If you’ve been reading our TKR News emails the past few weeks we took a dive into the many forms that a low carb diet can take. Don’t worry if you haven’t, there’s a slide show in this blog that recaps the journey we have been on, and it has all lead to a big question… How do you determine which style of low carb eating is best for YOU?

In this blog we will lay out our strategy for helping you figure out where it is best for you to get started or help you determine if your current path needs a change. So let’s get into it!

Know Your Options

We have laid out the different forms of a low carb diet under five main categories:

Basic Low Carb Diet
Low Carb Paleo
Ketogenic Diet
Cyclical & Targeted Ketogenic Diets
Carnivore Diet

In this gallery below you can see our breakdown of the categories, some of their variations, their pro’s and con’s and more. Check them out, knowledge is power when it comes to finding what will be best for you.

Low Carb Diet Option Gallery - Click Images To Enlarge

Know Yourself

Information is great… but this process is about more than just swiping through a slideshow randomly. The real work starts with knowing yourself in the context of your needs, your goals, and what not only feels sustainable to you but what feels manageable. Here’s some important questions to ask yourself:

Why am I considering a low carb diet?
What is my history with dieting in general?
What does my current nutrition plan look like and why am I considering a change?
Am I looking for a quick fix or an actual change to my lifestyle?
What are my goals and how does using a low carb diet fit into them?
What am I struggling with when it comes to finding and sticking to an eating plan?
Are there foods I cannot see myself giving up?
Do I understand the difference between what I might need versus what I might want when it comes to nutrition and food?
Do I thrive when I jump into something “all or nothing” headfirst or do I better manage making change over time so I can adapt and thrive?

I know that might seem like a lot of “homework” but these questions are focused on helping you gain a greater understanding of where you are right now, where you want to be, and what further digging you might need to do to find the right answers. And know there are no wrong answers, just YOUR answers! For example, if you are currently eating whatever you want with no clearly defined plan, you find sticking with an eating plan challenging, and you know you do not handle a “zero to sixty!” strict approach keep that in mind as you consider your options (ie. a program with strict macro targets might not be best on day 1.) Do not fall into the trap of “the shiny new thing” you have seen someone else get great results with using! This is about you, your goals and what will get you there. It is a path you determine not chosen for you by your favorite influencer!

Look at the Pro’s & Con’s

Each of the plans we laid out comes with a set of pro’s and con’s from our perspective as coaches. You should definitely look at them BUT ALSO continue the self examination you have begun and build your own list of pro’s and con’s. Questions to consider here are:

Do my goals just involve weight loss or am I looking to work on endurance training, specific food sensitivities, blood sugar issue control, or something else?
Am I more drawn to a plan with stricter rules, more defined tracking, or a plan that allows me to be less concerned about macronutrient ratios and more about making clearer food choices?
What am I willing to do to be compliant with a way of eating and what might make that challenging?
Am I comfortable with cooking most or all of my food or do I need to have more flexibility with dining out options?

Consider your answers as you look at each plan, and craft an honest list of the pro’s and con’s of each approach for you. Think about what the plans look like in action in your life. What aspects will be easiest to manage and what might be more challenging? For example, if you are someone who travels a lot for work and have no choice to supplement food your prepare with regularly eating out or ordering food, how will each plan fit into your needs?

Coach Jon also has a few specific things to say about finding your right low carb path and your options that apply here. Check out his advice!

Pick a Path & Map it Out

It’s time to put together all of the information and answers you have gathered and make a choice. This part can be a bit scary because often we want to feel 100% certain we are making the correct choice before we do anything else and I hear to tell you that more often than not this instinct can lead to something called “paralysis by analysis.” We overwhelm ourselves with the need to have the perfect answers leading to making the perfect choice that we don’t choose anything and instead choose to keep searching for a path until we are 100% certain it is correct. And what happens then? Time passes, you do not move closer to your goals and you get stuck. Instead I want to encourage you to trust yourself and be comforted by the knowledge that choosing a path to begin does not mean you are choosing “the rest of your life.” Picking a plan to follow is about implementing and assessing (we’ll get there!) now.

