Keto and the Holidays

Keto and the Holidays

Let’s go back to the basics for a moment.  Keto is a lifestyle.  If you are doing it to lose weight, clearly it is a diet, but if you want to maintain that weight loss and level of health then it must become a lifestyle. 

Keto and the holidays – CAN EXIST.

So why not think of it as a lifestyle right from the start?

I think most people have difficulty with this thought because at the beginning of a transition to keto, it can be overwhelming. 

You find yourself looking at ingredients, reading every label, counting things you’ve never counted before, putting food into your carb counter, meal planning, continually thinking about macros….

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!! 

It is overwhelming just thinking about how overwhelming it can be.

And honestly, that is one reason why so many people fail or give up.  It is because they can’t imagine a lifetime of that. 

It breaks my heart because if only they knew that it would look NOTHING like that down the road, then maybe that would be enough encouragement for them to stick the course a little while longer.

 

What is a Keto Lifestyle Like?

Here’s the deal…  after a couple of weeks or months, you get into a groove.  You LEARN food.  It becomes your friend instead of your enemy.  You know what to eat and what not to eat. 

Your body gets in a groove.  You create habits. 

And most of all – you chill out, yet create discipline.  The discipline is what will get you through it.

Discipline.  I hear all the time “I’m addicted to sweets.  It’s just too hard”.  Pick your hard.  Break the addiction.  End of story. 

It is hard to be overweight.  It is hard to not like what you see in the mirror.  It is hard to take medication that you shouldn’t have to take.  So much in life is hard.

Don’t become a slave to a hard thing that is going to keep you in prison.  Create discipline.  Go through the withdrawal and move on.

With discipline, comes latitude in terms of the steps you need to take.  For example…

I do not record my food anymore.

I don’t determine if everything I eat in a given day fits in my macros.  

I don’t check my ketones. 

I don’t do any of that. 

I guesstimate my macros, my carb intake, all of it.  And I do just fine.  What I DON’T do is slide back into bad habits because I’m not recording things.  Why?  Because I have discipline and the will to succeed. 

The will to be HEALTHY.  The will to NOT have to take insulin since my body barely produces insulin.

If I started gaining weight or feeling yucky, then I would go back to recording things for a week and make sure I haven’t slipped and not realized it.

I am writing this in September, so what does all this have to do with the Holidays coming up? It has a lot to do with it honestly.

 

The importance of a Keto Lifestyle

If you are on a diet, then it is easy to say “well I’ll just have a cheat day for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years”. 

But you know what happens?  Cheat days turn into cheat weeks and cheat seasons and pretty soon you find yourself making a New Year’s weight loss resolution to lose the 15 pounds you gained over the holiday season as well as the other weight you were trying to lose BEFORE the holiday season.

But if Keto is a lifestyle, then you continue on.  You create your own Halloween candy.  You make a Thanksgiving menu that fits keto.  Your Christmas dinner is well planned.  And maybe you have a few drinks New Year’s Eve and that is fine.

Speaking of Menus make sure to look at my FULL keto Thanksgiving menu that I put together for you.

As for my personal philosophy, I am not a supporter of being in ketosis full time, especially for women.  I have one carb up day per week.

  We will be talking about WHY I do this next week on my blog and podcast, but it helps my hormones.  This is not a cheat day, but a day where I allow myself more carbs.  I have found the sweet spot where I eat enough carbs to bump me out of ketosis, but not enough to where it takes me forever to get back in.

Aside from Hormones, this allows for more flexibility in life as well.  It will allow for me to have a Keto Thanksgiving and maybe have an extra keto bun and extra keto pie and a glass of wine.   

And so Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years will also be my carb up day for the week.  Again, it is not a cheat day, but it is part of my keto lifestyle.

This takes discipline again.  Discipline to NOT have a carb up day turn into a cheat day.  Now, it happens, and it happened to me last weekend.  Well, I should say it happened to me, because I choose to actually have a cheat day. 

Every few months I do this and it works for me.   But if one carb up day turns into a 3-day carb up period which turns into a week which turns into a non-keto eating pattern, well, you don’t want that.

If you create a Keto LIFESTYLE then the holidays are nothing to fret about.  Your LIFE has changed and you will move into the holiday season without skipping a beat.

You are no longer addicted to sugar and gluten and therefore you don’t fret about what you will have instead or how you will survive.  You don’t want it anymore because this is your LIFESTYLE.

If it is a DIET, then there is an end to a diet.  There is this notion of “going back to normal”. 

Let me tell you something harsh – there is no going back to normal.  Normal eating is what led you to keto to begin with.  I hope there is no going back for you or me or anyone.

 

Discipline

Your lifestyle, your disciplined lifestyle, will support you and keep you strong as you go through the holidays.

Your discipline will be what prompts you to start experimenting with keto Christmas cookies NOW so when the time comes you enjoy those cookies right along with everyone else.  You have them when you go to Christmas parties. 

And don’t worry – just like I have a Thanksgiving menu ready for you in September, I will have Christmas menus and cookie recipes ready for you late October, early November.

You will be tempted.  You will smell the divine smell of gluten buns and the luring smell of frosted cookies.  But these satisfied a craving from and old you. 

Not the new you.  Not the YOU that is reading this blog or listening to my podcast or hanging out in my Keto Facebook Group.  Be stronger than a past addiction.  Love your new life.

Love your new lifestyle and you will do just fine.