How to get started on Keto Part 1:

Have you been watching all these people on the Keto diet and been surprised at how well they are doing? Have you decided that you’d be willing to give it a try if it could possibly work for you? Are you hesitant because you just aren’t sure where to start? This post is for you!

I am going to give you everything that has helped me along the way, especially in the beginning. I’m sharing with you ways to help you push through the keto flu, motivational tricks, the foods I have loved, breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas that we use all the time, sweeteners and chocolate that I love and a link to a GREAT keto/low-carb cookbook! All of these things may sound a bit overwhelming, but I am going to condense it and help it to make sense! (Amazon may or may not be my all time favorite place to shop! :))

So the major things I hope to cover in this blog post are:

1. What to do before day one.

2. What about exercise?

3. The supplements that I use daily.

4. All things food: breakfast, lunch, dinner AND snack ideas. Formula for a Ketogenic meal. Just add fat.

Sweeteners and seasonings that I always have on hand.

“First things first”

Before you even start, I would suggest you decide how you’d like to measure your progress. As I’ve said before, I am a scale person. But this is your journey, so find something that fits your personality. Here are some great ideas:

-take before pictures. Even if its a dark selfie in the mirror, you will be amazed when you look back to where you were when you started this journey. It is always amazing to see what losing 10 or 20 pounds can do for the reflection YOU get to see in the mirror. (side note: it was actually a family photo shoot that got me thinking hard about making a change! The pictures below are 11 months apart and show a 45 pound weight loss!)

-Get a scale and at least get a starting weight. This is the one I have used for years and like a lot(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032TNPOE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

-Get a measuring tape and measure the major areas where you will likely lose inches. These areas include biceps, thighs, calves, hips, stomach (across belly button), chest, and some people measure their neck. Write them down and keep them somewhere you won’t lose them, then remeasure each month or so.

-Get a journal: write how you feel about your body, what is your energy level like? Have you seen your physician lately and had a bad report? How do you feel about that? Just put a good representation of your feelings, aches and pains, and maybe write some goals about where you wish you could see yourself in 3 months. Then periodically throughout your journey, write a new journal entry answering the same concerns that you wrote about on day one. You will be pleasantly surprised at how your mood has changed just by trying to nourish your body with the right foods!

-Commit to at least one month of following the plan before you decide it’s not for you. Starting Keto can be extremely overwhelming! Just switching your mindset from the Standard American low fat/high carb diet is almost a worldview change in itself! It’s a big deal! Its ok to be overwhelmed, but have patience with yourself and put the necessary effort into it to do so. Your health is worth the effort! Walking up stairs without getting winded is worth it! Chasing your kids with a smile on your face, because you can, is worth it! Being able to fit into jeans you haven’t worn since your honeymoon (because they didn’t fit) is worth it! It takes effort, but don’t things that take such effort seem so much more satisfying once you start to notice a difference or reach your goal?

“What about exercise?”

So if you are someone who exercises regularly already, keep it up...you can probably skip this part. But if you are anything like I was, then you don’t currently have a workout program that you follow regularly. AND THAT’S OK! I would say for the first month, focus on making changes in your nutrition and the food you eat. If you try to change too many habits at once, it is hard to maintain that and to be successful. It is ok and actually recommended that you try to change one major thing at a time. So focus on FOOD until you feel like you have that down and the eating style is working for you.

Now, I did not exercise for a couple of months and I found that when I did I felt very weak. Some people would say that keto is eating muscle, but I say that if you don’t use your muscles, they get weaker. So if I would change anything about how I did it, I would’ve tried to walk several times a week or a little bit of yoga, at the very least. Just try to move your body regularly, no matter how slow of a start it may seem. That being said, I was not in a mental place where I could handle any more than the food. So that’s what I did!

My personal recommendation is to get yourself through the first month and then try to find an exercise that fits into your routine. I personally had terrible back pain thanks to having to carry my 30lb one year old around everywhere! So my osteopath highly recommended I do only yoga and pilates with walking. That is what I did. It keeps my back strong and was not a super intense or intimidating reintroduction to exercise. More on this in a future post!