alphaomega

Yesterday I was at a birthday party. Sitting in front of me on the table was my favorite cake and a pitcher of strong margaritas.

I felt ZERO desire to have either. Nothing. And believe me when I say, no one is more surprised than I am that I had no desire.

The smell of the vanilla cake made me slightly nauseous and the breath of those who had been drinking sent me a few times for shelter

I was of course prodded and asked what was going on.

What ? No margs AO ?

Are you reallllly not going to have cake AO ?

And I thought how strange it was that misery really does in fact love freaking company...

I just told them, I'm doing "Dry July". They don't need to know more than that at the moment. Unless someone wants guidance on how to start this WOE, I have found people REALLY have a strong (mostly negative) response to it.

It was odd how people then, both seemed put off by this newfound "willpower" and unwillingness to ingest POISONS.

So many people felt the need to explain to me things like "Well, its a party so I'm going to party" and "I'm going to start my diet tomorrow" and "Come on, just have one".

In the past, I would have white knuckled that event, (along with the italian dinner the prior evening where Chianti was flowing like the Trevi Fountain).

It's like I found the key to the unlock my broken brain.

Could it really lie in what we eat and drink ? Could diet and nutrition be the panacea for so many health maladies ?

And, have we been lied to ? By big pharma and big Ag and corporations that tout the solutions when maybe its been available to us all along ?

This is so bizarre.

boreas

Congrats on your success AO! I don’t do keto, but eat a healthy diet with as much home-cooked real food as possible. I limit bread and starchy carbs, have sugar only as a treat, and eat lots of fruit. I’ve been listening to Dr Robert Lustig’s talks on you tube...he’s been involved in investigating how fructose (either as a component of refined sugar or HFCS) is processed in the liver and has interesting conclusions which have been born out over his years of research.

IMO, the answer to your question is yes. Medication, therapy, and other forms of formal treatment definitely have a place, but only (IMO) in conjunction with lifestyle changes including diet modification, exercise, etc. Our food system evolved under very specific conditions where shelf life was critical to feeding a hungry population. Times have changed, and I’m not sure that we’ve kept up.

DM was diagnosed with sleep apnea (among scores of other things). She has become obese in recent years. She was shocked to hear that obesity and sleep apnea are linked as her doctor didn’t mention that. IMO, it will be a shame if physicians can’t make honest recommendations to their patients because of fear of PC culture. Of course, there's not a lot of money in “eat right and exercise”.

It’s fantastic there are so many dietary options out there as we’re all different and may even need different things at various points in our lives. But for me, limiting refined sugar consumption helped lots on the road to recovery.
-bora

MLD51

I started a very low-carb almost keto diet about 3 weeks ago, because I went to have my annual physical and my fasting blood sugar was a little high. Not enough that my doctor is telling me to really do anything about it yet, but I have seen first-hand what the complications of type 2 diabetes can do (my dad died last year, an awful drawn-out litany of very bad complications leading up to it) so I'm taking it very seriously. I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my son, and that puts me in a risk category for type 2. I have been testing my sugar and I think I'm actually fine, even if I do eat more carbs than I should, but I am going to continue on the diet anyway.

In only 3 weeks I have lost 4 pounds, my morning aches getting out of bed are almost gone, I feel like I have a lot more energy, my brain feels sharper, I'm in a better mood overall. I was eating lots of sweets before I started this. I sort of replaced alcohol with sugar, for 4 and a half years. I told myself I should eat anything I wanted, that it was better than drinking. But when my health started to suffer from my not-so-great eating, it was time to clean up my act. I can totally believe that there can be a benefit to alcoholics by not getting caught up in the sugar-dopamine cycle right away. I didn't really know any better when I quit, but I can understand now that in order to really start healing those dopamine receptors, sugar probably ought to be somewhat limited.

This is not medical advice. Just my observations.

alphaomega

I did the same thing - I allowed myself unlimited sugar in the past when I tried to get sober. I would actually make a "Sobriety Cake" once a week, in "celebration" of my not drinking that week.

At the time, I was also on meds for depression and anxiety. Lexapro and Xanax. I took Lexapro 3 different times over the course of a few years. It made me flat. And fat.

Xanax, on the other hand, became my hangover remedy - as I was anxious, of course, constantly after a night of drinking.

Now, its like all that has washed away ?

I feel, dare I say, "Normal" for the first extended amount of time, I think ever in my whole 50 years on this planet.

biminiblue

Good thread, AO. I'm glad you're passionate about this, because I've known for years that sugar/bread/too many carbs are triggers for my addictive behavior/anxiety/compulsions/intrusive thoughts but I no longer have the desire to get into long talks about it.

I'm glad you're sticking to it long enough to have had this revelation and that you want to carry the message! Hopefully you'll help a lot of people with this thread.


Nice to "see" you.

bexxed

I have such a hard time with this diet. Being a vegetarian of course makes it more complicated. But I do feel enormously better when I cut carbs, and honestly do keep them lower than many others in the world, because I can’t eat bread, or other wheat/gluten foods, and I dislike sugary drinks.

