What Are Your New Year Keto Goals ?
It’s that time of year again, where we review what we’ve done over the past year and look for new goals to reach for the new year. Some of us don’t bother with new year’s resolutions. That’s okay, but without having a goal to motivate us on our health journey, it’s more challenging to make any progress.
The most popular goal for a New Year’s resolution is our health, because without our health, what else is there right?
The hardest thing to do is stick with our goals. Most will lose track of what we said we would do, or fall off the wagon, feel defeated within ourselves, beat ourselves up over it, then give up.
I’m here to tell you DON’T GIVE UP. It’s okay to fall of the wagon, we’re only human and don’t be so hard on yourself. Keto slip ups happen, see here for reassurance on this aspect of going keto. Today I’m here to help you decide what your goals will be for the coming year relating to your health.
Reflect
Do you have high energy? Do you get tired easily or frequently? What do you think might be contributing to the lack of energy?
When we ignore the signs our body is trying to give us, it’s easy to lose focus and lose sight of our goal to improve our health. Energy is directly linked with nutrition, so knowing how to increase your energy can help you stay focused when you feel tempted by less-than-healthy choices throughout your day.
When you’re following a ketogenic diet, the most effective way to increase your energy is to ensure you stick with the high fat, medium protein, low carb percentages as your body switches from burning glucose to burning ketones.
What’s your Mindset
When you make changes in your world, it takes conscious effort to remember how to do it. What we think is so important to how we act and follow through with what we’ve been thinking. Our mindset also controls to an extent how we act in this world. With this in mind (pun intended), it’s important to consider what our beliefs are that dictate how we behave and what we do.
Do you still believe that fat is ‘bad’ for us? What were you taught when growing up about food, and weight. When we become aware of how our mindset influences our choices, it can be a real eye opener to self awareness around how to shift a long held belief and start to practice a new goal like losing weight with a new diet.
By growing in your awareness around your mindset and how you think about your lifestyle and food choices you become more open to new way of eating, and able to follow new resolutions and goals more fluidly.
Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is one strategy to practice in working to shift a mindset, as we become more aware of what drives our thoughts and actions around our lives and choices.
Be aware of what you are putting into your mouth. Notice how it makes you feel. What does it feel like when you chew the food?
All of these questions help you be more mindful of what you’re eating as well as how it affects your body.
It also helps us be more present so we can be in the moment. This also ensures we don’t eat things without thought, mindlessly. By noticing the present, we can savour it, and support our daily stress levels. This in turn can help alleviate the production of the stress hormone cortisol.
When the body produces cortisol, it leads to increased belly fat, higher blood sugar levels, suppressed thyroid functions and poor sleep. When one doesn’t get enough sleep the body’s production of hormones that regulate appetite and feelings of fullness are also affected.
Consider how stress affects you and how you might work toward reducing it, which in turn will help you achieve your keto goals.
What are Your Keto Goals for this Year?
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins
When we set a specific goal, by keeping it in the forefront of our focus it helps us to stay on track towards reaching that goal.
Write down how many pounds/kilograms you want to lose. Maybe you have a particular size you have in mind that you see yourself achieving. Be realistic with these goals as you want to make sure you are able to reach those goals, that they are attainable. Keep it somewhere you will see, refer to it often to make sure you’re on track.
With your keto goals, this might be to follow the first steps of going keto, which might include clearing out your pantry and getting rid of high carb foods. For more detailed way of getting started on the keto way of eating follow my 10 steps to starting keto.
Increase Fat in Your Daily Diet – Key to Ketosis
When following a ketogenic diet, the goal is to get into ketosis. This requires your body to switch from burning carbohydrates for fuel over to burning fat for fuel. The metabolic process for this is called ketosis. When carbohydrates are consumed, our bodies convert the carbs to glucose which then requires an insulin response. When eating a high fat diet, our bodies convert the fat to ketones which becomes the fuel for our bodies. Our brain in particular benefits from this process as it has a high need for ketones.
The healthy fats include monounsaturated fats. The fats to avoid specifically are trans fats which are the product of high processed foods into oils which cause inflammation. For further discussion on this read this post.
If you’re unsure about whether it’s okay to have saturated fat in your diet, rest assured that there is scientific research to demonstrate that there is no link between saturated fat and heart disease risk. For a link to the research, click here. It’s not bad for you, and there’s also no benefit for you to have it. So don’t fear saturated fat like we have been told during the low-fat era, just eat the butter as it’s got so many other nutrients included to make it worth your while.
