keto diet – Here's What I Think…

Kelly Does Greece: THE FOOD!

I was blessed enough in 2022 to be able to strike “Visit Greece and eat all the food” off my bucket list. It almost didn’t happen at the 11th hour (Kelly Does Greece: A Dream Come True) but it did, and I shared what we did there in Kelly Does Greece: My Week In Paradise. This final of three posts is dedicated to The Food. It was MORE than I ever thought it would be. Seriously. What follows is a photo essay, where I share photos of the food we enjoyed. Ready? Let’s dig right in!

Your Supermarket Deli Makes Keto Easier! Here’s how.

So picture it: you didn’t pack a lunch to take to work. You have several errands to run during the course of the day too. It’s noon and you’re hungry. What do you do? Buy 2 Jamaican patties? Turn your car into that fried chicken place drive through? Do you feel cornered into making a choice that you know doesn’t honour your promise to your self and that will derail your progress in the quest for a smaller, healthier body? What if I told you that you can absolutely honour your goals even if you didn’t plan ahead and you’re busy busy busy going here, there and everywhere? The Supermarket Deli has entered the chat!

Food Cravings & Emotional Eating: Practical Approaches for WINNING: Part 2

In my last post “Are Cravings and a Snacking habit getting the better of you?” I explored why we crave the foods we do, why we snack and what giving in to said cravings and a snacking habit could be doing to your health and your livity. If we’re keeping it a buck fifty, the foods we crave all tend to be high-carb, highly processed foods: chips, cookies, ice-cream, bread. And we established that there are valid physiological and psychological reasons at play. You’re not weak neither are you greedy. These hyper-palatable carbohydrate rich foods trigger pathways in our brain that simply make us feel good and when we remain in constant search of that feel-good place we simply repeat the behaviour that led to it in the first place: ergo, dependency or addiction.

This dependency on high-carb, hyper-palatable foods for many, many of us negatively impacts our health (we gain weight or we have difficulty taking and keeping off weight), we get bloated and live with various gut-issues like acid reflux & general discomfort, and we are simply trapped in a vicious cycle of having to be constantly thinking of what next will we eat in order to avoid “hangry” states throughout our day. Sounds familiar? Ok. So what next? Do we simply cut out these carbs and flourish? Easier said than done, right? If there is an actual factual dependency on these foods at play, HOW do we break the dependency and how do we meet the need that gave rise to this dependency in the first place?

Weight Loss on Keto & A Life Brought into Alignment: Naki’s Story.

She’s in her late 30s. She lives and works right here in Jamaica. All her life she tried to lose weight. Spoiler alert: SHE DID! Her story of how she finally did it is absolutely inspiring. Her name is Naki. And there’s so much about Naki’s story that I identify with. Perhaps you’ll find parallels with Naki’s story too. It is my privilege to share her story. I am grateful for her willingness to be open and her generosity in sharing her journey. Naki’s story is about a body and a life “right-sized”. Let’s go!

WARNING: I use the word “fat”, and I do so with understanding, compassion and a huge dose of keeping it real. If you know my own story, you will understand that I of all people, truly get it, and that my using the word “fat” is never a condemnation or a judgement.

Weight loss on keto: Naki's story — Naki in Dec 2019 vs April 2018
Photo courtesy Naki’s private collection

Buy Jamaican, Eat Jamaican, even on Keto! My favourite Jamaican keto products.

There are some things that I have incorporated on my weight-loss journey that have made things so much easier and more enjoyable. That they are local makes me enjoy them even more. Buying and eating Jamaican as much as possible should be our goal. Here are 13 things that I’m crushing on while I’m on my keto journey here in the beautiful island of Jamaica. Presented in no particular order, here they are. I hope you find inspiration and ideas that you can incorporate on your own journey.

Continue reading Buy Jamaican, Eat Jamaican, even on Keto! My favourite Jamaican keto products.

Three Reasons Why Keto Is Not Working for You & How to Turn it Around.

“I’ve been doing keto for a month now and I haven’t lost a pound.”

That was a comment I received from a prospective client. I immediately told her that I suspected hidden carbs as the culprit. She insisted that she ate low-carb, with the occasional fried chicken or shrimp in batter. I explained that the batter is made from wheat flour which is carb rich. She explained that she didn’t think “that little bit of flour would make a difference.” She recently shared with me a picture of her meal: fish and vegetable salad. Sounds good, right? Except that the fish was done brown-stewed style, which means it is first fried than cooked down in a ketchup rich sweet and spice sauce. Ketchup is unbelievably high in sugar. There are 11g sugar in 100g coca cola, 9 g sugar in 100g orange juice and 22g sugar in 100g ketchup.

Cheating on Keto: Bad idea or nah?

“Today is a cheat day.” Why? What is it that you’re missing out on that you feel the need to go off plan? This is a controversial topic that people get quite emotional about. I have been keto since end August 2017. My son and I started keto together, and in the early days, we would play this game: “Would you cheat on keto for that?“ LOL! It was fun! Popeye’s chicken and patties (a delicious portable, meat filled pastry here in Jamaica) would always get a resounding YES, but we pressed on with our low-carb food, opting to relegate the Popeye’s and patties to fantasy status only. Months passed and pounds were shed and one day he reminded me of this silly game we used to play. We had simply stopped playing it because we simply didn’t crave that kind of food any more.

Keto Caribbean Style? Yes we can!

So keto is in the news these days, all over it. And for those of us living in the Caribbean I can understand why some would dismiss the benefits of this diet and ignore the success stories by labeling it as “another north American fad.” Well, I live in the Caribbean, Jamaica to be precise, and I’ve been keto since end August 2017…and counting. And I’m not alone! There’s a small but growing community of us right here in the Caribbean and the diaspora who are living the keto lifestyle, eating the delicious high octane food that characterises our region. In my latest podcast episode I cover the following topics to show how we rock keto Caribbean style

What about snacking on keto?

Snacks. Snacking. I need snacks. How exactly does one snack on keto? Is snacking even allowed on keto? I get these questions ALL the time. First of all, let’s start by banishing the word “allowed”. We’re all adults here and none of us requires permission for what we choose to put in our mouths and bodies. What I do is provide you with information on how the choices we make impact our bodies and I may even show you how they support or sabotage your personal goals. What you actually do is up to you. So sure, you can snack and sure there are keto type snacks that you can eat and enjoy and remain on track. In this post I’ll explain what happens when we snack, give you some ideas for keto approved snacks and provide you with some recipes & links for easy to make snacks. Let’s jump in!

10 Tips for Staying Keto in a Non-Keto Household

One of the members of our Caribbean Keto Tribe reached out to the group with this question: “How do you stay on track with keto when there are people in the house who eat carbs?” It’s a very valid question. When you’re trying to change the way you’ve eaten all your life, and those same (delicious) carbs are all around you, the task can seem daunting. It becomes trickier when you’re the one that prepares most of the meals too, right? You figure that if you lived alone or if everyone else was doing keto, you could easily make a salad with grilled chicken or some cauliflower rice and curried goat and keto on. But the presence of bread in the house, that ice cream in the freezer, that box of breakfast cereal in the cupboard, the crispy snacks that you buy for the kids and the mac and cheese you’re making to go with dinner test your best resolve.

NOTE: This post was first written when I was 1.5 years into my own keto journey. I’ve since updated it and changed it from “8 tips” to “10 tips” based on my experience 6.5 years later!