I tried keto, and felt awful for three long stricken days. If I could have taken the days off work, and put my dog in boarding, and just stayed in bed, I would have. But I couldn’t, and it was actually physically worse than quitting drinking was. When I quit drinking, I could at least go for a walk and let my sleepless anxiety clean the house, etc. The keto flu is aptly named. But the proof in the people who do it is unassailable. Keto people look fantastic.

However I don’t trust a diet that says I can’t eat fruit. I took my foray into keto as a learning, and I keep the c arbs low, and do intermittent fasting, but I always did the fasting anyway, or at least, since I got sober. After seeing this post last night I have had a keto day. I probably won’t tomorrow though as there’s a beautiful big watermelon on the counter in the kitchen that was given to us by my gf’s parents.

I’m allergic to feeling hung over now. Can’t do it. Unless a doctor tells me I have to. My dr said I’m doing great with what I’m doing. But if she changes her tune next time, I will need to take a week off of work, board my energetic dog, and brace myself for the week long hangover that is my body’s response to following the keto diet according to the directions.

In other words, I’m jealous of all of you.

biminiblue

You don't have to go through the keto flu - it's because of an electrolyte imbalance. It can be mitigated with salt, vegetables and water.

ReadyAtLast

Actually I don't do keto I just do LCHF as my protein intake is too high to be keto. but the weight is dropping off me so I'm happy

alphaomega

I actually do periodically have fruit.

Not everyday, but I eat berries and watermelon too.

I just work them into my total carbs for the day.

Yes, the keto flu is a bugger. But when I'm feeling poorly, I know its because my electrolytes are off(because I'm typically peeing like cray) - so I augment them with extra salt, mag and pot.

And it resolves.

DH is actually prediabetic and pushes back against this whole WOE because hes addicted to carbs and sugar (along with opiates, marijuana, and being a general slug).

I can only make suggestions and plant the seed and lead by example.

When the student is ready, the master appears.

alphaomega

HI BIM ! Sooo nice to "see" you too !

MLD51

I'm actually doing more of a LCHF diet, too, RAL. I read a great article (which I think I linked somewhere in a different thread) that says that initial research into LCHF with diabetics is extremely promising.

ReadyAtLast

Thanks MLD, that sounds interesting. I'll have a look at it

ulfr

HAHA !!! I herd a similar talk in a meeting not say anything else will no say where

WhoDeyPI

Someone tried to get me into that "Keto" thing, and she totally lost me when she tried telling me I need to put a stick of butter into my morning coffee.

I'm sure she was just misinformed, but it turned me off of it completely. I simply log my calories, burn more than I take in, and eat a lot of protein. Works for me, but I'm glad the Keto thing works for you!

Hawkeye13

Keto works for many people, including me, but certainly there are many approaches so something for everyone. Glad you are doing so well with your plan WhoDey.

The "calories in calories out" isn't always workable, especially for people like me--middle-aged women with insulin resistance.

By the way, you are correct that the stick of butter things is BS

bexxed

When I was actively drinking, and a very long time ago, I lived in a party house with a bunch of musicians. There was always a party going on. This was very early in my drinking career and I was actually always annoyed with the permanent mess, the slovenly people, and I was waitressing at the time and wasn’t what you’d call rolling in dough. There was this homeless guy some of the guys would always bring over. He was a pothead and didn’t drink. Anyway he was the biggest slob. One morning I woke up early to go do the breakfast shift and this guy was in the kitchen stirring my last stick of butter into his coffee. I’d planned to use butter on my English muffin that morning and I really lost my mind. This was in the 1990s low fat high carb craze and I thought what he was doing was the weirdest and most disrespectful, wasteful thing I’d ever seen. I turned into a banshee that morning. Fast forward a quarter century and butter coffee is being sold for $5 a cup in fancy coffee bars. The first time I saw that I remembered him. He died a few years back, RIP. The man was apparently ahead of his time.

I’m never trying it, on principle. :p

MyLittleHorsie

I have blended MTC oil in coffee, but it is such a pain, I don't have a frother and pulling out my blender for 2 cups of coffee is way more work and mess than I need.

alphaomega

Oh my goodness - a "STICK" of butter ????

I have never heard of that. I have done a tbsp before (MCT gives me GI distress).

There are proponents of "Bullet Proof Coffee" and then there is those of us who believe you have to burn "the fat in your glass before the fat on your...hips".

Full disclosure, I did have a bit of a fight with my AV yesterday while preparing dinner. Cooking in the late afternoon/evening has always been tough for me to do sober.

Its a 30 year habit that is going to need some time to rewire.

Honestly it was easier at that party then in my kitchen alone with kale chips and Bocelli...

MLD51

I didn't cook much right in the beginning. My kitchen seemed like a dangerous place, because cooking had always included wine. I'm good now, and enjoy cooking again. It's interesting trying to cook low-carb, and I have the added challenge in having to cook dairy-free for my son, who is doing an elimination diet experiment to see if he can mitigate a skin thing he has on his cheeks - doctors say it's rosacea but it hasn't responded to ANYTHING, even prescriptions. After some research, we decided it could be a food intolerance. So I just cook a low-carb main dish with no dairy, give him some rice or potatoes on the side, and put cheese on my portion.

Dropsie

This is a great thread. Thanks.

I am going to do Whole 30 starting on 17 July if anyone wants to join. You can change the diet to anything that works for you and do the rest. I think its a great concept. Just google "Whole 30"