Announcing the CTFO Diet

This is kinda sorta day 2. I had some bread at noon yesterday then ate nothing until 4pm on 6/18. That made my weight descend enough to put me at 299.6 lbs. I never thought I’d be happy t see that number on my scale – but here we are.

While I had coffee and cream prior I broke the fast with 2 cans of Wild Planet Tuna and 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise. I feel weird and have a headache, and just for fun I tried testing my ketones – expecting them to be at zero.

They were at 1.3.

Now my body has been in and out of ketosis so many times it probably is used to it. So instead of struggling against giving up that sweet, sweet glucose-fueled lifestyle, it just sighed: ‘Here we go again.’ and cranked up the generator for ketones right away.

Those of you not professional stunt dieters would probably never experience such a quick transition to ketosis.

So anywho, I’m slowly making decisions about what form this diet attempt will take. Perhaps an umbrella rule for all that follow is:

I will not practice orthorexia

The definition that pops up at the top of Goole search defines this as: Orthorexia is an unhealthy focus on eating in a healthy way. Eating nutritious food is good, but if you have orthorexia, you obsess about it to a degree that can damage your overall well-being. Steven Bratman, MD, a California doctor, coined the term in 1996.

I’ve found that being too perfect can be dangerous to the longevity of my diet, so I am going to Chill The Fuck Out (CTFO) and not think thoughts like:

Is that egg organic?

Is that beef grass-fed?

Does that diet soda have aspartame in it?

Should I have spinach since it has oxalates?

Should I eat eggplant as it contains goitrogens?

Should I avoid chicken because it has arachidonic acid?

Should I avoid sucralose because it might disrupt my gut biome?

Should I eat 2 cans of tuna at the same time because of methylmercury contamination?

Should I avoid all omega-6 seed oils to minimize inflammation?

My answer to each of these questions is: I’m not going to worry about these things now! I’m going to CTFO and not indulge in hand-wringing over the type of thinking above. I didn’t worry about this sort of stuff when I first lost 80 lbs. on Atkins. These were nutritional barnacles that adhered to my thinking as I read and researched.

And maybe like barnacles they slow me down.

Maybe they’re not that important now. Maybe if I CTFO and just focus on doing keto like I did Atkins in 2003 I’d be better off.

Please note that each item in that list is worth considering – many I have blathered on about on this mess of a blog – but taking these and many other…let’s call them ‘micro-considerations’ – and set them aside for the time being. The stuff I see myself eating will be better than what I was eating – and it’s not like I’m going on a fat-bomb laden caloric-extreme lazt/dirty keto trip. It might resemble lazy/dirty keto a bit, but have more structure. I’ll do my best to keep an eye on calories and look for a window between 1400 and 1800 per day. I’ll *try* to keep my protein around 100 grams. i’ll *try* to keep my carbs under 20 grams per day.

I can always add these food restrictions – or fears – or beliefs – back in at a time in the future when I’ve lost enough weight to want to fine-tune my diet for better health – or Orthorexia Nervosa – whichever it is.