How to Stick to a Clean Keto Diet
Are you eating a clean keto diet? Be honest.
I think it’s fun to eat all the bacon, cheese, sausages, and processed dirty keto foods when you’re transitioning to the ketogenic diet.
You’re flabbergasted that you can actually eat this way and lose weight. You’re obsessed with remaking all your favorite foods into a keto version. The novelty of it all amazes you.
But once you’re following the keto diet for several months, years even, you start to realize that even on keto, clean eating is the way to go. Weight loss is but one benefit, soon you want to make sure you’re healthy too! Especially in today’s world where we seeing the benefits of having a top-notch immune system that can fight off viruses.
Clean eating in general, calls on us to change our way of living to improve our overall health. Keto clean eating is a great way to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight and improve your health markers too. Mixing clean eating and a ketogenic diet can have a very positive impact on your overall health.
While the rest of the world is still questioning this way of eating, dismissing it as a hot topic, fad or “ the newest craze”, low carb clean eating continues to receive praises for its impact on people’s lives, mine included.
It challenges you to make healthier decisions about what it is you put into your mouth and forces you to ask the hard question – am I eating real food? The best type of food I can put into my body to fuel myself?
If you’re just starting the keto diet, a food journal specifically for keto like this one can help you to stay on track. Track your meals, macros, mood, fasting times and movement daily to spot helpful and harmful patterns that help you achieve your weight loss and health goals.
What is a Clean Keto Diet?
A clean keto diet is made of whole, natural foods that are low carb, low sugar and as natural as possible.
It’s similar to the paleo diet in a number of ways.
Whenever you think about adopting a new diet plan, there are several questions that usually runs through your mind. You want to know how fast the weight will come off, whether or not you can stick to it, and how it will impact your busy
This diet differes from dirty keto where as long as it fits your macros, you can eat it. That is, if you’ve had no carbs all day long, then you could have a donut if it is miraculously under 20 carbs.
Or you can eat foods like cookies and ice cream that have some undesirable ingredients, but they manage to come in under 20g net carbs and fit into your day.
If you’re going to change your diet for health reasons, why not try to really maximize on health? I am all for grabbing a couple of Mcdonald’s burger patties with cheese on a busy day but I try to stick to a mainly clean keto diet with a few dirty keto meals here and there when I have a craving or I just have no time to cook.
The Benefits of Eating Clean on the Keto Diet
The clean ketogenic diet is a top choice diet for many people, and there are five big reasons why.
The first is that you don’t have to give up flavorful foods. If you’ve ever been on a
But keto allows you to keep the fat and flavor in your diet, so you’re not banned from having cheese, flavorful, fatty meats or other delicious foods.
Not feeling like you’re starving, ever, is the second benefit. Hunger is one thing that can turn dieters away from any diet plan. That however is not a problem on keto b
The third reason keto is a hot choice is that weight loss is fast. Everyone wants the diet process to be over with as soon as possible. When you’re following a keto plan, the weight melts off quickly because your body is burning fat stores instead of carbs for fuel.
That said, you’ll hopefully love this diet so much you’ll stick to it. You’ll adopt this as your lifestyle moving forward because going back to the Standard American Diet would be really SAD.
The fourth reason Keto might be the plan you choose is that it’s easy to modify anywhere. Being on a diet is hard enough. Having to follow a difficult plan when you’re eating out or traveling or visiting friends and family makes you want to quit.
But with keto, you can easily order off any menu or pick and choose from any family meal and have a simple, low-carb, ketogenic meal. When you leave off the breading and sauces, sticking to meat, salad, and low-carb vegetables, you’ll easily stay on plan. I have an eating-out low-carb guide in my keto bundle if you’d like a few pointers where this is concerned.
It’s not all or nothing with keto, which is the fifth reason why so many love this way of life. Whenever many people succeed on a diet, they usually get off of it, and then regain the weight.
With keto, you simply modify and adjust your carb intake to allow you to maintain the weight you’re currently at. You’ll raise your carb intake to 50 or even 100 carbs per day and not have to worry about yo-yo dieting, like so many other plans cause.
This way of life enables you to enjoy a plethora of health benefits including the prevention of heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, and some forms of cancer.
Keto clean eating can improve your mood and boost your energy levels.
How to Stick to a Clean Keto Diet
Should you choose to embark on this method of eating, there are a few principles associated with clean keto eating that you will need to consider.
1. Stick with Whole, Natural Foods
Your goal should be to stick with whole, natural foods or eating foods as close as possible to how they are in their original state while avoiding highly processed foods that come in a package, box, bag or can.
Clean eating experts remind us however that there are a few exceptions to this rule. Frozen berries or veggies in a bag, for example, are not a bad thing.
