Keto means learning to say 'no'

Going keto is about learning to say 'no' to yourself and to others. You have to toughen up and learn to do that.

Your very first morning on keto you had to skip your normal breakfast --- perhaps Froot Loops,  or toast,  or pancakes --- and learn to like permitted keto foods in the morning.

After you got into ketosis,  perhaps you went a step beyond and tried morning fasting,  or skipping your accustomed snack times. More saying no! In time,  when you stay on keto,  it gets easier. You find more keto foods you love,  and lose your hunger for high-carb junk food. You feel less hungry --- even when you have just fasted two days.

Sometimes you will really need that new saying-no ability.  Recently I was hospitalized.  I got offered a lot of high-carb institutional food--- even though I am diabetic. I said no. Since I  was in ketosis and also sick,  I didn't mind much when I had to turn down food, and since they were so amazed I was a diabetic and not on meds,  they accommodated my dietary needs.

Now I am in a rehab center. They try to get me stuff I can eat in spite of the fact they don't understand or approve low-carb. I have even trained most of them to bring me 2 pats of butter for my coffee!

The fact that I have learned to say 'no' to my raging appetite by using keto (and fasting) means I am able to survive temptations and keep my blood glucose under control.  And I  was never a  person with any amount of willpower. If I can do keto even in a hospital or rehab center,  anyone can do it.

Don't get discouraged,  a lot of keto folks are people who never had willpower or diet success.  You don't need the willpower.  You just need to learn enough about keto to do it.  It is science based,  and actual science works.

Cheap Eats on the Ketogenic Lifestyle

How do you do the ketogenic *lifestyle when you are low-income? Most poor-people foods--- like ramen noodles, boxed mac and cheese, and Rice-a-Roni--- are far too high-carb to even THINK about.

Some on keto insist we should all be absolute perfectionists with the food we purchase. We shouldn't buy common butter when it is on sale, we should hold out for imported, grass-fed Kerrygold butter. We shouldn't buy common grocery store beef, pork and chicken, but hold out for specialty, grass-fed, organic-certified meat at many times to price.

Don't do this. If you are both low-income and a perfectionist, you won't get many keto meals out of your food income, and you will end up eating junk from the local Food Bank at the end of the month. It's better to go for less-perfect but keto-OK foods that will keep you properly fed without breaking the budget.

1. Eggs. Regular grocery store eggs are OK. If you know a chicken-raiser who has extra eggs, these are worth the extra money since the shells are stronger and the chickens less likely to be confined without any green feeds. Don't hold out for 'certified organic' which most good egg producers can't afford to do.
2. Buy dairy products unless allergic. Butter, heavy whipping cream, sour cream and cheese are allowed foods which are cheaper than non-dairy alternatives. If you can't tolerate most dairy, you may be able to handle butter. Or home-made ghee (clarified butter.) 
3. Buy meat with bones in it. Save the bones in your freezer to make bone broth. Bone broth from leftover bones is pretty much free food.
4. Zucchini from gardeners or farm stands. These zucchini are many times larger than grocery store zucchini, and can be used for zucchini noodles, riced zucchini, and mashed zucchini.
5. Cabbage, also from farm stands when possible. My friend got some massive cabbage direct from a farmer one year. Cabbage keeps well and is good for salad, low-carb cabbage soups, cabbage noodles and such. Also you can make sauerkraut or kimchee from it--- healthy fermented foods.
6. Meat and soup bones direct from the farmer at farmers' markets. We have a guy selling the meat by the piece and I got great soup bones from him. 
7. Lamb from lamb farmers. Some lamb farmers are used to sell some lambs direct to Muslim customers. Ask around who raises lambs in your area. If you have Muslim friends or other immigrant lamb-eaters, ask them. Lamb is higher in fats than many meats. If you don't have the skills to butcher it yourself, there are custom shops that will butcher to order.
8. Stewing hens. These are egg hens who are older birds and make the best soup or broth. You may be able to buy birds cheap from your egg supplier in fall. Butcher them yourself and cook them for hours in a Crock-Pot for the meat and the bone broth.
9. 'Family-Pack' meats. Sometimes these cost less per pound. Freeze what you are not going to cook right away. 
10. Chicken thighs. These have more fat than other chicken, unless you buy the boneless, skinless travesties. (Don't do that.) Chicken thighs with skin-on make a delicious meal, and the bones can be stockpiled in the freezer for bone broth.
11. Free venison. Sometimes hunters, especially older ones, have more venison than their families can consume, and they donate it to a Food Bank. Donation is also the likely fate of deer who damage crops and are hunted, with permission, out of season. Since venison is lean, it will need a rich sauce to keep your fat percentage up.

