I wanted to do an update meal plan, blog post, “what am I eating” entry to share with you all how my diet has changed over the last week. This will be the diet I stick to for the next several weeks. I have been sharing images of my meals and food choices on my Snapchat (MissADS1981 – feel free to find me and add me I post a ton there!) and Twitter (@missads1981) and I realized that it was important to explain what and why my diet is changing a bit. Starting last week I jumped head first into follow a ketogenic diet, also known as LCMP or “Low Carb Moderate Protein” and I hate to use the word “diet” because this is more of a current lifestyle choice than anything else. Keto diets, as they are sometimes referred to, do help with weight loss but have many other health benefits and some research suggests it helps with other health conditions like diabetes, cancer, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s. It lowers blood sugar and insulin levels, and shifts the body’s metabolism away from carbs and towards fat and ketones.

So what is a ketogenic diet?

A ketogenic diet is a moderate protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet. Many people compare it to an Atkins diet. It has been around for almost 100 years. The diet is high in fat, supplies adequate protein and is low in carbohydrates. This combination changes the way energy is used in the body. Fat is converted in the liver into fatty acids and ketone bodies. Another effect of the diet is that it lowers glucose levels and improves insulin resistance. Elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood is a state known as ketosis. When this happens your body begins to use your own body fat for energy.

Why am I following a Keto Diet?

Recently I was having a conversation at work with a few co-workers, one of which is a certified nutritionists with an amazing background in science and nutrition. We were discussing a co-workers desire to help reduce some weight and body fat. She’s been doing an amazing transformation, working out, but wanted to jump start a bit more weight loss/body fat reduction. He brought up the suggestion to doing a ketogenic diet, and once he started to talk about it I was intrigued. Keep in mind, I am not saying I am in need of losing weight. I am currently 110-112lbs, I work out 5 days a week, my current body fat is around 14-15% – I am not claiming at all I need to drop tons of weight nor do I want to. I decided to try out this diet for a few reasons:

• I am naturally curious – once something sparks my interest I am all in!
• I love helping others achieve their goals so doing this with my co-worker was a great way for us to keep one another accountable
• My husband has always talked about “low carb” dieting and I always yelled at him saying it was silly, so I want to try it out to see if it’s all rubish or a good idea to do occasionally
• My body fat is fine as it is, however I would like to drop 1-2% as summer approaches to really lean out and show my hard work from strength training this winter
• I eat a pretty low carb diet; most of my carbs are the same (oatmeal, sweet potato, brown rice) but I’ve never been a pizza/pasta/bread person anyway so this was more of going even stricter but I knew it wouldn’t be so hard because I don’t crave carbs anyway
• I wanted to go through the process so that I can share my experience for those of you reading who are interested in this diet

Suggested tips to following a ketogenic diet

1. Invest in a good food scale. Weighing your food will be important so you can properly log your meals.
2. Use an app like MyFitnessPal to monitor your fat/protein/carb intake and allow yourself to track what to eat and not eat throughout the day. You’d be surprised some healthy foods you eat that are pretty high in carbs.
3. Invest in meal containers that make it really easy to know sizing such as 1 cup containers or 4 ounce containers – it makes it pretty food proof when putting food into your MyFitnessPal.
4. Use a smart grocery shopping list (I will put one below) to help you stick to the routine. It will be tough to NOT buy foods you are used to, but if you don’t have them in the house you won’t be tempted to eat them
5. Read labels on everything! A ton of foods are loaded with sugars that can spike up the carb grams – and sometimes it’s foods you didn’t even realize were high in carbs.
6. Increase your water intake and make sure not to use any added sweeteners. You can add lemon to your water, mint, cucumbers which taste refreshing and delicious.
7. Check your protein powder labels, many do have some carbs due to the sweeteners, I like using the Isopure Zero Carb Vanilla protein during this diet to ensure my protein powder is not giving me any carbs.
8. Don’t be afraid of fats, you’re going to eat more than you are used to but that’s okay.
9. Make sure you are brushing your teeth often throughout the day, your breathe can get a bit stinkier on a ketogenic diet due to the release of ketones after reaching ketosis. It’s a fact, it’s not just you
10. Do this with your roommate or spouse, otherwise it’s hard to stick to this routine. Myself and my husband are doing it so it makes it really easy to cook meals we both enjoy and we keep one another accountable. If he doesn’t falter or cheat, neither will I.
11. Make sure you continue to meal prep and stay on a routine, this will prevent you from deviating from the diet or feeling so restricted you just go on a binge
12. Learn to love seasonings and condiments that are low or no carb – they will help make bland foods taste amazing
13. Do not use aspartame or other fake sugars

