Sometimes, it feels like life is throwing curveballs at you, trying to hit you in the face. Lately, it seems that every time we turn around, life is belting us again. At these points in your life, where does keto fall in our list of priorities? Well, it goes further down the line. When life gets dirty, we use dirty keto.
What is Dirty Keto?
With dirty keto, you only track your carb intake to ensure you stay under the 20 grams a day and stay in ketosis. There isn’t as much focus on food quality, so processed meats and sweeteners are okay.
Dirty keto is usually seen as more sustainable in the long term. Being able to use sweeteners means that you can satisfy that craving for a sweet treat without returning to sugar and simple carbs that will kick you out of ketosis. It’s also nice to be able to incorporate some processed foods, like pepperoni, into your diet. It doesn’t take as much planning and cooking to stay on track with dirty keto.
Examples of Dirty Keto
Dirty keto is what you tend to do when you are on the road. It’s the burgers you get from McDonald’s with no buns or the baked goods you get from your local keto bakery. It’s the pepperoni and cheese you pick up in the service station. These things keep you within the carb limits of keto. It doesn’t necessarily give you all the nutrients you need for a healthy lifestyle. But, you will likely stay in ketosis.
Options when Life is Hard
So when life is getting you down, you have a couple of options. You can give up keto for a while. Sometimes, you just eat to survive and that’s all you can do. The question is, can you let it go and get back on track? Or will you beat yourself up about it and feel like a failure? This isn’t an option for those of us who do keto due to health concerns, so we have to go another route.
A second option is to buckle down and put more focus on what you can control – eating. This sounds ideal, but sometimes you need to put family time as a priority. If something has to give, should it be family or your mental health? This can also lead us down the path of eating disorders. Many people say that they started engaging in unhealthy eating habits as a way to have some control over something.
The third option is what we do. You try to do your best day to day. Some days you are going to cook at keto meal and have leftovers for lunch the next day. Other days, you’re going to order out and then grab some pepperoni and cheese for lunch the next day. Some evenings, you are going to crave sweets, and you grab some keto friendly options. And, you know what? Any of those is okay.
Final Thoughts about Dirty Keto
We like how we feel when we are following keto more strictly. Too much sugar alcohol or not enough nutrients can make you feel crappy. But, when life happens, you need to be okay with backing off a little bit and taking a few shortcuts. The important part of this is to cut yourself a little slack. Don’t beat yourself up because you aren’t doing perfect keto during a crisis in your life.
Remember that keto is a lifestyle – not a diet. It will ebb and flow with your life as you need it to. Our goal is to stay in ketosis as we face obstacles in our lives, and return to the stricter keto way of life when we can. We live a strict keto life because it makes us feel good in our bodies, but we also take in some Enlightened ice cream and Lily’s chocolate when times are tough. We make keto work for us, when life feels against us.
Wendy