*lifestyle = we call keto a lifestyle, not a diet, because it is supposed to be a way of life, for life, not just a temporary diet you go on and then off of.

90 days on Keto and Fasting: Results--- 35 pounds and controlled blood sugar

Today I celebrate day 90 of being on a strict low-carb ketogenic diet. I've had some good results both over the 90 days, and in my previous low-carb diet.

I have lost 35 pounds in the 90 days, which brings my total weight lost by low-carb keto to 89 pounds. I was mostly on lowcarb before, but less strict, and didn't do fasting other than skipping breakfast most days.

My BMI has gone down from 32.0 on day 10 of keto, to 27.0 this morning, which means I am no longer obese, just 'overweight.'

As a Type 2 diabetic, it was bad blood sugars that drove me to strict keto and fasting. I had a 336 blood sugar on day 1 of the current keto regime. I had a 84 yesterday, and was up to 99 this morning.

I am currently on a No-Breakfast Plan experiment, where I don't start eating until lunchtime. I'm also currently on the third day of a three-day fast. Or maybe a four-day fast. We'll see where I am tomorrow morning.

My blood pressure has been high, and while previously a low-carb diet lowered it without help, it hasn't helped much. I decided to try taking some good kind of garlic capsules. I found one kind which was allicin powder, the active ingredient in garlic, Buy Naturally bioactive Mega Allicin. My blood pressure has gone down slightly since I started to take it. I may add a cinnamon capsule--- I have used Cinnulin in the past--- and see if that helps even more.

No-Breakfast Plan experiment
The problem with this experiment as an experiment is that I was already mostly not a morning eater. And then I decided I had to do a 3 day fast, so any results will be a part of that. I think if I experiment again I might experiment on eating breakfasts, and see what that does. Anyway, I will report on the results at the official end of the experiment on Monday.

Meal planning on keto, the 'Steak and Salad' diet

I’ve seen ketoblogs that offer ‘meal planning’ services. I guess if you need that help and you can afford it, it wouldn’t hurt to support the keto community by buying ‘meal planning’ services. But it’s better to eventually learn to plan keto meals by yourself, based on what you and your family eat, and on any extra diet restrictions you or your family members need to cope with food allergies and such.

To learn keto meal planning, think back. How did you learn about meal planning for a conventional diet (if you did?) In my family, a typical supper had a meat item, one or two starchy-food items (potatoes, bread, buns, rice, baked beans) and a cooked vegetable. Plus a sugar-based dessert, of course.

In keto diets, we can go back to the ‘Steak and Salad’ menu plan of the original Atkins Induction. Dieters were allowed just about any meat or seafood that didn’t contain carbohydrates, or have carbohydrate breading or buns or have bread or potatoes mixed in (like meatloaf from some recipes.) And for lunch and supper every day, you could have a cup of salad, made from the vegetables on a list in the Atkins diet book of 1972. (Later versions of Atkins added more veggies because of ‘net carbs’, a concept many modern ketonians are rejecting.)

For the ‘Steak’ item: the easiest way is to buy a likely piece of meat— a steak, a pork chop, a couple of chicken thighs, fish— and cook it in a simple way, like cooking a steak in a frying pan. If you don’t know how to cook, this is the easiest way at first. I’ve learned that if I happen to buy a cut of meat I haven’t often cooked before, I can find simple ways to cook it by searching online. I also look at an old, rather basic cookbook I inherited from my mother, which usually has at least one recipe for even odd food items like venison or salsify (a root crop.) As you go on in the keto life, you can purchase a number of fine cookbooks that feature low-carb, keto or paleo recipes, and find new, more complicated ways to cook your meat.

The ‘Salad’ item: I’ve never liked salads. My mom used to make salads, and I ate them (without dressing, as we never had salad dressing at home and I never liked it once I tried it.) But a salad wasn’t my idea of food, and I certainly never in my life ordered a main-dish salad in a restaurant. I wasn’t that eager to signal my dietary virtue that I’d give up a meal for a salad. Plus, back when I was a calorie-counter I knew many main-dish salads had more calories and fat than a Big Mac. 

