Food and Health

Keto Diet Prep and Meal Planning Tips to Make Your Dieting Easier

July 15, 20200

The keto diet is a health craze.

The weight loss plan is increasingly gaining more popularity worldwide.

The keto diet is a low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet formula. It limits carbs to allow burning and usage of body fat as fuel.

People on a diet have reported great results, especially in parts such as hips, the waistline, and thighs that often hold onto fat.

Combining the power of the unique nutritional ketosis and calorie restriction benefits, the diet offers a distinct way to enhance your general health through weight loss.

The keto diet sources most of its daily calories from fats. Fewer amounts of calories come from proteins such as:

  • Fish
  • Dairy
  • Meat
  • Eggs

The body ends up burning body fat for energy if it can’t depend on carbs for fuel. As a result, ketones acids buildup in the body, leading to a bodily state known as ketosis.

Studies show that a keto diet has several health benefits, including:

  • Reduced waist circumference
  • Reduced fat mass
  • Lower fasting insulin levels
  • Lowers some major risk factors for heart diseases such as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high blood pressure, and triglycerides.

People on a keto plan diet for a specific time change it after a while to feature less fat and more carbs.

According to a study published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, a “well-formulated” keto diet consumes about 1.5 g of protein and less than 50 grams of carbs in every kilogram of body weight daily.

Meal planning is the key to adhering to the right macronutrient keto diet ratios, including fiber goals. It also controls hunger.

Keto diet meals mainly comprise of non-starchy veggies, plant and animal fats, and animal proteins.

Despite the transformative results of a keto diet, the keto lifestyle can be challenging. You need to plan ahead and prepare meals carefully. There’s also a need to plan for meals at home and in the office, including restaurant dine outs.

With the right tips, you can make keto dieting easier. Here’re tips to keep you focused and transition easily from fat-rich foods and proteins to grains, pasta, and sugar-rich fruits:

5 Tips to Keto Diet Meal Prep and Planning for Weight Loss

1. Get some professional help

Find a dietician, wellness coach, or doctor to help you stay focused and on track.

A professional can help with daily or weekly motivation and accountability to obtain stronger outcomes. A health coach is knowledgeable and can show you how to work with and not against your body.

Changing your habits isn’t easy, hence the need for professional help. Health coaching involves the adoption of evidence-based strategies and skillful conversation to engage you in behavioral change the healthy way.

Pro help also prevents nutritional deficiencies.

You can also get help from your friends, family, or social network if you can’t afford the services of a professional. This is key to sticking to your keto goals. Working with someone can also be fun and fosters friendships.

What’s more, it’s only with keto that you can enjoy eating a mouthwatering fat-rich rib-eye steak post-workout.

2. Download a keto app

Download a keto app for motivation, accountability, and access to keto resources on the go or from the comfort of your home.

An app such as Keto App or Carb Manager can help you stay focused and on track.

The apps register your height, weight, and goals related to your health to develop a personalized keto algorithm. You can track your daily exercise and beverage and food intake from your chosen keto app.

Log in your snacks, meals, and beverages to get personalized accountability, which gradually educates you on the correct foods to eat for great outcomes.

Apps also include shopping lists for easier grocery runs and recipes for inspiration.

3. Get essential keto equipment if necessary

You may need keto supplements to complement your meal plans. For instance, a keto low-carb protein powder is a great complement to your exercise plan.

On the other hand, exogenous ketone supplements ensure that each capsule will bring you closer to ketosis and meeting your keto diet goals.

An instant pot can streamline your cooking for quick cook times when working on a busy schedule.

Glass food containers for meal organization and easy prep. Glass is eco-friendly, and food containers help with organizing your refrigerator, atop being dishwasher- and microwave-safe.

Oven-safe containers make heating food easier.

A blender helps prepare rich, filling smoothies for perfect snacking or breakfast. Other essentials may include:

  • A sharp chef’s knife
  • Measuring cups and spoons
  • A sturdy nonslip cutting board
  • A cast-iron skillet

4. Choose the right keto resources and recipes

The internet is full of all the keto resources and recipes you may need.

Ranging from keto BBQ recipes to romantic keto recipes for Valentine’s Day to keto tailgating parties, there’s something for everyone.

You can even find keto cookbooks in hard or soft copies based on your preference. Good examples include Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto that highlights do’s and don’ts, shopping lists, and recipes.

Jen Fisch’s The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook features easy weeknight meals based on just five ingredients for those living busy lifestyles.

5. Get organized and plan your meals in advance

Dietary restrictions mean that a keto diet may involve advanced meal planning. This means that you need to prepare well and get organized for each day or week in advance.

