Lunch on a budget

What are you having for Lunch? Thank you Chinonso Onyeneke and Faith for sending in this beautiful pictures, they are just perfect. Boiled Mackerel (Protein) with spicy Red oil (fat) and Afang soup made with red oil too. Let's keep losing weight the healthy way.

You too can send yours on kaichu.oo@gmail.com.

Let's go keto together.

Happy Easter darlings.

Why am i not losing weight??

 

 

Ok, so some of us have been on this lifestyle for awhile. At first, it was awesome. Kilos were disappearing. You felt great. Your old clothes were starting to fit. This lifestyle is da bomb!!

Suddenly, the weight loss stops. Why aren't I losing weight anymore?? What could have gone wrong?

I remember when mine stalled and I became frustrated but never really gave up. It didn't take long to find the "causer" of the stall, I was gorging myself with way too many Avocados.

Today let's look at the possible reasons why one's weight loss can stall. A lot of times it is as a result of not paying attention.

1. Eating too many Carb  It is very important to remember that fruits and vegetables contain carbohydrate. Eating too much fruit and vegetables is very easy. Just because is natural doesn't mean you should gorge yourself with it. Remember we humans are notoriously bad at estimating nutritional values of food. A plate of Okro soup has enough carbs in form of okro and ugu. Then maybe you decide to eat a fruit on the same meal without taking into account the amount of carb already consumed. The fructose and sugar in the fruit with the carbs in the vegetables are enough to knock you over your 20g daily carb limit. On packaged products, always check nutritional info and for whole food try to look up carb counts.
2. Eating too little Fat   It is true that most people get their calories from carbs especially sugar and grains, but for those of us on low carb lifestyle it is important remember that we 've replaced carbs with fat. Unfortunately, some people think that since low carb is a great idea, then low-fat combine with the low-carb is a better idea. People! You can not starve the body carb and also deny it fat. If you do you will be very hungry and crappy and eventually give up on the plan. Add fat to your meals to compensate for the carb. To get enough of fat choose fatty parts of meat, add a good amount of healthy fats like butter, Coconut oil and Olive to your meals.
3. Eating too much Protein  low-carb eaters most times eat a lot of lean animal foods and some times end up eating too much. When you eat too much protein than your body needs, the amino acids in the protein acids will be converted to glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis. This can become a problem on low carb keto diets and prevent one from going into Ketosis.
4. Lack of Sleep Lack of sleep makes one to produce less growth hormone, have impaired metabolism and show decreased level of Leptin - the "satiety hormone" which regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger. When you are sleep deprived you are more likely to store body fat because you will end up eating way too much.
5. Too Much Stress  research has shown that stress increases our cortisol levels and disrupts its natural rhythm. This broken cortisol rhythm wreaks so much havoc on our body and leads to the following: raised blood sugar, sugar craving, reduces your ability to burn fat, increases your belly fat and makes your liver fatty etc. Stress can also come from too much exercise, so take it gently while on this lifestyle.
6. Not taking a enough water  While on this diet, it is very important to drink water. Staying hydrated helps our liver and kidneys to process the protein and fat we consume in the most efficient way.
7. Caffeine caffeine is a stimulant which increases our adrenaline. It stimulates the liver to release glucose from its glycogen stores. This causes insulin to be released again, fat gets stored and fat burning is turned off. You don't have to give up your coffee but switching to a decaf is much better
8. Lack of Patience When we cut carbs it will take our body time to shift to another energy source which is fat. It will definitely take your body a few days to adjust to primarily burning only fat. During this period of adjustment one usually feel a bit under the weather. This is called Keto-flu or Induction Flu and starts from the 2nd day of the diet till day 4 but full adaptation can take several weeks. So it's very important to be patient and strict with your diet especially at the beginning

Low-carb is a wonderful way to lose weight and also help fight most of the world's biggest health challenges and problems, including obesity and diabetes. It is very important to be patient to avoid making mistakes.

Ciao!!

Basics of the Ketogenic lifestyle.

A low carb diet involves eating real food, natural, unprocessed with low carbohydrate content. The type of food you decide to eat depends on things like, how healthy you are, how often you exercise, how much weight you want to lose. Truth is each of us are different so no rule is set on stone.

