Kick-Start 2018 With Ketosis
Kick-Start 2018 With Ketosis
Welcome to a New Year and a New Start!
Diets, Diets and More Diets
2018 has only started, but we’re already bombarded with hundreds of diets and weight-loss plans that promise quick and easy results. Are you feeling overwhelmed trying to figure out which one might be more successful this time? Do you want a reset, and figure you’ll worry about how your long-term health regime looks afterwards? Are you disillusioned by the failure of every past weight-loss attempt, and with your persistently haunting temptations and cravings? What if I told you that your answer lies not in a restrictive diet, but in an inclusive lifestyle?
Changing Our Mindset From Diet to Lifestyle
What if you could adapt to a dietary lifestyle that didn’t send you to bed hungry or agitated? What if uncontrollable cravings and mood swings could be a complaint of the past? Too perfect to be true, right? Well, the fact is that a Ketogenic lifestyle is not only an extremely effective weight loss tool, but if done correctly, results in satiety and nutrient completion.
I view a Ketogenic diet as a lifestyle, rather than a diet. The reason being is that it involves a well-balanced food intake. It is rich in colorful fruits and vegetables, good quality meats, fish, nuts, seeds, eggs, beneficial fats, and nutritious beverages. It doesn’t involve the restriction and deprivation associated with other short-term diets. The focus is not on calorie counting or portion control, which are usually associated with dieting. It encourages us to rethink our mindset towards maximizing nutritional density through satiating, wholesome foods.
Due to the abundance of delicious, nutrient-rich foods included in this lifestyle, along with it’s satiety factor, it is easily sustainable in the long-term. As a result of the sugar and hormonal stabilizing effects, cravings, fatigue, and mood swings stabilize. Consequently, we are left with less of a void to be filled with unhealthy food and beverage choices. This then eliminates the feelings of guilt and failure, which typically go hand-in-hand with other diets. The result is a longer, healthier, more vibrant life!
A Quick Guide to a Ketogenic Lifestyle
Think of it as a low carbohydrate, high good-fat lifestyle, with a moderate intake of good quality protein. The goal of this ‘diet’ is to put the body in a state of ketosis. Ketosis involves the body’s breakdown of fat stores for energy, due to a lack of glucose from carbohydrates. When we restrict our carbohydrate intake, we’re retraining our system to break down existing fat stores to produce ketones, which are then used for energy. As soon as we eat carbs, we are forced into ‘fat-storing’ mode.
When we switch it up and make beneficial fats our main source of food, we are back in ‘fat-burning’ mode, which improves our metabolic efficiency. The resulting benefits are not only a stabilization in blood sugar levels and steady weigh-loss, but also a healing reduction in our stress hormones. Satiating fats such as butter and cheese (from free-roaming animals), and other nutrient-rich fats like oils, nuts, seeds, nut butters and avocados are ideal. Important protein sources include organic meats and eggs from wild, cage-free animals, omega 3-rich fish, and other vegan sources. Low carbohydrate fruits and vegetables make up the rest of our daily regime. Eating starchy vegetables, grains, high sugar fruits, dairy and refined sugars and sweeteners would put us out of ketosis.
Empowering Our Inner Doctor
The beauty of this lifestyle is that it is not something we need to abide by 100% of the time. We can be in and out of a ketogenic state at any time, depending on what we eat. What makes it sustainable for the long-term is the security of knowing that we can be back in ketosis if we don’t eat the nutrient-void carbohydrates options! We may go into this way of eating initially to lose weight, but the nutrient-density of the food, along with blood sugar and hormone stabilizing effects, mean that we actually start to heal ourselves of numerous health complaints in the process! We will actually start to heal from the inside out. Make 2018 the year to heal!