Hi, I'm Dr. Boz. In this video we're going to start with the best tips and tricks that I use for patients to start a ketogenic diet.
The ketogenic diet is not an easy change for most Americans to take.
When you look at the standard American diet, there are so many carbohydrates
that we take in that I contend if you slam down to 20 carbohydrates or less on day one,
it's kind of like that patient that shows up on January 1, saying,
"Doc, I have smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for the last 20 years and I'm quitting today."
The chances that that patient is going to stay off cigarettes for the rest of their life is actually very low
if the contemplation and change was overnight.
You can think of it like this, the faster you make a change in your life, the quicker it goes away.
The patients who are able to make the change from the diet they're on to a ketogenic diet are
usually not on a standard American diet.
Here's the steps that I would recommend if you are on the standard American diet,
which is usually over 100, 250, sometimes over 300 carbohydrates in a day.
In other videos, you've probably seen that we're trying to get you under 20 carbohydrates a day.
And although that's very possible and sustainable, the first week you make the change,
you might want to step into this. It's that reason that I recommend on week one,
you start with having no calories in your drinks. This is an easy rule to follow because
it's pretty black and white. Water, black coffee and tea. Start with this rule for the first week.
And just watch how often you get tempted to drink a protein shake because 'it's healthy'
and then look at how many carbohydrates are in there.
Before we move on, invariably, I get the question, "Can I have sugar free drinks,
like soda pops with sugar substitutes or sports drinks that are calorie free?"
I'd be careful with those drinks. Certainly the no calorie,
In those sugar free drinks, you find a sweetener that tells your brain that that sweet taste just got
consumed. And there is a bit of pleasure seeking, maybe even addiction, to those sweet tastes.
with the low carbohydrate diet when donuts were anywhere still on the list.
At some point in the ketogenic diet, you're going to have to address that.
I find those people that don't lean on the sugar free drinks at the beginning of this diet
have a much better success rate. So week one, no calories in your drinks.
And if you can do it, I would contend no sweetened drinks either.
Week two is to remove all the starches. That means things like rice, potatoes, pasta.
Think of all 'white foods.'
I'll tell you a story real quick, that I had a patient come in saying, "Yep, Doc, I gave up the white foods."
...and then tells me about how they were having whole grain donuts.
I gave the patient a hard time that they weren't really being honest
The first week we took out calories from the drinks.
But second week, we look at anything that's got starches in it.
By removing all the calories the first week, and the second week, removing the starches,
especially all the white starches, you've made a huge improvement in the success
of the first three days of a ketogenic diet. Reducing those carbohydrates from the 300 mark
to the 150 mark and then staying there for a week or two.
And then reaching for the 20 carbohydrates or less is a much more sustainable action plan.
Just like that cigarette smoker that came in and changed that behavior overnight,
I would actually encourage the patient to start cutting down. Removing cigarettes and
as they deal with the stress of not having a cigarette at every turn, it has the same learning curve
as my patients who turned to carbohydrates at every turn to take in over 300 carbs per day.
These first two weeks set you up for success. Let's take on the last two steps.
In that second week when you're working on removing all those carbohydrates,
that's when I would attack your cupboards. Take a garbage can into your cupboards
and remove the temptations. These foods cannot be near you. Clean out the home
and make the environment where you cook your own food free from temptations that are high in carbs.
This step of cleansing your house of excessive carbohydrates and other processed foods
helps you to set up a successful time of transition.
In that first week when you're down to 20 carbohydrates or less,
those temptations are really easy to get into but they're even more easy
if they're just around the corner in your pantry.
Use week two when you're taking on no starches to clean out the pantry.
The final step that I recommend is make a tribe.
There is a support group looking for you to join or maybe you're going to start one.
Grab a friend and have a weekly meeting talking about how hard it was to give up carbs.
Use the playlist that I've made titled All Things Keto and each week
just mark through one of those videos.
Those are little bitty videos, just like this one, that will give you the nuggets
to get through the hiccups and put out a lot of the myths out there about the ketogenic diet.
This gets you my first four steps for any beginner on the ketogenic diet.
If you want more information, the best teaching tool is the book that I wrote, Anyway You Can.
Check it out on Amazon and share it with a friend.
I'm Dr Boz, signing off. Good luck to all you beginners.