How do I celebrate a low carb or keto Easter?

The sun’s rays feel a little warmer every day, daffodils are showing their little yellow heads and slowly, full of anticipation, we realise: here it is, spring is beginning! At last! With it, Easter is also coming closer in quick steps, and the odd Foodpunk is wondering: how can I eat low carb or ketogenic during these days, which normally consist of lavish feasts and a lot of chocolate in the shape of rabbits or eggs? It is simply a tradition: Lent before Easter, during which people deliberately go without a great deal (greetings to everyone taking part in the Sugar Detox, the Lent special), naturally brings with it the thought of a big celebration afterwards. No wonder that the Easter meal is served up especially generously. The end of the “deprivation” and the beginning of spring are celebrated, and we think: so they should be! Celebrating your success is never wrong in principle. But the question arises: if you got through the fasting phase for health reasons, how much is an extravagant party with foods you avoided for a long time really worth to you? And more importantly: how can you celebrate your success, or festive occasions with the family in general, without having a “food hangover” the next day?

The classic Easter buffet includes different dishes depending on the family and its customs. Whether it is Easter lamb, roast rabbit, a plaited yeast loaf or of course eggs, often in large quantities and made of chocolate, the foods on the Easter table usually have a meaning for the Christian Easter festival or are at least a beloved childhood memory. Going without them completely? Surely that is impossible. Or is it? For followers of low carb and keto, celebrations of this size are a challenge in themselves to begin with. The custom of eating almost without a break for a whole day (brunch, lunch, cake, dinner and Easter sweets in between) contradicts the idea of leaving 4 to 5 hours between meals in order to bring the body into ketosis. On top of that, the dishes on offer often do not match a Foodpunk style diet with 30, 50 or 100g of carbohydrates a day.

Of course it is absolutely fine to allow yourself deliberate exceptions. There are, however, very different types of people here. One person is satisfied after one or two chocolate eggs and looks forward to a Foodpunk style dinner. Another could not be separated from the table even by a “magnitude 7 earthquake” and thinks “now or never”. Both are fine, and we do not want to tell anyone off. But the experience of many Foodpunks shows that shovelling it all in tends to end in stomach ache rather than in a happy feeling of enjoyment. The magic word here is: balance. The goal: to enjoy the Easter holidays and afterwards to be able to carry on full of energy. So do not be too strict with yourself, but not too relaxed either.

The festive mood, eating in company and the atmosphere in general all mean that it becomes harder and harder to say “no”. And once the spell is broken, you might as well enjoy it properly, right? Especially if you are relatively new to Foodpunk mode, the danger of slipping back into old patterns is high. You sit at the table and no longer notice how much you are actually eating. There is good protein there too, from the Easter lamb for example, and plenty of vegetables, but the right combination of amounts and above all a low level of carbohydrates are quickly lost without scales. Afterwards you no longer feel so good. Somehow tired, perhaps a bit bloated as well, and all you really want to do is lie down. A new word for this is “food coma”. Heard of it? Especially after several days of cheat celebrations you feel this sluggishness, lack of energy and physical discomfort. It is hard to find your way back into your usual rhythm and to really perform well. But where does it actually come from?

With a food coma, carbohydrates are the culprit, and by the way that also applies to people who do not eat low carb. Carbs from white flour and the products made from it in particular cause the body to retain more water. After a cheat day the scales often show up to 2kg more. You feel unwell and bloated. What has happened there?
Carbohydrates are broken down by the body into glucose molecules. These are then channelled into the body’s cells by the peptide hormone insulin and converted directly into energy there. The glucose in the cells does, however, also encourage inflammation. (You can find more on this in our article The anti-inflammatory effect of a ketogenic diet.) Existing pain triggered by inflammation can therefore get worse after a boisterous Easter celebration. The same applies to other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome. What is more, the short term rise in blood sugar caused by eating carbohydrates is followed by a low once the insulin has taken it into the cells. You feel tired. #foodkoma

Easter really can be celebrated with plenty of enjoyment as a Foodpunk too. Those who already know the advantages of the Foodpunk way of eating, such as feeling more awake and more active, sleeping better and simply having a great deal of energy, are understandably worried about falling back into old patterns and perhaps not finding their way back. Nobody wants to lose the positive effects they have worked so hard for either. The best thing, of course, is if you have the chance to offer a low carb or keto festive meal to everyone at the Easter table. An additional side dish richer in carbohydrates can be put alongside as an option for carb lovers. After all, you want to get people excited about a Foodpunk style diet, not force anything on them. You will find an idea for an Easter menu à la Foodpunk on our blog.

If you are invited as a guest, in most cases you can contribute something to the menu yourself and so smuggle in a low carb dish. Want to bet that nobody notices the difference? A Foodpunk style chocolate Easter bunny or homemade chocolate eggs are a good idea too, so that you can enjoy the Easter menu full of flavour but without regret.

