Pick Your Path: Keto or Low Carb
Pick Your Path: Keto or Low Carb
PICK YOUR PATH: KETO OR LOW CARB
Okay, my friends, it is time to come to a decision about making some changes in your eating habits. This week's blog explores keto and low carb. Of course you might need more information to pick your path: keto or low carb, but here is a start.
What was MY path?
My own experience started with keto.
My Lightbulb Moment
Listening to Gary Taubes’s Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It was my lightbulb moment. For the first time, I realized that the food itself was keeping me fat all these years and it was not my fault. I began a ketogenic (“Keto”) diet immediately and never looked back.
I enjoyed the freedom of keto (that’s right – freedom even with all those food restrictions!). I was never hungry (that's the big one!), I lost weight and "shape-shifted" pretty quickly.
The picture below was taken at the beginning of my journey to about 3 months in, with not enough weight loss that would account for that difference. That is why I call keto a shape-shifting diet. I lost weight too, but I want to show this because when you begin to lose fat around your belly (which is usually the storage area for fat that accumulates because of high insulin), things can change quickly and the scale doesn't always move as fast as what you are seeing on your body!
Everything became easier
I loved the freedom of not having to weigh, measure and track my food. I did track maybe for a month or two just so that I knew that I was getting enough fat and protein and was not eating too many carbohydrates. However, what was different was that the craziness and crazed-ness of dieting was not there.
It's not like I had to fit into a certain number of calories or Points. A little more or a little less didn't throw the entire day into the rubbish. Because I learned that the food itself was the driver of success (and not the quantity), I realized that as long as I wasn't eating bagels and muffins on the way to work or bread and chips at lunch, I could have extra eggs and bacon in the morning or could have a loaded Cobb salad at lunch - with as much low/no-carb dressing as I needed.
What I did find difficult
You would think it was giving up bread and pasta, right?
Not at all: What I did find difficult from the start - and probably lasted several months if not a year or more - was that this was not prescriptive eating. No one was telling me what to eat or how much to eat or when to eat. I did not have to fit into a prescriptive number of Points or calories. Yes, people can get crazed about macros (exact counts for carbohydrates, fat and protein), but I felt in my heart that I ultimately didn't want to do keto that way.
I felt that if I couldn't do this for a lifetime then there was no way I should do it for months or even years. As I said, I did weigh and measure and track for a couple of months, but that was in the name of education, not deprivation. I got to the point where I could look at my meals plate by plate or day by day, and know that I was eating in a ketogenic manner.
What I did measure was blood ketone levels, and found that I was consistently in ketosis. When I dropped out of ketosis I would review my day and investigate what could have caused it. It's not that I wasn't committed 100% but, well, you know... maybe too much fruit, maybe too many nuts, maybe a cookie... But, I was always honest. It was never, "Oh my gosh, how did that happen?" Had I been counting strict macros and taped my mouth shut the minute I reached my maximum, I would have stayed in ketosis all the time. But I wasn't willing (and still am not willing) to live that way.
What I was loving about keto
I was loving this way of eating (did I say already that I was never hungry?). I was loving the results - not just the weight-loss and shape-shifting results, but the fact that this was so easy to live with. My choices were so uncomplicated - I didn't have to worry about counting all the points or the calories in anything. It was easy to give up regular bread, crackers and pasta. (There are keto substitutes for it all, but I didn't even feel a need to have the substitutes.)
I was loving that I was learning that after 60 years of dieting I could give up the ghost of feeling I was broken, stupid or lazy. I didn't even have to blame it on my genes. I learned that it was the food. I learned that when I ate in a way that lowered my insulin and blood sugar, that everything else fell into place. My triglycerides dropped like a rock; my cholesterol has never been so low; my fasting insulin went down a phenomenal amount in a short period of time; and my blood pressure was so low-range `normal that the tech would always take it twice because she couldn't believe the reading.
I was loving the recipes and all the foods I had denied myself for years while dieting: full fat mayonnaise (instead of no-fat mayonnaise "dressing"), ribeye steaks, chicken thighs with the skin on, butter on vegetables, real sour cream with my celery sticks and juicy burgers made with 80/20 beef, not diet lean 93/7.
Did I miss the bread?
Not really. I found it tough though when we moved near a real bakery and my husband started bringing home fresh warm bread almost daily. And yes, I did have some and I tried to make all the deals with myself: I won't have any bread except if it is still warm from the bakery; I will only have a piece the size of my thumb to sop up the sauce; or the big one: I will have only one sandwich a week.
You know the slippery slope I am talking about. And yes, I did fall down that slope over and over and over again. I did. I admit it.
But once I realized that there was no sure footing for me on that slope, I just said no to bread - fresh and warm from the bakery or not. Sometimes I pick it up for my husband because I am in the neighborhood and I put it right into my trunk. I dare not even smell it.
"Hi. My name is Miriam Hatoum and I am a carb addict. One piece leads to the whole loaf. I can't help myself."
