Larisa from Ukrainian city Kharkiv about how her craving for sweets returned because of the war.
I lived in Kharkov, on Saltovka. This area of the city suffered and still suffering from attacks the most.
First 9 days since the beginning of the war I and my husband spent at home, on the 6th floor of a 16-storey building, and did not go out anywhere. Our children live separately from us. I am very provident: my freezer was full, and I would have had enough food for a long time if we had stayed.
But on the 10th day we could not stand it and run away to relatives in Kremenchuk.
Before the war, I didn’t follow strict keto proportions. I guess, it was rather a low-carb diet. I had a relatively small excess weight and last spring, thanks to a keto marathon I lost 15 kg. Then the season of cherries began, the vacation…gradually I got off the calculations. But after the keto marathon, I used to the intermittent fasting – eating twice a day. I ate a lot of green leafy salads.
I thought, I was not an emotional eater at all. On the contrary, in stress my appetite usually disappeared completely. But after we escaped horrible shellings and fear, here, in a relatively safe place, the desire to eat sweets came back to me.
Here in Kremenchuk I started buying a kind of stevia-based cookies and sweets from a local “Healthy” corner store. I was strong enough not to fall down to eating sugar. I remember, before keto, I had a terrible sweet tooth, although I tried to choose sweets with artificial sweeteners.
The keto marathon gave me such a good base and such correct proportions that I absolutely did not want sweets! I was surprised, but it’s true, I managed to get off the sweet needle!
But as you know, there are no ex-sweet tooth, as well as ex-alcoholics or ex-KGBists. Stress affects us to come back to previous coping mechanisms. I know the man, who came back to smoking after he quit 10 years ago. I came back to eating sweets.
At home, before the war, I used to eat a lot of greens. Now I haven’t got this opportunity. Thank God, I still keep on intermittent fasting.
I’m not hoping to come back to strict keto now, but I want to stop buying these junk sweets. I’ve already ordered some keto desserts online, to get as close to keto as possible. At least, I can definitely buy bacon in the market, it’s my must have now.