Navigating a New Eating Plan During the Holidays.

Health dictates how we live our life. This year both my husband and I have had to take a closer look at the way we eat. In September, we made a huge change to a high fat/low carb way of eating. Since then, I have spent time learning and pouring over recipe sites coming up with a set of recipes that would work for our family. Both of us have seen positive health benefits.

Anything like this is hard to sustain once the newness wears off. I started to slack off last month and as a wife/mother, that affected not only my health, but also how I prepared food for my family as well. We were sliding back into old habits. This was bad, especially because we are doing this for health issues.

Prayer: Oh Lord, I have failed. I have become too lax. I’m eating unhealthy carbs: bread and sweets. That changes today. Its not just my favorite carbs, it’s happenstance carbs. When eating out, I eat carbs because it comes with the meal. Am I asking help for the zillionth time? Maybe. But I think I just need to talk about it with you. Can we just talk?

God’s Word to Us: Of course Daughter of Eve. I like to think of it like riding a bicycle. You have never ridden the Keto way of eating during this point of the year. It’s actually rough terrain. The road is full of hills and bumps. The hills are the holidays themselves but the bumps are all the busyness, being away from home, disturbed routines and mini-celebrations. When you are on your bicycle and you see a bump in the road what do you do? You prepare for it. Otherwise you know it can hurt, jarring your whole body. The hills of Christmas: you need to prepare for them but you also need endurance. It’s going to take energy and work to go over the hill. You’ll make it. Remember the other side of the hill is easy and fun because you get to go downhill. You’ll be excited about the ride. Choosing what to eat will be easy until the doldrums of the flatland. You may be tempted to go off track. With that you need to try some new recipes or different flavor combinations at the places you like to eat. This is your food journey and because it’s related to your health, you’ll be on this road for a long time. As you feel better and can do more, that will be the driving force for eating good food. So take joy my friend, I am with you for the journey till the end.

My Heart’s Cry is for us to hold fast to our healthy eating convictions during the holidays. Slow down long enough to pay attention and prepare for the bumps that may be in our road when it comes to eating during December. Prayerfully prepare for the large hill (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). Ask God to give you wisdom in the choosing. He knows every part of your body and the negative effects unwise choices can have on it.

I have a confession to make. My husband brought home a box of See’s Candy assorted chocolates. This weekend while the kids were home, we opened the box to try one. Well … one piece easily led to four pieces because I don’t have the shape and color patterns memorized. I kept on trying to find one of my favorites. I felt pretty terrible for the rest of the day. Four pieces was way too much sugar. If I had stuck to just one piece, I would have felt okay. I had not prepared well for that bump. However, I learned a lesson from it and I will be more prepared next time.

Information on Keto the High Fat/Low Carb Diet

We are following medical advice to cut out more carbohydrate-dense foods. His instructions were to cut out bread, bananas and potatoes. This has led us to seek out what other foods we needed to stay away from. Then we found Keto. This seemed to be the right plan for us, with some adjustments to fit our lifestyle.

The typical American eats 250 carbs per day. It’s the amount recommended by the dietary guidelines. But when you get sick while being on those dietary guidelines, then it’s time to rethink if they were written well.

We have decided to eat 50 or under carbs per day. On most days we are not in Ketosis. But we are still benefiting by having lower blood sugar levels and weight loss. The other thing I’ve noticed is I’m not hungry much. A site I’ve used to learn more is Dietdoctor.com because they have recipes, video instruction and visual eating guides.

Have a great holiday and I’ll see you on the easy side of the hill after Christmas.

Kim