Holiday after Christmas

(Jim) #1

Hello there,

After Christmas, I’m going on a short holiday with my family to London from Tuesday until Saturday. Really looking forward to it because I love Londen!

Now I started my keto journey 3 weeks ago with a 5 day fast. My body is still adapting better and better, I’m eating mostly meat and fish and using supplements to help my body break down fats again. Personally, I would love to keep it on, but I have no idea how to manage that in Londen. Especially with my family, that will be impossible I guess. I can’t take my MCT oil, olive oil, and Salmone with me lol. I don’t even have a kitchen to cook over there.

Big chance I have to switch to some carbs. I try to stay away from Gluten and sugar as much as possible, but I don’t think it’s possible to stay in keto without undereating because of where we are going to eat. Now my question is, what is the best way to handle this? Should I break keto 1-2 days before? Or just go on Holiday, eat, and fast for 2-3 days when I come back.

It’s a weird experience for me. My leaky gut is healing, I’m feeling better than the last 5 years and I just do not want to get off this journey. But I just don’t see a way how to get through that. It’s such a love/hate situation haha

#2

It’s quite individual, too bad you don’t know how your body would handle it yet. Some people prefers the first one while I definitely wouldn’t want to add extra off days as I know I can handle virtually anything (but definitely a high-carb sugary day) right out of carnivore but every extra day is a risk even if it’s still low-carb. I probably wouldn’t worry at most places as I am experienced and it’s very easy to eat keto basically anywhere as long as I really want to. The potential problem with be the temptation and my complete inability and unwillingness to resist it… I still only can talk about myself as it’s individual. I definitely wouldn’t want to go too wild but I wouldn’t worry about higher-carb as I know very well what I can handle. Avoiding sugar is good, many of us handle starches better than simpler sugars and added sugar has its negative effect, no matter who is the one in question.

If you manage to go just a bit higher-carb, I don’t think you need to go off keto before but if you expect some really high-carb day, it’s not a good idea right out of keto for many people as far as I know, I even read about it and it made sense, I can’t help my body doesn’t work like that. I can handle pretty much carbs if I had very little in the previous several days. Especially if it’s some “normal” food with starches and not sugar or overprocessed thing.

So I would just do my comfortable best. Not going wild, not feeling super restricted, having fun with food but trying to find the best option.

Good luck and nice holiday!
(I personally wouldn’t fast afterwards as I lost my ability to do so when I went very low-carb, I like to eat and it’s not needed for keto. But you can and are willing to do it so it’s probably okay and maybe good for you, it’s up to you!)

Keto should be possible in very many places but I don’t travel and only know my own country anyway so the others are way more knowledgeable about it, I just read some comments before, many places are used to ketoers or at least are willing to provide a good enough option.

(Bob M) #3

This is how I used to do it. Often, you don’t have to fast, though fasting will get you into ketosis faster.

I try to limit what I eat now, also, when I go on vacation. It’s possible, but can be tough. And in the US, if you don’t want carby things like fried potatoes, they’ll give you a salad. The problem for me is that too many salads cause me digestive issues. Sometimes, I end up just eating meat. I end up buying meats from local stores and having those at home, in addition to eating out.

But you want to have fun too. Eating out won’t be bad, and you can hop back on when you get back.

#4

Don’t wreck time away with the fam with being in your head over stuff. Just eat descent, you definetly don’t need things like MCT Oil with you, your liver don’t hold much glycogen, and since your depleted, for a while even when the liver fills up, your muscles will start reloading before you top them off, the scale will show it, but it won’t matter.

If you want to help a little, just grab a digestive aid and some berberine. Take the digestive aids with your meals to help foods breakdown better (good idea either way, especially during gut repair), and Berberine will help your blood sugar. Those aside, enjoy the vaca.

(Alec) #5

My recommendation is to eat lots of meat and veg. Just avoid starch: no rice, potatoes, pasta etc. Don’t count carbs, just avoid the obvious starches and sugar (no sweets!). You may or may not stay in ketosis, but that really doesn’t matter that much. Just keep away from the bad starches and obvious sugars, and enjoy your holiday!

What’s that classic phrase? It’s not what you do between Christmas and New Year, it’s what you do between New Year and Christmas!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

Keto is known in England. The shadow minister of health lost a considerable amount of weight and reversed a number of metabolic problems on a ketogenic diet, to much publicity, and the Daily Mail has run a number of favourable articles on Dr. David Unwin. There were even rumours that Her Late Majesty lived so long because she ate a ketogenic diet.

I don’t know where you’ll be eating, but most restaurants will give you meat and salad, and will hold the potatoes and bread if you ask. And you don’t need to eat food just because someone puts it in front of you, either.

Politeness towards family goes only so far, for example: If you were allergic to nuts or seafood, would you eat them, just to make Auntie Mabel happy? Or if you had bad coeliac symptoms from eating gluten, would you choke down that bread, just to please Cousin Sophie, and suffer the consequences? Of course not.