Foods to Avoid

1. Sugar: Fruit juices, Ice cream, Sweets, Chewing gum, Soft drinks etc
2. Trans fat: All hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, Margarine first comes to mind.
3. Grains: Wheat, Rye, Millet, Barley, Rice, Oats. This includes breads, cake, spaghetti, macaroni, noodles etc
4. High Omega-6 Seed and Vegetable Oils: Cottonseed , soybean, sunflower, grapeseed, safflower oil and canola oils.
5. Artificial Sweetners: Aspartame, Saccharine, Sucralose, Cyclamates and Acesulfame Potassium. Liquid stevia can be used instead
6. Diet and Low-Fat Products: Avoid any dairy, cereals, crackers, etc
7. Highly Processed Foods: If it looks like factory produced, please don't eat.

PLEASE ALWAYS READ LABELS EVEN ON THOSE WITH "HEALTH FOOD" ON IT.

Foods to eat

1. Meats: Beef, Ram, Pork, Chicken, Snail etc
2. Fish: Mackerel, Salmon, Tilapia etc
3. Eggs
4. Leafy Vegetables: Spinach, Ugu,Waterleaf, etc
5. Fruits: Berries and Guava (In moderation)
6. Nuts and seeds: Almonds, Walnuts etc ( In moderation)
7. High Fat Dairy: Turkish /Greek Yoghurt, Heavy cream, Cheese
8. Fats and Oil: Coconut oil, butter, lard, olive oil and cod fish liver oil

In moderation, one can take

1. Dark Chocolate: 70% Cocoa and above
2. Wine: Dry wines with no added sugar or carbs, Vodka

Drink

1. Decaffeinated Coffee or tea
2. Water
3. Carbonated Soda without artificial sweeteners

Snack

1. Barbecued meat: Suya, Kilishi (Be careful with the peanut sauce, Yaji)
2. A handful of Nuts
3. Avocado
4. Hard boiled egg.
5. Berries ( less than half cup)
6. Garden Egg and few groundnut (Less than a handful)

Dairy, Beverages and Sweetners in low carb lifestyle.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

On a ketogenic diet, full fat are preferable over low fat or zero fat. But we should aware that dairy protein that is Whey and Casein are insulinogenic which means they cause an insulin spike in the body. So if losing weight becomes tougher, it's best to cut off or reduce these milk products.

• Heavy whipping cream
• All hard and soft cheeses ( Wara is a great example here in Nigeria)
• Unsweetened whole milk yoghurt ( Full fat Greek or Turkish)
• Full Fat cottage cheese
• Mascarpone Cheese
• Full fat sour cream.

Personally, i avoid all these dairy products because the stalled my weight for almost 5 days. It took me awhile to figure this out, so please learn from my mistake.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DAIRY PRODUCTS

BEVERAGES

On this lifestyle, there is usually an increase in thirst. It has a natural diurectic effect. Before this lifestyle, it was very difficult for me to drink water, I could go a whole day on just half glass of water. This lifestyle needs lots of water. It's important to drink up to 3ltrs of water daily. Drink liquids like it is going out of fashion.

• Water
• Coffee ( Decaf. Caffeine drives up blood sugar)
• Green Tea (Unsweeten)
• Soda water
• Herbal Tea

SWEETENERS

On this diet it is best to go cold-turkey on every sweet tasting stuff to help curb carb craving to minimal level. Although a lot of low carb eaters use liquid stevia but it still contains 5g of Carb. Some may say Agave nectar is ok but the truth is that it is no different sugar.

NUTRITIONAL VALUES OF SWEETNERS

Aspartame is found in all these orange flavoured Vit C and children drinks. Aspartame is so dangerous that there 90 different documented symptoms listed in FDA report. Part of the dangers are

• Headaches/migraines
• Dizziness
• Heart Palpitations
• Memory loss
• Vision problems
• Depression
• Weigh gain
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Joint pain etc

According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effect of aspartame, chronic illness can be triggered or worsened by taking aspartame:

• Brain tumours
• Multiple sclerosis
• Epilepsy
• Parkinson disease
• Fibromyalgia
• Birth defects
• Lymphoma
• Mental retardation
• Diabetes
• Alzheimer's

It has been referred to as Chemical poison. Aspartame is found in Chewing gum, diets Sodas, lots of children drinks in Nigeria have aspartame too. Ingesting Aspartame with Carbohydrate is very deadly,so before you take that Sugar free gum or Diet Soda, please check for Aspartame.

Have a lovely day.

What else can be eaten on a Ketogenic diet?

