Do you think that you deserve the body that you want? Or do you deserve the body that you have?

If they are both the same that is great. You can skip this and just enjoy this pretty picture.

Maybe you’re a celebrity or you have the money to spend on a personal chef and personal trainer to do your planning, shopping and organizing.  

If you’re looking for a Keto consultant to manage every detail of your Keto lifestyle,  I may be available for the right price.  Make me an offer.

Maybe you think those questions are just nonsense because you just don’t have time for a load of philosophical crap.  If that’s you, then read on.

I am a Keto enthusiast.  The way that all this works thrills me. It is awesome and beautiful how our metabolisms have evolved and they work to keep us going.

Good food and drink have always been a priority to me too. And, I have always been an active person.  So this whole health and Keto diet thing is an excellent fit for me.

I love it and I want to share it. So sometimes it’s hard to imagine that everyone is not into all the details as I am.

I had a great idea about how I want to inspire you. I want you to live up to all your potential and follow your dreams of having a beautiful palace next to a unicorn farm.

But you and I both know that’s BS.  I don’t want to be mean, but there is no unicorn farm.  The fact is that most of us have lots of other things on our plates than just planning a no-carb lunch.

So let’s get real.  I started the Keto diet because I was too fat – I would say about fifty pounds too fat.

I know that most of you are interested in the Keto diet to lose weight, and the rest of those benefits are blah-blah-yeah-yeah, let’s get to eating Keto and getting thin.

I get that, you want to get thin with the time that you have, and you don’t have that much time.

Check out ” How to lose ten pounds in a week” and you’ll be on your way quickly.

You want to eat Keto, but you probably don’t want to take out a second mortgage to pay for groceries. You can do Keto on a Budget.

But then when you see all grass-fed-organic-wild-caught-non-GMO-pesticide-and-hormone-free stuff, your eyes glaze over and you decide to think about it over a  burger, fries and a coke.  I get it.  A couple years ago, I would have felt the same way about Keto.

You see the ingredients and instructions on Keto tortillas and think, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”  And you’re probably right.

There are so many Keto posts and recipes that expect you to have a genie in a bottle and Martha Stewart on speed dial.  And here is a mea-culpa, I’m guilty of that too.  I’m sorry, I hope you can forgive me.

But seriously, if the Keto lifestyle can’t fit into your everyday life, what’s the point?

Again, I get it. Now most days I work at least 10 hours on blogging.

I have a house and cars that require maintenance.

I have an elderly Mom who needs my help and attention.  I love her and want to spend as much time with her as I can. 

Last week I had to record the football game so that we could watch it after my daughter and I got back from skiing/boarding.

My teen daughter and lovely wife light up my life like Christmas and the Fourth-of-July at the same time. 

If I had to choose between them and eating Keto, it would be no contest.  I would still be a big, fat, medicated guy with a happy love filled life. 

But that’s not who I am today. Now I am a thin healthy unmedicated guy with all the love I need – I’m lucky, I have everything but time.

Quick & Easy Keto

So here you go.  The all new – improved and better than ever – Keto for actual real busy people.

Let’s break it down and make it simple and easy. 

And while-were-at-it, lets not let the perfect Instagram-health-models discourage us from being better and healthier than we are right now.

No matter how perfect their photo-shopping makes them look, they are humans just like you.

No matter what, you need to start where you are, and improve from there.

The Standard American Diet (SAD), with all of the addictive carbs and processed convenient food, is making you fat, sick, and eventually dead.

It is full of highly processed carbs, trans fats, toxins, and pollutants. And it is sorely lacking in fiber.

If you are eating the SAD diet now, you can’t get much worse. If all you do just replace the carbs with green veggies and fat, you will be healthier – perfect? – no, but definitely better than you were.

Could it be more simple?

If all you do is switch from being a sugar burner to being ketogenic your health will improve.

Will you be the healthiest person in the world? Nope, but you will be thinner and healthier than you are right now.

If you still eat corn feed beef and cured bacon (i.e. with the nitrates) as part of a Keto diet, you will still be healthier than if you stayed on the SAD because the SAD diet includes corn fed beef and uncured bacon PLUS all of the sugar/carbs.

