The hardest thing about Keto is cooking! (How-To Guide)

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Professional chef Max Mentzer found a way to balance his hormones easily, lose weight and maintain it—all while managing his Type 1 Diabetes—with the ketogenic diet! His lifestyle change helped him gain incredible amounts of focus and energy and is now helping others do the same. In this New Year’s episode Shawna and “Keto Chef Max” dive into actionable tips on how you can “go keto on a budget,” “make time to cook for yourself,” and provide some keto hacks!

What We Learn:

01:12 “Born with Type 1 Diabetes” learning how to manage
04:11 What culinary school taught Max about nutritious cooking
06:00 Signs of diabetes in babies
10:36 The difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
11:49 “My food is geared toward the lifestyle I want to live” – Keto Chef Max
11:58 “Keto not only works for managing my diabetes, but it also helps me live the lifestyle I want to live.”
12:59 Keto cooking hacks: The hardest thing about keto is COOKING!
14:05 Staple Fats in the Keto Diet

- Avocado
- Eggs
- Bacon
14:13 Keto isn’t cheap: How to meal prep
- Max says “find the cheapest piece of meat you can possibly make, then it can either be braised, roasted or smoked.”
14:59 On why farmers markets are budget-friendly
17:17 Keto Cereal Recipe
- Erythritol, Almond Flour, and…
22:39 “Keto and fasting for women is a lot harder”
22:43 Shawna shares how ketosis made her hair fall out
25:07 “For a Type 1 diabetic, it’s kind of scary to think about it, but the fact that my levels are so good, my A1C is phenomenal, all this other stuff that has to do with diabetes, just being on this diet improved my life drastically!” — What Max would tell his younger self.
26:26 “Kale has carbs?!”
27:27 Why heavy cream may be better than your whey protein powder…
27:45 Max Gen Labs: How to EAT For Your Genetics
30:58 “First of all, get educated on what you’re trying to do. Don’t just assume that the stuff you see on Instagram is how you should be eating because there are so many different ways you can be eating and abusing the Keto Diet actually, for instance, there’s a thing called Dirty Keto.” — Keto Chef Max.
31:39 Braising vs Roasting (Max’s go-to skill)
41:45 “Cured egg yolk recipe”
43:07 “Cooking is a craft, but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to look at it like, I don’t have time to be doing this kinda stuff. It’s like, where do I get my time? I put my idea together and I look at it like, “okay, I have 30 minutes where I can make this. I just need the ingredients. Maybe the day before, you get all of your ingredients and supplies before you start cooking. Then, the next day you go through and get all the plating setups and everything you’re trying to do. It just depends. You prep that stuff according to your schedule. Have the time to make yourself good food.”
43:59 The BS Max tells himself: “am I worth what I’m doing right now?”
45:32 surround yourself with things you love to do and people who want to encourage you and love you.
48:50 fat bombs: aka “the candy of keto”