Ketogenic Eating 

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For the past two weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of research on practicing a ketogenic lifestyle.  I’ve found out a lot about keto eating, its benefits and how to incorporate it into my intermittent fasting (IF) life.  This week I began preparing keto meals in a serious fashion.  I’ve been trying to eat more keto for while now but only recently figured out what I was doing wrong.

 

What Is Keto Eating?

Keto is a really low-carb, high-fat diet.  It is similar to the Atkins, South Beach, and Paleo diets.  But it is even fewer carbs and more good fats.  This extreme reduction in carbohydrate intake will put your body into ketosis metabolically. When ketosis is happening, your body burns fat for its energy instead of carbs or glycogen from the liver.  Instead, of storing energy in the form of glycogen, the liver turns the fat into keytones, which supplies energy; your brain especially loves ketones.

There are several keto methods of eating.  I’m using what is called the Standard ketogenic diet (SKD) – a very low carb, moderate protein and high-fat diet.   My diet contains 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbs.  At least that’s my goal.  The first day of eating true keto for my only 2 meals that day, I dropped 3 pounds overnight.  Boy, do I love those Whooshes!  I can handle many more days of those.  In my research on keto, I realized that I have not been eating enough good fat.  I’m finding out that one of the reasons I’ve been having trouble with fasting for more than 20 hours, is that I get too hungry to hold out.  I’m finding out that when I eat enough fat and the appropriate kind of fats; now I do not have the hunger I was battling with and losing to.  I feel this is going to make all the difference in my fasting and my weight loss.

I’m sharing this paragraph from my research:

Keto has the same benefits of going gluten-free or adopting the paleo diet. It’s proven to help with weight loss, boosting energy, kicking cancer in the pants, stopping epilepsy (the ketogenic diet is actually for epileptic patients), clearing foggy-thinking, relaxing anxiety, clearing up the skin, regulating menstruation, eliminating irritable bowel syndrome, helping Alzheimers/dementia, amongst lots of other issues.
From “The Ketogenic Diet 101: A Detailed Beginner’s Guide”.

I also took advantage of a sale to take an online course on ketogenic eating.  The course was on sale for $10 and it was a short course with only 9 video lectures.  But I did learn quite a bit. The course is “How to lose weight fast on a Ketogenic Diet”. Learn how to lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle eating the foods you love, with a low carbohydrate, high-fat diet. It’s on sale now for $10. How to lose weight fast with a ketogenic diet.

 

What Do I Eat on a Ketogenic Diet:

Contrary to popular belief, a low-carb diet does not have to be unhealthy – eating only butter and bacon.  I’ve been eating veggies, good fats and meats and even a little fruit. For dinner tonight (my only meat for today) was keto. I had blackened salmon, stir-fried cauliflower rice with egg, onions, peppers and seasonings and a salad of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, shredded cheese, chopped ham pieces and olive oil.  I added extra real butter to the rice as well as used it in the stir-fry skillet.  Here are some foods you can eat.

• Meat: read meat, steak, ham, sausage, bacon, chicken and turkey.
• Fatty fish: Such as salmon, trout, tuna and mackerel.
• Eggs: Pastured or omega-3 pastured whole eggs.
• Butter and cream: Heavy whipping cream and from grass-fed animals when possible.
• Cheese: Unprocessed cheeses(cheddar, goat, cream, blue or mozzarella).
• Nuts and seeds: Almonds walnuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds.
• Healthy oils: Primarily extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil,  and avocado oil.
• Avocados: Whole  avocados or freshly made guacamole.
• Low-carb veggies: Most green veggies, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc.
• Condiments: Try no-carb seasons, salt, pepper, lemon, and various herbs.

Here are some links to food lists for a keto diet:

• Ketogenic Diet Food List: Everything You Need to Know
• Complete Keto Diet Food List: What to Eat and Avoid

One of the books I read about the ketogenic diet is:

• Ketogenic Diet : The Step by Step Guide For Beginners: Ketogenic Diet For Beginners: Ketogenic Diet For Weight Loss: The Step by Step Guide For Beginners  I really like detail and the step by step explanations in this book by Jamie Ken Moore

I felt full of energy yesterday and actually did two workouts, one in the gym on the weight machines and another water-walking in the pool.  Today, I also have a lot of energy.  I”m hoping I can relax enough to sleep tonight.  I’ll see how it goes shortly.

 

Comments:

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