How to Start a Keto Diet in 2021? Life-saving Keto Tips.

In this blog post, I give you tips on How to Start a Keto Diet in 2021. What’s so special about the year 2021? It’s been a crazy year. So many of us are working from home now, there are national lockdowns and self-isolation, gyms are closed. Many of us have lost our healthy habits and gained a lot of weight. The year 2021 It’s a perfect year for starting a low carb keto diet. You have more time than ever to cook healthy delicious low carb keto meals and form new healthy eating habits.

 

You will learn what is a low carb keto diet, how to do the low carb keto diet correctly, I’ll share the secret to making a low carb keto diet your new lifestyle, I’ll explain how to make it sustainable, explain what foods to eat and what foods to avoid on a keto diet, and share a few examples of my low carb keto meals. After reading this, you’ll know how to start a keto diet in 2021 as I’ll provide all the needed resources to get started with.

 

By the way, if you’re new to my blog, my name is Greta and I’m an online nutritionist and a health coach. I have a reasonability to show you how to start a low carb keto diet correctly and don’t go the dirty keto road. Remember, dirty keto is not healthy. Don’t swap high carb junk food for eating high-fat junk food. You will still have a lot of inflammation, a lot of free radicals, and you would get all the health benefits that keto offers. The quality of the diet matters more than anything.

 

 

What Is A Low Carb Keto Diet?

 

So, first things first. To know how to start a keto diet in 2021, you need to understand what it is. A low carb keto diet is a diet low in carbohydrates, high in fat, and moderate in protein. The typical macros could be 75% fat, 5% carbs, and 20% protein. Remember, it’s not a high protein diet, so don’t go and eat 3 sausages, 2 eggs, and 3 strips of bacon for lunch. That is simply way too much protein. Your daily carb intake should be somewhere around 50g of net carbs a day. Net carbs if you’re in countries such as the US, and 50g of carbs a day if you’re in the UK. It’s the same figure, just called differently.

 

 

And your carb sources should be healthy. Why am I saying that? I see most people using their daily carb allowance for foods such as low carb bread, buns, cakes, bars, and unhealthy sauces. Foods such as low carb bread should be treated as an occasional treat, not a part of a daily low carb keto diet. Your daily 50g of carbs should be coming from non-starchy veggies, berries, nuts, and seeds. This will make your low carb keto diet much healthier.

 

 

Will Keto Results Last or Will You Regain The Weight Back?

 

Now, how do you make a low carb keto diet results last? I know many people start the keto diet, thinking they only want to lose a certain amount of weight in 30 days, and then they’re gonna go back to eating bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. What you have to understand, is that for any results to last, your lifestyle change also has to last. Doing keto for 30 days is the same as any other diet you would follow for a short period of time, lose weight, go back to your old eating habits and regain the weight.

 

 

It’s very important that you would follow a low carb keto lifestyle long term. If you do it right, you do it in a healthy way, you’re not gonna only lose weight. You’re gonna feel great, you’ll have so much more energy and mental clarity. You’ll be a new person! I didn’t know what being healthy means before starting keto. I thought always feeling hungry and tired after meals is normal. I thought being bloated 24/7 is normal. I thought having brain fog is normal. I thought that’s simply how my brain is. However, that was simply a result of following a low-fat high-carb diet loaded with grains!

 

After 4 years of doing keto, I no longer think that was normal. Having so much energy, focus, being able to work until late hours, not feeling hungry, tired, or being bloated, now this is the new normal thanks to keto! Maintaining a healthy weight has never been as easy as after learning about the keto diet. It allows me to have a lifestyle where I can eat delicious meals, eat until I’m full, never worry about my calories or my weight.

 

 

How To Make a Low Carb Keto Diet Sustainable?

 

So how do you make keto sustainable? Simple. Ignore everyone who tells you to count your calories, your carbs, and track all that you eat using food tracking apps. If you do that, you’ll most likely end up being fed up with all this and quit keto. Does it sound sustainable, recording every bite of food that you eat for the rest of your life? It sounds unsustainable and unrealistic. So don’t go that road. Instead of overcomplicating keto, look for ways to make it easier to follow. Keto should become intuitive.

