Keto is seriously the easiest thing ever if you stick with it

#1

The first 3 weeks are the hardest, but after that it gets easier week by week.
If you stick with it strictly (no falling off the wagon + avoiding insulin spiking foods even if you’re under your net carbs) you’ll be thanking yourself later.

Personally week 1 is always the easiest for me, then I get tested around the end of week 2 and 3 because there always seems to be some type of obstacle that I end up facing (bday party, hanging with friends etc).

March 1st was when I decided to not make any excuses or have slip ups and I’m on auto pilot now.

Tips:
-Throw in fasting and/or near zero carb days (Not every day, but at least 1 day a week)

-Get a blood glucose monitor (I’m not diabetic but I’ve learned foods that have a negative affect on my sugar levels and ketones, despite eating less than 20g net carbs. Now I’m pretty much always in ketosis. I had a 0.9 ketone / 5.68 GKI index upon waking up)

-Keep “Keto friendly” snacks/junk food to a minimum. I find that in the long run they can be your downfall. Things like quest bars, atkins bars, low carb chocolate trigger a lot of people into binge eating. Also, I’d prefer to save the calories for a bigger meal, because those small calorie snacks trigger many people to continue to snack because they’re not satiated. Next thing you know you’ve ate 800 calories of Parmesan Crisps when you could’ve had a 6oz steak + other things with a better macro profile

-Stop obsessively checking the scale and trust the process. Few people actually stall if they’re strict. If you’re not losing weight, you’re losing inches. If you’re not losing inches, you’re improving your health on a cellular level which in turn eventually results in weight loss/inches lost

-Try not to eat after 8 pm. Late snacking promotes insulin spikes, which in combination of sleeping will halt fat loss since insulin is a storage hormone. You’ll be thanking yourself when you wake up looking and feeling lighter

-Everything doesn’t have to be PERFECT. This is the BIGGEST tip. Sometimes your game plan doesn’t work as well as you planned. Maybe you wanted to fast for 18 hours but at 14 you’re hungry. Maybe at 10pm you’re STARVING but you wanted to wait until morning to eat. As long as it’s keto (no cheating whatsoever), then eat. Many of us who Keto end up losing motivation and turning the whole day into a cheat day or punishing ourselves all because we didn’t stick with our game plan flawlessly. I know this, because I’ve been there countless times.

There’s been times where I’ll have a midnight snack and I’d punish myself by saying “You know what. I’m just going to fast until tomorrow” to “rectify” my choice, then I don’t end up fasting which causes me to feel even worse, then next thing you know I’m saying “Whatever. I’ll just eat whatever I want then I’ll start over tomorrow and will have a flawless day”

(Alex ) #2

it certainly gets more manageable after the first few weeks, I certainly wouldn’t say it’s the easiest thing ever though! If it was, none of us would keep slipping off it so regularly!

#3

I agree, that’s why I stated if you can stick to it more than a few weeks without cheats. People can be dishonest, sometimes unintentionally, to their self.

“I’ve ate keto for 3 weeks and nothing is happening”, but some of those people are eating way above typical keto limits, or spiking their insulin with junk, or conveniently leaving out the saturday binge session because 6 days of keto outweighs the 3200 calorie 322g carb cheat day they had.

(Alex ) #4

it’s a constant emotional overhaul trying to remove food groups from your diet, but there are definitely great benefits to be had if you can stay true to the program @Apex

(Carl Keller) #5

I keep wating for all the warnings about keto not being sustainable to confront me… and waiting and waiting and waiting…

Seven months later, it seems I’ve traded my addiction for processed foods for an addiction to feeling great and having complete control of how, what and when I eat.

(traci simpson) #6

So I have this thing I have to do tomorrow downtown and the only food they supply is sandwich boxes with a sub, a piece of fruit and a bag of chips. I have no stove, refrigerator or microwave that will be available to me. I can, though bring something that wouldn’t need to be refrigerated and the only thing I can think of are quest bars or sausage sticks. Suggestions?

(Carl Keller) #7

Ideally, eat before you go. If you still worry about being hungry when you are downtown, take a bag of pork rinds and/or a small bag of macadamias or almonds.

#8

Out of those two, I’d go with sausage sticks, but the best option would be to eat before you go downtown.

You’ll feel much better at the end of the day if you stayed within your keto macros by eating before and avoiding temptation V.S Risking going there not satiated then falling to temptation.

(traci simpson) #9

Ok, I’ll have my breakfast casserole and get more sausage sticks (1gr carbs) and who doesn’t love BBQ pork rinds! I haven’t had the spicy ones yet!!!

thanks guys! If it wasn’t going to be so warm, I’d bring some boiled eggs too.

#11

Good luck and have fun downtown!:smiley:

(traci simpson) #12

Thanks!

I actually volunteer with the WWII and Korean War Vets. They fly in to Dulles Airport form Chicago and we take them to DC and spend the day at the Memorials having a great time and listening to their stories and experiences and there’s a ceremony for them and then we head back tot he Dulles Airport and they fly back to Chicago! Long day but worth it.

(Scott) #13

Give the chips and fruit away and peel the meat and cheese out of the sub add salt and mayo roll it up and eat it. Pack some nuts and a hard boiled egg (have some salt packets) or you can fast if you like. If Jimmy John’s the #12 sub as an unwich (lettuce wrap) that is awesome. The key here is not to say I’ll just have one chip. Good luck!

(Door Girl) #14

When you can start incorporating some intermittent fasting into your life, days like this will become a whole lot easier. Because I occasionally track my glucose response to meals, and I’ve learned to fast, it is incredibly easy for me to pass up not-good-for-me foods and instead fast. I’ll usually have a great post-event meal planned that I know will satisfy and satiate me.

I know this won’t help this time around, but since it sounds like you do this amazing volunteer work on the regular it might be a loose goal. Not one to beat yourself up over if it doesn’t work for you, but one for you to consider.

As for snacks/portable meals, if you can throw a little ice pack in with your food it will extend your options. (TSA allows frozen ice packs, but not thawed ice packs). Right now I’m loving turkey breast from Costco rolled with sliced sharp cheddar, also from Costco. They sure had a winner at that sample table last Friday! Even better with avocado inside, but not so portable that way. :slight_smile: I pre-rolled (no avo) and brought them with me on a minor road trip yesterday and it was excellent.

#15

Advice in that form is one of my pet peeves. My mom goes to bed at 9 pm. I often don’t turn in until 2 or 3 in the morning.

(Scott) #16

I think the idea is to have at least a twelve hour break from eating to allow insulin to stabilize. It is easy for people to generalize that everybody has a schedule identical to theirs. This is not the case with many shift workers and caregivers.

(Khara) #17

I just had this same issue last week. I presliced a summer sausage and cheddar and jarlsberg cheese. I had a little mini ice pack that I used with them in my day bag that was needed for my conference. I also had a small bag of mixed nuts and a water bottle with ketoaide. Before going I had a big piece of keto quiche. This lasted me just fine. :grin::nerd_face::grin:

(traci simpson) #18

Too hot to bring eggs and I’m not at the point where I can fast much past 9 and I get up at 5am so for me that’s a lot when I stop eating at around 6:30 or 6:45.

(traci simpson) #19

I do have a 12 hour fast. I am in bed by 9, sometimes sooner and I get up at 5am and today I actually didn’t eat until 8, Monday I didn’t eat until noon!!! baby steps!

: )