When in Rome. Our Eating Philosophy

The thought of never eating a piece of freshly toasted sourdough bread with butter and vegemite or a salty hot chip dipped in tomato sauce ever again was pretty depressing for me when I first started a keto way of eating.  

 I can see for some people it would almost be a deterrent to ever even starting this way of eating as it is viewed as so restrictive. There are a lot of people in the keto world who believe if you are following a ketogenic diet you should NEVER consume foods that contain certain ingredients or are high in carbs.

For some people this may work, but for me it just feels like a restriction that I want to rebel against. There is so much information available to us and I realised I had to work out what worked for me, which is tough! 

So I found it important to incorporate the occasional delicious ‘non keto friendly’ food which I would thoroughly enjoy and then get straight back on with my normal keto eating the next meal. Over time doing this allowed me to learn to trust myself to be able to occasionally enjoy a ‘treat’ without it snowballing into me going back to my carb-filled ways for the next 2 weeks or until I built up the motivation to get back on track.

This was the old me, I was always either on plan or off plan and I needed my thinking to be different. I wanted to be able to go on holidays and enjoy a gelato in Naples without feeling guilty and also without my holiday meaning 3 weeks to eat WHATEVER I wanted. 

My philosophy, which I refer to as ‘When in Rome..’ has enabled me to successfully navigate this, and I have some guidelines I follow to ensure it is always a conscious decision and not an emotional one. 

 When in Rome Philosophy Guidelines

• Whatever I choose to eat I will enjoy and not feel any guilt or regret 
• I will not punish myself the next week with additional restrictions to ‘make up for it’ 
• The next meal will be a keto-friendly one 
• The food I choose to eat will be the worth it – as in a buttery croissant from the best patisserie in Paris, not a Woolies frozen one 
• How often is occasionally – this is an important one! 

I hope this is helpful to enable you to work out how you will navigate your way of eating and perhaps come up with some guidelines to help you learn to trust yourself. 

So when I am next in Rome, yes I will eat Pizza and I will enjoy every mouthful! 

Have you adopted a similar philosophy to help you manage the Ketogenic lifestyle? Let us know in the comments how you manage your version of keto long term or what your keto philosophy is.

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