Kristin Kirkpatrick is a popular award-winning dietitian, a regular TV guest, and author. She helps people by giving them advice on food and nutrition.
Recently, her patients have been asking her about the various diets, but most were interested in the ketogenic diet. Since she never recommended a diet that she hasn’t tried, Kristin decided to experience it personally.
As a result, she started the ketogenic diet and wanted to see the results after a month. With a sheer dedication and motivation, Kristin completely changed her meals. Here is how her experience went.
Bye Bye Carbs
The ketogenic diet lets you eat about 70% or 80% fat, moderate amounts of protein, and 5% carbs. Kristin consulted with a cancer specialist about this diet. He believes that the diet may be ideal for preventing this deadly disease due to the low intake of sugar.
However, it seemed quite a challenge for Kristin at first. During the first week, she had to cut down the intake of carbohydrates completely. She ended up feeling immensely hungry. In fact, the only way to keep the intake of carbohydrates under 25 net carbs, is never to eat ‘traditional’ carbs.
Therefore, she had to replace the need for carbs with:
For breakfast, she ate eggs, but not too many egg whites. After all, she needed to increase the number of proteins in her body. For snacks, she consumed nuts and dried cheese. These are especially practical snacks for traveling.
Furthermore, for lunch, she focused solely on salads with plenty of dressing and avocado. Lastly, for dinner, she consumed either spinach, salmon, kale, or broccoli. However, some people may ask about dessert.
Well, Kristin says, you should forget about it, unless it is a tablespoon of olive oil. Otherwise, you won’t need to consume any sugar. Since this diet forces you to eat plenty of salads, it is good to experiment with the dressings.
The Keto Flu
Due to the major transition, the body tries to adjust to the lack of glucose at all times. As a result, you will feel exhausted, irritated, and will face some major sugar cravings. Of course, every start is difficult. Therefore, you will have to be extremely dedicated to getting past this phase.
When the could lifts, you will transform from feeling angry to feeling great. Plus, you also might even feel euphoric. However, have in mind that this diet is extremely challenging and difficult. So, even if you believe that consuming more fat and so little carbs is a mistake, you are wrong.
These macronutrients might be the easiest thing to manage.
Difficult Challenges
Keeping the protein levels balanced proved to be the most difficult thing to do. It can prove a major threat and knock you out of ketosis. Therefore, it was easy for Kristin to notice why every keto book had various recipes and multiple uses for egg yolks, bacon, and coconut oil.
Furthermore, this issue continues to serve as a major problem for her, even after 30 days have passed. Plus, she even had to face a nasty bout of constipation while the body tried to adapt to the new transition.
As a result, she had to consume more non-starchy vegetables to get her body back in line. Moreover, her greatest challenge was eating during traveling. When Kristin was on a business trip in a hotel, she was starving because she was allergic to the mound of quinoa that was under the protein source.
In the end, she had to binge on tofu jerky and pecans at the hotel room. Therefore, it is difficult to stick to this diet if you can’t control the environment. In fact, people have to properly plan their ketogenic diet before they want to travel anywhere.
Disadvantages
It is difficult to stick to this diet if you have to be on the road at all times. But, that is not the only disadvantage. People who often follow a ketogenic diet have bad breath. However, that is not always the case.
Everyone is different. Therefore, this diet might affect every person differently. Also, it will be a rough start. It is immensely difficult to overcome the emotional obstacles that most people have to phase at the beginning of this diet.
So, it is very important to stay determined and never give up.
The Best Way to Start
If you want to start a ketogenic diet, you have to plan your meals first. It is important that you follow a proper macronutrient breakdown so that you can track the meals and snacks you eat. If you want to be more certain if this diet is safe for your health, make sure to consult with your doctor.
Otherwise, you can start with a healthy breakfast with some eggs, avocado, or a protein smoothie. For lunch, it is important to stick to consuming salads. Therefore, feel free to experiment with some healthy dressings, pesto, and zucchini noodles.
When it comes to dinner, eat butter, cream, bone broth or a nice veggie and mushroom soup. Try to consume healthy meals that contain the necessary amount of nutrients that your body needs. For snacks, eat coconut chips, jerky, and nuts that contain no sugar.
If this diet makes you feel great and happy, stick to it. However, for some people, it may be difficult to stop consuming carbs completely. But, according to Kristin, if you can’t stop eating carbs, try at least to eat a restrictive amount of them.
Finally, have in mind that this diet is very restrictive. Therefore, it is not for everyone. But if you are someone who is really inspired to try this diet, don’t be afraid to do so. After all, it may prove immensely beneficial for your body.
Besides, the hard part is only the first week. If you get through it, you are set!
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