If you have done the work we have suggested, you should have an idea where you want to get started even if you are not yet 100% sure. So give yourself the gift and grace of choice. Select the option you feel most comfortable with right now and remind yourself that changing it to support your goals and needs will always be possible.

With your choice in mind think about what you will need to do to put it into action and keep it going. Does your kitchen need an overhaul? ie. Do you need to clean out, reorganize and restock your cupboards and fridge? Are there tools you might need for food measurement and storage that you don’t currently own? Think about the day to day application of your plan and what you might need, and get it!

Put it into Action

This is about actually getting started and understanding what you are committing to with that start. The overall goal here if you remember is to find the path that will help you achieve your goals in a sustainable, manageable manner. Not just starting a new diet! So one of the key factors I want you to think about now regardless of what your plan looks like is time. To fully adapt to a new way of eating and see the impact of it on your health and progress you need to give it the time needed to see what happens in action. My suggestion is to commit to at least 30 days if not 60 days following the plan you have selected.

This needs to be enough time to see how your plan and its requirements fit into your routines and the challenges presented by your daily life. Navigating work situations, family events, social gatherings and more are important factors to consider in your action plan but also in real time application. You will learn lessons at every turn if you are open to them!

Our instincts as people that want immediate results can be to put a plan into action for a week and then immediately make changes if we don’t see the results we expect. The reality is that it can take longer than that to truly see if something is working especially with plans that involve adapting to a completely new way of eating, achieving nutritional ketosis and fat adaptation, and more. Be patient and give yourself, your body and your plan the time needed to do the work.

And then, when ready, consider assessment. Part of putting a plan into action is now waiting to begin the process of tracking an assessment. Yes you may already be tracking your food, weight, measurements, blood sugar and more but also implement regularly checking in on the following:

How am I feeling overall?
Am I noticing any sensitivities to particular foods?
What is going well when it comes to plan compliance?
What are my biggest challenges when it comes to plan compliance?
How would I rate my energy and performance in day to day life and in my physical activity?

Assess and Move Forward

For this facet of the discussion I am going to assume a 30 day period of following your low carb path has been completed included the needed tracking and regular assessment suggested above. When implementing a new way of eating it is important to sit down and take a look at how it is going overall and if it is serving your goals and purpose. So now is the time to do just that! Ask yourself the following questions:

What has my progress looked like the past 30 days? And how do I feel about it?
How well have I been adapting to the changes I have made?
Have I honestly been following the plan I laid out?
How do I feel about continuing with this plan?
If I am considering changes, what do they look like and what are my reasons?

When you have answers to those questions make your best determination of what moving forward looks like for you. More often than not, this will mean simply going forward with the plan you have in place. But it may also mean that you need to make minor adjustments (to things like your macros or intake) or it might be best to consider a different approach. Be cautious to not just make change for change’s sake. If you are going to make any changes do with clear intention and purpose.

Understand as we mentioned in some of the slides, for some individuals getting truly fat adapted on one of the ketogenic plans can take more than 30 days depending on your gender and current state of health. Be open to the possibility that more time man be needed to truly assess if you are getting the results you need.

Overall, make this monthly assessment a part of your actual plan! It will enable you to keep your goals and progress in focus. It will also help you ensure that you are actually following your plan and avoiding the reintroduction of behaviors that you know you wanted to change in the first place.

Conclusion

I want to first state that I know coming through this journey I laid out can feel like a lot because you are seeing it all laid out in one place. That is normal! Don’t let that discomfort discourage you. Understanding that finding the right lifestyle changes for your health and goals is hard work, and this okay! My purpose here is give you the tools you need to make thoughtful and mindful change on your low carb path. If getting into all of this on your own seems like too big of a challenge right now, we are here to help. Click here to set up a free consultation call with one of our team to see if we might be a resource to help you navigate these waters!

CHOOSING YOUR LOW CARB PATH!