How Small Changes Can Make a Big Impact on Week 2
Tuesday marks the first day of week 2.
How are you doing? Are you experiencing any improvements in sleep, body measurements or digestion?
If the answer is no, it is time to consider making small changes to make a big impact on your results for week 2.
Don’t let time slip by without taking a look at exactly what you are eating. Use food tracking apps like Lose It or Cronometer to record what you are eating. These apps can help you see where you can make tweaks that will impact your success.
Tweaks that can make a big difference next week are changing the amount of fat you include, decreasing your carbohydrate intake, and assuring that you have a meal plan.
Fat
I personally do not feel my best eating huge amounts of fat. Naturally occurring fat in the foods I eat is plenty for me. I don’t do keto coffee, fat bombs, or indulge in keto treats often. I limit nuts and cheese as well.
We want our body to use its stored fat for fuel and not just the fat that we are consuming. In the beginning, you might need to include more fat to feel full and satisfied.
Fat helps in the transition from being a sugar burner to becoming a fat burner. If you find that you need to up your fat intake, concentrate on adding higher fat proteins, avocados, or small portions of nuts like macadamias.
One of the main benefits of this way of eating is that you aren’t hungry all the time and you don’t want to miss out on that!
Not Low Fat
Now I am not advocating low fat either. Fat is satiating and provides fuel for your body. Don’t fear fat but that doesn’t mean it should be your best friend either.
There are people out there who do best on straight up keto consuming 75% fat or more. I am not one of them and that’s okay. Part of this journey is for you to figure out what works for you.
When planning meals, I alternate meals that contain high amounts of fat with those that have lower amounts. I treat dairy the same way.
Eating any food group multiple times a day is something I avoid. It keeps my diet more varied and forces me to be more creative in what I eat. A win all the way around!
Take a look at how much extra fat you are adding to your meal.
I eat steak, duck, lamb, and other high fat meats but I will pair them with simply prepared vegetables. Pair a protein with a lower fat content with a higher fat side.
When cooking, you are usually using olive oil or butter which is already adding fat as well. I find I get plenty of fat in my daily diet without having to make too much effort.
Fat is a lever that you can adjust up or down as needed.
Carboyhydrate Intolerance
Consuming carbohydrate rich foods—yes, even the healthy ones like fruit and beans—at a level that is too high for your blood sugar to handle leads to your blood sugars not falling back to normal levels within two hours of eating as they should. You just might be carbohydrate intolerant.
When I use this term, I am referencing a phenomenon that relates more to blood sugar than an actual problem with carbohydrate digestion.
Some people’s metabolic systems are not able to handle even small amounts of carbohydrates.
If you are struggling metabolically, you need to be very conscious of the carbohydrates that you are consuming. This way of eating is predicated on the hormonal response you do or do not get when you eat certain foods.
Drastically simplified, when you eat carbohydrates your blood glucose increases. Insulin then must also increase to try and keep your blood glucose level in a normal range.
This happens every time you eat but is amplified when you eat large amounts of carbohydrates.
After years of abusing this system by overloading it with glucose surges, your body can’t handle even small amounts of carbohydrates without huge swings in blood glucose and insulin.
Fortunately, this takes years to happen. Unfortunately, many of us have inadvertently created this exact situation.
The more broken your system is, the more important it becomes to pull back on even healthy carbs. This gives your body a chance to heal and certainly gives you a chance to retrain your tastebuds and habits.
What took years to create cannot be undone overnight. This is a sad but true fact. Commit to improving your health and these sacrifices will be worth it.
Here again, the food tracking apps can make a world of difference. Carbohydrates are super sneaky. They are hidden in almost every item in the grocery store. Make sure you are reading food labels and sussing out items that contain added sugar or high fructose corn syrup.
If you are not experiencing the changes you want, be sure to double check your daily carbohydrate intake.
Meal Planning
Alright, I can hear you groaning. All of you who are veterans of this challenge have heard this over and over again.
You must plan even if that plan is for eating out because temptation is everywhere. In these early days, you need to be hyper vigilant in avoiding it as much as possible.
Planning my meals allows me to not only stay on track but it makes getting dinner on the table faster and easier. And that, after all, is the name of the game.
I have so many favorite recipes from our past challenges that I can plan this whole month using those. However, I love using this month to push myself to try new recipes. We are constantly amazed at the dishes that become part of our permanent rotation that we initially turned our nose up at!
Be sure and fall back on your favorite meals when you are stumped and check out some of the suggested substitutions for noodles in the forum here. These substitutions are low carb and have the added benefit of potentially bumping up your daily vegetable intake.
My Meal Plan
This week I used the Diet Doctor website to develop my menu. Hope that you find something that piques your interest!
Harvest Sausage and Pumpkin Soup with a green salad
Pork Scallopini (can sub chicken) with roasted asparagus
Tex Mex Casserole with Mexican Cauli Rice
Keto Hamburger Patties with Creamy Tomato Sauce and Fried Cabbage
Low Carb Gumbalaya with Shiritaki Rice
Italian Keto Meatballs with Mozzarella Cheese with Konjac Linguini
I love the food I eat which makes it easy to pass up what is not a healthy choice for me. My hope for you is that you can find enough foods on the allowed list to create a way of eating that is enjoyable and long lasting.
Cheers to your health!
DISCLAIMER: This website is for informational purposes. I am not a health practitioner and no information should be construed as personal medical advice or diagnosis.
Hi there, you’ve done a great work. I will definitely check it out and tell my friends about it because I know they will find it useful.
Thanks!