Outline your weekly recipes and prepare your meals to stay on top of your dieting game. Identify meals and create a shopping list to streamline your grocery shopping.

Food preparation may involve advance:

  • Making tuna salad
  • Steaming veggies
  • Shredding chicken

Early food preparation makes your mealtimes fast and easier.

Opt for meal kits suited to your dietary needs if you’re too busy to cook or go for grocery shopping.

Plan on keto-friendly meals to order at fast-food joints when going on a road trip. Check out restaurant menus in advance to choose keto-friendly meals before heading out to dine with family, colleagues, or friends.

Restaurants offer gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb, and keto food options for their customers with special diet needs.

Otherwise, you can order salads with a protein such as a steak, chicken, or salmon with cheese. Make sure the dressing used in the salads is sugar and carb croutons free.

With the right resources and proper organization and planning, your keto goals become easier and more fun to accomplish.

Food and Health

Healthy Diet: 5 Food Types that Enhances your Emotional Health

April 24, 20200

Naturally, people eat to improve their physical health. Little attention is given to foods that specifically enhance your feelings, thoughts, and mood- emotional health.

There is no scientific evidence of foods that reduce brain activity, but vice versa is documented by researchers.

Just as you take care of your physical well being, equally, you need to work on your emotional health, for they go hand in hand with overall health.

How do you know you have good emotional health?

  • When you successfully process and deal with any negative emotions that upset you
  • The moment you have high curiosity levels with positive reactions to it
  • Can exercise self-judgment, compassion and self-love for personality evaluation
  • If you can sail through a storm- financial or emotional-without including emotions in judgment

Handling your emotions involve a collective responsibility in behavior and the foods that you eat. There is a thin line between emotional health and mental health.

Once you take foods that enhance brain activity as well as improve your psychological feeling, then you are on the right road to proper mental and emotional health.

Some of the foods include fruits and vegetables, which are better taken when raw to ensure you get maximum nutrients. In case you opt to cook them, take care of the mode of preparation.

You need to wash the vegetables whether you cook or just eat them as they are. Some go a notch higher than others by washing them with warm or hot water.

It’s advisable to invest in tankless water heaters to save on electricity and to hasten the process. If you lack an idea of what’s best, then look at the following heater on the market.

Which are these foods and their specific nutrients?

  1. Nuts and seafood

Nuts and seafood contain Omega 3 renowned for proper brain functioning according to a study by the British Psychiatry department. The healthy fat in these foods helps to hasten brain development even in adults to fight anxiety and depression.

Once the brain has full control of emotions, positive and negative feelings, then you are confident to say you have reasonable emotion control—a clear explanation of proper emotional health.

  1. Vegetable oils and fat

Health experts warn people to avoid fats, but they are never specific on the specific fat to avoid in excess. Plant oils like in Avocado have Oleic acid– a fatty component –which supports proper brain functioning, giving you the power to have control of your cognitive function.

As mentioned earlier, your emotional health begins from the brain. Once it’s working at optimum levels, then you are sure you are in good emotional health too. They are also found in dairy products, sunflower seeds, olives, eggs, among others.

  1. Green leafy vegetables

The color of the food is not just for aesthetic value but has a specific function in terms of nutrients and macronutrients when it comes to cell operations in the body. In specific to emotional health, these food types help in the oxidation process, which enhances metabolism and reduction of body inflammation.

The ripple effect of this is the production of hormones responsible for happiness. As long as you are happy, then you have control of everything that goes around you. Have you seen people who overreact to even small situations?

There is a possibility there are not in good mental health. Either they are using drugs or foods that suppress these hormones.

  1. Mushrooms

The two benefits of mushrooms to mental health include first its ability to lower the blood sugar level. High blood sugar increases the level of anxiety- poor mental health. Secondly, mushroom works directly on the central nervous system to bring a calming effect, thus changing the thought patterns to a positive angle.

Apart from that, it brings about a sharp mental focus, attention, and general brain acuity. This is part of the body that controls all your feelings and thoughts. Once it in a state of stable health –healthy mind-then, you are sure of a more focused and reasonable individual.

  1. Fruits and vegetables

When looking for a weight loss diet, fruits and vegetables never miss on the list. The weight is also responsible for boosting your self-esteem and confidence level, a personal attribute most people strive to achieve.

Fruits have a variety of nutrients and macronutrients responsible for different brain functions. It decreases the risk of developing stress, anxiety, and depression. Once all these are kept at bay, then you can say you are in a state of mental stability –“sane.”

Fruits contain various vitamin types that help in the repair of worn-out tissues. The improvement in immune response means hastens the healing process of minor ailments and inflammation.

