CICO and what happens when a binge eater tries to count them...
Amazingly, at less than 20 net carbs a day, it hasn't been difficult to do keto. I've been doing it sort of lazy, eating lots of fats, moderate protein, and only a little bit of veg and none of the carby stuff. I tracked for a week or so and then I noticed my calories were way higher than I wanted them from all the fat, and things went pear shaped for a day or two.
When I tried to count calories and reduce my intake I suddenly had a binge episode, and then I had another the next day. I learned a lot in BED therapy and the first thing you learn is that restricting triggers binges. So, I slammed the brakes on tracking for a week but continuing with high fat and protein and almost no carbs and I didn't have a binge the whole week. For the last week now I've been slowly going back to tracking but I'm just making sure I don't go over in net carbs and under in protein. I'm leaving the fat alone and eating whatever I want. I see the calories numbers but I try not to think about it. I actually feel healthier doing it that way. I don't know how this happened but I hope it's sustainable because it makes me happy.
This morning I realized I had made a mistake that I am correcting right now. I started this new way of eating with the intent of just changing the eating and letting the body metrics take care of themselves. I wouldn't weigh myself, take before pictures, or take measurements. I'd judge how I was doing by how I was feeling and how I fit in my clothes. I didn't want to obsess over the scale. There are so many factors that add up to the number on the scale that I didn't want there to be something random and uncontrollable influencing my mood. I just want to eat the way I'm supposed to eat and let my body do what it's going to do.
Then I tried to figure out my macros (how much protein & fat I should be eating) and all the keto macro calculators on the web rely on your lean body mass number, so I pulled my body composition scale out of hiding and took a measurement which also, of course, weighed me. That was OK, not a surprise and not too disappointing. I knew I was in the 340-350 range just from knowing where I was at my last doctor visit and how much more pudge I had on me. The problem is I didn't put my scale away, so I weighed myself again, then again, then again. I didn't like this morning's reading (about two weeks after the first weigh-in) and within two hours I have had two urges to binge.
I asked Jon to hide the scale, I'm going to figure out if the binge urge is only about the weight or if there's another thing in there I need to address, and I'm not going to worry about what made the scale go in the "wrong" direction. I'm changing things in my life and my body is going to react chaotically, as bodies are wont to do. I'm going to eat bacon, go back to my happy place, and let myself be healthy.
I think the reason ketoers, ketonians, or whatever we call ourselves say Keep Calm and Keto On isn’t because we believe in blindly adhering to the process and dismiss any problems we might be having. I think it’s because we have to keep reminding ourselves that all of these changes we make are for the long haul, not quick fixes that are meant to solve a problem and then we go back to what we were doing before.
The other day I noticed Emma's hands look like mine. When I was down at my lowest adult weight just before getting pregnant with Emma did it bother me that my hands looked like my mother's hands? I think it did.
Tomorrow I'm going to talk about whatever comes up tomorrow.
So, KCKO.
When I tried to count calories and reduce my intake I suddenly had a binge episode, and then I had another the next day. I learned a lot in BED therapy and the first thing you learn is that restricting triggers binges. So, I slammed the brakes on tracking for a week but continuing with high fat and protein and almost no carbs and I didn't have a binge the whole week. For the last week now I've been slowly going back to tracking but I'm just making sure I don't go over in net carbs and under in protein. I'm leaving the fat alone and eating whatever I want. I see the calories numbers but I try not to think about it. I actually feel healthier doing it that way. I don't know how this happened but I hope it's sustainable because it makes me happy.
This morning I realized I had made a mistake that I am correcting right now. I started this new way of eating with the intent of just changing the eating and letting the body metrics take care of themselves. I wouldn't weigh myself, take before pictures, or take measurements. I'd judge how I was doing by how I was feeling and how I fit in my clothes. I didn't want to obsess over the scale. There are so many factors that add up to the number on the scale that I didn't want there to be something random and uncontrollable influencing my mood. I just want to eat the way I'm supposed to eat and let my body do what it's going to do.
Then I tried to figure out my macros (how much protein & fat I should be eating) and all the keto macro calculators on the web rely on your lean body mass number, so I pulled my body composition scale out of hiding and took a measurement which also, of course, weighed me. That was OK, not a surprise and not too disappointing. I knew I was in the 340-350 range just from knowing where I was at my last doctor visit and how much more pudge I had on me. The problem is I didn't put my scale away, so I weighed myself again, then again, then again. I didn't like this morning's reading (about two weeks after the first weigh-in) and within two hours I have had two urges to binge.
I asked Jon to hide the scale, I'm going to figure out if the binge urge is only about the weight or if there's another thing in there I need to address, and I'm not going to worry about what made the scale go in the "wrong" direction. I'm changing things in my life and my body is going to react chaotically, as bodies are wont to do. I'm going to eat bacon, go back to my happy place, and let myself be healthy.
I think the reason ketoers, ketonians, or whatever we call ourselves say Keep Calm and Keto On isn’t because we believe in blindly adhering to the process and dismiss any problems we might be having. I think it’s because we have to keep reminding ourselves that all of these changes we make are for the long haul, not quick fixes that are meant to solve a problem and then we go back to what we were doing before.
The other day I noticed Emma's hands look like mine. When I was down at my lowest adult weight just before getting pregnant with Emma did it bother me that my hands looked like my mother's hands? I think it did.
Tomorrow I'm going to talk about whatever comes up tomorrow.
So, KCKO.
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