Genie Lauren shares the key to keto in this episode, outlining in five easy steps how to get into nutritional ketosis and stay there for as long as you choose. There are some do’s and don’ts that you don’t want to miss if you’re a beginner, or if you’ve been trying a keto diet or lifestyle and haven’t been getting it right.

Show Transcript

You know what’s the hardest part about cooking bacon to go in my salad?

Not eating all the bacon before I put it in my salad.

I’m a Hungry-hungry Hippo and this is my Fast Life.

[Theme song]

So, we’ve already reached the third episode of Genie Lauren’s Fast Life. I hope you’re enjoying the show, I hope you’re already finding a few helpful tidbits and insights. This particular episode is going to be really helpful because I’m going to walk you through, step-by-step, how to keto.

It doesn’t have to be hard, you don’t have to be a mathematician or scientist. You definitely don’t have to take a ton of supplements and waste money on disgusting protein shakes (no offense to anyone who likes protein shakes). You just have to learn how to be mindful and deliberate about what you’re putting into your mouth.

There’s this silly idea some people have that you can trick your body into not processing everything you eat. Like, if you eat a ton of sugar it’s okay because you drank water with it, so that counteracts the sugar. That’s not how the digestive system works. And, you don’t need a medical lab to know that’s not how it works, just a little honesty with yourself and some basic understanding about food, and you’re good.

Now, if you’re wondering how I had an episode about keto flu before an episode about how to do keto. I was laying the groundwork for you, okay? I gave you a back-story. I gave you some useful terms and definitions. I gave you the urgent things to look out for, ahead of time, so you don’t get got. I set us up for this very moment we’re about to have. Ease you into it.

And, before we really get into the nitty-gritty, here’s a brief word on how you can support the show.

If you enjoy Genie Lauren’s Fast Life, please like and rate the show on Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review with your rating helps even more and I’d truly appreciate the feedback. If you would like to support the show, become a patron. Go to Patreon.com/fastlife and choose the tier that is right for you. Perks include keto recipes, a one-on-one phone call with me to coach you through your keto journey, and a keto kitchen makeover, where we go over how to shop at a grocery store of your choice. If you want to just support the show on a one-time basis, without a perk, you can do that, too. Anything is appreciated.

Okay, back to the show.

So, I’m going to say something that might seem a little radical, may make you roll your eyes, but it’s absolutely true — sugar is poison. All sugar. No hyperbole. Some sugars are worse than others, but all sugars have negative effects on your health in the short-term and long-term.

Dr. Robert H. Lustig (an endocrinologist at UC San Francisco) has called fructose alcohol without the buzz³ – fructose is the sugar you find in fruit. . . so, yes, even that mango is poison. Back when I was being tested for diabetes, I told my doctor that I was eating two bananas a day and her eyes bugged out like I told her that I never washed my legs or something. Yeah, sugar is toxic.

So, why do we eat sugar? Sugar is a fast fuel — your body quickly makes use of it and stores what it doesn’t use as fat in and around your organs. I’m sure we all know how that works, I don’t have to explain that you can gain fat by eating potato chips, right? Okay. By the way, did you know that hunger is what you feel when your body has used or stored all the sugar you’ve eaten? That’s why it prompts you to eat more. Your blood sugar has dropped and now you have to eat to pump it back up. Makes so much sense, it’s a vicious sugar cycle.

Now, as I’ve mentioned in a previous episode, your body can either be fueled by sugar (in the form of glucose) or fueled by fat (in the form of ketones). But, how exactly do you get the ketones? You’re gonna wanna write this down (or, just go to genielauren.com to get the entire episode transcript).

Step 1: Cut the sugar

Your body doesn’t have to convert sugar to use it, it can burn it right away. Which means that your body burns sugar faster than it burns fat. It’s not the best fuel for your engine, but it’s a quick one. So, as long as you’re eating sugar, you’re gonna run on sugar. You won’t make the switch to fat until you stop fueling yourself with sugar. And, once you stop putting sugar in your mouth, you have to burn what’s stored in your organs and muscles. Which leads us to. . .

Step 2: Start intermittent fasting

Now, there are people who do keto without fasting, but fasting is going to be the quickest way to use all the sugar you have stored and get your body to switch to ketones for fuel. There are a lot of other great health benefits with fasting, but that’s for another episode. It will take the average person roughly twelve hours to burn through the sugar they’ve stored, and now we’re in keto territory. You ever wake up one morning, after a great night’s sleep, and feel like your tummy is flatter? That’s likely because your body was in ketosis while you slept — burned all the sugar and started on the fat.

