There is no real magic to a keto diet. It’s more about choosing low carb fruit and vegetables, health meats and healthy fats. There’s little point in focussing on what I could not eat, but more on creating meals with low carb food choices. In this post, I want to give you a general overview of the process and then go into more detail with all of the factors to take into consideration when adopting a keto diet.
The best thing that happened to me when I started the Keto diet is that my family doctor referred me to a doctor who specialized in weight loss using the keto diet. As a person with diabetes, this was invaluable, becasue the biggest question that I had, and the biggest risk associatied with the Keto diet is what to do with the medicathon that I was already taking. She helped me out, letting me know how much to reduce my insuling and how much to reduce my metforimin when I cut the carbs out of my diet. And becasue the transition was gradual, I could change my medication gradually as well.
When I first started the keto diet, my doctor’s recommendation was that I simply cut the carbs that I was eating in half. I was already avoiding things like sugar and soft drinks. Desserts were something that I ate rarely unless they were fresh fruit, so this transition was fairly simple.
So, if I was having a sandwich for lunch, I would toast a single slice of bread and make it into an open face sandwich. If I was having potatoes or rice or pasta, I would give myself half of a serving.
This low carb diet was really successful for me. I lost weight and the reduced medication that I was taking still controlled my blood sugar.
After a month, my doctor recommended that I move on to a full keto diet. What I did was cut out the rest of the high carb foods that I was eating. So a sandwich was served on a lettuce wrap. My meal at dinner time looked very much like what I used to eat. Meat and low carb vegetables.
If I had a salad, I used a mix of olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice for dressing. If you are used to cooking using ratios, then about 1/3 of a measure of vinigar to 3 measures of olive oil. For example, a tablespoon of olive oil and teaspoon of whatever vinegar I was using. And then a shake of salt and pepper.
The biggest change in my diet was the amount of healthy fats that I could consume. In fact, I never really adjusted to the increased amount of fat. A big part of that was just the belief that I’ve had since I was growing up in the 1970’s. Fat is bad and causes heart disease. All of the studies that I’ve read that disproved this approach to nutrition just didn’t seem to overcome my prejudice against a high fat diet.
