To celebrate the kickoff of my Keto Coaching business. I am doing my first giveaway. You may not know that I went through keto coaching certification with Maria and Craig Emmerich. I am grateful for the guidance and support they provided during the course, I learned so much about the many benefits of this diet, and am so excited to share with other how to achieve success on the ketogenic diet. Maria and Craig have generously offered to give away a copy of their book KETO. This book is an informative guide on how to do keto CORRECTLY. Maria has been teaching the ketogenic way of life for over 15 years and has countless cookbooks and testimonials on the how the keto diet works for people who want to lose weight and reverse a host of diseases.

Also included in this giveaway are some of my favorite movie snacks:

• 4505 Chicharrones. Get them here. I eat them plain or I dip them in almond butter for a delicious treat!
• Dukes Smoked sausages- Get them here. They have them in a few different flavors. I love the hatch green chili flavor. They are a little spicy and pair well with a good smoked gouda or goat cheese.
• Pilli nuts – get them here. These are great nut for keto. They contain  the lowest carbs and the highest fat of any nut I’ve tried. They have a buttery flavor and a creamy mouth feel. This giveaway will give you the cocoa flavored ones. But I also love the plain ones and the chili ones.

To enter, leave a comment under this giveaway post using the word “GIVEAWAY”

**For a bonus entry**

1. Follow my Instagram page @yourketocousin
2. Like the giveaway post
3. Tag two friends you think would like to learn more about keto and/or would love to win some tasty, low carb snacks.

Some restrictions apply:

– Must be over 18 to win.

– Must live in the USA (for shipping).

– Giveaway closes on Sunday 1/27 at midnight.

The post January Giveaway! – KETO. by Maria and Craig Emmerich appeared first on Online Keto and Low Carb Diet Coach.

Takeaway #1: Willpower has to be practiced.

Like learning anything, if you want to be good at it you have to constantly practice. Same thing goes for willpower. If you consistently practice delaying gratification, you can strengthen your willpower muscles.

How to apply it: Pick something related to your health goals that you are not doing that you would like to do. Start small or go big. Challenge yourself to do this thing regularly. For example, you may challenge yourself to cut your carbs to under 50 grams total carbs per day to start, then drop it to 40 grams, then 30 grams. Or you may commit to a month long challenge of restricting certain foods that you may suspect are negatively affecting your health.  A workout challenge may require you to do a workout before you allow yourself to check social media in the morning.

Takeaway #2: Set up the habits requiring more discipline for earlier in the day.

As the day goes on, it becomes harder to flex your willpower muscles. If you pick multiple things that require you to be disciplined throughout the day, you may find it harder to stay committed as the day wears on. With this in mind, do the most important task requiring willpower early in the day.

How to apply it: If you are trying to restrict calories, consider intermittent fasting.  Intermittent fasting requires you to shorten your eating window, so you are may only be eating 1-2 meals per day.  For one example you might fast until noon and save your calories for lunch and dinner. This may be easier to stick to then trying to eat less food over the course of three meals. You are using more discipline during the morning hours, when it is easier and eating later in the day, when restricting foods may be more difficult to do.

Takeaway #3: Be ready for worst-case scenarios.

If you are prepared for when the unplanned challenges occur, you will be more likely to stick to your goals. Finding yourself without well thought out options leaves you unprepared and more likely to succumb to temptations.

How to apply it: Plan out what you will eat for the day or even better, the week. Enter it into My Fitness Pal or Cronometer at the start of the day or beginning of the week. If someone brings donuts or a cake to work, or tempts you with eating out for lunch, you will already have your plan ready to go, and that should help you say, “No thank you!” with confidence.

These are just some takeaways from the book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg. If you would like to read it for yourself, you can get it here.

Image: By fujikumo – http://f.hatena.ne.jp/fujikumo/20080606192311, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4214991

The post Can you Increase your Willpower to Stay on Keto? appeared first on Online Keto and Low Carb Diet Coach.

When trying to shed extra pounds, you do not need to add fat to your diet to hit some ratio.  Some or most of the “70% fat” can come from your body fat. Copious about of cheese, butter, and MCT oils will do nothing but stall your weight loss or even worse, cause you to gain more weight.  Reach your protein goals first, keep your total carbs low 20 -30 grams or less, and use fat to help you reach satiety when starting out.

Additionally, if you are filling up on fats first (ie. bulletproof coffees for breakfast), you may not be leaving room for more nutrient dense foods like animal protein and vegetables. Fats don’t contain a broad range of micronutrients. Sure, you will get a great energy boost from the fats in your bulletproof coffee, but you’ll also get little to none of the micronutrients your body needs to thrive.  

What to do instead: hit your protein macros first, if you are still feeling hungry after eating, add a little fat and see how your body feels.

All that being said, and as fat bombs can have their place from time to time… I have a recipe for a fat bomb that is simple, delicious, and made with ghee.  I keep fat bombs in the freezer for an as needed meal capper, if I’m still hungry after dinner and have room in my macros to spare.  The recipe is not very sweet, so just the sweetness to your liking, you can even add some erythritol if you would like it sweeter, but I used only stevia.

