take to get back into ketosis. Today I'm gonna talk about how to make some smart

decisions around that cheating so that you can minimize the damage if you do.

Coming right up.

hey I'm Dr. Ekberg I'm a holistic doctor and a former Olympic decathlete

and if you want to truly master health by understanding how the body really

works make sure that you subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you

don't miss anything a lot of people try keto and they get great results but it's

also for a lot of people it feels like a great commitment like too much of a

commitment like I can do it but not if I have to do it all the time not I can't

do it if I'm not allow to make exception so there's a lot of talk about cheat

days and some people even turn it into an art form on how to cheat as much as

possible. Well I don't think that you want to do it a lot but we're gonna talk

about how to minimize the damage and when it might be okay to do it first of

all people want to know if I do cheat am I just totally setting myself back how

long is it going to take to get back into ketosis if I do so there are some

variables here we want to think about genetics play a role momentum is a big

word meaning how long have you done it how well has it been going how strongly

are you into fat burning your age your metabolism and the degree of the cheat

so if you cheat obviously if you cheat a lot then it's gonna make more damage and

if you cheat just a little bit and also the length of the cheat is it just a

meal or do you stretch it into a day or maybe a whole week so those obviously

make a huge difference because the it depends on how much momentum you have

and how much of that momentum you break so one way of

looking at it is if someone has done they started very insulin resistant and

then they work their way down they were very very consistent and they've done

keto low-carb intermittent fasting for years now they're very very stable

their insulin sensitive their bodies are totally fat adapted now if this person

goes to a party and gets out of ketosis they have a few drinks they have some

cake they eat some some pie or some potatoes then it's just gonna be a blip

all right they're gonna get out of ketosis but their bodies have so much

momentum they're so entrenched in that habit in their physiology that in 12 to

24 hours they're going to be right back it's like it almost never happened and

as long as they don't do that every week or a couple of times a week

then they're gonna maintain that physiological habit okay it's like

momentum how deep in are you another person though who might just have

started keto they might just have been going a couple of weeks they measure

their ketone and say oh great I have ketones I' m in ketosis well their body

isn't totally fat adapted yeah they're burning fat cuz that's what they're

eating the most part but they haven't really converted their entire physiology

there the habit of their body isn't there yet so if these people cheat it

might be several days or even up to a couple of weeks before they get back to

to the place that they were so keep all of those things in mind that it depends

on your momentum your body creates habits and just like it took you a long

long time to get insulin resistance it's gonna take you a while to become insulin

