Need help with Carb Manager? I highly recommend using Carb Manager to track your macros. I have a couple videos that will make it pretty easy to start using this super helpful app. I did upgrade to the premium version because I feel it’s worth the $2 bucks a month. Tracking my macros has allowed me to lose the weight!
How to calculate your macros with Carb Manager
How to track macros using Carb Manager
How to Create Recipes with Carb Manager
My absolutely favorite and go to keto approved sweetener is Lakanto! Lakanto comes in both powder and granulate options for your recipes. It’s a blend of erythritol and monk fruit with 0 glycemic index. No weird taste and keeps my keto journey going strong.
Save 15% off your order by using coupon code KETOREWIND15 at http://www.lakanto.com or use this quick link http://bit.ly/322KRSP
I also like their baking mixes, syrups and chocolates!
Here’s a video for keto approved drinks. It’s pretty straight forward though. Stay away from sugary drinks. I personally like to drink lots of filtered water from my Berkey, herbal teas, sparkling water and once in a while a Coke Zero.
Always read your labels. Look at the carbs and sugar and if it’s higher than 1 or 2 mg…. stay away! When you are keto, carbs add up quick so you don’t want to blow your day on a drink that has hidden sugars.
My favorite sparkling water is Dasani Lime or Lemon. You can even add in a shot of tequila to make the lime one alcoholic. It’s refreshing and a great substitute for a margarita. Additionally, you can drink red, dry wines, like Cabernet or Coke Zero with a shot of rum.
Watch the sugar on the sparking waters. Some do contain sugars, other use artificial sweeteners.
The most common question I’m getting right now is how did I get started. Where did I learn what to do/not do? I’m a diligent researcher by nature because I like to stay informed to be able to make my own decisions. I don’t typically just take someone else’s word for it without doing my research. So I strongly urge you to do your research as well and learn this properly. It’s easy to wreck a whole week of hard work with one accidental bad food choice. To be considered fat adapted or keto is to have carbohydrates below 20 net carbs. That’s pretty low so make sure you know what you’re doing so you don’t throw yourself out of ketosis. It can take up to a week to get back into ketosis (fat adapted).
Here’s my favorite resources for getting started:
My best advice is to go through your refrigerator and pantry. Remove ALL OF THE TEMPTATION. REMOVE ALLLLLL OF IT!! Get rid of all the sauces, cookies, pastas, rice, breads, sweets, processed foods, etc. Once you are dropping weight you will not want these awful things anyways. Plus, out of sight out of mind! Fill your fridge and pantry with keto foods so you have them available when you need it. Replace your sugar with a keto approved sweetener such as Swerve and replace your table salt with pink Himalayan Sea Salt. Additionally, remove or unfollow all the social media sites that have tempting foods.
Take “before” and “progress” pictures! Yes, do this for yourself. Don’t worry… these photos can only be for your eyes. It’s not like you have to share them with anyone! When you are losing weight or reach your goal weight you will regret not taking before pictures to compare with. Or when you are having a weight loss stall or lacking focus you can use these photos as motivation. Trust me. Take these pics!
Be Prepared! Nothing can ruin a diet faster than poor planning. Make sure you sit down at least once a week and make a menu. I like to make it as easy as possible to set myself up for success during my busy week. If you have food on hand to cook you will be less likely to eat out at a restaurant. Also, make double batches so you can easily re-heat dinner for the next day when you know you may be extra busy. I know a lot of folks have great success meal prepping for the entire week. You can even measure out your macros this way to save time.
Another HUGE thing to point out is to be committed. Research keto and see if you are going to fully commit to this. This is a lifestyle. This is not a fad. If you are going to use keto to drop some weight and think you can go back to eating your old habits is going get the pounds back fast. You can either use glucose for fuel or you use ketones for fuel. You cannot mix the two!
I highly suggest a couple tools to get started as well. Here is a list of the tools I use.
So the use of fake sugars is a heated topic in the keto world. The point of keto is to get off the sugar. But life happens and it’s unrealistic to think you will never need to make something keto that has sugar in it. I am NOT a fan of Splenda, Xylitol, Truvia or other fake sugars with aspartame that leave weird tastes in your mouth because it’s poison.
I use these two keto approved sugars to make recipes. Erythitol is good! No weird taste and no harmful side effects. Do your research and see for yourself. =)
The Swerve Confectioners Sugar replacement comes in powdered sugar or granulate sugar form to easily use in all recipes. It comes in granules or powdered. I prefer the powder because it easily mixes in my recipes being so fine.
The Z Sweet Sugar Replacement is another great keto sugar replacement and is my mom’s favorite sugar for her coffee.
Also, this Lily’s chocolate is the bomb dot com!! Use this for all your chocolate in your recipes!
I have been asked several times lately what I’m eating, how much, and how often. I thought I’d put together a post for the way I am eating right now while I’m in what I call “weight loss” mode. See, I have a total of 150 lbs to lose so I am hard core into this weight loss mode. I’m not eating to enjoy food right now. However, the foods I’m eating taste wonderful and satisfying. I’m eating food to sustain life and reach my goals. I find it easiest to use the same foods each week when I meal plan because it saves me money on my grocery budget, these foods keep me losing weight, and it’s easy to stay on track. I’ve spent the past 14 years overindulging so I don’t need to have the extras or treats. I got an extra 150 lbs on my butt from that! Lesson learned, time to get serious and I can spend the next year saving my body from my old ways. My body deserves real food and love.
With that being said, when I get closer to my goal weight I will add back in foods that add a little variety to my diet, but I will add them back in with moderation. That’s the difference! I will incorporate intermittent fasting (IF) when I overindulge and to help maintain my goal weight.
