Intentional Eating vs. Starving-Stuff-Anything-In-My-Face-That-Looks-Good-Eating

After a day of fasting, I was driving home thinking about what I would eat when I got to my kitchen and could end my fast.  I don't love fasting, but every time I do it, I feel a little more in control of myself.  I remember getting hungry when I was not in ketosis...and I would get home, stuff anything that I could in my face...and feel better momentarily...until I didn't feel good at all.  When you are eating a carb-driven diet, it seems that it is very difficult to keep your brain in control of what you eat.  You feel out-of-control.  You want to eat anything and everything that is in your face.  And you don't care about the consequences...until after you have eaten poorly and feel poorly.  And then you spend the next day feeling bad about yourself....again.  Maybe you will avoid bad foods, eating salads and healthy stuff for the morning and afternoon to try to make up for your foibles the day before....only to come home and choose poorly again.  I remember all too well what that was like.  I remember eating cake in the corner of my kitchen with my back facing the entrance to the kitchen so my kids wouldn't see me shoving cake into my face.  I knew it wasn't normal...and I didn't want them to do things like this.  I seriously thought that there was something mentally wrong with me...a food addiction or eating disorder.  I hated that life.

Today, living a life in ketosis, I am in control of what I eat.  My food choices are no longer driven by carb cravings.  I no longer think that something was wrong with me mentally.  I think I just needed to regain control and stop allowing carbs to do the thinking for me.  Today, driving home, I felt a slight rumble in my tummy.  I knew that it would soon be time to eat...and I was happy about that.  I spent the drive home thinking about what I would partake in.  What I thought about was very different from my carb-driven thinking of years before.  I was thinking about what I would be having for dinner...and how I was going to get more vegetables into my day with my snack when I got home.  I was thinking about what I would do to feed my brain the fats that it needs to function well.  I was thinking about my digestion and what I needed to have the best possible digestion possible.

I got out of my car, walked into my kitchen, and made the smoothie that I usually have in the morning.  It is made of spinach, avocado, pea protein, fiber supplement, organic peanut butter, and mixed berries.  I mixed it up and drank it on the way to the bus stop.  I felt full, content, and had no desire at all for junk food.  How very different from the days of eating carbs.




When I think about how life used to be when I ate like a typical American, I am certain that we have it all wrong.  That if we would eat satiating, healthy fats, we would not be hankering for unfulfilling snacks all the time.  Many people look at what I eat and think that it can't possibly be healthy because of how much fat I eat.  And I know from the way that my body, mental  health, and physical health has improved that eating this much fat couldn't be wrong.  Living a life driven by sugar and craving for sugar constantly is unhealthy...mentally, physically, and, yes, spiritually.

Don't take it from me.  Decide to take the plunge and see what living a life in ketosis could do for you.  If you are happy with the carb loading, carb craving, carb-obsessing American lifestyle, then, by all means, keep it up.  But...if you long to be in more control of your life...and you long to feel good...mind, body and spirit, try to go against what we have been told is healthy all along.  Try a ketogenic lifestyle and see what it can do for you.


KetoRunningMama

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