Blog

When we decided that we would try Keto, I spent every spare second reading everything I could. (I highly recommend doing your own research! Everyone is different and this lifestyle change does not need to happen haphazardly.) We watched several YouTube channels, I joined Facebook groups, stayed on Pinterest etc…because I wanted to make sure that since we were trying this, we would be successful. I know myself well enough that if I’m having to work hard and not seeing “instant” results that I’m most likely not going to stick with it. Growing up, my parents had great success with the Atkins diet and everything I was reading, Keto and Atkins were similar diets. My biggest worries at the beginning were 1 – Cost (we live on a budget & have 4 kids in the house, I’m not making 2 different versions of every meal). 2 – It had to be simple (because again, we have 4 kids) 3 – We had to have options at restaurants (mainly because of the way Tim works. He is not always where he can bring a lunch) 4 – Due to our crazy schedules, a super strict (eat this meal at this time, do this workout at this time) would not work for us. 

Day 1 (October 1, 2018)

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with a splash of heavy whipping cream, cooked in coconut oil and Kerry Gold butter. I added organic baby spinach and bacon. I added essential oils to my water while Tim just drank a bottle of water. 

Snack/lunch: Lunch meat, pepperoni, and cheese roll up with a dill pickle.

Dinner: Grilled chicken. Broccoli cooked in Kerry Gold butter and coconut oil, added bacon and cheese.

As you can see, we kept it very simple. Did I get sick of eggs? YES! (I got so sick of eggs for breakfast BUT I’ve never been that big of a fan of breakfast) 

Mix It Up

When we grew tired of something we would mix it up …Pinterest has more recipes than anyone can count. I would find recipes and at the beginning and I would log them into the CarbManager App (It’s free on Google Play. It takes a few minutes to set up, and you’ll need to make sure that you change the setting to let the app know that you are doing Keto and it will tell you all of your Macros).

Here’s a sample of what we did for lunch just the other day:

The Lingo, or How The “Cool” Kids Talk

Some of the keto “lingo” should you find yourself on blog pages, Pinterest, YouTube, etc…

• dirty/lazy keto – getting started and just carb counting (not worrying about macros)
• strict keto – strictly sticking to your macros, zero sweeteners, no artificial anything
• Macros – these are the percentages of fat, proteins, and carbs you consume everyday (everyone’s is different)
• HWC – heavy whipping cream
• WOE – way of eating
• GFB – grass fed butter or beef depending on the conversation. 

Now that we are over six months into this WOE our meal plans have expanded to flour-less pizza dough, chicken alfredo with zoodles, brussel sprouts with bacon, cabbage rolls, and so much avocado! 

The biggest piece of advice that I can give you is to make a plan and stick to it. Just after we started keto (about 9 days into it) Hurricane Michael hit. Our kids had enough snacks to last at least a month, but we had to adapt. We did well, the only “cheat” Tim and I had was a newfound love of Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Mountain Dew. Considering the alternative I guess that isn’t too awful BUT up until that point we were only drinking water and I wish we had kept that going.