Lindsay Boyers - Keto Diet Hacks: 200 Shortcuts to Make the Keto Diet Fit Your Lifestyle

Its time to harness the amazing power of keto!

You have likely heard of keto before, maybe through a friends weight loss journey, or on a health blog. But what is it, exactly? The keto, or ketogenic, diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet designed to put your body in a state called ketosis, where it becomes extremely efficient at burning fat for energy. The keto diet has tons of benefits for your health, including weight loss, reduced blood sugar and insulin levels, lower blood pressure, better mood, and improved concentration.

Of course, adjusting to a low-carb diet can be difficult at first, but Keto Diet Hacks will help make the transition easy. Each hack that follows will guide you in creating and sticking to a keto diet plan that works for you, so you can reap all the benefits! Organized into topics such as eating on the go and optimizing weight loss, youll discover hacks for every situation, from how to successfully navigate a fast-food menu to how to satisfy a sugar craving without letting it throw your diet off the rails. Youll even learn how to make keto work for you when youre out with friends and just want to let loose a little bit.

Whether youve been eating keto for a while and are looking for more meal ideas or tips for sticking to it, or are dipping your feet into a low-carb lifestyle for the first time, this book is here to help you feel good for years to come!

Chapter One MEAL PLANNING AND PREPPING

If youve ever followed any type of diet plan, you know that its practically impossible to wing it. No matter what your dietary needs or preferences are, the more prepared you are, the greater your chances of success will be. In the following chapter, youll discover easy hacks for planning and prepping your keto meals each week. These hacks arent only limited to strategies that youd see with typical meal prepping either; they go beyond that to provide multiple different ways that you can plan ahead to help make your keto life easier.

Stocking your kitchen with all the tools youll need to prepare your keto meals and snacks will save tremendous time and effort. You might have to invest a little money up front, but if you take care of your tools, they can last for years. You may also be able to get things like a food processor, vegetable spiralizer, and pressure cooker on sale.

So, what are the necessary kitchen tools? Although this can ultimately depend on your food preferences and what you like to cook, there are some basic kitchen gadgets that will get you started. Once your kitchen is stocked with these essentials, you can work on adding more items as you need or want them.

The basic kitchen tools:

• Large skillet
• Chefs knife
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Food processor or high-quality blender
• Slow cooker
• Vegetable spiralizer
• Parchment paper
• Storage containers
• Mixing bowls
• Baking pans and trays
• Muffin tin(s)
• Spatulas
• Freezer bags

Things that can make your life easier, but arent totally necessary:

• Pressure cooker
• Mandoline slicer
• Silicone baking mats and molds
• Waffle maker
• Immersion blender
• Ice cream maker

Make sure you have everything you will need to make delicious keto recipes without a trip (or three) to the store. To be clear, you can successfully pull off a healthy, balanced keto diet with minimal ingredients, like meats, vegetables, fats and oils, and some spices. But if you want to make things like keto pancakes and waffles or keto desserts, or create a delicious keto breading, youll need to expand your pantry supplies a bit.

Fortunately, youll be able to pull off a lot of keto recipes with the same basic pantry ingredients, so once you stock up with these essentials, all youll have to do is refill them as you run out.

Some of the most-used keto pantry ingredients are:

• Almond flour
• Coconut flour
• Nut butters (almond, peanut)
• Oils (avocado, olive, coconut) and ghee
• Low-sugar sweeteners (erythritol, stevia)
• Spices
• Baking soda and baking powder
• Chia seeds
• Flaxseeds
• Pork rinds
• Unsweetened shredded coconut

Aside from these staple ingredients you will use to make keto baked goods and treats, there are some other pantry essentials that can make your life much easier. These additional items are:

• Canned tuna/salmon
• Beef sticks
• No-sugar-added ketchup
• Mayonnaise
• Buffalo sauce

When you write out your entire weeks worth of meals, you take the guesswork and unknowns out of your meals and start each week armed with a plan. But its not just about convenience: Studies show that meal planning is associated with more food variety, better diet quality, and a healthier body weight. Thats because when you can see a template of all the meals you plan to eat in the week, you tend to include more variety in your choices and less junk food. Youll also know exactly how many net carbs youll be eating that week and where there may be a little wiggle room.

While planning out a weekly meal prep calendar does take some time and patience, the more you do it, the faster it will go, especially if you stick to similar meal templates each week or month. For example, you could come up with four separate weekly calendars and rotate through them every four weeks. If you need more variety, come up with eight or twelve or however many you desire. The point is to put in the extra time up front so you know exactly what youre doing and when.

Of course, there may be times when you eat off plan, like if you have an unexpected dinner date or your coworker brings you a keto-friendly lunch, but for the most part, having a plan will keep you on track.

Set aside a specific day, or a couple of days, each week for meal planning and prepping. While you can certainly do a little bit whenever you have the extra time, this can get old quickly. Prepping here and there, and constantly having to clean up after yourself, takes up way more time than dedicating a specific chunk of time to meal planning and prepping.

A common trend for meal prepping is to do it on Sundays, but its up to you! Pick a day that works best for you and set aside about two or three hours to get everything done. Of course, the day doesnt have to be set in stone: You can switch it up and pick a different day each week if your schedule isnt consistent.

You might think the best approach is to split grocery shopping and meal prepping/cooking into two separate days, but when you do this, you actually add a separate step: putting the groceries away. While you can certainly leave nonperishable items, like canned goods or jarred sauces, out on the counter until youre ready to start your prepping, youll have to put perishable items away in the refrigerator or freezer until then.