Lessons I’ve Learned by Quitting Refined Carbs for 6 Days/Week

The first day of your new “diet” would be easy. You’d say to yourself, ah this ain’t so bad.

But as the days progress, you become…restless. I. Need. A. Cookie.

I feel you. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to shed off some weight. New breakfast routines, intense workouts, and intermittent fasting would barely move the needle. I wanted to lose 5 to 10 lbs, but I’d often hit a plateau after losing a pound or two, no matter what I tried.

It was frustrating, to say the least.

My Body Mass Index and Body Fat Percentage was always near the end of the normal range for my height. In other words, I wasn’t particularly fat, but I wasn’t fit enough to be proud of my body.

I wanted tank top arms. I wanted to wear bikini bottoms without being insecure about the cellulite on my butt and always having to put on shorts instead. And I constantly wished my stomach would just be flatter in tight dresses so I didn’t have to suck it in.

I’d tried to just work out more, which would make a small difference, but as Tim Ferriss says, “you can’t outwork your mouth”. In other words, unless you’re exercising for hours every day, you won’t be able to burn enough calories to encourage continuous weight loss if you continue to eat high-sugar foods.

Luckily, just over 3 months ago, I decided to read The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. It was really intriguing since there were a handful of rules you had to follow for 6 days per week, and on the 7th day, you could eat whatever you wanted.

Though I don’t follow this diet to a ‘T’, I’ve been losing weight consistently — and keeping it off.

Week by week, it (surprisingly) gets easier. I find it’s not a chore to stick to this new diet because it doesn’t sacrifice my happiness. I’ve lost almost 10 lbs over the last 3 months — sustainably.

I attribute this to a few key lessons I learned along the way as I experimented with my diet and reflected on my progress.

Before we get started, here is a quick table of contents for this article:

1. You need a “why”
2. Create a diet you love
3. To kill the craving, stop avoiding it
4. Take baby steps, and take them every day
5. It’s okay to break your rules (sometimes)
6. Measure your progress
7. Your food habits influence your other habits
8. Summary

Here we go!

You need a “why”

Simon Sinek’s viral Ted Talk on “Start with Why” is a must-watch if you want to seriously succeed at anything by minimizing your risk of quitting.

He explains the distinct difference between people who are almost successful versus those who actually are.

It all comes down to the belief system guiding one’s actions.

One of his best examples is of the Wright Brothers, inventors of the world’s first airplane. Along with the brothers, many others were racing to build the first flying machine at the time.

One man in particular, Samuel Langley, was given $50,000 in funding (worth around $1.5 million today) to invent the technology. Langley had the greatest minds in the country working on this problem and everyone was rooting for him.

The Wright Brothers, on the other hand, had no funding and limited resources. Their only strength was a strong purpose and a belief that this machine would change the course of the world. People worked for the brothers because they believed in the cause — they weren’t just in it for the money.

In the end, the Wright brothers won the race of engineering and flying the world’s first airplane — even Langley’s funded and qualified team couldn’t beat them. In fact, Langley quit as soon as the Wright Brothers made the discovery because his “why” just wasn’t strong enough.

This is what distinguishes the champions from the losers: the reason governing why you do what you do. These core beliefs determine if you’ll stick to the plan even when shit hits the fan.

Similarly, if you want to permanently shift your food habits, you need a strong reason to do it. As cheesy as it sounds, you need to believe whole-heartedly that improving your diet will lead you to become better in every way — from the way your body looks to your mental sharpness, to possibly being alive for an extra 10 years.

Your “why” should make you want all of this bad enough.

My “why” developed over about a year of doing my own research and listening to health experts. I listened to everyone from Rhonda Patrick on Joe Rogan’s podcast to Peter Attia and Dave Asprey. After following a lot of big names in the space, I decided that beyond looking better, I cared about longevity. I cared about feeling as fit in my 50’s as I am in my 20’s. And I began to understand why many of my food choices were leading me down the wrong path.

In general, I learned refined carbs and sugar cause:

• Weight/fat gain (duh)
• Faster aging
• Slower brain
• Weaker immune system
• Slower recovery after injury (or working out)
• Skin problems

Generally, all of the symptoms above are a result of chronic inflammation.

What I was most surprised to learn is that gluten, a protein (lectin) commonly found in grains, causes leaky gut syndrome in most people, if not, everyone. And a leaky gut goes hand in hand with chronic inflammation. Yup, this sucks — especially for bread lovers like myself.

“The problem with gluten is that no human can digest it. It’s impossible to digest the gluten proteins that are in wheat, barley and rye.” — Tom O’Bryan, author of The Autoimmune Fix

“The spectrum of reaction to indigestibility of gluten places people into two categories: celiac or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, most of the population being the latter. Indigestible substances in the digestive system cause an immune response, immune responses take the form of inflammation. Inflammation is, more times than not, the culprit behind our brain fog, digestive discomfort and suboptimal nutrient absorption.” — Dave Asprey, 4 Top Antinutrients to Avoid

The longer we remain in an inflamed state, the higher the chance of us getting age-associated diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and arthritis.

