Easy Ketogenic Hacks Every Beginner Needs to Know
Are you looking to lose weight or achieve your fitness goal? Ketogenic diet is the best diet plan.
A ketogenic diet has some skeptics from many people, despite its scientific proof. The purpose of the keto diet is to stay healthy, lose weight, and stay fit.
Whether you are starting out or on your keto journey, these hacks will help you navigate the diet.
- Snack on High-Fat Foods
Food with high-fat content makes someone feel full for a long time. High-fat foods are perfect for a keto diet. Foods such as nuts and avocadoes have numerous healthy nutrients and satisfy your hunger. Maintaining a keto diet can be challenging since it requires people to avoid sweets or salty snacks, especially for people who have a sweet tooth.
- Frozen vegetables
Frozen vegetables or produce are cheap and convenient to purchase. The produce is available at any grocery store and requires you to store it in a freezer. When you are ready to consume it, you remove it from the freezer and allow it to defrost at room temperatures.
- Real or natural foods
Keto lifestyle requires one to choose natural produce over-processed foods. Whole foods have numerous health benefits compared to frozen foods and snacks.
Examples of natural foods include; fruits, non-homogenized dairy, meats, whole grains, and vegetables.
The best thing about keto diet is the ability to have fresh, nutritious, and tasty meals every day.
- Healthy desserts
Many people think that desserts are a no go zone for keto lifestyle. It is far from the truth.
Keto diet encourages healthy desserts. One can indulge in a sweet treat, which is low carb and healthy. Many grocery shops have keto-friendly frozen fruit, cakes, and fat yogurt.
Being on a keto diet does not mean you can no longer consume sugar or sweet foods. Choosing to incorporate healthier alternatives for desserts that are sweet is good for your diet.
You can take steps such as replacing some of your ingredients while cooking, such as chocolate powder with cocoa powder, replacing regular cooking oil with coconut oil, and using almond butter instead of the regular butter.
This will result in a dessert that aligns with your keto diet.
Including fruits in your desserts is a great way to make them sweet but healthy, or even eat the fruits in place of the desserts, as they are sweet too.
The goal is to avoid desserts containing confectioner sugar, cane sugar, and milk chocolate, as they are not healthy.
To save time, consider preparing the dessert early, store it in the freezer and remove it after finishing your meals.
- Consume eggs
Eggs are perfect for a keto diet. They are affordable and easy to make. Eggs are full of protein, healthy, and versatile in a keto food pyramid.
Depending on your taste, you can choose to boil, fry, or poach.
- Start making your own dressing and condiments
Store dressing is accessible, but there is nothing better than making your own dressing at home.
It allows you to limit the number of ingredients and make sure it compliments your keto dressing. Homemade dressing sounds intimidating at the beginning, but it will improve your health.
The internet has numerous keto-friendly recipes for dressings and condiments. Do not worry about the steps.
- Incorporate some zoodles
Noodles are cheap and everybody’s favorite. You can try switching to sweet potatoes, veggies, zucchini, and butter squash. The ingredients are easy to make and tasty.
They are simple to incorporate to any recipe.
These ingredients have many nutrients such as vitamins that help you stick to your keto diet
- Avoid Diet Drinks
Diet drinks derail your keto diet, whether it is zero sugar or minimum calories. Most of the drinks contain a high level of sugar.
Water, tea, and coffee are great substitute drinks.
For a more flavorful drink, try adding citrus, mint, cucumber, and mint to your water. Also, these ingredients cleanse the body and result in weight loss.
- Avoid cereals and instead eat bacon for breakfast
Cereals are quick to grab and fix in the morning. It is a staple in many households. Nonetheless, many cereal boxes have high sugar and carbohydrate content. As you all know, carbs and sugar spikes insulin levels.
Keto diet tries to maintain a low insulin level while burning fat steadily.
A high-protein diet helps you kick start your day with a full stomach. Bacon is a perfect substitute for cereals. They are rich in protein and help in balancing insulin levels and burning fat.
As you cook, make sure to use less sugar or salt to keep the meal healthy. Minimum salt or sugar in a meal will help you hamper hunger and maintain a healthy body.
