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u/breederofdragons ยท 2 pointsr/TeamSandcastle

First off, I am by no means an expert in keto, and almost everything I have learned has been from /r/keto, and trial and error. This may also be a novel, as I am very long winded...

FOOD

With food, I found that most processed foods were off limits. This was hard at first because that's just about all I ate. Keto forced me to prepare every meal, every day, from scratch. I have no problem with that, as I LOVE cooking, and as a SAHM, I have the time for it. Some people find this very hard to do, and it makes keto very stressful for them. I'm sure there is a way to do it without being a good cook and having oodles of time, but you'd have to refer to someone else for advice there.

As for what foods worked for me, we ate a lot of ground beef, sausage, and pork. Anything that is usually on a bun/tortilla/rice, I just made into salad. Hamburger salad with (reduced sugar) ketchup and mayo for dressing, taco salad with no shells, fajita salad, stir-fry salad, etc.

My side dishes were usually spinach, cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, or broccoli. There are a ton of ways to prepare them all, so it didn't get as boring as it sounds.

For snacks, I like them easy, so I'd have things like string cheese with pepperonis, handful of almonds, lunchmeat rolled with sliced cheese, tuna/chicken/egg salad with pork rinds, or leftovers. If I could just pull it out of the fridge, it was fair game.

I found millions of recipes and ideas just by googling whatever I wanted with the word "keto". For example, google "keto lasagna" and you will find a bunch of recipes where people have already figured out how to reduce the carbs. When you have learned some tricks from others, it becomes easy to start to see what you can do with your own favorite meals.

My biggest piece of advice for food is: do NOT drive yourself crazy trying to "keto-fy" everything. For example, keto fried chicken is easy, just 'bread' the chicken with crushed pork rinds, and cook like usual. Bam. Done. Then there are recipes for bread that call for physllium husk and xanthum gum. They are do-able, but will just make you crazy and leave you craving the real thing. Keep it simple, especially at first.

ELECTROLYTES

For electrolytes, I believe the recommendations are 5000mg of sodium, 1000mg of potassium, and 300mg of magnesium. For sodium, I just salt my food to taste, though I really like salt, so it was easy for me. My husband found that he can't salt his food that much.

For potassium, I bought Morton's Lite Salt at my grocery store. I used it for salting most of my food, and use it to make my own 'sports drink'. (I've found that most sports drinks contain high carbs, and the ones that don't contain so little electrolytes, you'd have to drink a ton of them.) 1/4 tablespoon in a bottle of water with a liquid 'drink enhancer' like Mio, though I use a store brand, and you have 350mg potassium and a little sodium knocked out. I usually did this 2 times a day.

For magnesium, I take a 500mg supplement with my multivitamin everyday. It's the only electrolyte that I needed to take a supplement to reach. You should be getting a lot of these from your foods, but sometimes it just doesn't work that way.

LOGGING

Log everything you put in your mouth. Every gram of every bite, even your supplements, and you will know what you need and where you are. Some people can do 'lazy' keto and have success, but I found that I needed to see my numbers everyday. MyFitnessPal is amazing for this, and after using it a while, it becomes even easier. You can add recipes to it as you cook, and get an accurate macro count. You can log your new 'sports drinks' and know if you are lacking in something. My husband and I were religious about logging, and I think that is why we had so much success. It is a lot of work, but it leaves you with answers to questions of "have I had enough ___ yet?"

BEING STRICT WITH CARBS

I had a limit of 20g carbs and tried to NEVER go over that. Some days I saw 21g or 25g. Very rarely, I would have a 30g day. My reasoning for a super hard cap of 20g was 'hidden carbs'. Like I replied before, some things will be labeled as 0g carbs, because if it is less than 0.5g, they legally can. Two servings leads to one 'hidden carb.' Sometimes, MFP counts are off a little, especially veggies, and you don't want to ruin your day. I've read that people can stay in ketosis under 50g carbs, but I didn't want to near that. Capping at 20 guaranteed I stayed in ketosis, and theoretically gave me a 30g cushion, should I have missed something. I do not think I ever came out of ketosis, so it seemed to work well for me.

CHEAT DAYS

My husband and I are proud to say that in 100 days, neither of use had cheat days. We did, however, have days where we said "fuck it" to MFP and just relied on our knowledge of our food to keep on track, but this didn't happen until after a couple of months. I am not against cheat days, but they can knock you out of ketosis, make you retain water, and, in my experience, going from few carbs to a lot of carbs and back makes my body feel like crap. I say that if you need to 'cheat' make it one meal, and still try to keep the carbs as low as possible. Need french fries once a month to live? Have a bunless burger and your fries. It's roughly 70g carbs for a large McD's fries, so you've gone way over, but if it is for your sanity, once in a long while won't completely derail you, just make a couple days a little wonky.

HAVING A PARTNER

This run was my third go at keto. The first two I didn't last over a month. Part of that was my lack of knowledge, and part was doing it alone. I live with my husband, 4 year old, and mother in law. The first two times I did keto, I did it alone. The first time, I found that I was cooking almost 4 different meals for every meal of the day: me on keto, something for my picky kid, gluten free for my MIL, and something 'regular' for my husband. That's 12 different meals a day. I love cooking, but not that much.

The second go around my kid was a little less picky, my MIL dropped the gluten free diet, and my husband is extremely easy to please with food. I learned how to make one meal that worked for everyone, by making different sides for myself and the others, or adding what I needed, like excess fats, after the fact.

What I found most beneficial from ketoing with my husband is that I have someone to commiserate with. Online support definitely helps, but having my husband to complain to was much more helpful, as well as instantaneous. I would tell him I want mashed potatoes, he would say that he does too. We would laugh a little, cry a little, and resign ourselves to our mashed cauliflower. Also, his successes made me just as happy as my own.

Well, I hope some of this helps! Sorry that it is a wall of text, but like I said, long winded. I like sharing my experience, because I really endorse keto as a great tool. I am currently coming off of keto, but have decided to keep my cap to 50g carbs because I have never felt better than I do when limiting them. This may keep me in ketosis, but that is no longer my main concern. I know that I have keto in my arsenal now, and I will return to it if I ever need to. Good luck, and feel free to ask any other questions you have, and I will be happy to try to help!