What is keto?

Keto is short for ketogenic. “Ketones are chemicals your liver makes. You produce them when you don’t have enough insulin in your body to turn sugar (or glucose) into energy. You need another source, so your body uses fat instead. Your liver turns this fat into ketones, a type of acid, and sends them into your bloodstream.” – WebMD

Basically a Keto Diet is a high fat low carb diet.  I have done this myself and found that in a few months I got my type 2 diabetes under control and lost about 30 pounds.My overall health improved dramatically. It was so easy anybody can do it. Hahahaha. No, it is not. Like most worthwhile things in life it takes effort and willpower. I do not adhere to it strictly anymore but it is the basis for my diet choices for the most part.

Sometimes I stray from it a little too far and my body lets me know that it isn’t happy at which point I get back on the wagon. I am not going to go into the specifics of Keto here as other people are more qualified to give advice on it. I like Dr. Eric Berg’s youtube channel, he does a great job of explaining Keto, intermittent fasting and the relationship to diabetes and insulin resistance. Most of the videos are only about 5 minutes and I can’t really do a better job than he does.

What I am going to talk about in this part of the blog is how to adopt this new life choice without irritating the crap out of you friends. I will also talk about how to get back on the wagon when you backslide, some recipes of things I like that fit the guidelines and how to eat in a restaurant without embarrassing your friends.

I found that a lot of people miss the point of adopting any diet and that is to make your life better. If you are miserable following a diet or other life choice, you most certainly won’t stick with it. When I hear someone say that they love the Keto diet because they can eat all the bacon they want, I know they aren’t going to stick with it. First of all because that’s not true.

The Keto diet is all about moderation and quality of food.  Intermittent fasting is part of Keto along with quality combinations of fats and proteins that will leave you satisfied for long periods of time. Many people who strictly adhere to the diet only need to eat once a day. I am not one of those people.

So, let’s be real here. I want to keep my diabetes under control, I don’t want to get fat and I want my overall health to be good. I also like to eat things that really are not good for me and I like to throw down a few drinks once in a while.

When I first started Keto I saw benefits almost immediately. I followed the plan to the letter and I felt great. I also started to preach to anybody who would listen like a brainwashed cult member. I really thought everyone would want to know. They don’t.

After about 3 months I got a little discouraged with the preaching and started to backslide a little. I realize now that sticking with it very strictly did me a world of good as it allowed my body to heal from all the torture I put it through. Now when I ate pizza, I was satisfied with just a couple pieces and it didn’t really move my glucose level that much. The point here is that my USUAL diet choice was Keto which allows me to have  pizza and a couple beers once in a while. So again, moderation is the key.

The second point that I really have to make is that anybody  that is promoting Keto in a course or a book is going to talk about only buying organic and natural foods. This is great but don’t get too obsessive about it. First if you don’t have the budget for it, you might not stick with it because it’s too expensive. If you don’t mind the cost then the problem can be availability. I am not convinced that they are any better or even really organic especially if I am buying them at a large grocery store. If they are similarly priced then go ahead but if not buy the other. I did it this way and got the results I mentioned.

There are many variations of this diet. I have heard some saying kale is the deadliest thing on the planet and another that it is food from god. Use your own common sense, kale is less deadly than french fries guaranteed. I found most diets directed at diabetes or an improvement in health as opposed to just weight loss are very similar in they are all very low carb diets. I bought this course from Diabetes Freedom that gave me a really good guide on what to eat and an in depth view of what diabetes is, how it is developed and how to live without medication.

Of course as I said these references are just guides. I believe everyone is different and responds in different ways. Once you do a very strict cleanse you will find you become very in tune with your body. It will tell you it doesn’t like something, all you have to do is listen to it. My posts in this section will be details on specific types of foods and why they are good or bad along with social issues that revolve around trying to adhere to a lifestyle change.