Tips for “normal life” eating

(Mette) #1

Hello! I am fairly new to keto, currently on my 30th day of lazy keto and daily IF of 16h. I have not been tracking my intakes meticulously, as I have a history of anorexia and do not want to go down that path again. Nonetheless I have seen great results in the past month where I am down from a size 14 to 10 and am enjoying the new eating habits. I don’t feel restrained at all.

Thing is that I have a job that from time to time requires me to go into business contexts where I have little control of meals. One upcoming challenge: tomorrow I will be meeting with new clients at a lunch meeting with sandwiches. I know most of you would probably just decline the sandwich but I am looking to take the best elements of the keto lifestyle to incorporate into my lifestyle and see how I best tackle eating a sandwich every now and then. Anyone else in similar situations where you at times will be forced to eat something out of your regular eating scheme? How do you deal and get back on the horse?

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

As a newbie, the more consistently you remain in ketosis the better. Being consistently in ketosis helps heal/repair metabolic damage from eating SAD and enables efficient fat adaptation more quickly and reliably. If your work/lifestyle, however, necessitates an occasional non-keto meal/beverages, etc. then plan your keto eating around that event. In other words, the day prior do your IF as usual and make doubly sure you keep carb intake to a min, I’d even aim for zero carbs the day before. At the actual meal, minimize carb intake as much as possible. When you have options, choose the lowest carb options. The day following, again make doubly sure you keep carb intake to a min. An off plan meal ‘once in a while’ won’t cause much harm as long as you get back on plan immediately and ‘once in a while’ really is. Best wishes.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #3

There’s plenty of people who can’t eat bread because of allergies to gluten etc. why not have a salad with the sandwich ingredients? Or some other alternative? If you want to eat it then you have to ask yourself if you have the self control to make these isolated incidents and not a slippery slope back to old eating habits. :cowboy_hat_face:

#4

I’ve found it’s almost always possible to stay on keto if I want but we all have different circumstances, of course.
I deliberately go off keto a lot. I never did it until I felt I got some level of fat adaptation, that was important for me. And how I go back? I wake up the next day and usually continue keto as it’s my default woe (actually, carnivore-ish my default woe). There was an exception but I didn’t slid into a “not-keto” woe where I need some big determination to switch again. It’s just a temporal thing so new day, original plan, of course I don’t start to eat carbs again.
But it’s individual how big of a mess carbs cause. Some people barely can go back or feel sick… I can afford a single carbier day but I shouldn’t stay as my body will complain and the lower I keep my carbs the better and my body’s reaction is a pretty good motivation not to be crazy with carbs.
Avoiding and handling temptations changes even in my own life as time passes. Even I can learn :slight_smile:

You can have keto as a default, forming keto habits, not even thinking about carby meals… But having exceptions. It’s up to you. Just because someone tries keto, it’s their prerogative to quit or use it as a default or just rarely or whatever they want. When keto became not enjoyable for me, I fell back to my old low-carb diet, it was almost as good. But slowly I formed keto habits and my low-carb changed so even off keto, I probably eat less and less carbs. It’s good to know what carb intake works best for you and stick to it if possible/comfortable/realistic…

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

Welcome to the forums!

It is generally possible to eat around the carbohydrate. When presented with a pizza, I eat the cheese and other toppings and throw away the crust. If a burger place won’t sell me a burger without the bun, I simply throw the bun away and eat the insides. If you have control over what gets ordered for the meal, specify cold cuts with buns on the side for people who want to make their cold cuts into a sandwich. If there is to be a salad, ask for blue cheese dressing to put on yours. (Commercial blue cheese dressing is generally loaded with polyunsaturated fatty acids, but for one meal, you’ll cope.)

Alternatively, you could fast through the meal. When urged to eat, you can say something along the lines of “Oh, not just yet, thanks,” and then switch to “Oh, no more, thanks,” halfway through. You’d be surprised at how little people care about what you eat, or whether you eat or not.

(Bunny) #6

In my experience an occasional eating out is fine no limits just eat what I want that is in no way going to do anything bad but if your diabetic that may not be a good idea.

If your constantly in that position eat more keto type foods, it is easy to find something you can eat on any menu.

Occasional cheats are good thing not a bad thing.

(Bob M) #7

Also, you can limit the glucose rise and also insulin rise if you eat meat/vegetables first, then eat carbs last. So, if you could eat the “innards” of one sandwich and then eat bread or a sandwich with bread, that will help.

You could also say you have an issue with gluten and just eat the meat and whatever else they give you that’s not carbs.

While Bunny’s idea of occasional treats not being a bad thing is OK for someone like me (going on my 7th year of low carb), to try it so early could be good or bad. If you have an addictive personality even a tiny bit, you might get pushed over the edge and end up in a carb wasteland. :wink: Only you can determine that, though.

(Karen) #8

I do what I can. You can always skip things like dessert and nobody will bat an eye. Also make sure that you have seltzer with lime or something for drinks. As long as you have a glass in your hand people don’t generally question it. Eat the sandwich and fast tomorrow

(Jill F.) #9

I just do the best I can and take bread off and just eat the sandwich guts. I never ever eat something (since starting keto) out of fear of people judging me or not understanding why I eat the way I do. If someone had a seafood allergy and all they offered was seafood no one would think twice about it. I feel the same about following a keto diet.
I do feel that it is a very slippery slope, especially when you are first starting out, to go ahead and eat the carbs when offered in these situations. I think it is far to easy to backside and revert to old habits quickly and throw your body out of ketosis. Just know that people will never question someone eating a plate full of donuts why they are eating that, don’t you know that is unhealthy, etc, but eating keto they will always throw in their 2 cents, lol. And that is ok!

