This post contains affiliate links
In my last blog post, I slipped in the fact that I have gone Keto. Yes – I need to come clean that in fact I have. I’m sure many of you who have known me over the years are shocked. I mean – here is one of my previous quotes!
“And for the record – I am NOT a proponent for intermittent fasting, nor cutting out whole food groups… but I believe IN the ladies who are doing those things.”
It wasn’t that I was previously necessarily AGAINST Keto – but I definitely had not been a proponent. Instead, I have always said that you need to find the eating plan that is right for you – and currently, I feel that Keto IS the right plan for right now. Let’s dig into why.
________________________________
A little History to get you caught up
Now – I’ve tried many eating plans over the years! I tried the “6 Week Body Makeover” (6WBMO) back in 2005, and “The Plan” in 2014. I had actually been successful on these – and they were both well before I had ever heard of Lipedema and that we were incapable of losing weight. Although never mentioning it in their extensive literature, I noticed that the 6WBMO plan cut out the most common allergens – grains, nuts, seeds, dairy, etc. And “The Plan” went a step further and talked about “Sensitivities” and testing and cutting out the specific foods that caused YOU to be sensitive.
So when I finally learned about Lipedema, I came up with the theory that food and environmental sensitivities cause inflammation – and this inflammation can get “trapped” when we have a poor lymph system as in Lipedema and Lymphedema. Also – when we are inflamed, we’re trapped in the “Fight or Flight” response and unable to “Rest and Digest” and are unable to get rid of the inflammation – we just hold onto it as a stress response.
In 2018, I adopted the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) – in part because I had been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disease of the thyroid, and in part because AIP also addressed sensitivities and eliminated most of the common ones. The Autoimmune Protocol, although it eliminates grains, still includes a number of carbs like sweet potatoes and root vegetables. And reading through the Hashimoto Protocol, a subset of AIP, Dr Isabella Wentz suggested keeping these carbs in the diet to support the thyroid.
By 2019, I’d lost over 6 dress sizes, 45 lbs, 2 inches on arms, 2 inches on calves, and 7 inches on hips and 6 on each thigh – HUGE news for the Lipedema world!
Now, it just AMAZES me how my sensitivities changed… and sometimes how quickly I developed a new sensitivity. I had CRAZY ones! Sunflower/ sesame seeds, xanthan gum, eggs and the infamous SCALLOP that had caused me to gain 6 pounds overnight and had me sick for 5 days…. But I had also become sensitive to nightshades… and then dairy… and then almonds…. It seemed every month I’d discover a new issue of things that I hadn’t had a problem with previously. I had a lot of concerns about pork, beef and lamb – mostly from a food sensitivity test – and cut those out as well.
At that point in my life, although plenty of people had suggested Keto – I could not imagine Keto if I couldn’t eat eggs, dairy or red meats. And in addition, I felt I should follow the Hashimoto protocol and continue to feed my thyroid carbs.
And – it worked – along with the weight loss, I had also placed my Hashimoto’s into remission!
I also want to preface – that back at this time, I had had a glucose tolerance test – and I was not insulin resistant nor prediabetic at the time.
____________________________
Last Sept – my A1C and fasting glucose showed that I had become “Prediabetic” – so my endocrinologist gave me a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). Even carbs that many sites said were diabetic friendly were setting off my monitor with a spike. Most of my previous sensitivities seemed to be at bay and I went Keto – and still no luck. Even the carb zero yogurt, keto breads, berries – tons of typically keto-friendly foods spiked my glucose. I went VERY strict Keto. Got my A1C and fasting glucose down under Prediabetic levels!! (Woo-Hoo!)
The Diabetes site I used for the strict Keto guidance, mentioned getting an insulin and leptin test along with A1C and fasting glucose – so this past April I got that as well. While my A1C and glucose were now fine – my insulin was (assumingly still since we didn’t get one previously) still high and leptin was off the chart! My endo and I had a talk about how CORTISOL increases leptin and insulin and it takes longer for those to come down after insulin comes down. Higher insulin pushes more and more glucose into the cells. (Now that part is nothing new — we’ve been hearing about high insulin pushing glucose into cells from the Keto folks for years.) Eventually, the cell can’t hold any more insulin, and we become “insulin resistant”. When the cell can’t absorb the glucose and it remains in the bloodstream, we become diabetic and are provided insulin to inject to force even more glucose into the already stuffed cells.
BUT typically – we hear of Leptin, insulin and glucose being high because of WHAT WE EAT. And yes – once you reach insulin resistance – then, I can attest from my CGM, that foods WILL obviously spike my CGM.
But this cortisol increasing leptin and insulin fascinated me BECAUSE we had talked about (from the start of this group) an increase in cortisol from eating an inflammatory food. So we talked about how to NOT eat those inflammatory foods – and we rarely talked about controlling cortisol itself.
And my endo had given me a long list of (weird) things to do to get my cortisol back into the correct balance.
I started monkeying around a bit learning about cortisol, and fell into OTHER things I could be doing as well.
And then… so now – here’s my new theory (just like Food Sensitivities was back then – was discounted and now is a mainstream thought) – are you ready?
So here I am – seeing sunlight in the morning – blue blocking at night – drinking Tulsi tea and all of these great things… My anxiety was lower – I began actually being able to THINK… and I haven’t had an injury in like 6 months (I KNOW!! Unheard of – right??). My Fasting glucose came down to the 80’s. (THE 80’s!!) And was basically a straight line. I had begun to tolerate slightly higher carbs (steel cut oats and sweet potato), which I would have only once every 9 days – and I’d have a small peak to 120, which was “controlled” and would return to baseline within an hour – or at least well within the 2 hour guideline.
AND then… I fell. I fell HARD. I had a bruise from wrist to shoulder (! Don’t we get the WEIRDEST injuries?!!), and I bruised my knee badly. They were both LARGE, PAINFUL all-you-think-of bruises. Even a shirt sleeve hurt my arm. I had to take a donut pillow to suspend my arm so the bruise wouldn’t touch even a pillow or blanket.
My baseline glucose shot up over 20 points. 20 points! I now regularly had readings around 115 – which is back into the Pre-Diabetic range. A couple of the strict Keto foods I had been fine with just the week before started spiking my glucose into the 150’s – 170’s.
My theory is the stress, pain and anxiety increased cortisol which increased leptin, insulin and glucose. It’s really not so much of a stretch of thought, is it?
Eating “carbs” isn’t necessarily the thing that makes diabetes a comorbidity of Lipedema – it’s the constant stress, pain and anxiety of this condition that eventually leads to diabetes.
________________________________
Plain and simple – This is why I went Keto – and why I’m calling out cortisol for being such a culprit in our ongoing Lipedema journeys.
________________________________
Since going Keto, I have been using Ultima Electrolytes – they are low in sodium, so protect my kidneys while still helping to replace the salts with 6 essential electrolytes that are shed during Keto. They have great tea and even mocktail flavors! My favorites so far are the Pina colada and the Watermelon. They are sweetened with stevia and there’s no maltodextrin! Use this link for $5 off your first order:
0 Comments