How to help a newbie

(Jay AM) #1

Hello everyone. I want some input from the collective here. If you have anything I should consider, please add it. Story time!

Tl;dr What materials would you provide to someone who is skeptical about keto, has a hard time adhering to diets without a firm plan, and needs a lot of help planning and hand holding. I’m willing to take on the role of nutritionist but, I don’t want to overwhelm him with keto info.

My friend is about 6’ 2" and weighs somewhere in the realm of 400 lbs. A few years ago he went on an extreme calorie restricting diet and lost weight very very fast. This sudden weight loss left him crippled. His body didn’t have the ability to support his frame and then the loss set off an autoimmune disorder at the same time. He now has severe arthritis that has left his fingers twisted, him hunched over, and he walks in a shuffling gait. He isn’t able to do much moving around. He’s gained the weight back from that loss. Now his doctors are bringing up weight loss surgery to him. This is the second time as I talked him out of the first time. This medical intervention doesn’t come with anything beyond the surgery and promises of being thin. They do very minimal counseling before, none after. He tells me he’s not sure about keto because he has no willpower to diet. I’ve explained my benefits of keto and how it’s easier than dieting. I also asked how he plans to adhere to a diet after surgery but, it’s being displayed to him as a magic pill and that he won’t have to worry. I think keto would benefit him greatly.

Current health concerns:
-Overweight
-High BP (BP meds and monitoring)
-Arthritis (treated with monthly IV infusion)
-Genetic predisposition for kidney stones
-Sometimes dehydrated
-Fatigued

He’s also on an extremely limited budget but, they have chickens that produce some of their eggs. His food is often cheap fare like hot dogs, eggs. With cheap fillers in every meal like white bread, potatoes, and rice. Sometimes vegetables but, they consider corn a vegetable and it’s cheap. He also struggles with cooking for himself. He has a microwave and instant pot for cooking in that he can use.

I’m coming from a background of not having to extremely budget for food. I also want to send him a starter kit for more expensive items and will probably replace them as he runs out. Things like pink salt, electrolytes (potassium and magnesium powder), coconut oil.

I was thinking that a collection of super easy recipes would be a good start. Things that can be microwaved or cooked in the IP.

(Edith) #2

Would frozen vegetables be helpful? They are not very expensive and because they are frozen still retain most of their nutrition. They don’t spoil like fresh veggies. They are not leafy greens but in small enough quantities can still be keto.

Edith

(Rob) #3

Well isn’t that the horror story!! :scream:

It’s hard to know where to start. Someone who tried to cure themselves and got deeper into trouble. Now is being offered a magic bullet that isn’t smoke and mirrors but is far from magic. “Can’t cook won’t cook” (the name of a UK cooking show) and fiscally challenged.

My thoughts are that a well formulated ketogenic diet might not be the best way to attack this. How about a few weeks of super simple, repetitive but yummy keto food. If it were me (and it was) I’d do a ton of bacon, eggs, sausage, cheese for a couple of meals a day and then a meat and veg every night. Cheap but good meats for me include (buy from Costco, or look for supermarket sales) -

  1. beef chuck pot roast - a weeks’ worth can be cooked in a few hours and sliced up and reheated in the microwave all week (doesn’t go rubbery).
  2. Chicken thighs - a big pack of 10+ provides 5-10 meals (probably 5 to begin with) - I cook all at once, then reheat over the week in MW. Not so sure how to IP those, though.
  3. A slicing ham/ham joint - similarly sliced up all week as almost ham steaks - can be IP’d
  4. A pork butt - slow cook/IP or country style ribs (also IP’d) and reheated later in MW

I was doing keto on a budget for a while so all my meats were on sale, whatever was a deal but I never felt cheated. Eggs and bacon in bulk are also pretty cheap. My Bacon/egg/cheese/pickles meal is about $3.50 per.

Another trick I use is to find/make a sauce that I really like and slap it on anything to make it taste more interesting. Mine is home-made buffalo (hot sauce, butter, spices) and I cook up a sauce pan of it every week. I bet it would work in a microwave with a little care (melt butter, whisk in others, heat a bit). I’ve started to use sugar free BBQ sauce to change it up.

I second @VirginiaEdie on the frozen veggies. You can get broccoli and cauliflower florets, cauliflower rice, frozen spinach, kale, etc. and all microwave up really easily (steamed). A few carrots, peas and corn for color/texture. Slather in butter and salt.

Another thing I did (not so much now) was make low-carb tortilla personal pizzas - low carb tortilla (4g net carb), shredded mozzarella cheese, tomato paste, pepperoni - <$2 per pizza - 8 net carbs. I put under the grill - but a $30 toaster oven might be a good investment for him, also for non-MW reheating.

