Hi!
I've been low-carb for about 7 years. It started as a one-month experiment to see whether eliminating processed and refined foods and reducing carbs (essentially eliminating all white foods except cauliflower) would reduce my inflammation. I had suffered from joint pain since the age of 3, back pain and sciatic issues since my early teens, and aging wasn't improving my knee pain. My father had type-2 diabetes so I was always very conscious of my carb intake and didn't want to follow the same path.
My husband agreed to participate in the experiment. We purged the kitchen to prevent falling back into old habits. There was nothing in the house we couldn't eat. And so it began. We both felt so good after the first 30 days that we extended the experiment to 3 months, and then 6 months, etc.
My husband lost 35-40 lbs. He was a TOFI (thin outside/fat inside). Before the weight loss, he was frequently asked how he managed to stay so trim. He noticed an improvement in mood and energy levels, probably due to improved blood sugar regulation. His job required him to work an occasional 12-hr night shift and the change in diet helped to ease the transition.
I also lost weight without any effort or hunger and my body proportion changed. It restored my waistline, which had been slowly starting to thicken in perimenopause. I'm now 57 and have, so far, been able to maintain my waist. Fun to rummage at the back of the closet and be able to wear the clothes I wore in my 30s. More importantly, the diet reduced my inflammation and joint pain which allowed me to increase my exercise, have a more active lifestyle in general. The inflammation had been exhausting and affected my mood, so this was life changing. I have less joint pain now than I did in my 20s and 30s. And I don't have to worry about becoming like my father and developing diabetes. It's such a horrible disease.
I had attempted similar dietary changes several times when I was younger, but it was difficult when I had to prepare different meals for my family. In comparison, it was so easy when my husband and son signed on to the experiment. We don't think of it as a diet. It's just food and it's just the way we eat. We discovered that our sense of taste changed. Many of the foods we once enjoyed no longer taste the way we remember them, so we don't feel deprived.
I still bake using almond, hazelnut, coconut flours, etc. My husband loves organic lemon cheesecake with berries and an almond flour crust. When I have to take a packed lunch, I'll make flax-based flatbread and pack a sandwich and muffin or something similar. It looks like everyone else's lunch. I occasionally make crepes using buckwheat flour. We eat a lot of salads with homemade dressings.
It's a big adjustment but it's doable and sustainable. As they say, the best diet is the one you can stick to. I hope you find yours. It can make a world of difference and improve the quality of your life. Because diet (esp blood sugar) so greatly affects mood, it can not only improve how you feel but improve your relationships with others. We're all more resilient and have a longer wick when we feel good and have lots of energy.
You may find this interesting. It's the summary of a recent article published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which argues the root causes of the obesity epidemic are more related to what we eat rather than how much we eat:
https://nutrition.org/scientists-claim-that-overeating-is-not-the-primary-cause-of-obesity/If you're curious about keto, I'd recommend Gary Taubes book, The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating.
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Topic: What have you found is the best Weight loss plan since hitting peri/menopause? (Read 11450 times)