 

The key to making a keto diet sustainable and make the results last, you need to learn how to recognise your body’s signals. And it will be a lot easier when you eat only natural whole foods and stop eating refined carbohydrates that drive hunger and cravings. The secret to feeling full and satisfied is eating foods that are high in nutrients and that are calorie-dense. And making sure your meals contain enough fibre, fat, and protein. This will naturally result in feeling full for longer, than after eating a bowl of white rice. Refined carbs make you want to eat more and make you hungry sooner after meals.

 

 

Will You Lose Weight Without Counting Your Calories on Keto?

 

So, will you lose weight without counting your calories and eating only when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full? Eating more fat Yes, you will. Studies show, even with a higher number of calories, people on the keto diet, lose more weight than people on a low-fat diet. This happens because keto puts you in a fat-burning mode. You expend more calories, on average, 300 extra calories a day, by simply following keto. Keto lowers your fat-storage hormone insulin. Carbs increase the fat-storage hormone insulin.

 

 

So, forget about counting calories, your body will do the math for you. To lose weight, you simply need to follow your body and eat only natural whole foods that are keto-approved. If you’re still not convinced that counting calories is useless, watch my YouTub video where I talk about Calories on the Keto Diet and Weight Loss.

 

 

What Foods To Eat and What Foods to Avoid on a Healthy Keto Diet?

 

Now, what foods to eat and what foods to avoid, to help you start a low carb keto diet correctly in 2021? Avoid all the grains and grain products, sugar, fruit, refined vegetable oils, artificial sweeteners, other starchy foods. Avoid foods such as pasta, rice, bread, quinoa, lentils, oats, chickpeas, beans, bananas, oranges, apples, ice cream, diet sodas, regular sodas, breakfast cereal, whole grains, refined grains. Other starchy foods such as potatoes. Anything that is high in sugar or in starch.

 

 

It may seem that you need to avoid all carbs. But that’s not true. You can eat plenty of truly healthy complex carbs such as non-starchy veggies. So when someone says – “You don’t eat any vegetables on the keto diet, it’s unhealthy!”, they are totally wrong. There are plenty of low carb keto vegetables, that are low in sugar and starch. The general rule is to eat only veggies that grow above the ground and avoid the ones that grow below the ground. Avoiding foods with more than 5g of net carbs per 100g, with a few exceptions here and there.

 

List Of The Best Low Carb Veggies.

 

The best low carb keto veggies include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bell peppers, tomatoes, avocados, celery, cucumber, courgette, aubergine, green beans, brussels sprouts, leeks, spinach, and kale. You should eat these non-starchy veggies with each of your meals. I see many people not eating any vegetables on keto and replacing them with fillers such as low-carb bread, which simply makes keto a lot less healthy. You can read my other blog post where I explain How To Create Healthy Low Carb Keto Meals That Are Based On Non-Starchy Veggies.

 

 

You can have carrots, onions, butternut squash, and beets in moderation if you want. These are higher in starch, but are still quite low in carbs and can be consumed on a low carb diet. If you need to add ½ an onion to your soup of beef stew, it’s fine. It’s ok to occasionally switch between low carb and low carb keto. It’s great if you can stick with strict keto with 50g of carbs a day for the rest of your life, but if you do want some more variety in your diet, you can occasionally include more carbs and have 60 or even 70g of carbs a day. Most importantly, you should make low carb eating your new lifestyle, and learn how to live without sugar and high carb foods.

 

 

Then, the best keto fruits include berries and lemons. Tomatoes, avocados, and olives are also considered to be fruits, but I included them in the non-starchy veggies, I don’t know how about you, but I would call them vegetables, not fruits. You can have berries such as currants, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, lingonberries, cranberries, mixed berries, and blueberries daily. Add them to your smoothies or desserts. Berries should be organic or wild whenever possible, as they are often heavily sprayed with pesticides.

