis was like being on drugs.

Now, when I get into ketosis through ketogenic diets or intermittent fasting, I don't get that. I mostly just feel better than the way I feel when I'm eating carbs, which is not a great feeling.

When I have a hard time sticking to my intermittent fasting, cleaning something or doing other household chores is a help. When you get busy, you aren't thinking about food all the time and you notice hunger less. And it helps with food cravings. The more work you do, the less these things will bother you. SO: clean house! It will help you with your fasting and keto plans to become healthier.

Keto Dairy-Free Chocolate Milk for National Chocolate Milk Day

Today is National Chocolate Milk day, as I've just learned from Twitter, and so I thought I should post 'my' keto & dairy-free chocolate milk recipe.

Chocolate Milk (2 servings)

Mix in a 1 quart wide-mouth canning jar, using a stick blender.

1 cup full-fat coconut milk, unsweetened
1 1/2 cups water
72 drops liquid stevia (Sweetleaf sweetdrops) Vanilla flavor is good.
2 Tablespoons unsweetened Cacao powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Put it in your canning jar and run your stick blender half a minute or so. If you can tolerate dairy (as I can) use 1/2 cup of the coconut milk and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream.

This recipe is adapted from one in Dana Carpender's Fat Fast Cookbook 2. Dana's got some great keto/lowcarb recipe books, buy some!

Keeping yourself motivated on a keto diet

Sometimes the keto diet life is hard. Some days I'd rather be able to go out to a restaurant or fast food for breakfast, or pour myself a bowl of cereal. Some days I'm just not in the mood to cook, and clean up, and cook some more.

I need to stay motivated to stick to the diet. One thing that I have learned helps is each day I read a little from a low-carb diet book. It helps me feel like the diet really will work if I stick to it. And it helps me think of the diet as more than just a set of restrictions that make my life harder.

I started doing this when I first tried the Atkins Diet, years ago after having bought the book 'Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution' at a Goodwill store. I still do it today. I have loads more low-carb diet books to choose from. Like 'Keto Clarity' by Jimmy Moore.

Now we have a new motivator: podcasts! Jimmy Moore has podcasts five days a week to listen to--- they can be found in my blog list in the sidebar.

Some days, like today, I get distracted. I'm not feeling well, I'm behind on doing the laundry and dishes, one of the barn cats is refusing to mother her week-old kittens.... My life is pretty stressed today.

But I listened to a fresh Jimmy Moore podcast, I heated up a mug of bone broth, and I got started. I may not LIKE being on Keto today, but I can handle it. Maybe I'll even zip over to the grocery store for something meaty for my evening meal today.

How gluconeogenesis can be a low-carber's problem

In the original Atkins diet book, unlimited amounts of meat were allowed. And for younger dieters this could be a help. Any time you were hungry you could eat something.

But lots of us have grown up since then. And found that Atkins doesn't work as well for us as it used to. Why? Gluconeogenesis.

Gluco
Neo
Genesis

What is that? It comes from the fact that when you aren't eating sugars any more, and are staying low-carb, your body can make its own sugar out of the protein you are consuming. So if you eat too much protein, that can give you all the problems that come with eating sugar. Because your body is turning it in to sugar.

Jimmy Moore says that a good keto diet is: high in (healthy) fats, moderate in protein, low in carbs. Protein isn't a health food! It is actually healthy fats such as grass-fed butters, coconut oils and olive oils that we should be eating more of. (And scientific research backs up this claim.)

But if you cut back on protein--- eat a smaller steak--- won't you be hungry? Well, you have to make sure you are getting enough fat. You can't do low fat and low carb at the same time, it's not healthy.

Fasting and intermittent fasting are one way to help with gluconeogenesis. I don't have much appetite in the morning anyway. So I do Intermittent Fasting and don't eat in the morning at all. If I don't eat anything for breakfast, my body can't turn the protein I didn't eat into sugar.

Morning is also when Type 2 diabetics like me have the highest blood sugars. So not eating at this time when I'm not hungry anyway helps get those morning numbers down.

