rose swierczynski's Journal, 02 June 2019

Progress is good. Not as much as you want, but still good. Perhaps continue to believe in yourself that you have been successful? 

This is a great loss and as you close in on your goal weight, it will get slower! 

This is a nice drop 

You may need to reconsider your stance on the rude thing. It may sound harsh, but when it comes to your diet/health goals what others think should be low priority, as in to hell with what they think. It's possible that these small tastes are having a bigger impact than you think. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, so why not give them up and see what the results tell you. If they tell you they they are detrimental to your goals then you can decide what's more important, your progress or other people's opinions. If it turns out they are of no consequence then, great, that knowledge is useful too, ie you can keep doing it without worry that you are stalling yourself out with that particular act. This methodology is useful if you are trying to answer the question "what actions am I taking that may be counter to my goals". These are the best questions to ask because the answers are things that you alone can change and are therefore the simplest to address. Start with what you can control and work outwardly from there. In my estimation that is the quickest path to removing obstacles that lie in your way.  

A simple 'no thanks' will not hurt anyone's feelings. 

There is a potential problem with keto of which you may not be aware. When you are overweight on a ketogenic diet with very low carb (less than 20 grams), the body adapts so fully to either betahydroxibuterate ketones (if you are consuming at least 70% of TCI as fat) or to acetoacetate ketones if you are burning stored fat. It is the latter that may be your problem. The longer you are keto (without consuming lots of fat...to make BHB ketones), the muscles will adapt to burning stored fat to get acetoacetate ketones (made from stored glucose ... from plant carbs made into fat by insulin...) for fuel. (Acetoacetate ketones come from fat made from surplus glucose in the body that insulin stored as fat.) Once the muscles adapt to burning acetoacetate ketones, they will no longer accept glucose as a fuel. This dramatically drops the body's need for carbs! I know this as a fact because I specifically chose to adapt my muscles to acetoacetate ketones so that they would not accept glucose as a fuel source. [I have pulmonary fibrosis and needed to keep my C02 levels low. Therefore, I eat a low carb diet (less than 100 grams). I have no gluconeogenesis from protein (since my muscles do not use glucose) so can eat whatever protein I need. Even though my fat intake is high ~ 80% of TCI) I do not gain weight. However, neither do I lose weight. (My fat % is high so that my muscles have ample fuel for my muscles. If I burn too much stored fat, my Blood Glucose will rise too high.) If your muscles have adapted to acetoacetate ketones, your are in trouble as, once they adapt, they will vigorously reject glucose. Good for me but bad for most others. (Body builders do not go on Keto for more than 6 weeks to avoid this potential danger.) The only way I know to either prevent this from happening or to stop it (if the adaptation is not complete) is to eat least 150 grams of carbs two days per week. Or...one can do as the body-builders do and go off keto for about 2-4 weeks and then begin again. It takes the body 3 days to begin adaptation. By the 4th day, adaptation is in full swing. By eating enough carbs to fuel both the central nervous system as well as provide some for the muscles, adaptation to acetoacetate ketones will not occur of a greater number of carbs are consumed every 3-4 days. However, if you suddenly consume less, the adaptation (to acetoacetate ketones) will speed up. In fact, if you went zero carbs for a prolonged period of time, your muscles will permanently reject glucose! My muscles made the conversion 12 years ago. It took approx 8 weeks with less than 10 grams of carbs per day to accomplish this. Then, I spent a year never eating more than 20 grams of carbs to solidify it. My muscles will not touch glucose! However, they will burn stored fat for the acetoacetate ketones...which I need at night when my 02 saturation falls below 80 and I cannot burn fat. 15 years ago, I was given only 6 months to live. I have been doing well for a 72 year old woman.! I hope this is not confusing you. I am assuming that you are trying to be in nutritional ketosis. Since you probably consume more than 20 grams of carbs (but less than 50 grams) most days, try simply increasing your carbs to 75 grams on farmer's market days instead of dropping them! Your body will perceive this as 'abundance' and be willing to give us pounds when you return to less than 50! When your carbs are low all the time and then you drop them even more (without increasing fat to compensate), the body believes you are running into regular 'starvation' periods and holds on to existing fat! (By profession, I have a PHD in nutrition. ) 

Make “just tasting” history. People will understand