Emily Maroutian has said: "The degree to which a person can grow is in direct proportion to the amount of truth they can accept about themselves without running away." Once I realized this truth about myself, I realized that my personal path needed to be keto.
Becoming more involved with low carb
We teach what we most need to learn
I loved this way of eating so much and was so thrilled with the results that I wanted to start sharing this with people, and so furthered my education and became a certified health coach. I also wanted to share the message that we, some of us as lifelong dieters, are not stupid or broken or lazy. We need to learn that it is about the food itself. And I wanted to help people with that and share the message. But I also was still learning my own way on a path that was ever evolving.
As I started coaching I realized that keto is not for everyone, either because they don’t want to do it or do not need to do it. My husband is one such person who is blessed with a great metabolism.
I also found two personalities: Those who love to jump into the deep end of a pool and those who would rather go in slowly, dipping one toe at a time. Because I am a “jump in the deep end” sort of gal, I really had to think through how to best help the toe-dippers.
I decided to widen my scope and create Granny Keto Transitions Program: Five Steps to Keto. This program helped my clients (and me) find some middle ground, using keto principles to eat a wise low carbohydrate diet or to eat keto in a way that melded with their lifestyle – no pills, shakes, gimmicks, weighing or measuring – just eating in a healthy way that supports weight loss in a way that feels good and makes decisions easy.
Using that program, I started them with low carbohydrate eating, avoiding the problems that immediate keto sometimes causes, such as the dreaded keto flu. Learning about low carb also helped them avoid missteps because certain keto concepts are better understood when practiced slowly.
I discovered a second thing that committed me to finding a way to develop this special program. Many people, especially those without pressing medical problems but who were interested in keto anyway, experienced almost immediate weight loss, better digestion, better sleep and improvement in general well-being before fully progressing through keto. I found that many clients were happy and feeling better just eliminating sugar and/or grains from their diets with no need or desire to go further.
I was my own client
Because I was my own client, I found unique ways to make decisions about my eating protocol and to make true lifestyle changes. I used my experience of being a belly dance teacher to find methods to make permanent changes that stick. I am Miriam Hatoum, Granny Keto and Amira Jamal (my stage name) all rolled into one. I know with all my heart there is a way to dance through this instead of living in the prison of weighing, measuring and tracking every morsel of food.
Not all these diets are off the mark, but they did not ring all the bells and blow all the whistles for me. In the past I looked at all these attempts to diet as my failures. I have turned my thinking around and now see that it was just a matter of not succeeding, and that some of these diets had built-in problems because of the foods and methods, no matter how well-intentioned they were. I now no longer see myself as a failure, just attempts that did not work out, but which supplied the building blocks to bring me to where I am now.
Some advice for following the low carb path
I advise my students and clients to follow the "bones" of keto (very low carb, usually 20 net or total), adequate protein and enough fat to find satiety.
To this I suggest adding 1-2 carbohydrate choices per day (not per meal) such as a small portion of a starchy vegetable (such as a potato), a small serving of rice, small quantity of a "typical" breakfast food (such as muffin, toast, bagel, pancakes, cereal, etc.) or a snack side (such as pretzels or chips).
Have a wider variety of fruit than just the berries allowed on keto, but limit the number of your portions to 2.
Enjoy a dessert once or twice a week.
I think these guidelines are the easiest to follow in a way that keeps you out of diet prison. Very little weighing, measuring and tracking.
There are a lot of nooks and crannies within the low carb path (for instance, South Beach Diet, The Zone, The Primal Blueprint, etc.), all recommending different amount of carbohydrate intake.
But whatever you do, use your scale as feedback not punishment!
Dear Mr. Edison
I am sure you have heard some of Thomas Edison’s quotes
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.
Bless you, Mr. Edison.
I see I am not a failure nor were my hundreds of attempts at dieting in the 55+ years (!) I have been making them. They were merely steppingstones to finding what works, and to help me grow and mature. What I learned from trying all these diets is that the answer is within me and it is within you too.
It is not just a matter of the foods themselves that we choose to eat, but also the emotions and feelings we have behind eating those foods. You can learn a joyous and sustainable way of eating without weighing, measuring or tracking your food. Aren’t you ready for that?
Aren't you ready to try one more time?
STOP DIETING
Pick your path: Keto or Low Carb
Pick a path. Keto if you are ready to jump in. Low Carb if you feel you don't need keto or if you are a "toe-dipper." Either path will free you from diet prison.
The reason for this is that it is mainly the food itself that is driving you to eat. Once you have quieted the drive to get more food into your body (because sugar cravings beget sugar cravings and also as your insulin and blood sugar rise because of these foods you are always tired and hungry and feel you can never get enough food), you can move forward with addressing the other things that come up such as urges, cravings, negative self-talk, setting goals, etc.
But first, get the massive amounts of sugar and carbohydrates out of your system.