You’ve thought it and I’ve heard it many times, excuses and procrastination. “I should start”, “I’m so busy right now”, “it’s just not the right time” or “not today”. I’ve been there and done that. The difference is that one day you’ll decide “today is the day”. And after that day hopefully there will be a next day if you choose it. If not, there is always the option to start again another day. It’s one day at a time and it’s making a choice to nourish your body the way it was meant to be nourished. It’s making the choice to feel better now and to ensure you’ll have a healthy future. One that is free of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease and dementia. So now that you’ve made the decision to start, what’s next?
I’m going to tell you the basics of how to eat keto (otherwise known as low carb, high fat, LCHF). This is not a fad diet, it is not the new paleo. It is a lifestyle and a choice. Beneficial to both skinny and overweight people. It is used to treat disease and prevent. It is life changing.
Make the Decision
Decide for yourself that today is the day. Educate yourself in any way possible. Buy a book, research new keto recipes, watch a movie or documentary, listen to a podcast. Whatever you have to do to stay motivated. This is the beginning. I’ve read many different keto books such as “The Big Fat Surprise”, and “Keto Clarity” but the first book I ever bought was “Quick & Easy Ketogenic Cooking” by Maria Emmerich. I love to research recipes on Pinterest, websites like “Wholesum Yum” or the “Diet Doctor” are some of my favorite, I also enjoy creating new recipes of my own. I’ve watched engaging movies and documentaries that I’ve listed on my “videos website page” (a lot coming from the Diet Doctor). And I enjoy listening to “Keto Talk” podcast as they seem to cover any and every topic related to keto that you can imagine. Once you’ve found your favorites, help others around you. Educate them on the things you’ve learned or been motivated by. Because in your weakest moment of feeling stress or having a carb craving this will be your motivation. Because you can’t “un”learn or “un”hear what you’ve heard. Sugar is known to be more addicting than cocaine. So you have to support yourself, let your brain be the reason you don’t fall back into old habits. Also know that there are others out there that are like minded of you. You can follow groups, join forums or watch you tube videos and engage them. Anyway to keep yourself going. At the very least envision yourself healthy and protecting yourself and your family from a lifetime of illness and feeling unwell. Ensuring that you won’t be the one that’s obese and out of breath, or the one who suddenly gets cancer or has a heart attack. Bad things don’t just happen to overweight people, they happen to anyone that develops inflammation in their body due to poor lifestyle and unhealthy eating. And now that you’re motivated let’s go to the next step…
Provide Yourself With the Right Tools
Learn to read labels, all labels, I still to this day catch myself eating something I thought was keto friendly and was not. Don’t assume you can eat something just because it is meat or veggies and doesn’t have obvious grains or sugars added. These things are EVERYWHERE. Initially just keep it simple, focus on the carbohydrate content and the sugar content. Next look at the ingredients. Avoid anything with grain (including rice, corn, wheat, soy etc). Then avoid anything with sugar (including sugar, glucose, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, rice syrup, coconut syrup, honey or MALTODEXTRIN). For a full list of things that are sugar check out my article on “Different Types of Sugar and Sweeteners”.
Next, go through your fridge and pantry removing any items that are not keto friendly. Watch out for boxed items, spices, sauces, salad dressings, beverages, etc. When in doubt consider whether you would have the item back in the times of cavemen. Go through your freezer as well, double check any premade meals or seasoned meats. These will likely have sugar added. Keep it clean, season your own meat and make your own sauces. Use real ingredients. If you feel bad about throwing away food then donate it to your local food bank. Don’t let the “I’ll start when all this food is gone” or “I’ll just keep this item in case” keep you away from your goal of starting today! Because if that’s the case you know that day will never come. Act now and start fresh. Trust me you’ll feel better once you just get rid of it. No temptations!!
After this you need to restock. Research the foods you can eat and make a list. You can print off my grocery page, or you can make your own. Keep an eye on your local flyers and watch out for sales on grass fed meats, air chilled chicken, grass fed butter or free range organic eggs. These items can be more expensive are are nice to be able to stock up on while they’re cheap. Although you do not need these types of food specifically as organic or grass fed, they do have the best nutrition. Items like MCT oil or protein powders can be found at you local vitamin store like “vitamin world, GNC or “Popeyes”( if you’re back home in Regina, SK, Canada.) 
. Another great tool is on the Diet Doctors website showing the specific carb count on fruits and veggies or snacks. Although you may need to have a membership to view these pages. Although I strongly recommend getting a membership with all the great information and latest news provided on this website. Free for the first month and $9/month after that, or you can cancel if you don’t enjoy it.
Finally, pull out some of those recipes and pick an afternoon to start cooking. Make yourself some easy meals to pull out and heat up on your busy days or snacks you can turn to during a sweet or salty craving. You can find some of my favorite recipes HERE.
After you’ve been sticking to this lifestyle you might start to experience the “keto flu”. As terrible as it sounds it means you are doing the right thing, congratulations! This is your body’s way of converting from a sugar burning machine to a fat burning machine. Everyone will experience this differently. You may have severe or mild symptoms of nausea, headache, leg cramps, constipation and generalized weakness. Some people don’t experience it at all. Know that this is temporary. You can support yourself by adding more salt to your diet and drinking more water. This is important. The cause of the keto flu is due to salt and fluids levels depleting when your body initially starts to dump water causing you to urinate more. Some good tricks that I have found are eating a salty pickle, drinking a glass of bone broth with added salt or using exogenous ketone supplements of electrolyte supplements. Another great article on this is found HERE coming from the Diet Doctor website. I realize there may be symptoms or cures that I have missed here and I want you to have the best opportunity to get started, which is why I’ve included a lot of links to the Diet Doctor website in particular. Because “I’m not inventing the wheel here”, I’m only trying to support it.
And just as a bonus this is a typical day for me. When I wake up in the morning or whenever (I work night shift) I start my day with a coffee using heavy cream, a tsp of MCT oil and 7 drops of stevia glycerite. If I feel like eating I will make myself 2 eggs over easy drizzled with olive oil (2-3 pieces of bacon optional). If I eat the eggs and bacon I usually skip lunch. If I don’t skip lunch I may make something easy such as egg salad, tuna salad or chicken salad (on its own or lettuce wrap), my jalapeño popper dip with raw cauliflower (if its already made in the fridge (just heat and serve) or maybe some cold smoked sausage (I love Pederson’s brand) and cheddar cheese. Dinner I will make any meat BBQ’ed or pan fried and seasoned with salt and garlic and toss together any veggies in a pan with butter and more salt and garlic, then drizzled with olive oil (even better with Trader Joes “aioli garlic mustard sauce”. Some of my favorite veggies tossed together are cauliflower, broccoli, onions, mushrooms, asparagus or Brussel sprouts (mix and match, always with onions). A great alternative is my Alfredo sauce poured over top. When it comes to serving size I try to keep my meat at around a fist size and veggies I don’t pay too much attention to. If I’m craving something sweet I’ll have one of my Peanut butter chocolate haystacks or chocolate peanut butter fat bombs. If it’s salt that I’d rather have then I snack on pork rinds mixed with pork rinds (like a snack mix) or I’ll eat pork rinds with salsa (my favorite is the signature cafe brand “salsa fresca” from Von’s/Safeway found in the deli department) or guacamole (my favorite is “good foods” brand chunky guacamole) .
So that concludes my beginners lesson on the Keto Diet, I hope this has made things easier for you on your ketogenic journey. I look forward to writing part 2 where I can begin to review the next steps with you. Until then keep it simple and stay motivated!
