Want to start your keto diet, but don’t know where to begin? Eat good food without sacrificing your health and weight? If you’re looking for a sign to kickstart your fitness journey, then you’re on a right track. This podcast will guide you on how to start your keto journey. Together with Coach Chip Smith and Matthew Stegmeier, this podcast discusses the general overview of what’s is Keto and the common misconceptions linked to it.
See the full transcript below:
Matthew: Hi, everybody! Are you interested in the keto diet, but don’t know where to begin? Well, you’ve come to the right place today. We’re joined by Chip Smith and he’s going to share his keto journey with you and tell you how you can get started. Welcome to the Keto Kingdom!
Matthew: Hi everybody. I’m Matthew Stegmeier, and today we’re joined with Chip Smith. I’ve gotten to know Chip over the years. I’ve heard about his amazing weight loss journey and doing the keto diet and how he inspired so many other people to have success with this and take control of their lives. And we’ve teamed up to form the keto kingdom.
Chip: Hi, my name is Chip Smith and along with Matthew Stegmeier, we have started the Keto Kingdom. Basically, this is a community where we want to be able to provide information and content for people, and I want to share my journey with you and help you achieve the same results that I’ve been able to.
Matthew: So Chip, tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got into Keto, and a little bit about your journey and why you started the Keto Kingdom.
WHERE IT STARTED: BEFORE THE KETO LIFESTYLE
Chip: I think I found myself in a spot where a lot of people my age are extremely busy and they have got kids and trying to juggle a lot of things. A little bit about my background, I played sports in high school, and pretty much through high school, I just ate whatever I wanted. I had a high metabolism and actually, I had a hard time gaining weight I remember my mom telling me when I was a teenager that “you’re not always going to be able to eat like that”. And I was like okay mom whatever.
And as I got into adulthood and got busy with my career, and my job, I find myself sitting in front of screens most of the day. My job is very sedentary. I’m at a desk and I’m either on my phone or on the computer. And with my job where I’m not moving around a whole lot. If your diet isn’t in place, it’s, it’s really easy to put on weight.
A few years ago I’d gotten up to as high as about 270 pounds and just started having a lot of other health problems. That kind of trickled down from that. The first thing started with sleep apnea, which I didn’t even realize that I had and that I wasn’t sleeping well. And just having a lot of other side effects from that actually to the point to where I was having tremors in my body, just throughout my arms and my legs. Then I went to the doctor and had some tests ran and they had done some blood work. The only thing that they had said at that time was that my cholesterol was high, but nothing else. So my doctor had recommended her and asked me if I’d ever done a sleep study. And I said, no. And she said, “well let’s try with that because there might be some issues there”.I remember I did the sleep study overnight and I had to return that stuff to the doctor the next day. And I figured they’d get back with me in a few days or a week or two. And they actually called me that afternoon. And they were like, you have some serious sleep issues here.
HOW IT STARTED: JUST JUMP IN AND GET GOING!
Chip: And so anyway that it just kind of started there and I’m trying to think probably around the end of 2017 is actually when I jumped into keto and I didn’t know a whole lot about it at the time. But you know, the one thing I tell everybody is that if you’re thinking about starting, just jump in, you don’t need to know everything right away. You don’t need to have everything all figured out or know all of the ins and outs and certainly don’t have to be perfect with it. Just jump in and get going. I think this is the most important thing.
I think my first month in, I had lost about 15 pounds and then the next two or three months, I’d lost about 10 pounds each month. And you know, I’ve just over the few years, I’ve just kind of made it my hobby to try to find different ways to make it easier to do for people and come up with some different recipes. And honestly to this day, I probably eat very similar to how I did when I gained weight. I just think I’ve learned how to cook things differently and make things differently so that there are still keto-friendly and enjoyable.
Matthew: I don’t do keto and I’m interested in learning about it. And that’s part of why I’ve teamed up with you, kind of seeing your excitement and enthusiasm for this. Obviously, you really entrenched in the keto lifestyle and it’s fascinating to me and I tease you all the time. I know you’ve had great results and I see all the people that you’ve helped. So it’s tongue in cheek, but to me, one of the biggest things about keto is “oh well you’re never going to eat bread again”. You know, that’s kind of my outsider’s view to this. So what would you say are, I guess, misconceptions about the keto diet?
