Today I have 9 best keto diet tips for the holidays. Many people think that if they indulge, they might as well give up their weight loss plans and start again in January.
But with a bit of pre-planning, you can go ahead and enjoy fun and festive foods without derailing yourself totally.
Use these keto tips all year, for most events where food is served and temptation is real!
Hello and welcome to Fearlessly Holistic.
My name is Irma and I want to share my journey to improved health by eating whole foods, moving my body and eliminating stress as much as possible.
It is my hope to inspire you to make daily changes. Why? Because eating fresh, seasonal food, getting some sunshine, and purging unhelpful thinking is the best way to increase longevity. But you do not want just a long life.
You want a quality long life, and you want to look and feel your best while you live it.
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I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of traditional foods that I like to eat during the winter holidays or at social events. I have adjusted some of my Christmas dinner foods to be more keto, but I do eat off-plan foods. And I do not get derailed by them.
Why?
Because I’ve been keto for a while now, and I know what the mostly okay foods that allow me to enjoy myself without going too far off the wagon.
Keto Diet Tips for the Holidays
These are my tips for helping you enjoy life and stay mostly keto during events and celebrations that involve non-keto foods.
1. Make the best keto food choices with the information that you have
No one is perfect and buffet food is filled with all sorts of ingredients…just do the best that you can.
Keto is a learning experience, because what works for one person does not work for everyone.
Try to eat more protein and veggies and add in small amounts of sweets or booze. That way you win all the way around.
If you screw up, learn from that and try to modify your plan for the next event. Don’t stress about it…just learn and move on.
2. Get into ketosis in advance of the parties/events
The beautiful thing about low-carb diets is the ketosis component.
When your body is efficiently burning fat for fuel, you can get away with eating off-plan foods and still jump back into keto the next day with pretty much no damage.
If you want to make sure that this happens, stick with the most keto-friendly foods you can find.
Then let yourself have a treat, such as a piece of wedding cake or an iced sugar cookie.
Ketosis will not help you if you binge or if you eat off-plan every day in December. But if you can stick to keto diet right up until you go to an event, you have a better chance of getting back on the wagon without trouble.
3. If you know there will be keto-friendly food at the event…
Eat a smaller lunch so that you can eat a full dinner. Check your macros to give yourself as much leeway at the event as possible.
Alternatively, skip lunch and have a small keto snack (nuts, a piece of cheese) a few hours before you go out, so that you do not arrive starving.
4. Eat before you leave for the event
I know, this sounds super boring but it does help especially when you do not know what kind of foods will be at your event.
If you are planning to eat off-plan foods:
- Help yourself and your keto diet by eating some keto foods before you go out
- Then choose the off-plan foods for maximum fun and minimum weight gain.
Your goal when eating away from home is to avoid trigger foods that will set back your progress, while still having a good time.
5. Try to eat keto-friendly foods at events you attend
This is an easy one. Stick to the foods that appear safest to you based on how you have been eating keto. I mean no one knows all the ingredients in every food, but there are a lot of safe foods at pot-lucks and buffets.
Meats
Go with the grilled, roasted, baked or broiled meats. Try to avoid creamy sauces (they use flour) or sticky sauces like honey garlic (they use a lot of sugar).
Veggies/fruit
Of course there will likely be some kind of raw veggies and fruit trays. Load up on those and save your precious carbs for that one dessert you spotted earlier.
Look for tossed salads, Greek salads and any marinated veggies. Avoid any creamy options.
If steamed veggies are offered, top them with butter to help boost your ketosis.
Mixed nuts
If a dish of nuts is hanging out somewhere, grab a handful to snack on while you chat with people. Nuts can help you avoid eating too many off-plan foods.
6. Take a keto-friendly dish to the pot-luck
This way you can eat your food and be safe. Try these options:
Appies:
Cheeseball (or mini cheeseball fat bombs) with crackers made from Fat Head dough
Bacon wrapped chicken bites with sugar free bbq sauce
Salads/veggies:
Keto Asian coleslaw
Roasted brussells sprouts with bacon
Main dishes:
Zucchini lasagne
Feta and olive meatballs
Dessert:
Cheesecake or cheesecake fluff (cream cheese whipped and then folded into whipped heavy cream)
Lakanto Chocolate Coconut no bake cookies
7. Avoid foods that trigger your food cravings
I know, for myself, that I have to avoid certain foods or I will be dealing with cravings for the next week…or month…or whatever. It’s just not worth it to me.
I try to seek out desserts like cheesecake, cream puffs or a jello fluff-type dessert rather than a brownie square or a piece of pie.
If I do not see anything helpful, I will stick with raw fruit if it is available.
8. Know your keto-friendly liquor
One thing that can derail someone new to Keto is alcohol. There are plenty of ways to get your drink on while on keto…because of course someone got right on that.
There are multiple varieties of vodka/flavored soda, as well as low-carb beers and fermented dry choices.
Keep in mind that your body will process alcohol first, so the more you drink the longer your body takes to process your food.
Let yourself have a drink or two, but understand that you may gain a pound or two the next day.
Some basic tips for keto-friendly drinks are:
Straight liquor: Vodka, gin and white rum, straight over ice, with sparking water, or plain water.
Drink wine: sparkling white is a good choice, with pinot grigio as a good second and pinot noir as a third choice. Avoid the sweet or dessert wines.
If available, low-carb beer. There are more varieties of low-carb beers coming out all the time.
A lot of mixers in general are high-carb. Watch out for: anything labelled ‘syrup’; whiskey sour mix; grenadine; margarita mix; blue curacao.
I have more detailed information on this at my post The Keto Diet and Alcohol.
9. Have fun
Parties and social events often have buffets, but that does not mean everything has to focus on food. Dance, laugh, chat and enjoy whatever event you go to, because that is life!
Be sure to let your hair down and not spend the whole time staring at the dessert table. If it is really bothering you, either eat something you shouldn’t or go to another area.
Deal with the consequences, learn from the experience and be better prepared for next time.
Some food cravings are mentally tied to social events and holidays, and may take a few tries to change.
Other cravings may be from the addictive ingredients in certain types of processed foods, and that will be something that you will learn over time.
Either way, you learn.
Conclusion
I usually end up eating a plate full of roasted meat with veggies and doing my best to avoid the desserts. I know they trigger me and it is not worth it, in my opinion.
But it has taken me a few years to figure out which foods set off my sugar cravings and what I can do safely to avoid gaining weight after Christmas parties.
You have to decide what is right for you based on your goals.
I hope these tips have helped you plan ahead for your festive events. Please share this post with anyone that you think it can help and thank you for supporting my work.
Have you started your keto diet yet? If not, I suggest grabbing my free keto food list and quick start guide…absolutely free!
Holism targets overall wellness, and when we are well, we only get better with age.
Eat the best food that you can afford to give your body the building blocks it needs for optimal health, longevity, and looking good for as long as possible 😉
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Until next time, here’s to our health!
-Irma