Ketogenic Diet

The Keto Reset Diet

Earlier my husband and I were talking about New Years Resolutions and how they relate to making powerful decisions about healthy eating. These diet resolutions get a really bad rap simply because most people don’t stick with them. I think one of the THREE reasons is they’re looking for a quick fix rather than a lasting plan.

Big difference.

The second reason, in my opinion, people don’t stick with a lasting plan is they don’t choose one that allows for delicious food. Let’s face it, many of us are bona fide foodies (I’m raising my hand, here, and it has a fork in it) and we simply will NOT go down a road that doesn’t include good food. Period.

Third reason? This one may not seem as obvious, but I believe it’s because we don’t have a why. The how can be easy enough…. Cut out chips (How? don’t buy them.) Cut out sugar (How? Stop eating living your life like your Cookie Monster’s cousin.) Cut out diet soft drinks. (How? Put down the Diet Dr. Pepper and walk away.)

We know the hows. We’ve memorized the hows! What we need to know is WHY.

WHY should we turn our kitchen upside down?
WHY should we make a change that will not only effect us but most of the people in our family?
WHY should we change our eating out habits and, ultimately, leave places we’ve eaten at for over half our life by the wayside?
WHY should we go totally against the grain… against the familiar… against what feels comfortable?

The Ketogenic (Keto) Diet

You have, undoubtedly, heard of the Keto Diet. I recently published an article on Get Cooking titled, “What is the Ketogenic Diet and How Do You Get Started On It?” After reading this book review, you might want to check out this particular article for more information.

One of the most-trusted sources, online and off, for all things “Keto” is Mark Sisson. His blog (Mark’s Daily Apple) is as popular as it is informative. Fortunately he has written a wonderful book, The Keto Reset Diet: Reboot Your Metabolism in 21 Days and Burn Fat Forever, meaning you can have access to the information and recipes at any given time. More importantly… you’ll have access to what you need most of all – they WHY.

Mark Sisson—author of the mega-bestseller The Primal Blueprint—unveils his groundbreaking ketogenic diet plan that resets your metabolism in 21 days so you can burn fat forever.

Mounting scientific research is confirming that eating a ketogenic diet could represent one of the greatest nutritional breakthroughs of our time—and that it might be the healthiest and most effective weight loss strategy ever. Going “keto” by eating high fat, low-to-moderate protein and low-carb foods enables you to break free from the disastrous effects of carbohydrate dependency by resetting your metabolism and promoting metabolic flexibility—where your body learns to burns fat instead of sugar for energy, even when you go off plan.

Unlike many other ketogenic programs that require challenging restrictions and deprivation or offer misinformation, Mark Sisson, bestselling author of The Primal Blueprint and publisher of the #1 paleo blog MarksDailyApple.com, presents a unique two-step, scientifically validated approach for going keto the right way. He first reveals the real secret to rapid and sustained weight loss, which is in becoming “fat-adapted” before entering full nutritional ketosis. This process allows your body to learn to burn fat more efficiently, resulting in increased and sustained weight loss over the long-term. It takes as little as 21-days to reprogram your metabolism to burn fat for fuel, by ditching processed grains, sugars, and refined vegetable oils in favor of nutrient-dense, high fat, primal/paleo foods–and you’ll see immediate results. Next, you’ll fine-tune with Intermittent Fasting and then foray into full ketogenic eating for a further weight loss boost and improved health.

With The Keto Reset Diet, you can eat to total satisfaction by enjoying rich, high-satiety foods, and even weather occasional slip-ups. You’ll use keto as a lifelong tool to stay trim, healthy, energetic, and free from the disastrous health conditions caused by the typical American diet. With step-by-step guidance, daily meal plans and a recipe section with over 100 delicious keto-friendly recipes, this is the definitive guide to help the keto-beginner or the experienced health enthusiast understand the what, why, and how to succeed with ketogenic eating. Read More….

As we were looking at above, in order to make a healthy change to our eating, we need…

A lasting plan rather than a quick fix.
Food and meals our taste buds will approve of as much as our brain does.
The all-important WHY.

In The Keto Reset Diet, Mark Sisson doesn’t just address each of these bullet points, he courts them and proposes – and you’re the one with the happily ever after!

Key Chapters and Sections of the Book

Chapter 1 “The Keto Diet 101 – What, WHY, and How”

Chapter 3 “The Health, Performance, and Disease Protection Benefits of Keto”

Chapter 5 “Ditch Toxic Foods and Replace with Nutrient-Dense Foods”

Chapter 7 “Live a Keto-Friendly Lifestyle”

Going Keto: Strategies and Recipes

Recipes Include…

Pizza Bites
Sweet Pepper Nacho Bites
Marinated Eggs
Turmeric Balls
Vanilla Protein Fudge
Parmesan Crisps
Lime Bars
Creamed Spinach
Next Level Baked Avocados
Caesar Salad with Anchovies and Pancetta
And many more delicious and healthy recipes.

If you are looking to improve your health (whether you want to lose weight or not), the Keto Diet is a fascinating road to take. The popularity of the diet, itself, lets us know that MANY people are having great success with it.

In full disclosure, I do not adhere strictly to the Keto Diet or any diet, for that matter. Rather, I incorporate the following diets together:

Mediterranean Diet
Paleo Diet
Ketogenic Diet
Bulletproof Diet

By researching and exploring each of these four diets, I’ve found a healthier way of eating and living and, quite frankly, I feel better than I ever have. I buy each book that addresses these diets and am constantly learning and arming myself with information.