But once I tried Atkins and got on Induction, I ate my two salads a day and liked it. Since I live alone and my salad items or bagged salad goes bad quick, I often sprout alfalfa and other seeds to use as my salad. I often eat my sprouts right from the sprouter, without any salt! Though of course I know salt isn’t bad for you, especially good kinds of salt like sea salt or Himalayan pink salt. 

The Atkins diet instructions also give a list of low-carb vegetables that can be cooked, but doesn’t say whether a cooked vegetable can replace a daily salad or how much cooked vegetable is allowed at what level of Atkins. The original Atkins isn’t big on making you count carb grams, but I think Induction is normally about 20 grams of carb a day, and other levels add back about 5g carbs each. A standard keto diet today is also about 20 grams of carb. But then, salad veggies and low-carb cooked veggies don’t use up that many grams.

I would suggest that for a meal with more variety, you might try cutting the raw salad in 1/2, and using about a half-cup of an allowed veggie for cooked vegetables. So in that case, you could have ‘Steak’ and ‘Salad’ and ‘Veggie’ as your menu items for supper. 

For an even fancier supper, you can have soup as a ‘first course.’ Broth is allowed, and home-made bone broth is often highly recommended these days. You can add a bit of veggies, or some cream or cheese, to make your broth into a soup. If you can handle extra carbs, you might even add bean sprouts or pea or lentil sprouts to create an analogue to bean, pea or lentil soups. (The hard part is finding the carb grams for pea or lentil sprouts.)

What about desserts? There are lots of keto dessert recipes. But I would caution against making any of them a major part of your keto life. Keto desserts nearly always use up some of your carb grams for the day. Many also use sugar alcohols, which they tell you that you don’t have to count. The problem is, that your body may not have gotten the message. It may metabolize some or all of the sugar alcohols. So, daily desserts should no longer be a thing for you. Get to enjoy the tastes of your other allowed foods for a while. Don’t work on your dessert-crafting skills until you have learned to cook or craft the more basic keto menu items.

So: your meal plan is: 

‘Steak’, 

‘Salad’, 

optional ‘Veggie’, 

optional ‘Soup,’ 

very rarely ‘Dessert.'

But how does that adapt for other meals besides supper?

For lunch, we often pick a lighter meal. Instead of a big piece of meat for the ‘Steak’ menu item, we may add a little chicken or tuna to our salad, or have ‘Soup’ and ‘Salad.’ For breakfast, if we eat breakfast, we often can eat ‘breakfast-y food items like eggs or omelets with bacon or ham. But we don’t have to eat ‘breakfast food’ for breakfast, and if we like breakfast food but are on the No-Breakfast Plan, we can have our low-carb pancakes or our omelets later in the day. Egg based foods, being a protein source, go under the ‘Steak’ part of our menu plan, and cheese or cheese-and-egg items fall in this category as well. Tofu, too. If you eat tofu and know how to make it taste like food and don’t worry about the soy content. 

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The Original Atkins book has a set of suggested meal plans at the beginning of the recipe section. These might also be of help. And there are many cookbook authors--- Dana Carpender, Maria Emmerich--- who have whole books full of ketogenic/low-carb recipes.

Is a ketodiet bad because it helps people who can't exercise?

There are some uninformed people out there--- like Jillian Michaels--- who give as one criticism of the ketodiet that people who cannot or do not exercise can lose weight on it, as well as clear up various health problems.

OK, I know that in our ignorant-of-facts culture loads of people believe that exercise somehow cures people of being fat, or punishes them appropriately for being fat. We had examples like that horrible 'Biggest Loser' show where morbidly obese people were screamed at by skinny personal trainers to keep exercising on their gym machines when they were too exhausted or in too much pain to continue, so that they could temporarily lose some weight and then gain it back.

But the fact is that you can't out-run or out-exercise a bad diet. A fat guy who buys a gym membership and 'goes to the gym' daily is just going to end up a poorer fat guy.

And there is also the fact that many people who who need the various benefits of a ketodiet cannot exercise because of health issues. Some people are bedridden or in wheelchairs. Some people have serious heart defects. Some people have chronic fatigue to the point that when they get home from work they barely have the energy for survival chores like laundry and cooking dinner. Do we really want to tell these people they just have to go die because they can't do the kind of exercise Jillian Michael likes?