 

The Best Keto Sweeteners.

 

Then, the best keto sweeteners are stevia, monk fruit, and erythritol. I recommend getting minimally processed ones. These 3 sweeteners are safe and healthy, and they don’t raise your blood glucose or insulin. Stay away from artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or sucralose, they have been linked with sugar cravings, weight gain, brain shrinkage, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and a dozen of other conditions. In baking, Splenda can easily be replaced with erythritol. Stevia and Monk fruit are great for raw desserts, coffee, tea, etc.

 

 

The Best Keto Fats.

 

Then, the best keto fats and oils include grass-fed butter, ghee, extra virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and avocado oil. Feel free to eat olives, avocados, high-quality cheese. These are all great sources of fat. Avoid refined vegetable oils at any cost. They are high in inflammatory omega 6 fats, they get oxidised (rancid) easily, and they create a lot of issues in the body. Watch my video explaining The Top 11 Worst Foods That Everyone Should Avoid, refined vegetable oils are on the list.

 

 

The Best Keto Protein Sources.

 

To know how to start a keto diet in 2021, you need to have the right amount and the right type of protein. The best keto protein sources include beef, pork, lamb, fatty fish, chicken with the skin, duck, organ meat, and eggs. Some of the best vegan protein sources include organic tofu and tempeh. Just remember, animal protein sources must be either grass-fed, organic, or wild. What animals eat, determines the nutritional composition and the overall healthiness of their products. What if you can’t afford organic meat? Eat mainly small wild oily fish such as anchovies or sardines, or organic eggs. That’s not too expensive.

 

 

Here Are A Few of My Low Carb Keto Meal Examples, to Make Sure You Know How To Start A Keto Diet in 2021.

 

Now, let’s get to the meal example part. I’ll show you a couple of my clean keto meal examples that are easy to prepare. For breakfast, I typically have a keto coffee, which is a coffee with butter, coconut oil and stevia, blended together. And I have it with a piece of dark chocolate. Then, I have another keto coffee closer to noon.

 

 

I have lunch, which is typically some raw non-starchy veggies, a salad with bell peppers or tomatoes, and greens, olive oil, and a serving of meat, fish, or eggs. And I have some cheese, olives, or some fermented veggies on the side. So how to start a keto diet in 2021? Increase your fats, decrease your carbs, swap junk food for healthy natural whole foods. There’s nothing too complicated.

 

 

Then, for dinner, I normally have some cooked veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, or courgettes, with organic meat such as pork or beef. And I add some grass-fed butter to my veggies. And I have a smoothie with organic greens such as kale or spinach, and half a lemon, and 1 or 2 kefir desserts, with organic kefir, stevia, berries, and chia seeds.

 

 

And hey, I’m not counting anything, I’m in ketosis and I feel great. Keto doesn’t have to be overcomplicated, keep it simple. I hope you have a good idea of how to start a keto diet in 2021. And hey, if you’re seeing eating veggies and thinking about eating them makes you sick, keep in mind that your taste receptors will change. So give it some time and be open-minded about trying new meals.

 

If you found this guide on how to start a keto diet in 2021 useful, and you would like to get more help and support for starting a low carb keto diet correctly, I also coach people online, feel free to join my Keto and Intermittent Fasting Online Health and Weight Loss Coaching Program.

 

 

A Quick Recap on How To Start a Keto Diet in 2021?

 

• Reduce your carbs to around 50g of net carb a day.
• Eat non-starchy vegetables with each of your meals.
• Avoid junk food.
• Choose high-quality organic/grass-fed/wild full-fat protein sources.
• Use organic/grass-fed/extra virgin fats and oils.
• Don’t count your calories.
• Don’t use food tracking apps.
• Don’t go back to your old eating habits after 30 days.

 

 

Thanks so much for reading this blog post explaining how to start a keto diet in 2021. Good Luck!