Improvement Warrior Fitness



What is the ketogenic diet?Welcome to the challenge that is going to change your life!The ketogenic diet has been known as many different names. From people trying to throw their own personal spin or marketing around it. Names like Ketogenic DietKeto DietLow Carb High Fat (LCHF)Nutritional KetosisFat Burning Diet Carb Nite Primal Keto Wahl’s ProtocolAnd now the 47-day Ketogenic Diet Challenge! The list can go on and on and it with mixes and matches. But when it comes down to it, the ketogenic diet is a nutrition lifestyle plan that revolves around getting fat as the majority of your calories each and every day. I don’t like the fact that ‘diet’ is associated with Keto, because this is not a diet. You will not starve ever on this challenge or as a lifestyle. As opposed to the way you feel and treat your body when you go on an actual ‘diet’. SUGAR TO FAT BURNERThis is the primary reason to go ketogenic. For years I preached be a fat burning machine by doing interval and strength training and eating over 50% of your calories from carbs. You can’t burn fat if insulin is present in the body. Insulin is driven by blood sugar. Blood sugar is driven by carbs. Insulin drives fat stores up. There is a whole host of other things happening, but that is the cliff notes version. Carbs>Increase Blood Sugar>Releases Insulin>Drives Body Fat Storage UpSo what we are trying to do with the ketogenic diet:Control the blood sugars: we do that we control insulin; therefore we control hunger levels. Then we want to deplete the glycogen levels, which is stored carbs. Located in muscle and liver. The body is smart and we can never completely deplete these levels down 100%. So a little bit will still be left for ‘emergency. Then the body will start to use fat as fuel and it will tap into your own fat stores to use that as fuel. And you can never deplete your fat stores and you would never want to because some fat is essential and too little body fat is not healthy in the long run. WHAT IS A KETONE?Ketones are the energy by-product when your body converts from sugar to fat burner. A molecule of glucose (which is what your body turns carbs into when they get digested) has the ability to produce 38 ATP. And from a molecule of fatty acid it’s able to produce 146 ATP. ATP basically provides you with your energy and intensity level. If your exercise isn’t INTENSE enough, no changes coming. But as you can see ketones has the ability to produce about 4 times more energy. More on that when we get to exercise. WHAT HAPPENS DURING KETO ADAPTION?Being Keto adapted means you are using ketones or fat as your fuel source. So you literally start using fat as your fuel source, and burning your own body’s stores as well. But you have to eat! You have to consume enough calories to fuel the fat burning process. HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?This is going to be the big issue. Every person is different. A lot of it will depend on your nutrition going in. If you are consuming carbs all day long right now, it’s going to take a little longer, and the initial days are not going to be all that great. So with that said some people take as little as a week and some can take up to 6 weeks. But that’s why I’ve created this challenge to basically guide you step by step into getting into Nutritional Ketosis! I’m going to be giving you the tools you need to get into NK ASAP. Because once you are in that is when the benefits start. More on those soon. The first stage is the toughest, this is when your body is still running on glucose and the ketone production isn’t great enough to be running off of fat yet. Most important thing to do at this time is eat fat and a lot of it. Once you do become keto-adapted then you can back down a bit, but if you don’t consume the fat during this first stage your going to be hungry and feel a little off. And more fat is really the only thing you can eat more of and not hurt your keto-adaption process. THIS IS NOT A LOW CARB DIETTo get Keto adapted you need to adjust your macronutrients. >>>>Protein>>>>>Fat>>>>>>CarbsThis is not a low carb diet. If you’ve done low carb before and it didn’t work then you probably weren’t in ketosis—your fat was probably way too low and protein way too high. Of the macronutrients to adjust----- carbs is the most important to adjust and lower sustainably. Because carbs spike blood sugar which spikes insulin. Too much of that and you can’t get into ketosis. You can’t run off of ketones and glucose, the body will pick glucose over ketones every time, but that’s our fault not our bodies. Carbs have never been more present and readily available then right now!The other thing that needs to change is fat consumption. What I tell people who eat a standard American diet or non-veggie carbs with every meal or snack is you need to think about fat now like you used to think about carbs, and vice versa. So carbs are going way down and a lot will be completely eliminated because this is a whole food plan. And fat is going to go way up!!Before fat comes your protein. This is not a high protein diet, either. The body can covert too much protein over into glucose through gluconeogenesis. So it is a moderate protein diet. There is a section below that goes over gluconeogenesis in greater detail. I consume anywhere between 60-90 grams of protein per day, that’s it! I’m usually anywhere between 172-180 pounds. And sometimes I go as low as 50 grams of protein! I used to do that in a meal!Protein can take you out of ketosis if you eat too much. I used to preach for years at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or more. Thinking the body needs protein to build lean muscle tissue and to get stronger. Pound for pound I’m the strongest I’ve ever been in my life. Now on to fat!Fat is big. It is tasty and yummy. Low fat is dull, bland, and boring- it needs a lot of spicing up for it to taste good. Fortunately or unfortunately, whichever way you perceive it. You have been lied to about fat for over 50 years now. Being ketogenic with fat means at least 50% up to 90% of your total calories coming from fat. Ratios are going to vary depending on each person. Which is why I’m here to help. Some can handle more carbs, some can handle more protein, and some need less fat. Don’t worry I’m going to help you out with exactly what you need to eat, recipes, and a whole lot more info….. SO buckle Up and enjoy the ride on the Keto train!Gluconeogenesis: More InformationJust some more information about gluconeogenesis. It’s such a big word, and it’s cool to say but it’s really nothing more then some of our body’s cells having the ability to convert non-glucose particles into glucose to be used as fuel by the body.It occurs in the cells of our livers and kidneys. The liver to a bigger extent then the kidneys since the liver is the major authority of controlling and regulating our glucose levels in our blood. The major things that can be used to convert into glucose are: 1. Pyruvate 2. Lactate 3. Glycerol 4. Amino Acids (protein). Lactate is created when we exercise with great intensity, so weight training, intervals or other high volume type activities that produce lactic acid. This is one of the reasons WHY you should never test your ketone levels after this type of exercise, because the body will convert that lactate into glucose to help fuel the ATP in our cells that is needed for certain types of exercise. More on testing ketones later. Lactate doesn’t transform directly into glucose; it must be transformed into pyruvate, which then undergoes gluconeogenesis (GNG), which then turns into glucose. Amino Acids we get from protein type foods. Just like Lactate they cannot transform directly into glucose; they must also be converted to pyruvate and then through GNG turned into glucose. Oxaloacetate molecules can also help to transform amino acids into glucose. Why does our body need GNG? It’s because we can only store a certain amount of sugar inside our body. In our blood, fluid found in cells (cytoplasma) and fluid found in our tissue we can store about 20 grams of sugar (or carbs converted in our body). We also have glycogen, which is stored carbohydrate. We can store up to about a maximum of 100 grams of this in our liver and between 200-400 grams in our muscles. This will vary greatly depending on the person, how well they are trained, male/female, size of muscles, activity level, and some other factors. So you see why carb loading 1000 carbohydrates really won’t do much except put a bunch of sugar in the body. Once the glycogen levels are filled they are filled. Think of a gas tank, if your max capacity is 10 gallons, putting 11 gallons in will overfill it and the excess will pour out on your car and the ground. Well, the excess glucose will get shuttled into the fat cells; making them bigger and fatter. Gluconeogenesis is pretty much something that helps a person who is a sugar or carb burner. Our brain requires somewhere around 100-160 grams of carbohydrates per day to function properly. I used to always recommend a minimum of 130 grams per day based on this number (which isn’t actually based on science). But what GNG and what most people don’t take into account is that ketones are a much cleaner and efficient fuel then glucose for your entire body not just your brain. But if we convert too much of the 4 things that can convert into glucose we will be taken out of ketosis; your body can either run on glucose or ketones—NOT BOTH. It will choose glucose over ketones every time because it’s an easier fuel to use for the body. This is why we want to limit our amount of overall protein on a ketogenic diet. KETO FLU & OTHER SIGNS & SYMPTOMS YOU’RE DOING IT WRONGBefore we start into what to do, I’m going to start off with WHAT NOT TO DO:Consuming too much protein. We covered this a little before as well. Grilled chicken breast is not a keto friendly food. Think about it. 4 oz has about 27-30 grams of protein and only 4 grams of fat. That can kick you out of ketosis. Remember gluconeogenesis, your liver can convert too much protein into glucose. You don’t need, as much protein as you’ve been told, plus fat is protein sparring. So you want to focus on the fatter cuts of meats, in the case of chicken- thighs and wings- yes the YUMMY Parts. Most people who start on the Ketogenic path will not be consuming more then 110-120 grams of protein per day, unless you are a competitive athlete or hard-charging workout person. Not eating enough fatThis is the keystone to being Keto. Again fat will vary anywhere between 50-90% of total calories. I try and stick to between 80-85%.This might be harder then the protein or carb part for a lot of people. And Saturated fat should make up the majority of that, especially if you are not going to follow the vegetarian Keto plan. Remember there is 4 different ‘Keto Plans’, you need to pick one and go for the 47-days (I’m here to help if you need it). We believe that fat is bad for us because of the greatest marketers in the world—Big Food Companies and the US Government (FDA, USDA, ADA, etc…). They’ve fed you a big FAT lie—pun intended. And they still are to this day. You can check out the blog post I did on ‘Fear Of Fat’ Eating too oftenFor years I preached 6 meals a day to become the fat burning machine. I followed this for about 15 years. If glucose is your main fuel it’s hard not too, unless you’ve done so much damage to your body and metabolism you simply don’t get hungry. And this for me was probably the hardest. A lot of times I would be at 8-10 meals a day. I mean it helped me go from 167 pounds to 222 pounds in less then 9 months, but looking back I now realize I was big and huge which is what I wanted, but I was also pre-diabetic consuming anywhere from 400-1000 grams of carbs a day. That’s what I had to do just to maintain that bodybuilding bulk. So this mindset was very tough to stop, when I first started Keto I was still eating 5-6 times a day for the first couple weeks, even though I wasn’t hungry, I still went by the clock of it’s ____ o’clock that means it’s time for meal #1 or it’s time for dinner. Now I’m fine with sometimes as little as 2, but normally it’s 3-4.The longer you can go between meals means the more ketones will build up and be used as fuel. You can read my blog post about the small meals throughout the dayAlso be sure to check out the intermittent fasting and fasting section for more information. Too many carbsTo be in ketosis you need to consume less then 50 grams. Again this will vary as well person to person. You have a carb tolerance level, and this will be based on your previous experience with carbs. Myself, eating, 400-1000 grams a day for years has left me very carb sensitive. So I usually consume around 30 net carbs per day. More on net carbs and total carbs soon. Some people may only get away with less then 15, but most experts agree that getting under 50 to start and then adjusting from there is where to start. Some athletes might be able to get upwards of 100 per day and still be in ketosis. Not enough caloriesCalories are essential to life. But if you ask most people who want to lose weight, how to lose weight their number one answer would be cut calories. And following close behind might be cut the fat, because fat is ‘bad’ and has 9 calories per gram compared to just the 4 that protein and carbs has. I think we can all agree celery is a healthy thing to eat, but if that were all you ate then you would eventually die. Not getting enough calories means you are not getting enough energy to your body. Your body has certain things it needs to do. So give it the energy it needs to do that. You don’t need to count calories on Keto, but you do need to get them in and stay satisfied. More on calories later. Too much stressThis is probably too high in most people. And this is going to be a huge reason why some people simply will not 100% Keto-Adapt and why some will take a lot longer then others to get into Ketosis. We have an entire section dedicated to stress so I won’t get too much into now. Just know that it is huge. Remember the ketogenic diet focuses on health first, being stress free or as close to it as you can is very healthy!Carbs: Gluten and grainsEasily the most important to give up for a ketogenic diet. This includes: breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, oats, cereals, starchy vegetables, high sugar fruit (non-berries), muffins, pancakes, Twinkies, ho-ho’s, donuts, cakes, cupcakes, baked goods. And the list could go on and on. If you are saying ‘whoa where’s my ticket out of here,’ then hold on. All that stuff I just mentioned is sugar. The body turns all carbs into the simplest form to digest and that’s glucose, which is sugar. So a bowl of oatmeal, a piece of bread, a bowl of pasta, a snickers bar, a donut, all turn into the same thing. The BS with complex and simple sugars: They all get turned into sugar. Simple spike blood sugar quicker, but the complex carbohydrates leave your blood sugar levels elevated for longer. Which is worse? Simple sugars will leave you wanting more quicker, but both simple and complex will eventually lead to having to refuel that blood sugar drop. And remember when insulin is present you cannot be producing ketones and you cannot be burning fat. As long as there is in insulin in the body that means it is trying to lower your blood sugars. You can’t burn fat and do that at the same time. Carbs will run out quickly. So if you are a carb-burner/user think of your day like a road trip in a Ferrari going from Los Angeles to New York. Ferrari only gets about 15 miles per gallon. Your going to have to stop and refuel quite a bit and every time you refuel it’s more insulin and fat burning is gone. The body can only store about 100 grams of carbs as glycogen in the liver and about 200-400 grams in the muscle. The muscle glycogen can only be used by the muscle it’s stored in and it cannot re-enter the blood stream. So it would be used for activity like a workout or physical activity. So in essence your liver glycogen is the only thing that can keep your blood sugar levels stable. However, the 100 or so carbs that the liver can store IS NOT enough to make it through the day, especially if you are an active person. That is another reason you have to constantly keep feeding throughout the day, because that liver glycogen is also providing fuel for the brain. The brain uses about 20+% of your total energy throughout the day. So in this way you basically have become locked in a process where you depend on carbs to fuel your body and brain. And every time you do re-feed on carbs you are stopping ketones from ever forming. Metabolic SyndromeWhat is it? 5 factors that if you have 3 of them you have MS. If you have 3 your chances for heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes….. all of the big diseases you never want to get go up by at least 50%. A lot of doctors call this pre-diabetes as well, because most people who have 3 or more eventually get full-blown diabetes. Waist size (40/35”) (men/women)Blood pressure 130/85 or on medsTriglycerides 150 mg/dl or more Fasting glucose 100 or more or on medsHDL--- Under 40/50 (men/women)Each of these is an independent risk factor. If you have one- then start worrying and start making changes! In 2011 approximately 64 million or 34% of the US population had Metabolic Syndrome. I guarantee that number has gone up by the millions and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. The number increases with age too. It is said to affect more then 40% of people in their 60’s and 70’s. Picture above Metabolic Syndrome definition. American on left, Europe on the rightHow do grains and carbs affect each of those?Waist Circumference- carbs lead directly to belly fat. Belly fat is the worst fat you can have. Known as visceral fat. Fat around the organs. So they can’t do what they need to do. That fat constricts them. Visceral fat is huge creator of inflammation. Don’t worry about recommendations for waist size. If you belly sticks out at all, you have too much visceral fat and inflammation inside of the gut, and are insulin resistant (more on IR soon). Blood pressure. Again all that visceral fat constricts. Blood flow to the brain and to the heart doesn’t flow as well. A lot of carbs also makes your body hold on to sodium more causing a bloating look and feel--- in essence making your fat look and feel fatter. Triglycerides. When insulin is present in the body, the fatty acids floating in your body (or the ketones) stop floating around in your blood stream—which is what you want—and they get forced back into the fat cells, ending up as triglycerides and increasing the size of your fat cells. This is a process known as de novo lipogenesis (DNL). DNL is reported to be intensified in cancer tissues, damaged cells and virus infected cells. TG is an independent risk factor for basically every disease you never want to get. So it’s important to know what your triglycerides are. Fasting glucose. Fasting glucose levels of 100—watch out! If it’s over 125 then that is the current threshold for identifying if you have diabetes or not. Even if it’s not over 125, if it’s over 100 then you are a pre-diabetic and your chances of heart disease go up 300%. The Cleveland clinic now uses fasting blood glucose over 90 mg/dl as their marker for intervention now. And what do you think the intervention is for lowering blood glucose levels---- lowering carbs. HDL Cholesterol- too many carbs lower the ‘good’ HDL and increase the bad LDL. We’ll talk much more on cholesterol here in a bit as it is one of my passions to talk about in terms of nutrition. Insulin Resistance--- If you have metabolic syndrome then you definitely have insulin resistance (IR). IR is defined as a diminished response to a given concentration of insulin produces less then the expected biological effect.By now you should know what leads to insulin----- Dietary carbohydrate>blood sugar>insulin response. As Dr. Stephen Phinney says ‘Insulin Resistance can be more accurately described as Carbohydrate Intolerance.’So now you have something to play with. Instead of being told you have IR, a lot of people don’t know what to do. And apparently the American Diabetes Association knows what to do--- eat more carbs and take more insulin……But that to me is just silly and stupid. Yes, I called the ADA stupid. And I would to their face. If you now say you have Carbohydrate Intolerance, it’s pretty clear what you need to do!Cut the Carbs!Severely!And not just cut the carbs but also add delicious body nourishing fat. But in the medical world and especially with diabetic patients they continue to force carbs are good and healthy while injecting with medications and insulin. You’re hard pressed to ever find ketogenic or low carbohydrate mentioned in any medical literature. And for good reason, and just like cholesterol you will see when we get to it----- MONEY. Total estimated costs of treating diabetes in 2012 was $245 Billion for diagnosed diabetes. $176 in direct medical care and $69 billion in lost productivity. A 41% increase since 2007. And it’s going to keep going up for a while. Doctors keep getting paid, insurance companies keep getting paid, and the big pharmaceutical companies keep getting paid over and over again as long as their patients keep coming. Diabetes Type 2 would be a thing of the past if those patients started restricting carbs. Metabolic syndrome as well. If you are a type 2 diabetic or know someone who is and their doctor is treating the diabetes then it is time to find a new doctor. One that is going to reverse and cure it, because it is possible to do. ‘A doctor should never tell a patient that they have a terminal disease. They should say my knowledge of the situation has terminated and it’s time for you to find a solution.’ - Les Brown‘Managing the metabolic mayhem in someone with insulin resistance by increasing dietary carbohydrates is like using a flame-thrower to fight a house fire.’Dr. Stephen PhinneyIR is also a huge issue with inflammation that we will discuss in another section. As long as your cells are resistant to insulin then your body will basically be bathing in a pool of chronic inflammation. What’s causing that inflammation? Yup- Carbs!In order to cut the insulin resistance out of your life, it’s important to cut the carbs, basically going Keto. This at the same time will repair any of the 5 factors of metabolic syndrome as well as keep blood sugar levels stable. This in turn will produce the best results in terms of fat loss, weight loss, and getting to your body and health goals. You have to understand that in order to keep those issues mentioned at bay, and the benefits that follow it, then some type of low carb approach will need to be applied as a lifestyle.The 47-Day Keto Challenge is the Launchpad to that lifestyle. GlutenWhat is it? Protein found inside of wheat, barley, kamut, etc….. Gives stretchiness or doughtiness. In my opinion everybody should be on gluten free diet. 2 reasons. #1—how it affects your gut. A lot of people have celiac disease and gluten sensitivity; Meaning they cannot handle it very well if at all. There is also something called non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity. Some people are calling Gluten sensitivity and non-Celiac gluten sensitivity a bunch of bull. But these people also have no idea what it is doing to the small intestine. Plus every single one of the gluten containing products does one thing: They raise your blood sugar!Just because you don’t have gut issues, digestive issues, or even celiac disease or gluten sensitivity at the age of 20 or 30 doesn’t mean you won’t get it at 50 or 60!The main thing we’re talking about here is wheat and whole grains. Because how many people have eaten bulgur. What is bulgur? And the gluten-free section is just as bad if not worse then whole grains, because most of it is made out of corn or soy or some other flower. But again it is all carbohydrates. And what all Carbohydrates do is Spike blood sugar levels and that releases insulin which basically starts the cascade of health deterioration especially if done over and over and over again throughout the week, throughout the day, throughout the month and throughout the years.The actual surface area of your gut is more then 250 meters squared which is about the size of a tennis court. Let me say that again- THE SIZE OF A TENNIS COURT! Inside your gut! This is where your intestinal tract digests and absorbs the nutrients it needs for energy and also gets rid of the waste it doesn’t. There are new studies showing that the ‘gut’ is more metabolically active then the liver; and the liver is considered by many experts to be the most metabolically active organ. The higher the carbohydrate and toxins ingested (gluten is a toxin) the higher increase in absorption of bacterial endotoxins and that starts off a cascade of bad things in the liver. Inflammation starts a pathway that increases the work of the liver. The number of people, especially overweight or obese people, with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing every year. And one of the biggest causes is consumption of processed carbs and gluten. NAFLD is started by a number of reasons but two of the biggest reasons are reduced sensitivity to insulin and also inflamed adipose tissue (fat tissue). The liver gets overworked and can’t deal with it properly; much like what happens in Type 2 Diabetes when the pancreas gets overworked. Gut health issues are even more prevalent in overweight, obese and people with diabetes. And it gets worse the higher the disease severity gets. #2- Second reason why everybody should be gluten-free is the neurological Damage. Gluten affects everybody through the brain. There is a reason why Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are now a top 10 killer in United States and both of those diseases actually cost more to treat then cancer in the United States.Alzheimer’s and dementia is not an old person disease, it is not a genetic disease, it is a nutritional disease. They are now calling Alzheimer’s disease type three diabetes. It is completely preventable, unfortunately it is not reversible. So once you get it you got it. There are ways to reduce the symptoms, and that of course is controlling blood sugar levels, which the ketogenic diet will do.Studies have shown that 1 in 100 will go through life without any cognitive decline. It’s estimated that well over half a million people will die from Alzheimer’s each year which would make it the 3rd leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer in the U.S. The cost of Alzheimer’s and Dementia to treat is more then double that of cancer, because once you get either you got them for life—it is not reversible, but IT IS preventable! Much like heart disease, brain decline and disease takes decades to develop. Lifestyle is your biggest reason you get or don’t get a major chronic disease. Having diabetes doubles your risk for getting Alzheimer’s. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2013 showed that even a blood sugar level elevation of around 105-110 is associated with an elevated risk for dementia. Dr. David Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain and Brain Maker (two books I highly recommend), says that the optimal fasting blood glucose levels are between 70-85 with the maximum being 95 mg/dl. If you are in nutritional ketosis achieving these numbers is nothing out of the ordinary. Although your doctor might think otherwise. When we get into the fat section we’ll talk more about everything, but the switch from fat to low-fat especially around the time of the 1980’s, is one of the main causes of the epidemic of the Brain disease that we have now. Your brain needs fat. It doesn’t need processed carbs and gluten. Dementia is the pre-cursor to Alzheimer’s disease. My grandmother died from it. At beginning of her acquiring she didn’t recognize me and she would not let me into her home. I thought I was on one of those camera reality shows. I even showed her my driver’s license; she told me to give it back. Brain diseases literally kills a person before they are dead. You are caring for someone who has little to no recognition of you. All those moments that you’ve had with that person are gone for them. 1 in 9 Americans over the age of 65 ends up with Alzheimer’s disease. And that does not include dementia and just general cognitive decline (memory loss, brain fog, etc..) And those are the ones that make it to 65. Many will die from some other chronic disease (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, auto-immune disease, etc…..) This is serious stuff! Spread the word!InflammationInflammation opens you up to everything. A little bit is good, but we want it to be acute, so we want it to come and then go. Unfortunately a lot of people are in a chronic state of inflammation due to the foods that they eat, the chemicals they put in and on their body in the forms of cosmetics, creams, moisturizers, and the environment. Guess what causes inflammation via diet? Yes. Carbs! Especially processed carbs. Whole wheat bread is processed; it doesn’t magically appear cut up in slices and in a nice little baggie. The belly fat is a huge deliverer of inflammation. The more Visceral fat the more inflammation. High blood sugar causes more inflammation. Gluten and grains and sugar all cross the blood brain barrier causing inflammation in the brain. Remember Alzheimer’s and Dementia. This is also why it’s very hard to get off that stuff because it affects the same reward center that nicotine, cocaine, heroine, and caffeine affect. Cholesterol and other antioxidants is a big fighter against inflammation. Problem is on a diet high in carbs you could be causing chronic inflammation all over your body, so basically little civil wars going on at all times. And that’s going to show up in you as something:Person A could be brain fog, person B obesity, person C diabetes, person D acne, person E arthritis, etc………..We want to protect our self against inflammation and that requires eating real, whole foods, and a whole lot of good fats!CHOLESTEROLNow moving on to cholesterol. To tie back in to inflammation; your body sends cholesterol among other things to help fight, but if your cholesterol is too low or it’s the wrong type your going to run out, and that’s when the big diseases that nobody wants come up and even premature death. If you remember Tim Russert, CNN host, when he died his cholesterol was 105. I didn’t even know it could get that low. So Yes Cholesterol is important. And having low cholesterol is not good. So why all the hype and marketing to tell us to lower our cholesterol and not eat it?29 Billion. That is the amount of money that was made in 2012 from the drug and cholesterol lowering industry. I’m sure it’s gone up since then. Sales to date from Lipitor up through December 2015 have exceeded $140 billion. And that’s just one drug company and statin. On 4/15/2014 there were 464 claims filed to sue Lipitor for the damages done to the person taking it, by August 2014 it was up to 1162. Cholesterol is one of the most important substances in your body. Without it there would be no life. It’s so important that every single one of your 60-100 trillion cells has the ability to synthesize cholesterol. It’s needed to synthesize the fat-soluble vitamins. I’m sure you’ve heard there is a vitamin D deficiency in 90% plus of the population in the US. No cholesterol, you can supplement all you want with it, it’s not going to help. Infertility is running rampant in the US. #1 cause of infertility is low cholesterol. Cholesterol helps the sex hormones stay in balance. With low cholesterol estrogen usually shoots up higher causing certain types of cancers, body fat gain, infertility, moodiness, etc…. Your brain contains 25% of your total cholesterol. 1/5 of your brain weight is cholesterol. So guess what happens if you do not eat cholesterol and don’t give your brain the fuel it needs….. right.. brain disorders, IQ drops, attention drops, brain fog… the brain controls everything, if it’s not working 100% then nothing in your body is. And that includes fat loss. Knowing your total cholesterol is not really that important. Unless you have a low cholesterol which I consider to be under 200. You need to know your cholesterol particles. What’s a particle: We all know HDL to be the good and LDL to be the bad? Right? NOPE. Not anymore. There is good and bad HDL and LDL. Too much carbs from processed sources is going to cause your cholesterol to turn the majority of your LDL cholesterol into the bad, hard dense LDL. We want large fluffy LDL. And it will also lower HDL. Remember HDL is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome: under 40 for men and 50 for women is bad. It doesn’t take 5,10, 15, 20 years to develop cognitive or brain decline like Dementia or Alzheimer’s, it takes decades. Decades of eating high blood sugar releasing foods. They did a study showing 1 in 100 people will go through life without any brain decline, and that’s because most are eating the S.A.D diet- standard American diet—High carb, low fat and low cholesterol. Guess what increases the large fluffy LDL and the HDL cholesterol—FAT! Yes and especially saturated fat. Saturated fat is usually associated with cholesterol, and not very well. But the fact remains to this day and will always remain that not one single study has ever linked cholesterol and/or saturated fat to increase risk of heart disease. Saturated fat is the most important fat for your body and brain. 2/3 of your brain is made up of fat. And of that fat 25% of that is DHA, which is fish oil or fat from fish. ARE YOU CARB SENSITIVE?Some athletes and highly active people can stay in ketosis with up to 100 grams of carbs. But like I said it is highly variant depending on the person. Myself I usually take in 25-35 net carbs. If you don’t workout, or you are highly carb sensitive, or you have metabolic syndrome, you don’t eat any carbs besides green veggies and fibrous veggies. A typical number given out to get into ketosis is less than 50 grams of net carbs. Before we go on let’s cover net carbs versus total carbs. So say we have an avocado, which is a very friendly keto food. Macros: fat 29 grams, protein 4 grams and carbs 19 grams with about 16 of those coming from fiber. So for net carbs we would subtract the fiber coming out with 3 net carbs. The reason net carbs is introduced is because fiber doesn’t have (usually doesn’t have) a blood sugar response or a very high one. But when starting off it’s best to just measure total carbs and not worry about the net carbs. Because your number one goal is to get into Ketosis!Once you are there then we can start playing with net carbs and even adding in more carbs to see what your actual total carb tolerance is. Also get your Triglycerides tested! This is important. If your TG is over 100 then you are taking in too many carbs. Remember TG’s are an independent risk factor for a lot of things: heart disease, cancers, brain decline, diabetes, inflammation, etc…..You can also tell if your carb sensitive if you get any types of cravings for carbohydrate filled foods. It’s not really carbs your body is craving, even though that’s what you think you want and have programmed yourself to eat when those cravings hit—a habit that needs broken. It’s fat your body is craving. When those cravings come up go for some eggs, bacon, full fat cheese, an avocado, or some nuts/seeds. Cravings gone. We’ll talk about how to measure for nutritional ketosis later. And we’ll talk about what to actually eat. PROTEINThis is very important to get---- The KETO diet is not a high protein diet. Again: Ketogenic Diet is NOT a high protein diet!It is moderate protein. I’ve seen examples between 1-1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. So for my example: 175 lb divided by 2.2= 79.55 kg x 1.5 = 119.So my protein should be somewhere between 79-119. Unfortunately whenever I go over 100 grams of protein or eat too much in one meal to the next my level of ketones goes down. So I like to refine the protein requirements to lean body mass. Using this as an example: 175 x 10% body fat= 17.5 pounds of fat. So I have 157.5 pounds of lean muscle tissue. Now using the equation from above I should be getting:71-107 grams of protein per day. This is more of what I eat. Typically I stay in the range of 60-90. With the average right around 70. We’ve been led to believe we need a lot more protein then we actually do. I use to consume 350-425 grams of protein per day when I was at my biggest. A lot of egg whites, tuna, and grilled chicken and protein powders. And a lot of smelly you know what’s!Here’s what I looked like at my biggest. Averaging around 220-228. Eating up to 1000 carbs a day to maintain that weight. As you can see I wasn’t a very happy camper and who would be eating 6-10 meals a day . IN any given week I consumed between 80-120 egg whites! YIKES!Fat is protein sparring as well, so you simply don’t need as much as you think. I would say 95% of the people reading this will not be going over 100 grams of protein per day. But like carbs it’s important to find your protein tolerance level. The body is smart. Duh! If it needs glucose it can convert protein into the glucose it needs through gluconeogenesis. The body knows exactly how much it needs too, so if you are in ketosis, it will simply take what it needs and be done with it. Adults (when fasting or in ketosis) usually only have about 5 grams of sugar floating around in their bloodstream. And that is the entire bloodstream—about 5 liters in the average adult. Now just think about eating that serving of whole wheat pasta with 42 grams of carbs (sugar, and who eats just one serving). You just added 8.5 times more sugar into the bloodstream then the body normally has. And the same can be done with protein via gluconeogenesis. Although the process won’t result in every gram of protein being converted into glucose. The body takes what it needs, and it’s a lot less then what we’ve been told. So basically your liver will normalize your blood sugar levels when you are not taking in food (sleeping, fasting) using gluconeogenesis to use amino acids, lactate, pyruvate and some fat molecules to create the 5 grams or so of sugar it needs. So really in this way you’ve just learned that the body never needs carbs. Which is the reason why there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. That’s why it’s super important not to over consume protein. It will take your ketones down or take you completely out of ketosis. If you are carb sensitive, like me, then you are probably going to have to be on the lower end of your ratio. A lot of other things will play into your protein intake levels: age, gender, current