Restart

I HAVE a daily food log and on July 13, I wrote this: reboot, refresh, restart again. To remind me of the mess “you left when you went away.” Er, to remind myself to stick to the low-carb fasting (LCF) diet.

But the very next day, I had binaki, popcorn, and banana roti. So, I cut-copied the reboot-refresh-restart-again line to July 15. But on July 15, I had a caramel latte and blueberry cheesecake. So, I cut-copied that same line again to July 16, which happens to be Barangay Carmen’s fiesta.

Note the “again” in that line. I wrote “reboot, refresh, restart” on the food log on July 9. I was doing good at first, religiously following LCF from July 9 to 11, but there was a birthday party on July 12, and there I was, having cake, caramel latte, and buchi.

For a while there, I started to believe that anything with cheese is less evil compared to pure dough. And like any other unproven belief, this cheesy thought can be disastrous unless the body is able to deal with cheese the way it deals with its mortal enemies. You know, the crazier the enemy, the stronger the body’s reaction is. As if Darna. Haha.

In the 2017 documentary, “The Magic Pill,” there’s this line: “A ketogenic diet is a high-fat, very little carb, it’s like Atkins on steroids.”

Atkins on steroids! I laughed upon hearing that. The low-carb dieter will eventually learn what works or doesn’t work for him, and it’s possible for the carnivore diet to enter his thoughts.

I now tend to follow Dr. Eric Westman who has been prescribing the low-carb diet to his patients. His Page 4, which is a list of the food items he allows for his maximum limit of 20 grams of total carbs per day, is the simplest among all low-carb food lists. If you’re a KISS—Keep It Short and Simple—advocate, you may start with his Page 4.

But the best diet is no carbs at all, not even the sugar-free treats, to make it easier for you to stop craving high-carb food.

Weight loss is only a bonus in the low-carb world. The major gain is reversing lifestyle diseases. Imagine this: no maintenance medication. Healthy people may shrug that off. They don’t have “maintenance” yet, so why bother? But prevention is the key.

People who have been taking meds for, say, 20 years, don’t want to increase the dosage of those meds and add more meds to their current meds.

A low-carb diet is not a miracle worker but it’s a good start for those who want to experience again the freedom of having lesser or no “maintenance.” And the only way that’s possible is to strictly stick to a clean low-carb diet and to stop eating any high-carb food. And to avoid stress. Think happy thoughts. Sleep early and have a good night’s sleep. Hmmm. Wish ko lang.

How to be an obedient low-carber? That’s the question.