My previous article, Intermittent Fasting and Ketogenic Diet Combined-Part 1, I briefly described what is Intermittent fasting and ketogenic diet is. And gave some advice how to cut sugar and lose some weight permanently.

Now i like to focus on Ketogenic part of my Diet. There are many sources online that you can watch and read to learn more about Ketogenic diet, I will not go too much details since I am not a doctor or a dietitian. This is my own findings and just sharing my own experience with you.

KETOGENIC DIET

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Two years ago I decided to change my eating habits. I even wrote a brief blog about it. called My New Lifestyle. The reason was extra pounds that I gained over the years. As I try available diets, I obsessed more with the food and end up failing all the diets I started.

With all the excuses and fake diets, I lost only 20 lb in 2 years and I know the reason; I cut the sugar intake. Still not a paleo, not ketogenic; just less sugar intake.

So let me share my own suggestions about dieting. Since it is worth it and i highly recommend it, I will start with sugar cut.

• Remove sugar out of your life. Lots of people say this is the hardest thing to do. It will be hard at the beginning but you will see the difference. I lost 20 lb and never gained back and feeling much better to avoid sugar in the products that are not design to be desserts.

To me it was : Enough is enough! “ moment so I cut it cold. Even though when I tried previously, wasn’t successful. This time it worked.

I can hear you thinking how about natural sugars, honey, sweeteners. No, nothing. You will expose sugar with all the processed food somehow anyway. All the food that you are purchasing has tons of sugar in it. I was about to cry when I see even plain rotisserie chicken has sugar in it too.

Forget about the salad dressings as well. Your only friends are olive oil and any kind of vinegar.

For your coffee you can add coconut oil or almond milk with no sugar added. Soon after you will detect even little bit sweetener or real sugar in your drinks.That will make you little bit uncomfortable. I was determined that is why it took for me to get used to black coffee and cannot put any type of sweet in it for about 2 weeks.

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• Stop modifying diets as you like. It makes you only suffer, not benefit from them. That is what happened to me when I started new life style two years ago. I didn’t cut carbs totally and looked the other way when i grabbed a glass of wine here and there.If you will not stick to the rules of the diet until you loose weight, don’t suffer and just eat what you want and enjoy life. But if you really want losing weight and better health, until you reach your desired look, stick with the diet rules. When you achieved your goal, you can start loosen up to maintain what you have. That will bring desserts and drinks into your life in moderate amounts without harming your health.

• Wine. NO. Sorry, you cannot. I feel your pain.  I think I did enough research with high hopes looking to find one person says “Yes, drink wine and even lose weight” Or “There is no such thing as beer belly ” but that person is not exist. Only few Mediterranean doctors says we are allowed to drink total 4 glasses of wine during the week. That’s all.

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Think: Limited sugar, limited carb intake; Body is about to burn stored fat for energy. At that point you are feeding it with wine which is an alcohol which is a sugar which is a fat burn alternative energy source. Result; No fat burn, no weight loss. Even sometimes weight gain.

Based on my research they do advice multiple times distilled alcohol drinks like vodka, gin and tonic, or white wine if you must do wine. Occasionally, very little amounts, maybe one or two glasses in a week.

• Walk. Walk with every reason. Hike with your own pace. I don’t like going gym and exercising therefore decided to believe walking is enough to keep our body fit, help to lose weight by giving the reason to use energy. More is your choice. I also come a cross with many sources saying for those who are overweight it will be the best thing to walk more can damage their knees and ankles.

” For your health, walk everyday twenty minutes with your own pace “

-Prof. MD. Canan Karatay

• Cook at home. This is real , this is the solution for all weight and health problems. This is the beginning of the fit life. This is desirable, natural, healthy. You can control every ingredients, freshness and cleanness of the food.

• Stop eating after 8 pm. I like to fix it to 6 pm. Doctors suggest latest 8 pm.Reason for that giving time for a digestion before go to bed and some other hormone related reasons that you can read online again. I was able to manage that when I start intermittent fasting. It made my eating hours more organized. Strongly recommended.

• Don’t weigh yourself often. Weigh yourself once at the beginning. And forget the scale. I know you want to celebrate that several pounds you lost since Monday and celebrate with a glass of wine. See where this conversation going.

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Don’t get excited about 2 lb that I lost in a week. After for a while, like a month or two, celebrate 10- 20 lbs. Because before you loose large amount of weight, there are daily changes based on hormones, salt intake and other reasons. Why discourage ourselves for here and there for couple of pounds.

Try to feel your body. Feel the comfort or discomfort. Stop doing things makes you bloated, eat and do more what makes you comfortable at the end of the day.

There will be more to this article. I wanted to point out before I complete this even though it sounds I really want to lose weight it is because I want to be healthier and feel better in my daily activities.

I am not dieting; I am fixing my body. Changing my life style to a healthier one. Extra weight will go away at some point as I continue to improve my health, watch what I eat.

To be continued…