This weekend I celebrated losing 20 lbs. eating ketogenically. Yes, I did a Happy Dance. And I tried on a pair of jeans that hadn’t fit in a while… and they were baggy! Whaddya know, this keto thing is working!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a lot of time in my day (or at least as much as I would like) to prepare my meals. I love to cook on a special occasion or when I have guests, but for daily living, as Sweet Brown said, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”
In a previous article I talked about “keeping it simple” to save time and energy, both physical and psychological. I have found that in preparing “replacement” meals – meals that pretend to be something that they are not, can be time consuming, energy consuming, and in the end, willpower consuming, which may cause you to cheat or stumble. And we need to keep it simple so we can “keep on keeping on”.
For example, I found this great looking recipe for a Keto Bacon Breakfast Bagel. I am definitely going to give this recipe a try, maybe this weekend. However, it takes eleven ingredients, and I would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety minutes for prep, mixing, cooking, baking, cooling, and assembling.
Ninety minutes. Three Servings. In my culinary economics, that time-to-serving ratio doesn’t work for me. In ninety minutes I can make a Keto Cheesecake which makes 16 servings, a Keto Lasagna that makes 30 servings, or five sets of Keto Pumpkin Spice Mousse that make 12 servings each!
Now for the Reality Check… I’m from Brooklyn, New York. The land of bagels and lox. When I first moved to North Carolina the “real” bagel stores were importing tanker truckloads of New York tap water just to make an authentic bagel down here. Yes, the water was that important! No matter how good a “keto bacon cheese butter bomb belly buster” of a “bagel” this is… it ain’t no bagel. When I will eat this, indeed, I will find it yummy… but it ain’t no bagel. I will enjoy eating this ketonic concoction. But it still… ain’t no bagel.
There is something emotionally dissatisfying, to me at least, in eating something that is pretending to be something else… It’s counterfeit. It’s not “the real deal” and I feel cheated. As the song goes, “Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, Baby…”
The last thing you want to feel when “dieting” if you want to call the ketogenic eating plan a “diet” is that you are in a state of lack, in a state of want, or eating counterfeit foods. I don’t want to eat keto pizza and pretend its pizza… I want a slice of Nonna from Brooklyn South, dangit!
My philosophy is, don’t go nuts making “replacement foods”. You’re lying to yourself and sticking to the “old” way of eating. The way of eating which got us here in the first place! If I want a different result, I’ve got to eat differently which includes eating different things. So, I eat Cheesecake (minus flour). I eat Mousse (minus sugar). I eat Sausage Cheese Balls (minus Bisquick). I eat Lasagna (minus noodles). Lots of nuts. Lots of Guac. Lots of half and half. And butter. Lots. mmmm…. butter… Real food. Call it what it is. And eat it!
I do admit that I am being militant and extra simple with my eating plan while on my journey to 200. Once I get to my target, sure, I can expand my horizons. I can give myself plus-or-minus five pounds of wiggle room once I get there to enjoy a few things and expand my menu again. But I also don’t want to dilly dally… Do I want to take four months, six months, or twelve months to hit my goal? How well we stick to our plan will determine how long we will be in full keto and how long we will have to wait till we can get to our maintenance eating plan and enjoy what we want to while maintaining our weight without having to lose it.
I’d rather do it in four months. ‘Cuz “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
And when you’re friends find you weird, strange, or funny for sticking to your guns… just think:
