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Starting keto again? Getting back on keto can sometimes be more complicated than starting keto in the first place. Starting involves change and hope while starting again involves pain and regret.
You know what you’re capable of, both good and bad. Many people jump into keto with both feet, only to find themselves months down the road gorging on sweets during the holidays, or eating sweets at a barbeque.
Slip-ups don’t mean that keto is not right for you. Far from it! In this article, we’ll explain five ways how to get back on keto.
Five Tips on How to Start Keto Again
Many people “fall off the wagon” when trying the keto diet. That’s okay. Starting again means that you have the opportunity to try again smarter, wiser. Rather than focusing on the negative, instead, put that energy into finding strategies to manage cravings. Here are five ways how to start keto again.
1. Understand That No One Is Perfect
According to Dana Hunnes, a senior dietician at UCLA Medical Center and an assistant professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, she recommends that to practice the keto diet, it’s essential to let go of a perfectionist mindset.
Keto is a different type of diet in that it is a lifestyle diet. That means that you aren’t on it for a short period of time. Instead, it’s an adjustment and recalibration of your daily eating habits.
That can take time to change, especially if you’re a carb lover. Having an all-or-nothing mentality only makes it harder. So understanding that you have a craving for sweets doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker.
There is a wealth of resources out there for keto snacks, like the SuperFat keto snacks resource. It’s about replacing your old foods, not removing them altogether.
2. Take a Targeted Approach
Liz Weinandy, a lead outpatient dietician for nutrition services at Ohio State University, states it is better to start again with a targeted approach by not stopping carbs cold-turkey.
That is because stopping carbs too fast can have adverse effects, like keto flu. Instead, Weinandy recommends cutting carbs with a targeted approach, such as cutting 25 carbs per day until you get down to your goal.
Creating a gradual transition into your keto diet can help you ease back in. It also provides small victories to celebrate as you decrease your carbs and get to your goal.
3. Track Your Macros
If you dove into keto with both feet, cut out carbs, and ate protein like it was going out of style before. The problem could be that you were not fueling yourself in the right way.
For a. more effective approach to keto, it can be helpful to use apps to help you track your macros. The typical macro ratio for someone on the keto diet is:
- 5% of food coming from carbs
- 25% of food coming from protein
- 70% of food coming from fat
If this shocks you, then you know you weren’t eating keto the correct way. Fat is a significant part of the keto diet. Fat gives the feeling of satiation and provides the opportunity for ketosis to set in.
Instead of thinking about all the foods, you can’t eat on a diet, instead, think of all the healthy ways you can fuel your body. By changing your mindset around food, and more importantly, fat consumption, you can wrap your mind around a new way of eating.
It’s not about eating fewer carbs as much as it is a paradigm shift in the way you think about food.
4. Remember to Stay Hydrated
The keto diet decreases carbs and your dependence on processed food, which also cuts down on your electrolytes. As you cut electrolytes, it is crucial to replace them. Water is essential for storing electrolytes.
The keto diet burns fat rather than glucose for fuel, so in essence, the keto diet has a diuretic effect on the body. It’s essential to keep a balance of electrolytes as they can get flushed out from the keto diet causing symptoms like keto flu.
Electrolytes are essential minerals found in your blood, like sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. These four minerals are vital to normal bodily functions. If your electrolytes are low, you may experience one or all of these symptoms:
- shakiness or feeling faint
- brain fog
- headaches
- constipation or bloating
If you’ve experienced some of these symptoms while dieting before, it is most likely that you weren’t bringing enough electrolytes back into your system. Drinking water, eating green leafy vegetables, and consuming nuts and seeds can help restore electrolytes naturally.
It’s important to drink enough water when on the keto diet to help restore electrolyte function and regulation.
5. Eat More Whole Foods
A significant component of the keto diet is that it is a natural food diet that forces you to eliminate processed foods. We all know processed foods aren’t good for us, but the convenience of them in our lifestyle can make it hard to change.
By committing to a whole-foods diet plan that adds more green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats like salmon, avocados, and olive oil can help stick to a diet free from processed foods.
While it can be hard to adjust to a whole food diet, it is essential to create a sustainable, healthy dive into the keto diet. Cutting processed food out of your diet is a decision to take back control of your health.
