Any time you find yourself starting a new diet or lifestyle, it is easy to get overwhelmed with all the new information and unfortunately for a lot of people, that can be the downfall and the reason they give up on it. In today's post, I will spell out some of the main mistakes I see people make when starting Keto, and how to avoid them.
1. Not COMPLETELY cutting out sugar.
Unfortunately, sugar has become such a normal part of most American's diets that we are unknowingly addicted to some extent. Sugar is hiding in most packaged food, refined carbohydrates, snack foods that are marketed as "healthy" or "diet friendly," and even in most seasoning mixes. The other day I read the label on a package of seasoning SALT my kids use on their food, and realized one of the main ingredients was sugar! So, even when my kids are eating healthy meals, they're sprinkling sugar on top! UGH. It's incredibly frustrating and unfortunately, when people start to transition to a Ketogenic lifestyle, they have a lot of trouble cutting it out completely. Some people will make exceptions for certain things they feel like they "can't live without" or simply just neglect to read the labels on certain things. For example, "health" foods like packaged weight watchers snacks, Halo Top ice cream, most condiments, etc. all contain sugar. When you are really trying to kick the glucose addiction, and get your body into full-blown ketosis, you gotta kick sugar completely.
2. Making it TOO complicated!
One of the biggest mistakes I made during my first handful of attempts at Keto was making it way too complicated. I obsessed way too much over the food I was missing out on and was constantly trying to make keto substitutions. There is a time and a place for keto swaps like cloud bread, fathead dough, etc., BUT if you obsess over trying to incorporate those into your daily diet, it quickly becomes overwhelming and WAY too much work. It is perfectly fine to eat eggs, deli meat, cheese sticks, and nuts in a day of low carb eating. Special swaps should be saved for once or twice a week.
3. NOT Tracking Macros
OK, so this may seem silly, especially since some people really can get away with not keeping track of their calorie intake or macro breakup. However, if you're like me, it is important to keep a visual idea of your calories and macros throughout the day to stay in check. If you are conditioned to eating a diet that is high in "obvious" carbs (bread, pizza, pasta), it can be easy to think that you are eating a Ketogenic diet when you simply cut out those things. However, your macro distribution is important. Vegetables and carb substitutions can contain quite a few carbs per serving and though you'll never hear me tell you to "eat less vegetables," I do think it's important to keep track of what we're taking in on a day to day basis. Also, calorie intake can quickly spiral out of control if you're not careful and mindful of your serving sizes. Even in Ketosis, you can stunt your weight loss or even gain weight if your calorie intake is higher than the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis. Some foods can sneak up on you too. A couple weeks ago, I had a serving of (6) wings from pizza hut and was SHOCKED to find out that they had 850 calories! That's over half of my entire daily calorie goal. Yikes!
What are some mistakes that you think can be easy to make when starting a new diet? Have you made any of these errors while on a keto diet?
If you are interested in my new e-book, with everything you need to know to get started and successfully follow a ketogenic diet for weight loss, email me at ketorebekah@gmail.com :)
1. Not COMPLETELY cutting out sugar.
Unfortunately, sugar has become such a normal part of most American's diets that we are unknowingly addicted to some extent. Sugar is hiding in most packaged food, refined carbohydrates, snack foods that are marketed as "healthy" or "diet friendly," and even in most seasoning mixes. The other day I read the label on a package of seasoning SALT my kids use on their food, and realized one of the main ingredients was sugar! So, even when my kids are eating healthy meals, they're sprinkling sugar on top! UGH. It's incredibly frustrating and unfortunately, when people start to transition to a Ketogenic lifestyle, they have a lot of trouble cutting it out completely. Some people will make exceptions for certain things they feel like they "can't live without" or simply just neglect to read the labels on certain things. For example, "health" foods like packaged weight watchers snacks, Halo Top ice cream, most condiments, etc. all contain sugar. When you are really trying to kick the glucose addiction, and get your body into full-blown ketosis, you gotta kick sugar completely.
2. Making it TOO complicated!
One of the biggest mistakes I made during my first handful of attempts at Keto was making it way too complicated. I obsessed way too much over the food I was missing out on and was constantly trying to make keto substitutions. There is a time and a place for keto swaps like cloud bread, fathead dough, etc., BUT if you obsess over trying to incorporate those into your daily diet, it quickly becomes overwhelming and WAY too much work. It is perfectly fine to eat eggs, deli meat, cheese sticks, and nuts in a day of low carb eating. Special swaps should be saved for once or twice a week.
3. NOT Tracking Macros
OK, so this may seem silly, especially since some people really can get away with not keeping track of their calorie intake or macro breakup. However, if you're like me, it is important to keep a visual idea of your calories and macros throughout the day to stay in check. If you are conditioned to eating a diet that is high in "obvious" carbs (bread, pizza, pasta), it can be easy to think that you are eating a Ketogenic diet when you simply cut out those things. However, your macro distribution is important. Vegetables and carb substitutions can contain quite a few carbs per serving and though you'll never hear me tell you to "eat less vegetables," I do think it's important to keep track of what we're taking in on a day to day basis. Also, calorie intake can quickly spiral out of control if you're not careful and mindful of your serving sizes. Even in Ketosis, you can stunt your weight loss or even gain weight if your calorie intake is higher than the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis. Some foods can sneak up on you too. A couple weeks ago, I had a serving of (6) wings from pizza hut and was SHOCKED to find out that they had 850 calories! That's over half of my entire daily calorie goal. Yikes!
What are some mistakes that you think can be easy to make when starting a new diet? Have you made any of these errors while on a keto diet?
If you are interested in my new e-book, with everything you need to know to get started and successfully follow a ketogenic diet for weight loss, email me at ketorebekah@gmail.com :)
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