Chocolate Cinnamon Fat Bomb

Ingredients

1 cup(s), Ghee, melted.

1 cup, Almond Flour

½  cup, Cocoa powder, unsweetened

1 scoop, premium grass-fed whey 

40 drops Stevia Glycerite (add more or less to taste)

Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Stir together all the ingredients.
2. Pour mixture into 12 parchment lined cupcake molds.
3. Refrigerate until set.

Macros

Calories: 207 Fat: 22g  Protein: 2g Total Carbs: 3g

The post Don’t over Bomb Your Diet! appeared first on Online Keto and Low Carb Diet Coach.

The ketogenic diet, although low carb, promotes eating moderate amounts of protein and healthy fats which leave you feeling full. “Because of its satiating effects and the resulting decrease in hunger, the ketogenic diet can be easier to incorporate into a more permanent lifestyle change.” (Wilson & Lowery, 74)

Below are some strategies I use that keep me on track while eating a ketogenic diet. They may also work for you.

1. Meditate on your why

Soul search for the reason why you want to make this change. Journal and meditate on this reason daily. Just saying you want to lose weight so you can look good is not enough. Be specific and determine why you need this better body. Visualize how you want to see yourself. Find images that represent how you want to look.

For me, one big why was a fear of being plagued with chronic illness as I age. Seeing family members, co-workers, and friends struggling with health issues and not being able to live their best life scares me. Not wanting to be sick motivates me to live a healthy lifestyle. I visualize my self getting old and being able to travel, be active, and enjoy old age. Also, I feel like it is my responsibility to do my BEST to preserve my health so I can be available for my child. What is your “why”? What is the motivating factor that you can turn to and focus on during this journey?

2. Focus on how you currently feel and how you want to feel

Get in tune with how you feel after you eat foods that are not good for you. Unhealthy foods may leave you feeling sluggish, gassy, heavy, bloated, headachy, and/or mucous-y. These are signals that what you are eating is not synergized with what your body needs to thrive. Food should nourish your body, not leave you feeling ill. Keep a journal of what foods you eat and how they make you feel right after eating them. Tracking how you feel, and how the ill or good feelings correlate to what you eat, may heighten your awareness and motivate you to eliminate the bad foods and replace them with better options.

Think about how you want to feel. According to Craig and Maria Emmerich, if you consume excess carbohydrates it can cause headaches, chronic fatigue, increased blood pressure, bloating, brain fog, and even depression. Switching to eating a carb-restricting, ketogenic diet can possibly reverse these issues and a host of others. Many people on a SAD diet experience many of these issues on a daily basis. I know I did. I always seemed to have a headache, and would need to crash on the couch after work because I was so tired. Imagine not having to deal with these issues anymore. Imagine how much more pleasurable your life will be. Let this desire fuel you to make a lasting change.

3. Make a plan and execute it

If you have foods in your house that don’t serve your goals, get rid of them. Keeping temptation around means that on your weakest day, it will be easy for your to be plan to be derailed. Toss the crap and fill your fridge foods you can feel good about eating.

What to Toss or Donate
• Breads, granola, cereal, pasta…
• Anything with grains (oats, corn, rice, wheat…etc)
• Legumes and starchy veggies like potatoes
• Cookies, cakes, ice cream…
• Anything with Sugar or one of the 61 names of sugar

So what does go in your fridge? When you shop, buy whole, unprocessed foods. Ninety percent of what you buy should come foods found around the perimeter of the store.

What Ketogenic Foods to Buy
• Meats (Chicken, Pork, Beef, Lamb, Fish, Shellfish)
• Non Starchy Veggies (Greens, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Lettuces, Cabbage, celery…)
• Low glycemic Fruit (Avocado, berries, tomatoes, bell peppers…)
• Nuts (almond, walnuts, macadamias, Pilli nuts, pecans)
• Eggs
• Dairy (heavy cream, cheeses, full fat unflavored yogurt)
• Healthy Fats (lard, tallow, butter, duck fat, coconut oil, avocado oil)
• Low-Carb Snacks (pork rinds, meat sticks, nuts, 85%+ dark chocolate )

Create a weekly or monthly schedule of what you will eat for each meal. See an example of what my meal planning looks like here (link to meal prep post).

Plan out treats. The keto diet has lots of healthy replacements for sub-optimal foods commonly eaten on the Standard American Diet. Do some research, find recipes online, or look in stores for treats and delicious ketogenic foods you can look forward to eating. My treats include low-carb mug cakes and cookies, gelatin gummies, and fat bombs.