This is one way of improving your thoughts, feelings, and mood. Are you happy when faced with an ailment?

The food type help increases your appetite compromised by the ailments and further fastens the healing process. Within no time, you are in good physical and emotional health.

As much as we advocate for food as a natural remedy to treat brain malfunctioning, they shouldn’t replace conventional medicine when dealing with a brain disorder. They only work when all other body functions work at optimum levels. If not, stick to the prescribed medicine and use the foods as a way of enhancing your health in general.

Its evident food plays a significant role in the state of your psychological and physical health. Anything you do whether work-related or just activities that involve decision making, your state of emotional health plays a significant role.

Take good care of it by whichever means possible; the results are evident even in your behavioral and lifestyle patterns.

Food and Health, Tips

Dieting & Weight Loss: 4 Popular Diets to Help You Lose Weight

April 15, 20200

Diets help with weight loss.

Ranging in some type of diet focuses on calories, fat, or carbs restriction, while others reduce appetite to help you cut weight.

However, every diet claims to be superior, making it difficult to choose what’s best for your unique needs for weight loss.

No two diets are the same, even if they both focus on reducing appetite or restricting calories. This means that no single diet can work for two people with the same needs.

A diet that works for your weight loss needs may not work for others.

Over half of all Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), try to lose weight every year.

Change your diet to lose weight.

With hundreds of diet plans on the market, choosing the best weight loss diet tailored to your unique needs isn’t easy. It’s difficult to choose the most sustainable, suitable, and effective diet for you.

Diets that focus on lowering your appetite reduce the amount of food you consume to cut weight. On the other hand, some diets restrict your calories, fat, or carbs intake to support weight loss.

Apart from weight loss, various diets have the following benefits:

  • Lowers the risk of developing cancer
  • Prevents stroke and improves hearth
  • Manages diabetes and better gut health
  • Secures the health of the next generation
  • Fosters the development and strong teeth and bones
  • Improved memory and mood
  • Better sleep

Top 4 Popular Weight Loss Diets for You

  1. The HCG diet

For fast weight loss, the HCG diet can help you lose up to 2 pounds or 0.45kg each day.

The diet improves metabolism and supports the loss of excess fats. It doesn’t make you hungry.

The human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) hormone is high at the onset of pregnancy. It’s responsible for telling your body that you’re pregnant. It maintains the production of important hormones that drive the development of the fetus and treats infertility.

The HCG diet is made up of three phases. The first involves taking HCG supplements while the second an ultra-low-calorie diet of just 500 calories daily taken with HCG supplement pellets, drops, sprays, or injections.  This is the phase where you lose weight and takes about 3 to 6 weeks.

In the third phase, HCG intake is stopped, and food slowly reintroduced.

Although the diet causes weight loss, studies have attributed that to the ultra-low-calories diet.

The HCG hormone doesn’t reduce hunger.

  1. The Ketogenic diet

The keto diet is a high-fat, low-carb diet. Its popularity in the health and fitness community points to its range of benefits. The diet increases energy, promotes weight loss, and enhances cognitive function and longevity.

Based on keto supplements, the diet reduces your appetite to promote weight loss. It also improves your athletic performance and alacrity.

Several studies have linked the diet to significant weight loss. Based on the study findings, it is a good idea to lose weight naturally for effective results.

  1. The Atkins diet

Eliminate carbs from your diet. The Atkins diet is a popular low-carb diet for weight loss. It allows you to consume as much fat and protein as you want.

The low-carb diet lowers your appetite for food, explaining its efficacy. As a result, you eat fewer calories without putting so much thought into it.

The diet is divided into four phases, the first being an induction phase. It involves consuming less than 20 grams of carbohydrates daily for up to a couple of weeks.

The phases that follow slowly reintroduce healthy carbohydrates into your diet. This occurs as you’re about to attain your weight loss goals.

Unlike low-fat diets, studies show that the Atkins diet leads to faster weight loss. Low-carb diets are also the most effective against belly fat.

  1. The Paleo diet

Based on the foods that your ancestors who gathered and hunted food ate, the Paleo diet fights diseases linked to the Western diet, including intake of dairy, grains, and processed foods.

Although the foods included in the diet are debatable, whether they’re what your ancestors ate, the diet has great health benefits.

The diet focuses on lean protein, whole foods, fruits, seeds, nuts, veggies, etc. It discourages the consumption of processed foods, dairy, sugar, and grains.

However, some flex versions of the diet include tubers such as sweet potatoes and potatoes and dairies such as butter and cheese.

Various studies have linked the Paleo diet to greatly-reduced waist size and weight loss.

Food and Health