Starting Again, Smarter and Wiser
Succumbing to bouts of carb craving is only natural when we are learning the process of how to get back on keto, but with setbacks, you can begin again smarter and wiser.
Lifestyle choices are different than diets, and you owe it to yourself to give yourself some slack when getting back on keto.
If you found this article helpful, please look around our site for more helpful advice about food, recipes, dieting, and more.
Starting keto again? Getting back on keto can sometimes be more complicated than starting keto in the first place. Starting involves change and hope while starting again involves pain and regret.
You know what you’re capable of, both good and bad. Many people jump into keto with both feet, only to find themselves months down the road gorging on sweets during the holidays, or eating sweets at a barbeque.
Slip-ups don’t mean that keto is not right for you. Far from it! In this article, we’ll explain five ways how to get back on keto.
Five Tips on How to Start Keto Again
Many people “fall off the wagon” when trying the keto diet. That’s okay. Starting again means that you have the opportunity to try again smarter, wiser. Rather than focusing on the negative, instead, put that energy into finding strategies to manage cravings. Here are five ways how to start keto again.
1. Understand That No One Is Perfect
According to Dana Hunnes, a senior dietician at UCLA Medical Center and an assistant professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, she recommends that to practice the keto diet, it’s essential to let go of a perfectionist mindset.
Keto is a different type of diet in that it is a lifestyle diet. That means that you aren’t on it for a short period of time. Instead, it’s an adjustment and recalibration of your daily eating habits.
That can take time to change, especially if you’re a carb lover. Having an all-or-nothing mentality only makes it harder. So understanding that you have a craving for sweets doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker.
There is a wealth of resources out there for keto snacks, like the SuperFat keto snacks resource. It’s about replacing your old foods, not removing them altogether.
2. Take a Targeted Approach
Liz Weinandy, a lead outpatient dietician for nutrition services at Ohio State University, states it is better to start again with a targeted approach by not stopping carbs cold-turkey.
That is because stopping carbs too fast can have adverse effects, like keto flu. Instead, Weinandy recommends cutting carbs with a targeted approach, such as cutting 25 carbs per day until you get down to your goal.
Creating a gradual transition into your keto diet can help you ease back in. It also provides small victories to celebrate as you decrease your carbs and get to your goal.
3. Track Your Macros
If you dove into keto with both feet, cut out carbs, and ate protein like it was going out of style before. The problem could be that you were not fueling yourself in the right way.
For a. more effective approach to keto, it can be helpful to use apps to help you track your macros. The typical macro ratio for someone on the keto diet is:
- 5% of food coming from carbs
- 25% of food coming from protein
- 70% of food coming from fat
If this shocks you, then you know you weren’t eating keto the correct way. Fat is a significant part of the keto diet. Fat gives the feeling of satiation and provides the opportunity for ketosis to set in.
Instead of thinking about all the foods, you can’t eat on a diet, instead, think of all the healthy ways you can fuel your body. By changing your mindset around food, and more importantly, fat consumption, you can wrap your mind around a new way of eating.
It’s not about eating fewer carbs as much as it is a paradigm shift in the way you think about food.
4. Remember to Stay Hydrated
The keto diet decreases carbs and your dependence on processed food, which also cuts down on your electrolytes. As you cut electrolytes, it is crucial to replace them. Water is essential for storing electrolytes.
The keto diet burns fat rather than glucose for fuel, so in essence, the keto diet has a diuretic effect on the body. It’s essential to keep a balance of electrolytes as they can get flushed out from the keto diet causing symptoms like keto flu.
Electrolytes are essential minerals found in your blood, like sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. These four minerals are vital to normal bodily functions. If your electrolytes are low, you may experience one or all of these symptoms:
- shakiness or feeling faint
- brain fog
- headaches
- constipation or bloating
If you’ve experienced some of these symptoms while dieting before, it is most likely that you weren’t bringing enough electrolytes back into your system. Drinking water, eating green leafy vegetables, and consuming nuts and seeds can help restore electrolytes naturally.
It’s important to drink enough water when on the keto diet to help restore electrolyte function and regulation.
