Are you a moderator or an abstainer? Do you often have a cheat meal and are addicted to carbs? Be honest and ask yourself if you have a problem with carbs and sugar.
Eating healthy means that we consume foods that are rich with the essential nutrients needed to maintain good health. Essential means our bodies don’t manufacture them so we must acquire them from the foods we eat. Our human bodies need 9 of the 21 amino acids that make up protein. (1) They are:
- Histidine
- Isoleucine
- Leucine
- Lysine
- Methionine
- Phenylalanine
- Threonine
- Tryptophan
- Valine
These 9 essential amino acids can be obtained by eating animal products. We need omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids in a healthy 1:1, 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, and these can also be obtained from animal products. Our bodies need the micronutrients which are fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, and electrolyte minerals. So, protein, fat, water, vitamins and minerals are essential. Carbohydrates which turn into glucose are also essential, but we do not need to consume them in the food that we eat. We can live without consuming carbohydrates and sugars because our bodies make just the amount of glucose parts of our bodies need, on demand, when we are keto-adapted. We can live without colorings, flavorings, additives, preservatives, seed oils, MSG, shiny sprays and other chemicals that the processed food industry adds into foods to make them shelf stable and to hit the bliss point (2) to addict consumers. These are non-essential ingredients and actually are addictive for some people and toxic to all people.
What does this all have to do with moderating or abstaining? When you are trying to get into shape, lose weight, and eat healthy by getting off of processed foods, standard American Diet foods, carbohydrates, sugars, starches, and seed oil foods, you go through withdrawal usually. Once you get past this withdrawal, and you are eating real, whole foods such as beef and other ruminant animals, like lamb, deer etc., and non-ruminant animals like poultry, pork, fish and eggs, you start to purge your body of all of the toxins that are in the standard American Diet foods that you ate before. When you get onto the other side of it, you feel amazing! Your emotions are level and up all of the time because of the ketones and the absence of micro toxins. Your body weight optimizes. When you have reached your weight goal, then what do you do? Do you just continue to eat this way, or do you go back and have a cheat taste, or a cheat meal or a cheat day?
If you have the ability to moderate (3), you can probably have that cheat meal or cheat day. And that means that you eat carbs and sugar and some of those non-essential foods that you used to eat. Then, you don’t have those foods anymore for a few months. Then, you have a cheat meal or cheat day in another few months. During those months in between, you eat real, whole foods and you don’t even think about carbs and sugar. If your brain can handle that, and the thoughts don’t “haunt” you, you are a MODERATOR. Congratulations. Proceed on with your life and enjoy your moderation capability. It’s your super power, and honestly, I envy you.
On the other hand, if you try to moderate and have that cheat meal or cheat taste or cheat day, and you can’t get the thoughts out of your head, then you have a problem. You know you shouldn’t have another cheat meal or another carb/sugar meal for a few months, but you can’t stop thinking about it, and you probably can NOT moderate. You are probably an ABSTAINER (3). An abstainer does not have a cheat taste, cheat meal or day EVER. Yes, I said EVER. That’s what abstaining means. Never. Not even once. You don’t put that sweet taste in your mouth because when you do, a switch is turned on in your brain, and you can’t stop thinking about it. It “haunts” you until you break down and give in and have another carb/sugar/starch cheat meal. And those cheat days get closer and closer together until you’re back to eating the standard American Diet and you start to feel poor again. The weight comes back on. Your emotions are not as level or as they were when you ate cleanly.
You see, this is really about addiction (4). In the same way that a person who “can” have a drink of alcohol every once in a while, is fine, a moderator can have a cheat meal every once in a while, and they are fine. But the alcoholic can NOT have just one drink or one sip of alcohol or that switch gets turned on in their brain, and they MUST have more and more alcohol until they are back in their addiction. Addiction is about our unhealthy relationship with something whether it is a drug or alcohol, an activity or carbs and sugar (5).
Be honest and ask yourself if you have a problem with carbs and sugar. In all honesty, can you moderate and have some? Some people will justify and rationalize to allow themselves permission to indulge in carbs and sugar (6), and then one time turns into 5 times which turns into daily, just like the alcoholic. Then there is guilt and shame on the back end. So, know thyself, and to thine own self be true.
Now, I’ll talk about the 100% -vs- 99% concept as it pertains to abstainers. Abstainers, as I mentioned above, do not partake in any carbs and sugar, not a drop, not a taste because they know the taste will trigger that addiction-brain-switch and the sweet taste will haunt them and they will go off on a rationalization, justification spree to give themselves permission to indulge over and over again. Going 100% is easy (7). The answer is NO. No to the slightest taste of a carb/sugar food. No to any and everything that has carbs and sugar in it. When a person goes 100%, that is abstaining, and there is zero rationalization, zero justification, zero binging, zero permission. It’s simple! It’s so easy to keep it to 100%. 100% means JUST EATING beef, lamb, deer, pork, bacon, chicken, turkey, duck, small fish, medium fish, bivalve fish and crustacean fish, and hen eggs, quale eggs, duck eggs, and adding butter and other healthy fats!
So, are you a moderator or an abstainer?
99% is moderating. Once you let that 1% back in, you are granting yourself permission to have a little. If you are an abstainer, that 1% makes life so very difficult. The thoughts haunt you. You can’t stop thinking about getting at that candy, that cake, that bread, that pasta, those chips, those cookies, that ice cream, those other goodies, and before you know it, 1% turns into 50% carbs/sugar. Do you see how 100% is so easy and effortless?!
Circling back to the beginning of my article here…eating these real, whole, one ingredient foods gives us all of the essentials of excellent health. Protein, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals and water. The fat and protein satiate us, so we don’t have carb/sugar cravings. It’s actually so very easy and simple to say no to carbs and sugar and starchy foods when we are filled with REAL food. Saying NO to carbs/starches and sugars 100% of the time requires no effort or thought, just a little practice once we are keto-adapted. Then it becomes second nature to just eat the way our ancestors had been eating for thousands and thousands of years: One ingredient foods.
So, ask yourself………. honestly……are you a moderator? Can you really moderate? If so, great!
OR
Are you an abstainer? Must you abstain 100% to be successful?
Moderator or Abstainer? The ball is in your court. All I encourage you to do is to find out which one you are and to be HONEST with yourself.
Eat Well, so that you can look and feel well!
John LaSpina
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