weight, current body fat, medications, sleep pattern, and other bad habits. When choosing protein sources remember this is a HIGH FAT plan! So no lean turkey, chicken breasts, lean meats of any kind! Eat the full fat version. It tastes better, has more cholesterol and is better you! If your going to eat lean meats make sure you cook it or soak it in good fats. And no egg whites! If you throw the yolk away I will find you! When I think of my younger years where I consumed 80-100 egg whites a week. AGHHHHH!Now back to FAT!This is how you get into ketosis. Obviously there is more to it then that and that’s why you are reading this. I typically consume 2500-3300 calories. This may seem like a lot for a 175-180 pound man and it is. Remember my goal is performance and to increase it. To get stronger, faster, and better conditioned. And to run the best business I can to reach and serve as many people as possible. My vision is to help 3,000,003 people change their lives by 2023! So I need my fuel and food is fuel. And if you like the work I’m doing, please tell someone or 2 or 32 . You can sign up for our 47-Day Ketogenic Diet Challenge Referral program here. And our referral program for our online workout program: LBN Online strength & Fitness workouts here. Calories!Unfortunately, a lot of people think a calorie is a calorie and you need to limit your calories to get the body you want. This is TRUE and also FALSE. It really depends on what you are eating. Like me when I consume 3300 calories on the keto diet I don’t gain weight. That’s because I use the fat as energy right away, and when that fat energy runs out then I start tapping into my own fat stores to use that as energy. That’s really what happens when you consume quality food and nutrients that your body can use as fuel and energy to propel your performance in life, sport, and fun!But when I switch to carbs like in my 30-day carb challenge I put on 6.6 pounds and 4.8% body fat. The 30-day actually turned into just 7 days, read the post to find out why. Actually percentages of calories from fat will vary as well. As low as 50% up to 90% or even 95%. Why so much? Because without it you won’t be able to produce an adequate amount of ketones, and if you eat too much carbs and protein then you’ll have too much glucose. The body can’t operate on glucose and ketones at the same time. It prefers ketones. It’s a better, more efficient fuel. Plus fat is the most satisfying of all macronutrients. Meaning it fills you up the best and for the longest. When you first start on the Keto Challenge you will get hungry more often then you should and that is because you are switching from sugar to fat burner. It will take some time getting rid of all that sugar and switching to ketones. Time is dependent on you and how well you follow the rules. But then once you do reach nutritional ketosis, then you will be able to go a long time in between meals with absolutely no hunger. And no cravings! Because your body is feeding off of ketones and your own body fat. There are things I love to eat on this nutrition plan, but I never, ever crave something where I have to eat this NOW, or I will pull my hair out (maybe I need another analogy ) But anyway, you get the point. If you do find that you are still getting hungry after just 4-5 hours then it’s likely you didn’t eat enough calories and fat at the last meal, or your not drinking enough water. We’ll talk about water later.But you need to eat! Ancel Keys, who is the man behind the whole reason why we fear fat and cholesterol today, did do one thing good in his career. It was called the Great Starvation Diet. It is known as the most comprehensive scientific work on the effects of famine. Of course nowadays it is illegal and unethical to starve people for science, but millions do it anyways in order to get the body they want--- IS IT WORKING? NOPE!Keys took 36 men in November 1944. And for 12 weeks fed them a diet consisting of 3200 calories. And they also kept their normal jobs and walking of at least 22 miles per week. Below Sam Legg before and after.Some results from the starvation:Average weight drop from 152.7 to 115.6Average heart rate dropped from 55 to 35. Metabolism slowing down to conserve calories. 21% reduction in strengthBowell Movements 1 per week on averageBlood Volume Dropped 10%Heart size actually decreasedWhitening of eyeballs due to the blood vessels in the eyes shrinking. (all participants experienced this)Mental decline and depressionDifficulty sitting due to lack of body fat and bones grindingFeeling cold all the time. Didn’t feel they were excessively skinny. Thought everybody else just was fat. (This is same mindset anorexics have)Hungry all the time (or crungy- cranky and hungry)During recovery phase some men couldn’t get satisfied no matter how much they ate. Keys concluded that the amount of calories needed to recover from the starvation phase was 4000 a day. Oh, and the starvation diet, the amount of calories they were consuming daily……..1570. 1570 calories for starvation? Just think about how many ‘diets’ out there have you eating less then that!Yes. You see your body needs calories. Without them you will die! Calories are energy to your bodySo I think we can both agree that calories are essential to life. Just like water, just like cholesterol, just like fat. And there are others, which we will get into here. But I want you to realize everything that you have done to your body previously by cutting calories to lose weight. Go look at those 13 points from the Starvation results above again. Does that ring true for you? Whenever you cut calories to lose weight you are cutting your metabolism, hormones, enzymes, organs off. Your body can’t do it’s job. Your body wants you to thrive in this world, and most people don’t put the fuel in to thrive. They do whatever is possible to lose weight while sacrificing HEALTH!And that’s why I’m so in love with the Ketogenic diet, and hopefully you will be too. Health and restoring it is the number 1 benefit of the Keto diet, weight and fat loss is simply the by-product of your healthy body working correctly. Your weight will naturally fall where it should.Saturated FatThis is the most important fat for your body, brain, heart and health. Forget all the crap you’ve ever heard about it causing this disease or that. It regulates inflammation in the brain and the gut. The 2 most important places. If your brain goes everything else follows, your gut goes same thing. Bones need it to put calcium into bone and not arteries. Raises your good HDL cholesterol. And helps turn your bad LDL into good LDL, and also raises the good LDL. Helps to lower triglycerides. And helps to maintain stable blood sugar levels. Maintaining blood sugar levels is the key to controlling hunger. Saturdated fat is the most effiecient running fuel for our body. Would you put motor oil in your gasoline tank? No! That’s the wrong fuel for your car. Same thing for our bodies! We’ve been putting the wrong fuel in for so long. Unlike a car which will either turn on an engine light or will conk out, or will just not go anywhere; our body is a remarkable miracle. It has the ability to regenerate, to ‘fix’ certain things, to keep going in the face of toxins and poisons being put in—HOWEVER, it eventually breaks down. That break down usually comes in the form of obesity, heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, or another chronic disease. Even before the chronic things come our body keeps sending us signs that something isn’t right. Could be as subtle as a headache here or there, acid reflux, stomach aches, sinuses, joint/muscle pain/aches, brain fog, skin issues, and the list could go on and on.Processed carbohydrates are the wrong fuel. Fat and especially saturated fat are the right fuel. It’s time to wake up and wake up the people who are living in the 1990’s. Low fat is dying and myself as well as hundreds of other nutrition ‘renegades’ won’t stop until it is dead! And when it is dead we won’t be the ‘renegades’ any more. We’ll just be the norm in the nutrition field. Be sure to check out the shopping list section for some good fats containing saturated fats. DHA and Omega-3 FatsSecond most important fat is DHA. There’s a long word for it’s actual name but I can’t pronounce it or spell it.This is the fat you find in fish and seafood, also in fish oil supplements. 2-5% of your body’s total weight is in your brain. 2/3 of your entire brain is made up of fat, and of that two-thirds- 1/4th of that fat is DHA. And 25% of your total cholesterol is in your brain. Don’t eat fat and cholesterol? You see why 1 in 100 people go through life without any cognitive decline now?!So with that you need to be eating seafood. Or getting a supplement of fish oil. If your vegan or vegetarian they make algae based DHA supplements or eat some seawood or algae. The fish you want to avoid is farmed fish and the super high mercury fish like swordfish, whale, shark, mackerel, tilefish. All others are open game. Especially as long as you are getting proper amounts of Selenium. This trace mineral is huge in the protection against mercury toxicity, and fortunately the types of fish most consumed contain more Selenium then mercury. Unfortunately it doesn’t account if you have that mercury injected into you, aka Flu Shots—but that’s another book, and I’m sure you can find information about why you should never, ever get a Flu shot. You have probably heard about fish oils or Omega-3 at some point. There have been numerous studies coming out left and right proving that this supplement works and that it has extremely healthy benefits for everyone that takes it. Fish oil comes from the tissues of cold water fish and is in the category of essential fatty acid (EFA). Which means that they cannot be made by our bodies, they need to be obtained from the diet. Fish oils provide the omega-3 fatty acids, the other EFA is omega-6, which is less important and you need less, but is still essential to get from diet. What Fish Oils and Omega-3 can do for you:FAT LOSS: Studies have proven that Omega-3 improves your body's mechanism to burn fat, mostly in the abdominal region.Reduces inflammation of joints and muscle soreness.Lowers triglycerides and blood pressure, reduces chance of blood clots and risk of stroke.Elevates mood, decreases depression, lowers stressImproved mental functioning?Reduces and slows down aging process?Helps create a stronger immune system and improves digestionHelps to prevent certain types of cancer.Antiarrhythmic: counteracting or preventing cardiac arrhythmiaAntithrombotic: tending to prevent thrombosis (a blood clot within a blood vessel)Antiatherosclerotic: preventing fatty deposits and fibrosis of the inner layer of your arteries from formingAnti-inflammatory: counteracting inflammation (heat, pain, swelling, etc.)Improves endothelial function: a major factor in promoting the growth of new blood vesselsNow with Omega-6 if you eat a typical American diet then you are probably out of whack when it comes to Omega-3 to Omega 6 balance. You want to be in a range of 1:1 to 4:1 (Omega 3 to Omega 6), but here's the kickerMost people are at 1:10 to 1:30!!!!!!!WOW!Too much Omega-6 can lead to inflammation of the body. Which causes a lot of bad stuff to go on, one of the most damaging is it will cause our cells to age prematurely. Causing you to look older then you is. And also feel older then you are.?The Standard American Diet or a diet too high in carbs will cause issues with increasing your Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio. Also consuming what the FDA and USDA consider the ‘healthy’ oils: like soybean, corn, canola, and other vegetable oils. These are some of the most inflammatory and oxidizing substances on the planet and have no part in a healthy Ketogenic Diet Plan. If they’re in your pantry through them away now!Be sure to check out the supplement section for some Omega-3 supplements that work. You do get what you pay for. But remember pretty much all seafood contains Omega-3, some are higher then others so be sure to concentrate on those. Check out the shopping lists for more details. Baking with Almond FlourOne thing I want you to be aware is that I always recommend limiting your amount of things you make with Almond or other nut flours, and even the amount of servings per day of nuts. The amount of Omega-6 to Omega-3’s in almond flour is 12 to 1. For coconut flour it is .7 to 1. Most recipes I switch anything that recommends almond flour out for coconut or flax seed flour. Both of which are cheaper as well. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat almond butter (I’ve once eaten ? of a jar at one sitting- and that’s a Costco jar, not a normal sized one- it’s my weakness ) and I eat nuts as well. But usually I limit my servings to under 3 per day. Plus I always make sure to take more Omega-3 supplements and eat more seafood that day. Here’s a chart comparing the nutrition facts of it below:Myths of ketoThere are a lot of myths out there about Keto and low carb high fat. Let’s smash the big ones right now!1. All it does is lower calories so you lose weight---Remember the example of Starvation Diet? They were mostly fed with carbohydrates and protein and low fat. They started off with 3200 calories, and then during the starvation period 1570 calories. Now as you’ve learned so far, every time you eat carbs (non-fibrous veggies) you spike your blood sugar, which releases insulin to get blood sugar back to normal. Once it does, or it’s almost done accomplishing that, that’s when you start to feel those hunger pangs again. And so you listen to your body and feed it, problem is you probably reached for more carbs starting the cascade again. Well that doesn’t work. Because if you’re hungry you’re going to eat, otherwise you’re going to feel like crap! The difference between eating 1570 calories of high carb versus 1570 of high fat is that fat doesn’t affect blood sugar. No blood sugar, no insulin release, no hunger pangs. How awesome is that?!Now at 1570 even in nutritionally ketosis you still might get hungry, and that’s another benefit of keto your body will tell you that you’re hungry. Don’t ignore these signs; give your body the fuel it needs! FAT!So then, if calories are only eaten when hungry then calories may or may not come down. And the awesome part is you don’t need to count calories, unless you’re a freak like me. Eat carbs get hungry. Don’t eat carbs don’t get hungry. 2. Adrenal Fatigue and HypothyroidismAdrenal fatigue and thyroid health is fast becoming to the forefront of health. And for good reason. If your stressed there’s no possible way to be healthy, lose weight, lose fat, and feel your absolute best. Stress is all around. Some people put it on themselves and some is just a part of life. Negative proponents of Keto think low carb is a huge stress on the body, because they have the belief that carbs are essential for life and brain and energy and to perform. THIS IS WRONG. There is no essential carb. If you do feel tired, get sick a lot, fatigued, then it probably is something more that was present before you went Keto…… It could be a sleep issue, it could be too much caffeine or other stimulants. Being in state of ketosis you are eliminating inflammatory foods, which has a huge affect on your adrenal glands and stress response within and without your body. Your thyroid is one of the main controllers of your metabolism. So both (thyroid & metabolism) are pretty important. Some negative proponents of Keto have claimed that it causes people to have hypothyroidism. Which is where one thyroid hormone cannot be easily converted into another thyroid hormone (usually t4 to t3) Usually when people go on a ketogenic diet their thyroid functioning improves. But on blood tests the numbers actually go down, this isn’t a bad thing, it just means that the body and thyroid are functioning better. It is really the number of calories that are being consumed. If enough are being consumed then hypothyroidism is not an issue. Not consuming enough calories on any type of diet will result in thyroid function going down, because just like in the starvation diet the metabolism will start to slow and that is your body’s protection mechanism against ‘starvation’. Even if you think you are not ‘starving’ your body does—it needs and wants fuel--- that’s why it’s stupid to cut calories to lose weight. I’m not calling YOU stupid per se if you’ve done that before but now you know and you will never ever let yourself ‘starve’ again. A lowered thyroid is a marker for improved metabolic functioning and even desirable for longevity. The thyroid doesn’t have to work as hard when ketones are our primary source of fuel as compared to when glucose is our primary fuel. More Ketone Power!3. There is not enough fiber on a ketogenic diet Whole grains are loaded with fiber, does that make it healthy?No!Just like slapping the word ‘Organic’ on something doesn’t make it healthy. They do have organic animal crackers now (sarcasm oozing).You get plenty of fiber from vegetables. All you need actually. And if you like to bake or cook with different types of keto approved flours (coconut, flax, almond, etc…) then you are going to be getting some extra fiber as well. One of my favorite go-to meals for wife, daughter and myself is our Keto pancakes. Yes Pancakes! At least 2-3 times a week. Topped with grass-fed butter, cream cheese, or nut butter these are delicious and healthy and you never go back to your gluten filled bloat type of pancakes again. Plus they travel well. You can check out the recipe here. These made with coconut or flax seed flour pack a whollup of fiber!If you do get constipated on the Keto diet, make sure you are getting at least 5 or more servings of veggies a day. I shoot for 7+ and usually get around 10-15. Keto for me I eat more veggies then protein as far as amount. If your veggie intake is NOT adequate then you probably are lacking water and some electrolytes (more on that later). 