The best way to get into nutritional ketosis and experience the full benefits of a low carb lifestyle is to reduce carb, to below 50 g daily. To able to achieve this we should understand that vegetables, Nuts and seeds, Sweeteners and even spices all contain carbs too.

Vegetables

 

 

 



In a low carb meal, 80% should be healthy fat,18% protein while just 2% should be carb. Now this 2%  is usually from vegetables. On keto diet, acceptable vegetables are those leafy green ones that grow above the ground like Pumpkin leaf (Ugu), Cucumber, Pickles, Lettuce, Broccoli, Okro, Cauliflower, Spinach etc. These non-starchy vegetables are very low in carbohydrate, just less than 5g for a cup unlike their starchy root vegetables like Carrot, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Onions (White), Shallots, Garlic etc. Vegetables are extremely important part of every healthy diet, but we should bear in mind that some of them are very high in sugar  so we need to weed them out.

NUTRITIONAL TABLE FOR FRESH VEGETABLE

ketogenic diet resources

 

 

Limit your daily intake of those vegetables with carb above 7g and above.

Nuts & Seeds

Nuts and seeds are very high in calories and even higher in carbs. The danger with them is that it is very addictive, making it very easy to eat more than a handful without realizing the carb per serving. peanuts (Groundnuts) are actually legumes and should be eaten with lots of caution.
Cashews, Pistachios and Chestnuts are much higher in carb, so be careful while eating so you don't exceed your carb limits. Nuts like almond flour and milled flaxseed are great substitute for regular white flour, so yeah, you can bake some cake! People, if you are having a hard time getting into ketosis or losing weight, reduce or avoid nuts, simple.

NUTRITIONAL TABLE FOR NUTS & SEEDS

Spices

One thing lots people don't realise that is that spices have carbs too. They are a tricky part of ketogenic diet foods. Make sure to count when adding them to your meals. These ready made one in bottles have sugars added to them.

NUTRITIONAL TABLE FOR SPICES

Protein! Eat all you want.

On strict low fat diet, recommended amount of protein to be consumed is 18%. Luckily for us here in Nigeria, our farmers are not yet into feeding animals growth hormones unlike in the western countries, so we are free to eat every type of proteins.

• Fish.    preferably those caught in the wild not farmed. Mackerel (Titus), Catfish, Cod (Okporokpo/ Stockfish), Tuna, Halibut, Salmon, Tilapia
• Shellfish   Oysters, Mussels, Lobster, Clams, Periwinkle, Shrimp, Crab etc
• Whole Eggs.   You can prepare them in different ways like fried, deviled boiled, poached and scrambled
• Meat.  Beef, Veal, Goat, Lamb, Bush meat of any kind, Pomo, Shaki etc
• Bacon and sausages.  Please check labels very well on this. Lots of these sausages are filled with Wheat products as filling. Chicken Franks are not sausages and is unacceptable. Hotdogs should be carefully checked for carbs
• Pork.  Pork loin, Pork chops, and Ham. Be careful with Hams lots of them have added sugar.
• Poultry.  Chicken breast, Turkey,
• Snails.

These proteins can be eaten fried, boiled, smoked, sautéed . Favourite way of passing time is nibbling on fired chicken legs and wings, Lol. So eat all the protein you want but make sure it has enough fat. Hmm, I think I'll make a delicious Isi Ewu to enjoy my weekend.

Bye!

Healthy Fats we need.

Hi people, now being on any diet is not easy especially when you don't know what you should eat.
Today I will try to put together food list to make it easier for eating and shopping.

First lets talk of healthy fats. Why did fats start getting a bad rap? It all started in the '60s when American Heart Association had recommended that people reduce their fat intake and increase their carbs in form of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Unfortunately many people understood it as - any kind of carbs were good ( even refined carbohydrates like white bread, white rice and white paste). Trust the food industries to pounce on that,suddenly everybody is producing low fat foods which are unusually high in sugar because the truth is - Once you remove natural occurring fat from food, it becomes tasteless. To give it taste large amount of sugar are added to these "Low-fat" foods. So what do we have today, high increase in obesity.

Healthy fats are wonderful. They not only lower bad cholesterol and help in shedding excess weight, they also give us shiny hairs and nails.