I have read more that one story of keto diet success in which the person went on keto, but did not start to exercise until the ketodiet had helped them lose weight and/or gain back some energy. Is that a bad thing that these people were helped?

I think the exercise gurus/professionals like Jillian Michaels need to get off their high horse and realize you don't need to do gym exercise to be healthier! And not everyone has a nearby gym--- I think the closest one to where I live is in the next state!

A good diet (ketogenic) and getting enough exercise are two different things. And formal exercise is not the only kind of exercise--- what about people who walk to their place of work or school, or who climb up and down stairs instead of using an elevator? That exercise counts, too.

There is scientific research that shows that a keto diet is a healthy and helpful diet. Is exercise helpful? Yes, but so is wearing your seatbelt and avoiding poker games with Mafia hit men. Any form of healthier living is an improvement, and you should not have to do one thing to be allowed to do others.

A recommended book by Gary Taubes, and a not-recommended book by Jillian Michaels. I'm reading the Taubes book right now, and am learning a lot. The language is kind of technical, though!

 

Atkins as a ketogenic diet

There is a lot of talk in the keto community about how to show that 'the' keto diet is different from that darn old Atkins. As well as outsiders who say 'that keto diet is just a new name for Atkins,' as if that would be some sort of proof that something was wrong with keto.

The problem is that most people don't even know what Atkins really is. Perhaps they are mislead by the commercials for Atkins brand diet products. But to understand Atkins, go to the source: the original Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution book, published in 1972.

The Atkins approach as outlined in that book is clearly a ketogenic diet. The concept of 'ketones' is introduced on page 12!  Dr. Atkins says, 'Now for a carbohydrate-intolerant Mr Fat to be in ketosis is a signal for rejoicing." He also mentions that when in ketosis, one experiences no hunger.

He defines ketones as little carbon fragments that are the by-products of the incomplete burning of fat, and ketosis as the state in which the person is putting out ketones in the breath or urine.

He also insists that testing for ketones with urine test strips--- the only method available to ketogenic dieters in 1972. He suggests that when your test strips are 'turning purple every day' you can be confident you are in ketosis and so even if you've lost no weight today, you are in fat-burning mode.

In the diet plan--- perhaps a reproduction of the diet sheet he handed out to patients--- unlimited consumption of carb-free meats is allowed, so long as you are hungry. Modern ketonians say to restrict protein. But remember that Dr. Atkins had a practice which included persons who would never read their way through a whole diet book. There were no apps to tell you what percentage of your food intake was in the forms of carbs, protein and fat. And many of his patients had been low-calorie dieting for years, and were used to being hungry all the time when on a diet.

I think Atkins was and is a realistic ketogenic diet for many people. The problem I find is in the levels.

On Atkins, you start out in Induction, where you eat about 20 grams a day of carbs, in the form of two less-than-one-cup salads. Then, each week, you add about 5-8 grams of carbs in various forms--- cooked veggies, nuts, berries.... As long as your test strips are still turning purple, indicating you are still in ketosis, you keep adding until you find a good level for you to keep losing weight. It's only when you hit the lifetime maintanance level that you are allowed enough carbs to get out of ketosis.

Another thing Dr. Atkins book has in common with more modern keto books is that he speaks of many different scientific studies that back up his statements. He doesn't ask us to take his word for it!

One different thing about about this earliest Atkins diet book is that it was written at a time when there were no Atkins products on the market. There were no food items claiming to be low-carb in the grocery store. The early Atkins dieter had to shop in regular grocery stores and eat regular, commonly available food. And the concept of 'Net Carbs' had not been introduced, so people were reducing their total carbs, and not getting out of ketosis by consuming too much coconut or almond flours.

Atkins is, so far as I am aware, the first low-carb diet that taught about ketosis, and insisted that dieters test for it. Where more modern keto diet books are less readily available, or where a dieter lacks the ability to buy such books online or lacks the funds, snagging a copy of the original Atkins book is a good place to start learning about the keto diet. I've been re-reading the book for years, since I've found that when re-starting my diet after a lapse, reading a bit from the book daily helped me to stay on track. And the recipes in that original book are great!

Why are people ashamed of Atkins, or insisting that people on keto be ashamed of it? It's like asking that people with infections be ashamed of taking penicillin, since that is an old-fashioned drug these days. Should we demand a more modern medicine that is trendy, but won't solve our problem? I think not. Atkins is a good basic step --- a keto diet for the common person who is not a medical research geek. Though it certainly turned ME into a medical research geek by the good example Dr. Atkins gave in his book.