4. There’s not enough nutrients on KETOLike I said for me Keto is like a vegetarian diet with some protein. I eat a lot of veggies. More then most vegetarians I would say, and most vegetarians’ diets are not that healthy because they’re still doing grains, corn, soy and other vegetarian food-like substances. Other things you don’t think of having a lot of nutrients like meats, eggs, high quality butters and cooking fats, nuts/seeds, and other things bring the nutrition punch that even vegetables or fruits can’t even bring. Plus they help you absorb the Fat Soluble vitamins- A, D, E, and K. Without fat or too low in fat you will not be able to absorb these nutrients, which will lead to deficiency. Standard America Diet is low fat; how many do you think are nutrient deficient?Some people particularly point out that you won’t get enough vitamin C. Since fruits are to be very limited especially when trying to get into ketosis where are you going to get vitamin C? You get it from dark leafy veggies and other low carb veggies like peppers and cauliflower. Also eating low carb lowers your need for vitamin C. Vitamin C and carbohydrates fight for supremecy through the same metabolic pathways which increases your need for this nutrient. Also you can check out the research study of Dr. Stefansson who studied the Inuit Eskimos in Alaska in the early 20th century. No fruits or vegetables growing there. He consumed between 2000-3100 calories with only 7-12 grams from carbs daily. He lived this way for 9 years. You can find the study here. Reason this was found to be is because a lot of the animals he was eating have the ability to produce vitamin C internally inside their skin. Here’s a chart of some vegetables and fruits with vitamin C. The other nutrient that people complain a lot about and not being able to get on a ketogenic diet is Calcium. HERE. Your mostly just losing water and muscle weight People think that low carb is good for weight loss, but a lot still think it’s just water and muscle. Both of those things are vital for metabolism and vitality. When someone switches from a carb-based diet to a fat based diet then YES, you will lose water weight and some fat and some muscle. And that’s because carbs are inflammatory, they make you hold on to water more. Causing the bloated look. When you switch to higher fat the kidneys excrete more water and sodium, decreasing the bloated look, decreasing water weight. This will happen especially in the first stage as you begin your Keto-adaption, so it is very very very very important that you get enough water and sodium (salt). There is an entire section about both coming up. But eventually the body will normalize and start to burn ketones and body fat while preserving or even increasing lean muscle tissue. This is the reason you need to drink more water and eat more good quality salt on Keto. It will give you heart disease and clog your arteries. This is probably the #1 myth out there and that’s because most people associated fat and cholesterol with heart disease and clogged arteries. As you have learned so far it’s not the case. The carbs are the one that are doing the clogging. There has never been one time where fat and/or cholesterol has been linked to an increase in heart disease or plaque buildup in the arteries. And there never will. And that is because fat isn’t the enemy. Nor cholesterol. A couple of studies have shown that the ketogenic diet improves quite a bit the blood markers that really make a difference in chronic disease. While there are tons of other studies showing that a diet high in carbs is highly correlated with the reverse of those markers; in particular Hemoglobin A1c levels. HA1C is a measurement of your average blood sugar levels over the past 3 months. The higher the level = the higher correlation of heart disease. Measuring for ketosisThere are several ways to measure for ketosis. Some have their cons and pros. But first you need to understand the types of ketones that can be measured. There are 3: Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB)- main ketone in blood. Acetone- main ketone in breath. Acetoacetate (AcAc)- main ketone in urine. The one I use is acetone, the breath ketone. I purchased a Ketonix Sport breathalyzer from Amazon and love it. I measure my ketones several times throughout the day. You just plug it into your USB on your computer, wait until it charges then blow into it for 15-30 seconds. It lights up with different colors depending on your level of ketosis. I actually just checked Amazon and it looks like it’s not available anymore. But it may be back soon. Just google it. The one you do not want to do is measure your ketones through the urine strips. Please read that again, because we’ve had several people still purchase these. They are cheap and they are a good way when first starting, but once you are actually in ketosis they won’t work. And that is because once you are adapted ketones in the urine tend to disappear. So if you measure no ketones in the urine, you still could very well be in ketosis. Plus the ketone urine strips were set up to measure much higher levels of ketosis like someone who is diabetic and having diabetic ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis was one of the major reasons I was one of the Debbie Downers about Keto and is still a reason a lot of people are. So overall review: Stay away from urine measurementKetoacidosis is a serious, life-threatening condition that occurs mostly in type one diabetics but some type 2. It is a loss of the use of beta cell function in which the body has simultaneously high blood sugar levels and high ketone levels.It’s often confused with ketosis. And again was the reason I didn’t do ketosis and bad mouthed it for years. That was the close minded me.?The other accurate method tends to be Beta-Hydroxybutyrate or the ketone in the blood. You can measure these by getting a blood ketone monitor. I myself haven’t looked for these because I got the ketonix, but apparently they are hard to find in stores because again they are not really marketed towards people doing a ketogenic diet for health, but rather the Diabetic community to test if they are in diabetic ketoacidosis.I’d look on Amazon or drug companies online. The device is cheap, but the strips to measure are not. Costs range from $2-6. I measure my ketones at least 2x a day and sometimes up to 5. So you could see how that could become quite a investment that I’d rather spend on good quality food. And it also requires a finger prick and blood, so if you don’t like that, I’d go with the breath tester. The Breath ketones measurement devices have been shown to be just as accurate as the blood. Plus no finger prick and no $2+ test strips every time you do it. There are even some smart phone apps in development. Remember most ketone measuring devices are made towards diabetic community, but it is rapidly changing, like I said, and you are one of the early adopters! Congrats!The last way to measure is not to measure. And just hope you are in ketosis. This was basically how I did it for the first 10 weeks I did the ketogenic diet. How will you know if you’re in ketosis? Simple if you experience everything that this manual has talked about:Controlled hunger (you don’t get hungry every 2-3 hours) Sleep better More energy throughout the daySymptoms you used to have disappearWeight LossFat Loss………….Fat loss and Physical PerformanceEverybody wants to look better with and without their clothes. But not everybody wants to put in the hard work that it takes to get that body—both with exercise and with their nutrition. There are a whole host of reasons that I’m not going to get into now, but we need to talk about what is going to happen with your performance and your body when you start your Keto approach. When someone comes into my studio, Improvement Warrior Fitness or our online program LBN Online Strength & Fitness Workouts, the goal is always to reduce body fat. I’ve yet had someone come in who doesn’t want to lose body fat. Most will say they want to lose so and so pounds, but the focus is always going to be fat loss. Because with weight loss you could be losing water, muscle and fat. The former 2 are very important for maintaining a healthy metabolism. But if fat percentage is going down then you are on the right track and usually performance goes up. When you first start out on the ketogenic diet there is going to be a changing of fuel and it’s going to depend from person to person what you experience. When I first started on Keto my performance initially dropped, not so much in the strength department but my stamina. At the time I was trying to improve my time with the kettlebell snatch with a 24 kg bell. I had gotten up to around 4:24 for 100 reps. A week on Keto I attempted it 2 more times coming in at over 4:50 and the second time not able to complete it, I was just completely gassed. But after about 7-10 days my performance came back and was able to complete it in 4:33 and the rest of my conditioning work followed suit. Bare in mind I still performed it as best as I could while adapting so I didn’t really lose my conditioning, it’s just I didn’t have the usual fuel I needed to perform at such a high level, but once the ketones fully turned on I was able to match or surpass most of my previous. In two studies conducted by Stephen Phinney, author of ‘The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living’, they put individuals on a ketogenic diet both with and without calorie restriction and found no decrease in peak strength or peak aerobic capacity.Individual results will vary so just be aware, especially if you are competitive person, like me. I did not like the decrease, but I knew I have to wait until I adopt to make any judgments. Especially after being a moderate to high carb eater for more then 35 years of my life. Working out during the 47-Day Keto Challenge and on the Ketogenic DietUnderstand I want you to workout during this challenge. But everybody is going to be starting at different levels. SO if you have a regular fitness/strength program, continue on with that. Notice that I didn’t say ‘cardio’ program. Not a fan, especially if it is done in ‘your ‘fat burning zone’ and when it comes to helping you get the body you want. You can read my cardio article here .If you are not working out right now, then you need to start. And it may just be walking for a while but that is better then nothing. Realize if you don’t feel like working out right now that that might have something to do with the foods you eat, or the calories you don’t eat. Because remember if you don’t supply your body with enough energy (Calories) then the metabolism is going to shut and lower itself to preserve life. Your metabolism would prefer that you live rather then workout, so it will zap your energy so you don’t feel like working out if you don’t give it what it wants. Same thing with your brain, it won’t work as well without the needed fats and cholesterol it needs. If that’s you with the no energy, just simply start out by walking. And increase your distance everyday. Walking is low impact on the joints as opposed to jogging, even people with arthritis can benefit. It reduces body fat a little, not as much as strength/interval training, but every bit of body fat counts! It improves triglyceride level and lowers blood pressure. It’s known to help you live longer. It’s good for your brain and is a huge stress reliever if you use it the correct way. The correct way would be controlling your breath and taking in the wonders of the Earth. It’s actually used as a form of meditation. So again, if you are not working out now, or are just beginning your workout program, WALK MORE! If you are already in a workout program, WALK MORE; it will help with recovery, fat loss, stress relief, your brain function too. Now if you aren’t working out and you would like to start for the 47-day Ketogenic Challenge, or you simply want something different then your currently doing then there are a couple of options with my programs. If you live in or around the Columbus, OH area, I have two studios. One in Hilliard, OH, and one in Downtown Columbus, OH (technically Franklington). You can join our program for the 47-days for $47. That gives you access to unlimited classes with Improvement Warrior Fitness. You can check out the schedule for each below:Group Strength & Conditioning Classes: We also have youth classes that we do with 2 age groups (8-13 and 14+). This is Hilliard, OH only If you are not in the area, then we do have online fitness and yoga workouts through my online workout program: LBN Online Strength & Fitness Workouts. You can join LBN for 60-days for $10 (50% off). Basically you just log on pick the workout or workout you want to do and then workout with me in front of your computer, tv, tablet, or smart phone. We have over 270 workouts and 13 different styles or genres based on your tastes. We call it P90x meets Netflix: Only with better workouts. But otherwise if you have questions about fitness and working out please feel free to post it on the Facebook Accountability group. Link is in the resources section. Research and clinical setting applicationEpilepsy: This is the main one that always comes up when I first researched ketogenic diets. Apparently they discovered that the Keto diet is an excellent treatment. Was discovered way back in early 1900’s. It’s been in medical research and journals since 1928. However, it is not the universal treatment since the drugs to treat it came along in the 1940’s. Keto is the natural way and we would like to minimize or eliminate any prescription drugs for everybody doing this challenge and the diet, since Keto is natural. Diabetes and obesity—Diabetes is the ultimate in carbohydrate intolerance. So it makes sense: cut carbs. However the ADA still recommends 50-60% energy from CHO.In the Early 1900’s low carb high fat was the main treatment until the advent of insulin.?It is reversible. And it can happen rather quickly.? Again if somebody’s doctor is merely maintaining the diabetes, find another doctor!Obesity is kind of tied in with diabetes but not always. You can have a 400-pound person not have diabetes and you can have a 150-pound person with diabetes. Both are unhealthy and have some real health issues going on.?However, blood sugar>insulin>body fat storage>inflammation>triglycerides, etc…….. it’s a cascade that just keeps re-occurring. Cut carbs & increase fat, controls blood sugar, insulin, inflammation, and triglycerides.From the late 1800’s and up until 1970’s it was common knowledge- want to lose weight cut out the carbs.The USDA and other health organizations really have marketed the low fat high carb horse better then anything.?2/3 of Americans are now fat or obese. And 4/5 are unhealthy.?Big food, insurance, doctors, hospitals, all get paid and richer while we get sicker and sicker.?Metabolic Syndrome-- again also known as pre-diabetic.?Every single one of the 5 factors of MS is curtailed or reversed completely with LCHF. One of the most beneficial parts of Keto is that is protects us from nearly all-modern diseases that we have come to fear.?IBS- Irritable Bowell Syndrome: Study in 2009 from clinical gastroenterology and hematology showed an improvement in diarrhea-dominant IBS.?The other type of IBS is constipation, but I couldn’t find any studies. But I would assume an improvement like most others tend to improve as well on the Ketogenic Diet. Heart burn- 20-30% of Americans get at least once a week. Whole grains and sugar are main culprits behind the burning.?Cut the carbs cut the heartburn!Alzheimer’s Disease— Is a top 10 killer in US! It costs more to treat dementia and Alzheimer’s then cancer.?It is now known as Type 3 diabetes. Not old person disease, takes years, decades to develop.?The Brain runs best on ketones. If you constantly feed carbs you are going to get some sort of brain decline, and the ultimate is Alzheimer’s.?Multiple Sclerosis- Dr. Terry Wahls has her very own Keto approach for people with MS. She was in a wheel chair and could barely function. Now she’s perfectly healthy and spreading the word about Keto through books, seminars and talks.?Acne- Your skin is your largest organ. Acne is a sign that something on the inside is inflamed and pushing out through the skin. If you cut inflammation, you cut the acne. What causes inflammation????? You should know by now! Migraines and headaches: Whole grains and sugar and gluten all cross the blood brain barrier and affect and excite the brain. What happens if we cut that excitement off?Cancer: Cancer feeds off of glucose. Doctors will actually inject tagged glucose into cancer patients to find out exactly where the cancer is in the body. So if you stop feeding it the glucose or sugar it needs then you are going to stop the growth of tumors. While on a Keto diet you are creating an environment that will keep cancers under control or even preventing them in the first place. 1 in 3 people are predicted to get cancer at some point in their life. So far there is only animal studies using the Keto approach. You can expect there won’t be any human studies for a long time coming as long as doctors, insurance, and big Pharma continue to make billions. And yes, cancer is a multi-billion dollar industry. If you want more information about cancer and the management of it through food and behavior then check out Dr. Thomas Seyfried’s book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. ADHD & ADD: Doctors tend to be prescription happy with the diagnosis of this especially for kids. But what doctor recommends cutting out carbs and gluten as a cure. Kids brains are more sensitive to the effects of sugar. The human brain is still in development up until the age of around 25. Size and weight also will play a role too. Give a kid a banana who weighs 50 pounds and you weigh 150 pounds then that basically is like that child eating 3 bananas and 3 times the sugar. What’s the best thing for a developing brain? You know the answer (FAT)!!!47-Day Ketogenic Diet ChallengeSo now it starts. The Why and What of The Ketogenic Challenge:So now you should be up to speed with what Keto is all about and what it is you are getting into. Carbs- we need to get rid of them (except for fibrous veggies and some fruit)Protein- We need to monitor and not overdue itFat- You need to eat lots of it. If you are afraid of fat due to the fear mongering that has been instilled in much of society then this isn’t going to work. If you have done any previous challenge of mine before, you know that basically all of them cut out the grains, legumes, and sugar. If you’ve done the Paleo challenge you know dairy is also cut out. Keto is basically Beyond Paleo. Paleo is great and has helped millions of people, but there are also many variations of Paleo. Like if you want to include dairy, it’s known as Primal. Understand this is a lifestyle. My goal is to get you to switch your nutrition and outlook on nutrition to a more keto or low carb approach. Do you have to stick with it 100% of the time for the rest of your life--- NO. I don’t either. I’m usually Keto 95% of the time and the rest of the time Paleo. I only have about 1-2 treat meals a year now, but I have built up to that. I know what those treat meals do to me. Again it all depends on your goals and your why for changing your eating habits and most likely your body and health. Who really needs treat meals when you have recipes like my Keto Ice Cream, Keto Pancakes, and Keto Pizza Throughout the year we will have planned challenges but the Keto Challenge will always be something that is open to you and your friends to enter at anytime. The 30-day Paleo Plan challenge was the first undertaking into changing Yun Strength and Fitness Systems overall nutritional outlook back in 2012. It has since been revised a couple of times to make it easier to follow and implement as a lifestyle for you, and your family. As we transition into creating a ‘healthier’ person as well as helping people look better naked , Paleo was the kickoff ‘diet’ that we recommend for the majority of people, but especially those who are still consuming the Standard American Diet (S.A.D) as proposed by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture (High carb, low fat approach). But now the 47-Day Ketogenic Diet Challenge is going to replace Paleo as our go to ‘Overall Nutritional Outlook’ and therapy. As it basically gets rid of all the bad stuff, is highly individualized, and focuses on health first. Think of it as an elimination diet. So again welcome and thank you for entering the 47-Day Ketogenic Diet Challenge!People love challenges. Especially ones that create fast change. And fast change is what this is going to do for you. We are going to eliminate the crap from your