Step 2 ½: Drink water

There are a lot of misconceptions about what you can and cannot drink while you are fasting, and there are a lot of things you shouldn’t drink, but please make sure you are drinking water. If you feel hungry, put some apple cider vinegar in that water — many people have found that apple cider vinegar helped stabilize their blood sugar (so you won’t feel those hunger pains)⁴. Do drinks teas and coffee without milk. Don’t drink anything with fat or butter, and you should get a really deep fast until you’ve reached the time of day you want to start eating.

Step 3: Start your keto diet

I want to reclaim the word “diet” here. The definition everyone’s used to brings to mind the silly things people do because they want to lose ten pounds really quick but then go right back to eating a standard American diet. This isn’t that. For the remainder of this podcast, we’re sticking to what is actually the first definition of diet and that is, “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.” What will you habitually eat while you’re keeping keto?

You may be surprised to learn that this is actually different for everyone. There are people who do a vegan keto, a paleo keto, and I personally do a non-dairy keto. So my keto diet mostly consists of salmon, spinach, bacon, and avocados. There are ways to do keto that garner you more nutrition than others, but the main idea is to turn up the fat consumption and stay below 20-50 mg of net carbs a day.

Net carbs being the amount of carbs you get when you subtract dietary fiber from the total amount of carbs.

Now, if you are not used to reading the labels of the food you eat, you will definitely have to start once you’re keeping keto. You should be reading the labels regardless of what your diet is, but you’re definitely going to have to read it when you’re keeping keto because sugar and carbs are hidden in almost everything.

You will be sabotaging yourself if you aren’t mindful, but overall you can easily do keto by simply avoiding pastas, breads, grains, oats, fruits, and (of course) sugar. If you decide you aren’t interested in counting a single macro, you can simply cut those foods and fast, and you won’t be in bad shape.

Step 4: Get. Your. Micros.

I had a whole episode about keto flu, so there’s no way I’m going to give you instructions about how to do keto and not stress how important it is for you to get all your micronutrients, every day. Depending on your age and sex, you’ll need about 4,700 mg of potassium, 2,300 mg of sodium, 320 mg of magnesium, and 1,000 mg of calcium every day (you can find the fact sheets from the National Institutes of Health with the exact numbers that are meant for you on my website genielauren.com/resources).

It’s going to be easier to get certain minerals than others, depending on what your keto diet consists of (I have a particular problem consuming enough potassium because I do not eat dairy), but if you are mindful about what you eat, you should be able to hit your micro targets each day.

Step 5: Test your blood

Now, this is completely optional, but I highly recommend getting a kit that has strips that can test your blood glucose and your blood ketones. For one — early on, you really won’t know for sure if you’re even in ketosis unless you test your blood (the pee strips are not accurate). Two — you need to get a good idea of how different foods affect you. For some people, certain popular keto-friendly snacks are fine, for other people (like me) what seems innocent will send your blood sugar through the roof. The only way to know is to test. Lastly — if there’s any chance your ketones are too high, your blood test kit can indicate it.

Without getting too nerdy about it, we’re aiming for a certain level of ketosis (anything between 1.5 and 3 millimolar of blood ketones). If you test your blood and find that you are at — say — 8 mmol blood ketones for multiple hours, and you feel dehydrated and nauseous or otherwise just don’t feel good, you may be at risk for ketoacidosis. You should head to the hospital and let them know you’re concerned you have diabetic ketoacidosis, and if they find out you do they’ll probably give you insulin and fluids with electrolytes. From there, you should consult with your doctor.

You don’t automatically have diabetic ketoacidosis just because you have a level of blood ketones higher than 3 and less than 10. So, don’t freak out. Diabetic ketoacidosis has to be diagnosed by a doctor, so don’t be on WebMD scaring yourself to death. I just mention this so that you understand why it’s useful to do the blood tests and monitor yourself, early on, until you have the swing of things and you know how your body should feel.

And, that’s that on that. If you follow those five steps you should have a very easy, very successful experience with keto. And, that’s whether your goal is treating insulin resistance or losing weight, those steps will help you successfully get into ketosis and manage a ketogenic lifestyle.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Genie Lauren’s Fast Life was produced, written, recorded, and edited by me — Genie Lauren, for Rocque More Media. This episode’s artwork was also created by me — Genie Lauren, for Rocque More Media. The podcast logo was created by Huny, and the theme song was created by Tonemassif.

Thanks for listening.