- Veggie pasta instead of pasta
Giving up pasta can be a difficult fit if you really enjoy pasta. Instead of completely setting it aside, you can change it up by creating vegetable pasta or researching other options.
Spaghetti squash tastes and has the same texture as regular pasta. Firstly you need to roast the vegetables in the oven or cook it in a microwave, then shred them.
Adding some meat, fresh herbs, and tomato sauce as you sauté, it makes a simple and easy-to-make vegetable pasta.
Using a spiralizer to prepare zucchini noodles or buying premade zucchini noodles from the supermarket or online to save time is another alternative to pasta.
Other options for pasta include palmini pasta or black spaghetti pasta.
- Meal prep for the week
Preparing your meals gives you control over what you consume. You know which ingredients you want to use and what exactly you want to eat. It is relatively cheaper than ordering food and eating out.
It is also healthier as you know your own diet. You can prepare your meals to be healthy and have nutritional value.
Meal prepping for the entire week saves time, especially if you lead a busy lifestyle. You can prepare healthy meals to last you a whole week, which you can keep in the fridge to eat as you go.
This method is time-saving and ensures you continue to eat a healthy, well-balanced meal despite your daily lifestyle.
- Avoid high acid drinks
Soda and other drinks such as sweetened coffees and teas contain high acid, which makes them unhealthy drinks.
Opting to drink healthier drinks such as almond milk, protein shakes, and green tea are healthier options.
Fruits such as bananas, kiwi fruits, strawberries, avocados, and blueberries can be added to protein shakes as they contain high levels of protein.
- Natural plain yogurt instead of sugary yogurt
Natural flavored yogurt is a healthy option compared to fruit yogurt, which contains high levels of cane sugar.
Greek yogurt or natural flavored yogurt is a good healthy alternative. You can add some other things like cinnamon, berries, or even granola for flavor.
You can also opt to include cottage cheese, which is high in proteins and is keto-friendly.
- Add more lean meat, seafood, and poultry
Poultry and meat are a necessity when it comes to a keto diet food plan. They contain proteins which are rich in vitamin B, which are essential for your keto diet.
Seafood, on the other hand, is a great addition to your keto diet. Adding seafood to your keto diet is great as it is rich in proteins essential in a keto diet and has no sugar or carbohydrates.
- Use low-carb vegetables
When you are preparing your meals, consider using more vegetables that are low-carb. Not all vegetables are low-carb.
Low-carb vegetables include mushrooms, eggplants, tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, artichokes, and cabbage.
Sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, and corn are examples of high-carb vegetables.
Low-carb vegetables are good for your keto diet.
- Spotting hidden carbs
Carbs are not essential to a keto diet. Therefore, reducing your intake of foods high in carbs, such as dairy and plant-based foods, the two main sources of carbs, is important.
Doing research on foods that are low in carbs can significantly help you maintain a keto diet. Some of the foods with low-carb content include condiments, avocadoes, healthy oils, eggs, fatty fish, butter, meat, cheese, low-carb vegetables, and nuts or seeds.
Foods with high carb content include alcohol, beans and legumes, grains and starches, diet products, sugar-free diet products, unhealthy fats, root vegetables, and high-carb fruits.
- 17. Know the main keto food substitutes
While on a keto diet, there are several healthier alternatives that you can include in your keto diet to replace the foods you love but cannot consume. They include:
- Sugar substitute: Stevia
- White/wheat flour substitutes: coconut flour and almond flour
- Potato chips substitute: kale chips
- Hamburger bun/ tortilla substitute: lettuce leaves
- Spaghetti substitute: spaghetti squash
- Mashed potato substitute: mashed cauliflower
- White rice substitute: cauliflower rice
- Sweet coffee substitute: bulletproof coffee
- Pizza crust substitute: fathead crust
- Vegetable oil substitute: coconut oil
- Pasta substitute: veggie pasta
- Whole milk substitute: almond milk
Bottom line
Beginning a new diet for a healthier lifestyle can be difficult to navigate but not impossible. With some guidance and some research, a keto diet is achievable to maintain for anybody.
