Wellness

Of the top five questions, I get asked regularly at Wabi Sabi Wonderful Life, right behind “how do I start my own business?” or “how can I get more motivated to exercise/read more/meditate/start a diet…(add your personal favorite thing to procrastinate on here)?” is typically a question along the lines of “what diet will work for me?” That last one is a doozy.  The short answer is, if that answer were easy, everyone would be exactly the size they “want” to be.  Aha, I guess there is no single easy answer!  However, we’re going to start a “diet” wellness series to take a look at some of the weight-loss eating plans that are in the news right now.  Among them, you may find the one that fits best with your lifestyle and gets you the results you want.  After all, the diet that has the best chance of working for you is the one you can stick to and enjoy. That said, we have been getting a lot of questions about the Keto diet lately–so that is where we will begin this series.   The Keto diet is a high-fat, very-low-carbohydrate, and moderate-protein eating plan designed to put your body into a state of ketosis, where it will burn fat as energy. The real trick to this eating plan is not cheating from the restricted food list, as doing so puts your body back out of ketosis and you need to start back at square one to re-set it.   If you are truly carb-addicted, or you can’t imagine life without bread, rice, pasta, cereal or potatoes (among other things) for the full duration of the diet, Keto is NOT for you. The plan itself is “easy”.  50-60% of your daily diet comes from fat sources–so you can indulge in meats, bacon, high-fat fish, avocados, eggs, nuts, cheese, oils and high-fat dairy.  Protein intake should be moderate: eat .5-.8g of protein per pound of your body weight daily.   A Keto diet only allows for only 20g of carbs per day–and this is where things can get hard for most people as carbs add up quickly, even with just eating vegetables.  To be successful, stick to that eating plan daily, and try to maintain it for a month. Typically, it takes about 3-5 days of following the plan to start to put your body into ketosis, and reaching a full state of fat-burning ketosis can take 7-30 days.   Did I mention that if you go off plan even once with a high-carb meal, you will need to start from day one to re-set? A lot is happening in your body when you try to transition it to a state of ketosis.  It will fight back a bit–sometimes more than a bit, and for a few weeks.  It is a hard way to start a new eating habit, but the negative effects do subside with time. So, how do you know when your body is in ketosis? Unfortunately, as your body fights the transition to ketosis, you can expect a few unpleasant things to happen before the reported “good stuff” like fat burning, increased focus, improved energy and better sleep begin to set in.  But these are signs that you are getting there: Keto flu: transitioning to ketosis may lead to what many have called the “keto flu” which can include headaches, nausea, sleepiness, fatigue. An energy drop will typically occur while in the Keto flu.  After a few weeks, most keto-dieters report increased energy and mental focus once you are fat-adapted. Bad breath: Acetone, a by-product of the development of ketones, will become evident on your breath, in your sweat and in your urine. You can add edible essential oils to your food or water to help combat the scent of acetone, such as mint, lemon, or basil. Deodorant may be more necessary before workouts.  I recommend an all-natural option or salt crystal for this purpose. Weight loss. The first week or two will lead to rapid weight loss from fluid as glycogen storage gets depleted; the weight loss after the first few weeks will represent your fat burn. Digestive issues: your digestion can shift between constipation and diarrhea during the first few weeks, and typically subsides over time. Increase your fiber intake (with vegetables and supplements) to help alleviate this issue, as well as increasing your water intake to a gallon per day. Sleep disturbances: while after a few weeks, the Keto diet has been reported to improve sleep quality, during the first few weeks, while your body adjusts to ketosis, you may experience sleep disturbances. Are there ways to speed up the process of getting your body into a state of ketosis?  Yes.  Exercising and intermittent fasting can help—just remember to drink lots of water, and add electrolytes as needed to avoid dehydration when exercising. Please note, the Keto diet should be followed only with doctor permission and supervision if you have (or have had) any liver, kidney or gall bladder issues.  This diet is extremely taxing on those organs.  This diet is also not recommended if you are pregnant, thinking of getting pregnant, or nursing.  We will continue this series over the next few weeks or months.  Please message us or leave comments below if there is a particular eating plan you would like us to cover. NOTE: I’m not a medical practitioner and the tips here are not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any health issue or disease.  Please consult your regular health practitioner before starting any new diet plan.  For personal coaching on how to make distinctive positive changes to your life, please get in touch with me through the contact form by clicking contact us above. I look forward to hearing from you! 