I couldn’t recommend strongly enough that you do the same. We’re only as healthy as we eat – I hope that 2018 will be the year you don’t just read or believe these words but will fully live them out.

The Keto Reset Diet is an excellent addition to your own healthy-eating arsenal.

The Keto Reset Diet

Note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. The opinions are entirely my own.

This is a guest post by Louise Hendon, co-host of The Keto Summit and author of The Essential Keto Cookbook

The Ketogenic diet has been making waves lately.

In fact, you’ve probably seen the name being mentioned by various health-and-wellness bloggers on the internet. But what is it, exactly? And how is it different from all the other diets out there?

We’ll run through what the ketogenic diet is, what foods you can eat on the keto diet, how the diet benefits your health and some beginner’s tips for getting started.

What Is the Ketogenic Diet?

It’s a diet that changes your body’s metabolic state – instead of mainly burning glucose, you’ll be mainly burning fat instead.

That’s because the ketogenic diet limits your carbohydrate intake which means there’s simply less glucose available for your cells to use as fuel. And as a result, your body is forced to start burning up your stored fat.

This metabolic state is called nutritional ketosis and it has all sorts of health benefits (more on those later).

Keto Diet foods: What can you eat?

You’ll be eating a moderate amount of protein, lots of fats, and very few carbohydrates.

Healthy foods to eat include:

Non-starchy vegetables (so leafy greens like spinach and kale)
Meats, organ meats, fish and shellfish
Nuts and seeds (in moderate amounts)
Healthy fats like ghee, coconut oil and olive oil
Herbs and spices, like cinnamon or paprika: Joi has a great article on their health benefits

And the foods to avoid are:

Starchy vegetables like potatoes and squashes
All legumes, aka lentils, beans, and soy
All grains, such as wheat, oats and rice
Vegetable and seed oils
Processed foods, meaning chips, crackers, cookies etc.

If you’d like a more extensive list of what foods you should be eating and avoiding, feel free to check out our list of Keto diet friendly foods.

How does Keto benefit your health?

There are many health benefits to the keto diet, and we’ve rounded up just a few below:

It stabilizes your energy levels by balancing out your blood sugar levels. When you’re not consuming carbs, your energy no longer spikes and dips – you feel more alert and don’t have to deal with brain fog or the dreaded “mid-afternoon slump.”
It can help you beat your sugar addiction because you’ll be going cold turkey on all the sweet treats you’re addicted to. Plus, another benefit of having stabilized your blood sugar levels is you avoid the blood sugar crashes that trigger cravings in the first place.
It decreases your hunger levels naturally and researchers have shown that a low-carb diet leads to lowered food intake because it influences the hormones which control hunger. This then helps with weight loss and combating overeating.
It’s great for weight loss, and just by scanning through some of the many success stories on the web you’ll be able to see how effective the keto diet is for losing weight!
It could be used as a therapeutic treatment for a wide range of diseases. It’s already being used to treat epilepsy, and research is being done to see if it can help reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, PCOS, and cancer.

How does Keto benefit your health?

There are many health benefits to the keto diet, and we’ve rounded up just a few below:

It stabilizes your energy levels by balancing out your blood sugar levels. When you’re not consuming carbs, your energy no longer spikes and dips – you feel more alert and don’t have to deal with brain fog or the dreaded “mid-afternoon slump.”
It can help you beat your sugar addiction because you’ll be going cold turkey on all the sweet treats you’re addicted to. Plus, another benefit of having stabilised your blood sugar levels is you avoid the blood sugar crashes that trigger cravings in the first place.
It decreases your hunger levels naturally and researchers have shown that a low-carb diet leads to lowered food intake because it influences the hormones which control hunger. This then helps with weight loss and combating overeating.
It’s great for weight loss, and just by scanning through some of the many success stories on the web you’ll be able to see how effective the keto diet is for losing weight!
It could be used as a therapeutic treatment for a wide range of diseases. It’s already being used to treat epilepsy, and research is being done to see if it can help reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, PCOS, and cancer.

Tips for getting started on Keto

It’s tough getting started on any diet – here’s our advice for keto:

In the beginning, just focus on reducing your carbohydrate intake. Make sure you focus on eating less than 25g of carbohydrates per day and then, once you’ve adjusted to that, take a look at your protein/fat intake. Especially if you’re used to consuming a Standard American Diet, reducing carb intake will a big enough change in the beginning.
Choose one meal in each day to skip because it will make starting a keto diet much easier if you only have to think about/plan for two meals each day instead of three. Some folks like to skip breakfast and some folks like to skip dinner, so experiment a little to see what works for you. If you have circadian rhythm issues, then skip dinner (or lunch) instead of breakfast.
Find a buddy (friend/husband/wife) as it’ll help you stick to the diet if you’ve got someone else to keep you accountable. And if you can’t find a buddy, then at least share your goals with your friends/family or on social media – it’s been proven to increase your chances of success.
Choose the right week to start by making sure you pick a week when you’re not overloaded with work and don’t have too many social plans. It can be a little tough adjusting to keto in the beginning, so you’ll be much more likely to succeed if you pick a good week to start. Don’t wait forever though!
Plan your meals and re-stock your kitchen to make sure you’re prepped ahead of time…and aren’t stuck in the supermarket wondering what you can/can’t buy and what you should make for dinner. A little bit of planning will go a long way towards making your keto diet journey a stress-free one.

Would you like some simple keto recipes to get you started? Check out my cookbooks here.