Keto: Just Say No

The noun form of the word "diet" has two meanings:

1. 1.

   the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.
2. 2.

   a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.
3. 
   

More often that not, when we hear the term we often are referring to the latter of the two. Over the years on my health living journey, I have researched or even tried various "diets" (definition #2). The one diet that really got me second guessing all of the information from the internet and what "they" say.  (Who are the elusive "they" anyhow?) After a lot of research and prompting from friends, I tried keto before my wedding last year. After a stint of hardcore keto (bullet proof coffee, sub 20 g of carbs a day, moderate protein, high fat, and even going so far as to log my vitamins) and peeing on a lot of keto sticks, I stepped on the scale. 

Within 1 month I had gained 5 lb. Aside from the weight gain, through out the month of keto I physically felt terrible. My reflux had returned, after it had subsided in 2012 after I nixed gluten from my diet (definition #1 :) ). I didn't feel healthy. You know that feeling when you eat something really greasy and that grease might as well be seeping out of your pores? Yeah, that's how I constantly felt. That's the best way to describe it!

I then decided to step back and evaluate popular fad diets. Aside from my experience with keto, I firmly believe keto is a fad diet with major long term health ramifications. How can aiming to eat 150g of fat a day be healthy? How can one think that eating blueberries will make them fat?

God created foods such as apples, blueberries, sweet potatoes, chicken, etc all for our nourishment as human beings. We often times act as though our brains know more than our bodies - our bodies that were designed so intricately to function in ways that our brains still can't even begin to understand. So, how arrogant or foolish are we to think that our bodies don't know anything and we need to trick them?

Your body was designed to take in food for sustenance and to function properly. As you step away from "diets" (definition #2), you should start to listen to the needs, signals, hunger, etc from your body. It will tell you when you need to eat and what you need to eat. Now, if your mouth is wanting twinkies every meal, then that is not nourishment. You can choose wise foods, while not following unhealthy diets. 

Figuring out body fat percentage

I have to admit, I’ve been pretty frustrated lately. I’ve been working out, making better food choices, and seeing results in the mirror. But when I step on the scale, then I’m not seeing as much progress as I’d expect. I keep comparing where I am now weight-wise and how I look verses what I looked like weight-wise a year ago. It finally dawned on me the other day that when I initially started eating clean, I wasn’t using a regular workout program. I cut calories, but I was running (which doesn’t really build muscle). Now, I have cut calories, I’m eating (mostly) clean, but I am doing programs like T25 that are really building my muscles. I’m so thankful for apps like, A Beautiful Mess, that can show me side-by-side pics for my progress.

That being said, I decided to break out the calipers to measure my body fat percentage. I love these little gadgets! While the scale can’t tell you if you’re weight is from fat or muscle, these calipers can! I fell in to the “ideal” range, as a 31-year-old female, with a bad fat percentage of 25.1. I think I am definitely going to keep track of this measurement from now one, especially since I’m working on building my muscles. You can find calipers pretty much anywhere for very little cost. There are also several programs through Beach Body that include them in your order. I really like that, because it helps teach program goers a healthy assessment of their progress.

Work-out of the day:

T25 Beta – Speed 2.0

Jamie Eason’s Live Fit Trainer – Legs and Calves

Breakfast:

Cottage Cheese with Pineapple Chunks

Snack 1:

Plain Greek yogurt with pineapple chunks and cinnamon

Lunch:

Baked chicken, broccoli, brown rice, and a small bit of vanilla ice cream they had at school today J (Just being honest, here!)

Snack 2:

Almonds over a spinach salad, with a citrus vinaigrette

Dinner:

Chocolate Shakeology

the big FAT lie

It's that 3-letter word that might as well be a 4-letter word. It's fat. 

For the past 15-20 years, we have been taught to reach for the fat free, reduced fat, and low fat items to keep from getting fat. But did you know that eating fat won't necessarily make you fat??  It all depends on the types of fats. There are some that you need in your daily diet, and others you should completely avoid. To understand which fats we want and which we don't, then we need to understand the different types of fats. Fats can be placed to 2 categories, Saturated and Unsaturated. In these categories, there are further classifications of fats. 

Saturated Fat

Saturated fats (aka "solid fats") are solid at room temperature. These are commonly found in animal products like milk, meat, butter, margarine, shortening, and cheese. You can also find it in coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter - but these don't contain cholesterol.

How does it affect my health?

Saturated fats can raise your cholesterol, risk of heart disease, and stroke.

How much should I have?

The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of saturated fats you eat to less than 7% of your total daily calories.  

Trans Fat

Trans fat is a type of saturated fat. These are fats that have been changed through the hydrogenation process. Hydrogenation is used to increase the shelf life of fat and to make it harder at room temperature. Trans fats can be found in foods like french fries, pastries, cookies, chips, crackers, pie crusts, biscuits, donuts, pizza dough, margarine, shortening, and other baked goods. 

How does it affect my health?

Trans fats can lower your LDL (good) cholesterol and raised your HDL (bad) cholesterol, increased your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

How much should I have?

Avoid trans fats as much as possible, if nothing else then limit it to no more than 1% of your daily caloric intake.

Unsaturated Fat

Unsaturated fats are in liquid form at room temperature. These are found mostly in plant oils. Monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat are types of unsaturated fat.

Monounsaturated fat

Monounsaturated fat is a type of unsaturated fat. You can find it in vegetable oil, canola oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, peanut oil. You can also find this in avocados, peanut butter, and other nuts/seeds.

How does it affect my health?

This type of fat helps reduce bad cholesterol levels in the blood, and lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. They also provide the nutrition your body needs to develop and maintain its cells.

How much should I have?

Monounsaturated fats should not total more than 25-35% of your daily caloric intake.

Polyunsaturated fat

You can find this type of fat in seafood, and safflower, sunflower, sesame, soybean, and corn oils. There are two types of polyunsaturated fats, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. 

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in foods from plants like soybean and canola oil, nuts, flaxseed, and fatty fish like salmon, herring, trout, and anchovies. You should eat 8 oz (or more) of these types of fish weekly (about 250 mg a day of omega-3 fatty acids).

Omega-6 fatty acids are found mostly in liquid vegetable oils like soybean oil, corn oil, and safflower oil.

 

How does it affect my health?

This type of fat includes essential fats like omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, which your body can't produce on its own. These play a critical role in brain function and body growth/development. 

How much should I have?

Polyunsaturated fats should not total more than 25-35% of your daily caloric intake.

Here is a handy list I made to help figure out what to get next time you are at the store!