To be a strong leader, you have to be in good health. To be in good health, you need to eat well and exercise.
In this post, I’m going to teach you how to eat! (Or rather, how I eat and how to get started on a Keto or Low Carb diet).
I was recently asked by a relative via facebook if I’m sponsored by Keto because I’m so passionate about it! The answer is NO I’m not a paid spokesman for Keto/Low Carb living, I’m just very driven about it because of how much it improved my life.
There is no “RIGHT WAY” to eat, there’s only the “RIGHT WAY” for you. This is how I eat Low Carb/Keto. This is to help you get started or stay motivated. It’s not YOUR blueprint, but it can be your outline so you can JUST START ALREADY 🙂
I PERSONALLY think that humans largely aren’t supposed to eat wheat, corn, potatoes etc.
Why?
Because we have only been eating them since we figured out how to grow them 10,000 years ago. We can’t evolve to shift the diet from “caveman” to 90% carbs in only 10,000 years.
This is in the form of an email to a relative that reached out, but you can act like it’s written to just you!!
Please, questions are not just welcomed, but ENCOURAGED! Enjoy.
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What’s up Bryan!!
Sorry this took longer than expected. I was in SLC helping plan my sisters wedding and then this email ended up way longer than anticipated! Lol.
I guess I have more to say on this subject than I thought.
Ask all the questions! Don’t be shy.
1st Things 1st
Low carb is not a diet. It’s a lifestyle.
You will be eating different than 99% of the ppl you know.
Half of those people will tell you that they could never do what you do, and the other half want to but don’t have the motivation to start. Enjoy living differently than everyone else 😎
My View of Keto
I tell people I’m on Keto because it’s quicker than explaining the hybrid custom way that I eat.
Keto, to me, is a hardcore diet for losing a massive amount of weight.
If you wanna drop 20+ lbs get on Keto and love every second of eating better than anyone you know.
Once you get to your goal weight, don’t fall off the wagon!! But you should adjust appropriately so you can keep your progress and lifestyle going.
I eat this way because it makes me feel amazing vs lethargic and tired.
It could be from less gluten.
It could be because humans haven’t evolved to eat wheat (that’s my personal opinion)
It could be that carbs are sent by the devil to kill us all.
Who knows.
I’m not trying to lose weight, I’m out here trying to WIN and no bread and potatoes puts me in the best possible form, both mind and body, to do that.
Main Advice
Ok so larges pieces of advice…
1. JUST START. Don’t research, don’t stress, don’t count macros, don’t read blogs, or DL apps…just GO and then along the way you can adjust.
2. If you’re at a party or an airport and there’s no safe food in sight no matter how far you look, don’t eat. You won’t die, you’ll just be mildly uncomfortable for a while. In fact…
3. Do intermittent fasts regularly. Google intermittent fast to see what it is and do it the way you like. Tim Ferriss plans his and documents the times etc. I don’t. I skip a meal and cut the grass hungry. Bottom line, fasting is really really good for you.
4. Eggs are your friends. Eat them like a maniac and buy them at Costco. Lol
5. Once your body burns through all the carbs left in it (hopefully no keto flu lol) you’ll start to lose your love affair with food and you’ll stop caring what you eat to a really large degree. I eat canned chicken like crazy and it’s dry and not good at all, but I don’t really care. I just need protein. Haha.
6. Eat a TON of vegetables. Figure out what you like and Eat them like crazy.
Snacks
This was a huge thing for me to figure out quick.
-Almonds are the best, I eat a lot of Cashews which are not AS good but like I said on FB I’m not strict because I’m already scrawny 😂.
-Cheese. Love me some tillamook cheddar
-Lunch meat (watch the sodium!) I go salami as much as I can because it’s delish
-Atkins makes low carb bars that are OK in a rush
–QUEST BARS AND QUEST COOKIES FOR LIFE
Meals
Breakfast is the most important for me because I eat a massive protien meal and it gets my day rolling!
4 eggs
4 bacon slices or sausage patties
Misc veggies that I have in the fridge
Coffee (sometimes bulletproof)
Some Keto folks will do the opposite of me and do just a bulletproof coffee
Coffee in the morning.
- Bullet Proof Coffee – 10-12oz coffee with TBSP of coconut oil and tablespoon of butter mixed in a blender. It’s freaking delicious. And since your body will be starting to run on fat instead of carbs/sugar the oil and butter is all you need.
Lunch is tough because everything outside your house is carbs. Everything. It’s insane. I eat a shit load of salads with full fat dressing and hamburgers with no bun, and fajitas with no tortillas. That’s about all that is safe!
Dinner is easy b/c Keto and low carb recipes are easy to find on Pinterest! If you don’t use Pinterest, start. Not only for recipes but it’s actually badass and not just for chics 😂
Heres a few good recipes:
Get good at cooking cauliflower 32 different ways. Lol. It’s the Swiss Army knife of low carb. Pizza, rice, mashed potatoes, and then I actually make them into cauliflower grits for breakfast.
Fat head pizza dough is mega legit. Google it it’s easy to find.
Michelle has made keto bagels that were good. Keto donuts that were pretty good and then I’ve made keto bread a couple times that was OK.
Some of the Keto-Fakes are great and many are lame. Just have fun cooking it and see what happens.
That’s kind of what Michelle and I do with our FB lives. The Keto chicken and waffles were pretty good!
Recipe:
Cheats
I suggest having one cheat day where you can drink a keg and eat a loaf of bread covered in sugar and 10 snickers bars if the urge moves you.
If you want to pair back your cheat day after a while do it, but it’s important to have that day to splurge so you will stay disciplined the other days. Make sure to go nuts and eat donuts and ice cream for breakfast in the beginning!
After a while I went way more conservative on my cheat day because I felt like shit the whole day, almost hung over.
Now I don’t have a cheat day, but will have a cheat meal or 2 on the weekend.
You just have to figure out what works for you though because once your body has that sugar and bread it goes nuts and thinks you need it more and more more and when you start to feel shitty from eating bad, your brain makes you eat worse. It’s a slippery slope!
Keto Cheats
These are my favorite versions of cheats that are actually Keto friendly.
-I eat Keto Waffles with peanut butter and sugar free Syrup for breakfast Sun-Thursday. I make a big batch for breakfast Sunday and then warm them up Mon-Thurs in the microwave. Sometimes I even have them for dinner!
I also have a Keto cookie recipe that’s really good that I have dialed in. They come out really crumbly and will firm up when they cool so be careful moving them off the baking sheet!
Michelle used to make “Fat Bombs” that we’re cream cheese based little balls that had peanut butter in them. she really loved those. They were too cream cheesy for me though.
Find Some Inspiration for Discipline
Discipline is a fickle bitch. As is motivation and inspiration.
If you wanna do it right, you’ve got to have them all so when discipline runs low, you can lean on your motivation.
Or when motivation is GONE, and there’s a churro stand 10 ft away, you can dig in and have the discipline to stay clean.
-My discipline reminder comes from Jocko Willink. “Stay on the path”
-My inspiration comes from messages in my DM on Instagram and FB messenger of other people asking me questions (like you did 😇)
-My motivation is to crush today. I can’t do that when I feel like I need a nap from eating French fries.
In Closing
The reason I said not to track shit on the beginning is because THAT is the best excuse to not start.
Ignorance is the best excuse of all time.
Once you’re rolling and have thrown away all the shitty food in your house and are on a roll and committed to this, then you can research, and track macros, and get into Ketosis etc.
Good luck, and ask all the questions you can think of! If I don’t know, I have great resources etc where I will get every answer I promise.
Thanks!
NG
Please watch that movie 🙂