Keto is hot right now, but it’s not the easiest diet to follow. It’s no surprise, then, that keto dieters have spun off different versions of the diet to suit their needs. One that gets a lot of hype on social media is lazy keto.
(As an aside, I bet there’s an interesting social psychology study here—people who hear “lazy keto” and go, “Oh cool, I can do keto and be lazy? Sign me up!” versus people who go, “Lazy?! That’s totally not the point of keto, arrgghh!” But I digress.)
Mark and I are both big proponents of self-experimentation and finding the eating plan that works for you. The question at hand is whether, and for whom, lazy keto might be a viable option. How does it stack up to “strict keto,” and does it work?
Read MoreIf you want fast, easy, nutritious, and varied ways of cooking with ground beef, our three keto ground beef recipes will show you how. This keto-Primal meal plan and prep featuring ground beef will teach you how to cook lunches, dinners, and leftovers in 15 minutes. Disclaimer: If you’re not a fast vegetable chopper and dicing onions makes you feel like a teary slowpoke, you might not pull the entire meal prep off in 15 minutes, but that’s OK! Take your time to get everything washed, prepared, and chopped before you start cooking so that once the ground beef starts sizzling in the skillet, you’re 15 minutes away from an Asian Ground Beef Bowl, Cheeseburger Salad, and Spicy Ground Beef Tacos.
Read MoreBiscotti (Italian for “twice baked”) served alongside a caffeinated frothed milk beverage is a pairing meant to be savored. Envision a sun-dappled restaurant patio that overlooks the cerulean Mediterranean. After a leisurely lunch of grilled whole fish and vegetables, you’re served a block of biscotti to dip into a creamy-capped cappuccino.
The best food can transport us, even in the barren frost of winter, to a sunnier place. While typically not a Primal or keto choice, biscotti is a twice-baked cookie that can be easily revamped to be lower carb. Make the plain almond-rich keto biscotti with your sweetener of choice, or accessorize it with freeze-dried raspberries and a drizzle of melted dark chocolate. Dunk a chunk in either our dead-simple keto chai latte, or the spiced collagen chai latte, and prepare to escape.
Read MoreThere’s a lot to learn when you first go keto, so I figured hey, why not put all the info in one place?
Without further ado, here are my responses to the questions I get asked most often.
Read MoreOne of the purported benefits of a keto diet is that it will help tame unwanted sugar cravings. On the surface, it makes sense. If you want to get rid of sugar cravings, stop including a bunch of sugar in your diet. Out of sight, out of mind.
Or does it make sense? Maybe following a ketogenic diet where even nutrient-dense carbs are limited turns sweet foods into forbidden fruit (no pun intended). Sugar could theoretically become even more tempting because you can’t have it.
So which is it?
Read MoreOur 20 Keto Snacks All Under 5 Minutes has become so popular that we realized that many of you might enjoy a snack or two here and there, whether you identify as intermittent fasters, keto, Primal, Primal-keto, low-carb or other real-food eating ethos. In lieu of fasting when there aren’t any Primal- or keto-friendly food options available and you’re hungry, bringing a snack with you can get you through that long wait at the DMV, the long flight made even longer by delays, or the kids’ football game that went into overtime. Some of the snack ideas we recommend below are pre-packaged (Remember: We’re not anti-convenience here so long as the food inside the package is real and high quality.), and some are quick and easy to whip up on a moment’s notice.
Read MoreEggs and bacon or eggs and sausage with black or collagen coffee are typical keto breakfasts, but this keto egg bake is a nutrient-dense and satiating option for a weekend morning when you have a bit more time. Weave it into your Sunday meal prep routine, bake it, cool it, portion it and wrap in parchment paper, and store it in the refrigerator. On busy weekday mornings, take a portion out of the fridge to warm up on the counter, or to heat for a few minutes in the oven or toaster oven. Re-wrap the portioned egg bake in the parchment paper, grab a napkin (don’t forget your travel coffee mug), and you have breakfast on the go.
Instead of the hash browns or bread cubes you might typically find in an egg bake or breakfast casserole, we used grated turnips, but you could also substitute grated parsnips, zucchini, or even carrots or sweet potatoes if you want a Primal egg bake. We used ground chicken, but you could also use ground turkey, beef, sausage, bison, or lamb. Same thing for the other vegetables—instead of kale and cabbage, you could use Swiss or rainbow chard, shredded Brussels sprouts, or baby spinach.
Read MoreFolks who embark on a ketogenic diet often wonder how their new low-carb way of eating will affect their ability to exercise. Will they be able to maintain their fitness (strength, endurance, speed, performance) without the carbohydrates that previously fueled much of their workout efforts? Is it advisable to try? What if they often want to lose weight—will combining keto with cardio exercise unlock new levels of fat loss, or will it be counterproductive?
The confusion and apprehension are understandable. In most people’s minds, exercise and carbs go hand in hand. Anyone who has played organized sports or trained for any kind of endurance event is surely familiar with the practice of carb loading or “carb-ups”—consuming large quantities of spaghetti, bagels, ice cream, and the like before a big workout or race. Even casual exercisers know they need carbs to get through a cardio session. Right?
Not necessarily. Cells indeed use glucose for energy, and that demand is proportionate to the intensity and duration of a workout. But it’s also true that you can become more efficient at burning fat and ketones during exercise when you commit to a ketogenic diet. Keto and cardio exercise can coexist happily, no extra carbs required… often.
In today’s post, we’re going to talk about what it takes to ensure that your cardio workouts don’t suffer when going keto.
Read MorePot pies—like sloppy joes—are a comfort food classic that feeds our nostalgia as well as appetite. Meat and veggies in a creamy sauce that’s topped with a crunchy topping…what’s not to love?
It might seem, however, that pot pie isn’t compatible with a Primal, let alone keto, plan. Au contraire. We’ve serving up a recipe today that turns that assumption on its head. Pot pie is no longer pie in the sky for the keto eater. Enjoy!
Read MoreWe’ve all heard the story. Maybe we’ve even been the protagonist.
Person goes full keto. They lose a bunch of weight, normalize their pre-diabetic glucose numbers, resolve their high blood pressure readings, have more energy, feel great, and have nothing but high praise for the new way of eating.
Except for one thing, everything seems perfect: their cholesterol is sky-high. It throws a wrench into the whole operation, installs a raincloud over the procession, spoils their confidence.
“Could I be killing myself?”
“Are my health improvements just a mirage?”
In other words, are the apparent benefits of keto merely superficial if your cholesterol skyrockets?
Read More
Ⓒ 2023 Mark's Daily Apple