5. Eat More Whole Foods
A significant component of the keto diet is that it is a natural food diet that forces you to eliminate processed foods. We all know processed foods aren’t good for us, but the convenience of them in our lifestyle can make it hard to change.
By committing to a whole-foods diet plan that adds more green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats like salmon, avocados, and olive oil can help stick to a diet free from processed foods.
While it can be hard to adjust to a whole food diet, it is essential to create a sustainable, healthy dive into the keto diet. Cutting processed food out of your diet is a decision to take back control of your health.
Starting Again, Smarter and Wiser
Succumbing to bouts of carb craving is only natural when we are learning the process of how to get back on keto, but with setbacks, you can begin again smarter and wiser.
Lifestyle choices are different than diets, and you owe it to yourself to give yourself some slack when getting back on keto.
If you found this article helpful, please look around our site for more helpful advice about food, recipes, dieting, and more.
Running a restaurant feels like a rollercoaster of great days and empty seats at the best of times, moreso with the current troubles. To keep afloat, many restaurants are trying to pare down menus and space out dining areas. These and other measures have some promise but seem so difficult to engage with.
One way places are thriving is through offering expanded restaurant delivery service. The problem isn’t a lack of food or a lack of will to make it, it’s the riks of having too many people congregate in an area. The solution: take the food to the people.
The rapid expansion of delivery needs has led to a massive surge in delivery company profits. Getting your food out there, whether through a third party or an in-house team, is clearly important.
Read on to learn about how to expand or start delivery services for your restaurant.
Restaurant Delivery Service Essentials
Restricting dinging room customers by distancing the tables only does so much to keep money rolling in. Half the capacity means half the profit but little change to your overhead. You’re still paying for the lights, the HVAC, and all the same advertising meant to draw people in.
Cutting orders with suppliers puts them in a bad position and you may have faced warnings that future rates will go up for many of your typical shipments. The COVID-19 pandemic is squeezing everyone and, unfortunately, restaurants are getting slammed the hardest.
Delivering food keeps your staff working, justified all the same (or close to) orders through suppliers, and it builds rapport with customers that will be remembered when normalcy returns. This list compiles ideas and tips from worldwide food service trends to give you the best chance of maintaining your business.
Why a Simplified Menu?
Before you start sending drivers out the doors laden with copious amounts of succulent edibles, you need to consider your menu.
The wide variety of things you normally offer won’t fair so well for delivery. Not only does variety make it difficult to box, but it also makes it easier to make a mistake. As annoying as it is to have something sent back to the kitchen for an alteration or addition, it’s better than losing the customer altogether.
A simple menu lets you prep for a larger rush in a shorter time window and still get everything done.
Creating daily specials and large quantities of some signature dishes is easier to do when the menu only offers so much. This saves on waste from unordered options.
Finally, changing menu options to meals that can stay warm longer, need fewer finishing touches, and reheat or travel well is key.
Offerings and Options?
Wanting to limit the menu is the first step. The second step is figuring out what to offer.
With so many people stuck at home, and stressed, the need for comfort foods is way way up. People want to feel like they are getting a bit of an escape, and the day-to-day health of a meal is less important.
Consider both your previous best sellers and your biggest orders on a rainy day or just after the home team has lost. These are the things people want most right now.
For dishes that need a bit of structure to complete, consider making instructions for completion and putting all the pieces into separate containers. Anything that will congeal or get soggy should be kept apart to preserve flavor/texture.
Curbside
If you want to test the waters of desire for your restaurant food delivery services, start with curbside pickups.
This option limits the interaction between staff and customers (and customers with other customers) while still getting your food out the door.
Post appropriate signage for pick up areas or instruct patrons to stay in their cars and provide clear identifiers for delivery. Look into online or remote payment options or be prepared to have checks paid after ordering.
Contactless Delivery
Whether you send out your own staff as delivery drivers or contract through a third party, you want to offer a contactless option.
Your own staff makes for a more coherent restaurant pickup and delivery service but speed is of the essence. If you are using your own staff, make sure you have safety in mind.
Make clear if a customer is looking for a contactless delivery and confirm addresses and special instructions before an order is completed. You don’t want to send a driver out on bare-bones info that costs time.
