Well, we aren’t talking New Year’s Resolutions, but at the beginning of last month I had one of those “enough is enough” moments and decided to quit “playing” at dieting and really get back on the Ketogenic eating plan. I did it a few years ago, and lost twenty pounds in forty days. Not too shabby! Then of course, I got stupid and celebrated this win by feasting on Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake pizza and other such nonsense and put all that weight back on over the course of the next six months.
My first Month on Keto – 12.5 lbs lost!
So, now that I’m back on the wagon, over the last month I’ve lost 12.5 lbs and I thought I’d share the method to my madness.
Why Keto?
Keto Works
Like many great innovations, the Ketogenic diet was made mainstream by Jimmy Moore, a fellow who was “sick and tired of being sick and tired”. Jimmy followed a plan, tweaked it, and shared his success with others.
It’s not my intent in this series to re-hash the science of the Ketogenic (there are plenty of resources out there) but to explain exactly how I applied it in my life to get the results that I did. That way, you can see a real-world example, copy it, tweak it, and enjoy your own story of success (and hopefully share it/brag about it!). As I like to say, good artists copy… great artists steal… so steal what I write here over the next few weeks and make it your own if you want to! They do say that imitation is the best form of flattery!
Keto is Portable
I had done the Paleo diet a few years ago, and it did indeed work great, but golly, was it time-intensive. Preparing meals was a near full-time job, and though I enjoyed the results, I couldn’t eat at many restaurants (or friend’s homes) without ‘cheating’ so it put a crimp on my social life.
There are very few restaurants where you can’t eat Keto: order a base protein (chicken, burger, fish) and add a dietary fat (bacon, avocado, side of sour cream, or a side of guacamole). when you can’t order a fat, just carry a snack-bag of Macadamia nuts to supplement your fat-to-protein ratio. And as a bonus, you can make your friends jealous by ordering a slice of Cheesecake for your main dish as well (just don’t eat the crust if it is flour based.)
Keto is Relatively Cheap
As I mentioned before, I had done the Paleo diet, and buying all those whole foods can get expensive. Very expensive. That’s probably the top complaint about Paleo next to it being time consuming.
For my Cheesecake Recipe (which I snagged and tweaked from Britt at ScrewedOnStraight), that recipe makes 16 servings. A common meal of mine is a slice of cheesecake and an ounce of Macadamia nuts. The cheesecake comes out to $1.44/slice and an ounce of Macadamias $.86. Total meal: $2.29. So breakfast (or lunch… or dinner…) costs less than a cup of coffee!
Eating Keto Saves a LOT of Time
Because each recipe can make multiple servings I only need to prepare a recipe or two once or twice per week. Then I separate them into single servings to grab-and-go. The cheesecake recipe makes 16 servings. This lasagna recipe (minus the noodles) makes 30 servings!
One interesting thing about food on the Keto diet is that you really don’t link food with a particular meal of the day. If someone was having eggs and bacon, you would assume breakfast. Veal Marsala? You might assume dinner. Not so with Keto. Want Lasagna for breakfast? Great! Want an egg with avocado fries for dinner? Whatever floats your boat, my friend… all is fair in love and war, and in the battle against the bulge, you will love the fact that you can eat anything on your plan at anytime you want.
And that’ll leave you more time to watch Game of Thrones!
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