This may go nowhere. This blog is an experiment, as is my diet. A few years ago I began meditating and doing yoga; after years of parenting, it was a big change to begin listening to my body. What I heard concerned me: periods of anxiety, for no apparent reason. It affected how I made decisions, and whether, when faced with a challenge, I would respond, calmly and thoughtfully, or react, defensively and aggressively. I began to notice that fearful thoughts would flit in and out quickly in the background of my thoughtstream, almost imperceptible except for the tension and anxiety they triggered.

So weird. Was it a metaphysical issue? I paid closer attention to my thoughts; even if I could not stop the nameless anxiety, it helped to be aware of it to try to consciously relax and compensate. Sometimes I could, and sometimes I couldn't.

We live in a region known for the excellence of the local food, and every year I wait patiently for the Amish farmstand to begin selling seeded watermelons in late July. Seedless are sweeter, but seeded have more flavor, PLUS, you get to eat the seeds. But you have to wait almost a year between seasons. A few months after my anxiety awareness began, I found the watermelons of my dreams, and ate half a one for breakfast. Two hours later I was shakey, dizzy, and totally anxious. That was the beginning of me figuring out that I have reactive hypoglycemia. I began testing my fasting blood sugar, and found it was around 116 every morning--too high.

That was a couple years ago. I immediately went on a low-carb Paleo diet, and it helped. While I did not appear to be "fat," I had become one of those skinny fat people. At 56 years old, 5'5' and 130#, my weight was perfect on the charts, but my BMI was 29. I had skinny arms and legs, and carried all my weight in visceral fat. As I slowly lost the weight--about a pound a month--my fasting blood sugar improved, and I felt better. Moreover, the unnamed anxiety was quieted. It had been triggered by low blood sugar!

But for the last year, the carbs began to dominate once more, and some of the weight came back, as did the bouts of anxiety and insomnia. Worse, my feet have started to become numb. The doctor was not super helpful about the reactive hypoglycemia, but once peripheral neuropathy set in, she had me do testing. The blood sugar tests were inconclusive; reactive hypoglycemia doesn't seem to be a thing doctors worry about. Also, I apparently I have a hereditary gene mutation (MTHFR) that I don't quite understand yet, but which predisposes me to autoimmune disorders. She made me an appointment with a neurologist in a couple months.

In doing research, I found out about an experiment done in Newcastle, England. They were able to associate visceral fat with pancreas disfunction, and found that by putting people on a super-low-calorie ketogenic diet for two months, their symptoms reversed, even neuropathy. They also found that south Asians (Indians, Pakistanis) had a lower tolerance for visceral fat; anything over BMI of 24 caused trouble. I am west Asian (Arabic), so perhaps this also applies to me. I decided that in the interim, while waiting to see the neurologist, I would try going on a lower-calorie ketogenic diet to see if it helped.

So this blog. It's just a way to document the diet, and the results. Wish me luck.