I thought I knew the foods that are allowed but quickly learned that I cannot trust everything I read on the internet. For example, one keto friendly recipe I tried had a sweet potato with butter and plain cinnamon. I love sweet potato but realized after my test that sweet potato takes my body out of ketosis. I trusted a recipe on the internet that told me this was keto approved!
The other reason the strips were important was that I went out to eat and decided to have the cheese sauce with my meal. Cheeses are certainly approved on this diet but I didn’t realize the restaurants all make a fake cheese sauce meaning they don’t actually have cheese in it at all! Talk about a learning experience! Now I know not to ever order queso or cheese sauce at a restaurant. This may sound stupid and most may have already known this but I did not. This is exactly why the test strips are important to me during this learning curve.
The last thing I recommend is to have a clear plan for your meals. You are the only person that can decide what meal ideas will work for you and your timeframe. You will want to set yourself up for success by being prepared. I do my planning one week at a time. I do my shopping over the weekend so I have everything ready during the busy work week. If you like to eat out a lot just determine which restaurants have foods you can enjoy and stick to those. I will put a small recommended grocery list at the very bottom of this post to help you get started at your first trip to the store too.
My brain was programmed a long time ago that fat was bad. Thank goodness for the book How We Get Fat and What to do About It by Gary Taubes helped to flip that switch for me. If you are local to me and want to borrow mine copy I would be happy to loan it to you. It’s an excellent read.
The last thing that I realized I really needed was a protein powder. I don’t eat enough protein and it’s essential on this diet to meet those targets. I really like the Dyamtize Whey Protein Isolate birthday cake flavor. The books I’ve read suggested the Egg Whites protein too but it doesn’t have any flavor and it’s really hard to mix in water. It’s perfect for baking or adding to recipes though.
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