BACK ON TRACK WITH KETO KRISP Part 4: Keto During COVID & Beyond: Tips + Tricks

Regardless of where you live and how you eat, you’ve probably had to make a few lifestyle shifts due to COVID-19. But if you’ve also been trying to maintain your keto lifestyle while staying at home more than ever, you may have experienced some additional changes and challenges. Throughout March and April, news reports all over the world showed people stocking their pantries with the exact same things: high-carb, long-shelf-life staples like wheat flour, pasta and rice. WELP, that’s not helpful for us keto lifestyle folks, is it?

So, while we’re enjoying this honeymoon period — with some shops and restaurants open in limited capacity — your friends at Keto Krisp wanted to put together a few keto preparedness tips for you. Here are our secrets for shopping for keto while in the clutches of an unprecedented (and not-going-anywhere-soon) global pandemic. 

 

Do your killer keto recipe research.

 

As with any lifestyle that has strict nutrition rules attached, being prepared is the most important of all keto success guidelines—and you’ll be much more successful with keto if you’re eating things you truly enjoy! Plan to spend a few hours scouring the internet (and don’t forget Instagram, which can be a great resource for keto inspiration) for keto recipes that appeal to you, and which are in your cooking wheelhouse. YES, there are apps for keeping track of our favorites, but we like to print them out and keep ‘em in a three-ring binder in the kitchen. This prevents us from touching our germy phones while cooking.

 

Stock up on FRESH + FROZEN low-carb staples.

Using your new keto recipes as a starting point, make a keto shopping list for your next big trip to the store. We’re not sure about you, but for us, those early weeks of the first wave were BIG shopping weeks. Our fridges and pantries were never so full, and with restaurants temporarily shut down completely, we were cooking more than ever before. 

 

But as we’ve adjusted to the new normal, our pantries (if not necessarily our bodies) have thinned out a bit. So, while you’re shopping for specific recipe needs, it’s also a great time to stock up on fresh and frozen low-carb staples. Fresh eggs, butter/cream, cheese, meat/fish and longer-life veggies are all musts. Some fresh meats can be frozen for three months!

And while we’re talking about the freezer, prepared meats (bacon, sausage, salami etc.) tend to do pretty well in the freezer—as do many low-carb vegetables. Cauliflower florets and rice, broccoli, spinach, zoodles, peas and mushrooms are all great options, and some of them are already fully prepared and ready for you to cook and season!

 

Create a keto preparedness pantry.

While we’re all hopeful that the food supply chain will hold up during the second wave, it never hurts to be ready for shortages and/or complete lockdown—and that means building a solid keto preparedness pantry. Shelf-stable meats like canned fish, chicken and shellfish are always good to have on hand, as are canned tomatoes, olives and roasted red peppers.

Lower-carb nuts like walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans and almonds are solid snacking options, as are beef, pork, bison and venison jerky—just make sure to keep an eye on the sugar content. Don’t forget cooking staples like oil, ghee, spices and nut flours. We don’t want to live without keto-friendly snacks like cheese crisps. And we can’t live without Keto Krisp! Made with premium nut butters, MCT oil, whey protein isolate krisps and other wholesome ingredients, these keto-friendly protein bars have next-to-no net carbs and taste AMAZING.

 

Sign up for a keto-friendly meal delivery service (or a recurring Keto Krisp delivery subscription!)

Many of us here at Keto Krisp HQ share a home with carb eaters—which is easy enough at breakfast and lunch, but which can be a challenge if you want to eat dinner together as a family. That’s why several of us have been experimenting with keto-friendly meal delivery services, with a high level of keto success and palate satisfaction, across the board! 

Green Chef has a full keto menu; in general, it’s very friendly to a variety of specialized diets. A few of us have also enjoyed Hello Fresh, which makes it easy to add or subtract carbs from most entrees. And for those nights when you just cannot possibly cook—Freshology has keto plans that come to you completely ready to pop in the ol’ oven. To those of you worried about cost: most of us agree that we actually save money (and prevent waste) with these services!

So, my little keto preppers...are you prepared to hunker back down, if need be? If not, it’s time to mask up, make your list, check it twice—and embark upon a keto shopping adventure.