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10 Tips for Starting a Ketogenic Lifestyle

1. Watch The Magic Pill available on Netflix and Amazon Video! A great overview of why the ketogenic diet makes sense.

2. Don’t worry about calories for now. You’re learning lots of new stuff and integrating a ton of new habits. Just worry about your net carb intake which is a great segue to the next tip.

3. Keep net carbs under 20g. carbohydrates – fiber = net carbs. Take a look at the nutritional label on your packaged foods. Subtract fiber from your carbohydrates to get your net carbs– keep this under 20g. I don’t track the carbs in leafy greens, but you may want to starting out. This will help you become more aware of the macronutrient composition of different foods. Nutritional facts for foods without labels, which would ideally be the majority of your diet, can usually be found with a simple google search: “spinach nutritional facts.” Apps like MyFitnessPal have a pretty good database, but can be inaccurate sometimes as anyone is able to add data. I would recommend staying away from things that contain high sugar alcohols, but if you must, these can also be subtracted along with fiber from your total carbohydrates to calculate your net carbs.

4. I recommend everyone to track macros, short for macronutrients, (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates) when you’re starting, just so you can see what your portions should look like. This calculator from ruled.me is great to help you determine how much of each macronutrient you should be eating. The typical breakdown of a ketogenic diet in percentages are 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrates. Don’t worry about meeting your fat macros unless you are getting hungry between meals.

5. Don’t cheat for the first two weeks. I find that when I tell people to not cheat for two weeks, they usually are just fine and continue to stay on plan for much longer because by now their cravings are gone! Gimme two weeks! You can do it!

6. Avoid the keto flu! Keep your electrolytes up (magnesium, potassium, sodium)! The keto flu is ROUGH! My boyfriend’s mom was very excited to start keto and jumped right into it before doing too much research and was hit hard. She is a tough lady, but this really knocked her off her feet and had her feeling like death for a few days before we figured out why. A little concoction of the above mentioned electrolytes had her feeling back to normal almost immediately.

7. Know yourself. Are you a live to eat or eat to live type? If you’re an eat to live type meaning, you don’t LOVE food passionately, you don’t plan your vacations around restaurants, think about what to eat for dinner as you’re eating your lunch, cross reference google reviews with yelp to find THE BEST, MOST AUTHENTIC omakase experience, this is you. Find 1-3 recipes that you know you’ll love that are quick and easy. May I suggest, bacon, eggs, avocado and spinach as one of those meals? Cook up some bacon, remove from the pan, fry your eggs in your bacon drippings, remove the eggs, and wilt your spinach in any residual drippings left in the pan.. or don’t and eat it fresh like a salad. Top it all with some avocado and there you have the easiest, most classic, keto meal ever. Satisfying and simple. Feeling fancy? Sprinkle Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel Seasoning over your avocado!

If you are a passionate foodie like myself, find 1-3 quick and easy recipes and a 1-3 recipes that get you excited! I find that if you find a few recipes from the same region of the world, you will have more overlap in ingredients which I find is a great way to avoid waste and mostly-full-containers of sauce taking up space in your pantry. The best part for me is that it’s an incredibly immersive experience that promotes understanding, appreciation and love for another cuisine. I love it. The great news is almost everything can be ketofied, but it does usually take a little more time, so have a few quick and easy recipes in your repertoire for busier days! I would not suggest buying 25 new “keto products” as soon as you start, but rather buying them slowly as you go.

If you know you have a sweet tooth, perhaps pick up a few treats to help you through the cravings. My favorites are sugar free gummies from Smart Sweets, Lily’s Chocolates and Zevia, stevia-sweetened soda. Not all sweets labeled “sugar-free” are created equal as many contain ingredients that’ll spike your blood sugar and/or give you constipation (ie. maltitol). There are a TON of keto dessert recipes on the internet! Most use coconut flour or almond flour and some keto-approved sweetener. My all time favorite sweetener is by Lakanto. I use both their classic and golden which are like white sugar and brown sugar respectively. You might also be interested in “Fat Bombs” which are usually small sweet treats with the purpose of keeping you satiated until your next meal.

