Wednesday, November 17, 2021

This is not the old man aches and pains blog...

 but I do feel like I need to follow up on that post from 2 or 3 weeks ago (I really meant that as a beginning at writing regularly--maybe next month).

But anyway, my knees. Soon after writing that, I saw a friend on Facebook mentioning his weight loss on a keto diet, and it got me thinking (keto, if you don't know, is extremely low carb). 

I don't have any weight loss goals, really, but I've dabbled in low-carb diets in the past, sometimes for an extended period of time. I haven't been strict on a low carb diet in years, but I like to think that it's affected my dietary choices, that I don't eat as many carbs as I might if I was just eating whatever. 

Of course, when you're not strict about these things, it's easy for bad habits to sneak up on you. Anyway, it occurred to me that I'd heard once upon a time that low-carb diets are anti-inflammatory, and since my knee pain likely involved some level of inflammation, maybe a low-carb diet would help. So while we were still on vacation I started cutting back and following a bit of candy on Halloween, I was strict for two weeks.

The result? My knee pain all but vanished. The left knee has been totally pain free. The right knee has been much, much better. Barely ever any pain. 

And then, last weekend, I was celebrating my in-laws' birthdays and watching the Ohio State football game and my father-in-law offered me a Great Lakes Christmas Ale, and I hated to say no, so I said yes. which was the beginning of a lot of yesses: chips, cupcakes, pecan pie, another beer... GIVE ME ALL THE CARBS.

And you know what? I woke up in the middle of the night with pain in my right knee, so I was right back on the low-carb wagon Sunday morning and have stayed there ever since.