Low-Carb Diet: Complete?
May 3rd marked a full month of a low-carb diet I was following. The intention behind this diet was to bring awareness to what I was consuming, transition into the summer season, and to reduce sweet cravings. As a Certified Ayurvedic Nutritionist, I also implemented as many Ayurvedic principles as possible. In a nutshell, I combined science-backed research with Ayurveda and modified it to better suit my life and my needs. This blog post focuses on my thoughts, takeaways, and impact the diet had on me. If you want to learn more about the scientific research I based this 4-week long diet on, I recommend you read this blog. If you want to learn more about Ayurveda in general click here. A quick note on Ayurvedic principles first.
A reference book for living an Ayurvedic lifestyle - link available in the blog.AYURVEDIC PRINCIPLES: A NOTE
Ayurveda is an ancient sister philosophy to Yoga. As I deepen my understanding of this lifestyle, it can feel overwhelming and downright impractical to implement Ayurveda into modern life -especially as a westerner and a Virgo with a Pitta constitution - because my natural tendency is to do it ALL correctly. This is when my personal mantra comes in handy, a mantra I often share with my clients:
“it’s not ALL or NOTHING. SOMETHING is better than NOTHING. Be flexible. Be Consistent.”
If you follow Ayurvedic eating closely, there are food combining do’s and don’ts while preparing a meal, consuming certain foods at particular times of the day, and many other specific Ayurvedic principles that one could follow. Instead of stressing out about following every Ayurvedic principle exactly as it is written (mind you there are many different takes on the Ayurvedic diet, many even conflict with each other) - I focused more on the forest instead of the trees. The main principles I tried to stick to the best of my ability were finding locally available food, in-season produce, and mindful purchasing and consuming of food.
What did this look like? This meant researching in-season produce available in my area, researching available farmer’s markets, noticing where my food came from, looking at food labels to note their ingredients and macro nutrients, and consuming at least one meal a day with intentional eating without any distractions (no screens, perhaps a meditation prior and during meal time). My partner, who is the chef of my household, participated in this diet also. I could not have done it without him. I also used this book to favor certain foods and spices that pacify my Pitta constitution. To learn a bit more on an Ayurvedic diet specifically click here.
I initially wanted to be as conscientious as possible when sourcing my food but I must admit, it was a challenge. I live near the center of town intentionally so I can bike or walk to nearby shops. While I prefer this method of transportation - it limited what was accessible to me. My partner and I share a vehicle and he predominantly uses it since he has to drive to and from work most days. There are not many accessible farmer’s markets near me, and many had limited hours, limited supply, or were in an inconvenient part of town while doing my day to day errands. There is community supported agriculture (CSA) that is available near me and it definitely is something I want to pursue in the future. However it does come with upfront costs and a 6-month waiting list. If you are in Tucson, Arizona you can find their website here. This meant the grocery store was our primary source of food. Before this diet began, we mostly frequented whatever grocery store was convenient but we soon realized that most did not have ingredients we needed to create our meals. This is when the bulk section at Sprouts - a larger chain offering “healthy options” - became our go-to. If you want to read more about our shopping habits check out this blog post.
The paragraphs above serve as a preamble before discussing my takeaways because I felt it was necessary to remind everyone and myself that the primary goal of Ayurveda is to increase mindfulness in our day to day lives. If we are overly stressing or hyper-focusing on doing everything perfectly this defeats the purpose of living an Ayurvedic lifestyle. Let go of perfection and use Ayurveda as a tool to be more aware of your being, your environment, and your habits. Remember the mantra above when approaching a new workout regiment, diet, or any new healthy practice. Now let’s move on to discuss the impacts a 4-week low-carb, Ayurveda inspired diet had on me and what that looked like while traveling.
TAKEAWAYS
Let’s answer the big question first. Did this 4-week, carbohydrate diet reduce my sweet cravings? Yes and no. You saw that answer coming didn’t you? The reason I say no is because I still want cake, cookies, and pan de dulce so that desire is still present but I do feel like I am in control of those desires. After spending a month looking at the carbohydrate content of my regular foods and being more aware of what I was consuming, my brain LEARNED that this is something that is not serving me. I realized that I was choosing foods out of habit and not necessarily for nourishing fuel (Pro tip: build a meal around the protein source first.) Also, the temporary satisfaction of having a poor-quality pastry was not worth “ruining” this diet. What helped a lot was unlearning that fat and high-levels of protein is bad. If you want to read more about this mindset change read the previous blog post.
A major change I noticed is the impulse to run to the bakery section of a grocery store, a doughnut shop, or ice-cream drive-through late at night. I understand that this change in habit was in part due to the fact that my partner was also following this low-carb diet. We can certainly be enablers to one another when it comes to treating ourselves for late-night carb-filled treats. A good strategy we had to break this habit was making our own snacks from whole ingredients. I learned that it’s better to have homemade peanut butter covered dates with 85% cocoa dark chocolate sweetened with a little bit of monk fruit and shredded coconut than half a pack of cookies from the grocery store. Even as I type this I do not feel like I NEED a sweet treat with my coffee - which was not how I felt 1 month ago.
I also learned to have a more discerning eye on my eating habits. For example, a store bought kombucha may sound like a healthy option but if there’s added sugar - is it really the best choice? I knew that food marketed as “healthy” may be everything but healthy, however in the past I still overly justified these “healthy” purchases because I thought it was better than a Sprite soda. While having a kombucha with 16 grams of sugar is definitely better than a regular soda with 30 grams+ of sugar, this low-carb diet helped me take my commitment towards eating well a baby step further without feeling like I was majorly depriving myself. (By the way, there is store bought kombucha available with half the carbs that many leading brands contain. One brand that is very tasty and has 6-8 grams of carbs is Humm. Also, making your own kombucha is fairly easy you just need a bit of patience as it could take a few weeks to be ready).
White Sands, New Mexico - American SouthwestTraveling
When I was about half-way through this diet, I went on a road trip for several days. I pridefully want to report that I did not follow this low carb diet perfectly while traveling in the Southwest and into the Colorado Mountains. There were a few stops to fast food restaurants and some less than ideal snacks but even during this time I noticed that I was not mindlessly purchasing snacks. I really liked that my mind said “hey you don’t need those fries and diet soda, just get the burger because you need to eat right now” or “those tortilla chips are nothing special, they’re just bagged chips put in a basket, just try the guac by itself”. This is major for me because I again didn’t feel like I was depriving myself all that much and I was CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING WHAT TO PUT IN MY BODY in situations that were out of my routine.
CONCLUSION
The title of this post is “Low-Carb Diet: Complete?”. This is a question that I can now answer because I know that it is not complete. This is a process. 1 month of doing anything doesn’t solve a problem forever. Diet and exercise require consistent effort and mindfulness. Commitment may ebb and flow but I now have this experience to reference in the future if I start feeling out of balance. I can retry this diet as a check-in with myself if I feel like I am no longer being mindful about my food choices. I can recall how good it felt to have agency over my nutrition. This may be my go-to diet when the seasons transition from each Dosha.
I also want to stress that this is not intended to be step by step guide that anyone should carbon copy. Nutrition just like exercise is a process that is unique to that individual. Every body has unique needs, desires, and personal history. My intention here is to provide you with information and resources for you to perhaps make intentional, mindful eating work for you and your goals through an Ayurvedic lens. I can provide some tools and support to help develop an Ayurvedic approach to your eating habits - keeping in mind that we all have different needs and starting points. To this end, I am working on a FREE eBook that consolidates the information I’ve gathered so I can share it with you. Until then, please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have. Thank you for reading. Be well.
