One Month Keto Diet Update
It has been ONE MONTH since I started the Keto diet. I never once thought that I would last this long, as a severe pasta lover! I also didnt think that I would like doing the keto diet as much as I do. So how has it been going? Read on to see my experience on being low carb for the last 30 days!
Lets jump to the good stuff! First and foremost, I have not really lost a ton of weight on the keto diet. I know I had heard a lot of stories of people losing 5 or even 10 pounds in their first week going low carb and that had me thinking that perhaps I was doing something wrong. But clearly, if you have “more to lose”, you will lose it faster than someone who does not. Personally I do not have much to lose-my goal of doing keto was purely experimental (to see what the fuss was all about), tone up some, and gain more ENERGY!
Shockingly, I made it through Christmas holiday while on the keto diet and it was not that hard as I loaded up on turkey, cheese, and veggies! While on the 8 hour drive to Kentucky, I packed my own keto snacks. I brought moon cheese, beef jerky, pork rinds, sunflower seeds, and even baked my own spiced walnuts.
Last month, I posted some before images in my last blog post about starting the keto diet. I am happy to share my new progress photos from this month. There is not a WHOLE lot of difference in the images, but I truly just feel better inside and out. It is truly wild how much your diet can affect your whole body inside and out. Here are my recent pics!
Meals and snacks for the most part are super easy. I mean, low or no carbs is a no-brainer and there are tons of good keto diet recipes out there floating around on Pinterest and many grocery stores actually make keto style products such as keto bread, keto bars, keto cookies, keto yogurt, and even keto whipping cream!
The worst part of keto? Honestly, the only thing I can think of is trying to stay in ketosis even when I am eating less than 20 grams of carbohydrates a day. Its weird, really. If you eat too much protein, it can kick you out of ketosis. This is why the diet puts SO much emphasis on eating mostly fats.
There are three types of macronutrients in the human diet: fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. On the ketogenic diet, your daily macronutrient breakdown should be as follows:
- 75% fat
- 20% protein
- 5% carbohydrates
It’s true – approximately 75% of what you eat each day will come from fat.
Fat is actually the most essential macronutrient that the body needs. You need fat to live. It keeps you feeling full and satisfied, it keeps cravings away, and it is 100% necessary for you to get into ketosis.
Here is a favorite snack of mine below!
I have often been asked what I like to eat for a keto breakfast. I usually intermittently fast most days so I do not eat a ton of breakfasts but I always have a black coffee with ketones + MCT oil added. If I do eat breakfast, it will be an avocado with bacon or scrambled eggs. I also love making those egg muffins with cheese and eat inside them
For lunches I like to meal prep my keto meals. I have been loving some salads here lately with ranch dressing whenever I go out., but I love prepping fresh salmon with asparagus and my typical one sheet pan sausage and veggies meal that I always do.
As for dinner, I usually grab something off of Pinterest such as keto taco soup, jalapeno popper stuffed chicken breasts, steak with veggies, and chicken with cauliflower rice.
Through this journey, I also learned there is such as thing as clean keto and dirty keto. Clean keto is where you avoid all processed foods and eating CLEAN. Dirty keto means you can eat anything you want as long as you stick with your macros (under 20g carbs per day).
When I first started, my diet was more dirty but as I am cruising along, my diet is becoming cleaner which I am sure helps. At the end of the day, if you are consuming more calories than you burn, you still will gain weight. There is NO miracle diet. However here are some keto food basics to help get you started if you are confused about it.
The best thing I have noticed about the keto diet so far is that I have not had this much energy in a very long time. I have zero afternoon slumps most days and I just feel better. I am also not as hungry all the time thanks to keeping full with eating fats.
Though I am seeing some geat side effects, I am unsure of how long I will stick with the keto diet, but I probably wont write another blog update for another two weeks to a month or so. I have received compliments that my body was changing from my mother in law, best friend, and my fiance so that made me excited to keep going to reach my goals! I am still at about 138lbs and I do not really have a goal weight in mind. At 63 inches tall, I would not mind a range of 120lbs-130lbs, but I truly just love going off of the way my clothing fits me as progress.
I still hate the word diet very much because I look at it as a lifestyle. However, I do feel a certain way of eating can work for a specific person-you just have to find the right way that works best for your body type! I never was a huge fan of eating a ton of carbs, but I cant wait to add them back into my daily habits. However, this time, I will be more wise with them!
Your trainer and friend,