Learning to measure your ketones

I started out on the Atkins diet, and on that diet I first learned about the benefits of being in ketosis, and how to check if I was in ketosis using urine test strips.

But the urine test strips are not the most reliable method of testing your state of ketosis. You can be in ketosis and not be putting out many ketones in your urine.

The ideal way is to measure your blood ketones. There are meters for that, similar to the little meters you use to test your blood sugar if you are diabetic.

The problem is the little test strips you have to buy can be pricey, ranging from $1 per strip to $6 per strip, according to Jimmy Moore. It is probably worth doing anyway, but if you have limited funds, there is another way of measuring your state of ketosis that's better than the urine test strips, but not such a big ongoing expense.

This alternative is KetonixⓇ, a meter that tests your breath ketones. I have had one for some years now, and I can test and test and test without having to buy strips or anything for each test. You blow into it, and it lights up in colors, which tell you how deep in ketosis you are.

My own Ketonix is an older model. The current one costs $270 and links up to your computer (I think) and so does more. They only have the one model available, at least on Amazon.com.

For a blood ketone monitor, the KETO-MOJO is advertised on Jimmy Moore's podcasts, and the ketone testing strips are about a dollar each. I'm seriously thinking about getting one, since this is the best test, but my old Ketonix is still working well, and as long as it does, it will do well as a backup device. Maybe I would alternate days between the two testing systems so I would use half as many strips?

Anyway, the important thing is if you make keto testing a daily part of your life, you can tweak your keto diet to work better for YOU. I mean, if I get kicked out of ketosis every time I eat a certain food, maybe I shouldn't eat that food.

Do you test for ketones daily? What method do you use? Are you thinking of trying another method? Do you think testing helps you stay in ketosis?

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I'm not good at fasting yet

Recently I went back on strict Keto after a time period of regular daily cheating with carb-foods. Last Thursday was my 14th day on strict keto, and on impulse I decided to make it a fasting day. 

I have had little success in the past with fasting for 24 hours or more. I just got too hungry, and broke the fast short of the goal. But this time it went more easily. After days of strict keto with no carb-cheating, I didn’t have a big appetite any more. I was surprised at how hunger-free the day was.

Dr. Jason Fung, in ‘The Complete Guide to Fasting,’ allows home-made bone broth as an allowed fasting fluid. I happened to have some home-made bone broth in the freezer, so I thawed it out at heated up 2 cups, one at breakfast-time, one at lunch-time. I would have allowed myself a third serving near supper-time, but I wasn’t hungry and wasn’t in the mood to bother with it.

In previous attempts to fast, about 2 to three pm was my temptation time. I told myself I was so good fasting so far, I really deserved to get myself a little something to eat. Usually a little something meant potato chips or some other carb-poison. This time, I continued not feeling hungry throughout the day, into the evening, and even until the next morning.

I was even tempted to continue the fast during the next day, but decided to break the fast anyway since I could always start a fast again on another day. The next day’s results on my blood sugar was a 110, which contrasts to the 127s I had been getting before the fast, and the readings in the 200s I had been getting on my frequent-cheat routine. Blood sugars stayed lower in the following days when I was back on strict keto.

Another thing that helped was listening to an old episode from Jimmy Moore’s former podcast, ‘Fasting Talk.’ I downloaded a lot of podcasts from that series and it helped inspire me to stick with the fasting. But, as I’ve said, this time the fasting wasn’t any effort, and it was a relief not to have to do the chores of cooking for myself and cleaning up after. 

I think my frequent days of doing intermittent fasting, or ‘the no-breakfast plan’ was a big help. I was going 18-20 hours without food on a regular basis. Though when I went back on strict keto I did eat keto breakfasts, often a ‘bulletproof hot chocolate.’ 

Since I did not plan the fast, I hadn’t written down, for the Wednesday before my fasting Thursday, what time I quit eating for the day. I estimated it as about 6pm. When I added up the fasting time, it came to something like five minutes short of 40 hours of fasting. And all this without hunger or any desires for food!

I’m writing this now on Thursday the 12th of July, and I am once again beginning a fast. I felt good enough to do a long walk this morning (and got caught in a rainstorm I didn’t know was predicted), and I’m pretty confident I can keep fasting through today and perhaps through Friday as well. I can always eat the shrimp I planned to make for Friday on Saturday instead.