4. Get rid of distractions

Watching food commercials, following “foodie” accounts on social media, hanging out with friends that have no desire to eat healthy or get in shape are all going to distract you and make it harder to stick to your plan. Don’t watch live tv, and do fast forward through commercials on recorded shows. Unfollow those accounts that make crappy foods look tempting, and limit your time with your unhealthy friends. Friends and family can be the biggest distractions if their habits don’t align with goals. Be sure to let the people closest to you know the path you are on, and ask them to support you. If they are not willing to, limit the time you spend with them and be strategic about when and where you hang out. For example, make sure you have a say in where you eat out, so you can scope out the menu for healthy options.

5. Know your support

Big changes are hard to make alone. Talking or listening to others on the same path will help motivate you to stick to your plan. I listen to podcasts about health and nutrition while getting dressed and on my way to work. Some of my favorite wellness and nutrition podcasts include: Found My Fitness, Fat Fueled Family, What the Fat, and Keto for Normies I join groups on Facebook that have people living the lifestyle I want to live. Finally, know that you can get a certified ketogenic coach, like myself, to keep you fired up and accountable to what you set out to achieve.

Many people start the new year, making resolutions about healthy diets, but they often struggle and fall off because they don’t have a plan, tools, education, or the support they need to stay motivated. Take these strategies, and apply them. If you can maintain your plan for at least 6 months, it will become a habit and you will see lasting change. The best time to start is NOW!

Sources

El-Mallakh, R.s., and M.e. Paskitti. “The Ketogenic Diet May Have Mood-Stabilizing Properties.” Medical Hypotheses, vol. 57, no. 6, 2001, pp. 724–726., doi:10.1054/mehy.2001.1446.

Emmerich, Maria, and Craig Emmerich. Keto: The Complete Guide to Success on the Ketogenic Diet, Including Simplified Science and No-Cook Meal Plans. Victory Belt Publishing Inc., 2018.

Wilson, Jacob M., and Ryan Lowery. The Ketogenic Bible: the Authoritative Guide to Ketosis. Victory Belt Publishing, 2017.

The post How to Make Long-Lasting Food Choices in 2024 appeared first on Online Keto and Low Carb Diet Coach.

The way I meal plan is pretty simple. On Sunday, I do the majority of the preparation for the week. This is the day I plan to spend about 2 hours of time in and out of the kitchen. I’m usually doing other household chores while food is cooking. See my meal plan at the end, and continue reading below for how I prepare and plan meals for the week.

Prepping Breakfasts

On Sundays, I love having a delicious breakfast with the family which usually includes low-carb pancakes or waffles. I start my prep by making enough waffles or pancakes eat and freeze so my boys can have some later in the week for breakfast. I usually prep some sort of egg frittata filled with meat and veggies, and a sheet pan of bacon. I pack the frittata up for the days I work out at the gym so I have something I can eat after I workout. The days I don’t workout, I try to fast until lunch, and I usually take a fatty tea in a flask with me to work, to sip on in case I get really hungry.

Lunch Prep

I eat the same food every day for lunch during the week. This saves me from having to think up and cook a bunch of dishes. The night before meal prep Sunday, I usually throw a bunch of meat or chicken thighs in my slow cooker with a super easy sauce like in this Mississippi Pot Roast (add link) recipe. Once cooked I portion out the meat for each day and add some frozen veggies on the side with butter. I then freeze my portions. In the morning before work, I tske them out of the freezer as needed to take for lunch.

Dinners

I don’t make ahead my dinners for the entire week, but I do prep any vegetables I may need ahead of time. That may include slicing onions, chopping garlic, or washing lettuces. For dinner, I try to keep the meals simple as possible and make enough for leftovers the next day when I can. My go-to dinners are on the calendar below. Things like a whole roasted chicken or a chili require at most 5-10 min of active prep time and will feed my family of 3 for at least two nights. The left overs from a whole roasted chicken are usually used the next day in a soup, lettuce wrap, or Cobb salad.

Treats and other Prep

If I have time and motivation on Sunday, I may also make a batch of fat bombs, or gelatin gummies as a snack or meal capper.
One day during the week usually Saturday or Sunday, I make bone broth. It takes less than 5 minutes to throw into the slow cooker and provides lots of great collagen and amino acids which are great for skin, nails, hair, and joints.

Saturdays

Like many people, my Saturday’s are filled with errands, family fun, and general busyness. So, on Saturday, I usually fast for most of the day and I don’t eat much until dinner. That meal usually is not planned. Sometimes we go out to eat, but lately I have been avoiding eating out, so I have a few go to options that are easy to prepare. We usually make a low carb pizza, eat bun-less burgers, or indulge in a juicy rib eye steak. Its kind of a controlled “treat day”, so I leave it open for whatever we may have a taste for. The fasting during the day allows me to feel good about whatever I decide to eat that night. What I eat still falls within the limits of keto and doesn’t derail my diet, but portions and calories are not really scrutinized.

Hopefully, my meal plan will inspire you or give you some ideas for how to incorporate meal prep into your routine.

Here is a sample weekly meal planner:

The post How I Meal Prep on a Keto Diet appeared first on Online Keto and Low Carb Diet Coach.