sensitive so I'm not going to tell you whether you it's okay to cheat or not

but ideally I would say don't cheat but at the same time if you feel deprived

then that's not a good thing that putting stress on you and you're

probably not gonna be able to keep it up but ideally you want to be able to not

cheat but if you cheat the question is why are you not satisfied is the food

not satiating is are you bored is there not enough variety those are all things

that you can do something about probably the most common thing though is that

people go on a trip and they're tempted or they don't feel like there's enough

alternatives or they have a holiday or a birthday and they feel that this is the

one time that it's just not right to not participate in the celebration

whether it's someone else's birthday or maybe even your own so there could be

lots of different reasons so let's talk about two things first how you can set

yourself up to reduce the chance or the risk or the need to cheat and then we're

going to talk about how to minimize the damage if you feel like you have to so

the first way to set yourself up not to cheat is to truly really become fat

adapted because if you are if you're all the way fat adapted then you really are

not going to have any cravings you're not going to feel the need for that

pizza or that ice cream to the extent that you do it's gonna be an emotional

need it's going to be a memory it's going to be people talking about it it's

going to be watching commercials of pizza all the time and reliving certain

emotions but if you're truly fat adapted then you are not going to have those

cravings you're not gonna have that need so they're longer and more consistent

you can let yourself become fat adapted and get that momentum the more stable

you're gonna be then you want to develop a variety of good food there are

thousands of different options and if you just go online on a regular basis or

you buy a couple of several different cookbooks and you consistently try new

things then you're going to build a wonderful

variety and you're gonna feel so so satisfied it's going to be so rewarding

with all that keto food that you're probably not going to feel the need the

only time would be like a birthday and you just know that grandma is gonna bake

a cake she's going to do it just for you and your life is over you'll be shamed

if if you refuse but if you if you develop a great variety on keto then

you'll be so satisfied that the longer you go the less you'll feel the need you

can also have keto treats there are ways to make fat bombs and cookies and

desserts that even though they're not full of sugar and even though they're

not maybe exactly like you remember they're going to be very very close and

they're going to be very rewarding the fourth thing you want to make sure

is don't keep junk at home okay if it's at home it's gonna get eaten at some

point so finish it or throw it out and don't buy it again if you only have good

stuff at home then that's what you're gonna eat that one's pretty simple but

it is so powerful that once you sort of make the clean break once you get fat

adapt and you decide you get into it then clean out the cupboards just don't

have those carbs and that sugar and the desserts and those tempting things

around because eventually they'll they'll get consumed number five as much

as possible if you're gonna have a treat if you're gonna have a party if you're

gonna have some way of celebrating or making a big deal then make it a keto

feast as far as possible then maybe just overeat instead of

having one steak just have two so you probably won't lose weight but at least

you're not going to spike your blood sugar you're not gonna ruin your ketones

and what will probably happen is you just won't eat anything the next day so

now let's talk about if you do end up in a situation either where you feel you

have no choice or if you

really feel like hey you know part of my life is to celebrate part of my life is

to have special treats part of my life is variety so I'm gonna do this no

matter what then the first thing I want to suggest is don't call it a cheat day

call it a celebration because cheating it's such a negative word it's like

we're supposed to feel ashamed after cheating we're supposed to put ourselves

down and beat up on ourselves so just change it and say that hey if I'm gonna

do this I'm gonna celebrate and if you're gonna celebrate then try to have

a plan decide ahead of time that it's gonna be a one-time thing decide what

you're gonna eat and don't just sort of leave it open-ended because then there

are too many options for it to get totally out of control if you're going

to celebrate and you have a plan then make it count make it a special occasion

buy something really really good if you're gonna have ice cream if you need

to have ice cream then don't buy cheap ice cream buy the best ice cream you

know buy the best most expensive the fattiest richest ice cream you can if

you're gonna have a couple of cookies make sure they're dripping with butter

make sure that they're the best crispiest flakiest that that you

can find if you're gonna have a beer don't drink something that you don't

like that's low in calories drink something that counts have something

that is truly truly satisfying and then make it count sit down make it an

occasion put some nice tablecloth light some candles put some flowers on the

table whether it's yourself or or with somebody but make it count

truly make it a celebration don't just buy a six-pack of muffins and down them

with it with a coke make it special the third thing that you can do to to

minimize the day is even if you're gonna celebrate

there's a big difference between having that rich satisfying ice cream with

maybe a really rich cheese cake or brownie as opposed to having a ice cream

float or something that's just pure pure sugar and and chemicals alright you can

keep it more or less close to keto you can still have it even if it has some

sugar and it's really rich and and decadent it could still have some good

fats in it you could still make it yourself maybe but keep it as close to

keto as possible once you go and you decide I'm gonna do this and you make

some purchases buy enough for one time okay

don't buy a six-pack because it's more economical don't buy the case because

it's cheaper per item don't go to Costco because it's Halloween and buy the 14

pound bag with 800 pieces of candy just because it's so cheap they're

practically giving it away buy what you could reasonably eat without getting

just totally out of control on one occasion and finish it and be done with

it alright because if they're leftovers then they're gonna get eaten and then

when you've had the party now it's time to forgive yourself because a lot of

times we a lot of the damage comes from us beating up on ourselves and we're

saying oh I shouldn't have done it I shouldn't have done it I shouldn't have

done it and believe it or not the worse you feel about it

the more likely that you're gonna do it again the more likely that you'll say oh

well you know I blew it so I might as well just start over next week don't do

that forgive yourself plan ahead forgive

yourself feel good about it and get right back to it

okay make it one meal and then you know the rules you

know what you had what your plan was and you go right back to it. The same thing holds

true if it's on a trip especially and I know myself I've been guilty of this you

go on a week-long trip and your intentions are good

so you last two or three days and then there's just that special things like oh

I remember that kind of bread that was so good and you smell it and yeah yeah

this bread would be worth it and you have a bite and then if that's all you

did that wouldn't be such a big deal but if you beat up on yourself and you say

oh I guess I blew it well you know there's just four days

left on the trip I might as well go ahead and enjoy it right well that's not

such a great idea because that's a huge difference that it's basically the

difference between a few hours and days to week forgive yourself is very very

important it's natural it's okay your your ancestors they found a a beehive

they found a fruit tree they killed an animal they had a party there's gonna be

times with with ups and down it's alright just move on and get right back

to it number six exercise if you have a plan

then you probably want to do a little extra exercise beforehand because that's

really gonna empty out that glycogen it's gonna make you a little more insulin

sensitive so then when you fill it up you're gonna fill that glycogen store

really well and then you go and exercise after again okay you can give yourself a

couple of hours you don't want to exercise with a full stomach but just

work out move a little bit extra before and after and that's gonna dramatically

reduce the insulin resistance the amount of insulin you're going to stay more

insulin sensitive we're all human life happens things happen be easy on

yourself know that things are going to happen but stay true to your goals learn

as much as you can understand why you're doing it

motivate yourself set up your goal imagine how good you're gonna feel when

you get there and the stronger you can hold on to that goal with a good

expectation the easier it's going to be for you to handle these challenges and

to move on if if it happens and again it's not a wrong thing I'm not saying

that you should never celebrate I mean do that once in a while but don't do it

all the time if you enjoyed this video I think you're really going to learn a lot

from that one thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next

video