If you are busy person, meal prepping for the week might be for you! Cook up a big batch breakfast casserole or keto lasagna and put them in containers for the week. Keep them in your refrigerator and a few in your freezer to ensure freshness.

8. Focus on what you can eat instead of what you cannot eat. This lifestyle has worked for me because even as a passionate foodie, it honestly feels like I have no restrictions when I think about all of the incredible foods I am able to eat. Anything I crave can probably be ketofied with the exception of fruits, but get creative! You might be surprised with what you can come up with that’ll satisfy that craving.

9. Throw out all processed foods that are full of sugar and carbs. Get em out of your house! If you live with others who will not be joining you on this way of life, perhaps have a designated area for these things– most preferably out of sight! Bye Felicia!

10. Community! I heard in a podcast by Max Lugavere that the reason why so many people find success with Weight Watchers is the community aspect. I really don’t know much about WW, but I imagine that they meet up once in a while, encourage and support one another– have conversations about what’s been difficult for them and celebrate each others’ successes. If you don’t have someone in your physical world that’ll join you or support you on your ketogenic journey, you might find community in online forums on Facebook or Instagram like I have! I think the keto community is one of the best– they know what it’s like to struggle, feel alone and unhealthy, and also know how amazing it is to reach those mini-goals so they will cry with you and rejoice with you and it is amazing. If you would like to connect on Instagram, you can find me at @jihaesketokitchen!

BONUS! If you fall off track, just get right back on. Don’t beat yourself up and don’t feel guilty. You made a choice and those choices have consequences, hopefully it was so delicious and totally worth it, but if it wasn’t, what’s done is done and wallowing in these negative feelings is counterproductive and may even send you spiraling out of control. “I already messed up, what’s the point?” is a feeling I’m all too familiar with that’s only ever slowed my progress. Weight loss over time looks like peaks and valleys, with a downward trend. Maybe that cheat meal made your weight peak a little.. that’s okay!

It can even be a very conscious decision to eat “non-keto” and that’s okay too, although I only recommend this after being strict for the first few weeks (see tip 5). I have planned “non-keto” meals that probably kick me out of ketosis because as a passionate foodie, I definitely knew I was not going to leave Paris without eating a croissant from a boulangerie pâtisserie. #foodfreedom #worthit

Jihae Kwon is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

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My First Post

For the first time in my life, I have a waist. I have knuckles instead of marshmallows. When I stretch out my fingers, I can actually see my knuckles, instead of dimples. I can also see a bone on the side of my wrist that I haven’t seen before… I think I like it. I have the slightest, teeniest tiniest shadow running down the middle of my stomach. I have energy. I feel motivated. I am joyful. I am alive! But… it wasn’t always like this.

I was 30 years old and I wasn’t where I wanted to be in my life – physically, mentally, emotionally. I felt worn down from all the dietary trends, health “tips”, and misleading information over the past 20 years. It didn’t seem like any progress was being made. Then, one night I was listening to Dr. Berg and he said “It’s get healthy to lose weight – not lose weight to get healthy.” My boyfriend responded “Yeah, that makes sense.” My boyfriend of 6 years, who is one of the most skeptical people I know – within reason (maybe… sometimes) just gave his endorsement to someone talking about health, one of many topics he’s been very critical of because of the amount of misinformation that gets spread. He later added that he liked that Dr. Berg wasn’t trying to sell anything, that he was just sharing facts. My boyfriend’s vote of confidence encouraged me to continue listening to Dr. Berg. In March 2018, I began to incorporate Dr. Berg’s teachings into our diet and we began to realize the benefits of following a ketogenic diet. I have never felt better!

I’m on a journey to being the healthiest, happiest person I can be. I don’t want to sell you anything. It’s been a long, winding road with lots of misdirection up to this point and I thought it might be nice to help make it shorter for others by sharing what’s worked for me and what hasn’t. Don’t get me wrong – I haven’t figured it all out. There’s going to be trial and error, but I think I’m heading in the right direction. I’ve learned LOTS from Dr. Berg, and highly encourage you to hear what he has to say; spoiler alert: it’s really valuable information… for free.

One crucial aspect of my journey is going to be what I put in my body. I chronicle this on my IG @jihaekwon_. I love cooking and eating delicious food, and want to share my joy with you.