Starting keto diet is a strenuous task for most people. You have been used the traditional food for so many years. Your body and mind are conditioned to it. I don’t know how many diets you’ve been through, but let me tell you, if you don’t have the right mindset, chances are you’re not going to succeed. In fact, if you’re like most people, your experience will fit a very familiar pattern. First, you’re all excited about the diet and sure enough, you follow the directions very closely.
Thanks to your careful dietary guidelines, and your eager compliance, you start losing a lot of pounds. So far so good, right? This keeps up for maybe a few more days or even a few more weeks. But sooner or later, the pounds start coming back.
Next, things go from bad to worse. You start gaining more weight than when you began your diet. Isn’t the whole point of going on a diet to lose weight? Sadly, most diets are gateways, believe it or not, to additional weight; talk about a frustrating situation.
The reason why people go through this all too familiar tragic pattern is because they don’t have the right mindset. It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to adopt the keto diet, the paleo diet, the Atkins diet, the Ornish, or any other loss program, without the right mindset, you are playing the game to lose.
Therefore, to start a keto diet, you need first to adopt right mindset that will ensure your success.
You Can Do It!
It’s very easy to get excited about the testimonials included in many diet books. You look at the before-and-after pictures and you and you get all pumped up. Please understand that a lot of those pictures are exaggerated. In fact, a lot of books that are very shady even use photoshopped pictures.
I know it’s shocking. I know that it’s hard to believe that people would actually do that, but they do. So a little bit of skepticism goes a long way. Still, don’t just focus on the fact that the diet can work for other people. Instead, wrap your mind around the possibility that the diet can actually work for you.
That’s right, you personally, individually. If you can’t understand that, and if you can’t accept the likelihood of a certain weight-loss program waiting for you, then you’re making things much harder on yourself. It’s like trying to play basketball and trying to put the ball through the hoop.
If in the back of your head you’re saying to yourself, “Other people can shoot really well, but not me” what do you think will happen? You’re shooting accuracy will go down. You’re sabotaging yourself. You’re making things unnecessarily harder on yourself.
This is why it’s really important to assume that you can achieve success with the keto diet. Not the case study pictures, not the people giving testimonials, we are talking about you. If you can’t make this assumption, then it’s going to be a rough road ahead for you.
Begin With What You Have
One common reason why people fail with diets is because they think that they have to transform into a completely different person. Alternatively, they believe that their circumstances or their situations need to change so dramatically so as to ensure success.
When people think along these lines, they’re basically just giving themselves excuses for either not trying, or for expecting bad results. Believe me, I can understand why people do this. If you have been let down by diet after diet, it’s very easy to become jaded.
In fact, in many cases, it’s very easy to expect failure. After all, you’ve gone through the familiar process of initially losing weight, and then getting it all back. It becomes an old story, and it’s only a matter of time until your heart gets broken again.
This is why you think that you should change everything that you can possibly change, to lay the groundwork for ultimate success. Again, you’re making things unnecessarily harder on yourself. It doesn’t have to be like this. You don’t have to move heaven and earth to create optimal conditions.
You know why? Conditions are never perfect. There will never be a time when your circumstances will be just right for you to ensure success. You’re going to have to take that risk. You’re going to have to begin with what you have.
It doesn’t matter what discipline level you have. It doesn’t matter what else is going on in your life. It doesn’t matter whether you feel good about yourself. All that matters is that you are ready, willing and able to begin with what you have and assume that this will work for you.
Enjoy Your Food According To Rules You Choose
Another key “pillar” for keto diet success involves the issue of control. A lot of people fail with diets because they think that they are putting some sort of dietary straitjacket on themselves. For instance, they don’t normally like a certain taste, but since they’re switching over to a new diet, they force themselves to like a certain range of flavors.
Let me tell you, it’s only a matter of time until your old self rears its ugly head. It’s only a matter time until you go back to how you normally eat. This is a very frustrating situation. It’s as if you are doing really well, and you’re making all these changes, and all of a sudden your old self pulls you back. You end up where you began.
This is why it’s really important to focus on enjoying your food. This is not an ordeal. This is not some sort of punishment. This is not some sort of situation where you feel that you are denying yourself. Instead, the keto diet should be a celebration of taste. It all really boils down to enjoying your food according to keto rules.
You have to first choose the keto rules. You have to first choose to go on the diet, and then you select based on your existing tastes. There’s no need to become somebody else. There’s no need to change your taste buds. There’s no need to go through any of that. Instead, allow yourself to enjoy the flavor range that you are already enjoying.
Now here’s the thing, even if you have a sweet tooth, you’re going to have to minimize that. That’s the only change, but for everything else, whether you like sour foods, salty foods, or definitely fatty foods, you should be fine. But as long as you manage your sweet tooth, you should be okay.
