“I’ll have the bacon with a side of drawn butter please.”

“But isn’t it unhealthy? You are going to die of a heart attack. What about kidney damage? You can’t eat out. People will think you are weird. You need carbohydrates to survive. You are going to break out. You will eat too much meat.”

Let me set the record straight.  Keto does not mean I am eating bacon, sticks of butter and drinking olive oil with my heavy cream filled coffee every day, or any day for that matter.  If you must know, I eat more vegetables on keto than when I was eating according to the USDA’s food pyramid.   Is it a coincidence that the acronym for the standard american diet is SAD?  I think not since I don’t believe in coincidences.  I am not really sure where all these misconceptions about keto started but let me tell you how I keto and you can decide how healthy it might be for you. Oh, and about the above statement regarding coincidences, I do believe in them, but I just wanted to write it that way because it sounded better.

From most keto advice I have found, they state that you should be eating anywhere from 65-85% of your calories from fat, 15-25% of calories from protein and 5-15% from carbohydrates.  If you are checking my math, please note I consistently cried in middle school while doing math homework, and these are just approximate percentages.

Where people get confused is that it is not 65-85% of fat by volume, it is the calories derived from these macros.  The calories in a gram of fat is approximately 9 where both protein and carbohydrates have about 4.  So if you think about it using a calculator, divide by 9, carry the one, add my tears about math, you learn that you will need to eat less fat by volume than protein or carbohydrates on keto.  Yes I do use butter, cream and olive oil regularly, but it isn’t as if I am sipping drawn butter out of a tea cup while nibbling on bacon for breakfast.

The other misconception that people have about keto is that you are eating large amounts of meat or other proteins, which is just plain silly.  I think the misunderstanding comes from the whole caveman/paleo eating movement, and for some reason people got it in their heads that we all needed to walk around eating our torso’s weight in meat every day, which I might add, is not really what the paleo diet is either.  We should be eating “moderate” amounts of protein, or approximately 15-25% of our daily calories on keto.  Any more than that and your body can turn that protein into carbohydrates through the process of Gluconeogenisis, and any less and you could start converting your own muscle into the carbs your body still requires in parts of your brain and muscles.

Here is a sample list of what I am eating on a daily basis.  Obviously this is not an all inclusive list of everything I have ever eaten on keto, but just enough to give you some ideas and to show you keto can actually be pretty healthy if done right.

Breakfast

• Bulletproof coffee or a cappuccino with half-and-half.  When you are starting out on keto, half-and-half can be risky because it contains a lot of carbohydrates, but once you are fat adapted, a few months in, you can often handle a few more carbohydrates.
• Omelette with veggies and cheese.
• Scrambled eggs on a bed of lettuce with avocado and ham or bacon.
• ProGranola with Macadamia or Almond milk (read my first post).
• Keto Maple, Bacon Pancake Muffins (read my first post!)

Lunch

• Cobb Salad, but hold the dressing if you are getting it from a restaurant.  Salad dressings are risky to get at restaurants as they will often have thickeners like wheat and more often than not, contain sugar.  Bring your own, verified extra virgin olive oil or other homemade dressing. (Seriously? You still haven’t read my first post?)
• Taco salad with ground beef, avocados, tomatoes, onions and homemade cheese sauce dressing.
• Another miscellaneous salad….I eat a lot of salads.

Dinner

• Cauliflower crust pizza with turkey pepperoni, olives, red onions and of course cheese.
• Pan fried riced cauliflower with Applegate Organics Spinach and Feta Sausage.
• Spaghetti’d zucchini squash with, roast chicken and homemade Alfredo sauce.

Snacks

• Macadmia Nuts
• Dried meats without added sugar
• Cheese cubes or string cheese
• Dried pumpkin seeds
• Celery with dressed up cream cheese or store bought Boursin

As you can see, there are no bullet points above that list deep fried, macadamia nut crusted butter sticks or bacon wrapped mozzarella with hollandaise sauce.  These items however will be available at your next county fair, as they will deep fry or bacon wrap anything.  I try and ensure that if I am eating cream or cheeses in one meal, my next meal will be light or absent those fat choices and include more olive oil or avocado for example. Variation is key.

The other strange thing that I have read as a reason not to start the keto diet is that it is hard to follow for most people.  Seriously? That is what they come up with as a reason not to try keto?!?  Having kids, working out and holding down a job is also difficult at times.  I still see parents with babies roaming the streets like unwashed, half asleep zombies.  There are also 24 hour fitness locations every 2 square miles in Los Angeles, and people get jobs so they can eat and put a roof over their heads.  There is a payoff to keto just like with those other “difficult” things that we do regularly and don’t think too much about.  Dissuading people from trying keto just because they think people can’t follow through with the diet is the most patronizing, ridiculous and dare I say desperate reason to poo-poo something that they often have never tried themselves.

Keto, like any healthy lifestyle change, is a bit tough in the beginning, but once you find what works for you, it becomes easier every day.  I also no longer play the mid-morning hunger games or get the afternoon “food coma” anymore. Am I going to continue with the keto diet forever? Probably not, but I think it has definitely changed my view of how to stay healthy by “eating to live” rather than “living to eat.”