Provide drivers with appropriate PPE in the form of masks and gloves for order placement. Add tips and other gratuities to the front-end check. This both helps assure you can compensate delivery staff and also keeps worrisome cash exchanges out of the equation.
Deals and Discounts
To offer the best restaurant delivery service, you will need to have a robust online portal. This helps you to advertise specials and show the refined menu. It also gives you confidence that your costs are being covered by ensuring payment before the food gets boxed.
Offering discounts on dine-in options in the future (but not too far in the future) when making delivery orders is important. You want to remind the customer that you do have a physical location and to keep inviting them back. These discounts also offset charges you may need to make for delivery.
Offer special prices for bulk orders of a pre-made menu. Not only is this an affordable option for people, but it provides the double benefit of delivering a multi-course meal that feels more special.
If you change your menu weekly and keep your website current, you can also add hour by hour updates about in-house seating availability.
Make It Tasty
No matter what steps you take to start a restaurant delivery service, you still need to make the best food you can. Don’t let your identity or your quality get lost in the changes.
For more information about the restaurant world, keep coming back here.
Cooking great new recipes can be exciting, but oftentimes, it can seem like too much work. Trying new recipes can be time-consuming, and the cleanup afterward might make it seem not worth it.
Luckily, you can easily use a Dutch oven to cook a variety of different meals. Keep reading for a full breakdown on how to cook with a Dutch oven.
What Is a Dutch Oven?
If you’re unfamiliar with it, a Dutch oven is a heavy cast iron cooking pot. It has a pair of handles on either side and a lid that fits tightly on top.
Because cast iron is not a good heat conductor, when a Dutch oven gets hot, it stays hot for a long time. When you need to cook with a lower temperature at a slower pace, a Dutch oven can be perfect.
But what are some different things you can make when cooking with a Dutch oven?
Use it For Soups and Stews
Soups and stews require a low and steady temperature. This tenderizes the meat (think of meat that “falls off the bone”) and also causes the different ingredient flavors to meld together. Because of this, they pair perfectly with a Dutch oven.
Pork shoulder, beef chuck, and anything else with a lot of fat will braise perfectly in a Dutch oven.
Similarly, you can also use it to soften different types of vegetables. Greens such as kale and collards and root vegetables such as carrots and turnips are delicious when brewed in a Dutch oven.
Sear Meat
The cast iron material of Dutch ovens allows them to do a lot of things all in the same pot.
After you get it hot and smokey on the stove, you can then directly add your meat to brown it. Follow it up by then adding liquid and any other ingredients, and they’ll all cook easily together.
The same pot can handle everything!
This makes it even easier to use than a Crockpot, which requires a separate skillet to sear the meat.
Cook Over a Campfire
Are you a fan of camping? If so, consider bringing a Dutch oven on your next camping trip!
Dutch ovens have been used to cook in the wilderness for hundreds of years. Even when your miles away from civilization, with nothing but stars and a campfire, you can still cook some delicious meals. Just put it directly over the fire!
Wondering what sorts of things you can cook over a fire? Check out this guide for a list of camping Dutch oven recipes.
How to Cook With a Dutch Oven? It’s Easy!
If you’re wondering how to cook with a Dutch oven, know that it’s easy! With a simple cast iron pot, you can cook a huge variety of dishes, and in a number of different places.
Do you have any other suggestions for dishes you can make with a Dutch Oven? Let us know in the comments below.
Check out our blog posts for more food-related guides and tips.
You sigh in complete bliss as you leave the coffee shop and take the first sip of your drink. Nobody makes coffee quite like your favorite shop. What if we told you that with the right equipment, you could?
Learning how to make espresso isn’t too hard and once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to save a few bucks by making a café quality cup every single morning in the comfort of your own home.
Ready to get started? Check out this espresso guide for everything you need to know to brew the perfect cup of joe.
1. Choose Your Equipment
The first step to making espresso is investing in the right equipment. The best espresso machines aren’t cheap but they’re worth it. They come in all sorts of different settings and features so be sure to do plenty of research before you pick one out.
A good burr grinder won’t come cheap either but if you want your coffee grounds to be consistent, it’s a necessary purchase. Blade grinders are much cheaper but you’ll be able to taste the cheap in your drink.