Healthy Fats and Oils

In ketogenic lifestyle, meals are supposed to be made up of at least 75% Fat. The three types of healthy fats needed are:

• Healthy Saturated Fat - Coconut oil, red Palm Oil and high-fat dairy like grass-fed butter and ghee
• Omega-3 fatty acids - These are found in Omega-3 foods like Mackerel (Titus in Naija), Sardines, Salmons, Tuna, Cod etc
• Healthy Omega-9 fatty acids - These are found in Olive Oil, Avocados, Almonds

Please AVOID hydrogenated oils such as MARGARINE which are usually exposed to heat, chemicals, hydrogenation, bleaches, emulsifiers, and additives. Most times what we call butter here in Nigeria are Margarines. Note that Butter is usually wrapped in paper foils unlike Margarines that are in plastic containers.

Other sources of fat are

• Mayonnaise ( Carbohydrate content MUST be less than 2g per 100g)
• Coconut butter
• Beef Tallow
• Non-hydrogenated Lard
• Chicken Fat

 

Why go low carb?

Good Morning!! Now what I'm doing like I had already explained on my previous post is switching to a low Carb high Fat lifestyle.

 My go-to website www.dietdoctor.com/lchf  owned by Dr Andreas Eenfeldt is the best place to go to truly understand the nitty-gritty behind this life style, it's my LCHF Bible.

It's unfortunate though that fat had been painted so bad in the past by the media and some health professionals, who made people believe that it's the cause of raised cholesterol and heart diseases.
Lots of people stop eating Banga because " They" said it's bad for you. One of my favourite soup, Egusi even got a bad rap in the fat demonistion. Thankfully, things are changing.

Series of human studies on fat have been going on since 2002 and in all of them low carb diet came out tops. Not only does it help in weigh loss but it greatly improves cholesterol.

Why Go Low Carb High Fat

There are lots of benefits associated in reducing the amount of carb and increasing the amount of good fat in our diet

1. Aside from losing weight, this life style has been known to effectively treat and reverse type 2 diabetes (1).

2. This lifestyle is the best way to lose abdominal fat (visceral fat),which has been linked to cardiovascular and metabolic problems.

3. Triglycerides which have been linked to heart diseases tend to go down on this lifestyle. Cut carbs and watch blood triclycerides drop (2)

4. Low carb drastically reduces elevated blood pressure. Reduce your bp and save yourself from heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and many common diseases.

5. This diet is used in treating children with a history of Epilepsy especially those ones that don't respond to drug treatment.

6. This lifestyle has been found to be very effective in the treatment of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) in women.

To wrap it up, you can't go wrong with a low carbohydrate lifestyle.

Dalu nu!

Egg Fast to the rescue!

Usually to help kickstart Ketosis, Low Carb High Fat dieters do something called "Egg Fast". It's actually a short term diet where you eat basically Eggs. Each Egg is eaten with a corresponding value of 1 Tspn of Butter, Mayonnaise (Low Carb), Coconut oil and Olive Oil.
This very low carb diet would actually kickstart your body into fat burning mode.

On my first Egg fast, I lost a whooping 4kg which really gave me the much needed boost to go Keto. In the past losing 4kg would have taken me a minimum of 6 weeks of non-stop gruelling workouts.

I won't however, encourage anyone to go on Egg fast permanently just kickstart your metabolism to get it into weighloss mode then go back to your regular Keto diet. I've read of people doing Egg fast for 7 days and more but I won't dare try. My 3 days Egg fast is good enough for me.

Below is my own Egg fast routine customized to my taste for a 3-day period.

1. Eat Egg no later than 30mins after waking
2. Eggs are to be eaten every 3hrs but not more than every 5 hours
3. When not hungry take at least 1 boiled egg with 1 tbsp of Olive oil or Coconut oil
4. If frying, use one tbsp of either butter, Olive oil, Coconut oil and red Palm Oil
5. Stop Egg consumption 3 hours before going to bed
6. Avoid Onions, Carrots, Garlic or Bullion cubes when frying. Salt and a little dry pepper is just fine
7. Take the following with your Egg in the morning. Herbal Tea, Coffee, Green tea. Add butter before drinking.
8. Drink lots of water while on this diet. I recommend 450ml daily.
9. Don't forget to drink salt water when you start experiencing Induction Flu symptoms like Nausea, Foggy Brain, Headache, Muscle Cramps etc.

So if your weight loss is at a plateau, kickstart it again with an Egg fast.

Ciao!

What's for lunch??

