Keto and Low Carb Baked Goods and Treats

Episode #: 60 Keto and Low Carb Baked Goods and Treats

 You’re Listening to the Keto and Low Carb Success podcast, Episode # 60, Keto and Low Carb Baked Goods and Treats.

 Did you know that you don't have to spend money on a diet program or weigh, measure and track your food? What if you could learn to have success by following an easy roadmap that takes you on adventures from learning how to change your mindset so that you can believe in yourself, to learning about what foods work best in your body and why? Join me, Miriam Hatoum, health coach, course creator and author of Conquer Cravings with Keto, as I give you actionable coaching advice that is sure to empower you so that you will finally find peace with food and learn to trust your body’s signals. You’ve got this, girl! 

 Be sure to go to miriamhatoum.com/resources to get all the free guides to help you along the way. I am in your shoes, my friends, and I wrote these guides for both of us. The link is in the show notes and transcripts.

 Oh, and before we start, I want to let you know that the primary purpose of this podcast and the course is to educate and does not constitute medical advice or service, and I’m keeping up with the science as fast as I can so I can share with you the latest breaking research in this area to help you achieve your dreams!

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3:25     Now on to today’s episode:

When I first started Keto I bought every cookbook that was mentioned on the various Keto Facebook pages as having sections with desserts, baked goods, fat bombs and other treats. 

I was incredibly overwhelmed by the ingredients I was called on to buy, which I dutifully did! I bought a multitude of sweeteners and in the end, ended up shipping most of them to Keto girlfriends who were already using them. 

I bought bags of coconut flour (which, two years later, I still have never used!) and almond flour (which I do use), and I bought all manner of thickeners. 

In my case, the cookbooks were not enough to feed my obsession, and I downloaded baked goods and treat recipes from the internet. I bought three-ring binders and protection sheets to house these recipes until those binders were stuffed and I had to consider either culling the recipes to make room for more, buy more binders, or realize that I was not going to bake anything but one or two of the recipes, so it was time to get rid of the rest. 

Been there done that yourself?  Well have fun and spend your money. BUT:

4:50    Use Keto baked goods and treats with caution!

I have many reasons for giving this advice. Besides saving you the time and money that I foolishly spent, I realized early on - and you will too - that eating a well-formulated Ketogenic diet kept me full for hours and I no longer needed to snack. 

I even found myself not wanting meals at all (OMG skip dinner? Are you kidding? Yet I did!). As you find you are eating less on a Keto – or even a Low Carb diet, you will find that you want to fill your day with good, solid nutrition, which baked goods take away from. There is only so much room in your stomach for a meal. Don't use up that space with a baked good.  

However sometimes just nothing seemed to appeal to me, and one of those little Keto bagels was perfect with cream cheese and a nice slice of fresh tomato. 

One time I got grilled cheese on the brain, and nothing would satisfy me but a sandwich. However I would have something like that once or twice then put the rest of the loaf in the freezer and go on with my meals that might be bacon with stuffed omelets, ribeye steak and grilled asparagus, Cobb salad topped with steak tips - you get the idea!  

The other thing that stopped me in my tracks was looking at the macros for these items. "Fathead dough" is loaded with cheese, meaning fat and protein. Almond breads have plenty of carbs. Recipes you see for pizza crusts made with chicken are very high in protein, which is fine in most cases, but not if you are careful with your protein macro. Recipes you see for cauliflower crusts are high in carbs. Understand that even when you eat Keto and Low Carb, portion control for carbohydrates is still very important. 

And, if you are eating a lot of processed treats that are available, it is important to know that a lot of these foods - especially if packaged as Keto or Low Carb, have chemicals and fillers to make up for the lack of sugar. Be careful with what you put in your body!

Keto treats, in particular - although they do not contain sugar and wheat - are still not entirely low carb. Nut flours add up as do items made with cheese (like Keto pizza crust). Some of these treat items are so delicious, that head hunger tends to take over even though your belly is satisfied with the portion you have taken.

This leads me to my next caution: Never Run Back to What Broke You.

