The problem with starting the ketogenic diet on New Years Day is that the ketogenic diet is a really trendy diet for weight loss right now. It’s practically everyone’s New Years resolution! And since it’s become so trendy, things are being marketed as “keto” or “keto friendly” everywhere you look. Often, they’re actually not very keto at all.
Everybody thinks they know what the ketogenic diet is. Truth be told, I would occasionally make a dinner recipe that had keto in the title and think I knew about the ketogenic diet also. Often, those recipes are low carb but not actually high fat and fairly high protein. Outside of websites specifically for epilepsy, I have yet to come across a keto recipe that lists the ratio alongside the nutritional facts. I’ve since learned that keto for weight loss is vastly different than keto for epilepsy.
I consider myself a pretty live-and-let-live person, so whatever diet a person wants to follow is fine by me. The trouble I’ve found is that people have heard about keto for weight loss and therefore think they know what Reese can eat.
But even if a recipe were to be a 4:1 ratio, I couldn’t just haul off and give it to Reese. It would need to be planned and accounted for.
I love that people want to get involved and offer to make keto recipes for Reese. To be fair, if this were happening to someone I knew, I’d probably be doing the same exact thing. But unfortunately, I can’t accept their offer and it bums me out. I’m just not comfortable with any variation from what I’ve planned. For me, the downside of straying from the diet is too great.
One night Matt and I decided to have dinner at a casual burger restaurant in our area. As I was packing Reese’s meal to take with us, I considered getting Reese a burger patty at the restaurant as part of her meal. Maybe it was a moment of weakness. Or laziness. Or perhaps it was wishing for more normalcy. But was the ground beef 80/20? 85/15? 90/10? Was anything mixed into it (maybe a filler, or vegetables)? What type of fat was it cooked in? There were too many variables and I started to get anxious about it. I have rarely had these moments, but fortunately, Matt was there when I needed him to keep me on track. He reminded me if I don’t want to do it, just don’t do it. Pack something from home so that we know exactly what’s in it. So that’s what we did and the evening was wonderful.