Fat keeps you fuller for longer. With that in mind lunch is a simple Okro soup made with shrimps and fried Mackerel ( Known as Titus Fish here in Naija). This fish has calories of 230 of which 130 is from fat. A tablespoon of red palm  oil to increase my Fat.
200g of sliced Okro was added with it's calorie content of just 66 and net carb of just 8g I'm doing just right. It's also important to weigh your ingredients before adding to the soup.

What y'all eating this afternoon?

Bon appetit!

Breakfast !!

my breakfast today is Pancakes. Uh huh, You heard it right PANCAKES!! Only this pancake is special because it's  low carb. Meaning no Flour or Sugar. It's made with Eggs and Cream cheese.

Let,s eat!

Hey,What's the big idea!

'Ok, so what exactly are you doing?" That's the question on everybody's lips. At first, I didn't want to talk about it. How do I explain to them that it wasn't one of those my usual quick-fix "diets" How do I begin to tell them about "Ketosis" "Induction Flu" etc. Now i'm ready to live my truth. Here goes!

Going on Low Carb High Fat diet is all about restricting oneself to just 20g of Carbohydrate daily while increasing the intake of "good" fats. We were all taught from primary school that Carbohydrate is an energy giving food. So we eat Carbs for energy but most of our Naija food are loaded with so much Carbs that our body gets excess which later turn into humongous tummies, well padded rotunda bums aka Nyashes, extra flabby arms etc. Now going low on Carbs means our body won't see Carbs as it used to but because it still needs to energy, it would switch to an alternative source of energy which is stored fat. Yes, Fat is also a source of energy albeit it burns slower than Carbs. By burning fat, our bodies have successfully undergone what is called "Ketosis"

Let me try and sound a bit more scientific lol, according to www.medicalnewstoday.com Ketosis is a metabolic process that occurs when the body doesn't have enough glucose for energy. Stored fats are broken down for energy, resulting in a build-up of Ketones within the body.

To maximize ketosis, it's important to do the following, avoid carbs, reduce your stress and sleep very well, avoid eating fruits and anything with artificial sweeteners, reduce your intake of nuts and dairy products, measure your progress regularly, eat "good" fat well. I'm sure a lot of people will be wondering what "good" fats are, hold your horses Sweeties, one step at a time. For as long as body is in ketosis fats are being melted. You just see yourself losing those embarrassing extra flesh. It's amazing!

As much I'm trying to make it sound easy, it isn't a walk in the park. As your body struggles to adapt to fat, you will be hit by symptoms of Carbohydrate withdrawal known as Induction Flu. Going through the dreaded flu I felt several times that I was going break into pieces. Symptoms ranges from headache/ Foggy brain to nausea. Good news is that it's usually between day 2-4, mine lasted just for just a day though. It can also be supressed with a glass of salt water.

Ok folks,that's all for today. Ask me any questions on Low Carb diet and I will try my best to answer.

Ciao!

Whats for breakfast? Deep fried Chicken wings and Spinach sautéed in butter. Plus my ever faithful Green Tea. What are you having?

From Pain to Happiness

Yippee!! Finally decided to talk about it. Don't know where to start though but I know that I made the right decision going on low carb lifestyle. You see, I been struggling with Ovarian Cysts since 2006 then 2013 I noticed the pain got a lot worse.....hmmm..On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd say 9. Gradually it moved to 11. Lol, yep it was that bad. I was diagnosed with Endometrioma, Ovarian Cyst and several endometrioses by 2015 and suddenly life became a chore. Every month was filled with dread of my period. Severe PMS hits me 7 days to the my period, then the pain starts from Day 1 and ends with severe Back ache and labor-like contractions on the 5th to 6th day.
My Dr told me that I needed to lose weight. I was ballooning up to 90kg due to hormonal imbalance. Yep, I needed to lose weight but how in god's name do I start? I tried lots of diets but didn't lose much. I turned to jogging like 2 miles daily but almost died when the cyst got twisted, so exercising was out of it. Thankfully I ran into low carb high fat diet through a random comment made on Facebook.
The only problem was that I was flat broke and some of the meals there cost a fortune so I decided to get "ketofied" through Naija food. As I type this i'm 67kg going on 60kg and my life has changed for the best. I feel great! I look great!! Best of all NO MORE PAIN!!! Those nagging endometrioses are no where to be found thanks to low carb and high fat diet.
This blog is all about helping overweight people in Nigeria make do with stuff within our environment. Yes, we can lose and maintain weight on real food. Bye bye to expensive quick fixes. Let's all learn together. Let's "ketofy" together