Now, if you’re saying that you want Aunt Ursula’s trifle or Uncle Alastair’s world-famous Christmas pud, that’s a different story. Only you can know if going off plan for a while will send you on a long detour, or not.

(Jim) #7

Thanks for the tip, I added some digestive enzymes 2 days ago in my supplement stack. Especially for the breaking down of the fats.

Thanks! but not needed for keto? I think you’re talking here about the weight loss benefits because fasting have tons of benefits outside of that. Or do you mean that keto already tackles all those benefits of fasting? Never heard of that before, sounds interesting.

Haha, I love the way you write and yes you’re completely right.

well, want is a big word. Today I really wanted to eat some Ice cream, but I ate some meat instead with some soup because it felt better. I heard someone say something like “You can decide to feel good in your mouth for a couple of minutes, or you decide to feel good in your body the whole day”. I try to keep that phrase in my mind when some urges come (Small urges in comparison with the other times I did keto).

So no I don’t want any Aunt Ursula’s trifle haha or anything else. Maybe some rice here and there because it’s part of the dish and that’s it. Good to hear that keto is so well known in Londen, will definitely tell the waiter if they have something different.

#8

I meant you don’t need EF to do keto, getting into and staying in ketosis. I basically wrote that: not needed for keto.
It has nothing to do with potential benefits, merely the requirements of keto. And fasting isn’t a requirement at all, obviously.
Some people think keto offers the benefits of fasting, I personally disagree and aim to do EF but I can’t do it since I went very low-carb. It will happen one day…

What is with people and (non-keto) ice cream? Keto ice cream is the best :smiley: Even if it’s not for someone, it’s better than nothing, probably! I wish all stuff I fancy sometimes would be so easy (or just possible) on keto!

(KM) #9

It gets easier as I go. Just spent a week visiting Mom, and although it’s not as easy as being home, after a year of ketovore it’s not that hard to navigate; I know what I eat. Yes I’ll have the meat, yes I’ll have the salad, dressing on the side. Yes I’ll have the non starchy veg and see if it’s doable or covered in ick. Iced tea or water with lemon. Coffee, thank you. When you break it down, keto and especially carnivore food is Easy - it’s just a bit hard to say no to everything else.

(Jim) #10

Ah makes sense, now I understand what you mean. I personally have been fasting less since using keto. Love the feeling of having a nice fatty breakfast in the morning. eating around 3000+ calories a day and do a 24 hour fast weekly and sometimes longer. Works like a charm!

Haha, I normally don’t crave it, mostly it is something like chocolate or cookies. But have been using my keto snacks of some cheese with macadamia nuts and that works well. God, I love macadamia nuts. I’m allergic to almost all nuts but not the macadamian ones. Luckily they are low in PUFA and are the most healthy ones!

(Bob M) #11

I still like/love ice cream, and keto ice cream that I’ve purchased causes an upset stomach. Normal ice cream doesn’t unless I eat too much (as in 3 bowls of it). I mistakenly ate almost all of a pint of keto ice cream, and wow did that cause issues.

If it were up to me, I’d live on pizza and ice cream. And beer. I used to love beer. Haven’t had more than a handful of beers in the last 10+ years though. I do eat pizza and ice cream a handful of times per year. We always have ice cream for birthdays, so that’s at least 4 times per year. Usually have ice cream pie at holidays.

I just jump back onto the keto wagon again.

Reminds me – I want to order some BHB strips to see if I can get a zero on my monitor after Christmas dinner.

#12

I never even saw keto ice cream but ice cream should be yolks and whipped cream, mostly, according to some of us… :smiley: It’s super easy to make. (I did have a dairy free ice cream before carnivore, that was nice too but a bit carbier.) Nice and rich, a little goes a long way, at least in my case. The old watery ones were very different.

#13

I’ve been keto for a number of months now and just returned from a week in Honolulu. I really didn’t find it all that challenging to stay on track. I did take my Bulletproof C8 MCT oil (bought individual servings packages on Amazon.com) and had that in my morning Starbucks coffee with heavy cream. I also packed along LMNT electrolytes, all my supplements, nuts, pepperoni sticks, pork rinds and a couple of “Love Good Fats” bars. I did fine with the Bulletproof MCT first thing in the morning, eggs, bacon, seafood and salads for dinner. Fresh coconut meat was a real treat there. Was able to stay on track and have a great vacation.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #14

Welcome to the forums!

I’m glad you had such a good time while staying on track. It sounds as though you managed things very well. Congratulations!

#15

I live in France and often go to the UK for work. It’s effortless to stay keto or carnivore in restaurants & pubs. Everywhere I’ve been and essentially it’s across London, there’s always a choice of delicious, quality meat. Moreover, hotel / pub breakfasts offer more than ample bacon, eggs & sausages, and more than once, breakfast has been my only meal of the day.