THE MYTH: COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT KETO
Chip: Yeah, well, that’s, that’s one of them right there, and honestly, like when I started back in 2017-2018, there weren’t a lot of the products available, like readily available that you have today. There’s a number of low-carb bread, you’ve got all these different sugar-free sauces, barbecue sauces, things like that. And the one thing I would tell everybody is that this is a better time to do keto, just because of the convenience and the availability.
When I started this back in 2017, a lot of the products that you want it to like make this low carb bread or make something, you had to go to a specialty store, you had to go to a healthy food store or whatever. And honestly, I can tell you now, that I get almost everything that I need to buy that is getting to the regular grocery store.
Matthew: Now, what about sustainability? That’s a big thing that we hear from people that, “oh yeah, you’re going to do this, but there’s no way you’re going to stick it”. It’s just impossible to not eat carbs ever. You know, you go back to bread.
Chip: Yeah. The one thing that I get really fired up about is because I heard it constantly when I started and people would say things like I heard that works and I heard you get some good short-term results with it, but, it’s just not sustainable. Once you go off the diet, you’re going to put all the weight back on. I guess, a few things I’ll say to that, I mean, you can apply that to pretty much anything in life. If you change your lifestyle and you start doing something and you’re getting good results from it, if you go back to what you’re doing, of course, you’re going to put the weight back on.
Just to be blunt about it, if you start eating like shit again, for lack of a better term and you quit working out, of course, you’re going to gain weight. So, the thing I tell everybody is that “look, this isn’t just some fancy little fad that you’re going to do for, for three months and then go back to doing whatever this is something, that you can stick with.
I guess the other thing I’ll say is that I’m not perfect with it. I still go to cookouts. I still eat pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving day and things like that. I think that’s where people get this conception that like, well, you’re going to do good with it, but then as soon as you go to a cookout or as soon as you eat some cookies on father’s day or whatever that you wrecked it and it’s, that’s not the case at all.
I can tell you what’s worked for me. I don’t schedule a cheat day per se. Some people say, well, every Sunday it’s going to be my cheat day. I don’t do that. I stick with this as long as I can. I keep cheat days in my back pocket for things like my birthday, my kid’s birthday, or father’s day holiday. I don’t strive to be militant with this or try to be perfect with it 365 days a year. But what I do is I try to be perfect with this. I’d say, 90 to 95% of the year.
Matthew: Alright. So we’ve established that Keto is not all just don’t eat bread ever again, and there’s a lot of keto bread that you can even get. But firstly, is keto just eating a boatload of meat all the time?
Chip: Absolutely not. I mean the good thing with this type of diet in this way of eating is that you can customize it to what you like and what your lifestyle is.
I think a lot of people think that keto is just eating bacon and frying everything, deep-fried in butter. And, you’re putting butter in your coffee and, and all this stuff. I know there are people that I guess that they go with the Bulletproof coffee and stuff like that. I don’t, it’s not my cup of tea. I do drink coffee from time to time. I personally, drink black coffee in the afternoon. I drink it in between meals. And for me, it’s more of, kind of a couple of things I drink. I like that black coffee, only like an appetite suppressant, but it also just kind of gives me that pick me up, three, four o’clock in the afternoon when I’m kind of in between meals or maybe start getting a little bit lethargic in the afternoon. But as I said, the good thing about coffee is that it acts as a bit of an appetite suppressant. So instead of going for a snack or something that is actually going to. I’m going to have some calorie consumption instead I’ll just grab a cup of coffee and it kind of gets me to the next meal
KETO CHEATSHEET: ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS
Matthew: Okay, Chip. What is some advice you would give to someone new to keto or just starting out? It seems pretty complicated to me as an outsider.
Chip: It can seem kind of intimidating at first. But the one thing that I would definitely tell everybody is that, if you’ve decided that you want to do it just jump in, and like I said, I didn’t have it all figured out when I started, I didn’t know all the answers. I didn’t know. keto inside and out.