If you have a diet that is all bad, and you take out most of the bad and replace it with pretty good stuff, the overall effect is going to be improvement.

If you eat fresh veggies that aren’t organic you still will be healthier than if you were eating no fresh veggies. 

(I know this is going to make some people mad, in fact I had a lovely lady chew me out over not recommending organic food exclusively.)

I know organic is healthier.

But you know what else? I am sick and tired of certain people making those who can’t afford ALL ORGANIC food feel like the can’t be healthy.

I am sick of the shaming, sick of the judgement and sick of the exclusivity about this grass fed, organic only mindset. I welcome comments about this in the section below.

Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying here.  Organic grass fed animals make better meat and cheese than the regular stuff that the rest of us eat.

But the difference is small compared to the difference between being a being a carb addicted sugar burning and being ketogenic.

Easy Quick Keto recipes

We have a “make-again” list of all the recipes that we loved. 

On the top of that list is Fried Rice.  It takes Brenna about 1/2 hour start to finish.  If you buy the pre-riced cauliflower you can make it even faster and reduce some clean-up as well.

We make low carb sauces and replace the noodles with spaghetti squash or Zoodles (spiral cut zucchini quickly sautéed in olive oil).

Chicken Alfredo is another household favorite.

If I have leftover chicken I can make the Alfredo sauce in in about as long as it takes to cook a frozen pizza.  And, Zoodles are very quick to make if you have a spiralizer.

You can still go out to eat

Keto has become so popular that many restaurants now offer low carb options, and that makes it easier for you to get on the Keto train.

If they don’t have the low carb options proudly displayed on the menu, you have gotten far enough on the Keto diet to know where carbs are hiding.

There is a place down valley that pre-Keto I used to love to stop for a burger and fries and beer or two.  Now I have the burger with a side salad and a vodka and soda or plain soda, and I just don’t eat the bun.  Or I get chicken wings, celery and blue cheese.

Fast food is doable too. 

I know that subway will make any of their sandwiches as a salad.

Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King all have menu options that are low carb.

Or you could just do what I do, don’t order the fries and don’t eat the bun.

Drink-wise, I always go for club soda.  I would recommend club soda, unsweetened tea, coffee, or water.

You can have diet soda if you want, if you can get the kind with stevia that would be best.

The sweetener in most diet soda is NutraSweet, and that has some side effects that you might want to avoid. More info click here

If you are going out to a really fancy place my advice would be to consider the carbs when you order and eat all that you want and have a good time.

A few things to remember with fanciness:  Dry wines and Champagne are Keto friendly, sweet wines are not.  For more info on alcohol click here.

Prepared Keto Food

Low Carb Tortillas: These are a god-send in a time crunch.  If you have to make a quick lunch roll up some meat and cheese in a low carb tortilla and you’re done.  Breakfast burritos, can be made and frozen for a grab an go microwavable meal. 

And lots of fiber is just an added benefit of the low carb tortillas.  So they are quick and make your tummy feel good.

Chicken wings – we get a huge bag of the tequila lime or the spicy ones at Costco.  Cut up some celery and you have Keto friendly healthy dinner when ever you need.

Meat Balls – Again we get a big bag of them at Costco. There is about 1 carb per meatball.  Make a little low-cab marinara and zoodles and you’re ready to eat.

Frozen Veggies – You can get these at any grocery store. Choose broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, Brussels sprouts, spinach and most places even have riced cauliflower for your convenience.

If the label says it has some kind of sauce on the veggies, make sure it’s not hidden carbs.

We get most of our frozen veggies at Costco. There is a big bag that has 6 one pound bags of broccoli that are perfect for the three of us ( I eat a lot of green veggies).  Put some cheese and nuke them for 6-8 minutes and you’re ready to go.

Pre-cut Salad – You can get this everywhere.  You pour it in a bowl, cut up a tomato and well on your way to a nutritious salad.  The thing that is so nice about Keto is all the stuff that you should put on your salad like cheese, bacon and copious amounts of dressing are all okay. With Keto you really can make salad a meal. ( Brenna rolls her eyes again…)

Make enough to have Leftovers

It takes the same amount of time and the same amount of mess to make more than you’re going to eat on any given night.