When it comes to choosing coffee beans, pretty much any high-quality dark roast blend will do. Other things you’ll need is a timer, tamper, and scale. It’s a lot of stuff and we won’t lie, it will hit your wallet pretty hard but it’s the price you pay to make quality espresso at home.
2. Preheat Your Espresso Maker
Now that you have all your equipment in front of you, it’s time to learn how to make espresso coffees with it. The first step is to turn on your espresso maker and allow it to preheat.
This process can take up to 25 minutes to complete so make sure you give yourself plenty of time in the morning. If you do need to speed things along, you can brew a blank espresso shot. Essentially, making a cup of hot water.
3. Prepare the Coffee Beans
If you have an espresso machine that comes complete with a grinder, you can skip this step. If you don’t then keep reading. Set your grinder to its fine coffee setting.
Set the portafilter on the scale and grind about 20 grams of freshly ground coffee into it. You may have a little lump of coffee grounds peeking up out of the portafilter. Even it out with your finger.
4. Tamp the Coffee Grounds
Next, you’re going to pack the ground down and get rid of any air pockets through a process known as tamping. Before you start tamping, it’s important that your coffee grounds are evenly distributed in the portafilter. You can do that by tapping the side of the filter.
The secret to good tamping is to press straight down on the coffee grounds. If you don’t the entire thing will be uneven and your end product will taste off. Keep applying about 30 lbs. of pressure until it feels like the grounds aren’t going to budge anymore.
Don’t feel bad if you don’t get this down right away. It takes time and practice to pull off the perfect tamp. We didn’t say your first time making espresso would go absolutely perfect.
After you feel like you’ve tamped the grounds enough, brush any escaped coffee off the brim of the portafilter. You’re now ready to pull your first espresso shot.
5. Create Your First Espresso Shot
Insert your portafilter into the machine and begin brewing. Start brewing as soon as you put the filter in place or you may end up burning your coffee grounds which doesn’t make for a good espresso drinking experience at all.
Time how long it takes your machine to pull your shot. The sweet spot is around 30 seconds. If it takes any longer or shorter than that it means that you got something off when you were performing the steps above.
Take the portafilter out and start from square one until your machine is pulling the shot within 30 seconds. The end product may have a bit of a sour taste otherwise.
6. Steam Some Milk
Pour your milk into the container and dip the steamer wand in a little bit below the surface of the liquid. Turn the wand on and froth the milk until it reaches the consistency that you want.
For the best results, hold the steamer wand a little bit off-center while you froth. Pay attention to the heat. If the container gets to be too hot, stop frothing, or else your milk will have a burnt taste.
On the flip side of this, if you don’t use enough heat then you’ll have bubbly unpleasantness instead of a silky froth. It might take you a couple of tries to get this right.
7. Keep Practicing
The last step in how to make espresso at home is practice. It’s likely that you won’t make the perfect cup of coffee on your first try. Instead of getting discouraged when your drink comes out tasting slightly burned, go watch a few tutorials.
There are plenty of videos out there that can walk you through the process and tell you how you can improve. There are also books that you can read. So, keep working at it!
How to Make Espresso in the Comfort of Your Own Home
Do you want to replicate your favorite cafe drinks in the comfort of your house? Learning how to make espresso is an art form. It takes a lot of expensive equipment and practice to get it right.
Once you get the hang of it though, all your hard work will be worth it when you never have to spend five dollars for a cup of coffee again.
Want to learn how to make even more tasty drinks at home? Check out the drinks section of our blog daily for more tutorials like this one.
The body’s digestive system contains almost 100 trillion bacteria. The majority of these bacteria are found in your intestines and they can be both good and bad. Whilst some protect you against disease, others can actually lead to the development of disease. As such, supporting a positive intestinal microbial balance can help you to lead a healthier life. In this post, we will look at 8 to promote a good microbial balance and proper digestion.
8 science-backed ways improved digestion
A good microbial balance fosters proper digestion. Moreover, it can help prevent and/or ameliorate health conditions like heart disease, arthritis, and even cancer. Here, we outline 8 ways you can improve your natural microbial balance and support your good gut microbiota.
