Seeing as my career and ambitions are centered around thinking creatively, I've made it a personal life-long rule to periodically shake things up and do something different from my norm.
As a ballet dancer in my teens, it was imperative to stay vaguely slim. I did alright in the genetic lottery and so managed to keep in shape despite indulging often. 3-4 ballet training sessions per week, and the occasional week of salad for dinner was all I needed.
Fast forward eight years. My muscles were slowly converting to fats, as a result of intentional inactivity. (I was fed-up of how much muscle I had built up, and seriously wanted to trim it all off.) So, I took the advice of a friend, who did the keto diet in an effort to target fat burning. It did what it was supposed to, and I lost the weight I wanted without suffering much. So, for anyone who wants a few pounds off, and can go without carbs, do give it a try.
Besides having to consciously look for carb free options and having to turn down snacks offered by others, the three sugar-free months were pretty painless. Because I didn't love sugar much, and I got to eat really sinful foods like avocados, cheese, and fatty cuts of roast meat. But I eventually stopped when I hit the target weight, and got sick of the greasiness. It all went so well, I didn't think about the extent of the changes I had made.
Until I broke the sugar fast. With a huge mug of hot chocolate.
It went down like this:
First sip: "Holy hell, that's sweet." *sips some water*
A couple more sips later: "Oh wow, this is way more intense than alcohol. It's like I have a stampede going through my body right now."
Half-way into the mug: "I feel like I got possessed by Sonic the Hedgehog. And I feel like I light-headed and all headachey at the same time."
By the end of the mug, I was completely off my face; my body and mind was racing like a Ferrari engine. Friend present: "I don't know what you're possessed by, but it's definitely not Sonic the Hedgehog."
Looking at the photographic evidence from that night, I believe my friend. My facial expression was a close approximation of the following image.
What I learnt:
- NEVER break a sugar fast with hot chocolate. Even a coke might have been less traumatising. System shocks like that are not fun.
- It's good to see what you can live without. It's not just about what you own, it's also about your daily habits. There is far more sugar in the food I usually eat than I realised, and I didn't need half of it.
- The diet served as a psychological crutch, one that helped me say no to offers that I usually accepted due to etiquette and/or gluttony. After that diet, I became permanently more selective about snacks offered to me.