Here is my schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I fast 23:1 or in other words, just eat dinner those days. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday I fast 16:8 or in other words eat during the hours of 12pm to 8pm only. You can change the hours of the 16:8 to earlier or even later..but the main concept is to only eat during that 8 hour window.
Here is the sample menu ideas I have:
I am a huge supporter of only purchasing meat and dairy that are grass fed and free range. It’s so important to invest in high quality meats and cheese because our food is actually more nutritious coming from animals that eat their natural food sources. Cows and chickens do not eat grains. Cows EAT GRASS and chickens EAT BUGS.
It’s important to note that I’m not a doctor. This is my experience with Intermittent Fasting (IF) and the methods I have learned come from my personal cardiologist. I also have been following Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Axe on social media to learn the reasons why everyone should incorporate some kind of IF into their diets.
My typical fasting schedule goes like this. I fast Monday, Wednesday, Friday for 24 hours. That means I don’t eat anything until dinner time. I just drink water, unsweetened herbal teas, and black coffee. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday I do 16:8 fasting which means I fast for 16 hours and only eat my calories in an 8 hour window. What that means is I only eat lunch and dinner… eating between 12pm-8pm only. This allows me not to have to count my calories. I’m not hungry because I eat keto which is a high fat diet. Keto and IF go hand in hand. Fats leave you feeling satisfied and feeling fuller longer.
The first week I began IF…. was brutal. I could have eaten my entire house. I had come off a very unhealthy, carbohydrate based diet from the Thanksgiving and Christmas time of year where I ate all the things that are super high in sugar. Adjusting to keto and IF takes a week at minimum while your body adjusts from burning carbohydrates to fats for energy.
Why IF?? We fast every day without even knowing it. Most of that time we are sleeping. When you are constantly eating, your body is in a constant digestion mode and it doesn’t have much time to do anything else in your body being in that state. It has minimal time to self heal naturally. While you are fasting you drastically improve your HGH levels (human growth hormone) naturally which is responsible for fat burning and muscle gain. As we get older we make less HGH naturally but a way to keep those levels up is to incorporate IF.
Anti-aging benefits…. my skin is sooooooo much better. Like, noticeably different. When fasting your body is able to repair/regenerate cells and thus improving autophagy. Autophagy is a response present in all of our cells to basically clean out and recycle old cells. When fasting your cells have time to do this naturally. Plus, if you’re like me and have 130lbs to loose I’m worried about excess skin when I lose this weight. IF regenerates skin cells so when you fast it helps restore the skin so you don’t need skin removal surgery. Now, you’re not going to have the body of a 20 year old after losing 150lbs but you more than likely won’t need skin surgery.
I was born with a genetic heart defect so when my cardiologist recommend this it got my attention. There is no cure for what I have and being morbidly obese throws fuel on the fire. IF actually lowers blood pressure, increases good HDL cholesterol and decreases both bad LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Boosts energy and mental clarity. I used to wake up and still feel tired. Now I’m up and I barely need my morning cup of coffee. Don’t get my wrong, I still drink my coffee but I don’t *need* it anymore. I also suffered from “mommy brain” and since going Keto/IF my mental clarity is back!
Other notable benefits of IF is boosting immune system and lowering insulin levels. I don’t have diabetes but I have PCOS which is related to glucose levels. My PCOS symptoms normalize and I feel like a different person! Dr. Fung works directly with patients that have diabetes and if you have diabetes or insulin resistance please research him on google!
Please research IF and see for yourself the studies and research that is available. There are not a lot of doctors that support keto or IF because if you can fix yourself they don’t make any money off healthy patients.
I have tried to lose weight 100 times before. Guess what? I’m still obese. It never worked no matter how hard I tried. I had every excuse in the book but ultimately it was simple to figure out why I kept failing. All my previous attempts weren’t set up to be a lifestyle change and after I had lost the weight I reverted to my old ways. It was a viscous cycle; lose 30lbs, gain 30lbs back. Even being diagnosed with a genetic heart defect wasn’t enough for me to change my life. My doctor told me lose the weight or look into bariatric surgery. It made my heart issue 10x worse carrying around an extra 150lbs and if I didn’t take it seriously I was in for serious problems.
Bariatric surgery was not an option for me. I needed to fix myself with something that I could stick to, or in other words, make a lifestyle change. I needed to save myself from my unhealthy ways. Around the same time I was diagnosed with my heart defect, my father’s heart doctor recommended the Ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting.
After hearing my dad’s heart doctor recommend the Keto diet and having the same heart defect as my father, I figured what the hell…why not try it? What did I have to lose? I tried everything else except weightloss surgery. Might as well give it a try! It was my last hope!
One of the questions that people ask me all the time is what is Keto and how is it different from Low Carb or Atkins? The main difference is a low carb diet does not restrict carbohydrates. Low carb could be considered less than 150 net carbs and still be “low carb”. With Keto, there is a restriction on the amount of carbs and you must stay below 20 net carbohydrates. The main goal is to hack your body into a fat burning machine by getting into ketosis. Ketosis is a normal metabolic process. When the body does not have enough glucose for energy, it burns stored fats instead; this results in a build-up of acids called ketones within the body. The aim of the diet is to try and burn unwanted fat by forcing the body to rely on fat for energy, rather than carbohydrates.
When I first started Keto I went by the guidelines of 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrates (that you get from veggies). Basically, take your caloric intake for the day and divide your calories using those percentages. I used an app called myfitnesspal to make it easy to generate those totals.
What foods can you eat in a Keto lifestyle?
How to get the best results on Keto:
So why Keto?
It’s easy! I am not hungry when I’m eating this way because fats keep me feeling fuller, longer. Who doesn’t want to eat butter, bacon, and cheeses? I don’t count calories now that I know what to eat. I eat real food and the weight has melted off!