(UsedToBeT2D) #10

Just pretend to eat some and then throw it in the garbage. Once your fat adapted, you’ll go hours not needing a meal.
And don’t forget to tell everyone how delicious it was. Maybe even take an extra with you to throw in the garbage at home.

#11

Be NORMAL! If you want to eat a sandwich, eat it! Keto is a way of eating, it’s NOT a religion. Eating some carbs doesn’t revoke your membership to some elite club! You’ll burn them off and go back into ketosis. People that eat high carb low fat STILL eat lower carb some days, whether intentional or not, they STILL eat really high fat some days, again, maybe on purpose maybe not. But what nobody other than Keto’rs and some Paleo purists do and obsesses about it like tons of hard work is thrown in the trash because of “a” meal choice. Doesn’t work that way in real life.

On the tracking, everybody is different. I have a friend that although not formally diagnosed with anorexia (she was ABSOLUTELY anorexic for a couple years, she now (recovered) uses macro tracking to make sure she’s eating enough! So I think that’s different person to person, but ultimately all about mindset. Tracking can be a limiting thing, or and can be the thing that GIVES you more food!

I’m in the process of metabolism repair after a little over a year of lots of eating to satiety and fasting screwed me bad, so now I’m doing what’s typically referred to as reverse dieting, I track all macros and wear a fitness tracker to give me as close as to accurate information of caloric burn as I can. most cases when I have busy more physical days it’ll subtract more… which means I can EAT more! I may not be hungry, be I’ll eat until that thing say 0 left. As I loose fat/weight those numbers will self adjust so that I’m always pushing my metabolism just a little. Which is slowly getting up back up. No reason to think of that stuff as restrictive, I think that mindset is more of what drives the issues than anything.

(Jenny) #12

Oh, that normal life eating is often a problem of mine. I try to make keto alternatives in advantage. I actually got this book on keto bread to help me out with family pizza nights for example. Here is a link if you want to check it outhttp://firstchoise.eu/keto-book I hope this is okay, because it has helped me a lot! Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the book cover (the beginning of the side you can skip)

(Marianne) #13

I have found keto to be pretty adaptable in social situations, i.e. showers, luncheons, dinners, weddings, parties. Usually these occasions feature several choices of food. If sandwiches are offered, I’d remove the meat or filling and eat that. If you aren’t comfortable with that option and they offer salad, cheese tray or crudite and dip, I’ll just load up on that enough to satisfy my hunger and join in eating along with everyone else. If people comment and you don’t want to go there, just say, “I had a large breakfast,” or “I have plans for dinner and want to save my appetite until later.”

(Jane) #14

I faced that exact situation in Belgium. Business lunch, only sandwiches offered, didn’t want to attract notice by removing the bread. I ate the sandwich and it was no big deal. Just go right back to as low carb as possible the next day and then resume your normal keto eating. You will be fine.

Congrats on your weight loss so far!

#15

It’s interesting to read everyone’s answer to such situations.
In the end, it’s up to everyone.
I would never lie or waste food but as eating a sandwich or two or 10 would make me very hungry and I hate that (and I dislike being unwell too), I would choose not eating anything - but it’s very individual as eating a sandwich clearly works for some people.
What happens if we eat a sandwich? Or if we don’t eat anything? We should choose based on these…

My SO is a high-carber and carbs satiates him well but he never would eat a sandwich or two as he is a bit similar to me: he would be very hungry afterwards. He only eats if he has a big amount of food ready to eat and it’s proper food for him. Fasting for some more hours is way more pleasant than getting super hungry, we both agree about that!
But as I noticed, many people satiates their hunger with a little food so it’s very different for them.

Even if I could handle a sandwich, I would consider it a horrible waste. I can do much better things with that carb allowance… And it’s a very healthy attitude from me that I do my best to keep my carbs low and don’t eat bread at all. We have various reasons not to break our own rules. I have quite many at the same time (and I still break them regularly so I just want to improve my strictness).

So we all should think about what is best for us in the end. For me, eating a sandwich is always an extremely bad idea, I lose so much and gain nothing or very little. But it can be a fine thing to do for someone else.

(Jane) #16

Yes, very individual. I would not eat a sandwich at a social engagement but for me - very different in a business setting. I am a chemical engineer who works with almost all men at my level and everything I do and say is noticed and scrutinized.

My professional reputation is worth more to me than burning through some extra carbs and it did not make me hungry (thank goodness). Fortunately this only happens a couple of times a year, so manageable.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

Another strategy, if someone is pushing something you don’t want to eat is to say, “Oh, not just yet, thanks,” for the first half of the event and “Oh, no more, thanks,” during the second half. I promise you, if you do that you will avoid scrutiny. You can fortify yourself with keto snacks before the event, if necessary.

(Jane) #18

That works well and I have used it before! But only at gatherings where people are mingling and carrying around plates. Can’t get away with it at a sit-down dinner - those are the toughest because the bowls are passed around and everyone notices what you do and do not put on your plate. Everyone has to figure out what is more important to them and it will be different for everyone.

#20

older post but very personal to each person.

any and all carbs send me reeling. It is not easy to get back on the horse for me ever so I would not eat it point blank.

but you have to know you.

you were 30 days in on ‘lazy keto’ and I don’t know what that means but in the end it seems you can deal, so eat it if you want or easily take the meat or whatever out of the sandwich and say I don’t eat bread. Simple as that or nibble on what they have or just say not hungry now. Your call.

Pick your way you best roll and do what is always right for you, in the end not one person will ever remember you did it or care truly LOL
People might focus on that moment in a way but in the end people are too involved with their own lives to care what you do eat. Or does it matter to you, ya know. I don’t care one iota in any situation how I might be judged on my eating so I got that personality and mindset I do me all the time, others can wonder and deal with it if they want, I don’t care one bit on it LOL