Retrospective #409: I used to eat eggs…

I used to eat eggs, or eggs and bacon, for breakfast. My usual lunch then was a can of King Oscar brand, Brisling sardines in EVOO. I usually drank the EVOO (240kcal in total). I also swallowed 2 grams of fish oil a day, and still do. And I ate a Very Low Carb supper. My triglycerides plummeted by 2/3rds and remain very low ( +/-50mg/dl). 

Now, however, I think that a can of sardines, especially with the EVOO, is too much food, especially fat, for lunch, particularly if you are not hungry. And I am not hungry at lunch. Hell, I was never hungry at breakfast!

So these days I don’t eat breakfast any more. I just have a 12oz cup of coffee with a splash of heavy cream and a dash of pure stevia powder. Then, if I eat lunch, I have a can of my new favorite lunch: Brunswick kippered (skinless) herring fillets in brine (160kcal). I drink the brine. It’s a small lunch, but enough. Alternatively, I’ll have 1 or 2 hardboiled eggs. Both the kippered herring and the eggs are less expensive and fewer calories, and less fat, than the sardines in EVOO. And less dietary fat is a good thing if you’d rather burn body fat instead.  I also think that they would be a lot more palatable to the ‘normal’ person’s taste, but I like all three equally.

Why was I never hungry at breakfast? And why am I still not hungry at lunch? Because my body is fat-adapted, meaning it has been in a fasted state since a few hours after supper the night before, some 12 hours earlier. At breakfast, my body is in mild ketosis. In the absence of food, and as a consequence of eating Very Low Carb at supper and having low stores of glycogen in my liver from generally eating Very Low Carb, my body has maintained a high metabolic rate and energy balance by breaking down body fat for energy during the nighttime.

Then, with only heavy cream (NOT half & half) in my coffee, my high metabolic rate and energy balance continue. With my lunch choices being only protein and fat, my ketosis and stable blood glucose continue into the afternoon, still without hunger because my body continues to burn its own fat, and I am in energy balance,

It wasn’t always like this. When I began to eat Very Low Carb in 2002, I kept careful records. From the start, I l estimated carbs, but later I counted protein too, and still later added fat and total calories. And I ate a lot more then than I do now. After all, I was morbidly obese. Today, I don’t keep those records, just FBG and weight, daily.

Keeping records, though, was in my nature, and I learned a lot from it. But I learned much more from other low-carbers. I joined an online group of like-minded people and started asking questions. It was a supportive and safe space. I left another site I visited because all that people wanted to do there was argue about which way of eating was best. On the group I joined, I was very active, daily, for years, first as a student and later as mentor.

When you’re ready to make the shift, there are lots of ways to address a Lifestyle Change. But first you have to become convinced that the one-size-fits-all dietary advice given by the government’s Dictocrats and the “old school” medical establishment, and Big Pharma, has sadly been bad advice. It led to the Diseases of Civilization to which the world has succumbed. So, you have to be ready to break with that and manage your own dietary future. When you are ready, give Very Low Carb (VLC), or even Low Carb, a try. Here’s what you can expect:

●       You will lose weight easily because you will not be hungry all the time. You will eat less and feel better.

●       You will not need a snack in mid-morning or feel sleepy after lunch, or snack after supper/before bedtime.

●       Your health markers will improve dramatically: blood sugar (A1c) and lipids (cholesterol), and blood pressure.

Some people have difficulty making the transition. I went “cold turkey.” I drank lots of water and I added salt. To avoid hypos (I had been on 3 classes of oral anti-diabetic meds when I started), I stayed in close contact with my doctor, who (by the way) suggested VLC for me, to lose weight. Over time (15 years), I lost, literally, half my body weight (188 pounds), and I feel great! I’ve never been healthier or happier. You could be too. Give it a try!