Faraday - Dude, you come in, slowly convert some of us to at least the idea of trying keto - and then you disappear! Hope your doing well, wherever you are! (Yup, shameless attempt to get you to check in) ;)
I'm here, I'm here! I'm getting a few things in life straightened out - beginning-of-winter service for my two best bikes, buying a new bike for DW (no craigslist options panned out - people here ask a lot for their used bikes, whether they are quality or not...). I got this headcold going around past Sunday night, so I've been hitting the sack early.
swick, I don't know if it was you or someone else, but I'd accepted a challenge to limit online time, so that wiped out my late-night lurking/posting. Going into internet moratorium did help me to go to bed on time, but I'm not sure I'd say I'm actually addicted. I didn't so much care about the missing time, but I DID miss all you folks in the Whole30 thread!
swick, is it you looking at going KETO? Have you done so yet, and are you really wanting to go for that with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and the like bearing down on us?
Keto, by it's nature is a very subversive diet/lifestyle. I ran into no end of challenge, bullshit and argument. I don't mean I went looking for it, I mean it got dished up almost instantly by people very invested in their high-carb, high-foodshit lifestyles.
I'm not discouraging you. I'm just saying that as we enter the peak of the Season of Insanity, it exposes the practitioner of the ketogenic lifestyle to more criticism and potential conflict. I cling to the ketogenic lifestyle even more energetically as winter comes on because I know our bodies want to pack on the LBs as it gets colder....but let me tell you something: a trip to Walmart involves a lot of "artificial anger and indignance". It's how I walk past five giant displays of OREOS and don't buy any. Anger, indignance and holding sacred the path I've chosen.Yes, living the keto lifestyle is sacred to me. I had about 15 chronic health problems clear up. Both Alzheimer's disease and diabetes is rampant on both sides of my family. So there's no bending of my choices to someone else's will. And let me tell you, people came at me like you'd think I'd announced I had become a crackhead.
Some people would hear second-and-third hand and decide they were gonna get me to "cheat". TO those people, I'd respond with shock and awe. Many times, I'd "put them off" or offend them, because I'd call them out and challenge their right to decide what goes in my damn mouth.
What I'm telling you this for is because Whole30 is less subversive and more mainstream than Keto. It invites less controversy because it more-easily co-exists with general thinking about diet.
Now, if you need to increase your insulin sensitivity and avoid diabetes, Keto will do it, but people around you will start to act crazy. You might have to kick 'em in the balls and you might lose a few on the fringes.
I'm happy with the way it played out. People who stuck with me are the people I trust and care about. The people who avoid me, well, they have always been and will always be hopeless spectators.
One other thing: If your family tends to gallstones or kidney stones, you have to be aware of that and potentially have to manage it. Keto encourages the eating of fat and along with that, meats. The cholesterol inherent in these sources of fats and protein can accelerate formation of gallstones.
I've known since I was a child and watched my mother's issues with gallstones, that formation of cholesterol and calcium deposits tends to happen on the mother's side of my family. (I have one brother who deals with kidney stones long-term.) I have developed ways of handling this that work for me, that I'm glad to share. I don't have chronic problems with gallstones, but there is a spot where, when I get a "twinge", I do my maintenance routine. So far it's running about once a year, and I just finished one maintenance regimen. Works like a champ.
Finally: I'm no authority on this stuff and I don't even pretend to know a damn thing about medicine. I just listen to my body, treat everything as an experiment to be judged critically, and move forward from there.
Sorry if this came across as a sermon. I just need all of you to know that I respect you and am super-impressed at what's happened in this thread. You all took Whole30 seriously and changed your lives with it. That's remarkable - I congratulate and respect all of you for your achievements!!!
I will be here, 110%, for anyone who wants to do keto or Whole30 or low-carb or whatever permutation works for you. ESPECIALLY if you need to do it for health and to avoid diabetes.