21 Day Keto: Day 0 (Prep)

The Hubs convinced me to do a 21 Day Keto Diet with him.  We've got a trip to Cancun coming up next month, so we thought it might help us get "beach ready" (well, as ready as two almost-40 year old white people can).  We did a fair bit of reading before deciding to do it, because in general I'm not a fan of "diets"--and most nutritionists agree.  The "diet" that most nutritionists recommend is simply "eat less, move more" and have a moderate balanced diet with none of the "can't have *insert food*" restrictions.  That being said, we both know folks who have lost a lot of weight doing keto, so we were interested to see if it lives up to the hype.

As with any diet, the first step is PREP.  So I created a Pinterest board with recipes that sounded good, especially leaning toward anything that starts with the word "easy".  Because life is chaotic.  We also brainstormed some of our existing favorite recipes to see what meals we already like could fit into the keto diet--like our Zuppa Toscana (but with turnips in place of potatoes and heavy cream instead of half & half) and my favorite balsamic glazed chicken with onions & mushrooms.

Then I hopped on PepperPlate, my handy-dandy meal-planning website, and started planning for the first week (note: my one request was that we wouldn't start until after Mardi Gras).

In order to track macros (70% fat, 25% protein, 5% carbs), I front-loaded each of these days' meal plans into my FitBit tracker, to make sure we'd be hitting the target ratios.  

Then I headed to the store and stocked up on supplies:

(Ignore the potato salad.  That's for a Mardi Gras Potluck at work. And is sadly not keto-friendly.)

Our shopping list included:

Heavy cream

Butter

Sour Cream

Pork Sausage

Cabbage (green and red)

Olive Oil Mayo

Deli Meat (pepperoni & salami) & Smoked Provolone for roll ups

Broccoli Slaw (for this sesame Asian chicken salad)

Pepperoncinis & Pickled Okra

Meatballs (which may or may not be eaten during this keto thing--they're 5g carbs in a serving, but I had 2 coupons that were getting ready to expire)

Steamable cauliflower rice

Avocados

Cucumber

Cauliflower

Bell Peppers (for these pepper "sandwiches")

Frozen tuna steaks

Spaghetti Squash

(Note: we already had 2 dozen eggs at home, and 8 packs of bacon, which is why we didn't need to buy any of those things.)

Finally, because I know I have a busy week, I went ahead and started some meal prep:  bagging up veggies for lunches, making deli roll-ups, this breakfast casserole, and this chicken salad (cooked the chicken in the Instant Pot, and added avocado and dill pickles).

I'm planning to try to post each day--the first week will be interesting, because The Hubs is also traveling for work.  So I'll try to make sure each post represents both of our challenges/thoughts on the program, so we have both a  male and female opinion.

Have you done a Keto diet? I'd love to hear about it!  Please leave a comment below, or on Facebook or Instagram!  Thanks!