GET IN THE KITCHEN!
It is going to sound simple but honestly your kitchen is your most powerful secret weapon when adapting to a ketogenic lifestyle! Often the first questions I get as a coach involve how to navigate restaurants and eating out. This is indeed possible but when I answer those questions I try to include a discussion about how focusing on food you make at home has more benefits in the long run. Not only do you have greater control over ingredient quality and portions at home but often certain restaurants, take out and drive thrus can be trigger points for your food issues. I also believe that cooking food at home is a key factor in insuring that you don’t feel overly restricted when on a ketogenic diet. Depending on where you go, having grilled chicken on a salad or a unless burger be your major options can get old fast.
I understand that you may not be the most comfortable in the kitchen so this week I wanted to share my some great tips and strategies for harnessing the power of your kitchen!
Just Add Keto
Okay so let’s start in that place many of us find ourselves when we start keto, the “I had to give up everything I love for this!” Now yes, you have probably read a blog or post where I talk about restriction for positive reasons can be a very powerful weapon on your health journey but I am also here to tell you that often you can find keto recipes for almost any food or taste you are craving. I’m not lying either, if you can imagine it someone has most likely experimented and made it work. How do you find them? It’s easy, google the food/dish name and add the word keto. Some specific websites to look at if you’re more a browser and not a hunter, check out our recipe page here, KetoKeuhn Nutrition and Wholesome Yum as starting places to help generate ideas.
Macros Mise En Place
You may have heard the phrase “mise en place” thrown around if you have hung around restaurants or watched enough food tv shows. If you’re not familiar with it, it is a French phrase that Miriam Webster defines as “a culinary process in which ingredients are prepared and organized (as in a restaurant kitchen) before cooking.” It means getting everything ready and tidied up before you start cooking. It is not only a great cooking tip but an excellent way to keep track of well, the food you’re tracking. Measuring ingredients out gives you a more exact count of what you’re eating. It also helps you get ready for recipes with multiple steps and layers, there’s no need to stop and chop while sautéing if you have it all done already!
Weigh is The Way
Speaking of measuring food, if I have said it once I will say it one hundred times. When it comes to tracking your food, weighing things out will always been the most precise. It also is the most precise when it comes to mastering recipes, especially if baking is involved. Baking, especially keto baking, is a science at its core. Measuring spoons and cups can feel easier than a kitchen scale but they will not be as exact as some items will vary immensely depending on how you handle them. Get a kitchen scale and use it!
Follow The Directions
I get it, you’ve seen every season of Chopped and Masterchef and you don’t need any directions in the kitchen… this is just a note to encourage you, yes you, to be sure to read the instructions of a new recipe more than once before you attempt it. See following the directions at least once as a challenge so you get to experience the recipe the first time as its creator intended. Then, go wild the next time. You never know if someone else’s instructions might teach you something new and worthwhile.
Don’t Just Pour & Go
Specifically I am talking about the fat you cook with! It can be easy to toss a splash of oil into a pan when you’re cooking meats and vegetables. The problem is most fats flow easily and the calories add up fast. Eyeballing your measurements can lead to 100s of extra calories in the blink of one of those eyes. When you gather the other components of your dish be sure to measure out your cooking fat when track it. Ironically when writing this blog I got a message from a new client asking if they had to track the fat they put in the pan when cooking. My answer was, if you eat it, you track it.
Meal Prep Math Made Easy
Am I going to turn around now and tell you to relax when tracking? Yes. Give me a minute to explain myself though! Often you batch cook big recipes or dive into meal prepping you will find yourself trying to perfectly spilt up the results to hit the macros you have calculated. And this is good, but do not get stressed out if you make something like a big pot of beef chili or a chicken casserole, and you’re trying to exactly divvy up the components. Yes you could end up with a few extra grams of protein one day, and fat the next, but if the recipe has say 8 servings and you are going to eat all 8 over the week, you’re fine. Your weekly caloric intake is cumulative and being off but a small percentage on different days will not cause scale swings or stalls. Don’t let absolute macro perfection keep you from adding variety to your diet!
Suck It Up
I promise this is not a David Goggins style lecture now on why you should cook at home. I mean, that would be fun and appropriate, but I am actually referring to the power of a vacuum sealer, like a Food Saver. These appliances make portioning and storing leftovers a breeze. They also help you avoid freezer burn. Pro tip, if you want to vac seal something liquid, freeze it first in container, then pop it out and run it through the sealer. Way easier than trying to seal a bag of liquid! Ice cube trays come in handy here as well.
My Apologies… We Should Talk About Cheese
Circling back to discovering new keto recipes as your kitchen adventure begins you are very quickly going to discover that many substitution recipes involve cheese and a lot of it. So I offer caution! Cheese is a very easy food to overeat and calorie dense. Consider items like fat head doughs to be sometimes treats and not everyday occurrences if you know you may someone who goes overboard on the dairy. If you’re not sure if this is you, consider this, have you ever considered just ordering a cheese board as your main entree? There’s no shame in it. just be mindful of yourself and also how your body handles it. Some folk find that overdoing cheese can lead to bloating and scale stalls.
So there you have it but we’re not done! If you’re reading this and feeling stagnant in your food choices or you’re spending too much time and money eating out, I have a challenge for you. Find a new keto friendly recipe and make it. Don’t overthink it, don’t get wrapped up in finding the perfect choice, pick one and go. And then come find me and let me know how it went!!! Also, if you need some advice on setting up your pantry to support your new ketogenic lifestyle, check out the Prepare section on our Getting Started page!
