When Your Head Is the Reason You're Off Your Diet: Mantras, Music and a Walk

2018-09-12

This is a 32-minute Facebook Live from September 2018 that has almost nothing about macros in it. It's about the days when stress or a low mood is the real reason you're off your diet. I opened by saying I'm not a mental-health expert; I called myself more of a high school science teacher, passing on what other people worked out. Then I gave three tools: mantras, music, and easy movement. It isn't on YouTube.

In this recording

[0:00] Running late, phone acting up, a few seconds for people to join. Some want long videos, some want short ones.
[1:20] Today: mental health and motivation, music and mantras. I'm not an expert; when life events like a divorce or a job change are the issue, I'm not a therapist.
[2:33] Most people lean too far into self-negativity. Would you rather help someone you love move house, or someone you hate? Self-hatred makes helping yourself harder.
[3:46] A mantra is just a tagline: a short phrase that puts an idea in your head. I work in branding, so that's how I think of it.
[4:26] Mantra one: as you do one thing, so you do all things. Half-finished chores pile up, and on a bad day they all become things to feel bad about.
[7:04] Meditation isn't a mountaintop. It's noticing there's a part of you thinking and a part of you watching yourself think, including the part at the fridge late at night. Don't hate either one.
[9:23] Mantra two: everything in the world is being handled, if poorly. You don't have to solve every problem yourself. Two mantras is the most; two is probably too many.
[11:07] If I ever closed KetoDick down, I said I'd point people to The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living by Volek and Phinney, the researchers I base a lot of my information on (live OXFK1077).
[14:12] Part two, music. Pick three songs that reset your mood. When you're down, play them and just let them wash over you; when you've just meal-prepped or finished a workout, play them so they become your success songs.
[19:48] Keep it basic: three songs, one or two mantras, under five things in total.
[20:26] Part three, what I called "hyperfrontality": 20 to 40 minutes of mild movement, like a walk, that gets you out of your thinking mind. My mom's "50 item pickup" game as a way to do it around the house, naming each thing as you put it away.
[24:38] You don't need a heart-rate zone for this. It's about getting into your body and into the present.
[25:17] I don't have everything going great either. I said I'd been through a hard breakup that year and wasn't sure what I wanted to do professionally, but in that moment I was okay (live OXFK1077).
[26:31] Accountability check: you should have your string measurements done and a go-to meal that brings you back on diet, whether that's a tuna packet, steak with cream and mushrooms, or rotisserie chicken.
[28:34] I'd gained weight over the previous 30 days after choosing to be off diet for a family wedding and some travel, and I was going back to it because I had goals (live OXFK1077). I said I have my own support system for my mental health, and it matters to talk about it.

Watching this in 2026

The thing I'd keep from this Live is the framing, not any one tool. The goal I wrote for KetoDick says the job is de-complicating the process and helping people "consider their priorities and obstacles". For a lot of people the obstacle isn't the macros. It's that they're sad, overwhelmed or ashamed, and a perfect meal plan doesn't touch that.

None of the KB's evidence pages covers mantras, music or the brain effects of easy exercise, so I can't put numbers or studies behind those parts here. Read them as things that helped me, offered for you to try. What I said about the "hyperfrontality" idea came from my own reading, and I said on camera I'd forgotten some of my prep notes.

The connection to diet is the one I drew in the Tough Love Live three months earlier: after a slip, your next meal is keto, with no reset or punishment fast. This Live is the part that comes before that next meal: being kind enough to yourself that you'll make it.

When this isn't enough

Three songs and a walk are not treatment. If you're depressed most days, if you're thinking about not being here, or if food has become the way you cope and you've had an eating disorder, please talk to your doctor or a mental-health professional, and don't run a weight-loss diet on your own in the meantime. I said in this Live that I use professional support myself. That's not a weakness; it's the support system working.

Key points

If self-criticism is the problem, a stricter diet won't fix it.
One or two mantras at most; mine were "as you do one thing, so you do all things" and "everything is being handled, if poorly".
Pick three songs; play them when you're down and when you've just done something right.
20 to 40 minutes of easy movement, even tidying the house, can get you out of your head.
Have one go-to keto meal ready for the day you restart.
Get professional help for depression or eating-disorder history.

When Your Head Is the Reason You're Off Your Diet: Mantras, Music and a Walk

In this recording

Watching this in 2026

When this isn't enough

Key points

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