When people learn what type of diet I follow, I often get very similar questions.  I decided this might be a good blog post subject as I’m sure others thinking about a ketogenic diet probably have similar questions!

The most common question, is, of course, do you miss carbs/sugar/pasta (insert favorite food loaded with carbs).  I truly don’t.  There are times in a restaurant when a basket of piping hot french bread or sourdough bread is placed on the table and I definitely have a craving for it.  But if I want to, I’ll have a few bites of it and I’m fine with that.  The same is true for other foods, except homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I can’t take just one bite of those so I just stay away from them!!

Do you see a lot of benefits from a ketogenic diet?  Absolutely.  I have more energy.  I have lost weight.  I don’t feel tired after a meal.  My mental focus is far sharper than it used to be.  I love being able to ride my bike for hours and not have to refuel much at all.  I am no longer a “mood eater.”  I truly view food as a fuel source now.

Aren’t you worried about your cholesterol?  Absolutely not.  I’m worried more about all of the misinformation out there about cholesterol that other people are receiving.  I wrote a blog post about this a few months ago.

How can you eat fat and lose weight? First of all, you have to eat good fat – grass fed beef, free range organic eggs, grass fed butter, etc.  All fat is not equal, just like all calories are not equal.  The last thing you want to do is pollute your body with unhealthy fat like vegetable oil.   Obviously there’s a great deal of science around the ability to eat good fat and lose weight, so unless you want to do the research, you’ll just have to trust me that you can!

Don’t you get bored eating the same foods all the time? Yes, it can be challenging (and boring) at times, especially if I haven’t planned ahead and defrosted meat for dinner.  Going out to eat can be expensive or a waste of time unless it’s a restaurant where you know you’ll get good meat, and pay a premium for it.   Fast food is really not an option so if you fail to plan ahead you either don’t eat (which is totally fine when you’re in ketosis) or you learn to make ketogenic foods quickly, like pizza – something I can make in less than 20 minutes.  When I have time I love to research new recipes to give us some variety.  My latest discovery over Thanksgiving was a low carb pumpkin pie that was actually very good!

How long will you stay on this diet?  For the rest of my life.  To me, it’s not a diet.  It’s a way of life, and one that provides great benefits to me!

I have been on the road on the east coast for 5 days for work.  I rarely sleep well when traveling, especially when I’m not exercising (which I didn’t on this trip) and stressed about work (which I currently am).  An already exhausting trip ended up with me awake at 3:00 am ET today, unable to go back to sleep.

I have not been able to take in a lot of fat during meals due to work meetings that included lunch and dinner, and as a result I have been really hungry – the type of hungry that was waking me up in the middle of the night!  The unfortunate result of that was a pretty big craving for carbs.  I did allow myself some today, as no matter what I ate I felt like I just couldn’t get full.  The fat available to me just wasn’t good fat, either, so the problem was compounded. (Yes, I did have my blender with me and had my coffee, butter and coconut oil each morning).

I’m not going to beat myself up about eating some carbs today.  My plan is to go to bed as soon as I get home, and fast throughout tomorrow morning in the hope that I will get back on track with ketosis tomorrow after about 18 hours of fasting.  Oh, and I will get back into exercising this week!  But my first goal is to get a good nights’ sleep in my own bed and start fresh tomorrow.