 Hi guys, welcome to my channel, Watch Autumn Keto. My name is Autumn and I've been on the keto diet since September of 2017. Over the past year and a half I have lost around 80 pounds with keto and so I just wanted to make this video today to give you four of my tips and tricks for starting and or staying on the keto diet. Tip number one is do your research. I feel like a lot of people just jump into the keto diet and if you don't really take some time to look into it you just think, oh butter, bacon, eggs, boom, that's it. And you attempt to do that for a week and it might even work but then you start to feel burnt out and restricted and then you're like, oh the keto diet didn't work for me. And it's not that the keto diet didn't work for you, it's just that enough research wasn't done to understand how to make the diet sustainable for you. As a part of that I would also say be prepared to know what you're going to eat every day for the first two to four weeks. Having a plan, especially when you're starting a new diet, it gives you something to be accountable to. If you're anything like me, whenever you're given the option or whenever you're given a food choice you make the wrong choice. So the easiest way to not even have to worry about that is to have a meal plan, a 30 day plan of this is what I plan to eat every day for the first 30 days to keep me on track and keep going and keep planning ahead so that you don't find yourself in situations where you're out stranded and you don't have any food and a Cinnabon's looking real tempting and you didn't prepare yourself. So preparation is key. Tip number two and this was something that I really had to learn the hard way. Start with food that you actually like. So when you look up ketogenic recipes there's going to be a bunch of stuff like MCT oil and psyllium husk and xanthan gum and just all these weird ingredients that you probably have never heard of and that's okay because that stuff is totally optional. There are plenty of lists on the internet of foods that are acceptable on the keto diet. Get that list, circle the foods that you already like and start with those. I can tell you from my own personal experience the weekend before I decided to start the keto diet I went to Sands Club and I bought $400 worth of food that I had never even thought about eating in the years prior just because I knew you could have it on the ketogenic diet. Secret keto confession, I don't really like avocados and that's okay but I knew that avocados were a staple of the diet so here I go buying all these avocados and guess what? They went bad. I bought a jug of MCT oil. For what? Guess what? It is literally still sitting in my pantry unopened a year and a half later. I bought chicken meatballs just a bunch of things that didn't make sense for me to eat when I know for a fact that I already love butter, I already love eggs, I already love bacon, I already love broccoli and cauliflower and olive oil and that's exactly what I ended up eating the first few weeks anyway. So all that stuff was just sitting in my pantry going bad because I went right out the gate trying something new. The ketogenic diet is gonna be new enough. You don't need to be introducing new foods while you're just trying to get acclimated to the diet. Tip number three, no cheats for at least the first 90 days. One of the things that the keto diet has taught me was that there's just no way around it. To lose weight and to get healthier you just have to consistently eat properly. That's it. In regular diet culture we've gotten so used to I can eat well during the week and then go on a two day binge on the weekend and then Monday I start it all over again and by Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday I'm going crazy. Like there's no way around it. If you want to be successful you've got to follow the plan for more than just a week. You're never gonna be successful if you don't have two key things, discipline, consistency. That's all it takes to be successful at anything. So when you're thinking about that in terms of your diet, be disciplined. Just eat the food that's part of your food plan consistently for at least 90 days. And my thought process is if after 90 days you want a cheat meal or a cheat day or something I'm personally okay with those. That is something that you're gonna have to reconcile when you do your research and figure out what kind of keto diet you want to do and if you can go longer than 90 days if you can just go on the diet and not cheat ever more power to you. That's even better. That is optimal best case scenario. But if in order to make the diet sustainable you do need a cheat meal or a cheat day I am a huge proponent of those. I have participated in many a cheat day and I'm still successful on the diet because more times than not I'm eating on plan. And so I know so many people that will start the diet and maybe the first week they lose eight pounds and the next week they lose six pounds and then the third week maybe they lose one pound and then the fourth week maybe they don't lose any weight. And by the fourth week it's like oh no the diet has stopped working for me let me quit. And that is not the case. Your body needs time to adjust and it's gonna take longer than four weeks. For me personally the first month I was on keto I lost eight pounds. The second month I was on keto I lost eight pounds. The third month I was on keto I lost 15 pounds. And if I would have looked at eight pounds and thought oh that's not enough this diet I'm not losing quickly enough this diet is not working for me I might have given up and not really pushed through to that threshold that really made me realize that oh wow keto works if you stick with it and if you're truly disciplined. And I'm really proud of myself because I was one of those five on two off type people my entire dieting life. But I made a plan that's why it's important to make a plan and I wrote down everything I was gonna eat and I prepared it so that when Saturday came when the first Saturday of the ketogenic diet came I had to actually mentally trick myself and pretend I was still at work because that's how we gauge when it's time to eat. It's okay normally if it was 8 30 I'd be having a coffee and then by 11 30 I'd be having lunch and so I would gauge when I was supposed to eat on the weekend for when I normally ate at work during the week. And that first Saturday and Sunday that I made it through on plan on the diet like that was revolutionary for me because I had just never done it before and that gives you the confidence to go right back into Monday and you know Monday through Friday's a breeze we can do that and then the next Saturday and Sunday you already know that you've done it once before and you can do it again and you can keep doing it and I did it for 90-day street and it shows you that you're not a slave to food you're not a slave to your craving you can make a plan you can stick to a plan you can eat delicious food and you can not feel deprived all right in my last and final tip tip number four find a keto community if that's on YouTube on Instagram on Facebook with people you know in real life that's one of the most surefire ways to remain accountable and really understand that you're not alone in your struggles I'll tell you one thing you are alone in making sure that you're doing the work no one's gonna force feed you keto food you have actually got to make the choice to put the correct food in your body every day no one else can do that for you and in that you are completely alone but in your struggles and your temptations and your desire for new recipes and your desire to vent there are tons of people out there going through the exact same thing that you are and to find that and to read that and to really realize that you're not alone or something's not wrong with you because for 30 days in a row you're doing great and for day 31 you just want to flip a table because you have such a bad craving to realize that that's normal and everybody feels it and just to work your way through it and to let the community know your struggles and it's also a place for great information people are always sharing information recipes tips on fasting tips for exercising there's so much information out there and it's so much more meaningful when it comes from a person that you know is going through the same things that you're going through so you're already on your way with step 4 if you're watching this video because you're already part of my community and I really really love that and I'm glad you're here and I want you to know that if I was successful if I the person that tried so many diets weight watchers Jenny Craig juicing vegan everything I've tried everything if I can find something that works for me and make up my mind because that's all it takes you got to make up your mind if I can finally get to the point where I'm made up my mind that I was going to be disciplined and consistent with this diet if I can do that anyone can because I know exactly how it feels to feel hopeless to feel well I guess I'm just a fat person forever you know I guess this is my life now but to really truly know that that's not the life you want but to honestly believe that you don't have the power to change it I'm a slave to doughnuts I'm a slave to Doritos they all taste too good I can't do it I'm here to tell you you can do it you can but you have to make up your mind and you have to be disciplined and you have to put it into action alright that's enough of me rambling thank you so much for watching this video I hope that these tips helped you if you're just wanting to start the diet or if maybe you've done the diet for a little bit and you've fallen off hopefully you can start to re-implement some of these tips that'll help you be successful this time around thank you so much for watching this video if you like it don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel watch autumn keto I make weekly meal press weekly what I eat Wednesdays monthly weigh-ins and monthly keto crate reviews you can also find me on Instagram at watch autumn keto thanks and I'll talk to you later