7:49    The dreaded BINGE

If you have never had a problem with binge eating, then you can skip this. But if you have a problem, you know you do and you don't need me to explain it to you. 

The interesting thing I found when I started Keto, is that not all overweight people struggle with bingeing. Sometimes it is just the food and insulin for them. Sometimes it is just large portions. Sometimes it is just snacking all day out of habit. 

I'm not talking about that. I am talking about something I have coined as “Concept Cravings.”  I am talking about how one chip will make you finish the bag, or one snack bag will make you finish all 6 or 8 in the package. Or how one Oreo leads you to the whole line, the whole package, and then brings you to looking for more things to eat even though by then you feel sick. THAT is what I am talking about. And if that is you, then I urge you to stay away from Keto baked goods (and other treats) until you have faced and worked on your issues with habits, triggers and urges. I address this with several lessons in my program, Keto and Low Carb Success, because it is NOT just about what goes on your plate. It is also what goes on in your mind.

It took me 1-1/2 years to have that grilled cheese sandwich for one or two days then put the rest of the loaf in the freezer. When I started Keto, I was as prone to bingeing as I was before doing Keto. I still might be if I were faced with Keto cookies and candies and cakes. I can handle some of the Keto and Low Carb breads, but I don’t go down the sweets path!

Another thing that can lead to a binge with Keto baked goods is that, very rarely, does a Keto baked good really taste like the original that you have in mind or have had a craving for. Don’t get me wrong, some of the recipes are absolutely fabulous, filling and satisfying. 

But if what you want is a nice big, heavy, chewy bakery bagel, a Keto bagel is not going to do it for you. If what you really want is a slice of your mother’s old-fashioned pound cake, then most Keto pound cakes, with their slight sugar alcohol after-taste, are not going to do it for you. 

That sense of dissatisfaction – even if the food is actually good – can lead you to wanting more of something else, or even more of what you are eating because you are chasing what you want.

10:50  When Keto baked goods and sweets ARE a good idea

What I would say further, even taking the cautionary binge tale into account is this: sometimes it is better to "feed" the craving than fight it. But I would feed it very carefully. Do you want to go into the lion's den 1/2 dozen times a day to feed it? Make the bread and make the bagels; make the candies and the puddings; make the cheesecake and frosted lemon cake. Make it all. BUT if you know you are a person who has trouble with bingeing then plan to get it out of the house once you have had a taste or a meal with it. 

NO - having it in the freezer did not stop me: I once ate a half of a raspberry peanut butter loaf FROZEN until I finally just crumbled it and threw it in the trash. All Keto. All good (even the amount I ate did not bring me over my 20 total carbs for the day!), but it reinforced the binge behavior which was NOT good. 

I am far into my Keto and Low Carb journey, and I don't know that would happen again with baked goods like bread and bagels. But it might if there was a lot of sweetness involved (yes, a cautionary tale there too even if you cut out all the sugar). 

If I were to bake cookies or a cake or a pie (yes, ALL possible on Keto), I would make sure that I was in a sharing situation. I would bring it to a party or to someone else's house or to work or to anywhere that would get it out of my reach. 

Keto is not a way of eating that is meant to deprive you. I don't feel deprived on Keto - never did, even at the beginning. Find everything you CAN eat and enjoy. Find safe substitutions if you must. Some say not to feed the craving because cravings beget cravings. My personal experience has been (as long as there is no sweetness involved), that I can satisfy the craving and be done with it for months. You will have to find what works for you.

If you feel you could never do Keto if you couldn't have bread and rolls and cakes and cookies again, then maybe it is a good idea to have these items even at the beginning of your journey, just as long as there is a blaring siren and flashing red light above them — like at a railroad crossing when the train is coming through. But be cautious and be aware that if you get stuck on those tracks you have to make some decisions about what you will and will not eat, even if it is allowed.  

I always caution: Never go back to what broke you, but there are other reasons to stay away from some of these baked goods and other treats.

14:04  Feeling your best 

In order to feel your best, you need to learn how certain foods (and certain quantities) make you feel. 

It is important to know how elements of a recipe (or treat) work for you. 