Of course, everyone has a different tolerance to refined carbs and sugar. Some people can eat small to modest amounts without experiencing negative side effects — though these people are few and far in between.

Even if you don’t feel the negative side effects, it doesn’t mean you’re in the clear in terms of your metabolic health. There’s a neat experiment you can do to find out how susceptible you are to inflammation from refined sugar in Peter Attia’s article.

After internalizing the facts, I was convinced refined carbs and sugar were not adding any value to my body. In fact, they were speeding up my aging. And that’s when I decided enough was enough — it was time for a permanent change.

Create a diet you love

Strictly following the rules outlined by a health guru doesn’t work for everyone. It certainly didn’t for me.

No two bodies or minds are identical, so why should people’s diets be identical?

Don’t just pick a diet that might work for you, create one you love. Experiment with your meals and your food preferences. Experiment with how you cook and eat. Reflect on how the food impacts your body. And repeat until you find a sweet spot.

I used Tim’s Slow Carb Diet as a starting point, though I added a few modifications of my own. The diet simplifies down to this:

1. Avoid eating anything white (exceptions: goat cheese and cottage cheese)
2. Avoid drinking calories
3. Avoid fruit (I have some fruit throughout the week)
4. Keep a check on domino foods (nuts and chickpeas). Eating too much of these can cause weight gain.
5. Repeat the same few meals over and over
6. Take one day off in a week and go nuts

The major adjustments I made to the diet was adding low-sugar fruits and occasionally having 90% dark chocolate (<1 g sugar per cube) throughout the week.

I stick to eating lots of legumes and lentils, salads, and baked or steamed vegetables. I occasionally eat meat and seafood, though I try my best to stick to a plant-based diet.

With these tweaks, I’ve seen weight loss every week, and I look forward to my meals because they’re enjoyable.

The point is you have to create a diet that gets you the results that you want without sacrificing your happiness and general food preferences. If you’re miserable being on a diet, you’ll quit. It’s just a matter of when.

To kill the craving, stop avoiding it

Before you reach for that donut, just stop for a second. Sit.

First of all, if you’re trying to avoid sugar and you have donuts nearby, come on now. What are you doing.

But let’s say you have this strong craving and you can’t seem to shake it off. Instead of immediately reacting to satisfy the craving, try being with the craving instead.

Instead of getting stuck in your typical habitual loop, pause.

Feel your body at this moment. Realize your body doesn’t want the food you’re craving. In fact, you know very well how your body feels after you eat this kind of food. You’ve felt it before — the bloating, discomfort, brain fog, and so forth. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll be able to “control” how much you eat this time.

Before you act, decide if a) you’re actually hungry or b) you’re bored. If you’re hungry, the craving will disappear after you’ve eaten a meal or a healthy snack. Try this first. If you’re bored, let’s face it — your mind just wants to pleasure itself. We both know there are many other activities you can do instead to accomplish the same goal. Get creative.

We must practice listening to our bodies instead of our minds before we give in to the typical knee-jerk response of satisfying every craving we have.

We must practice presence when we feel this kind of intense desire.

Only then can we break our bad habits and make room for better ones.

This doesn’t mean we have to avoid our favorite foods and desserts all the time. Eating them occasionally in moderation brings a lot of joy into my life too.

But developing the habit of feeling how my body felt before and after I ate the food which I was dying to eat made me realize the fleeting nature of it all. 9 times out of 10, we feel great in the short term as we eat, but afterward, a dullness (often accompanied with guilt) begins to settle in.

Become conscious of your decisions and its tangible results. Journal if you have to. After enough practice with becoming aware of your tendencies, you will naturally choose to stay away from foods that aren’t good for you.

Take baby steps, and take them every day

“The decent system you follow consistently is better than the perfect system you quit” — Tim Ferriss

Planning on going from eating bread every day to quitting carbs indefinitely for 2 months? Turns out, very few people have the willpower to actually follow through. Shocker, I know.

Instead, focus on achieving short term, attainable goals. This doesn’t mean going from eating two slices of bread in the morning to one. Challenge yourself just enough so that, well — it’s still a challenge — but without taking every ounce of your willpower to pull through.

Your aim should be to build self-confidence. Build a reputation with yourself — if you say you will commit to something, commit to it. Every time you keep your own promise to yourself, keeping the next promise will become easier.

Whether you commit to a sugar-free week or a sugar-free month is up to you. Just make sure there’s a high probability you will stay true to your word.

Even if you take small steps towards your goal, it’s better than taking no steps at all or trying to take a massive step, failing, and never trying again.

This is exactly how I framed my self-talk. I did not promise myself I would quit all junk food indefinitely for 4 weeks. Not even 2. I promised myself that I would avoid it for 6 days. This was my sweet spot.

After the first week, I was blown away with the results. I lost 2lbs but that didn’t even matter — I just felt smaller. My stomach felt less swollen. Seeing and feeling those results first hand made it easier to follow the same routine, week after week.

