THE DIET I CHOSE FOR THE WEEK

The specific diet I chose for the past week was the Keto Diet. To give a brief explanation of what the Keto Diet is, it is a low carb, high fat diet that has many health benefits to the body. Very similar to the Atkins diet and low carbs diets, the Keto diet basically lowers the carb consumption in your body drastically while replacing it with more fat consumption. The reason why I took this specific diet as my diet for the week was because I wanted to experience what it felt like having and carb but high-fat diet for a whole week. Growing up in family rich with Korean cuisine, carbs were always a part of our everyday meal. Also just pasta and noodles were the things I loved most. Therefore though this blog project I tried to put myself in a place where I restricted and took out most of the carbs from my diet  and replace them with high-fat content food and ingredients.

THE ALLERGEN

The allergen I chose to include in this diet was wheat as it seemed perfect and fit right into the diet I chose to follow. As wheat is considered a big carb ingredient, following the Keto diet takes away the worries of consuming any sort of wheat that can have a bad effect on the body, replacing those missing nutrition with different ingredients and food.

ONE RECIPE I MADE 

For most of the part, i researched a bunch of diets and examples of diets recommended by experts posted online. But after looking though ingredients and foods that can be consumed for this diet, I came up with one dish that really satisfied my palette and my physical and mental state in a positive way. The dish I made for this diet was a Cheddar Cheese Omelet with Avocado Salad.

Cheddar Cheese Omelet:

• 3 Large Grade A eggs
• Salt and Pepper
• 30g Grated Cheddar Cheese

Avocado Salad

• 1 Whole Avocado
• 1 tbsp dried raisins
• 1/2 pc Orange Bell Peppers
• 1 tbsp Almonds, chopped
• 1 pc Green Scallion, chopped

  

 

7 DAY DIET LOG SHEET 

Day 1:

• Breakfast: Cheddar Cheese Omelette with Avocado Salad and Black Coffee
• Lunch: Pan-Seared Chicken Breast Salad with Olive oil and feta cheese
• Dinner: Pan seared Salmon with lemon zest and grilled asparagus

Day 2:

• Breakfast: Bacon, Scrambled Eggs with pan seared tomatoes
• Lunch: Beef stir fry cooked in olive oil and bell peppers
• Dinner: Pan-seared pork chop with steamed broccoli

Day 3:

• Breakfast: Sugar-free Greek yogurt mixed with Brazil nuts and dried raisin
• Lunch: Leftover Guacamole Salad
• Dinner: Pan-seared chicken breast with roasted bell peppers

Day 4:

• Breakfast: Milkshake (recipe from http://cookingispun.com/author/Kelsey/)
• Lunch: Omelette with saute bell peppers and onions
• Dinner: Pan-seared trout with Beurre Blanc and asparagus (menu comes from the CULINARY CONCEPT MANUAL)

Day 5:

• Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Canadian Cornmeal Bacon and tomatoes
• Lunch: Avocado Salad with Brazil nuts and celery
• Dinner: Steak with blanched butter-saute spinach and steamed broccoli

Day 6:

• Breakfast: Milkshake (recipe from http://cookingispun.com/author/Kelsey/)
• Lunch: Hard boiled eggs and spoonful of peanut butter
• Dinner: Leftover steak with saute mushrooms and steamed broccoli

Day 7:

• Breakfast: Ham and cheese eggs with free-sugar yogurt
• Lunch: Almond milk, peanut butter, blackberries
• Dinner: Pan-seared salmon and grilled asparagus

 

REFLECTION ON DIET EXPERIENCE

When I first started planning for this diet, I was very excited to start it soon but also a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to go through with it for a full week. The first three days of the diet was very exciting. I was able to cook all the food I needed to eat throughout the day, giving me something exciting to do three times a day. The food tasted very good and matched with my palette. I felt a lot of energy and felt good about myself and my body. This really boosted me to go to the gym and exercise and workout harder than before. It gave me more energy to push myself to my limit of my workout. As Thursday and Friday came, I was very tempted and craved sugary sweet junk food and snacks. Thankfully I was able to restrain myself to eating these products. Eating so much eggs for a full week made me really tired and annoyed of that ingredient, so I changed it up a bit by putting in milkshakes and yogurts, which helped me a lot.

Honestly this diet really helped me feel better mentally and physically. When waking up early in the morning, I felt much more energetic and alive than I used to before doing this diet. As the day go by, I would usually feel very tired and unmotivated to do activities and work, but after taking this diet for a good 4-5 days, I started feeling much more energetic and better throughout the whole day, with my mood and attitude being positive and looking at things I regularly see in a different perspective. everything felt much more clearer and fresh. I think that was the most important lesson I learned through this diet. It is that what you eat will produce the human you will be. Eating healthy and nutritional food has its benefits and its important to eat healthy so that not only the body, but also the mindset is much more positive, which helped me get things done throughout the week.

MY VIEWS IN COOKING AND MAINTAINING THE DIET

Through this diet, I realized that so many food can be created without the deliciousness that carbohydrate provides to a dish and meal. Through research, it also opened my ind to different ways of substituting carbs with a different element of food, which can also increases its flavor or maintain it the same way a type of carbohydrate would.

As for maintaining this diet, I believe I would be able to do so since it had such a positive affect on my body and mind. The only problem might be setting up a diet that I can use for long term and also not having the time to cook all these meals for myself every day and week. Other than that, this project has really opened my eyes to why healthy food is healthy and different ways of cooking food. The keto diet is something I can follow throughout my whole life if I really put in the focus and dedication to do so.