In our house we have fend-for-yourself nights where everyone makes what they want with whatever leftovers there are.  This is not only a nice family togetherness, it is usually satisfying and delicious.

Spaghetti Squash – cook two of them at the same time.   Put the extra in a big Tupperware.

Riced Cauliflower – if you are going to rice one head of cauliflower.  It is almost as easy to rice two and save it.  Cauliflower keeps for days and freezes well. And here’s something they now sell pre-riced frozen cauliflower almost everywhere.

Soup – Freeze leftover soup in single serving microwaveable containers, and you have the easiest emergency lunch ever.

Crock Pot and Insta-pot

The crock pot and insta-pot are a god-send for any busy person who needs to cook.

Here’s a great Crock Pot, and if you want to go all the way, here’s a great Insta-Pot.

We use ours all the time especially during the busy times because it is so easy and delicious.

Crock Pots are the easiest way to make any kind of shredded meat anything.

If you want tacos, put a pork shoulder roast and Mexican spices in the crock in the morning.  That night shred it, roll it in lettuce with some cheese sour cream and hot sauce, and BAM! You have a Keto taco.

We make everything from Keto Chili to Keto Beef Bourguignon.

You will be shocked at how easy this is and then you will be shocked at how delicious it is.

Microwave

I don’t care who you are, the microwave is a huge time saver in the kitchen.

We have a bunch of 2 minute recipes – you can have lunch in no time.

There are things that you don’t think – or at least I didn’t think – to do in the microwave.

Cooking bacon is faster and makes much less of a mess in the microwave.  You just put a paper towel on top of it to stop the splatters and nuke it ’til it’s crispy.

If you have time to cook then by all means do it the traditional way. If you don’t, than this is an easy option.

Have you tried cooking eggs in the microwave?  You can’t have them over easy, but scrambled take 45-60 seconds.  You just put them in a bowl, beat them with a fork and nuke them. (Don’t forget to cover the bowl with a small plate, they explode sometimes).

A microwave is also the easiest way to cook frozen veggies.

Easy Snacks

The snack aisle can be depressing for a Keto enthusiast.  it’s full of forbidden fruits like potato chip, corn chips  & candy bars.

But Keto devotees don’t despair, there are still so many things that you can munch on.

I’ll just give you a list: celery sticks, avocado, cheese, lunch meat, nuts and seeds, peanut butter, olives, pork rinds, pickles, jerky, etc….  See our Shopping List and use your imagination.

Our store is constantly running out of the Spicy Baken-ets so I get them from Amazon.  They cost a little less and that way you never have to be without a quick snack.

Here’s a few quick snack ideas all in one post

Consider what your family will eat

Kale is supposed to be a super-food, and it is Keto low carb and all that.

But it could be the fountain of youth and make no difference in my house ’cause nobody is going to eat it.  Brussel sprouts… I get all of them to myself, cause no one else likes them.

We do like broccoli, especially with cheese on it.  Green beans (fresh or frozen) sauteed in olive oil with garlic and onions or topped with truffle or sesame oil as a treat or are feeling fancy.

We like cauliflower especially riced and fried.  Here is a great recipe for Keto Fried Rice

Stock the freezer

Whenever we see meat or chili peppers on a good sale we buy a bunch of those and put them in the freezer.

This turns out to be both convenient and economical.

Quick Keto Recipes for Busy People

• Keto Quick Egg McMuffin
• Two Minute Keto Burger Bun
• 2 Minute Keto Personal Pizza
• Quick Keto Chocolate Coconut Mugcake
• Easy Keto Tortilla Chips

The Big Conclusion

I have been doing this Keto thing for over two years now.  I have lost more than 40 lbs.  And this is the truth, I spend less time on food than I ever did.

I just spend my time differently on my food.

While I was typing this last little bit Brenna made a pizza with a coconut flour crust.  It was delicious.

But here’s what she said, “you know it’s funny, that crust actually takes less time than regular pizza crust because you don’t have to wait for it to rise.”

And in half an hour I had pizza.

More posts on how to be successful at Keto here.

Please Let Us Know What You Think

Again, I would like to ask you to leave a comment. Or if you have a question.  A suggestion, or even a complaint…I would love to hear from you.

Cheers for now!

Thom