And not eating in the morning means that I'm only getting the amount of protein from my lunch and/or dinner, and so that brings down my protein total naturally.

It's kind of sad, though. When I first tried Atkins I was attracted by the fact that I could eat something at any time that I was hungry. But now that I am older and diabetic, life is tougher. I have to say no to eating sometimes, and I have to say no to larger portions. But it's the only way I have found to keep my diabetes problems under control.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My stuff.
Weight: 197
I did my IF until noon. Ate a small helping of carb foods because I had to go to the store and couldn't resist temptation. At least I kept the cheat smaller than usual.

My keto diet experiences

My first experience with a keto diet was sometime in the 1990s when I picked up a copy of Dr. Atkins' first diet book in a Goodwill store in Iron Mountain, Michigan.

I read the book cover to cover and tried the diet. I was so surprised how easy it was to lose weight! The Atkins diet, at least in the Induction Phase, is ketogenic. Dr. Atkins recommended that you run out and buy ketone test strips and test your urine for ketones. That way you could tell if your body had shifted over into fat-burning mode.

After that point I started purchasing any diet book I could find that was low-carb or ketogenic in nature. I read all the info in the books, especially if they referenced scientific studies. And I tried low-carb recipes from a lot of different books.

I lost some weight on Atkins. But in time I stopped doing it. The reason was that it was just hard to find low-carb food you didn't have to cook from scratch. And I had to give up going out to restaurants. There were no restaurants in my area that had low-carb items. And my family members liked to take me out to eat.

I went back on Atkins at some point. I think I was on Atkins for a full year when my father died. But I had to go off the diet at that time because I was eating out with my mother, or eating at mom's house.

At some point, my mother gave me her old blood sugar meter when she got a new one from her doctor. I tried it and found out I had diabetes. My mom's nurse-practitioner put me on Metformin. Later another drug--- I think Actos--- was added.

I found that my blood sugar was only staying under control when I was ALSO doing low-carb. Since the nurse-practitioner didn't care what my diet was, that was working out. Except I wasn't losing weight much, since I was older, menopausal, and diabetic. I was more concerned with blood sugar numbers than weight at this point.

I got a bad number on a kidney test and so had to go to a kidney doctor. And then I had to apply for Medicaid and I had to get a new kidney doctor and new doctor-substitute. One of my kidney doctors took me off all my drugs saying they caused the problem. So I really had to go low-carb. A kidney doctor messed me up by demanding I go on a government approved diet (DASH diet) that did nothing to address my carbohydrate problems. But when I got worse blood sugar numbers she said I could do what worked for me.

I noticed that the more I stuck to my diet, the better my kidney tests were. My most recent kidney doctor told me that diet had no effect on kidney disease. Since I had recently read a medical journal article that said otherwise, and heard about others, she became my former kidney doctor.

I had been collecting cookbooks by Dana Carpender for some time by then. She came out with a new one with Jimmy Moore as co-author. That's how I learned about Jimmy Moore's health podcasts. And when he came out with The Complete Guide to Fasting with Dr. Jason Fung, a kidney doctor (nephrologist), I had to buy a copy.

I feel that I am getting very well read on the science behind ketogenic diets and behind fasting. But the follow-through is hard. I still live alone, don't have a dishwasher or running water in the kitchen sink, and have to drive to another state for a grocery store with good selection.

And so, this blog. I figure if I become a health blogger I will be more motivated to stick to my keto and fasting plan. And if I can help other people to become informed or inspired, that's a bonus. Since I am a Christian (Catholic flavor) I think helping others is cool. So, if I can help you--- maybe answer a question or something--- I will.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My personal stuff.
On Sept 23, my weight was 199 pounds. (My all-time high was about 255 pounds.) My blood sugars, particularly in the morning, have been BAD. (Not saying how bad.) My blood sugar this morning was still BAD, but was significantly down from the 300+ blood sugars I have been getting in the morning. I have been doing Intermittent Fasting in the mornings, eating only after 11am. I'm trying to hold off until 12 noon every day, and stop eating after 6pm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some books mentioned in this post.