Keto anniversary 2024

I started the keto diet on 2 Sep 2019. Back then it was to lose some dad bod, and to restart my gut. It’s been 5 years, half a decade!

Some updates and thoughts:

• I’m no longer perpetually on keto. I cycle through it seasonally, in varying periods of time. Some periods I am more strict, some seasons (like when traveling, or during mooncake festival) I let loose.
• Purists might ask, you’re not on keto, it’s more low carb now? I don’t know. And I don’t care. I was in strict keto, than lazy keto, then carnivore, then cyclical keto, then low carb. In a further past I was even vegan once! Tried them all. I think it’s helpful to identify as belonging to a tribe when you’re trying to start in it, but as with all forms of identities, it shouldn’t be the end goal. Health is the end goal whether you’re keto, or carnivore or low carb, it should be in service of it. The diets are tools. For me, it’s more helpful to be flexible now.
• I might not be on keto, but the principles remain for my current way of eating. Minimize carbs, especially ultra processed carbs. I stick to natural foods as much as possible. Almost no bread, candy, sweet drinks. Sometimes I take some rice if I sense I need some. Otherwise, I always prioritize and finish my protein and fats first.
• If I need to call my way of eating something, it would probably be “intuitive eating”. Every meal I check in with my body, my gut. Do I need that rice? Some days it says yes to a little bit. Sometimes, it says no. Am I full? Still hungry, then I eat more. Some days I sense cravings for something (like chocolate, or like recently, soy sauce). They say chocolate cravings are sometimes a signal for lack of magnesium. I take it as my body signalling to me to get the right nutrients it needs. Note though, this craving is different from being hangry, or the kind of loud cravings that causes you binge eat snacks and soda. It’s more of a quiet whisper sort of.
• It’s easy to 100% abstain from certain food groups, harder—in fact, hardest—to try to moderate what you eat on a daily basis for your health, making micro-decisions moment to moment on whether you should or should not eat it. But I think moderating this way is the path to a healthier, more balanced life. Restrictive diets have a place, but probably not for long term (caveat is of course, unless you have certain health conditions or religious beliefs).
• The biggest insight was realising that the root causes of my dad bod and health issues were actually more due to chronic stress and anxiety, and sleep deprivation. I was using diet to fix something which it wasn’t meant to fix. Poor tool to problem fit. Diet can only scratch the surface in such situations. Fixing sleep, decompressing stress and resolving issues helped more. But learning how to eat healthily was a helpful life skill nonetheless! One of those “wished I learned this in school” things.

It’s been quite a ride for the past 5 years. When I wrote my keto anniversary review last year, I asked if intuitive eating is the endgame. One year on, I think so. Or at least some version of it. When I started, I never imagined that this could be the end result, but yet here we are.

If this was a project, it’ll be one of the most successful, hockey puck growth charts of all time. If this was an exam, I would score As with distinction.

But it’s the kind of wins in life nobody sees or knows, except myself.

And that’s good enough for me.