The main thing that I did when I started, and this is what’s going to get you the best results is to count your net carbs. You’re going to take total carbohydrates and you’re able to subtract fiber and some different sugar alcohols, which we can, we can get into that later. That’s it!
And everything else is just, I’m trying to think how to say this. You’re splitting hairs. Don’t try to have all the answers, just jump in. My feeling is in this, I think you can apply this to a lot of things in life. Not just keep it. But imperfect action is better than sitting on the sidelines. So even if you don’t have it all figured out, just jump in. If you make a mistake, it’s not a big deal. Just put it behind you and move on and learn from it. But that would be my biggest advice when I started keto.
I also started intermittent fasting at the same time, and I think most people will find that when you combine those two things, it’s almost like a cheat code. So when you start this, just start out with eliminating breakfast. Okay. Eliminate one meal out of the day, and try to get to where you’re doing two meals a day. Right now I eat pretty good size meals for both of those. I usually have lunch and I have dinner and I try to avoid snacking. Like I sit in between t doesn’t mean that I don’t get hungry in between meals, but just drink lots of water. I think it’s important to stay hydrated. And like I said if it’s a couple of hours away from dinner time and you’re feeling hungry or a little bit lethargic, make sure you’re hydrated or even drink a cup of coffee. And I think that’ll get you from one meal to the next, that’s the best thing. If you decide you want to do this, just jump in and do it. Don’t worry about being perfect.
Matthew: I absolutely love that advice. I think it applies, as you said about many things in life. I just think about some of the things in my life you know, running a small business. I’m such a perfectionist that a lot of times I will just plan something out to overly plan and I just never get something done. And in almost every case, they’re out just getting started, making some progress, getting in the habit of doing something instead of trying to perfect everything 100%, and hitting the ground running full speed. That’s just not feasible in most cases.
I think that’s a wonderful place. I think also if you are a beginner to keto, you want to learn more about this, check out our website, there are a lot of great resources up. We have a quick start guide that will share a lot of this information that you. Really hit the ground running and skip over a lot of these hurdles that Chip you faced in your first months. A lot of the things, the lessons that you learned in that. We have a ton of free recipes up on the site, a lot of delicious foods that you can eat a lot of the same food that, maybe you’re eating now just prepared a little bit differently.
Chip: Exactly.
Matthew: To me, that’s one of the big takeaways I’ve seen from talking with you and seeing what you share with other people, with doing keto, you don’t necessarily have to eat like a rabbit and just eat a lot of carrots. I mean, there are a lot of really appetizing foods that you can make that are keto friendly. I think for beginners’ advice, just stick with us as we make more of these videos, I mean, there are going to be a lot of great conversations that really do a deep dive on some of these topics.
Chip: Yup, absolutely.
WHY KETO: IS KETO AFFORDABLE?
Matthew: Okay. Chip. So here’s another one for you. I see you tweeting about Quest Keto but like almost with the Doritos that are real low-carb, low net carb snacks. And to me as a dad who has a family of six on feeding, that seems like a lot of money to spend on food. How can people do keto and make it affordable? Because to me, even when I go to the grocery store, a normal loaf of bread costs, maybe it’s like $ 2.53 bucks. I look over and see the keto bread and it was a lot more expensive. So how does this of making affordable for them?
Chip: Yeah, I guess the biggest thing I’ll say is that those types of items, like the quest chips, they’re $ 2.50 for a small bag. A loaf of keto bread is usually $4.99. I get that some of those items are more expensive. One thing that I’ve always felt is, that I don’t want to do want to say it’s a misconception, but I hear people say it a lot that it’s expensive to eat healthy, and maybe there is some truth to that. But I also see those same people spend $8 on one value meal in the drive-through or they’ll spend $15 on a pizza. As I said, basically serves two or three people for one meal. So I guess circling back to some of these more expensive items. I don’t like when I buy a small bag of quest chips, I’m basically using that for a recipe to make some nachos or, Crunchwrap Supreme the copycat recipe that we’ve got in our recipe book.
