Everything You Need to Know About a Low-Carb Diet

Abiding by a low-carb diet is a sustainable lifestyle choice which can not only keep you healthy but also help you permanently shed weight. If you are just getting started on the low-carb lifestyle, the grocery store may feel like a minefield of disappointment as you discover foods that you thought were healthy are actually loaded in carbs and sugar. This post will help you navigate the grocery store and the kitchen, provide you tips and tricks for eating delicious food on a low-carb diet, and will even include some of the world’s most beloved low-carb recipes.

Incorporating low-carb choices into your diet

There are a few dos and don’ts of the low-carb lifestyle, and no diet is one size fits all. As you begin creating your new menu with low-carb food options, don’t get discouraged. Try new things until you find what works for you. Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures, so it’s important that you take the time to seek out low-carb food options that you genuinely enjoy.

Here are a few tips to get you started on successfully incorporating low-carb choices into your diet.

1. 1. Retrain the sweet tooth.
      If you cut all fats or all carbs from your diet, your body will become delinquent in essential nutrients, but raw sugar is not an essential nutrient to your body at all. In fact, sugar is linked to more diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and auto-immune disorders than almost any other food. Avoid all added sugars and concentrated fruit juice. Instead enjoy natural sugars in moderation such as fruit or pure juice that is not from concentrate.
   2. Choose whole foods over processed foods.
      Eating a healthy, low-carb diet typically requires fresh, non-packaged food, so if it appears that a factory was required to produce the grocery item or if the ingredients are a mile long, just put the item back on the shelf.
   3. Avoid foods marketed as “diet” or “low-fat”.
      Many packaged foods are marketed as healthy, but if you read the ingredients, they’re really not worth the calories. Most low-fat items are very high in sugar despite being low in fat, and while too many fats can clog arteries, fats tend to be a better and low-carb alternative to sugar.
   4. Meal-prep so you are ready when hunger strikes.
      Let’s face it, not everyone has time to cook and when hunger strikes, many people don’t want to take the extra time required to make a nutritious and low-carb meal. As a result, many opt for faster food choices out of convenience, but this is not a mindful way to consume carbs. Instead, choose one or two days a week, cook in bulk, and prep food for the next few days in pre-portioned containers. Meal prepping can be a ton of fun and many fitness advocates enjoy the meal prepping process.

Low-carb recipes that meal preppers and low-carb dieters love:

• Low-carb breakfast
  • Low-carb pancakes
  • Low-carb, high-protein breakfast casserole
•  Low-carb lunch & dinner
  • Mexican cauliflower rice bowl
  • Cheesy meatball casserole
  • Spinach stuffed chicken
  • Vegan stuffed peppers
  • Meatloaf cupcakes
  • Bacon cheeseburger casserole Tip: cut the bacon to make it low-carb AND low-fat!

• Sugar-free & low-carb dessert
  • Instant pot berry cheesecake
  • Coconut ice
  • Caramel squares

5. Try a pre-cooked, pre-planned, low-carb meal plan delivery service.
   If foraging around the grocery store and spending time cooking in the kitchen is not your thing – no sweat! The low-carb lifestyle is a booming trend and there are loads of high-quality, low-carb meal plan delivery services such as our affiliate partner Daily Harvest. They take out all the guesswork and cooking for a reasonable price, plus, deliver the ready-made food right to your door!

Looking for a healthy, organic and nutritious supplement to your diet? Then make sure and check out our affiliate partner through this link: Daily Harvest.

Enter the code 55LIFESTYLE and get $40 off your first box!!

Low-carb food options

Making low-carb diet choices is a lot easier once you learn what foods are typically low-carb and figure out what foods appear low-carb but are quite high in carbs. Unfortunately, health food is often marketed as “good” and “healthy”, but it may be loaded in carbs and sugar. For example, plain Greek yogurt is very high in in protein and low in carbs and sugar, but “healthy” strawberry or vanilla flavored Greek yogurt is extremely high in both carbs and sugar and should be avoided on a low-carb diet.

Low-carb foods

• Lean meats (chicken and turkey)
• Fish
• Eggs
• Vegetables (all of them, especially cucumber and asparagus)
• Cauliflower
• Seeds like hemp, chia, pumpkin, sesame, etc.
• Unsalted nuts (almonds, cashews, peanuts, walnuts, etc.)
• Flaxseed oil

Interested in learning more about healthy dieting? Check out the links below:

• The Mediterranean Diet
• A Dietitian’s Review of The Keto Diet
• Plant-Based Diets – Veganism: Fact Versus Fiction

Final Thoughts on Everything You Need to Know About a Low-Carb Diet

As you take the time to practice mindfulness at the grocery store, you’ll soon learn tricks of the trade like oats over wheat-based cereals, walnut oil over coconut oil, olive oil over butter, and vegetables over fruit. Finding a fun, yummy, and healthy way to make the low-carb lifestyle work for you is possible. It may take some time for you to adjust, but the low-carb lifestyle is one of the most sustainable, effective, and enjoyable diets there is.

As always, we hope that you find worthwhile information here in Everything You Need to Know About a Low-Carb Diet. Want us to cover other self-help topics? Reach out to me directly through our Contact page or leave a comment below, we read each one! Stay healthy and all the best ~ Glen.