Below lists healthy fats and high fat foods to include:
What Will the Benefits Be?
What will be the benefits of reaching your keto goal?
- Looser fitting clothes
- More energy
- Lowered blood sugar levels
- Reduced risk of cardiac risk and other health issues
- Better mental health
- Improved immunity
Make a list brainstorming everything you can think of then see what you notice once you start your keto journey.
Keep your list together with your goals. Refer to them often.
Link in with Others on a Similar Journey
Having others doing the same as yourself with similar goals who are going to be there for support instead of try to stop you from achieving your goals is in my opinion, hugely valuable in working towards your goals. Do you know anyone else already doing keto? Maybe you could find a facebook group where it’s positive, helpful and have successes already happening. Ask questions in a supportive space.
Go on instagram for more inspiration. Here’s my insta link to follow what I put on my family’s table with the principle of keeping it simple. I’m just a mum with a growing family and whose husband also needs to follow keto for his own health.
Meal Plan
Meal planning helps you feel organised without the pressure of putting a meal together at the end of the day. If you’re anything like me, knowing what I’m doing for dinner helps me feel more relaxed than if I am trying to figure out meals last minute.
If you aren’t sure what might be good options for keto dinners, visit the link below for ideas for low carb family meals.
So for you to be able to reach your New Year’s goals this year, follow these ideas.
Get yourself a menu plan to follow to stay on track and keep focused with support peeps in your network.
I would love to hear how you’re progressing with your keto goals, so please leave a comment below.
my new year keto goals is not to gain any more weight more than i am know and i believe if i can just follow good living in very ketogenic ways i might be able to achieve that. I will admit one thing i am one person who does not organize my meals and this come to my own detriments but i hope the more learn from you the more i gain thank you for this blog
Hi Charles, thanks for sharing your goals. I hope you can make good positive progress towards your goals for this year and have improved health through ketogenic living. All the best for a healthy and prosperous new year.
Wow this is very insightful. I never tried keto diet before. I see it consists of high fats and low carbs and medium protein. I actually do have a quick question. Can one still maintain muscle mass with a keto diet? Can keto also help with clogged arteries? I may have to give the keto diet a try, I need to lose my belly fat haha. Thanks for this.
Hey, I know of many people who's muscle mass increases when they follow a ketogenic way of eating. Especially if they are already following an exercise routine. It does help with lowering cholesterol despite previously held ways of thinking which has since been proven to be wrong. Much more research is emerging proving that the ketogenic diet improves cholesterol increasing HDL (the good cholesterol) while lowering the bad LDL cholesterol. All the best with your health and thanks for your questions.
I read quit a bit about the Keto ‘diet’ and others ad well. Now, i’m A healthy eater as is my family. I am an avid Crossfitter as well. My kids 8 and 11 certain,y do not go on diets being children, but why Keto instead of healthy eating and exercise.
Exercise is a word left out too much isn’t it?
This blog is specifically focussed on the ketogenic diet. Ketosis is a specific way of eating that switches the body from carb burning to fat burning. When one is looking at eating healthy, it usually has very similar foods included, as well as excluding processed foods and sugary treats. I'm not sure what you mean with saying exercise is left out? The ketogenic diet doesn't rely on exercise to burn fat, as the process of ketosis does that instead of burning calories. Exercise is optional, and not essential when following this diet. It's really just about eating nuts and vegetables, proteins and healthy fats, in its simplest form, while excluding sugar, bread and pasta.
Hello there Kat,
thanks for such informative and detailed article, I've truly enjoyed reading it and learning something new today! As far as Keto diets goes, I've only discovered it recently and so far I have to say I am fairly impressed by what it has to offer and deliver. In my eyes ketogenic diet is truly appealing and very beneficial in many ways. One of the biggest benefits and positive side that this diet brings is its ability to lover cholesterol. I do not suffer from it myself, however form people that do suffer from it out there, it is no doubt a huge positive side that can drastically change the quality of life for better. Another huge pros of keto diet is the fact that it is capable of lowering blood pressure as well as sugar level, which are also life-changing benefits. Oh, and I also truly admire that there are a lot of vegetarian/vegan options for meals in this diet.
Keep up the good work Kat and Happy New Year to You! ;)
Hey. I so agree with you that without setting up goals, it would be difficult to achieve anything. BTW, what will I achieve if I don't set any goal? I have some goals I am set to achieve in 2019 and I promise myself to do my best to achieve them.
I think this is the 4th time I'm seeing the high fat, low carb diet... and medium protein too.
My goal is to remain as fit as always :)