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| Do you have to be at goal weight before you can teach others about Keto? |
One morning, as I was taking a quick glance at my email, I noticed that I had received a link to a post made by Angela England at her popular website, Untrained Housewife.
Angela is a professional writer and author. She used to write for Suite 101 when I was there, but like me, she has left the content farms behind and is now writing and editing her own site.
Untrained Housewife focuses on teaching the lost art of self-sufficiency, in case you're interested.
Angela does that by showing you how you can start moving in that direction regardless of your current living situation and lifestyle. Her specialty is teaching the lost art of homemaking, gardening, taking care of animals, and cooking with whole foods.
Angela does that by showing you how you can start moving in that direction regardless of your current living situation and lifestyle. Her specialty is teaching the lost art of homemaking, gardening, taking care of animals, and cooking with whole foods.
But recently, she received an email attacking her project:
The person who wrote the email was angry that Angela was sharing space on her website with other authors and not completely self-sufficient, as in living off the grid herself. They even went so far as to call her a fraud because she wrote a book on homesteading while living within her city’s limits.
I couldn’t help but think how closely that situation related
to the experiences that many go through on their low-carb journey.
Although, I've never been called on the carpet for only being partially successful at losing weight, I have seen it happen to others.
Many others.
Although, I've never been called on the carpet for only being partially successful at losing weight, I have seen it happen to others.
Many others.
Where is Our Integrity?
If you mention the wrong name within the low-carb
community or agree with a handful of ideas that person believes in (HINT: Kimmer), you can
quickly find yourself instantly losing credibility and being abandoned.
Why?
Because most of us have a strong need to belong to a group.
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| How Badly Do You Want to Belong to the Low-Carb Community? |
We don’t want to be alone.
We want to be a part of the low-carb community. We want to do low carb right. Except that:
The majority isn’t always right.
We are individuals. We each have a different degree of metabolic damage, different levels of health, and different dietary goals. We have different genetic make up, different tastes, and different things that work for each one of us.
None of us is perfect.
Most of us are probably not at goal weight. But the one thing we all have in common?
THE LOW-CARB JOURNEY!
The New Low-Carb Community Message
When you first started your low-carb journey, you probably didn't know a whole lot about it.
I know that in 1975, when I first found Dr. Atkins’ book in the public library, the concepts of low carb and insulin resistance were new to me.
I wasn’t in the best of situations. My un-supportive then-husband had recently started a new job and funds were tight.
There was no Internet.
There was no one to help me figure out how to implement Dr. Atkins’ advice correctly. All I had to rely on was myself.
I know that in 1975, when I first found Dr. Atkins’ book in the public library, the concepts of low carb and insulin resistance were new to me.
I wasn’t in the best of situations. My un-supportive then-husband had recently started a new job and funds were tight.
There was no Internet.
There was no one to help me figure out how to implement Dr. Atkins’ advice correctly. All I had to rely on was myself.
In 2007, when I returned to low carbing for the third time –
after being bedridden for two years with bilateral vestibular dysfunction, and
partially bedridden for another two years due to the vertigo – I still wasn’t completely sure of
myself.
I DID have a supportive husband in 2007, though.
I also had the Internet filled with various low-carb communities to help, but most of the people within those communities were preaching a very different message from the one I had received from Dr. Atkins’ first diet book or even the John Hopkins Atkins Internet group available online at the end of 1999.
I also had the Internet filled with various low-carb communities to help, but most of the people within those communities were preaching a very different message from the one I had received from Dr. Atkins’ first diet book or even the John Hopkins Atkins Internet group available online at the end of 1999.
With Dr. Atkins no longer around to interpret his books, the low-carb community was preaching a high-fat message.
They were preaching a high-calorie message.
They were preaching everything contrary to the way I had lost all of my weight in 1975.
They were preaching a high-calorie message.
They were preaching everything contrary to the way I had lost all of my weight in 1975.
They were preaching everything contrary to the way that I had shed part of my weight regain before my divorce, remarriage, and being struck down with vertigo.
Now, it was no longer about embracing the journey and loving others enough to let them make their own mistakes. It was no
longer about accepting each person as an individual with metabolic differences.
Now, it was follow us.
Now, it was follow us.
- We are the only way.
- We will lead you to salvation.
- Just eat more fat, up your calories, and everything will be fine and dandy.
Why Can't We Support Each Other?
For me, everything was not fine.The way had traveled too far to the left.
