Keto

My first three months:

I’ve come to believe that we are all being slowly poisoned by massive intake of sugar and carbohydrates. One third of America is pre-diabetic or diabetic. Our diets are the problem. The food industry has pushed low-fat high carb food options which do not satiate. I wasn’t aware that the “low-fat” option is actually loaded with sugar. Fat and protein are highly satiating, whereas sugar and carbs can actually spur a greater appetite. Food that does not satiate sells more units. Super Target is a temple to sugar, go through the grocery aisles and you’ll see basically everything is loaded with sugar and carbs.

The Keto diet is basically avoiding sugar and carbs and focusing on eating fat and some protein. When I first started, I felt horrible for three days. I was incapacitated and felt body aches. Something akin to withdrawing from heroin, except its not heroin its sugar.

I thought starting keto was going to be super annoying but I was more annoyed with being fat so I dove in. I committed to try it for 3 months. After a week of eating strict keto, I felt:

• Mental clarity
• Improved mood
• Even energy throughout the day (think of burning gasoline compared to a heavy log, keto is the heavy log that burns steady throughout the day)
• No need to lay down and nap
• Waking up with the same energy as going to bed with
• Major loss of appetite
• Easy rejection of temptation. Before, putting a cookie or candy bar in front of me would be the equivalent of having a drill instructor standing in front of my face screaming “EAT IT!” and of course I would obey. On keto, the drill instructor is outside of the house screaming and its much easier to ignore him.

Here’s what you do:

• Eat less than 10 grams of sugar per day
• Eat less than 20 grams of carbs
• You can schedule your cheat days for every Saturday, but I like the flexibility to cheat in the moment with an 8 day cooldown before cheating again. This let’s you be flexible for when you cheat and enjoy a moment with friends and family. After a couple of months cheating will lose its appeal. The reason is you will physically feel like crap the day(s) after, depending on how crazy you went with your cheat day.
• For the hardcore, track everything you eat using this app: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps

Eating keto is “food as a whitelist”. That basically means everything is banned unless it is explicitly on the white list. The top foods on the whitelist are:

• Any meat (not marinated or soaked or glazed in sugar). Hamburgers, sausage, bacon, salmon, chicken, pork, etc.
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Butter
• Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, etc.

Things you think are healthy but actually will throw you out of keto because they have carbs/sugar, so you can’t eat them:

• Fruit
• Vegetables, even broccoli

And things you definitely need to say goodbye to except for on cheat days:

• Candy
• Bread
• Pasta
• Potatoes
• anything with carbs or sugar

I’ve spent a ton of money on keto-friendly foods so here is the list I wish I would have had when I started.

Mornings:

• Keto Chow is like drinking cold liquid ice cream and is amazing. Get the variety pack to try the flavors. Cookies and Cream is insanely good. Add 1/3rd cup of heavy cream and add in a teaspoon of MCT oil and a teaspoon of Creatine if you are working out.
• Scrambles eggs: Put four eggs in a bowl, add salt and pepper, mix in 1–2 ounces of shredded cheese, add in sausage crumble or mini pepperonis, butter the non stick pan with 1 tablespoon of real butter, cook and eat.
• Sausage, sausage patties, bacon
• Two Fat Snax cookies. Expensive but worth it.

Lunch:

• Chipotle salad bowl with steak, cheese, guac, and lettuce
• You can do any burger at any fast food place, but you can only eat the meat and cheese. Ask them for the low-carb version of the burger and they’ll avoid sauces and wrap it in lettuce.
• IKEA meatballs, grilled chicken, Keto pizza.
• String cheese
• Pepperoni or beef sticks (make sure they have no sugar)

Dinner (once you get into keto you will start skipping dinner every once and awhile since you won’t be hungry):

• Grilled chicken
• Steak
• Salmon
• Brisket
• Salad with ranch dressing (make sure the ranch has no carbs or sugar)

Resources:

• Read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/keto_in_a_nutshell
• And then this: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq
• And then subscribe to this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/