I have now completed 15 weeks on the ketogenic diet and going strong. The diet has had its challenges but for the most part after following the guidelines for this long it’s pretty easy. With the traditional ketogenic diet, you pretty much need to be dairy tolerant to follow it. With a modified version however, it would not be too difficult to make dairy free, although it’s definitely much easier if you can eat at least cheese.
The biggest hurdle to overcome is just learning the general rules. Following a strict Paleo diet several years back has helped me a lot. The biggest difference between a Paleo diet and a ketogenic diet is the amount of meat that you should consume. A Paleo diet is fairly easy as you can just eat all meat if you like. The purpose, of the ketogenic diet however, is to limit the meat as much as possible. Although, I can’t say that I have been perfect at following this guideline over the last 15 weeks, I have been doing my best to limit the meat consumption and have been trying to stick to eating grass and veggie feed organic sources of meat, eggs and dairy, at all times. It is important to note however that eating meat definitely keeps you in ketosis, so it’s an easy fall back plan when your stuck!
The most simple rule about ketosis is how much fat is in your food. Although, in epilepsy treatment a calculator is used to portion everything that a person eats, and I would suggest this strategy to anyone starting this diet, once you get used to the requirements it’s fairly easy to turn any Paleo meal into a keto-meal by adding fat. Organic (grass-feed) butter or ghee, coconut oil, high polyphenol olive oil, and avocado.
The biggest thing about fat consumption is to make sure you try not to limit the quality nor the quantity of the fat that you eat. I believe that in a life or death situation such as battling cancer, the quality of fat you consume needs to be the focus of this diet. High amounts of grass feed, or at the very least, organic dairy has made this diet easy. As I tolerate dairy very well, the way I look at it is … when in doubt just add cream! If you’re hungry just eat cheese or drink cream. Other staples are egg yolks and macadamia nuts. One of my new favourite treats is macadamia nuts and 85% chocolate! I’m also pretty partial to 11% greek yogurt. Yum!
One of the initial challenges I had was weight loss. This was a concern for me, as a major focus in cancer treatment needs to be stabilizing (or sometimes helping people gain) weight. This has not been as much of a problem after the first month, or so. The ketogenic diet can be very high in calories, but it seems that the “not all calories are created equal rule” definitely applies here. At some points I have calculated my caloric intake at 5000 calories in one day, without any noticeable weight gain. By default, the ketogenic diet can be very high in calories but I can definitely attest that calories from fat will not lead to weight gain like calories from starchy carbohydrates. Although I have had to tone it back a bit or I will end up gaining weight, I am going strong on a pretty high calorie diet! I’m happy to say that my weight has not changed at all since January and I have 11 more weeks to go!
Some resources that a very intelligent client of mine provided for me! Thanks!
The Vancouver Olive Oil Company – http://vooc.ca/
Good Source of Nuts – http://www.nuts.com/
Picture –
KetoLoaf ®
1/2 Medium Onion – Diced very fine
3 Staulks Celery – Diced very fine
3 Cloves Garlic – Diced Very Fine
1/2 Cup Olives – Chopped
2 Egg Yolks
1 Cup Organic (non-lean) Ground Beef
1 Cup Home Grown (Winter Gardening – Yeah!) Kale
A heck of a lot of coconut oil.
Mix together with your hands – Gooey! Put in a bread pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Allow to cool for 20 minutes to let the fat set a bit. Enjoy … we are eating ours with Ratatouille. 🙂