What You Can Eat on a Ketogenic Diet 

• Meats (Protein): ground turkey (normally I buy lean but on keto you should look for higher fat), ground chicken (same comment, higher fat is ok on this diet), grass fed organic beef (I only buy beef that is organic and grass fed), bacon (I don’t eat pork, but you can), turkey bacon (that I like)
• Fish: I suggest only buying wild caught fish in general; salmon and tuna. I’d suggest buying fresh filets as well as canned. Crab meat is great as well though it’s not a fatty fish but great to get protein grams in as well as cod and shrimp.
• Eggs: if you can get omega-3 cage free organic eggs, egg whites in the carton (but read the label and make sure it’s not filled with any additives, you want “egg whites” to be the only ingredient otherwise the nutrients have been stripped out and put back in), hard boiled eggs
• Dairy: most keto diets don’t include yogurt and cottage cheese but it’s allowed, just make sure you go for the full fat version and avoid the fat free versions (which are loaded with sweeteners and higher in carbs). They should include no more than 6 g of carbs per serving. Do not buy any with fruit included. For milk go with unsweetened almond milk or cashew milk.
• Cheese: Unprocessed cheese is great to put on top of foods. Go with full fat mozzarella, blue cheese or goat cheese. Do not get american or processed cheeses.
• Nuts and seeds: Almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and chia seeds.
• Healthy oils: For cooking use coconut oil, olive oil
• Nut butter spreads: organic peanut butter, protein peanut butter, almond butter
• Avocados: Whole avocados or the mini packs for snacking
• Low-carb veggies: Most leafy green veggies are good; spinach, kale, bok choy. You can also have zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli florets, cucumbers, celery
• Condiments: Low carb mustard, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, seasonings, lemon
• Hot Beverages: green tea, coffee (with full cream that is low carb) – but no sugar/equal/etc

What to Avoid Eating on a Ketogenic Diet 

• Grains and Starches: anything made with wheat and flour; bread, rice, pasta, cereal, chips, granola, wraps, etc
• Sugary Drinks: soda, flavored water with carbs, fruit juices, juice smoothies
• Fruit: sadly you can’t have fruit which is tough for me, but if you must you can have organic berries occasionally
• Condiments: avoid any condiments that use sugars which are carbs like honey mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce
• High Carb Veggies: potatoes, squash, carrots
• Candy & Sweets: anything with sugars is going to be high in carbs so no cupcakes, candies, all gums, etc
• Protein Bars: it sucks but most of these are high in carbs so you need to get protein from foods and not bars
• Alcoholic Beverages: no more sugary cocktails, wine (ugh!) – if you must go for tonic water and your liquor of choice with nothing else
• Beans: no beans, lentils, etc

Suggested Shopping List on a Ketogenic Diet

Below is a suggested shopping list that I made, which I use when going grocery shopping while on a ketogenic diet. Again, you must look at the nutritional information label on everything before it goes into your cart. You are going to be surprised how many foods you buy have carbs in them. Even something as harmless as diced tomatoes, yogurt, skim milk, soups – make sure you read and keep in mind for me my goal is less than 50 grams of carbs per day.

1. Organic Grass Fed Ground Beef
2. Organic Chicken Breasts
3. Wild Caught Salmon
4. Wild Caught Shrimp
5. Canned Albacore Tuna
6. Cage Free Brown Eggs
7. Egg Whites in the Container
8. Hard Boiled Eggs
9. Cottage Cheese
10. Avocados
11. Guacamole Minis (100 calorie packs)
12. Spinach
13. Brocolli Florets
14. Turkey Bacon
15. Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
16. Zero Carb Isopure Protein
17. Cucumbers
18. Zucchini
19. Celery
20. Organic Peanut Butter
21. Almond Milk
22. Stevia
23. Ostrim Meat Snacks
24. Mozzarella Cheese String
25. All Natural Turkey Lunch Meat
26. Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
27. Flavor God Seasonings
28. Mustard (low carb)
29. Pickles
30. Canned Crab Meat
31. Lemons
32. Asparagus
33. Olives
34. Almonds
35. Cashews
36. Water
37. Mint

I will be documenting my weight and progress as I continue the keto diet. I am already one week in and already I feel less bloated, lighter, more energy and ironically never hungry. I really do love it and can see this being perfect for me to shed some body fat for the upcoming spring and summer. Follow me on snapchat for my daily posts about my diet and workouts (MissADS1981)

Recipes on Keto:

Here is an ongoing list of recipes I have been making while following a ketogenic diet: https://www.jerseygirltalk.com/?s=ketogenic#.Wlukua5Kupo

Here are also a list of great cook books to get you started to make some healthy ketogenic meals during your meal prepping: http://amzn.to/2mxFE2i

Tips:

Ease your way into eating low carb and don’t do it out of the blue or you may find it too difficult. You may feel fatigued, irritable, grumpy and even lethargic if you stop completely. Take your time so that you don’t have the urge to binge one night on a full bag of pretzels. Ketogenic is a lifestyle change, not a diet. I do eat an occasional piece of bread or a rice cake slathered in peanut butter but it’s not often. I don’t miss wheat, bread, carbs and my diet is full of yummy higher fat items to keep me full. Take your time and stick with it

Make sure to connect with me for more tips, workouts & advice:

Twitter – @missads1981

Instagram – @missads1981

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/missads1981

Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/jerseygirltalk/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jerseygirltalk

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