You’ll make progress as long as you continuously take steps, no matter how small or big. All that matters is consistency.

It’s okay to break your rules (sometimes)

One slice of cake is not going to make you fat, just like one salad won’t magically make you healthy.

Again: the one thing that matters is consistency (see above).

So it’s okay to let yourself break the rules once in a while. Go on, enjoy the cake at your friend’s party. It’s cool.

But here’s the key: don’t allow yourself to eat more than the one slice.

A lot of people think they’ve ruined all of their progress by giving in to just one slice of cake. And then they devour 3 more slices. And some French fries, with a bag of chips, and a bowl of instant noodles.

Don’t do that.

Have one slice of cake, and nothing else. You’re definitely making it worse by eating 10 things at once. Eating more junk food = higher blood sugar spike = more fat gain.

Measure your progress

“If it doesn’t get measured, it doesn’t get managed” — Tim Ferriss

If progress is not measured we can fool ourselves into thinking that we’re making progress when we aren’t. Always measure progress with data. The data never lies.

I find it helpful to track two types of measurements for my body: weight and body measurements (arms, thighs, waist, stomach).

Solely using weight as the key performance indicator may not convey the whole story especially if you are working out and gaining muscle.

Track two types of measurements at the minimum. Like weight + body fat % or weight + body measurement.

I track my weight every day and my body measurements every 2–3 weeks. Though you should measure your weight daily, don’t pay too much attention to daily fluctuations. It’s not uncommon for weight to increase right after a cheat day. And for us ladies, our bodies will retain water a week before our periods which screws up weight measurements.

What you’re ultimately looking for is a net loss of fat every week.

Your food habits influence your other habits

Eating healthy is a keystone habit. This term, coined by Charles Duhigg, is a habit that causes a positive ripple effect on other lifestyle habits.

“If you focus on changing or cultivating keystone habits, you can cause widespread shifts” — Charles Duhigg, Power of Habit

As you start to improve your food habits, you will begin to lose weight, have more energy, and feel better from the inside out. Your ability to achieve your goals will boost your confidence. Taking on other good habits will become easier.

Essentially, you’ll get into a good habit of taking on good habits.

For me, seeing fat loss after a short period of time made me feel more confident in my own skin. I enjoyed getting up in the morning, putting on my gym clothes, and working out. And having this morning routine led to more productivity which led to a multitude of other great results.

A lot more is at stake here than just weight loss. Your entire day can look different by adopting one simple keystone habit.

Habits like these impact your lifestyle in a big way and will shift your perspective permanently. Doing one hard thing will make doing other hard things easier.

We’re talking about an identity change here, people. This is huge.

When I first started this journey, I would look forward to cheat days. I would fantasize about the foods I’d get to stuff myself with. Heck, I’d have a junk food list ready the day before.

But cheat days were never as sweet as I’d imagined them to be.

Of course, the first few bites of each meal would be amazing. But then the law of diminishing returns would set in. Progressively, my body just felt worse and worse as I stuffed down more food.

On these days, productivity was also out of the question. I just felt fat and lazy and useless.

Reflecting on this made me realize I don’t absolutely need to stuff myself on cheat days. Listening to my body taught me how differently I operated on the right type of food vs. the wrong type of food. It was like night and day.

So now, I make sure I eat consciously, even on a cheat day. I don’t need to check off every food on my junk food list. I don’t need any of the food on that list.

And during the week if I want to go out for dinner, I will enjoy the dinner without obsessing over every dressing or ingredient which may have added sugar. Allowing yourself some freedom is key to happiness.

The most important thing is to take the first step to become healthier. Try something new with your food. Understand your relationship with food. Understand the flaws of this relationship.

It’s only when we take ourselves out of our normal food habits and routine is when we see the impact our food has on our lifestyles.

You don’t need to decide how you’ll eat for the rest of your life. All you have to do is take one step today to do something different, something you hypothesize will be better. Measure your results, reflect, and proceed.

Here’s a summary of the tips outlined in this article:

1. Find your “why”. A strong belief in what you do will let you navigate through any obstacle along your journey.
2. Create a diet you love by experimenting and reflecting. It will take some time but it’s totally worth finding tasty foods and recipes that are also healthy.
3. To understand the driving force behind your cravings, become present when you feel them. Simply becoming aware of your bad habits will naturally cause you to leave them behind.
4. Take consistent baby steps (which involve a low probability of you quitting) instead of occasional giant steps (which involve a high probability of you quitting).
5. Break your rules, sometimes. Don’t become a self-proclaimed prisoner. Unless you’re an athlete, you don’t need to be 100% strict with your diet all the time.
6. Measure your results. They will offer positive validation for what you’re doing and ensure you’re on the right path. This includes taking before and after pictures.
7. Developing this habit will help you develop other great habits. Having the right habits under your belt means being one step closer to long term fulfillment and happiness.

Happy eating :)