My intention when I buy a small bag of quest chips, isn’t to eat a bag a day, it’s one thing here there. The other thing I’ll say is that I said kind of going back to people will spend $6 or $8 on the chicken nugget value meal at Wendy’s that’s for one meal. And just to kind of put it in perspective, I bought some ground chicken a week or so ago to make chicken nuggets with it was like three or $4 a pound. And then the rest of it was just some different seasonings and a couple of eggs. So altogether, I probably had wrapped up in that one meal about five bucks, and I look at it like this it’s far more nutritious. I think there was about 90 to hundred grams of protein in that whole meal, and after I ate it I was absolutely stuffed. Whereas I think most people will say, or most people would agree with me that. If they eat something through the drive-through or you eat some pizza and you’re hungry an hour later.
To make a long story short, I guess I would say the big-picture scheme of things. This is actually one of the cheapest diets you can go on because most of the food that I buy things like chicken thighs, drumsticks, ground beef, all of those things are fairly affordable, and they go a long way. So the other stuff that you’ll see, you know, the bread, the chips, the quest bars, things like that. As I said, those aren’t things that are just consumed constantly, it’s more of something for a recipe here and there.
Matthew: Well, I mean, if you just look at it logically, you’re probably, if you’re taking on this journey, you’re probably going to be making an effort to eat fewer carbs. So the amount you spend on bread might, maybe your family, or you go through two loaves of bread a week now, but if you’re doing this, that one loaf of keto bread, dollar for dollar it’d be matching up or be pretty close.
Chip: Yeah, absolutely.
LIVING THE KETO LIFESTYLE: HOW IT WORKS FOR BUSY PEOPLE
Matthew: All right. So here’s, here’s one more for you. I think this applies to so many things in life, I hear from talking with you a lot about what you do to stay healthy and how often you work out. I don’t even know how I would do half of that. So, how can someone who’s busy and overwhelmed with life, how can you make this a priority and find time to make keto work?
Chip: That’s a great question. How can busy people make this work? I think again, I don’t want to pigeonhole this for people that work desk jobs. But I think people like myself that have a sedentary job where they’re at a desk or they’re on the phone all day, or they’re at a computer, I think we’ll find is the most beneficial because this diet is really geared towards this.
You’re not taking in a bunch of carbohydrates that you’re never going to burn off. The whole concept that makes keto work is that you eventually get to a point where you start burning fat for fuel in lieu of carbohydrates, and by removing carbs from your diet, you’ll get to a point where you actually start burning your own body fat for fuel. A lot of people that I’ve seen have success with this don’t even work out the diet itself. I can tell you, that not everybody’s the same. Everybody has a different situation, but I can tell you this even if you’re not working out, this diet will work for you, and you will lose weight on this.
The biggest thing I would tell someone that maybe leads a super busy lifestyle and either doesn’t want to work out or they don’t have time to work out is to start off by intermittent fasting. We’re moving one meal a day, skip breakfast, start drinking water. The minute you wake up. I personally drink over a gallon of water a day and every night before I go to bed, I put it on my nightstand, I’ve got a container. That’s about a third of a gallon and set that on my nightstand. And every morning, as soon as I wake up, I just, that’s where I get started. Push that first meal off as late as you can .And usually, I have my first meal around 12 or 1 and honestly, I think if anybody, I don’t care how lethargic you are, how much you’re busy just sitting at a desk all day. If you cut down to where you’re having two good-sized meals a day that are high in protein, low in carbohydrates, and somewhat moderate in fat.
I think you’re going to find two things. You’re a, you’re not going to be hungry at least to the point to where like I’m ready to fight somebody. You’ll find that you’re not hungry and secondI find that the weight does going to come off very very easily.
Matthew: Well, that’s great. And I think this was a wonderful beginning point for how to get started with keto, and we appreciate you joining us today, everyone, and we hope you join us on our journey as we build up the Keto kingdom. So if this is something of interest to you, be sure t to like the video and subscribe to us where you can. If you have other questions that you want us to cover in future keto conversations, leave those comments below and we’ll pick them up and try to address those in a future video. Chip, anything else to add?
Chip: No, that’s it. I, I look forward to hearing, from people and helping in any way I can.
<END TRANSCRIPTION>