eating plan in order to make you feel better, look better, and perform better. And by perform better I don’t just mean in your workouts but in all aspects of your life. And when I say ‘eliminate the crap from your eating plan’ you will be super surprised at what I and the Keto community consider ‘crap’. But fear of fat—you need to get rid of it before moving on. Go back to the fat section and re-read it. If you don’t have a fear of fat, perfect let’s move on to health!General Rules for the Challenge: What and What NOT TO EATFats (Except man-made trans fats, vegetable oils)Meats, fish, seafood, poultry. Moderate amountVegetables (especially greens and lower carb ones)Seasonal fruits (May or May Not Be On YOUR List)No grains or cereals at allNo legumesNo Processed FoodsNo artificial sweeteners (it’s not food, but just wanted to put that on there)There is a Keto Cheat Sheet at the end of this book that you can print off or keep a copy on your phone, tablet or computer for easy access. What you will be eating: the bulk of your Keto Plan FAT (budget #1) First up is fat. Keto is high fat. And probably higher then you think. I routinely consume between 250-350 grams of fat per day. I used to be so proud of myself in high school for consuming less then 5% of my total calories from fat. One day I consumed 1.9% of my calories from fat with 3400 calories—makes me want to go back and punch myself, wish I had kept my food logs back then, it would be depressing and hysterical but not unlike how a lot of people eat now Fat is very important and also very good for you as you now know. Low fat diets suck! It’s nearly impossible to lose weight & body fat and keep it off on a low fat diet, basically because when you go low fat then carbs are usually increased. An increase in carbs, increases blood sugar levels, which increases insulin levels, which drives body fat storage. That’s the cliff notes version of it. More on that later. Read ‘Why we get fat’ by Gary Taubes. This is the book that lays out the absolute truth about fat and obesity epidemic and the history around it ($$$).Fat keeps you full and satisfied. And is necessary for all of the fat-soluble vitamins that the body needs: i.e Vitamin A, D, E, K. Without fat those vitamins don’t do their job. They don’t do their job, you suffer- workout performance, fatigue, job related performance, energy, etc…… Vitamins and Minerals control enzymes; enzymes control hormones; hormones control YOU (and weight and fat loss).If you are concerned about the cholesterol and saturated fat content of HEALTHY fats and different cuts of animal products then please check out my presentation on Cholesterol, Grains, and Gluten. And if you are a person taking a statin or know someone is, it is your duty to watch and spread the word! I also cover Gluten and Grains in a big way as well. And you may want to check out my blog post: ‘Are you afraid of fat?’There is a list of different fats, nuts, and seeds later in this manual. As far as the absolute best to worstNuts, seeds-Organic, Raw, Kept Cold, Washed and DehydratedOrganicConventional RawConventional Other Processes (Dry Roasted, blanched, etc……)Fats and OilsOrganic, Cold pressedOrganicConventionalProtein (Budget #3)I want to start off with a quick story that I also shared in the Paleo Challenge Manual from David Getoff, Naturopath and clinical nutritionist. There was a psychiatrist that was at a nutritional seminar and he had heard that lack of amino acids was the cause of many different neurological dysfunctions. The best source of amino acids (COMPLETE amino acids) is animal protein. He had a very busy practice and had a waiting list of 6-12 months for a new patient to get in. He went back to his secretary and told her to tell all the new people that wanted to get on the waiting list that they must follow one rule while they are waiting to see him. That rule was that 3 times a day, usually breakfast, lunch and dinner that they must eat some source of Animal Protein. So the secretary did this and 2 months later she comes back and tells the doctor that we need to stop telling people to eat animal protein prior to seeing him. “Why, are they not able to do it? Is it too hard for them?’ asks the Doctor“No people are calling in and cancelling their appointments saying they feel fine and thanking you for the advice of eating 3 meals of animal protein.” Replies the secretary. Now back to protein and the Keto Challenge. Protein will make up a portion of your meal plan. As you’ve read so far about protein this isn’t a high protein diet. The body doesn’t need as much as we’ve been led to believe. And fat is protein sparring—which you will be eating a lot of. Typically the golden rule for protein again is:1.0-1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. To get your kilograms in bodyweight divide your bodyweight by 2.2. If you are a hard charging athlete or competitive athlete then you can probably get away with 1.5-2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. If you are sedentary you might be less then 1.0 gram per kilogram, and being sedentary needs to change. And it will because keto is going to give your energy back There might need to be some tinkering with your protein if those ratios don’t work for you. Sometimes my protein is as low as 50 grams a day and really never goes over 90. But remember I am also very carb sensitive from the 500-1000 grams a day I use to eat; and if you are carb sensitive then you are going to protein sensitive. We’re going to help you figure that out, so please ask questions if you have them in the facebook group. You should have been sent the group URL and it is listed in the resource section at the end of this book.Protein will help fill you up as well, but is way short behind fat’s ability to do so. It fills you up because of the complete amino acids (building blocks of protein) and the naturally occurring fat in the protein. Animal fat is also considered healthy fat as long as it is coming from healthy animals. There is also the thermic effect of food, which simply means how many calories you burn while digesting what you eat. It can account for up to 10% of total calories burned during the day. Protein has the #1 thermic effect of any food out there. With fibrous carbs second (vegetables). Example- Celery has a negative calorie balance- 5 calories per stalk but takes 10 calories to burn in it! You can die from just eating celery Just kidding…. But not really—you really would die if all you ate was celery.. Calories are essential for life and energy!Fat doesn’t really have a thermic effect because the fat you eat, especially when in ketosis, you use as fuel. When that fat runs out then you start using your own body’s fat stores as fuel. Pretty awesome, eh? With protein try and get the absolute best sources, because you are going to be eating a lot less of it then normal. I used to eat between 12-24 whole eggs a day, now it’s no more then 6. There is a list of different protein foods later in this manual. As far as the absolute best to worst-Beef and Lamb-100% grass fed from birth, pasture raisedGrass fed, pasture raisedOrganicCommercial (hormone and antibiotic free)Grain fedI used to get my grass-fed beef from US Wellness meats. Other sources and places I’ve gotten it would be farmer’s markets, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Aldis, Butcher shops, you might get lucky at a commercial grocery store as well as it is becoming much more common. Grain fed is better then nothing, but it has virtually no omega-3 fatty acids and CLA, which is a naturally occurring trans fatty acid. However, you must limit the amount of grain fed beef that you consume as the animals feed comes mostly from soy, corn, and other grains which increases the amount of Omega-6 Fatty acid. You are what you eat.Plus if it is grain fed, you can’t get the fattest cuts of meats because the fat of grain fed animals is where all the toxins and antibiotics are hidden. Much like you the human body does the same when consuming lots of carbs especially in the belly and visceral fat. However that fat and toxins are released when you switch to a low inflammation diet, like the ketogenic one. Omega-6 is essential but not in the amounts Americans consume them at. Too much Omega-6 leads to inflammation that opens you up to every chronic and acute disease there is. If you are inflamed you cannot lose fat and weight loss is extremely hard. So make sure you are getting plenty of cold-water fish to supplement the lack of Omega-3’s in grain fed meats or taking an Omega-3 supplement.Eggs and PoultryPasture RaisedFree range, organicCage free organicCommercialDairy- Must be FULL fatGrass fed, raw and unpasteurizedRaw/unpasteurizedGrass fedOrganicCommercial (DO NOT EAT OR DRINK DURING CHALLENGE)I used to get my butter from US Wellness meats, but now I get it from Costco. It is called Kerry Gold, and is grass fed and has as little pasteurization as possible (it apparently is illegal to sell raw butter in Ohio, where I’m from.) I also just saw Kerry Gold in a local Kroger and Aldi’s though. Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s and all health food stores sell it now as well. Dairy ReactionsNow some people will have a dairy allergy or issue and cannot consume it. Most of the time this is from pasteurized dairy that they cannot eat. If this is usually the case, I recommend trying the top 3 types of dairy from above (grass fed, raw, and unpasteurized, 2. Raw and unpasteurized, 3. Grass fed. But if you still have your regular dairy reaction then it might need to be completely cut out.Seafood-Wild caughtHumanely harvested, non grain fedFarm-raised (not recommended)Farm-raised- Some farm raised fish is ok to eat and actually good for you. The best resource I have found that keeps up to date on all the fish is Seafood Watch. I have the app for Iphone and Ipad and they also have a website. Vegetables (non-starchy)2nd will come your vegetables. Non-potato vegetables. Or non-starchy vegetables. (Budget=2nd) Vegetables are huge on the ketogenic diet. I’m sure I eat more of them then 90%+ of vegetarians. If you don’t like your vegetables you haven’t had yours cooked in butter, coconut oil, bacon fat, ghee, or the like and sprinkled heavily with sea salt or pink Himalayan Salt—delicious--- takes it to a whole new level. There is a list of different produce foods later in this manual. As far as the absolute best to worst-ProduceLocal, Organic, SeasonalLocal and OrganicOrganic or localConventional You want to buy organic or from local whenever you can. There is a list known as the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen. Try and buy organic as much as possible when dealing with the Dirty Dozen. | Or talk to a local farmer about their produce and how its grown. A lot of farmer’s can’t go ‘organic’ because of the actual cost involved with becoming certified. There is also the Clean Fifteen that is ok to buy conventional. For vegetables, I routinely visit Asian grocery stores for my vegetables. For under $15 I scored all the veggies in the picture below. These used to last me at least 2 weeks. Now on the Ketogenic Plan it usually only a week. I understand that some people won’t be able to afford organic. If that is the case use a veggie wash. It can also be used for fruit. I make my own using ? cup apple cider vinegar and 12 oz filtered water. Don’t use tap water, if you do then your just putting more chemicals on your veggies. I put it in a spray bottle to spray single item veggies like mushrooms, carrots, onions etc….. and just make a big pot of it if I’m going to be cutting my veggies up in bulk for the week. Veggies might even make up the bulk of your budget, since fat you can usually get very cheap comparatively. Fruit:Fruit is good for you and nutritious. But it must be in moderation, especially if you plan on staying ketosis. My recommendation to you for fruit on the keto challenge is no fruit while trying to get into nutritional ketosis. Once you are in no more then one serving a day. Preferably early in the day and sticking with some type of berry. Higher sugar fruits like banana, pineapple, mango, peach, etc… should be kept away. I rarely ever consume fruit, probably less then three servings a week and only in-season. Most people who enter nutritional ketosis will not have any cravings for fruit or the sweet taste of sugar, and that’s because your taste buds will be brought back to normal and you will be satisfied from all the fat you have consumed. But it still tastes good which is why I will consume it occasionally. If I do have it usually is in my morning smoothie, so it’s combined with a whole bunch of good fats and veggies and proteins, so that even more minimizes the impact and never takes me out of ketosis. Again once you are in ketosis, you can experiment to find out if fruit will take you out of ketosis. However, if you are trying to lose weight and body fat I recommend keeping it under 1-2 servings per day—and with that sticking with the more nutritious fruits such as berries. I did a 21-day fruit challenge in May 2014 where I consumed at least 5 servings of fruit a day--- the results: 2.5% body fat gain, body weight unchanged. You can check out that challenge here.Avoid fruit juices like the plague, in life and especially on this challenge. Fruit juice is like drinking pure sugar; you will spike your blood sugar levels, and have a major crash of energy soon thereafter. Fruit juice is loaded with fructose, which in my opinion and the expert of advice of many others is the worst form of sugar. It’s processed directly through the liver which will lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and a host of other metabolic issues: diabetes, obesity, inflammation, etc….It doesn’t stimulate an insulin response so your body thinks it’s still hungry. A can of Coke has about 80 grams of fructose, and a glass of apple juice has about 85 grams. WHOA! Pretty much all fructose consumed goes directly to fat stores, and even more if you are not working out. Fruit is a natural source of fructose, but eating too much like I did in the fruit challenge will contribute to added body fat. Which is why I recommend people eliminating it during this challenge and then testing your ketones afterwards and experimenting with fruit if you want to constantly be in ketosis. You can learn more about the dangers of fructose and sugar and carbs as a whole in my presentation: Sugar: Slow Suicide.Water:Water is up next. You need to drink water. Pure water is what your body needs and desires. Water makes everything inside and out work properly, so please don’t take water consumption lightly. On the ketogenic diet you can get dehydrated quicker. So it’s important to up your water intake to the recommended amount BEFORE you start on the Keto challenge! This is important and will provide you with a myriad of health benefits as well.The reason you can get dehydrated quicker is because your body is not holding onto water anymore like it does when carbs are present, you are peeing it out. Stored Glycogen in your muscle and liver require the presence of water to be stored and used properly, and your glycogen is going to be depleted down as much as possible. 8 Glasses a day is a good starting point if you are not there now. So work your way up to 64 ounces if you’re not there yet. You eventually want to get up to ? your bodyweight in ounces of water per day. More if you consume any dehydrating drinks, like coffee, teas, energy drinks or sodas; sodas should be out the door on this challenge and forever but just an example. For every ounce of dehydrating drink you consume try and drink an extra 2 ounces of water to offset it’s effects. Your pee color should be a light yellow for most of your trips to the bathroom. Darker yellow indicates you are dehydrated or you are taking synthetic supplements that your liver cannot process and is now peeing out (pissing money out the window so to speak). The more you sweat the more water you want to drink as well. And everybody should be sweating (hinting at working out/training) because sweating is helping to eliminate toxins. Tap water should be out as well. It’s loaded with toxins such as fluoride, chlorine, lead, etc…. Toxins like these lead to visceral fat—which is the worst fat ever, because it is fat that sticks to the linings of your vital organs: heart, lungs, intestines, liver, kidney, etc….. Visceral fat is what makes people who look healthy very unhealthy—and they don’t even know it. Plus it’s the most inflammatory fat you can have. Fluoride used in tap water, toothpaste, and other products is not the chemical you have come to known on the periodic table, but it is a toxic waste product from chemical power plants. Take your health in your hands. Here is a documentary and article about fluoridation.My family and I use a filtered pitcher from Clearly Filtered that gets rid of all the toxins from the water including fluoride and chlorine. You can check it out here at my referral link. But if you are going to get a filter makes sure it gets rid of fluoride, chlorine, and lead—those are the big ones. The first thing you should do when waking up:Put some water in your mouth and swish it around. You need to wash the entire gunk and little critters that have crawled in there while you slept. You don’t want to swallow those unless you want a parasite/fungal infection. Drink minimum 8-32 oz filtered water. Doesn’t have to be cold. I leave my bottle next to me at night. Wake up and take to bathroom, rinse and drink. Sometimes I will put a tablespoon apple cider vinegar to make it even more effective. Electrolytes:Now these are super important on the ketogenic challenge and diet. So pay attention. You may need to supplement with these as well. Keto Flu is common for people doing things wrong on ketogenic. Things such as:Water intakeToo high carbsUsing artificial sweetenersToo much proteinNot enough FatNot enough caloriesThose are the big ones. The other big one is Electrolytes. This is huge and was something I struggled with at first while trying to adapt when I first started. Some of the symptoms experienced will beFatigueHeadachesLight-headedness (especially when going from sitting to standing)CrampsThose are the big symptoms that most people experience if they’re doing it wrong. Some will experience it as they try and get Keto adapted. My biggest issue was Light-Headedness. I experienced it probably for the first 8 weeks of doing Keto. Usually it was when I went from a low squat hold position, which is a position I’m in a lot, and rose up. My head would become fuzzy, eyesight blurry and just light-headed. It would only last about 2-5 seconds. But that wasn’t normal. Your body will give you signs that something is not right. 