How I started this "diet" and how it became my lifestyle

I started this diet as a challenge of my boyfriend and I was really skeptical about the idea of removing all the carbs from my diet. On that time I wasn't consuming lactose and gluten produces already, so in the end was pushing it a bit more.

When both of us decided to start this diet we made something that I recommend to everyone when starting something different, that is reading about it. We bought several books about ketogenic diet and low carb effects, we read medical papers about it and searched medical opinions. So we were totally informed about what was it and more important we knew about all the stages that the body and metabolism goes through while under this diet so we decided to make blood tests before starting and during the diet just to make sure of certain parameters as cholesterol and thyroid function. Basically we decided to be the guinea pigs of ourselves. In conclusion...our blood tests results improved a lot, even if we were inside all the parameters before starting the diet, these values improved.

My diet is based in a ketogenic diet so is high fat, moderate protein and low in carbohydrates.

My consumption nowadays of net carbs is around 150 gr per day but when I started I tried to not have more than 25 maximum 50 gr per day and I found it really hard because carbohydrates are present in fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc.

The important thing is while under this diet we have to increase the intake of fats (good fats off course) but I was so scared of the fat, due to all the taboos that fat makes you fat, that in the beginning was hard to adjust my brain to this new idea. As soon as I started to increase my fat intake with things as bulletproof coffee, butter, coconut oil, avocados and fat fish, I had such a boost in my energy levels that was amazing that even my concentration increased and because the fat makes you feel full, I stopped to crave food and sweets.

This diet is currently used to treat some diseases as diabetes or even cancer but is even more used by high endurance athletes like runners and cyclists because when the body is keto-adapted it starts to run under ketones produced by the liver that is a stronger fuel than any glucose intake.

After few months under ketogenic diet I felt amazing with better skin, improved metabolism, I stopped feeling bloated and my food intolerances reduced a lot, but as ketogenic diet was too strict and I didn’t had any health condition that justified to be under ketosis I decided to start to increase the net carbs on my diet.

Nowadays I consider that I am under a LCHF diet with a ketogenic background as I increased the net carbs but I still don't consume grains, legumes, starch or even fruit with high net carbs and high sugar level. I feel great without them so I don’ see the point of introducing them again, however some diets consider that it does not hurt to consume them and that is why in a plaeo diet or in a normal low carb diet they are still present.

You can read about ketogenic and paleo-diets in the Internet. For ketogenic diet I used a lot this website http://ketodietapp.com and the book “Real Meal Revolution” of Professor Tim Noakes is still the “bible” of my diet.

After few months what started to be a diet passed to be a lifestyle and I don’t miss anything and I don’t crave, however when I go on holidays I do not deprive myself of trying something that has carbs or sugar as I know that soon I will be back to my healthy lifestyle. 

I believe that when we live in a prohibitive diet it will never last, so I strongly support that we should allow ourselves to have days free of rules and I prefer to have these ones when I go on holidays.

Every time that I go back to Portugal I love to enjoy a coffee with our cream custard.

In the end what matter is that life is good and we should take care of ourselves in a daily day basis to be able to live it in full and always smiling J

Namaste