They do say that a "little of what you fancy won't hurt", but sadly it does. I started having the odd day with occasional treats and fell into the "bad ways" very quickly. I have put on weight and ruined my routine in the past couple of months simply because I got tired of "following the rules". Now I will have to start the hard work all over again - so please be EXTRA careful with your "days off" - you can quickly spiral out of control. I Did.
The thing about diabetes whatever the type is it doesn't take a day off, it may be more helpful to you to see low carb as a lifestyle to control your diabetes not a diet to lose weight. Use testing as a tool to what carbs do to your blood sugars, who knows you may be pleasantly surprised to see that you don't have to be super low carb and may be able to have more carbs than on a strict keto lifestyle
I do appreciate the danger of falling to a routine of having more and more days off, with fewer and fewer gaps etc.
I've explained in one of my other posts about some of my health problems. To put it bluntly, I'm too ill to even consider part time work , CFS/ME (along with other things) means there's days at a time where I have very little energy. When, to put it bluntly, I'm simply existing at home, without the energy to say play my piano, or tinker with my electronics hobby, I find weeks if not months go past and I've done literally nothing.
I bought a nice digital piano about 3+ years ago, the idea was, I'd try to play it just 30 mins a day. I bought a ton of electronic bits and pieces to learn and have fun with, about 2 years ago. I've yet to touch the electronics, and I'm lucky if I manage to play the piano once every 2 months, this is all due to my health, feeling nauseous 24/7, headaches, the pain, the tiredness.
5+ years ago my CFS/ME was so bad, there would be about 2 weeks in a year where I was really functional, thankfully after an operation, it got a lot better. Initially I thought I was cured, but I suppose an hypothetical example would be, before my operation I weighed 35 stone. After the operation I weight 25 stone, so compared to how much I used to weigh, I thought I was better, but the reality is, 25 stone isn't anywhere near an ideal weight.
I am currently under the pain management clinic at my hospital, wellbeing and my GP.
To add salt to the wounds, even though my GP etc all say it's not only impossible, but also foolish to even consider part time work, I still managed to score zero points on my Benefit medical (don't ask, too long a story) .
I'm in the progress of getting one of my pensions early (before I'm 55) , my GP has just returned the forms to them saying I wont be working again due to ill health (yet am fit enough to work according to the benefit office, go figure)
So at the moment, we are existing (just) on only my wifes salary which isn't huge. Thankfully we scrape buy with enough to pay the mortgage and pay all the bills, and there's only a few more years left on the mortgage.
Add all that together, and to be honest, life isn't really all that pleasant (don't mean that in any suicidal sort of way). My one enjoyment for many years was food. That was my ONLY enjoyment, and now that's been taken away from me.
I read people saying that after a while, if you eat something sweet etc you will hate it. Sorry, that will never ever happen to me, we are all different.
If I listed my all-time favourite things to eat, I'm not all that keen on many sweets, so that's a plus. But:
Off the top of my head, some of the things I love: (note, just because I love these things, doesn't mean I was eating them every week or month)
Lindt chocolate (bunnys etc)
Bakewell tart
Pork Pies (and yes I could go to a pork pie factory, see how they are made, and still eat one afterwards
)
Scotch Eggs
Trifle (with orange segments not fruit salad)
Short bread
Roast with roast potatoes, bread sauce, Yorkshire pud etc
Fish shop fish in batter
A nice burger in a nice bun with all the trimmings
Apple pie
Ice cream
Doughnuts (jam and ring)
Indian with massive nan bread
Cadbury mini eggs
Water Mellon
Granny Smith Apples
Grapes
Scones
Warm crusty bread with jam on it
Strong coffee with milk
Speckled Hen and Hobgoblyn beer (I've had the pleasure of lager taken away from me as due to my operation, I can no longer drink anything fizzy)
Cider
You get the picture (and knowing me, I've missed some of the things I love the most).
There's nothing on that list I wouldn't lust after even if I didn't have any of them for the next 10 years
So I've gone from only having food as my one bit of enjoyment in life, to cutting all that out and living on a really bland keto diet.
I'm currently having streaky bacon and fried eggs for lunch (adding a few mushrooms on Sat and Sun)
100g cabbage with salt on, a couple of Lidl pork chops or one of their steaks for dinner
And that is it. At the beginning of this diet I tried a few recipes from diet doctor, but they were too time consuming or expensive, or I didn't really enjoy them.
I drink mainly water, if I'm cold I may have a black coffee, but I don't like it, I just tolerate it (love a white coffee) .
The thing with me is I like fairly plain food. Sure I love a curry, and I don't mind garlic in things, but I like potatoes to taste of potatoes etc. I'm not into all this what I call modern food (spices or herbs on everything). Give me a roast dinner, I will eat the potatoes first, then the veg, and eat the meat last, I never mix things on a fork. I want an apple pie to be just that, an apple pie, as soon as someone adds something like cinnamon, to me it's ruined.
If I look at the meals on diet doctor, blueberry pancakes LOOK good, but unless they taste just like a normal pancake, then they may as well call them something different. Plus I want maple syrup or Ice Cream on them, not whipped cream.
My point being, making similar things that aren't really the same, taste different, or are served with different things (such as not having syrup on a pancake), to me, there's no point, They aren't fooling me. I don't want to eat something that bears a slight resemblance to something I used to love but lacks everything about it that made me love it. I would rather not bother.
There's also the cost. A lot of things with pie crust or bread related all contain ground psyllium husk, 500g from Amazon is £8.49, it's simply not going to happen.
While I like plain food, if say I was out for dinner, the host could put almost any plate of food in-front of me and I could eat it (whether I enjoyed it or not is another matter) . The ONLY thing I really cant tolerate, I'm not allergic, but the taste makes me want to vomit, is coconut, even the slightest taste. A fair few recipes on diet doctor also use Coconut
Sorry if I'm coming across negative, not meaning to, just trying to explain where I'm at.
So for me, I'm, sticking to a strict under 20g keto diet to loose the weight quickly, then I shall up the carbs to about 50 - 70g and see how I go with that (at least I can eat a few more varied things). I've been on diets for the last 18+ years, not messing about this time, I'm going for it.
At my highest, my BMI was 44. It's currently 31. Everyone says to me "I bet you feel a lot better, have a lot more energy" etc, and the answer is "no". I feel zero difference, I am still in as much pain, I'm still falling asleep and permanently tired. Sure it's made my resting pulse rate better (as in not fast) and my blood pressure while always acceptable, his now much better, but I don't feel better one little bit.
This is the first year for as long as I can remember where I'm not having a chocolate advent calendar. Even the dogs have one
There's only so much a person can take. Sure if your fit in other areas etc, working, going to the gym, have hobbies etc, being diabetic is a real pain and a real struggle, but you've other things to take your mind off of the struggle, other things to reward yourself with.
I haven't. I hope you can understand why I have decided have a couple days off now and again. If I haven't got those days to look forward to, what have I got to look forward to?