It had gone from eating fat in the same proportion as found in nature, the amount you would find in a reasonably lean piece of beef (1972) and recipes that only used chicken breast, ground turkey, and other lean meats (1999), to extremely-fatty meats smothered in sour cream and cheese, and drowning in melted butter or mayo every single day.
The way had changed from adding back into your diet the
foods you missed the most (1972) or creating your own personalized 20 full-carbs
Induction diet (1992) to something called the Carbohydrate Ladder that had to
be followed religiously along with the Atkins’ Nutritionals view on
vegetables or you were not doing Atkins.
Okay.
So in 2007 when I was eating 20 full carbs and 60 grams of fat per day and managed to shed over 100 pounds eating that way, I was not doing Atkins according to the low-carb community.
BUT SO WHAT!
They didn’t want me to call what I was doing Kimkins – even though that’s exactly what I was doing.
I am not going to lie about that.
I followed Kimmer’s original recommendations that she posted on Low Carb Friends because it worked:
So in 2007 when I was eating 20 full carbs and 60 grams of fat per day and managed to shed over 100 pounds eating that way, I was not doing Atkins according to the low-carb community.
BUT SO WHAT!
They didn’t want me to call what I was doing Kimkins – even though that’s exactly what I was doing.
I am not going to lie about that.
I followed Kimmer’s original recommendations that she posted on Low Carb Friends because it worked:
- 72 grams of lean protein
- 20 full carbs
- just enough fat to make the diet work
Someone within the low-carb community discovered that
Kimmer had posted false pictures of herself on the Internet, and she was actually
fat. She wasn’t living a low-carb lifestyle, and that angered a lot of people.
They felt betrayed and victimized.
In addition, Kimmer was telling people to drop their calories to 300 per day. A few people were gullible enough to do that and ended up sick.
Instead of holding those eating at starvation levels accountable for their own choices, the low-carb community banded together and got Kimmer prosecuted for fraud.
They felt betrayed and victimized.
In addition, Kimmer was telling people to drop their calories to 300 per day. A few people were gullible enough to do that and ended up sick.
Instead of holding those eating at starvation levels accountable for their own choices, the low-carb community banded together and got Kimmer prosecuted for fraud.
Instead of questioning why anyone in their right mind would
ever drop their calories to 300 per day, for an extended period of time, just because some weight-loss guru told them to, the entire low-carb community decided to totally abandon the
idea of eating lower fats and calories and went completely the other way.
Now, we don’t simply have folks eating a high-fat diet, we have people doing something akin to the Atkins’ Fat Fast at 80 percent fat and calling it Nutritional Ketosis.
Now, we don’t simply have folks eating a high-fat diet, we have people doing something akin to the Atkins’ Fat Fast at 80 percent fat and calling it Nutritional Ketosis.
Nutritional?
Hardly . . .
But almost no one questioned that absurd low-carb diet. No one questioned who started the strange habits attached to that excessively high-fat diet. And no one questioned HCG either, even though that plan was only 500 calories per day.
People are simply following the crowd (the same as they did with Kimkins) without evaluating their personal results and making personal course corrections to make a low-carb diet work for them.
As a community, we’ve traveled from one extreme to the other.
Hardly . . .
But almost no one questioned that absurd low-carb diet. No one questioned who started the strange habits attached to that excessively high-fat diet. And no one questioned HCG either, even though that plan was only 500 calories per day.
People are simply following the crowd (the same as they did with Kimkins) without evaluating their personal results and making personal course corrections to make a low-carb diet work for them.
As a community, we’ve traveled from one extreme to the other.
So What Now?
As a community, are we ever going to actually support those
who find what works for them, and then do that for the rest of their life?
Are we?
Are we?
This is easy to say. Popular bloggers like Jimmy Moore say it all the time. But it's much harder to put it into practice. It's difficult to do.
It’s far easier to judge what someone else is doing.
It’s easier to attack those who aren’t doing low-carb the way that we think they should be.
It's rare for dieters to be happy that someone has finally found something that works for them, even if that's simply counting calories or eating a low-fat low-carb diet.
It’s far easier to allow our fears and insecurities to rule over us.
It’s far easier to judge what someone else is doing.
It’s easier to attack those who aren’t doing low-carb the way that we think they should be.
It's rare for dieters to be happy that someone has finally found something that works for them, even if that's simply counting calories or eating a low-fat low-carb diet.
It’s far easier to allow our fears and insecurities to rule over us.
If we, as a community, don’t have the integrity to let others forge their own low-carb trail, then where are we headed next?
*Note: This post was written in 2013. For an updated on view on Nutritional Ketosis and what that diet really is, check out our post on The Truth About LCHF Weight Loss.
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