Iâm going to try to keep it simpler than some of the advice youâve received. Itâs very confusing trying to assimilate everything when you start this lifestyle.
Keep it simple at first - moderate servings of the proteins you like, always adding fat. If you want to eat veggies, stick to low carb selections and think of them as âfat conveyors.â You need to replace the carbs you were eating with fat, to train your body to use it as fuel, and to keep you from being hungry. If you follow this paragraph alone for your first month, thatâs all you need to remember.
Now some comments based on your menu: it looked pretty good except that itâs hard to see where youâre getting your fats from. Tuna and chicken are both âthrowbacksâ from your low-fat, high carb days. They are healthy protein sources, but you have to work extra hard to get enough fat when you use very low fat protein sources. Eat them with butter, mayo, or cheese sauce. Do you like salmon or sardines? Eat those instead of tuna and it increases your fat intake. What did you fry your chicken in? Be sure to use plenty of healthy fat (olive oil, avocado oil, bacon grease, butter, lard) when cooking lean protein. There is a reason that bacon is so popular in the keto community - it helps us hit our fat macros! And if you add some bacon into your meal plans, be sure to save the bacon grease (an old glass jar from pickles or some such is perfect for this) to cook other foods in. Another great way to add fat is olives if you like them. I go through big jars of green olives and cases of cans of black olives from Costco pretty regularly. Donât worry about calories - at first you should just eat until you are full. Trust the process - IT WORKS.
On the carbs - those sun-dried tomatoes are probably a pretty big carb hit! I would use them only in small amounts to flavor a salad or other dish. If, as I suspect, you donât like veggies (green leafy stuff and cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, plus a few others like summer squashes), itâs not a crime in a keto meal plan to just leave them off. We have a âcarnivoreâ subforum on here, after all. It is a myth that you need plenty of veggies to be healthy. A wide variety of meat (including organ meat), eggs, fish, cheese, etc. will provide what you need.
Snacks? We donât need no stinkinâ snacks on keto. If youâre not eating enough fat in your meals, you will be hungry and want snacks, BUT you are sabotaging yourself when you do this because you add an insulin spike to your day. Eat more at meals so you donât need snacks. Youâll be better off in the âinsulin wars.â If you love snack foods, like the meats you mentioned, or slices of cheese, or olives, make a meal of them. Add some pork rinds or celery (with fat on top!) for some crunch if you like (you can learn about parmesan crisps later). Eat enough that you wonât need to eat again for at least several hours. As you get used to eating this way, youâll be surprised to discover you forgot to eat at a regular meal time because you just werenât hungry. Thatâs when youâll know youâre doing it right.
Now, go back and read my first paragraph again. Forget the rest if you like. Iâm too verbose, anyway!
Oh, and KCKO!