- Vegetables, fruits, and legumes are your friends
Everyone knows that fruit and vegetables are good for their health. When it comes to the bacteria in your gut, this is because of them being high in fiber. Fiber is great for digestion and also helps good bacteria grow. Legumes like lentils, chickpeas, and beans generally are also all high in fiber.
Studies have shown that fiber is particularly good for preventing heart disease, chronic diseases, and colon cancers. However, it is always important to remember that no one supplement, mineral, or vitamin is a magic bullet cure for these things. Nevertheless, a high fiber diet full of vegetables, fruit, and legumes will be a vital component of a healthy digestive system and a healthy body and mind.
- Eat a wide range of foods
It can be tempting to look up the foods that are high in fiber and focus on getting as many of them into your system as possible. However, it is also important to eat a varied diet to foster a positive intestinal microbial balance. This is because the trillions of bacteria in your gut are varied and made up of different species. Different ones benefit from different nutrients.
You also want to encourage a diverse range of microbiota to thrive in your gut. This will lead to a healthier digestive system with a greater chance of overall health benefits. However, according to the IDRC, just 15 plant and 5 animal species account for 75% of the world’s food production. Rural areas tend to offer more diversity in the sorts of foods available whilst foraging also offers rewards here for added variety.
- Avoid artificial sweeteners
The Western diet is full of sugar which can be bad for bodily health and digestion. However, simply replacing sugar with things like artificial sweeteners doesn’t solve the problem. Studies show they can change the composition of the intestinal microbiota. They can also actually have negative effects on people’s blood sugar levels.
As such, whilst artificial sweeteners can be beneficial in terms of preventing weight gain, it is best to seek your sweetness elsewhere. Particularly if you want to promote a healthy microbial balance and proper digestion.
- Add fermented foods to your diet
Most people have probably heard someone mention the benefits of fermented foods. Indeed, whilst they can be a bit of an acquired taste, they are great for the gut. This is because they are full of microbes like Lactobacilli and Enterobacteriaceae. These bacteria have been shown to have digestive benefits and help to prevent inflammatory and chronic diseases.
Fermented foods that are high in beneficial microbes included things like sauerkraut, kimchi, sourdough, and tempeh. Natural yogurt and kefir are also a good source of these types of beneficial microbes. Kombucha tea can also be drunk with similar benefits.
- Take prebiotics, probiotics, and essential oils
Prebiotics are foods and supplements that encourage beneficial microbe growth. Probiotics are the beneficial microorganisms themselves. Essential oils are also designed to support intestinal balance and proper digestion. These things can be particularly important if you have had to take a course of antibiotics as these kill off many of the beneficial gut microbiota. These essential oils can also be used by people with a lactose intolerance.
The bacteria fostered by prebiotics can be beneficial for people with high cholesterol levels as well as people who are obese. The key is fostering the growth of bifidobacteria which is good for gut health and fosters proper digestion.
- Eat more whole grains
Whole grains are packed full of fiber which already makes them a winner when it comes to good digestive health. However, they are also full of something even better, known as non-digestible carbs. Doesn’t sound great at first, but their non-digestible nature means they get further through your body and into your large intestine.
Once in the large intestine, they are broken down and promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. Studies have shown that this can reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases, reduce inflammation, and reduce the risk of heart disease.
- Make sure you’re eating foods high in polyphenols
This bit of advice is the fun one as red wine is full of this stuff. Polyphenols can lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation. They are also hard for the body to break down and make it even further than through the body than whole grains. Indeed, they don’t get broken down until they reach the colon where they promote good bacteria to grow.
As well as being found in red wine, there is more good news. They can also be found in cocoa, chocolate, grapes, almonds, blueberries, and green tea, amongst other things. If you suffer from health conditions brought on by inflammation, then try adding these into your diet.
- Cut out (or down on) meat
Whilst it is important to eat a varied diet meat actually encourages the growth of bad bacteria. As such, it is best to cut it out of your diet or reduce how much of it you consume if you prefer not to give it up altogether. Plant-based diets are naturally high in fiber too which makes it easier to foster the right sort of bacterial growth.
A healthy intestinal microbial balance fosters good health and proper digestion. The tips above are simple ways to achieve this backed up by science. Follow as many of them as possible and you’ll soon notice the benefits and reap the rewards.
