KETO BLOG SERIES
ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 23, 2020
A multi-part blog series on our keto diets.
- Part 1 – Where to Start (acceptence)
- Part 2 – The 411 (the science)
- Part 3 – Intermittent fasting (the musts)
- Part 4 – The good the bad and the ugly (before and after pics)
The first blog in the keto series is about where to start and acceptance of starting a Keto diet. If you missed it, you can catch up and read it HERE. Now, its time for the 411, the info, the deets on keto. So let’s start with the basics keto diet 411. An explanation of the diet, how it works and some science (if you understand the science behind how keto works it totally helps to keep you on track and not cheat so it increases the changes of sticking to the diet, I promise!)
What this ISN’T!
This is not a “how to”, “what to”, “need to” blog. It’s a “what I did” blog. I’m not a dietitian, health professional or nutritionist. I just know what worked for me and am sharing how I lost 20 pounds without going to the gym.
What is Keto?
“KETO” is a nickname of ketogenic or ketosis. It is a diet where you consume low carbs and lots of fat. To put it simply, it’s a diet where you reduce your carb intake (significantly), eat a medium amount of protein and load up on foods that are high in fats. Crazy right! I know!
The Goal
The goal on a keto diet is to get your body in a state of “ketosis”. The average diet has you loading up on carbs because that is where we get energy from. That’s the norm, but this is not a normal diet! Carbohydrates are burned off first in our bodies to give us energy and allows our bodies to function properly. However, in a keto diet, we are saying buh-bye to carbs. On this diet carbs are NOT our friend because on this diet carbs are two faced liars! They look all nice and yummy but once we become friends with them and consume them, they have evil intentions for our bodies!
I’m Confused
It’s OK. I was too at the beginning. So I just said that we use carbs for energy and on a Keto diet we don’t eat carbs so you are probably wondering, how in the world is my body going to get energy? Well keep reading silly! Our bodies have an amazing ability to adapt. We are counting on this adaption on a Keto diet. When we reduce the carbs we eat significantly in our diets our bodies start looking for a different source to get its energy supply from. Guess what it finds? You guessed it…our fat storage! Without any carbs to burn, our bodies seek out our fat storage and burn that instead!! Which means weight loss! Woo hoo!
The Science
Don’t worry, I’ll KISS it for you (Keep It Simple Stupid).
When our body burns carbs, it produces glucose. We want to rid our bodies of the glucose so it looks for other sources to burn. Without glucose, our body starts to burn fats, when it starts to burn fats our body produces ketones. We want ketones! Lots and lots of ketones! Ketones are our friends. You are in a state of ketosis when you have ketones in your blood. Ketones are good friends. Not like the two faced back stabbing fat making carbs. Ketones not only burn fat for energy which results in weight loss, they do other amazing things for our bodies too. Like, increase our energy and help in our mental clarity. Bam.
Eating on Keto
On a Keto diet, you eat a high amount of high-fat foods. About 75% of your diet will compose of healthy fats. 20% of the food you consume will compose of food high in proteins and the last 5% will be low-carb foods.
Food I Eat on Keto
Here is as very basic breakdown of food I eat on my keto diet. The next blog will go into more detail on the food.
- Meat – beef, pork, chicken, poultry
- Seafood – Shrimp, salmon, sardines, tuna, trout, cod, catfish, etc.
- Fats and oils – real butter, ghee, duck fat, lard, coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower and sesame oil
- Free-range, whole eggs (I prefer organic). I eat a LOT of eggs
- Dairy products– full-fat cheeses, cream cheese, sour cream, whipping cream, cottage cheese, plain greek yogurt
- Low-carb veggies – spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus (in moderation)
- Low-carb fruit – avocados, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries
- Herbs and spices with no sugar added
- Sugar-free drinks – water, black coffee (I add whipping cream and no sugar sweetener), seltzer, unsweet tea
- Nuts and seeds (in moderation) – macadamia (best), almonds, brazil, pecan, pistachio, walnut (only nut to stay away from is cashew), chia, flax, sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds
- Dark chocolate and cocoa powder (in moderation)
- Vodka/water with squirt of Mio or dry red wine
Food I DO NOT Eat on Keto
- Grains – rice, pasta, oatmeal
- Starch – all bread, wheat
- Beans, peas, lentils, legumes
- Starchy vegetables -potato (all forms), carrot, corn
- High-sugar fruits – bananas are the worst – ALL sugar!
- Sweetened yogurt
- Low fat dairy products (whipping cream only)
- Juice or soda
- Honey, syrup or sugar in any form
- Chips and crackers
- Baked goods including gluten-free baked goods
- Anything breaded or fried
- Anything with sugar in it
- Beer, white wine, any sugary drink
This keto diet 411 blog today is a high level overview of the diet. Next blog will dive a little deeper into intermittent fasting, MCT oil and holding yourself accountable (it involved peeing on a stick!).
UPDATE: I started my keto diet July 1, 2019 and have lost 25 pounds. Rick started keto April 15, 2020 and he has already lost almost 50 pounds! The results I’ve achieved (Rick will agree with me 100% since he is doing the diet also) would NOT have been the same without intermittent fasting (IF). So the next blog is a must read! It’s a really important piece of the weight loss journey so don’t miss the next blog about IF as well as I will be sharing a couple tricks I use to stay the course.