100% health is the normal state. So after doing my research I just upped my salt intake even more and purchased a magnesium supplement from Amazon. The upped salt didn’t really help, keep in mind that this is upped salt from the already upped Keto approach, more on that. What did help was the magnesium. Within 3 days the lightheadedness stopped. Turns out I was magnesium deficient, as are a lot of people. Now during those 3 days my toilet visits were a little messy, so be aware that while your magnesium levels return to normal you may just have the same thing. Maybe too much information, but I want you to be prepared for everything!Sodium: electrolyte #1You’ve been lied to about sodium for far too long. It’s healthy and required by the body. But eating a certain way for too long can cause health defects to occur (high carb). Because when you do eat carbs you retain fluid and sodium causing bloating and pitting edema in overweight people or people with elevated insulin levels. So expect to go to the bathroom a little more when first starting. That’s your body’s insulin resistance dropping, the kidneys excreting the water and sodium. Don’t stop drinking water when this is happening as well. Your body needs that hydration to function and keep working the magic and help get you into ketosis quicker. But most people will lose a lot of water weight at the beginning. And don’t stop adding good quality salts to your food every chance you can. And even a little bit to your water. Low sodium levels will lead to the headaches, cramping, and fatigue. So it’s super important you get this: Salt, Salt, Salt. Your food, your smoothies, your everything. Understand? Recommended amount is 3000-5000 mg or 3-5 grams of sodium. If you feel you cannot get enough salt throughout the day simply because your not that hungry then there is several things you can do:Make bone broth with lots of added saltAdd your good salts to your water. Not so much that it tastes like Myrtle beach or the pacific ocean, that’s nasty, just enough so you really don’t taste it all, or there is a slight hint of salt. Use Bouillon Cubes (watch the ingredients)Magnesium: Electrolyte #2Being in Ketosis doesn’t really cause major depletions in magnesium. Like I said most people are deficient when they start. Me being Mr. Healthy thought that wasn’t me, I was wrong. So it’s important to bring those levels up so everything works correctly. Magnesium will also regulate your potassium levels, which is electrolyte #3. 300 or so of our enzymes require magnesium to work correctly. So if your deficient guess what is going to happen….. kind of like fat and cholesterol in conjunction with your brain. The best way to get the magnesium you need is through supplementation. The one I use is Doctor’s Best: High Absorption 100% Chelated Magnesium. Take between 300-400 mg a day, and the majority at night because it has a calming effect and will help you sleep better. Start slow with the dosage though due to the loose stool effect. I actually ran out of my magnesium a week before writing this and my lightheadedness returned. I now put the magnesium supplement on Amazon’s Subscribe and save program where they ship it at a regular interval so I never run out! Potassium: electrolyte #3Potassium plays off of sodium and vice versa. So if you lose a lot of potassium you will also lose sodium, and the other way around too. Keeping your potassium levels up will help to maintain and even increase your lean body tissue (muscle). It is also needed for many of our organs major roles in life. It’s also key in the digestive system. You need it for regulating fluid balance, keeping blood pressure in check, staying alkaline and not so acidic, and fighting kidney stones, stroke, and osteoporosis. Plus it’s huge for preventing cramping. Cramping is something that happens to me every once in a while. It usually happens when my veggie intake is lower for that day then normal. You get a lot of potassium from green vegetables, which I eat a lot of, so I never opted for the supplement version. But some people lose potassium at greater rates then others, so a supplement would be needed. Potassium deficiency is rare, unlike magnesium. So if you need a supplement you will know it pretty quickly. If your sodium intake is where it should be and your taking your magnesium and you are still getting some of those Keto Flu symptoms then get one. Cramping will be high especially the hours and days following your workouts if you are deficient in potassium.The type of potassium doesn’t really matter in supplement form. Studies show that up to 90% of all potassium gets absorbed and used by the body regardless of the type of potassium. Supplements on KetoSupplements can be a vital tool in helping you get into ketosis and stay there. But there is also a lot of junk out there as well. This is the perfect place to introduce it to you because we just went over a couple of electrolyte supplements that you will most probably need, at least one anyway. So we will start off with the most important in regards to ketosis and overall health and then move on to the optional ones. This by no means is a comprehensive list, so if you have a question about a supplement and it’s effectiveness and what not to use please ask. Also please do your own research on how any of these supplements will react with any particular conditions you may have. The Electrolytes:Sodium: Remember no table salt. Either iodized sea salt or pink Himalayan Salt. I bought the 5 pound bag and it lasted me over 9 months. It is recommended on Keto to get 5 grams (5000 mg) per day. Of course this will vary depending on a number of factors. Magnesium: The kind I take is Doctor’s Best: High Absorption 100% Chelated Magnesium. If you go with something else make sure it is chelated and is not magnesium oxide. Take between 300-400 mg per day.Potassium: I don’t have a recommendation for this because I don’t take it. I get plenty from all the vegetables I eat. Studies show 90% absorption rate regardless of the type of potassium so it shouldn’t really matter too much. Just remember though, you get what you pay for so go with a reputable brand. The Big 3: The big 3 supplements are the 3 supplements I recommend for everybody. Here they are in no particular order:DHA & Omega-3DHA & Omega-3: The second most important fat behind saturated fat. DHA, EPA, ALA makes up the Omega-3 family. Don’t eat fish/seafood this is a requirement! Brain health is the ultimate. Don’t mess your brain up! Go back and re-read the section on DHA if you need a refresher. There are a few resources that I recommend for Fish Oil. But there is a disclaimer if you choose something off this list: not all fish oil is created equal. So not all of it is good for you. Much like if you buy extra virgin olive oil in a clear bottle then that olive oil is bad—it is highly rancid and oxidized meaning it will cause inflammation inside the body. Same thing with poor quality fish oil. Taking 20 grams of an inferior fish oil might be as bad as eating that piece of whole grain bread---- maybe, who knows, but I wouldn’t risk it. Cheap fish oils will do you nothing, and much like a synthetic multi vitamin you will just be throwing money down the drain.?How do you tell if it is good fish oil:This is coming from Dr. Rudi Moerck an expert on Omega Fatty Acids:?"All the reputable fish oil companies, the big boys in the industry... refine the fish oil and remove as many of the metals as they can.When you buy fish oils always pay the highest possible price. Usually price in this case is a good indicator of quality. A very cheap fish oil is not okay,""Don't ever buy it in the clear plastic bottle, or giant bottles like you see at some of these mall-type stores... because the light goes right through them. It's UV damaged. It's rancid. Also, if you have a big bottle of it, you better keep it in a refrigerator because it's going to go rancid.... I believe very strongly that you do have some excellent fish oil being made. But it's very expensive. If you're going to buy that, you should buy it from a distributor that will ship it to you directly. You don't want to buy it off the grocery shelf because you don't know how long it's been there...... As far as the fish oils we've seen out there, it's a very wide gamut of quality and stability and rancidity. I would say [25 to] 50 percent of them are rancid."?There's a lot more too. If it’s a good brand you don’t have to worry about fish burps as well. The?benefits?far outweigh the costs. You can get this fine supplement in liquid or capsule form. You can also get your fill from fish, and different types of oils. Always try and shoot for at least 2-3 servings of fish each week-and yes tuna does count! I try and get a serving of it everyday, but usually end up with at least 5 for the weekRecommendations IsaOmega Supreme?Prograde Icon (this is actually a Krill oil) Exos Fuel: Capsules | Liquid Carlson’s Cod Liver Oil Vitamin DYou have probably heard about Vitamin D at some point.?It falls in line with the fat-soluble vitamins. The others are A, E, and K. You can't absorb fat-soluble vitamins without fat. So if you are eating a low fat diet you are doing your health and body a disservice--- and that for you is about to change (but please share the challenge with anybody who still is eating lower fat- ketochallenge ?Vitamin D?deficiency?is running rampant and that is one of the reasons it is on my top 3 supplements. A lack of it can cause the softening of bones, known as osteomalacia in adults and rickets in children. It can cause bending of the spine, bowing of the legs, muscle weakness, and increased risk of fractures. Vitamin D deficiency is also very common in people who have osteoporosis.??It is said that if you live above an imaginary line?in the U.S drawn from San Francisco to Virginia Beach and you live above that line you will not get enough sunlight during the colder months. A supplement is?therefore?needed.?Some more facts?on D:It really isn't a?'Vitamin'. It is a steroidal hormone that influences almost 3000 genes in your body. It helps to turn 'on' or 'off' and prevent many?diseases.Helps with the?absorption?of calcium and phosphate.D2 and D3 are the important ones for us human beings.?Your body can synthesis it with a good amount of sun exposure.If you have darker skin it is harder to synthesis it from the sun.Our skin supplies about 90% of our vitamin D.?Sunscreen with a SPF of 8 can block?Vitamin D by up to 95%, 15 SPF or more up?to 98%. So don't put it on as soon as you go out, let the sun do it's job :) And find one without all the crap toxins in it!The recommended daily allowance (RDA)?is not?sufficient?if sunlight exposure is limited.Recommendations?for United States are:?Remember not sufficient if sunlight exposure is limited. Under 1?year- 400?IU a day1-70 Years- 600 IU/day71?and up- 800 UL per dayEstimated that 85% of Americans?are?deficient?Now Vitamin D has another friend with it, that I need to tell you about now.It's?vitamin K!?They say?nearly everyone is deficient with this Vitamin.??What does it do in?conjunction?with Vitamin D??It has been proven in recent?years that K helps to?'direct' the calcium to the?right places in your skeleton, and not where it shouldn't go--- i.e blood, organs, arteries, etc....?K has a hormone it produces that helps to bind the calcium into the matrix of the bone.?So if you get D without K, it's working against you because?all that calcium?is going into your arteries instead of bones.?Calcification of your arteries is not a good thing. Vitamin K is the only thing that helps to actually prevent that?from happening.?Vitamin K sources:?Dark Leafy Green Veggies- Kale is #1, followed by Spinach?Fermented foodsRaw milk cheesesblueberriessageoreganoavocadolot more........?All of that sounds like some pretty yummy Keto Approved foods!Recommendation:I personally take a liquid Vitamin D3 and K2 supplement.?The one I personally use is from Exos Fuel (formerly Thorne FX). This is also the one my wife, and now my daughter takes (I used to do a baby vitamin D, but there was no K in it). If you are going to get one make sure both D & K are in the same supplement, don’t take one separate thing for both. Exos Fuel Vitamin D & K ?Multi-Vitamin/MineralWhen you switch to the ketogenic diet understand your nutritional punch will be increasing monumentally because we are J.E.R.Fing (Just Eat Real Food), and we are throwing out the bad stuff with the anti-nutrients that actually prevent absorption of some vitamins and minerals. But I also know that getting 100% of the nutrition you need everyday is tough to do with many people's busy schedules, yours probably included. I look at the multi-vitamin supplement as added insurance. Probably one of the most confusing supplements out there, but also one of the most common. There are so many choices it can get so confusing. But it is one of the?3?supplements that I put on everybody's must have list, especially when going from a carb-based diet to a fat based one—you want to make sure everything is included to support the switch over to ketone power!Some of these multi's are garbage, some are good. Which one's are garbage? Well, if the multi you are taken right now is a synthetic and not a whole foods based one, you need to stop taking it.?That is money down the drain.?You see synthetic based mutli-vitamins/minerals usually just sit in your stomach either completely undigested or very poorly released and absorbed by your body. Plus they are rejected by your liver as a "non-food" item.?When your body gets a whole foods based multi-, it recognizes it as actual food. So the body absorbs it and these vital nutrients 100%. You get 100% of everything you need no matter what you are going through in your busy life. But it also equates to much faster fat loss, because the body is now running at 100% optimal, and your quality of health improves very quickly.?Recommendation:I switch between 3 brands throughout the year with 3 different companies- Isagenix, Exos Fuel and Prograde. When I order I usually order in bulk for a bigger discount. These are all whole foods based vitamins. So if your going to go somewhere else make sure it is whole foods based and not a one-a-day or other type. And for kids please make sure it’s not sugar-laden like the Flintstones, the added sugar will completely halt the absorption- it’s supposed to be a vitamin not a treat meal!Exos Fuel AM/PM Complex | Multi-Vitamin Isagenix Ageless Essentials for men and women | Multi-Vitamin | Kids Multi-Vitamin Prograde Multi- For Men | For Women ?Additional SupplementsThese supplements are optional on your Keto Journey. I have taken or am currently taken most of these and in those cases I will let you know my opinion of them. IodineMyself, wife, and baby all take this. This is one that might eventually go on the Top 3 Recommended for All Supplements, obviously it would be top 4 then. Most people are deficient in iodine. A 2011 study found that 70% were deficient and I’ve heard interviews with scientists and doctors saying as much as 98%. So it’s just as bad as magnesium, and iodine is just as important. It’s 5 major functions for your health:Stabilization of metabolism (Iodine is a major impacter on your thyroid which controls your metabolism)FertilityImmune system optimizationBrain development especially in babies and children. Helps to eliminate fluoride from the body and prevent its harms.The supplement I use is J. Crow’s from Amazon. It’s very cheap, but warning you want to have your water nearby because it tastes nasty. I usually take 2-4 drops per day, so does my wife, and my baby I mix it in her breast or coconut milk. J. Crow’s Iodine Protein SupplementsNext up is protein powders. Both just protein powders and meal replacements. My protein powders tend to last a lot longer while doing Keto, because I rarely use the whole scoop or serving size now because I simply don’t need all that protein that everybody says you need. If I do use a whole scoop or more I’m usually making something in bulk or baking something. For my whey protein’s I like to use Isagenix’s. It’s grass-fed and undenatured (not heated up), so it maintains it’s complete amino acid profile. IsaPro: Chocolate or Vanilla The other protein I use from Isagenix is their meal replacement IsaLean. They do have an Isalean Pro that has 36 grams protein versus 24, so I always stick with the regular because you don’t need all that protein. Before Keto I would use a lot of the pro. Now IsaLean does have 24 grams of carbs and 8 grams of fiber coming out to 16 net carbs. These come in either packets or canisters, I prefer the canisters because again I don’t use the full serving and the scoop is much more accurate so I can tell how many carbs and protein grams I’m actually getting. If I do have to use the packets I usually just use ? or 1/3 of it at a time. And obviously this saves some serious money as well not just with supplements but also real food. Got to love Keto! IsaLean Chocolate | Vanilla | Strawberry | HYPERLINK "" Vegan There are two other protein companies that I utilize or use to utilize. One is Exos Fuel. I used Exos Fuel’s Vegan Chocolate Protein during my Vegetarian Keto Challenge and absolutely loved it, especially in my Keto Ice Cream. They also have a vanilla vegan option. They also have a whey protein option that I haven’t tried, but I know there standard of excellence is very high although it isn’t grass-fed whey like Isagenix’s. The other protein company I recommend is Prograde Nutrition. This was the company I originally started with and their Meal Replacement Lean, and was the best I’ve tasted for a while. But looking at the ingredients it looks like there is soy and some other artificial stuff I wouldn’t eat now. But it’s up to you, it’s still better then 95% of the companies out there, plus there not just a protein supplement company. Exos Fuel Vegan Protein: Chocolate ?