Welcome to part 2 of the Keto section in our new ongoing series looking at diet plans. The Keto diet is a high-fat, very-low-carbohydrate, and moderate-protein eating plan designed to put your body into a state of ketosis, where it will burn fat as energy. As mentioned in part 1 of this series, the real trick to this eating plan is not cheating from the restricted food list, as doing so puts your body back out of ketosis and you need to start back at square one to re-set it, which will then take days if not weeks to get back to a ketonic fat-burning state.   If you are truly carb-addicted, or you can’t imagine life without bread, rice, pasta, pizza, cereal or potatoes (among other things) for the full duration of the diet, Keto is NOT for you. So you’re thinking of trying the plan.  Here are a few things you should know to give you the most success: Eat whole foods.  Processed foods come with added ingredients you don’t need.  You may find they have unexpected added sugars which will throw off your diet, or chemicals which can inhibit digestion.  For instance, deli meats often add nitrates to give them longer staying power, however, if this keeps the meats from breaking down in the butcher’s case, it is also keeping the meats from breaking down easily in your stomach.  The same goes for any other form of preservatives. Drink lemon water.    Some say that eating lemons is associated with liver health and it is often a component of a liver cleanse or flush.  As the Keto diet can stress the liver and gall bladder, drinking lemon water is often recommended when following the eating plan.  Proponents claim that lemon water can clean the liver of toxic substances that may cause harm, thus improving the organ’s function and your health. Although no formal medical studies have tested the claims that lemon juice, or any of the other components of a liver flush, work as suggested, according to the American Cancer Society, lemons have been used in ayurvedic practices for thousands of years to aid in digestion.  The Ayurvedic philosophy believes the first item you ingest sets the mood for the remainder of the day. With that thought in mind, drink a glass of lukewarm water flavored with freshly squeezed lemon when you get up. Here, the Ayurvedic reasoning is twofold. The warm water serves to stimulate the gastrointestinal tract and peristalsis—the waves of muscle contractions within the intestinal walls that keep things moving. Secondly, lemons are high in minerals and vitamins and help loosen toxins in the digestive tract.  This is particularly important when your body is put into ketosis. Lemons do make a healthy addition to your diet and, in that sense, support liver function. Lemon juice is low in calories and an excellent source of vitamin C. The juice from one whole lemon has only 11 calories and 3 grams of carbs. It also has 19 milligrams of vitamin C, meeting more than 30 percent of the daily value. Although the juice from one lemon is not a significant source of any other nutrient, it can help you meet your daily needs for thiamine, pantothenic acid, folate, vitamin B-6, magnesium and potassium.  Lemon water can also be used to freshen “keto breath” during the first few weeks of the plan. Drink a gallon of water per day.  Water will help keep your digestion “moving” when you have a high fat intake.  As noted in Part 1, you can expect your body to revolt a bit, digestively speaking, when you start the transition to ketosis.  High water consumption will help with digestion as well as ease the headaches caused by the “keto flu.” Chew your food thoroughly.  When I first began to learn about ayurveda, I often turned to a friend and ayurvedic doctor for tips and one of the things he was constantly telling me that I did not chew my food enough.  As it turns out, he was right.  Chewing is the first step in digestion.  It allows the enzymes in your mouth to begin the digestive process before food even starts down your throat.  When you are consuming the fat-dense foods of the Keto diet, this is particularly important.  Every bit of digestive help in the mouth is a benefit to the liver. Exercise really helps.  You’ve heard it before–diet doesn’t work without exercise.  In this case, it not only helps with weight loss by kick-starting the glycogen burn, but getting yourself moving, helps your digestion keep moving too.  I can’t stress enough that this is a challenging diet for your digestion, so everything you can do to ease the process will make you not only feel better, but have greater success with the overall plan. Consider a fiber supplement.  This diet will cut out a lot of the fiber-rich foods you may have once eaten regularly, leaving your body at a loss for this digestive helper (there I go with the digestion again!).   Many high fiber vegetables can not be eaten in quantities high enough for the fiber benefit without risking too many carbs.  Of course, you should first try to max out on these natural food sources (broccoli is an excellent choice), before adding more fiber, but if you need it, natural psyllium will do the trick.  As an added benefit, numerous studies have shown that fiber like psyllium, taken as part of a healthy diet, can help lower a person’s risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure and improving lipid levels. Focus on sleep.  While after a few weeks, the Keto diet has been reported to improve sleep quality, during the first few weeks, while your body adjusts to ketosis, you may experience sleep disturbances.  The irony here is that extra sleep can help your body adjust better, and stave off the “keto flu”.  So what’s a girl to do?  This is an important time to focus on your sleep ritual.  Try to go to bed at the