The keto diet is an unquestionably effective one. If you are unfamiliar with it, the basic goal of it is to reach a state known as ‘ketosis’, in which your body will be producing energy out of ketones instead of carbs.
To achieve this, you need to alter your diet so that your carb intake is dramatically decreased and those lost nutrients are replaced by fat-based foods. Doing this consistently will eventually result in the desired metabolic state.
Adopting this diet will be a massive upheaval for most people and will often be quite a substantial transition period, but it’s worth it. The keto diet comes with a lot of benefits, the most obvious of which is that it can help you lose weight.
It’s also good for fighting heart disease, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease and it’s a common diet used in the treatment of epilepsy in children. It can also have a few side effects such as headaches and fatigue, but they don’t affect everyone and can be counteracted in some cases by an increased fluid intake.
Overall it is a very safe diet and one that’s worth trying if you are looking for a new way to lose weight. Like every other diet though, you will only see results if you are strict about it. You have to consistently eat certain kinds of foods and avoid others.
And that means that when you’re travelling or even just when you’re dining out, you have to ensure that you have ways of finding and eating only keto-friendly meals. Let’s take a look at some of the options you can consider when you’re dining out and on the go.
Pack Your Own Food
For when you’re traveling or going on a hike or any kind of outing really that is going to necessitate you eating a few times, sometimes your most reliable option is to just pack your own food.
If you are going camping or going on a road trip then your best bet is to either prepare some keto-friendly meals for yourself and store them in a cooler, or to just fill the cooler with the necessary ingredients to make said meals on the go.
If you are flying, the cooler isn’t an option and you are unlikely to get any keto-friendly airline food, so in that case it might be better to just gather some keto snacks to take on board with you.
Knowing what snacks are well-suited to this diet is very beneficial for more than just air travel. You can bring them along with you anywhere and not have to worry about storage. There’s nuts, fat bombs, olives, dark chocolate, berries and loads of other options.
Now of course, these are just snacks and they won’t give you all of the nutrition you require, but they are definitely worth keeping in mind for smaller trips.
Research Local Restaurants
It’s probably the best time to be trying the keto diet now because of the sheer amount of information that we have access to. And how easy it is to get your hands on that information no matter where you are.
If you are planning a vacation and you know that you are going to be eating out for probably three meals every single day, then you should be very selective about the restaurants that you go to.
I would suggest planning ahead of time. You don’t want to waste any of your vacation being stressed while you search for the right places to eat. Instead, do some thorough research on the local options and come up with a list of places that you know you can get the right foods.
Just searching on Google for restaurants with keto options in the area will usually yield some results. Many restaurants will advertise the fact that they have an awareness of different diets on their website.
And there are also those who have websites and blogs dedicated to this very thing, and you can find recommendations of where to eat from them. Doing this work before you go means that you could have an entire plan laid out of where to eat for every day of the trip.
Communicate With Servers
You might be surprised at how aware people are of the keto diet nowadays and how much they want to help you. If you end up in a restaurant that you didn’t get to research, let the servers know about your diet.
They will likely be able to list some viable options for you. And apply the same logic if you go into a supermarket to look for some food options. Talk to the people working there about where you might be able to find low-carb foods.
Don’t be afraid to communicate with those who are providing your food. They’ve heard all of this before and are likely prepared for what you might think is an unusual request.
Be Aware of Fast Food Options
There is a general, and quite justifiable, perception around fast food that it’s all unhealthy and that you should avoid it at all costs, but if you are on the go then you really don’t have to be that strict on yourself.
The thing about fast food joints is that they have reliable menus. They don’t change from place to place and so you don’t really need to do much research on them. They’re also everywhere. No matter where you go, you’ll probably find a A KFC, a Subway, a Burger King and like three McDonald’s spots too.
They all have some keto-friendly options. The grilled chicken option in KFC won’t have any breadcrumbs so that will be an option. At Panera Bread, you can get a breakfast bowl. Subway have their sub in a tub option and there are tons of good choices at Chipotle.
And all of this stuff is probably somewhat unhealthy for other reasons but you’re on vacation so you might as well treat yourself. As long as you are sticking to your keto diet, a few days with fast food won’t hurt.
So while you might feel a bit stressed at the prospect of keeping on top of your keto diet when you’re out and about, you actually do have a lot of options. All it takes is a little planning and preparation and you should be good to go.