| Vanilla Exos Fuel Whey Protein: Vanilla | Chocolate Prograde Nutrition Medium Chain Triglycerides Oil (MCT Oil) or coconut oilMCT oil is a fatty acid that burns very efficiently especially when you exercise. Plus it’s been shown to help get you in and keep you in ketosis faster and longer. MCT oil can be found in coconut oil, but it won’t be 100% pure MCT oil, as there are other healthy components as well. You can buy separate MCT oil, although I never have. Like I said these are optional supplements. I do use coconut oil a lot. I get mine from Costco now, but used to get the gallon tubs of stuff from Tropical Traditions. It used to last me at least 6 months, now it would probably be more like 2-3 months. Just make sure if you are getting it that it is UnrefinedOrganicVirginNot ‘Extra Virgin’ there is no such thingCoconut oil can be used for a lot more things as well. Things I use it for:CookingBakingPutting it in my tea/coffee (in recipes section)Moisturizer Dog TreatOil PullingBaby OilSunscreenAftershaveThere’s literally 100’s of uses, these are just mine, Google it!L-GlutamineGlutamine is an essential amino acid. In my body building days I used to take this as a separate supplement because of the muscle sparring benefits it had, and it still can be used for that as well, which would be great if you are an endurance athlete, bodybuilder, or someone who needs to stay in certain weight classes.Glutamine also helps a sick gut basically heal itself, or help the process—which combined with a lack of carbs will speed up greatly. Too many carbs are known to cause leaky gut, where food particles can enter the blood stream, which is not good. It is also something that can be used to deal with sugar cravings. Most protein supplements will have glutamine in it. The recommended dose is between 500-1000 mg a day. What to expect during this 47-day Ketogenic ChallengeRemember this is a challenge. It is going to be hard, especially to start. Switching to a nutrition plan like this is so different then anything you’ve probably done before. It might be the hardest thing you will ever do. But it will be the best thing you will ever do. For YOU!For YOUR BODY!For YOUR HEALTH!And also for all of those around you- family, friends, co-workers, etc…. The journey starts now….47 days from now you will be different if you follow through. The plan is laid out. It’s going to take planning; it’s going to take hard work. Especially if you are addicted to some of the foods you aren’t going to be eating. So depending on how heavy your diet is now in regards to grains, sugar, artificial sweeteners, pasteurized dairy, you will go through some withdrawal symptoms. Just like if you were addicted to heroine. Sugar has been shown to affect the same part of the brain as hard drugs like that. Sugar is a drug in my opinion. It is toxic to your body. This is why you want to eliminate it, as well as the other bad things that are hurting you, from your body and let your body and you feel what it is like to be 100% healthy. You can check out my presentation: Sugar: Slow Suicide here. Remember, all processed carbs turn to sugar in the body. So oatmeal, whole wheat bread, snickers bars, donuts—all turn to sugar in the body. So again depending on how heavily dependent you are on those things you are going to experience, especially during the first part of the challenge, withdrawals, mood swings, crankiness, irritability, and lack of energy. But once those pass (1-9 days for most people) you will notice the difference and it will be a mind-blowing event for you. The goal of the challenge is to change your eating habits forever. If ketogenic is the way for you by all means keep going with it after the challenge has ended. I plan on doing this the rest of my life, but will always be tinkering with it to find what works best. If you want additional one-on-one coaching for your nutrition during or after the challenge you can check out my coaching page here. What about the Treat Meals during this challenge?This challenge is all about ‘detox’. We want to rid the body of the toxins- sugar, gluten, phytates, phytic acid, artificial sweeteners, heavy pasteurization, etc…. In order to do that we must completely eliminate the bad stuff. COMPLETELY!SO NO TREAT MEALS DURING THIS CHALLENGE & ESPECIALLY WHILE ADAPTINGOnce you complete the challenge an occasional treat meal is fine. But I promise you some of the meals and recipes you will create will feel like a treat meal. However, I no longer agree with the terminology of the term ‘cheat meal’. Find out why here. That’s why it’s a ‘treat’. Always live on the positive side of life!You most likely will have cravings especially for something sweet and carb-rich. What you’ve probably normally done is grab for something sweet or carb-rich. That is your habit. The body actually is not craving a carb-rich food, but actually craving something fatty, and maybe some protein with it. Eat that fatty food and watch your body shut up for those cravings. If your friends or co-workers are teasing you to eat the donuts that they brought in you can blame it on me and say ‘my mean trainer is making me do this, and I have to do it for 47 days otherwise the whole thing will be worthless and I’ll have to start all over.’Or you can say ‘I am no longer going to be influenced by crappy food, or people under the influence of crappy food.’ And that’s what they are--- they are controlled by those foods. Your cravings will quickly disappear especially as you enter Ketosis. Be sure to talk to your friends, family and co-workers before hand and tell them what you are doing. Try getting them to come on board as well. If you can’t oh well--- they will want to do it after they see how much more awesome you are after doing it But some people just will never do something like this. I once heard an interview where a woman who had multiple sclerosis say that she would rather keep her MS rather then giving up bread. That was her attitude. But eventually she came around because she reached the point-of-no-return so she needed to do something and her symptoms of MS had basically subsided over the period of a few years. Some people will never change, but in order to strive change is necessary. I congratulate you for taking the steps needed to get your food, life, and health in order. Interesting story for you, I will cut it down not to bore you with too many details: A woman found she was gluten intolerant and it was causing all kinds of problems for her. Mainly digestive and headaches. She sought one of the top nutritionists in her area, who ran all the tests to make sure she was. After confirming he then put her on a gluten free nutrition plan. For two months she followed the plan to the letter, but still had the some of the same symptoms as before. The nutritionist was stumped and so was she. After spending hours going through her food logs and recollection it was found out that the woman was going to church every Sunday and eating the little wafer that the Church gives out. Small things make a huge differenceSo it’s only 47-days. It will go by in a snap…. Just like all the other months. It’s like New Year’s and resolutions. How many New Year’s will we go through in our life? How many resolutions will be broken? The 47-day Ketogenic Challenge is going to hold you accountable because there is a set start and end. It’s a goal, not a wish like resolutions are. Although it will be a little tougher because you are going to have to be more disciplined, more determined, more focused on what you want to achieve. And I am sure if you stick to this plan you will feel remarkably better and look it. PLANNING AHEADAgain starting is difficult with this challenge. So it takes planning. Make sure you sit down before the challenge starts. If you are not going off of our set date, make sure you set a solid start date. Sit down before that date and plan out your first week. Some people do their food prep for the week; I usually do mine on Saturday or Sunday. Other people do it the night before every night. Other people do it 2-3 times a week for the next couple of days or three. Others might do it every night for the next day. It is completely up to you.Here are a couple of my food preparation videos HYPERLINK "" Video #1- Pre-PaleoVideo #2- Paleo PrepVideo #3- SaladsThe Different ‘Challenges’ & Sample menus----These menus and plans are provided as a starting point. You can adjust them, as you feel needed based on your starting point. There are 3 days worth for each of the different types of challenges: ‘Regular’ Keto, Re-Feed, Intermittent Fasting, Ovo-Pesco Vegetarian. Basically it is what I ate during these challenges. There is an also a little introduction and explanation about each one. What you have to understand about each plan is that it is completely customizable based on you and your lifestyle. The meal plans are what I ate, the times are at the times I ate it. You can switch out any recipe for yours, and eat whenever. Remember my goal is ultimate strength and performance, and mental clarity to run my business the best I can. In order to do that I need a little more calories and fat. I have no desire to lose weight, only increase strength, lean muscle tissue and decrease body fat. Ketogenic Basic:This was the first one that I did. And I started on my daughter’s due date and Sly Stallone’s Birthday, 7/6/14. If you don’t know Sly is super important and the biggest influence for me getting into the field of health, fitness, and nutrition. I was super excited when I thought my daughter would share the same birthday, but happy they both get their own days My daughter’s initials are S.L.Y- Spencer Li Yun. She was born 4 days later, but I wanted to start a new nutrition plan in the midst of change and having your first child is a pretty big change. People make excuses all the time for why they can’t do something when if you look through the dawn of time you can find an account of somebody doing exactly what you want to do and succeeding. It’s just a matter of priorities and not making the excuse. Anyways this challenge for me was probably my favorite, even though I did a lot of things wrong and that is what happens when you jump into things, but I figured it out along the way and self corrected like a torpedo going after it’s target. This manual and accountability group will hopefully keep you out of making the same mistakes I made. This type of plan is usually what I go to on days when I’m not doing any special type of challenge or nutrition. So I’ve had plenty of time to re-tune it to the best of my ability. The mistakes I made when I first started were:Eating too frequently. As many as 6 times a day. This was what I was doing previously with Paleo, usually 6-7 times a day. The first week is going to be where you should be the hungriest due to the fact your body is emptying the glycogen stores and not yet running on ketones, but even after I felt I was still consuming too many meals then I had to and snacks. I still had that mindset and/or fear of going out somewhere and getting hungry and not having any food. Like when I did Paleo and had to teach my evening classes, I would take 3 hard boiled eggs with me to eat in between the second and 3rd class, otherwise I would start to get really hungry during that 3rd class and on my way home. Certain mindsets and beliefs have to be overcome to move forward to become the better version of you. Eating too much protein. My mindset going in was ‘I have lots of lean muscle mass, so I need to fuel that with protein to maintain and get stronger. Remember you don’t need as much as you think. I was probably somewhere between 90-110 on most days, now like I said around 65-75 grams per day. Not allowing enough time between meals. This can tie into eating too frequently as well, but not giving yourself enough time between meals will really only allow you to use the fuel (fat) you ate previously and not really tap into your own fat stores. The more time between the more ketones you technically can produce. There are other factors but that is the basis of it. The 4th mistake I made during this challenge was food quality. Like I mentioned before the ketogenic diet approach focuses on restoring health first and foremost. Everything else is a byproduct, and everything returns to ‘normal’ when your body is healthy. So when I first started I would still be eating inferior sources of food. Eggs was the big one. Normally my eggs would be from Aldi’s and would be the regular grain fed. Or my bacon would contain nitrates, or the majority of the vegetables wouldn’t be organic and I would simply wash it off under the sink with tap water filled with even more chemicals. Even eating that way caused me to feel better and healthier, with more mental clarity then I’ve ever had. It was awesome. So I thought if I feel this good still eating some not the best of certain products then what would happen if I do switch do the better quality ones? And I did! And it worked. My eggs are from a farmer or organic. My bacon is nitrate free and uncured. My veggies if they are on the dirty dozen are organic, and if they are or aren’t they are washed using a homemade veggie wash (1/4 organic apple cider vinegar and ? cup filtered water.) Since being Ketogenic since July 2014 I’ve never really had any cravings at all. Treat meals used to be a big thing for me and something I looked forward to a lot. But I think I’ve only had 2-3 since then, and I got sick for almost 3 weeks after. So kind of puts a ding in my ever wanting another treat meal. And that’s because my taste buds have become accustomed to real food. The recipes included taste simply amazing so why would I need a treat meal? You will soon understand as well. Basic Ketogenic Meal Plan: Keep in mind this is basically what I do now, since that is a better indicator of how this plan works. I usually switch between this and intermittent fasting protocol. Day 1:#1 800 am- 2 Keto Pumpkin Pancakes See recipe in recipe bookTopped with cream cheese 3 oz and1 tbsp butterCooked in 3 tbsp Organic Coconut Oil (OCO)Mixed Green (kale, spinach, Swiss chard) Salad2 handfulsonionsyellow pepper2.5 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)1 tbsp balsamic vinegartouch of lime#2 130 pm-Fish Salad See Recipe in recipe book3 oz baked fish with melted butter 2 tbsp2 tbsp EVOO 2 full carrots #3 500 pm-Leftover Keto Pancakes x 3 Topped with Almond Butter (this is like heaven on Earth, for me better then bacon #4- 900 pm3 eggs3 tbsp lard 2-4 cups veggies 1 tbsp EVOO Day 2:#1 800 am 3 strips bacon1 egg3 tbsp bacon fatMixed veggies 2-4 cups#2 100 pm Post Workout Meal Nut Butter ‘Ice Cream’See recipe in Recipe book. Many Variations2-4 tbsp Nut Butter (usually peanut or almond for me)1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder? scoop Isagenix Isalean Shake or Isapro Whey Protein2 Tbsp OCO#3 500 pm Big Salad3 Handfuls mixed greens? cup olives1 avocadoonionscarrotsmushrooms4 tbsp EVOO1 tbsp balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar#4 900 pm2 eggs 2 tbsp OCO2 cups Asian cabbage1 cup mixed greens1 tbsp EVOO2 tbsp sauerkrautDay 3:#1 700 am Shake 8 oz coconut milk2 tbsp EVOO1 tbsp Chia Seeds6 strawberries2 handfuls mixed greens?-3/4 scoop protein powder1 egg#2 1000 am post workout Coconut ButterSee recipe in recipe book2 tbsp peanut or almond butter2 tbsp OCO#3 300 pm? cup almonds#4 800 pm2 Chicken Wings3 tbsp ghee2-4 cups green veggies, onions, mushroomsRe-Feed Challenge:The Re-Feed challenge for me was the worst. The worst in terms of the Keto ones. It was still better then a lot of other things, Paleo included. Basically the premise is if you do ketogenic for a certain period of time and then re-load on carbs it’s supposed to help you burn more fat, look better, get more veiny, get shredded, enjoy carbs, have a treat meal. Some people use it and do have some success on it. But the main premise is people are still not 100% understanding the ketogenic way. I think people who do this type of ‘ketogenic’ approach still think that the body cannot run on ketones all the time and need some glucose in the body. That is not my thinking. I know the body can run 100% on ketones without any huge re-feeds meals or days. The day below, day 2, was a reefed day. I only did 1 meal as a re-feed day and I followed up with the next morning with a little more carbs in that meal then usual (just 16 net so nothing outlandish). This was probably the lowest amount of carbs I took in for any of my re-feed days. The other times I just added another sweet potato and occasionally some rice, so really going over 2 meals on the same day rather then one. I usually saved my re-feed meals until after my workout, but this was just a personal preference of mine, but it was backed up by science and my old ways of doing things in that if you do eat carbs after your workout it’s ability to be taken up by the body and used as energy to repair and what doesn’t get used for that will be swept into the liver and muscle to be stored as glycogen for later use. I don’t know how much of that I actually did of storing it as glycogen because after all my re-feed days I use still in ketosis, although on the very low side. The day of the re-feed I kind of felt bloated and puffy especially around my gut area, where I just didn’t want to move around but just sit there and veg out, kind of like Thanksgiving for most people But I looked forward to every one of the re-feeds. The sweet potatoes I would always make in the oven. It tastes just like candy especially if you over cook and it will just fall right out of the skin—add some butter, sour cream and cinnamon and oh so good! I probably ate more then I should on these re-feeds, so I could see how it could become a problem for people who use ‘treat carbs’ such as high sugar items and stuff. Myself I just used sweet potatoes and wild rice. So if you do have a sweet tooth and cravings I would not suggest the re-feed style, because basically you will never get rid of those, you’ll just be counting down the days until the next re-feed day. The next day after a re-feed I wasn’t as hungrier for some reason. And none of the re-feeds took me out of ketosis, it just knocked me down a great deal from previously. And I shouldn’t say I was in ketosis, since it was so low on the ketonix meter. Just because ketones are present doesn’t mean you are actually in ketosis. So that next day my body probably still had ketones present, but there was also still that glycogen/glucose present and the body was trying to get rid of that as well. It was the days that followed so post-post where I would get hungrier in between meals. Which I didn’t like. Plus I only reached Red on my ketonix sport device two times during this challenge and one was before the first re-feed. The other was around day 6 after the first re-feed with the next day being another re-feed. I never reached Red again after that. Red on Ketonix is the highest, and then there are 10 levels of Yellow and 10 of green. Green is the lowest of ketosis range. If it’s Blue you’re not in ketosis and you have no ketones present in the body. 4 green was the lowest it got. I mostly stayed in the green zone for most of the week. My re-feed days were on Friday. I would get into the Yellow ranges around Wednesday and Thursday, so the re-feeds would keep my ketones lower throughout the week then the other ketogenic ‘challenges’ that I did. There are several ways to re-feed, Some people do it every 7 days, like I did, some every 10, some 15, some every 28 days. Like I mentioned before I usually stay ketogenic 95% of the time, the other time I’m usually making a meal or two of a paleo recipe, so I’ll have some starchier veggies or sweet potatoes then. But my carbs for the day never get over 50 total. These days tend to be Friday or Saturday so I know they are coming so I plan my meals before to make sure my overall carbs stay low. If you do decide to go this route, for the actual 47-day challenge I would do a re-feed every 14 days, and use approved Paleo carbs—so sweet potatoes, white rice, fruit, or higher carb veggies (squash, beets, parsnips, peas). But it’s customizable to you—questions please ask!Re-Feed Meal PlanDay 1: Meal #1 500 amShake: 8 oz coconut milk2 tbsp chia seeds2 tbsp EVOO1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder2 eggs? tsp vanilla extract? scoop Isapro Whey proteinMeal #2: 830 am Bulletproof Coffee2 tbsp organic Isagenix Coffee2 tbsp butter2 tbsp OCOMeal #3 1200 pm2 eggs2 eggs yolkKorean cabbageMushrooms2 tbsp OCO3 tbsp EVOOMeal #4: 150 pm? cup almonds1 oz cheeseMeal #5 425 pm pm 2 soft boiled eggs1 oz liver2 tbsp evoo Meal #6 900 pm 4 eggsmixed greens? avocado1 carott1.5 tbsp OCODay 2: Refeed dayMeal #1 847 am 3 eggs2tbsp OCO1tbsp EVOO1 chocolate 100% squareKorean cabbageMushroomBone brothMeal #2 1200? cup almondsMeal #3 130 pm2 soft boil eggs1 oz liver1 tsp balsamic vinegar2 tbsp butter2 tbsp EVOOMeal #4 4303 eggsmixed greensKorean cabbage2 tbsp ghee1tbsp EVOOMeal #5 1000- Refeed Meal 2 sweet potatoes (about 100 grams of carbs)2 Slices bacon2 tbsp bacon fat1 egg1 carrot1 tbsp butter1 tbsp sour creamDay 3:Meal #1 500 am Shake: 8 oz coconut milk2 scoops isalean pro1 tsbp cocoa powder1 tbsp flax seed1 tbsp chia seeds2 tbsp EVOOMeal #2 1145Bullet proof coffee2 tbsp organic Isagenix Coffee2 tbsp butter2 tbsp OCOMeal #3 400Avocado Egg Salad2 soft boiled eggs1 avocado2tbsp butter2tbsp EVOOmeal #4 915 pmMezze Restaurant Greek Gyro Salad3.5 tbsp EVOO1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar Intermittent Fasting KetoThis was the second ‘Keto Challenge’ that I