TLDR for me: Bacon/Eggs/Cheese, weekly meats, frozen veggies, sauces.

For your friend - Find out what keto foods he really likes that he can rinse and repeat and if he can stick at it for a couple of weeks he should see benefits, and all coming from foods he likes.

Best of luck to your and your friend. He’s lucky to have you.

(Diane) #4

I have chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia which also came with mental fog, lack of motivation and a profound sense of malaise along with extreme exhaustion, chronic pain and muscle weakness that affected (affects) my balance. I started researching low carb diets on my PCP’s recommendation and found Keto.

I had to find simple, sustainable ways to change my WOE. Hard boiled eggs were my friend. A perfect little Keto food. Scrambled eggs and bacon (bacon cooked up ahead of time in the oven, warmed up as needed). Precooked frozen sausage parties that can be warmed up. Cheese, olives and pickles. Cucumbers with Litehouse blue cheese salad dressing from Costco (yes, I know, seed oils; but we all have to start somewhere).

I always kept tuna salad, egg salad or chicken salad in my fridge (adding fat with mayo and little cubes of cheese to make it more satisfying). A $5 chicken from costco can make a meal, a pot of soup (I used mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower for the veggies and bone broth from the bones/skin and an instantpot), and chicken salad from the breast meat. So, several easy meals.

I would make an instant pot pork roast with a can of diet cola (diet Dr Pepper), a bottle of green, tomatillo salsa, and a few tablespoons of swerve. Maybe add hot sauce or red pepper flakes for some kick. Really yummy pulled pork.

A package of frozen, precooked hamburgers were yummy warmed in the microwave served with blue cheese dressing. Tin foil dinners cooked in a toaster oven with a frozen hamburger, some veggies and butter (when money was tighter). I usually cooked the meat and veggies in separate foil packets to accommodate different cooking times. Can do the same with frozen chicken breasts/thighs. Adding in extra fat for satiety.

Chicken broth from bouillon with added fat (I don’t drink coffe, so I made BP broth). I really liked Bigelow Mint Medley herbal tea atvfirst, until I got better at drinking water. Warm water with a little lemon or lime (juice or a couple of slices of the fruit) and some added pink salt (I bought a five pound container at Costco for about $6-7). Some frozen berries.

Your friend is lucky to have you! I hope this helps.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

If your firend is too undisciplined to diet, how does he expect to adhere to the required diet after bariatric surgery? :man_facepalming: :

Of course, as we all know, keto consists of tasteless, boring food that leaves us ravenously hungry 24 hours a day and is a completely unsustainable diet that is going to kill us, so I can understand where your friend is coming from . . . :smiley:

(Jay AM) #6

Exactly what I asked but, like I said, it’s being sold to him like some magic wonderland. I guess after the surgery they just provide a short list of foods to eat. The after care is atrocious.

(Rob) #7

I have a 20-something (sorta) goddaughter who is considering WLS and it is just such a bright shining light in her mind to solve her problems that it’s hard to break through rationally. She’s trying veggie keto to lose the weight to enable her to have the surgery and I’m hoping that it works well enough to make her see that she doesn’t need the WLS at all. Still, the lies we tell ourselves are hard to overcome. :disappointed:

(Jean Taylor) #8

Not a recipe, but you can steam almost anything in the microwave that you can bake as long as it’s not breaded, so if you know what he likes you might consider converting some things, and if you’re not sure you should ask him. See if he has any recipes he loves you can ketofy for him.

I agree on the frozen veggies but would add that you can totally get leafy greens frozen too that’s the only way I eat them. I hate greens so much I hide them in meat sauces and frozen just takes much less effort when you’re doing that. lol

I laughed when I read about corn being a vegetable I have that same argument with my mom about every week lol

(Rob) #9

Is that any different than how many of us tried to convince ourselves that since potatoes were vegetables, chips/fries were one of our 5-a-day :crazy_face:

(Jean Taylor) #10

Well technically potatoes are a vegetable botanically speaking at least. Corn is grain. It’s not even hiding out in the vegetable category screwing with people.

(Diane) #11

I have seriously considered weight loss surgery. When I was doing some research, I discovered that one of the sad facts of bariatric surgery (specifically the Roux en Y Gastric Bypass), is that for patients without diabetes, all cause mortality goes up for external causes of death (including from self harm and accidents). Some of this might be attributed to the fact that as previously sedentary patients get out more, they suffer more accidents. It has also been theorized that when the weight loss surgery doesn’t turn out to be the magic bullet that they are expecting, some patients turn to suicide.