Eating foods in their less complex state gives you a chance to really tune in to what makes you not feel well or oppositely, what makes your body sing. 

There are too many moving parts in these recipes: Dairy, eggs, various nut flours and artificial sweeteners or sugar alternatives (some of which cause very bad digestive issues).

Some people never know they have dairy, egg or nut sensitivities until they start this way of eating without all the processed foods and treats (Keto or Low Carb). 

For instance, I never knew that eggs contributed to how I felt until I started to parse out the ingredients in recipes. 

So even though you can't wait to make a Keto cake or a Low Carb bread, wait just a little while until you have been eating foods in their natural and uncomplicated state.

15:20   The Learning Curve 

The simpler you keep things at the beginning, the faster will be your trajectory to learning a new way to eat. A whole bunch of substitutions only teaches you how to substitute. These substitutes do not offer any real teaching on how to CHANGE your lifestyle with food or habits.

For instance, if you substitute a Keto or Low Carb cookie for the real thing, will you really have incentive to learn to sit with urges, slow down while you eat, or learn to honor your hunger scale? If you haven't done that, what happens when there are no Low Carb or Keto alternatives, and you want what you want when you want it. 

Better to wait and learn and adjust.

16:15    Other Slippery Slope Foods

Slippery Slope foods are not just the baked goods, candy and other treats. 

If you have a sensitivity to sugar, then you will have to make this your new mantra: Sugar begets sugar cravings. 

Remember, all foods, other than fat and most protein, contain sugar which turns into glucose in your system.  

That is why – concept cravings aside – you want to eat the entire bowl of mashed potatoes, not just a few spoons. 

It’s why you want to get to the bottom of a box of good-for-you cereal or a bag of popcorn. 

It’s why you can polish off a bag of baby carrots without noticing. 

A lot of these foods have fiber that can help with ultimately feeling full, but carbohydrates do not have the same feedback loop that fat and protein do, so it’s harder to tell when you have had enough. 

The power that slippery slope foods have over you is because they are a jumble of concept cravings and physical drivers. It’s best to take some time to learn about the physical power of the food as well as the emotional power of the food.

17:40  This week’s Actionable Coaching Advice

This week do some investigation from several viewpoints. 

First, make a list of any foods you are missing or think you will miss on Keto or Low Carb. If you don’t already have one, download my Keto and Low Carb Planner from my resource section – the link is in the show notes and transcript.  Go to page 30 and fill out those two columns.

Second, go through the second column of the list and mark off what might not be a safe food for you because of the concept craving factor.  

Looking at that, you can see two things: You are not being denied anything, but it might not be a good idea for you to have it right now. You get to decide what to eat, you are not being told what to eat.

Then go to page 32 and fill it out. Being reminded of this information is incredibly valuable in your journey.

I also encourage you, as part of your coaching, to look at my program, Keto and Low Carb Success. The link is in the show notes and transcript. There is so much in there that will help you find your footing with all of this.

And, let me remind you. If you’ve ever got a question you’d like to ask me or share a topic idea that you would like me to cover on a future episode, don’t be a stranger! I always look forward to hearing from listeners like you. You are welcome to email me directly… miriam@miriamhatoum.com. And don’t forget to leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. I would SO appreciate it. Leaving a review makes it easier for other people who are looking to listen and learn about Keto and Low Carb.

19:43   Coming up in the next Episode

Next week I want to explore why Low Carb diets work. I will make some references to Keto, which is extremely low carb, but mostly I will talk about more moderate Low Carb that I teach you how to do in my program, Keto and Low Carb Success.

Please share this show with your friends and invite them to tune in with you and learn how to become free from diet prison with my Keto and Low Carb Success podcast. Especially share this podcast with anyone you know who is struggling with their weight or eating plan. This podcast and my course can be game changers if you take the information and coaching advice that are in them, they really are. It will help so many people transform their lives – not just with food but with how they feel about themselves, how they approach the food they eat, and how they make decisions about any area of their lives.

Until the next episode, go live free from diet worry — I’ll see you back here next time.

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