So… I have been experimenting vastly with my diet. This started well over a year ago and has continued to evolve ever since. I must say, I have almost made a complete 180 on what constitutes the foundation of my diet. Where once grains and beans were the staple, they are now a very small part of what I eat on a daily basis.
Read more about this transition here.
I am still on a journey trying to find the balance of what will ultimately make me thrive and feel my absolute best inside and out. I am working through it and will be sharing more details as I put the puzzle pieces together of what will be the new foundation of my diet for now and maybe even long-term. Although there are no guarantees in life, I need to honour where I am at and what my body requires and desires.
In the meantime, I have been really diving into the ketogenic/paleo diet (for the sake of labels) and of course with my own adaptation and variations – as one needs to do with any diet. Eating this way means that I have shifted my macronutrient ratio into one that primarily focuses on fat as my fuel source, then protein and moderate carbohydrates. As I mentioned at the beginning, a complete change from what I am used to.
Ultimate Health Podcast episodes that address keto & paleo eating:
Marni and Jesse The Lowdown on Eating High Fat
Diane Sanfilipo Practical Paleo
Dr. Terry Wahls Fuel your Mitochondria with Fat
JJ Virgin Fat Doesn’t Make you Fat
Dr Mark Hyman Eat Fat Get Thin
Even though fat has always been a big part of my diet, it has now become the main focus. When you are feeding off of mainly fats, you feel it. You feel it in your body, you feel it in your brain – and you just feel amazing. I can honestly say that since I have changed up my diet, with the addition of exogenous ketones, I truly have never felt more energized and focused. Not to mention the added bonus of losing extra body fat and maintaining my lean muscle mass. Now the trick is to make sure that you are eating lots of good quality fats and in amounts that work best for you.
This is where the conversation of ketosis comes in.
What is Ketosis:
Think of the body as a hybrid car that can burn electricity or gasoline for fuel. Our bodies are designed to use two different fuel sources, they can burn sugar (glucose) or fat (ketones).
This is a natural adoption from the Paleolithic Era when humans would cycle through short periods of scattered vegetation and times of a purely carnivorous diet. Summer season would bring spouts of vegetation to our primal ancestors and they would put on some body fat during this abundant time because glucose is a key to fat storage.
Winter months would bring little or no vegetation resulting in a diet full of animal fat and meat. This resulted in fat adaptation and required ketosis, burning of fat for fuel.
Our bodies can only store a finite amount of glucose in liver and muscle. Typically this is about 2,000 calories. When you are a sugar burner, you need a constant source of fuel such as glucose that comes from carbs.
Our bodies can store large amounts of fat. For example, a 150 pound person with 10% body fat has over 60,000 calories of fat storage! This is what enabled our native ancestors to endure long winters without literally starving to death. Today, we have an endless supply of food (Can we really even call it that anymore?) all year around. This means most people never tap into their ketones, or native fuel source.
Nutritional Ketosis is hard!
It would take the average person a few days, sometimes even weeks to get into a state of ketosis (or fat burning mode). This would be at the expense of taking your diet to the extreme by depriving your body of a major source of fuel.
As much as I have been really tweaking my diet to eat more fat exclusively, I still don’t believe in completely eliminating any macronutrient that the body requires to function, namely carbs. I just love sweet potatoes and quinoa way too much!
I am also not one for a lot of supplements. For me food is always first and always the priority, however when there are supplements that are completely natural, health enhancing and that can help the body to achieve a state of ketosis, then I am game. This means that the body can achieve a state of ketosis without completely eliminating carbohydrates. While at the same time, ketones have the added bonus of making you feel energized, alert, mentally clear, focused and also balance out any cravings. Sounds to good to be true right?
The exogenous ketones that I have been supplementing my diet with have these incredible health benefits:
- Reduced hunger and cravings
- Surge in energy
- Improved mood
- Sharper mental clarity and focus
- Fat loss and improvement in body composition
- Autoimmune disease healing and prevention
- Skin improvements such as softer, supple skin or elimination of rashes/eczema/acne
- Lower inflammation which can improve chronic pain, reduce heart disease risk and cancer risks
How to get your hands on Exogenous Ketones:
Since this is a brand new product to the market – there are very few that are actually good and this is the one that I take now on a regular basis. Just follow the link below to get yours.
For Canadian orders – CLICK HERE
For USA orders – CLICK HERE
Also follow these steps to get the chocolate flavoured ones which are by far the best!
Click shop now (at the top), select the purple Keto//OS 3.0 Chocolate Swirl (on the left side), select 30 OTG or KAN in the drop down, select caffeinated or uncaffeinated and get it today and autoship. That way you can save 10% off your first order and then deactivate autoship in your account later. Select Add to Cart and you are done!
What to do with your exogenous ketones?
Now here is the fun part. In the mornings before I work out, I have been making this incredible morning elixir that is loaded with chocolate and beyond delicious!
The Ultimate Morning Elixir
1.5 cup coconut milk or water
1 tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsp coconut butter or other nut butter
1 tsp mesquite
1 tsp dandy blend
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sunflower lecithin
1 tbsp collagen powder from bulletproof
1 package of pruvit chocolate swirl exogenous ketones (this is the magic ingredient)!!
Place all these ingredients in the blender and blend for 30 seconds to 1 minute you have the best tasting morning “coffee” you will ever have!
Get many of these ingredients here: Raw Elements (Dandy Blend, mesquite, cinnamon, nut butter)