What about you, (the reader, assuming I have some/one)? Have you tried a full fasting day yet? How did it go?

Warning: If you are on diabetes meds, you MUST consult your doctor before going keto OR before fasting. You will probably need to reduce those meds. (I was lucky, my kidney doctor took me off all meds and said I could only use insulin, but never prescribed the insulin. So I’ve been using keto/fasting to sub for my diabetes meds.) 

Why Low-Carb/Keto/LCHF is a Lifestyle, not a Diet

I believe it was Dr. Atkins who started off the idea of not talking about this way-of-eating as a diet. In popular usage, a ‘diet’ was something temporary. You went on a diet, lost weight, and then went off the diet. 

The problem is that we know that this cannot be just a temporary thing for us, even if we do lose weight. Weight gain was not our problems, just a symptom of a bigger thing called Insulin Resistance. Insulin Resistance is a disease that can cause many health problems— diabetes, kidney failure, Alzheimers Disease, as well as overweight/obesity.

The medicine for our disease does not come in a pill bottle. It’s eating in a way that doesn’t trigger our Insulin Resistance. And we can’t just do that for a little while. We have to keep it up for the rest of our lives.

And that’s hard when we live in a culture that doesn’t support our lifestyle. In our culture, eating processed food is the norm, and that means food that is stuffed with carbs. McDonald’s doesn’t make a living by selling meat— it sells buns, french fries, and soda pop, with a little bit of meat to flavor the buns. They are ‘drug pushers’ of an addictive drug: carbohydrates. And so they don’t want to start giving their customers an alternative menu item that meets Low-Carb or Keto standards.

The hard part of the Keto lifestyle for me is the cooking. Our culture actively discourages home cooking. How can the food processors make any money if we buy fresh meat and some fresh veggies and cook it up? And I live alone, which means that if I make most low-carb/keto recipes, I have to eat the same thing for days.

But I must adapt. I make the most simple/basic low carb meal— a serving of meat plus non-starchy veggies— in a simple way. I make a ‘bullet-proof’ beverage in the morning. I make my low-carb ‘breads’ and freeze some for later use.

And I’m thinking about the long term. What happens as I age and can’t do for myself any more? I need to simplify my eating life. Since one of my biggest problems with home-cooking is the cleaning up after, I am making plans to get a dishwasher, since my old one went defunct years ago and I’ve been hand-washing ever since.

One of the co-hosts on a Jimmy Moore podcast likes to call those of us on a keto lifestyle ‘ketonians.’ Like we were a separate foreign culture with different ways. That may be a helpful way to look at it. When we first learned that keto was the way to help our health problems, we joined the tribe. And we are going to stay in it until we die— because going out of the tribe and becoming a carbivore again will make us die quicker.

Low-Carb Diet: How to Do it Right

Updated 9/26/18

I knew the low-carb diet had finally gone mainstream when General Hospital mob boss Julian Jerome stopped eating carbs. It was about time. Low-carb first became part of American diet culture in 1972 when Dr. Robert Atkins' book, 'Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution' made the best-seller lists. Atkins created the diet for himself, based on things he'd read in medical journal articles, but the medical establishment called him a heretic for not promoting a calorie counting or low-fat approach--- which is also known in medical journal articles as a 'semi-starvation diet.'

Low-carb, also called ketogenic, diets are different from temporary weight loss diets. You have to change your eating patterns for life to reap the benefits.

The problem with low-carb is that everyone has heard of it but precious few people know how to do it. Look at this scene, which takes place at a buffet:

Husband: Look at those bread rolls! Don't they look great?
Wife: We can't have them, dear. We are eating low-carb now, remember?
Husband: Then let's have these buttermilk biscuits, then. Or that corn bread.
Wife: We can't have those, either. They are bread, too. Sort of.
Husband: Well, what can we eat, then?
Wife: Well, how about this mashed potatoes? It's a vegetable. Surely no diet can restrict our vegetables? And this fruit salad--- I'm sure we can have as much fruit as we like.
Husband: What about this macaroni and cheese?
Wife: Well, it's got pasta, but pasta isn't bread. And cheese is a low-carb diet food--- go for it!

