I've been keeping this little secret for a long time. Actually, that's not fair. In all honesty, I had no idea how completely this has had a hold over me. To say I've been keeping it a secret would imply that I realized it's power over me and have been concealing it. In truth, it's been concealing itself from me.
Only a few people in my life are aware of what I'm about to share. Yet I feel there are probably many of you out there who have the same problem. This needs to be said.
I have an addiction.
It's not an illegal addiction, like heroin. It's not a semi-legal addiction like alcohol. Instead it's a fully legalized, even encouraged substance that I'm addicted to.
Friends, I am a carbaholic.
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I thought I had my addiction under control. I thought I could stop whenever I wanted. I thought it was a minor thing, doing only minor damage to my health. I even believed at times that carbohydrates were good for me. But the truth is, I am dangerously addicted to this substance, and I always will be.
Once an addict, always an addict.
Scott and I went on a ketogenic diet starting the first of January. Basically, we went cold turkey. For the first few days, the withdrawal was awful. I got shakes and a headache; I felt grumpy and depressed. A couple of days later, however, I started feeling great. The cravings were gone! Physically anyway. The mental addiction was still strong; I opened the cupboards several times a day looking for a tasty snack. I wanted to put food in my mouth. I satiated myself with cheese slices and boiled eggs to help me get over the habit of snacking. For three weeks, we stuck to our carb-fast impressively, and I never felt better.
Then one day, we fell off the wagon. Just like that. It was so easy to do. We went on a date, a rare thing when you have kids, and decided to treat ourselves to a little cake. We shared one small slice of chocolate fudge cake with ice-cream. While it tasted heavenly, the sickness immediately followed. We vowed never to eat carbs again; we felt so awful. I even felt morally guilty about it. Yet only an hour later, at the cinema, we decided to just 'go with it' and order popcorn too. Again, we felt awful afterwards, and all night I wrestled with nausea. We abstained from carbs for the next week or so, trying to get back into ketosis, going through the withdrawal symptoms again.
But after only another week or two, the urges returned. I started getting careless, wreckless. A little chocolate here, a bit of toast there. Surely one little bite won't hurt. Before I knew it, I was fully back into the ways of carb addiction again. I wake up each morning determined 'today will be different' but end up blowing it by noon.
I have a problem.
I need help.
I want to get to a stage where I can live without carbs, and if I do want to indulge quietly every once in a while, the same way I occasionally enjoy a drink of alcohol, I won't binge. I don't know if this is possible, but it's the goal.
The first step to overcoming addiction is to admit you have a problem.
Hi, my name is Lori and I'm a carboholic.
I would not recommend TOTAL elimination of carbs. However, most of us need to drastically reduce our intake, and especially reduce/eliminate intake of "simple" carbs. Complex carbs such as whole grains, nuts, some vegetables and the like are beneficial. Once you stabilize the amount of complex carb consumed per day would be about the size/weight of a small tortilla. Whole wheat, whole oats, whole barley, etc.....Eat a lot of high quality protein, don't worry about fat, get your veggies, exercise.
ReplyDeleteI still get about 20-30g per day of carbs, through certain veggies and fruits. But you're right, I could eat one tortilla and that's the amount of carbs one needs in a day! I don't agree grains and legumes have a lot of health benefits for us (legumes would I suppose if you don't eat meat, but I do!). I eat a lot of protein, and I don't worry about fat, as long as it's animal fat.
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