Once you are 2-3 months into your keto lifestyle, you will start feeling great and around this time is when you can really feel like this could actually become a lifestyle.
At the start, the idea of a lifestyle can be really overwhelming, but as you get more confident and see improvements in your health, this doesn’t seem impossible any more. In fact, you may even get to a point where you can’t remember it not being your lifestyle.
Here are some of the things we think help to take the keto diet from a diet to a lifestyle and way of life.
Meal prep and Planning
Being prepared is another one of those keys to success and we have found meal planning and prepping really helpful with this. By sitting down at the start of the week and planning out your meals, creating a shopping list and prepping some meals on the weekend, it takes away a lot of the decision-making process when you are tired from work and hungry.
By planning out your weekly meals, this can also make tracking your macros easier, as you can do it in advance.
To help you with planning out your meals we have a free blank meal plan PDF that you can print and fill out each week. Once you have filled it out, stick it on the fridge and take a picture of it on your phone that way you always can see what the plan for each meal is.
Download your free meal planner here.
This can feel a little overwhelming at first, but we have found meal prepping on the weekend can really help with this. Once you have your meals planned out, highlight the ones you can prepare on the weekend. You may also find that some of your meals will include condiments like mayo, that can be made ahead for the week.
Another great tip for meal prep is when you are cooking a meal make a double batch if possible and freeze or store in the fridge. Leftovers are one of my favourite lunches, so when meal planning and prepping you can save on time and cooking by having the same meal twice.
Stockpiling some keto meals in the freezer can be a real life saver. The freezer stash is perfect for those days when you have had a long day at work and can’t be bothered cooking dinner.
Eating out on your keto lifestyle doesn’t need to be difficult or daunting. Over our 4 years, we have worked out the best eating out options and some tips and tricks when eating out. Check out our full comprehensive article here.
Being able to enjoy eating out with family and friends is how we like to socialise in this modern world and we still want to be able to enjoy this aspect of our lives and incorporate this into our keto lifestyle.
Some of the important tips we use when meeting family and friends for a meal are:
- Where possible, try and offer the location for the catch up. This will allow you to scout out the menu and make sure you offer a place that will suit everyone, including you.
- If the location is already chosen, check the menu online beforehand and choose the best keto option. Choosing what you will eat ahead of time will take away some of the decision making when you are there.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for modifications on a meal. For example, burger without the bun and no chips, or no toast when ordering a breakfast meal.
- Cafes that offer all day breakfasts are a great option, as your family and friends can have lunch and you can still get a great breakfast option, just don’t forget to hold the toast.
We have a few favourite eating out options that we will enjoy from time to time. Our favourites are:
- Kebab in a bowl. A great option at a food court. We have found most kebab places offer a plate option or are happy to put it on a plate instead of a wrap. Our go to order is chicken kebab meat, salad items like lettuce, tomato and cucumber, cheese, sour cream and garlic sauce.
- Burger without the bun or in lettuce wrap. Many of the gourmet burger places will now offer a lettuce wrap option. Bunless burgers are also a go to option for us if we are having a pub meal, just don’t forget to ask for no bun and no chips.
- Burrito in a bowl minus rice and beans. Many of the Mexican fast food chain restaurants offer a burrito in a bowl. This is our absolute favourite eating out meal. We tend to prefer Guzman Ye Gomez and our order is chicken or pork, no rice, no beans, add guacamole, add sour cream and make sure it had cheese. If we are feeling really hungry we ask for double meat.
- Breakfast – without the toast. Breakfast has become the meal we always suggest when catching up with friends and family. We can even usually let them choose the place if necessary and be pretty confident that we can find a low carb or keto option for us, if we just ask for no toast.
If you find yourself in a food court and are looking for great keto options, make sure you check out our in depth article, keto in a food court.
What to do on Holidays
We LOVE to travel and we didn’t want that to stop when we began our ketogenic lifestyle. We knew we were going to have to find a way to make this lifestyle fit traveling. We were nervous about this on our first trip, but we have done many trips since 2016 and we have found the right balance that works for us.
After much consideration, we have adopted a when in Rome philosophy to eating and travel. This means, we eat mostly low carb and then if the place we are travelling has a particular food they are well known for, we will find the best version of that in the city we are in and enjoy it. For example, when in Paris, we will find the best croissant on Paris and enjoy it. We have found this approach really works well for us.
You may like to adopt a similar approach or feel you will do better if you continue eating all low carb foods while traveling. This is definitely possible, based on our experience, we just decided we wanted to be ale to enjoy the food and the culture and this approach allows for that.
The key to this approach for us has been that once home, things always go back to the “new normal” which is a ketogenic lifestyle.
Check out out keto travel series for more in depth information into traveling and a keto lifestyle.
We really hope this detailed guide to getting started on keto and creating a new lifestyle for yourself has been helpful. We understand how overwhelming it can be getting started, and we wanted to make this series simple and straight forward. Getting started is the hardest part, but once you do you will not look back.
If you are looking for some delicious, family-friendly keto recipes that are made using ingredients mostly available at Australian major supermarkets, then check out our recipe book bundle.
