Before I tell you what has worked for me let me give you my perspective when it comes to any approach to diet. What I’ve learned is that it’s easy to become dogmatic, start judging others on multiple levels based on their way of eating and in some cases alienating and sacrificing relationships because of the way you eat or don’t eat. So, I’m sharing what has worked for me and thousands of others and what my body responds to in a very positive way.
Dazed By Diets
On an off throughout my life I have done what all good overweight American’s do – I dieted. I tried dozens; low calorie, low fat, small meals 6-8 times a day, the Lemonade diet, the cabbage soup diet and the list goes on – you know what I’m talking about. With all of the dieting I had done I felt like I had a pretty good handle on how I needed to be eating. But when I got serious about my health in 2013 I started to explore, read and study even more because I I realized that when I ate certain types of food like grains and sugar I felt tired, sluggish and had “brain fog”.
Paleo Got Me Going
Because there were a number of foods that impacted me in a negative way I wanted to find out if there were others that I hadn’t tried that may help me. One Google search led to a blog that led to a podcast that led to a book that led to YouTube that led to…you get the picture. Where I landed initially was with a Paleo diet and I stayed there for about a year and half. If you aren’t familiar with Paleo there are hundreds of sites but a few of my favorites are; Mark’s Daily Apple, Robb Wolf, Primal Potential, and Abel James.
Keto Keeps Me Going
After a year and half of experiencing some good success with Paleo I came across the Ketogenic Diet or as a lot of people refer to it, the Keto Diet. As a quick side note; I hate to use the word diet in relation to Paleo or Keto because both are really a lifestyle. I say lifestyle because it’s a way of eating that you are committing to for the long term, not just a few months or a year to lose some weight. You are committing to these approaches because they are best for your long-term health.
I’m not going to go deep into the ketogenic diet/lifestyle in this post (plenty will come) but here’s the quick definition to give you an idea. A ketogenic diet is a very low carbohydrate, moderate protein and high fat based nutritional plan. When you are following this plan you are training your metabolism to run off of fatty acids or another term that is often used is ketones. In this state your body becomes fat adapted and is running off of fatty acids/ketones instead of carbohydrates being your main fuel source. If you’d like to dive a little deeper right now, a couple of my favorite sites for ketogenic learning are Dr. Jockers and Keto Talk. And one of my favorite videos that help explain what keto means is right here.