If you fail to plan you plan to fail – seems like a pretty cliché quote but it’s the truth about most things especially when it comes to a healthy diet.
This past week my niece and I decided to try a low/no carb diet, eliminating all carbs and paying attention to what we eat, basically a Keto diet. We did great and it felt good not eating one of my favorite foods (rice) for a week.
Here are a few takeaways from our eat clean week, which I believe will help anyone working on a lifestyle change:
1.Plan, Plan, Plan: I can’t say this enough, one of the reasons you could fail is if you don’t plan ahead. This starts planning your meals for the week so you know what you need to pick up from the grocery store and what kitchen equipment you might need to shop for.
2. Create a meal plan: We planned our meals for the week and went to the store with a grocery list. Whatever we had for dinner we ensured there was enough leftover that we could eat for lunch that way we didn’t have to worry about making or buying lunch. Breakfast was usually simple – fried eggs, keto friendly fruits, plain yogurt, and granola.
3. Make it fun: We had fun with the meals we made… Tried new things and revamped the old to fit our dietary needs. One of our dinners was Grilled salmon with a nice stir fry (we were both still hungry after that meal) hahaha; unfortunately, our spiralized Butternut squash had gotten soggy in the fridge for some weird reason – that was supposed to be our substitute for pasta. We survived and filled our belly’s up with water.
We also made other meals like lettuce wraps, Baked chicken with vegan cheese and zucchini, Kale salad and grilled chicken, Chicken peanut soup with unsweetened coconut flakes and veggies. Cauliflower pizza anyone?. If you make it boring then you’ll most likely give up – it’s not easy doing without your beloved jollof rice, potatoes, or toast bread.
4. Shop with your eyes wide open: We got a shocker when we went looking for vegetable substitutes for our meals, specifically a wrap for the delicious Suya Beef wrap we made (might share the recipe in the future.)
"Did you know that regular Spinach/Veggie wraps are higher in Carbohydrates than wheat/white wraps?"
Did you know that regular Spinach/Veggie wraps are higher in Carbohydrates than wheat/white wraps? Higher calorie content and higher carbs! Although spinach wraps may look and sound healthier, they contain only trace amounts of spinach and are typically made with refined grains — meaning no calorie or carb savings, and no added fiber.
If you are trying to eat healthy don’t purchase things based on the label/read the Nutritional facts so you know what you are eating. Make sure you purchase a keto friendly wrap or just use lettuce like we did.
5. Soup it up: One of the great things about It’s Souper meals is that they are very low in carbs and quite filling making them a splendid choice if you are trying to reduce carb intake. Just fill your belly with some healthy soup . Click here to purchase.
Overall, we had a great week and have decided to continue this low carb journey by having a carb ‘cheat day’ twice a week. It’s not that hard when you set your mind to it. This experience also made me have huge respect for Vegans/Vegetarians – now that’s a whole new level. Maybe I’ll try that for a week sometime.
Stay Souper my friends
Lola.