Am I Still KetoDick If I Eat Mashed Potatoes?
July 2019 — keto off the list, on purpose
Busy, and eating like everybody else
It had been a while since I'd talked to you guys. I'd been working a lot with my individual coaching clients, and I'd had some other work projects in town that kept me busier than usual. So on a Sunday morning at the end of July, with my hair doing something I can't explain, I sat down to talk about lists (live PCRC2357).
Here's what I didn't hide on that video: part of why you hadn't seen me around the group much was that keto had stopped making my list. There'd been some convenience eating. Some eating whatever the people around me were eating. And for a while that gave me an actual identity crisis. Am I still KetoDick if I eat a bowl of mashed potatoes? That's the entire username. Who am I if I'm eating a carbohydrate (live PCRC2357)?
It sounds like a joke, and it kind of is. But I think a lot of you have a version of it. If you're the person who always made the sweets for everybody, and then you stop eating sweets, how do you show people you love them if it's not through cupcakes? If you're the cupcake lady and I'm KetoDick, and you stop eating cupcakes and I start, are either of us still us? Of course we are. You still have to go to the bathroom, you still need a glass of water, and you'll still die if it's below zero. But you have to let yourself grieve a piece of who you thought you were. Bears look for blueberry bushes in summer and hibernate in winter. Swap those and things go badly. What worked in one season of your life won't always work in the next (live PCRC2357).
The list
The first thing I do with every coaching client is ask: what are the most important things in your life right now? People hire me to help them lose weight, and then a lot of the time weight loss doesn't make their top five or top seven. Maybe a parent is dying. Maybe there's a breakup, or trouble at work, or debt, or a fight with a family member, or a nagging injury they've never had looked at (live PCRC2357).
Then I ask them to picture next year. Option one: you're down 15 pounds, but the family fight, the work problem and the bad ankle are all still there or worse. Option two: same weight as today, but the ankle feels better, you and that family member are getting along, and work is calmer. A lot of people pick option two. Being down 15 pounds with all the same problems doesn't sound happy to me either (live PCRC2357).
Any one person can only really focus on three to seven things at a time, and probably closer to three. So I made mine. My relationship with my family made the list. Monarch butterflies did not, even though I'd planted milkweed seeds all over the yard for them and one floated through the frame while I was talking. Keto didn't make my top seven right then. I was doing well on the top three, and because I was focused on those, the next four were doing okay. Keto still made the top ten (live PCRC2357).
And I said it straight: I had to bolt because I was having breakfast with somebody, and I'd probably eat some carbs at that breakfast (live PCRC2357).
Parked, not abandoned
This is the part I want you to hear. Taking weight loss off the top of the list isn't the same as giving up on it. I said on that video that I'd be back, because I know how to lose this weight and eventually I do want to lose it. I hadn't changed my mind about the extra pounds (live PCRC2357).
The main reason was my blood sugar. For anybody who doesn't remember, I have impaired fasting glucose. That's a prediabetic warning sign, and it's the reason I started all this (The Meter Said No). Second to that, there's a different target weight I want for how I look, and because I feel better when I kickbox or go hiking (live PCRC2357).
Emotionally, admitting it was good for me. I told myself keto was one extra focus I didn't have time for right now, and that other things needed my attention. I'd done a really good job on those other things. That's the lesson: parking a goal on purpose, with a reason and a plan to come back, is a decision. Letting it slide while you beat yourself up about it is just sliding.
What I'd tell you now
I'd still make the list first. If a goal doesn't make your top three, that's information, not a character flaw. On the blood sugar side, the American Diabetes Association's 2019 consensus report says cutting total carbohydrate has the most evidence for improving blood glucose, and it lists low-carbohydrate eating as one of several options (Evert et al., 2019). Its 2025 standards also call several eating patterns acceptable when they're fitted to the person (ADA, 2025). So "low carb while life is busy" is a real option, not a failure. See keto vs low carb and habits that keep the weight off. If you have a prediabetes or diabetes diagnosis, or you take medication for blood sugar or blood pressure, keep your doctor in the loop whenever your carbs go up or down a lot (medications).
Earlier: Two Thousand Pounds, and Ten Percent Happier · Later: Under $2,000 in Three Years