This, as you may have guessed, is NOT the way to do low-carb. In order to do it right, you have to get a sound low-carb diet book with good instructions on how foods fit in to the low-carb eating plan. In this plan, there are three classes of foods:

1. Foods to eat freely: meats (beef, pork, lamb, venison, chicken, turkey), fish and seafood (salmon, tuna, cod, smelt, perch, shrimp--- all kinds except clams, scallops and oysters), eggs, mayonnaise, butter, coconut oil, olive oil.
2.  Foods to ration: salads, non-starchy vegetables, heavy whipping cream, cheese, nut products such as almond flour, coconut flour. (A good low-carb diet plan will tell you how much of each you are allowed.)
3. Foods you may not eat: bananas, figs, candy, cake, bread, muffins, pasta, milk, pancakes, corn, cornstarch, sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, jam, honey, potatoes, raisins, sweet potatoes, yams, sweetened yogurt.

The low-carb diet is a trade-off. There are some foods you just cannot eat at all--- unlike the calorie-counting approach where you can have tiny portions of such food. In exchange, there are foods you can eat without restrictions.

When you are consuming no more than 10 or 20 grams of carbohydrate per day, your metabolism changes. It stops running on glucose--- sugar--- and starts running on ketones. Ketones result when your body is running on fat instead of sugar. It's very healthful, not just for weight loss but for many other conditions. A ketogenic (ketone producing) diet has been used to treat epilepsy for decades, and helps in diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, autism, kidney disease, and other conditions. Read 'Keto Clarity' for more information, much of it contributed by doctors.

When choosing your Basic Diet Book for your eating plan, beware of these things: first, some 'low-carb' diets are not low carb. They just reduce your carbs a little. So you don't get the benefits of a low-carb/ketogenic diet.

Also, the Atkins approach has steps. You start at a healthy 10 or so grams of carbs, and then after two weeks you start adding more carbs back. This triggers your food cravings for carb foods and can lead to food binges on carb foods. This is why people go off Atkins and swear it didn't work for them. Advice: ignore the instructions for the steps, except that if you are healthy you might try the first one or two addition of 5 more carb grams, which you can use on nuts or more veggies or certain fruits (berries, mostly). Don't go full on for adding back carbs if you want to keep losing weight and gaining in health.

The 'Carbohydrate Addicts Diet' is a plan to avoid. On it, you eat two meals a day of low-carb food, and one reward meal in which you can eat any foods you like, so long as you finish the meal within one hour. This plan doesn't work on some people at all, and with others it works initially but then quits working. It can lead to food binges on carb-foods. Remember, for most people who go on diets, carb foods are like alcohol is to an alcoholic. They must be avoided.

The Paleo diet is NOT a low-carb ketogenic diet. It does not restrict fruit consumption, for example. The book Neanderthin is a more low-carb approach to the Paleo diet, but even there you will have to get another eating plan to provide your carb restriction plan. It adds more restrictions to the diet--- you will have to give up cream, butter and cheese--- but some people like a low-carb Paleo approach. As long as you are keeping your carbs low enough, the Paleo approach may be right for you.

Some recommended diet plan books:
Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution
The Diabetes Diet
Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It


How to use the diet plan books: Buy one or more of the books above. Everyone should probably have a copy of the original Atkins book, even if your eating plan is based on The Diabetes Diet. Read them cover to cover. Find the section of the book that is the 'diet sheet' --- that sums up what foods you can and can't eat. Make two copies of it. Keep one in your billfold or purse. Put the other up on the refrigerator or somewhere else handy in the kitchen. You can put it on the inside of a cupboard door if you like.

There are also videos at KetoWhiteBoard.info which are by health podcaster Jimmy Moore, author of Keto Clarity. They are highly recommended. And on the sidebar of this blog there are links to the Jimmy Moore podcasts, including Livin' La Vida Low-Carb, which will also help you get informed.

Make a point of reading in your diet plan book for ten minutes every day. This will keep your enthusiasm up, and it will help you remember all the things you need to know about your new diet.

You will also need other books for your low-carb/ketogenic lifestyle. Books like Keto Clarity which show you the benefits of the diet. Recipe books, like those by Dana Carpender.  But you don't need all that to start with. I started out with just the original Atkins book which I bought at a St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop, which contains a recipe section in the back. Later, I added an early Atkins recipe book.

Have you ever tried Atkins or another low-carb diet plan? Did you commit to it as a lifelong eating plan? Did you try it for weight loss or for one of the other health benefits? Are you still on it? Do you think it helps you?

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!

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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.)

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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Some books mentioned in this post.