Change a Habit! Change your Life!
10 Steps to Help you Keto Healthy
A healthy keto diet can re-set your metabolism and ignite your body’s fat-burning furnace, especially if you truly make it your lifestyle all year round. The way we eat every day is a habit. A healthy keto diet induces your body into an activated state of nutritional ketosis, an optimal metabolic zone in which your body rapidly burns up excess fat (instead of carbs) as its primary fuel source. A keto diet is based upon eating healthy fats in combination with certain types of muscle-building proteins, and very limited amounts of specific kinds of carbs. Over time the body becomes adapted to burning fat for energy. Deviating from your eating lifestyle can lead to rebound weight gain. While maintaining any diet plan can be challenging, with the hectic pace of today’s lifestyle, it can also be very rewarding both to the waistline and to the psyche.
Make Keto fit into your lifestyle:
1. Minimize your carbohydrate consumption.
This can be difficult, especially when we are busy. Carbohydrates like muffins, bagels, fruit and sweet treats are often convenient to pack with you. We need to plan ahead and have better choices to stop us from snacking on these items. It is easiest to avoid the carbs if you are not starving, eating on a schedule can help.
2. Eat coconut oil or MCT oil.
MCTs (Medium Chain Triglycerides) are quickly absorbed into the liver where they can be used for energy or converted to ketones, helping your body to stay in ketosis and improve satiety. It may seem odd to eat fat to burn fat, but recent research tells us that coconut oil encourages fat-burning because of the unique way it’s metabolized. Coconut oil is especially beneficial for your keto diet success. MCT oil, MCT oil powder, Coconut oil, Coconut oil softgels can be added to smoothies, recipes are taken on-the-go to help maintain ketosis.
3. Stay active
Schedule your family time and social gatherings around physical activity. Active events like skating, sliding and snowshoeing will help to keep you in ketosis and keep you away from mindless snacking.
4. Make homemade keto friendly soups or chili and keto with the whole family!
Broccoli and Cheese Keto Soup
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 small white or yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. grass-fed bovine gelatin
4 scoops Chicken or Beef Broth
4 c. broth
2 c. half-and-half
2 small heads broccoli, cut into florets and stems cut into 1-in. pieces (8 to 10 c.)
3 oz. sharp white cheddar, grated (1 1/2 cups)
kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon of organic and fermented turmeric
Greek yogurt or sour cream, for garnish (optional)
DIRECTIONS
In a large pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until soft, 5 minutes. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, 1 minute. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until it turns golden, 3 minutes.
Add broth, bone broth powder and half-and-half and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and add broccoli. Simmer until broccoli is bright green, 4 minutes, then remove four pretty pieces of broccoli (for garnish) and rinse under cold water. Reduce heat to low and cover partially; simmer until broccoli is tender, 15 minutes.
If you have an immersion blender, puree soup in pot. Otherwise, working in batches, carefully puree soup in a blender (holding down lid with an old towel to prevent hot liquid from spurting out the top). Pour pureed soup into a large bowl.
Immediately whisk in cheddar and season with salt and pepper and organic turmeric.
Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with Greek yogurt or sour cream (if using), black pepper, and reserved broccoli.
5. Choose High Fat Snacks.
When you need to bring an appetizer to a gathering or need a snack at the office, choose high fat snacks like nuts, avocado dip with vegetables, cheese and sour pickles or deviled eggs.
Keto Deviled Eggs
6 Large Eggs Hard Boiled
1/2 Cup Avocado Mayonnaise
1 Teaspoon KetoGreens
Salt and Pepper to taste
Paprika for garnish
Green onion for garnish
Sesame seeds for garnish
DIRECTIONS
Peel the eggs and slice in half lengthwise.
Remove the yolks and place them in a bowl along with the mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper.
Spoon the filling into each egg white and finish with garnishes.
6. Try Intermittent Fasting
Use intermittent fasting on days when you have social events. Intermittent fasting limits your eating to a 6-8-hour window of the day while fasting on water and zero calorie beverages like black coffee for the other 16-18 hours of the day. You can eat your daily calorie allowance at the event and perhaps even enjoy a low carb beverage or small treat. Intermittent fasting is a great tool that can help you stay on plan.
7. Choose protein to keep you full and to prevent binge eating.
Adding Organic Chicken Bone Broth or Organic Beef Bone Broth to sauces, soups, casseroles, chili or baking will increase the protein content without adding calories from carbohydrates. Bone Broth will help to thicken sauces and add valuable nutrition to baking, smoothies and other recipes.
8. Digestive enzymes make a difference.
Having good digestion will give you the fastest, most noticeable results from your keto diet simply because you will be getting the most nutritional value out of the foods you eat. Naturally, any significant change in your diet can change your digestion. Supplements with bile salts, lipase and pancreatin help to ensure you have the digestive enzymes you need to metabolize the unique ratio of fats, proteins and carbohydrates in your daily keto diet.
9. Eat your greens!
The superfood duo of spirulina and chlorella makes all the difference in your keto diet. With appetite-suppressing properties to help you stick with your eating plan, you will accelerate your weight loss results. And best of all, these two green superfoods spark energy and promote healthy body pH. Try adding spirulina and chlorella to smoothies, pesto or cheese sauce.
10. Test your ketone levels.
As your body enters ketosis, there is a natural reduction of insulin levels at the same time there is accelerated fat breakdown. This is a good thing. During this process, your liver produces more ketones. Ketones are an important indicator for assuring your success on your keto diet. Use Keto reagent test strips to measure your ketone levels and get back on track as soon as possible. The keto diet can be a tough lifestyle change. Don’t let one bad day sabotage your goals.
Post submitted by Prairie Naturals