Also, your goal should be to eat whole, natural foods most of the time. The keyword here is most. In all likelihood, you will deviate from this standard voluntarily or involuntarily a few times.
2. Stay Away from Refined Foods and Refined Oils
What’s vegetable oil?
Yeah, I don’t know either. You want to stay away from seed oils like canola oil and make sure you’re using the highest quality oils you can afford. For me, that’s cold-pressed coconut oil and extra-virgin olive oil with some avocado oil when I’m feeling fancy.
Go with plain Greek yogurt and sweeten it yourself instead of buying even the low-carb varieties. Who knows what else they put in them.
Make your own low-carb waffle and keto pancake mix instead of buying the low-carb varieties that have preservatives you might be unaware of.
3. Reduce Processed Salt and Sugar Intake
When you choose to follow a low carb clean eating practice, you naturally reduce your salt and sugar intake.
While you will need to increase your salt intake, this should be all-natural salt with sodium (this is the one I use exclusively) so that it helps to replenish your electrolytes that are easily depleted on a low-carb diet.
Your goal is to avoid foods that contain all forms of processed sugar and even those that claim to be sugar-free including cookies, cakes, sodas, diet drinks, and juices as much as possible. Make your own bakes and add your own salt as necessary.
Use the healthiest sweeteners for keto when you need something sweet.
4. Avoid Artificial Ingredients
Clean eating encourages you to eat real food and banish the fake stuff which contains a bevy of additives, artificial colors, and preservatives.
Again, stay with the mantra of eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible.
To keep keto as simple as possible, create your meals with the following in mind. One protein + one veggie + one fat. This can be as lavish as a premium fatty cut of steak with asparagus and half an avocado or as simple as canned tuna with creamed spinach. The cream cheese is your fat here as well as the fat from the tuna.
If you’re lost and not sure how to get started with the keto diet, this meal plan is for you. It’s a fool-proof guide to winning at the high-fat, low-carb lifestyle.
5. Clean Up Your Coffee and Tea Habit
If you’re like me and love your cup of coffee with a dash of sweetness and a splash of creamer, a simple switch will save your habit.
I add two shakes of this powdered stevia to my coffee and a splash of heavy whipping cream or this dreamy keto creamer when I feel for a different flavor. Divine!
6. Drink More Water
You may notice that your water intake will increase thanks in part to the requisite reduction of sodas and juices in the world of low-carb clean eating.
Increasing your water consumption will have several positive effects on your body including more energy and a sense of fullness. Not a fan of water?
There are several ways to give your water flavor. Try adding slices of citrus fruit like lemons or lime to your water for a bit of taste. You may also want to add electrolyte powder to your water to manage keto flu and keto constipation.
Plan Ahead for Success on Your Clean Eating Keto Diet
There’s a saying that goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Nothing could be more fitting for those on a keto diet. Of course, it is possible to fly by the seat of your pants and make decisions at each meal, but in the very beginning, that might be hard to do.
It’s best to have a little structure
The first thing you want to do is educate yourself on what you can and can’t have carb-wise and try to eliminate or replace those items in your kitchen. For example, you may not want to give up your sweetened coffee, but as above, you’ll need to replace sugar with a keto-friendly sweetener.
You’ll want to plan for snacks on the go that work well with your keto plan, rather than relying on fast food stops or convenience stores that are packed with processed foods. Take with you boiled eggs, bags of pecans or string cheese to munch on.
Get set up with a carb tracking tool such as Carb Manager, where you can track the amount of carbs you’re consuming.
You’ll want to prepare for the beginning of your keto diet journey – the mental cravings and old habits can be hard to overcome if you’re not ready. You may even need to get some supplements to make sure you avoid keto flu.
You definitely want to plan for some variety, too. Don’t get stuck eating scrambled eggs seven days a week, for every meal. You’ll burn out. Plan on some creative ways to make meals low in carbs – and learn which foods taste best to you. You can still enjoy your chocolate cakes and pumpkin mousse fat bomb as a special treat.
Don’t fret that the diet is
Then, it becomes second nature.
These are a few principles of the clean keto diet. Take your time adopting this way of eating. Begin with slow changes. Sweeping changes can be overwhelming so establish a plan that allows for a gradual transition.
Looking for a more complete guide to start or stick to the keto diet? My Ketogenic Diet 101 eBook is a complete, all-in-one resource for the ketogenic diet. This book includes all the need-to-know info about the keto diet, how it affects lifestyle diseases like diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure plus over 45 recipes, checklists, and grocery lists to get you started. Want the 5-day meal plan for free? Get it below when you enter your details.
