Any time you make a radical change in your lifestyle, the first few weeks are going to be the hardest. After all, you’ve spent the whole of your life until now doing things a certain way and now you must relearn new ways of doing things. Any radical alteration of something that’s become ingrained in you from childhood can be stressful to say the least. Fortunately, humans are adaptable, and once you get through the first few weeks, you ‘should’ be home free. Let’s take a look at what it might take to get through those trying times.
Learning to Find Inspiration
While this may not be the best analogy, it’s one that’s worked well for many new keto dieters. Some people have found that by looking at a radical change in lifestyle like a recovery program, they can find inspiration to avoid those foods they know they can’t have. For example, anyone seeking to self-medicate to the point of addiction learns to be inspired by a new, sober lifestyle.
For the keto newbie, this inspiration could be the pounds you envision losing or the many other health benefits to be had. Others find that meditation and guided imagery give them inspiration while others yet are inspired by the successes of friends, family members and those they’ve met through social media. The key is to stay positive. Keep those goals in front of you and you will be inspired.
Overcoming Obstacles Caused by Dietary Changes
Two of the major obstacles caused by dietary changes are being unable to find keto-friendly restaurants and alternate ways to keep energy levels high without slow burn carbs. Some keto advocates say that they have learned how to eat at restaurants while being very precise about ingredients they cannot tolerate when ordering. A good restaurant should cater to special orders! Still, others yet opt to entertain at home so that their guests can enjoy foods they like while you maintain your strict keto 75/20/5% ratio of fats to protein to carbs.
When working out, if you find that you just don’t have the energy you need to make it through a grueling session at the gym, instead of munching an energy bar, they take a keto-friendly supplement of amino acids. Along with that time of reflection, a keto pre-workout can give you a boost both in energy as well as in reserve.
Add a Bit of Spice to Your Life
Okay, so you can’t have all those sauces you previously enjoyed or those loaded baked potatoes. However, there is nothing to say that you can’t spice up your keto-friendly foods with some exotic seasonings. Just be sure that these spices contain no sugars.
Read the labels well and learn all the alternative words for sugar which can be entirely too confusing. You will soon learn that there is more to life than carbs and some of the seasonings you will encounter are delightful. It’s just possible that you’ll enjoy a keto diet more than that unhealthy, high-carb diet you are avoiding!
Work with Acceptable Substitutions
As with carbs, learn to work with acceptable solutions. From the supplements you use to maintain energy during workouts, to the spices you use to add flavor to those high-fat foods, a keto diet doesn’t need to be boring with the same old same old day after day after day.
Any reputable keto site should have a list of substitutions you can use to help you get over those first weeks of trial and error. In fact, once you get the hang of it, you just may find that this is what you’ve been missing all along.
1 comment
My sister is on a KETO diet for a month now and already lost 5 pounds. I’ll ask her to check this out to see if this one speed’s up her weight loss journey..