Keep atop the mindsets above if you want to be successful with the keto diet. I’m not going to lie you and say that you can adopt these mindsets overnight. After all, the way you see things, and the way you expect things to play out, have been with you for a long time. You’ve grown accustomed to thinking about food a certain way.
Establish Your Keto Diet Mind Map
Therefore, to start your keto diet, you need to have a mind map, which lead the path to your success. Here are the Keto Diet Mind Map.
How Does Weight Loss Normally Work?
– Calories in, calories out
– Eat less calories, burn the same amount of energy
– Eat the same amount of calories, burn energy at a higher rate
– Burn the weight loss candle from both ends
The Standard American Diet and Why You Can’t Lose Weight
– Carbohydrates and the problem with insulin
– If you want to burn more fat, you have to control your insulin levels
The Keto Alternative
– Ketosis explained: Burn fat instead of sugar for energy
– Ketoacidosis = excessive ketones in the blood = RARE
– Ketosis = more common = healthy
Keep This in Mind Before You Start Your Keto Diet
– Change your lifestyle instead of going on another diet
– Think long term
– Believe that the keto lifestyle works
– Believe that you can do it
– If other people can do it, you can do it too
Keto Diet Step #1: Displace, Do Not Replace
– The most common problem with diets: they seek to replace instead of blending in
– Add keto items to your diet
– Focus more on ketogenic meals
Keto Diet Meal Plan Strategies that Work
– Focus on fatty food that fits your taste
– Shoot to feel fuller for a longer period of time
– Eventually cut out soda
– Eventually cut out grain-based snacks
– Slowly cut out milk-based snacks
Wind Down Carbs
– By this point, you have gotten used to eating keto foods
– Start to scale down your carb intake dramatically
– Your keto wonder-food: eggs
– Your keto wonder-fruit: avocado
Turbocharge Your Keto Lifestyle Results with These Following Tweaks
– Eat only when you’re hungry
– Drink first when you get hunger pangs
– Eat slowly
– Look at each of your meals as some sort of event
– Eat more mindfully
Take Things to the Next Level with This Modification
– Start to regularize your meal times
– Eliminate or greatly reduce snacking
– Eventually scale down to one or two meals a day
– Scale down to one meal a day: intermittent fasting
– If you can, adopt a day-to-day fasting technique
– You can do it because other people have done it before you
Now you have the mind map for keto diets and are determined to start keto diets. You still need to equip yourself with keto diet knowledge. The following book is good reference for you:
As of this writing, the both books are free for you to read on Kindle and each cost $0.99 for you to own the digital copy.
It’s so difficult for me to stay on a healthy balanced diet. I never go according to instructions or as you said follow the rules.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a diet because I just don’t see how the diets I was on helped me live a healthy life. The keto diet looks promising, so I’ll definitely bookmark this post to go through the diet later.
I’m looking forward to seeing what this diet can really do for me.
Thank you for this post and all the best.
I understand your frustration. Please take your time and have a deep understanding of keto diet, then come out something that works for you. Remember you should practice keto diets gradually, increasing fat and decreasing carb step by step. It is not simple replace diets. It is long term journey and lifestyle change. With correct mindset, you will achieve your goal.
Good luck with your endeavors!
I agree. It all starts with the right mindset. And before you start a diet, make sure that you can stick to it long term. That’s why people doesn’t see results is when they don’t really commit to it. Whatever diet you are following, it is important that you enjoy the food that you are about to intake. If for example you are a big fan of rice or pastas and you know that you cannot live without it, then Keto diet will not work for you. Yes there will be sacrifices, but for you to get results, look for diet plans that would suit your personality. These are just based on my experience 🙂
Thanks for sharing your personal experience with us. You are absolutely right that if you are rice or pastas lover, it will take a while for you to switch from these carb to high fat food. Take your time and adjust your diets gradually. With correct mindsets, you will achieve your keto diet goal.
Hi Kcancer,
Thanks for your helpful post. My weight is 67kg. Where my age is only 20. I think I am overweight. I always try to lose my overweight. But I could not maintain my meals time. By reading your post I can see a light for losing my weight. You said that I can enjoy my food according to rules which are chosen by mine. You also recommended establishing a keto diet map. You amazingly expressed some important rules which are needed for losing weight. I will follow your instructions and will follow to others.
Keto diets is the best diet for loss weight, since it train your body to use fat as energy source. It burns your fat and reduce weight. Take your time and setup your own keto diet mind map. People all over world practice keto diets and lose weight. I am confident you will be able to achieve your weight loss goal.
I have learnt alot of useful tips in this review. I learnt that the amount of calories we take should be the amount we burn or more than that. I learnt that we should shouldn’t change our diet rather we should change our life style. Taking keto mind map will be an amazing one. Having right mind set will speed everything up. I think these method will work best for me compare to strenuous exercise.
I am very happy that this article provides you with useful information. You are already in a good start, having a correct mindset for keto diets. Take your time and build up your personal keto diet road map. I am confident you are going to achieve your keto diets success.