I do appreciate what you said, I think it was just the link between an occasional desert or treat and complications. I know they happen but starting out (again) I need to know that I can find a balance between eating healthily and an occasional treat. I’m making big carb changes which does seem to be working.
I think for those who need a short sharp shock then your advice is spot on. I know what I’m in for, just need some educating along the way.
I sympathise with you greatly. I’m one of those people who, if I stayed on Keto for 10 years, would still dream about eating a Melton Mowbray pork pie, dream about my wife’s home made chocolate cake covered in melted galaxy chocolate, dream about apple pie/crumble, and my ideal Christmas dinner is Turkey leg, ton of different veg, loads of potatoes, Yorkshire puds, and gravy. And I would cover all the veg in bread sauce. No point me having one roast potato at Christmas, that to me would be torture, would rather have none if I couldn’t have four or five.
My mum died about 25 years ago, she made nice spicy bun cakes, I haven’t had them for 25 years but if I think about them, I can still taste them. My point being, just because I’m on low carb, it will not change my memory of how nice her carb filled cakes taste.
Some people do lo carb and can’t understand why you would still want carbs, but we are all wired differently. If I stay on low carb, I will miss them for the rest of my life as I love carbs.
However, I did really really well last year, and come Christmas I decided I was going to have the normal dinner, was going to have some shortbread etc.
Since then it’s taken until this week for me to go back on Keto properly, and I weigh almost the same as I did when I first started it last year. We are all different, you might take a break for a day or two and go back on Keto with zero problems. I thought I would have no trouble returning to Keto after the amount of weight I had lost, I told others I was going to take a break, and was warned not to. I ignored them and paid the price.
For me personally, if I have too many carbs in one day (and I’m still talking way below the amount of carbs in say a piece of chocolate cake), I come straight out of ketosis and take nearly a week before I start loosing weight again. If I treated my self to say carbs at one meal a week, I wouldn’t loose an ounce.
Don’t know if you need to loose weight or just need to reduce sugar levels, I suppose (don’t know) if you are at your ideal weight, a once a week carb treat might not do too much harm, trouble is, once a week leads to a few biscuits at work etc and before you know it, your on carbs big time.
Another problem for me personally is that I don’t really like things pretending to be something else. A veggie burger/sausage to me is a completely different thing from any meat burger/sausage. The same goes for Keto foods. Keto pizza is not anything like a nice proper pizza, others may well love it, but for me I would rather they called these sorts of Keto dishes something else entirely than try to pretend they are something they are not.
I don’t mind Keto bread, tastes a bit eggy (haven’t tried adding a bit of cider vinegar yet), but comparing that to a freshly backed farmhouse loaf etc, two completely different products and my brain isn’t fooled.
I think certain things can work well, I saw a YouTube vid on making your own Keto ice cream, and something like that, may well taste as good as, if not better than shop bought tubs of ice cream.
I also made some Keto biscuits, they were very very nice, happy to eat them, but they’re no Scottish shortbread.
Then there’s watermelon. My fav fruit and I simply can’t have it anymore.
It is very hard for people like myself who will always miss carbs, I wish you the best and hope you can take the odd carb snack without it affecting you too much.
I’m lucky in that almond is my fav nut, so I love almond flavoured things. I’m unlucky in that the one thing I loath so much that it’s the only thing if served at someone else’s house, I couldn’t eat to be polite, and that’s the taste of coconut, which is in almost every other recipe.
I have numerous health issues too, due to which we have been very hard up. However things have changed financially, and next year we are having a holiday of a lifetime, first proper holiday in over 10 years, two weeks staying in Disney World Florida. It really doesn’t matter how stupid people tell me I’m being, especially after me taking so long to go back to Keto after Christmas, the simple fact is, for those two weeks I’m going to enjoy myself. If I’m in one of their parks, I will eat ice cream etc etc, and I will have a few beers. For me it’s a balance. I’m sticking to Keto this Christmas, but if I can’t enjoy a holiday of a lifetime, I may as well give up living now.