3 Things I Discovered a Week into my Keto Journey as a Lacto Ovo Vegetarian
A hectic work schedule that involved frequent travel and a baby at home never left me enough time for workouts. So when losing baby weight became long overdue, and newcomers at work mistook me for being pregnant, I knew I had to do something — fast. So I resorted to dieting. I have tried many kinds of diet over the years with varying degree of success but the one diet that I didn’t try until recently is a Keto diet. It’s because I had always knew it takes a lot for commitment and time for Keto; what with reading all about macros, various meal planning, and the horrid Keto flu! I finally took the plunge into Keto once I began my life as a SAHM recently.
It’s been almost 10 days and I am discovering something new about Keto almost every day. Here are the top 3.
I thought Keto Diet would be difficult for vegetarians
Before I made up my mind and starting researching on Keto seriously, I was of the notion that Ketogenic diet can only be successfully done by people who are non-vegetarians. Despite seeing the amazing results of Keto on people around me, I would always discount this diet as something that THEY could do and not me (them being meat eaters).
It is only after researching on doing Keto diet the clean way have I realised that veggies and not meat is the major component in a Keto diet (at least in a clean Keto diet). As an eggi-tarian or lacto ovo vegetarian; greens, salads and low starch vegetables have always been an important component of my diet. So essentially Keto means having lots of veggies on my plate, with a side of fat and protein such as eggs, cheese and cottage cheese.
I believed Keto diet (just like any other diet) would increase my cravings
It was a surprising discovery and one that I didn’t read about in my initial research- being on Keto made me less hungry and kept me fuller for long unlike diets I have followed in the past. Those uncontrollable hunger pangs that I felt while on intermittent fasting or various calorie- restrictive diet plans were a thing of the past. Now I can thrive on 2 meals a day and two refreshments (read a coffee made with heavy cream and a Keto cookie).
I assumed Keto to be a high protein diet based on whatever little I had read in passing
Until I did a detailed research on Keto, I assumed that it was a high-protein diet like Atkins. Now I know that the best way to achieve ketosis is to have a diet that has extremely low carbohydrates, moderate proteins and high fats. It became daunting to ensure that I eat enough fat content in a day- from bullet coffees to drizzling an extra helping of Olive oil on my salads.
It’s been 10 days for me on Keto and the weighing scale hasn’t moved much (beyond a kilogram or so) but I know I am doing it the right way as I check my Ketone levels every day using urine strips, to ensure that I remain in Ketosis (which I am). And more importantly, I am loving this new lifestyle and am in no way to change it back. So whether I lose weight rapidly or slow, I am going to continue being on Keto for a long time to come.
