The Keto diet and other low carb diets have emerged as popular choices for people looking to lose weight. With any low-carb diet, your goal is to lower carbohydrate intake, eating less bread, pasta, grains, and other carbs. Often, you replace carb-heavy foods with high-fat, high-protein foods, such as meat. Deprived of carbs, you’ll naturally eat less and your body will begin to burn fat, thus leading to weight loss.
But sticking to any diet plan can be difficult and low-carb diets are no different. For Martina Slajerova, founder of the Keto Diet App, staying true to her Keto diet became a must. Slajerova was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune response that damaged her thyroid gland. As a result, she struggled to maintain a healthy weight and constantly felt tired.
After switching to a Keto diet, however, Slajerova found her energy levels restored and was able to shed weight as well. Still, even in spite of all the benefits, she found it hard to adhere to the diet. After some research, however, she uncovered simple ways and tricks that made keto eating easier.
-
Don’t Cut: Sub Instead
One mistake people new to the Keto diet make is trying to simply cut out carb-free foods and ingredients. Problem is, you’ll likely start to crave the cut foods very quickly. Let’s say a turkey and cheese sandwich is a favorite lunch item. You might try to simply cut out the bread, eating turkey and cheese but that may not satisfy your cravings.
Why not make a turkey and cheese omelet instead? Eggs are carb-free and an omelet may do a better job filling you up and satisfying your cravings. Or, you could use portobello mushrooms to create a bun. There are many low-carb bread brands as well.
-
Stock Your Fridge — With Carb Free or Light Foods
Another common mistake is to stick to only a few carb-free foods. Why not just eat hot dogs for every meal? But even if you love hot dogs, you’ll eventually get sick of them. It’s easier to stick to a low carb diet if you have a more diverse pantry.
There are tons of low-carb foods and they may not be what you think. Many Keto dieters skip vegetables and fruits, for example, believing that they’re packed with carbs. Yet spinach, cauliflower, many types of berries, avocados, tomatoes, and cucumbers, among many others, are all carb-light.
Really can’t do without some grains in your diet? Oatmeal and wild rice are both low in carbs, at least compared to brown rice, wheat, and most other grains. By finding low-carb substitutes, you’ll have an easier time adhering to a low-carb diet.
-
Plan Your Meals Ahead of Time
Even with a diverse pantry, you could still succumb to temptation. But if you plan all of your meals ahead of time, you may be able to resist last-minute urges and cravings. If you’re hungry and don’t know what to eat, a quick trip through the Drive-Thru starts to look a lot more tempting.
Yet if you already know what’s for dinner, you have an immediate goal in mind. Suddenly, dinner isn’t just a mushroom and steak stir-fry, it’s a milestone in your diet and one you can meet simply by sticking to the plan.
-
Don’t Do “Cheat” Days
You’ll have an easier time sticking to a low-carb diet once it becomes part of your daily routine. After a time, your diet may become something natural, something you don’t think about. Yet fully integrating Keto or another low-carb diet into your lifestyle will be all but impossible if you allow for cheat days.
-
Do Use Technology to Make Your Life Easier
Martina Slajerova discovered all of the above and more while trying to stick to the Keto diet. She succeeded and the diet is now simply a part of her lifestyle. Yet she didn’t stop there and instead decided to create the Keto Diet App to make it easier for others to stick to low-carb dieting.
In the store and want to know how many carbs are in a product or ingredient? You can simply scan the barcode. Need to sub out a carb-heavy ingredient? The Keto Diet app can make suggestions. You can also download diet plans or plan your own diet.
So yeah, when it comes to dieting, there is an app for that and plenty of other technologies as well. Make sure you use them.
