No one really associates barbecue with healthy eating, but a famous barbecue pit master says he was able to drop around 100 pounds without giving up the brisket, pulled pork and sausages he’s famous for.
Even though he didn’t start his new diet with the intention of coming out with yet another cookbook, Myron Mixon is spreading the word of keto after losing close to 100 pounds over the last couple of years.
His new book, “Keto BBQ: Real BBQ for a healthy lifestyle” goes on sale May 11.
“My doc told me in 2018 to lose some weight because of my knee joints, stuff like that,” Mixon said. “He said you ought to be able to do this for BBQ.”
That led him to start looking at his recipes. With the keto diet, proteins, as well as things like heavy cream, butter and mayonnaise are all acceptable. Breads and desserts are not, so that just meant instead of a pulled pork sandwich, you just might eat a helping of pulled pork. Instead of mac and cheese on the side, Brussels sprouts or asparagus.
After the first week, none of that was a problem.
“If you can drop the bun and put it on a keto bowl, or just eat the pulled pork by itself, just drop the bread,” he said. “Some of us can’t drop the bread. It’s hard. That was the only thing my first week of it — I missed the bread. Then after I got past it, I was good.”
The biggest change for Mixon came in the seasonings and rubs he used to flavor the meat. But once he found a no calorie, no sugar substitute, even that was easy.
“Took the sugars out and added in the monk fruit extract,” explained Mixon, who now sells keto-friendly rubs with no carbs and no MSG, to go with keto-friendly bowls that are on the menu at his restaurant in Old Town Alexandria.
“It was easy for me. The barbecue keto for those of us that really love barbecue, or love meats in general, this is a diet that you can sustain. That you can make happen.”
Since starting the diet, Mixon says he went from around 330 to 340 pounds down to around 240 to 250.
He plans to stay around there, joking that if he lost any more weight it would be hard to sell barbecue because no one will trust a pit master who looks too skinny and sick. But he said now he moves better, and feels better, than when he was bigger.
“The weight just fell off and I said ‘you know what? There’s some other folks that I know that love barbecue that could do this,'” said Mixon.
“It ain’t about sticking to it 100%. You’ve got to treat yourself. But you’ve got to treat yourself in a way where ‘I’m going to do this tonight and get right back on it tomorrow.'”