did. There is no meal plan for this because basically it is the same as the first one above. The main thing that is different is the timing of the meals. I used to shoot for 4 meals within a 12 hour period and then fast for 12 hours. Usually my fast took place from 9 pm to 9 am so this way I wasn’t even awake most of it. Added for second edition: I routinely do this now and usually only eat 3 meals and just increase the size of the meals. For instance on 12/16/15 I ate breakfast at 9 am, Post-Workout @ 1200, and ‘dinner’ at 430 pm. Then I didn’t eat until the next morning until 1000 am. So almost 18 hours. I consumed the same amount of calories that I did with the regular Keto just in a smaller time frame. I did like this protocol, but I prefer to have my meals more spaced out when in ketosis. I suppose looking back I simply could have increased the calories of each and maybe just went with 2-3 meals a day instead of 4. This challenge I also experimented with my workouts on an empty stomach and loved it! This was at a time where my daughter would go back to sleep at around 7:00 am to about 9 or 10, so it was a perfect time. She doesn’t do that anymore though. The workouts were great. Fully supported by ketones. Although some people simply aren’t able to work out on an empty stomach. And the activity of choice will play a role as well. There are all kinds of intermittent fasting protocols you can play around with, I simply did a 12 hour fast once day for 30-days. Others are 18 hour or full 24 hour fasts spaced out evenly or on certain days; there are even longer ones. If you are going to go for the longer ones please ask questions first, do your research first; because if you are metabolically damaged when doing this some issues could come up. For starters I ALWAYS recommend the 12 hours. Calories can also be played around with as well. Where one day is normal then the next, which would be a fasting day, severely restricted calories. Constant calorie restriction has been shown to increase life span well beyond the expected life expectancy of 75 and even into the 100’s, but who wants to be restricted; you need to listen to your body and feed it when it’s hungry. Studies have confirmed that intermittent fasting works just as well as constant calorie restriction. One of the problems with intermittent fasting for those not in ketosis is hunger. I know I couldn’t go 12 hours without food if I was still eating carbs. The one thing about intermittent fasting is that you should not do it if you are highly stressed, hypoglycemic, diabetic, pregnant, or breastfeeding. I know ‘highly stressed’ is going to take on some interpretation based on your idea of stress, so this one is probably going to get the most questions of ‘should I do this’, or ‘am I highly stressed’. So with that here are some general guidelines as to WHO SHOULD NOT DO THIS APPROACH (best way to know would be to get your adrenal glands tested):You get less then 6 hours of sleep a night To get going in the morning you need coffee or other caffeine stimulantYou drink more then 2 cups of coffee or other caffeine stimulantYou hate your boss/jobYou don’t workout or do any physical activityYou are taking one or more prescription drugs or medicationThere may be more coming Again I am here to help so please ask questions. Your questions in this challenge will help me develop the next edition of this, so everything is covered and handled!Ovo-Pesco Vegetarian. This one was the last one that I did for these 4. I did it in February 2015. I wanted to prove it was possible to do a Keto type diet while still being vegetarian. I was wanting to try complete vegan (no animal) products, but after doing my research I realized it was virtually impossible and would require a lot of supplements to get the required nutrition needs, especially for the protein requirements. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with protein supplements, vegan and non-vegan, it’s just a supplement. I would rather someone just get whole, real food as opposed to supplements, because they will tend to act as a crutch. Plus with whole foods the body has to go through the natural process of digestion. When eating protein and a lot of veggies you get the added benefit of the thermic effect of food because the body has to break the food down which requires energy to do so, so increased metabolism and fat burning to tap into those ketones even more. With liquid digestion is a lot easier and you lose the thermic effect of food. So I try and limit supplements to no more then once per day, unless I’m ‘baking’ which I tend to add some protein to as well. You can see my entire food log for the Ovo-Pesco Keto Vegetarian Diet hereI also made a couple blog posts about it as well. I did have a family vacation to Maui during this challenge, which I loved because it gave me a chance to prove to myself that it could be done. I didn’t think finding seafood in Maui would be a problem. When starting off on this plan, I was hungrier in between meals then the other challenges. And all throughout there was greater hunger then normal. Day 1 Meal Plan:Meal 1: 930 am-2 eggsRed Cabbage 2 cupsOyster Mushrooms 1/8 cupWater Cress ? cup2tbsp EVOO2tsbp OCOMeal 2: 130pm? cup pistachiosHerbal Tea with 2 tbsp GheeMeal 3: 430 pm2 eggsRed Cabbage 2 cupsMushroom 1/8 cup3 tbsp Ghee1 tbsp EVOOMeal 4: 950 pmSardines in olive oil? cup oyster mushroomsMixed greens 2 handfulsGingerWater cress ? cup1 tbsp EVOO2 tbsp Ghee2 tbsp OCODay 2: This was one of the days I was in Maui. Normally I don’t eat this many times, but my meals were smaller in calories and fat then normal, plus I had to eat on my families time. Meal #1: 720 am 4 Eggs3 tbsp EVOOMeal #2 1030 amShake: 12 oz Coconut milk1 scoop Exos Fuel Chocolate Vegan protein3 tbsp EVOOMeal #3 100 pmOpa Fish Salad from Coconuts Restaurant 3 tbsp EVOOMeal #4 500 pm Post workoutShake- 12 oz coconut milk1 scoop vegan protein3 tbsp EVOOMeal #5 700 pm Shrimp Salad with vinaigrette from Fabiano’s Meal #6 10003/5 can natural peanut butterDay 3Meal #1 500 am Shake- 2/3 cup coconut milk? almond milk2/3 scoop vegan protein1 tbsp chia seed1 tbsp flax seed2 handfuls mixed greens2 tbsp EVOOMeal #2 800 am Sardines1 tsp balsamic vinegar2 tsbp EVOO2 tbsp OCOMeal #3 1130 am post workoutPancakes: 2 tbsp coconut flout1 tbsp flax seed1/3 cup pumpkin1 tbsp OCOAvocadoAppleMeal #4 400 pm 3 eggs3 tsbp OCO1 tbsp EVOO3 handfuls mixed greensAvocadoMeal #5 930 pm2 eggs2handful mixed greens3 tbsp Ghee1 tbsp EVOO382333526035FISH (wild caught if possible) BassBluefishCatfishCarpClamsCodDrumEelFlatfishGrouperHaddockHerringLobsterMackerelMulletMussels PikeOrange roughyPerchSalmonSardinesScallopsShrimpPrawnsScrodSunfishTilapiaTunaAny other wild fish0FISH (wild caught if possible) BassBluefishCatfishCarpClamsCodDrumEelFlatfishGrouperHaddockHerringLobsterMackerelMulletMussels PikeOrange roughyPerchSalmonSardinesScallopsShrimpPrawnsScrodSunfishTilapiaTunaAny other wild fishWHAT TO EATLists are not complete, just examples1880235163195LIQUID FATSBeef TallowCoconut OilCoconut ButterFlaxseed oilOlive oil (extra virgin cold pressed)Bacon fat/LardButter (grass fed)Coconut MilkGheeHeavy Cream (watch for carrageenan) Sour CreamMacadamia Nut OilMayonnaise (make own, store bought is crap)Palm OilSchmaltzSesame Oil00LIQUID FATSBeef TallowCoconut OilCoconut ButterFlaxseed oilOlive oil (extra virgin cold pressed)Bacon fat/LardButter (grass fed)Coconut MilkGheeHeavy Cream (watch for carrageenan) Sour CreamMacadamia Nut OilMayonnaise (make own, store bought is crap)Palm OilSchmaltzSesame OilSOLID FATsAvocado (is a fruit)AlmondsBrazil NutsCheeses (preferably raw or grass fed)ChestnutsCoconut Cottage CheeseEggsHazelnutsMacadamia nutsPecansNut ButtersPine NutsPistachiosPumpkin SeedsSeasame SeedsSunflower seedsWalnuts3480435-454660CarbohydratesFruit-Please re-read fruit section!!AppleApricotBananaBlackberryBoysenberryCantaloupeCherriesFigsGooseberryGrapefruitGrapesGuavaHoneydewKiwiLemonLimeMangoPapayaPassion fruitPeachesPearsPersimmonPineapplePlumsPomegranate RaspberryRhubarbStar fruitStrawberryTangerineWatermelon0CarbohydratesFruit-Please re-read fruit section!!AppleApricotBananaBlackberryBoysenberryCantaloupeCherriesFigsGooseberryGrapefruitGrapesGuavaHoneydewKiwiLemonLimeMangoPapayaPassion fruitPeachesPearsPersimmonPineapplePlumsPomegranate RaspberryRhubarbStar fruitStrawberryTangerineWatermelonPROTEIN (preferably grass fed & finished, pastured, and/or organic)Eggs BeefChuck steakFlank SteakGround BeefVealLondon broilTop sirlonAny cut of beef will doPorkPork BellyPork chopsPork LoinPork RibsBaconPoultryChicken WingsChicken ThighsHen Turkey Organ MeatLiver (beef, lamb, pork, chicken)Marrow (beef, lamb, pork)Tongue (beef, lamb, pork)Heart, Kidney, etc….Other MeatsBison/BuffaloAlligator GooseDuckQuailVenisonRabbitGoatOstrichElkMutton (don’t spit it out in napkins and put in your friend’s coat pockets )290893555880High Carb Vegetables- Be Careful with theseCarrotsBeetsPeasWinter Squash (butternut, acorn)ParsnipsPotatoes (All forms)Plantains0High Carb Vegetables- Be Careful with theseCarrotsBeetsPeasWinter Squash (butternut, acorn)ParsnipsPotatoes (All forms)PlantainsCarbohydratesSafe Keto Vegetables (preferably above ground grown) AsparagusBell PeppersBok ChoyBroccoliBrussels sprouts302323531750Liquids to drinkAlmond MilkCoconut MilkCoconut WaterHerbal TeaGreen/Black/Red/White TeaOrganic/Toxin-Free coffeeMineral WaterWater (filtered NOT tap)0Liquids to drinkAlmond MilkCoconut MilkCoconut WaterHerbal TeaGreen/Black/Red/White TeaOrganic/Toxin-Free coffeeMineral WaterWater (filtered NOT tap)Cabbage + SauerkrautCarrots (Careful, Moderate in Carbs)CauliflowerCeleryChinese Vegetables GreenCollardsCucumberEggplantEndiveFennelGarlicGreen BeansGreen onionKaleKohlrabiLettuce (not iceberg)MushroomsMustard greensOkraOnionsParsleyPeppersPumpkinRadishRutabagaSeaweed and Sea VegetablesSpinachSquash (yellow, summer, spaghetti)Swiss chardTomatillosTomatoes TurnipsTurnip greensWatercressZucchini 3023235-340360Herbs and Spices*- Higher in carbs so be carefulAllspice*BasilBay Leaf *Black pepperCarawayCardamom*CarobCayenne pepperChicoryChili pepperChivesCilantroCinnamon*CorianderCuminCurryDillFennelGarlic*Ginger*HorseradishLemongrassMintMustardOnion powder*OreganoPaprikaPeppermintRosemarySageSaffronSpearmintTarragonThymeTumeric VanillaWasabiSalt- High Quality Salts, not tableParsleyPepper*0Herbs and Spices*- Higher in carbs so be carefulAllspice*BasilBay Leaf *Black pepperCarawayCardamom*CarobCayenne pepperChicoryChili pepperChivesCilantroCinnamon*CorianderCuminCurryDillFennelGarlic*Ginger*HorseradishLemongrassMintMustardOnion powder*OreganoPaprikaPeppermintRosemarySageSaffronSpearmintTarragonThymeTumeric VanillaWasabiSalt- High Quality Salts, not tableParsleyPepper*-405765-226060SweetenersSteviaLo Han Guo/Luo Han KuoXylitol (moderation- Sugar Alcohol, toxic to dogs)Erythritol (moderation- Sugar Alcohol)Honey (moderation-high in fructose and carbs. Must be raw & unprocessed)Coconut Sugar- It’s still sugar, so moderationSweetenersSteviaLo Han Guo/Luo Han KuoXylitol (moderation- Sugar Alcohol, toxic to dogs)Erythritol (moderation- Sugar Alcohol)Honey (moderation-high in fructose and carbs. Must be raw & unprocessed)Coconut Sugar- It’s still sugar, so moderationKeto Cheat SheetKeto= Ketogenic= Low Carb High Fat (LCHF). A life that is a whole lot healthier for us then the typical modern US lifestyle that we all lead. Eating is all natural, unprocessed, whole foods. Things like meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, eggs, healthy fats instead of the processed crap and agricultural products that the government wants you to eat to. This lifestyle will help you look, feel, and perform at your best in every aspect of your life. Go Keto! Or Go home!??Eat variety of full fat meats, vegetables, nuts, eggs, and healthy fats- Pick some go-to recipes throughout the week and then try some new recipes when you have more time to prepare.??Budget in this order: Fats, vegetables, protein, supplements- Fats are your best friend, they have the most calories and will help keep you full. Plus they taste awesome! You can’t be Keto without consuming FAT!??Figure out your Carb Tolerance Level- Start low and work your way up??Figure out your protein level- Start low and work your way up. You don’t need as much as you think. ??Don’t Eat Added SUGARs- See next sheet for list of sugar and all of it’s names/synonyms. Use only approved sweeteners, eventually you won’t even need those.??Eat Enough Fat & Calories- You won’t adapt if either is too low???o?????????????? or Legumes- Examples are soy, wheat, whole grains, corn, rice, pasta, flour, cereals, beans, potatoes (white). ??Get your fill of your electrolytes: Salt your food, eat your GREEN veggies, and take a magnesium supplement (Potassium supplement optional)???????????????????????????????47?????- Allow your body to detoxify all the bad stuff first. You will love me for this . Some of the recipes feel like a treat anyways!????????????????????????????????????????????????????challenge. Alcohol is toxic to the body and is converted immediately to sugar upon entry. If you have to stick with lower carb drinks. ????????????????????????????????????- Examples are Canola, corn, soybean, cottonseed, and peanut. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????turized. Raw is best. If you have an allergy it is probably from pasteurized products, give raw or grass fed a try, if that doesn’t work then it’s probably going to have to stay on the DON’T EAT list for a while???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? and turn all your white lights to neon orange or amber at sunset. ???????????????????????????????????????????- Try and consume ? your body weight in Ounces each day. Make sure it’s filtered. ????????????ei????????????????????????????- Cut it off by 12:00 if possible. Keto diet will be providing you with more energy as your body comes back to normal. ??Use the Keto Challenge Facebook Accountability group- You are not alone in this journey. Alternative Names for Sugar/SynonymsIf you encounter one of the names below in a product ingredient list – it’s sugar in one form or other and will contribute 4 calories per gram consumed (exceptions noted in parentheses). Artificial sweeteners contain no calories but are at times controversial due to other health risks they may or may not pose.Aspartame – marketed as Nutrasweet (artificial, 0 calories)Acesulfame potassium (acesulfame-K) Barley Malt ExtractBrown Rice SyrupBrown sugarCorn sweetenerCorn syrup, or corn syrup solidsCrystalline FructoseDehydrated Cane JuiceDextrinDextroseEvaporated Cane JuiceFructoseFruit juice concentrateGlucoseHigh-fructose corn syrupHoneyInvert sugar (golden syrup)LactoseMaltodextrin (different types, some better then others)Malt syrupMaltoseMannitol (2.6 calories)Maple syrupMolassesNeotame (artificial, 0 calories)Raw sugarRice SyrupSaccharin (artificial, 0 calories)SaccharoseSucralose – marketed as Splenda (artificial, 0 calories)SucroseSugarSorbitol (2.6 calories)Sorghum syrupSyrupTreacleTurbinado SugarXyloseKeto ResourcesAccountability:Accountability is huge. You need support to go after what you want. A better, healthier, stronger body I think I can say is an important aspect that everybody going through this challenge is after. That’s why you should have been provided with goal sheets. If you didn’t get please email me. Fill those out before you start the Keto Challenge. You need to know exactly what you are going after. Pick a start and end date. If you’re joining during an actual planned challenge this is already done for you. You should of gotten a weigh-in/out sheet. Here you can keep track periodically of your measurements as you go through the challenge. Facebook accountability group: Request permission to join this group. Not on facebook? Create a fake profile and join the group. You have to have support from like-minded Keto Warriors that will help you get through tough times and show you that people actually do this. Right now it is not normal, but like I said you are an early adopter! Join the group here: you live in or around the Columbus, OH area, I have two studios. One in Hilliard, OH, and one in Downtown Columbus, OH (technically Franklington). You can join our program for the 47-days for $47. That gives you access to unlimited classes with Improvement Warrior Fitness. You can check out the schedule for each below:Group Strength & Conditioning: Youth 8 and up (Hilliard ONLY): If you are not in the area, then we do have online fitness and yoga workouts through my online workout program LBN Online Strength & Fitness Workouts. You can join LBN for 60-days for $10 (50% off). Basically you just log on pick the workout or workout you want to do and then workout with me in front of your computer, tv, tablet, or smart phone. We have over 270 workouts and 13 different styles or genres based on your tastes. But otherwise if you have questions about fitness and working out please feel free to post it on the Facebook Accountability group. Link is in the resources section. Books:Keto Clarity: Jimmy Moore and Dr. Eric WestmanThe Art And Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: Dr. Jeff Volek and Dr. Stephen PhinneyRecipes: A lot of Paleo recipes can be switched over to Keto by adding or subtracting some ingredientsRuled.Me Keto RecipesFast Paleo Top 100 Recipes Fast Paleo (smart phone apps)Paleo Plan RecipesMy Youtube Keto RecipesMy Youtube Paleo RecipesPodcast:Livin’ La Vida Low CarbBulletproof RadioBen Greenfield Fitness Podcast References:Phinney, S.D., and Volek, J., The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate LivingMoore, J,. and Westman, E,. Keto Clarity selenium and mercuryPhinney ,S.D., et al, The human metabolic response to chronic ketosis without caloric restriction: Metabloism, 1983. 32(8): p. 769-76Phinney ,S.D., et al, Capacity for moderate exercise in obese subjects after adaption to a hypocaloric, ketogenic diet. J Clin Invest, 19080. 66(5): p. 1152-61Davis, P.G and Phinney ,S.D., differential effects of two very low calorie diets on aerobic and anaerobic performance. Int J Obes, 1990. 14(9): p 779-87Mozumdar, A. and G. Liuori, Persistent increase of prevalence of metabolic syndrome among U.S Adults: NHANES IIIto NHANES 1999-2006. Diabetes Care, 2011. 34(1): p. 216-9Zoetendal, E. G., Vaughn, E. E., & de Vos, W. M. (2006). A microbial world within us. Molecular Microbiology, 59(6), 1639-1650. Doi:10.1111/j.1365-2958.2006.05056.xNeish, A.S. (2009). Microbes in gastrointestinal health and disease. Gastroenterology, 136(1), 65-80. Doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2008.10.080Murray, L., Johnston, b., Lane, A., Harvey, I., Donovan, J., Nair, P., & Harvey R., (2003). Relationship between body mass and gastro-oesophagel reflux symptoms: The Bristol Heliobacter Project. International Journal of Epidemiology, 32(4), 645-650Cesaro, C., Tiso A., Del Prete, A., Cariello, F., Tuccillo, C., Cotticelli, G., et al. (2011). Gut microbiota and probiotics in chronic liver disease. Digestive and liver disease, 43(6), 431-438. Doi:10.1016/j.dld.2010.10.015Marchesini, G. Bugianesi, E., Forlani, G., Cerrelli, F., Lenzi, M., Manini, R., et al. (2003). Nonalchoholic fatty liver, steatohepatitis and the metabolic syndrome. Hepatology, 37(4), 917-923. Doi:10.1053/jhep.2003.50161 (14)00111-5/abstract?cc=y= ................
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