Bored in the House: Quarantine Eating, Half a Cookie, and Why a Regain Doesn't Erase What You Learned (2020 Live)
In this recording
A 19-minute Live from 2020-04-20, a month into the US lockdown, built around a song that was going viral at the time. It was never posted to YouTube.
- [0:01] Tired of social media personalities giving pandemic advice? Then let's go back to talking about sugar.
- [0:35] If someone in your family has lost a job, is sick or in hospital, or works in one: survive first, take care of your family and your finances first. This is only about losing a few pounds. This video is for everyone else.
- [1:16] It's for those eating because they can, because nobody will give them a hard time right now: "I'm sad, cookies."
- [1:46] Or because quarantine is boring. You've watched three whole shows, every season, and you want something that tickles a nerve ending. Doritos.
- [2:44] "I can't do keto because I can't buy keto foods." Ketosis is about what you don't eat. I said starvation itself causes ketosis, so a lack of supplies isn't a reason.
- [3:10] If you really are in survival mode and have to eat what's available, you're exempt. The last ration has beans in it? Eat the beans.
- [3:54] I ate some carbs recently myself, because I was bored of a crock pot full of pulled pork, and Stall Breaker chicken and broccoli every night is boring too.
- [4:10] We've also lost activity: the gym elliptical, walking groups, my MMA classes (clinch work isn't social distancing). People forget how much they moved commuting, walking from the car and taking stairs to the office. Now it's bed, laptop, Netflix.
- [5:37] Group members suggested step challenges and time in nature. Good advice. But the first thing that helps a diet in quarantine is the first thing that helps it any time: mindfulness.
- [5:53] Someone was running a squat challenge, so I did about ten against the counter. I'd hurt my back and for a few days couldn't pick things up off the floor.
- [7:12] Ask yourself: do I want to eat this, and does it meet my goals? Make decisions, not mistakes.
- [7:29] If being more flexible with carbs is easier for you and your family right now, low carb is a viable option, and a calorie deficit still works with some carbs in it. A smaller portion of mashed potatoes is okay.
- [7:59] If you need a cheat, make it a controlled, limited cheat. It isn't "keto or not keto". Between perfect keto and eight cookies there's half a cookie, two cookies, four cookies. At seven you can still stop.
- [8:30] Living alone in quarantine, there's always another row of cookies. That's how you come out of lockdown 20 pounds heavier.
- [9:02] If you decide you're fine with that (you stayed healthy, kept your kids alive, your marriage is intact, you're a little chunky), that's a decision. We'll do a big reboot when lockdown lifts.
- [9:50] If that isn't your decision, have half a cookie. If half a cookie once a week keeps you keto for three extra months, you'll lose more than you'd ever put back on from it.
- [10:22] But if the choice becomes perfection or "screw it", screw it wins, and it ends in whole bags of chips.
- [10:58] Some of you will come back in July or August having regained. I won't be mad. I'll say welcome back.
- [11:30] And you don't lose it all. You've taken control of your weight before, and you keep the knowledge: hidden sugars, which foods have carbs, cooking low-carb vegetables, keto swaps in baking, handling social gatherings, making treats for family.
- [12:34] You've found foods you like: charcuterie trays, new cheeses, pickled eggs, mayo on everything, bacon in place of a taco shell.
- [13:06] Even if you aren't eating differently right now, keep coming to these broadcasts and keep building that knowledge, so you're in a better spot when you decide to fix it.
- [14:44] If that song is in your head as you open the fridge, you're probably there because you're bored, not hungry.
- [14:44] If being heavier is stressing you, or eating badly is hurting your sleep or your gut, try mindfulness. There's less outside accountability now, and others in your house may have their own problems.
- [15:07] If you need comfort food, fine. But if you comfort yourself with food a lot, find other coping tools: the weather, coloring books.
- [15:47] I love coloring books. They're engaging, you can put in as much effort as you like, and nobody will tell you to turn it into a business. It's just for you. Exercise can be like that too.
- [16:21] If it's stress, ask what you've lost: a workout routine, a walk. Rebuild some normal routine and new ways to be social, because food is often filling those gaps. Fill them with something else.
- [16:55] Four questions at the fridge: Is this boredom? Is it stress? Is it comfort? And what am I comforting, what has me stressed or bored, and can I find something else for it?
- [17:30] Signing off with a joke for having stayed in my lane: protein, electrolytes, sodium, potassium, ketones, BHB, lipase, acetone. Watch some stand-up, find a hobby, take care of your families and stay well.
Watching this in 2026
The lockdown is over, but boredom eating isn't, and the four questions at [16:55] are still the best part of this. So is the cookie ladder. "Perfect or screw it" is the thinking that turns one cookie into a sleeve.
The science in it is light and mostly right. Ketosis comes from what you don't eat: during fasting the body shifts to fatty acids and liver ketones and spares body protein (Cahill, 2006). You don't need specialty products for it. And "a deficit still works with some carbs" matches the big trials. In DIETFITS (Gardner et al., 2018), 609 adults lost about the same at 12 months on a healthy low-fat diet (5.3 kg) as on a healthy low-carb one (6.0 kg). Low carb is one good option, not the only one.
What I'd tone down: "unless you have brain damage you didn't lose all that stuff" is a cheap line, and the survival-bunker jokes land differently now than they did that April. The welcome-back message I'd keep word for word.
If eating to cope is more than a habit for you, or the regain has turned into shame, talk to your doctor or a therapist before you start another strict round. If you take diabetes or blood-pressure medication, check with your doctor before you change how you eat.
Key points
- Keto is about what you leave out, so you don't need special food to do it.
- Cheats can be controlled. There's a lot of room between perfect and the whole bag.
- A regain doesn't erase what you learned. You'll be welcomed back.
- At the fridge, ask: boredom, stress or comfort? Then: what am I really comforting?
- Fill the gaps lockdown left (movement, routine, people) with something other than food.
Related
- Videos: cheating is a decision · decisions, not mistakes · willpower vs habits · when diet isn't in your top three · Stall Breaker · back into ketosis after a carb meal
- Blog: what happens if you cheat · regaining weight after keto · keto on a budget · the DIETFITS study · exercise beyond weight loss · keto vs low carb
- Guide: habits for maintenance · eating disorders
- Story: lockdown losses · the gym closes