Starting and Keeping Keto on the Road

Less than a month before leaving PA to move to Oregon, Chris and I decided to change our diet to keto due to many things I have heard and read. If you're unfamiliar, keto (short for ketogenic) is a diet consisting of high fat, low carb, and moderate protein. It is most often used by people to decrease body fat percentage, improve mental clarity and focus, balance blood sugar, and live a generally healthy yet still convenient lifestyle. We had previously done sugar detoxes leaning toward the paleo side but I wanted to try out keto to see if we could benefit from the high fat lifestyle like so many others I have heard about.

Why we went keto.

I've been saying for at least a year that Chris should go keto for the brain clarity, energy boost, and ability to eat less often. However, I knew he would not go on the diet without me since I prep most of our meals and do the food shopping and am generally the diet dictator of the household. He finally agreed once I told him I think I'm going to try it out and reminded him of all the awesome stuff I've heard about it.

The reason I decided to go keto is because I have PCOS and heard that a keto diet has helped some women manage their hormones since it also balances your blood sugar and involves managing stress levels. I had been following the WomanCode protocol for 2.5 months when I decided to go keto (with carb ups). I will continue to document my progress on this blog.

How to keep keto on the road.

Many people would say our timing is not optimal with this diet change; but when is an "optimal" time for a diet change? My mom helped me realize that there will always be some occasion, holiday, celebration, or SOME REASON that you go out to eat or are exposed to less than optimal foods when you are trying to eat a certain way. Because of this, I happily realized in my early 20s that I need to take control of those situations and make them work for me instead of against me.

What's cool about keto is that you focus on fats, right? During my first week of keto, the major theme I realized is that A LOT of my healthy fats were coming out of jars or cans...coconut oil, olive oil, bacon fat, ghee, coconut milk...they can all be stored at room temperature for a decent amount of time. This actually made me more confident about keeping keto on the road because I knew we would have access to our camp stove and grocery stores along the way (maybe even farmer's markets or butchers if I'm lucky!). So, my plan is to leave home with a few jars and bottles of good fats, many cans of full fat coconut milk, and a canister of MCT oil powder. Then, from there we can do our best to find high quality foods to create the volume but we will already have the basis of our diet with us! I am pretty damn excited about this but we will see how it actually goes.

About my favorite fats.

When you read or watch YouTube videos about keto, you learn tons about all the different fats people add to meals to make up their energy source while in a ketogenic state. Here is a list of my favorite ones as I am beginning my keto journey. I have included the fat content for each as a point of reference. It's worth noting that I have been in and out of a "paleoish" eating style for 3 years when I started this.

1) Full fat coconut milk!! - 12g fat/ 1/4 cup or ~60mL - This stuff rocks! Chris makes fun of me for how much I love it sometimes. Every grocery store I know sells it, usually in the Mexican foods section and for $1.99/can. There's many different brands but I think Goya is my favorite. The coconut fat that sits on top is super delicious! Like decadent yogurt/whipped cream...and it's just coconut with some basic stabilizers, no sugar or anything taken out or added. I use this for adding to smoothies, fatty lattes, chia pudding, and hopefully more curry recipes in the future. It's also nice because it's more substantial and filling than just oils in my opinion.

2) Olive oil - 14g fat/1T or 14 mL - a classic healthy fat in everyone's home. My one issue with olive oil is that most people use it to cook ever since butter became the culprit of clogged arteries in America's eyes. However, when you use traditional olive oil or extra virgin olive oil to cook, it passes the smoke point and degrades which releases free radicals that become toxins in your body after you eat the food. This is not cool. You can get refined olive oil if you want to cook with it, but instead I just use it for raw foods or post-cooking operations, ie. salads, drizzled on steamed vegetables, mixed in pesto. Also, it's nice that this is accessible everywhere, just have to keep an eye out on quality.

3) Avocado Oil - 14 g fat/1T or 14mL - Similar to olive oil but a slightly different flavor profile and easier to find refined for a higher smoke point. Right now I have this oil in a aerosol form so I can use it for a bigger variety of applications.

4) Coconut Oil -14g fat/1T or 14mL - Another fat that is very important in my life. This one is used many ways each and every day in my household. It's a puppy moisturizer, post shave cream, toothpaste base, necessary smoothie ingredient, baking add-in, and general go to fat. I started buying it in the fifty-something ounce jars over a year ago and don't think I'll ever get rid of it. Coconut oil is awesome because it has a super high smoke point, keeps at room temperature, melts easily anywhere above 76F, and is over 50% MCTs! Read more about MCTs below. No matter what kind of diet you follow, get some coconut oil in your life :)

5) Ghee - ~5g fat/1t or 5g serving - Clarified buttery goodness! I am still in the process of trying different brands of ghee to find my favorite since it is on the pricey side. I do think it's worth it though because it cuts down on the dairy compared to butter and because of that it keeps at room temperature. Ghee is another high smoke point fat, great in sweet or savory applications, and comes in many different flavors from some companies like Fourth and Heart. I have their Vanilla bean right now which uses high qual Madagascar Vanilla to add a fun taste to your lattes and baked goods!

6) Grass Fed Butter - 11g fat/1T or 14g serving - Get the golden stuff and your body will thank you! This is a product I have tried a few brands of and I keep coming back to Kerrygold, it's definitely got the best flavor and moderate price. I love it for sauteing, baking, lattes, and more.

7) Macadamia Nuts - 23g fat/ 1/4 cup or 30g serving - The loveliest, fattiest, tiny, spherical fat bomb out there. Gotta love these little bites from the 50th state, Hawai'i! I am still looking for the best price on these, Trader Joe's is the lowest I've found so far but theirs are a bite more roasty tasting, I think I like the raw kind better. I'll have to check the big box stores next. These can be added to lots of different dishes but honestly, I just use them for snacking. Last night, I made a little mix of walnuts, cacao nibs, macadamias, and some cheese when I went to the movies and it kept me from getting snacks there...win!

8) MCT Oil Powder - 7g fat/10g scoop - back to the MCTs! Medium Chain Triglycerides. So these are medium carbon chains, as opposed to short or long, and because of their structure, MCTs can be digested and used for energy without being processed through the liver. Soo, that means more energy, more quickly, AND a break for your liver so it can keep grooving on with other processes like detoxing your body. Pretty dope if ya ask me. I've actually been hearing of MCT oil for years but I never bought it before going keto because it seemed unnecessary. However, when I started researching keto more, I quickly found the brand Perfect Keto and heard from others how awesome their MCT oil is for traveling! It seemed like a product I could not pass up so here I am talking about the good fats in powdered form. I am super excited to have the MCT Oil Powder for our trip because it's a fat that we can keep around without worrying about the bottle spilling in the truck, and it allows us to mix fats into food or drinks real easily without a blender.

What do you guys think of my favorite fats? Any that you love that I missed? Would you like to hear more about our eating plans/style? Let me know in the comments on the homepage!

#health #diet #keto #PCOS #ketogenic #paleo #lowcarb #onthegoeating #coconut #oils