First “scan” the buffet table for dishes that fit low carb or keto. You should be careful with sauces. Most of them consist of carbohydrates and poor quality fats. It is worth asking what exactly is in them. If that is not possible: better leave them out. A good piece of protein such as meat or fish can go straight onto the plate. The traditional protein source of the day is of course: Easter eggs! After that you can look more closely at the vegetables and salads. With vegetables you can help yourself generously. You will find information on how many carbohydrates are in which vegetable, and which ones to eat more of and which ones less, in our Foodpunk blog article “This is how many vegetables the keto diet really contains!“. With a ketogenic diet, potatoes, carrots and tuber or root vegetables in general should take up less space on the plate. Instead it can be filled with plenty of green leafy vegetables. They have a lot of volume and few carbohydrates with it. Perfect as a side dish for anyone who is hungry, because the volume creates satiety without teasing your cravings. As a fat component it makes sense to use an extra portion of olive oil or to finish off the vegetables or the meat with a knob of butter. Towards the summer especially, herb butter is usually part of the buffet, and it feels as though it goes with EVERYTHING! A good source of fat to go is macadamia nuts. Just pack them and bring them along. Combined with the meal, a handful of them covers a large part of your fat requirement.

We have gathered a few tips so that you can celebrate the holidays with plenty of enjoyment but without regret, which means you can then get going again as a Foodpunk, full of energy.

• Pay attention to quality: if you really cannot resist, try to go for high quality products that are as rich in nutrients as possible. Choose dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, for example.
• Limit portions and enjoy consciously: it is a holiday and you want to treat yourself, but you also do not want to fall back into old patterns. In that case allow yourself a little of the foods you really want to eat. Taste them as consciously as you possibly can and celebrate this exception. One thing is very important, though: Easter is only ONE holiday. So do not build up a stock of Easter sweets, because the argument “I was given them on the exception day and they have to go” is a good try, but does it bring you closer to your goal? Probably not. If there is still something in the house after Easter, think about giving it away. The neighbours’ children will be delighted.
• There is more than just chocolate: people like to give their loved ones chocolates at Easter. That is well meant, but with a nutrition plan and ambitious goals they lead to unnecessary temptation. So it is best to say in advance that you would be happier with flowers or some other small gift. How about Marina’s new book, for example, or our lower carb chocolates?
• Prepare alternatives: bring your own chocolates and enjoy them while the others eat their shop bought chocolate eggs. That way you are part of the celebration without having to throw your goals overboard.
• Listen to your own feeling of fullness: eat slowly and pay close attention to what is going on inside you. Your body knows all by itself when you have eaten enough.
• Go for a walk together: if you only sit indoors, you quickly eat more than you actually planned. It is better to go for a walk in between. Afterwards you will feel better straight away, guaranteed!
• Keep your goals in view: exceptions now and then for a special occasion definitely do not undo all the successes of the previous weeks. It is perfectly fine to treat yourself deliberately once in a while. If the temptation to keep on cheating becomes too great, remind yourself which goal you are pursuing. Why do you want to reach this goal? How much better will your life be once you have reached it? Carry on! Stay motivated and give your best every day, you can do this!

After telling you so often in this article to bring your own dish to the Easter buffet, we naturally also have a few suggestions for WHAT you could bring.

Recipes from the Foodpunk blog

• Paleo Easter breakfast with baby chard
• Low carb eggs Benedict on Bread Fit
• Low carb Easter lamb, paleo and gluten free
• Chocolatey low carb Easter chocolates
• Delicious 3 course Foodpunk menu for Easter
• Make your own white chocolate
• French lemon tart
• White chocolate macadamia blondie
• Bavarian cream à la Foodpunk
• Keto pizzettis with Parma ham
• Keto Foodpunk wraps
• Low carb carrot cake
• Keto caramel toffees
• Moist lemon muffins with poppy seeds and chia
• Creamy low carb carrot soup
• Homemade hollandaise sauce
• Carrot muffins with a cream cheese topping
• Shortcrust tartlets with a fruit topping and vanilla custard

Recipes from the Foodpunk app

• Salmon ceviche with grapefruit
• Lamb loin with salsa verde and root vegetables
• Eggs Benedict with green asparagus
• Cold asparagus soup with egg
• Asparagus and rhubarb ragout with salmon
• Shoulder of lamb with rhubarb
• Trout on a lukewarm wild garlic salad
• Tiramisu cream
• Roast pork with oven roasted vegetables
• Raspberry pavlova or berry and mango pavlova
• Bee sting cake pudding
• Asparagus and bread salad with egg
• Salmon and asparagus parcels