What is the best advice you could share for a person getting ready to start Keto?

Best way to make this transition?

Foods/Snacks to have on hand?

Exercise or no?

Don't expect instant results. To become truly keto-adapted where your body burns fat primarily for fuel, you have to do this for 4 weeks and likely more. Your initial loss is water and it will be a big loss because you're depleting glycogen which is composed in part by water. Don't expect to have big losses every week. You'll set yourself up for disappointment. As long as the general trend is downward, you're fine.

You may not be up to exercising the first week or second week. Don't do it until you feel up to it. I didn't feel like exercising the first week. I had headaches and I was tired a lot. I can tell you exactly when I depleted glycogen. I woke up feeling better than before and the headaches were gone. Then I had energy to exercise. Until then it was like my body didn't know from where to get energy.

Snacks to have on hand - nuts (macadamia, almonds, or something else if you prefer), string cheese, hard boiled eggs, slices of ham, fat bombs (Google it or search it here), Bullet Proof Coffee supplies if you drink coffee (butter, heavy whipping cream, virgin coconut oil). Stick to eating real whole foods. Meal replacements/bars/shakes even if they are low-carb aren't ideal. Stick to meat, eggs, fish, nuts, vegetables and healthy oils.

If you fall back down, pick yourself up and keep going.

Make sure you take a good vitamin. Make sure you're taking a supplement with potassium and magnesium. If you feel constipated, take some magnesium citrate. You can find these over the counter at most stores.

Make sure you're eating more fat than protein.

Make sure you're eating more fat than protein.

More fat calories, not grams, than protein calories.

I started off cutting out bread, potatoes, and rice but still ate a bunch of fruit and than transitioned to keto where i had no fruit and limited my carbs to under 50 g. I think I had an easier transition than going cold turkey. I would definitely suggest starting out with a higer amount of carbs and than scaling back. Also i would stock up on some keto friendly foods as well as google some recipes.

Also people react differently to keto. I know some people said that you shouldn't have jello or diet sodas because that might throw you out of ketosis but I found that not to be true. Also people say it takes 4 to 8 weeks to get fully adapted but it may not take that long. So its really trial and error.

People react differently to it but you may feel sick initially but it will get easier.

I was wondering about soda, what type of effect it would have! I don't drink it often but a couple times a month it is appealing!

This week I think will be a bit of a transition week for me. I'm going to start heading the right direction but I don't have all my meals planned out yet and I need more quick grab items on hand. Lack of planning is where I fall apart.

I'm reading different opinions about dairy. Have many of you experienced problems keeping string cheese, cottage cheese or Greek yogurt in your menus?

I didn't drink diet soda, so I don't know about the impact.

I eat string cheese. It doesn't seem to affect my ketosis. I have about two pieces for the day.