Part 4 of An Easy Way to Control Your Autoimmune Disease

Stumbling blocks...........

So your very own health experiment begins! I’m so excited for you! You have your tools, you have your motivation, you’re ready to go! But wait, now you’re thinking about all the things that can go wrong……….

What do I eat when I’m at a restaurant? What do I do when they bring donuts to work? It’s DONUTS! I normally have sugar in my coffee….I can’t have sugar in my coffee??? What do I put in my packed lunches? What if I wake up hungry during the night? Worry not! There are plenty of answers to your questions! Many, many thousands of people follow this way of eating, and it’s quite easy to find the answers to your questions. When I first began, I joined quite a few Facebook groups to get answers. Just go to the top of your Facebook page and type Ketogenics in the search box. You’ll see many, many group pages. Join half a dozen of the bigger ones to get them showing up on your feed. People on these boards are generally very helpful in answering your questions. If you happen to get on a “troll” board (that means angry, bitter people being hateful), just unlike it and banish them. No biggy. If you don’t have Facebook, you can Google any question you have. There are tons of board and blogs that talk about ketogenics. The answers to your questions are out there!

One of the biggest issues most new keto people have is the big eating out question. I eat out frequently. It’s really not the problem you think. You do need to keep a couple of tools with you if you do fast food a lot, but even that drive-thru burger joint is not off limits to you. That being said, you really need to try and stop going to those fast food places. The food is not the best quality (in general), plus they have a tendency to add sugar and flour to just about everything. Also, you don’t want to assume that if you order a salad, that it will be the best low-carb choice. Quite a lot of burger joints offer lettuce wraps instead of buns. It’s messy, but I’d rather have a bacon double cheese burger in a lettuce wrap than a limp salad. You might want to keep wet wipes and some plastic food utensils in the glove box (maybe a bib)! Atkins has quite a lot of good info on eating out low-carb. You can also go to your favorites websites and look up nutritional info. Eating out at a sit-down restaurant is much easier. I’ve traveled all over the United States, Canada, and Europe and have yet to have a problem ordering what I want. Think of the menu as a guide, not an absolute. It’s a rare cook or chef that minds plating a dish without the potatoes or rice. Your server, on the other hand, can be a bit confused and occasionally surly. I often start out with, “I have an autoimmune disease and I’m on a special diet………” Definitely not, “I’m on a diet.” You just get a heavy sigh and an eye roll. Hey! Having a disease has very few perks, so don’t be ashamed to use it where you may! My next step is not to drive the server or chef crazy, but to just get what I want in the easiest way possible. I’m a big steak and seafood lover, so I’m always looking for that first thing on the menu. I also don’t have a very big appetite, so my eyes go right for the appetizers. Chicken satay anyone?! Hot wings?! Oysters?! Yum yummy! “I’ll have a gin and soda with lime, and an order of the baked oysters, but ask the chef to leave off the bread crumbs please. Thanks!” (big smile). Or, “I’ll have a glass of merlot, steak medium rare, leave off the sides and just bring me a green salad with double blue cheese dressing.” If I’m dining with “normies” (meaning normal healthy people who eat everything placed in front of them), then I just push the bread over to their side of the table, enjoy my drink and the conversation and realize I’m going to be nearly full soon because of the double blue cheese (or ranch) dressing. High fat equals satiation. Luckily I have a dog, because half my meal ends up not eaten and brought home for him! No, seriously, after you go into ketosis and up your fat intake, you’re not going to be near as hungry as you once were.

Eating out.  Low-carb.  Fresh and clean. — Eating out. Low-carb. Fresh and clean.

Another issue, those lovely co-workers who bring sugary snacks to share. Luckily, your hunger isn’t going to be much of an issue a couple of weeks into your new way of eating (WOE). You may have chosen not to tell people at work that you have an autoimmune disease, so this is a good time to just say, “I’m on a diet.” Period. No explanation is due anyone. Keep string cheese, nuts, maybe some protein bars in your desk or cubby just in case you actually are hungry. Otherwise, this is when you’re just going to have to tell yourself, “NO.” You may want it, but you don’t need it. Trust me, the longer you’re ketogenic the less you’ll crave all those high carb foods. Even after three years, my brain still tries to tell me that the butter cream icing on those cupcakes sure do look good! But I know from experience, after just one bite, I’m gagging because it’s so sweet and I’m going to be nauseated in just a couple of minutes. SO not worth it!

Do you generally take sugar in your coffee? Your best solution is to get used to it without, but if you just can’t stand it, switch over to those little pink or yellow packets. It’s not good for you or your disease, but one or two a day isn’t going to break you. I know a lot of die-hard keto warriors don’t agree with me. I know a lot of all-natural warriors don’t agree with me. I also know, that once you start feeling better you’ll want to continue to feel better, and that might mean you’ll eventually give up the unnatural sweeteners altogether. Focus on keeping those carbs low for now. Worry about how to get even more healthy later.

So what do you pack in your lunch or for road trips? Here are a couple of good lists of low carb lunches to go and eating on the run. The items listed in both of those article are also great for the midnight munchies! Yes, I still get those occasionally. Generally, it’s when I’ve forgotten to eat during the day (yep, “forgot to eat” never came up for me before keto) or had a very stressful day. It’s easy enough to grab a spoon of peanut butter or half a cup of cottage cheese.

Remember, there’s an answer to every problem you might come across with this way of eating. Don’t make it more complicated than it should be! Will you have to use some self-control? Yep! Will it become SO much easier in a couple of weeks? Yep! Stick with it! This is YOUR HEALTH we’re talking about here! There are no magic pills. You have to work to become as healthy as your body is capable of. It's just not that hard of work!

Did you miss a previous article in the series? Here are the links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 to get you started. Also, the link to how to do your own health experiment. You can also contact me on Facebook at My Life Experiment.