No longer a cancer journal, #7: Eating Keto and Having Fun with it

The shoulder thing is most likely nothing, and will be observed (x-ray and oncologist) in 3 months. The thing in my lung is nothing to worry about, but they want it out, and I want it observed. I'm supposed to schedule an appointment with a thoracic surgeon to discuss this. My image is surgeon implies knife. (You reach for the tool you know best.) I would prefer to talk with someone else about it. I haven't got that one completely figured out yet.

I have a chronic health problem that might be better if I weigh less, so I'm continuing with the keto. (I have a sliding hiatal hernia. That means the hole in my diaphragm where my esophagus goes through is too big, and sometimes my stomach jams itself up there. When it does, I can be in severe pain or just a bit of discomfort. It usually last about 12 days, and happens about 3 times a year.) 

 

One of the problems with dieting is that people usually ping pong up and down, and that's really bad for your health and can make you gain weight in the long run. Our bodies need food, and are going to resist any restrictions. Also, we are hard-wired to love sugar.

For me, keto is perfect. I know that refined sugar is bad for us, and usually try to limit it, but have not been great at that. (Good, but not great.) Counting carbs means that any refined sugar is taking up carbs that could be lots of other yummy foods. My goal when I started this time was all organic food, no refined sugars, and staying under 50 grams of carbs a day, preferably under 40. If I had found out I had cancer, then I would have gone down to 25 grams a day (much harder). 

To make it work, I knew I needed help making yummy low-carb foods. Gomen (Ethiopian collard greens) is one of my favorite foods. K, my cooking coach, will be making that for me. (The smell while it's cooking is pretty strong, and my son hates it.) I've also started making chia pudding. Chia helps me get more fiber, and I use just 2 teaspoons of maple syrup to sweeten it, along with a cup of milk and 1/4 cup chia seeds. I found that my body was feeling like I was eating too much milk, so I switched to part milk, part coconut milk, and that is perfect! I might be eating more dessert than usual, but it's only 1t maple syrup a day (3g carbs). My 1/3 cup of pudding is 2 or 3 grams of carbs, and yes, it tastes sweet to me!

I'm also making cole slaw often, which I love. Those roasted veggies were so good, I need to make them again. Have you ever had roasted fennel bulb? It's yummy. 

I started writing this while eating a marvelous breakfast: two perfectly fried eggs, and a salmon, avocado, pesto quesadilla. Only the tortilla has any carbs (9g). I meant to take a photo, but I ate it before I could. 

I wanted to stop eating rice and bread. I've stopped eating rice, but I need toast for my eggs. (1/2 piece of toast is plenty, and it's 6.5 grams. Even 1/3 is plenty and that's 4 grams.) I need it for my tuna salad, chicken salad, and egg salad, too. Toast may be the most carby food I eat.

Coffee with cream is 0 carbs. Bone broth and meats are 0 carbs. A whole avocado is only 4 grams of carbs. (!)You want to eat plenty of veggies, for the fiber, and that take a little more work. I love nuts, and those are pretty low in carbs. I might go through 1/2 cup of pistachios in a day.  That's 10 carbs. The chia pudding is less.  

What I'm hoping to share is how much fun I'm having eating this way. I'm making sure I don't feel deprived, and I think I could do this for a very long time. 

I was hyperthyroid from 1999 to 2009, controlled with meds. Before it was controlled, I went from about 165 down to about 145. As soon as it got controlled I made my way back up to 165 and maybe higher. For the past decade or so I've been in the 190's. When I went over 200 pounds, I was not happy about that. But I figure exercise is probably the key, so I didn't diet. I recently weighed in at 220 pounds, even less pleasant. I've been doing this pain-free keto thing for a bit over a month now, and went to 213 then to 208. I don't have a scale at home, so I only find out at doctor visits. I'm eager to see what it will be next time. 

One of my many recent tests was a bone density exam. My spine is fine and my hips show mild ostopenia (precursor to osteoporosis). I'm supposed to exercise at least 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. Until the rain started, I've been walking our very old and slow dog around the block, and doing my physical therapy exercises (for my knee and heel) while waiting for him to catch up with me.

 

This post might make it sound like I'm spening all my time thinking about my health. I'm not. I wish it were less, but I guess getting old is not for the faint of heart. (I'm 69 now, and hope to get much older.) Mostly I'm working on writing some books. Althea's Math Mysteries are young adult novels with math exploration at the center. (The characters are mostly 12 to 16, so that's the young adult label. But maybe mostly adults will read these. I'm thinking math teachers will love them. A few do so far.) Three of them are close to done. If you're interested in reading the manuscript(s), and letting me know what you think, I'd love that. You can email me at altheasmathmysteries@gmail.com if you're interested in that.

And now that most of the tests and doctor's visits are done, I can get back to trying to be helpful in my community, for immigrants and for people struggling with less food.