I have heard about Keto for years but I never really paid much attention to it because I the plant based living girl was not interested in gorging myself with dairy and meats. Until I realized I was ill-informed and that I too could participate in a keto lifestyle albeit hard. I successfully experimented with keto-vegan in 2018 and then bam got pregnant.
Actual real-life footage of me pregnant in 2018, no it is not Beyonce silly.
Keto is short for the ketogenic diet and the premise consists of intaking a low amount of carbohydrates so your body can use fat as the main source of energy. You will still intake protein but moderately so that excess is not converted as carbohydrates. Remember and tattoo: LOW-CARB! When your body using carbs for energy they are in turn broken down into glucose.
But say what happens if your body starts burning fat as the primary source of energy? A process called ketosis begins. Ketosis successfully tricks your body into using this different type of energy to sustain both the body and mind. The liver will utilize the fat to produce ketones ( energy ) instead of glucose when there is low supply of glucose. Now remember low supply does not mean no glucose at all! White sugar does not equal glucose. Glucose is a source of fuel. One of the sources of fuel. It can come from white sugar but thats not the best source to get your glucose.So no you do not get a pass to use white sugars. Glucose is necessary for certain parts of the brain to function.
Our modern society has us heavily reliant on sugars in its many forms. This is not conducive to health. Today obesity, diabetes, high blood sugar, constipation, and many other health issues reign at the top of the list for almost all ethnic groups. When you add other factors such as socio-economic status, gender, religion and etc the results are even more staggering in certain groups. So this is where the ketogenic benefits kick in...
A keto diet requires you to only intake less than 30 grams of carbs daily. The ideal range being somewhere around 20-25 grams. However some people can and choose to include 50 grams daily after becoming vetted with the diet and addressing a targeted health issue.
Like me right now! My goal is to lose some weight so I will be using keto vegan combined with intermittent fasting ( blog on that later ) to reach my goals. I do not plan on being keto vegan forever however I do understand the benefits of combining these two diets especially with the added bonuses of intermittent fasting.
A regular keto diet that does not have an emphasis on being plant based will include high fat from sources like meat, seafood, eggs, cheese, butter, coconut oil, avocado, certain nuts, fruit and vegetables that are considered low-carb. Berries are low-carb by nature in comparison to other fruits especially the yellow-orange fruit groups. Although these sugars are natural they are not optimal for the keto diet. Don't sweat or fret! You can have these in small quantities after you get in a groove with your daily macros and stuff. Still root vegetables such as carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips etc are not to be consumed because of their high starch content (hello sugars, we can't be friends!) No alcohol because of grain and sugars. I will be writing a post on the benefits of going keto in the future so look out for that soon!
What are the key-takeaways class....
LOW CARB
AVOID SUGAR AND STARCH as much as possible.
Get to spiralizing and out with the conventional wheat pasta...(for now!) We got goals to smash!
xoxo and in tears because I will miss pasta and some brown sugar as of late,
Shapel
Ps:
This is actually me pregnant...
Well this is 9 weeks pregnant you'll see 9 months below.
Whew chile! However very gorgeous in both.
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