Monthly Archives: March 2013
Day 9: More success: eggs, kabobs, chili, and almonds
Off to a good start Monday and more of the same on Tuesday.
Breakfast was an omelet and bacon at home. I had a nice relaxing breakfast and some leftover time to blog (I have 4 of them, so it’s tough to keep up.)
Lunch: more leftover chicken/veggie kabobs.
Snack at work: Salt and vinegar almonds. I wrote about buying them in another blog. Well, my dozen cans arrived, and I was a bit disappointed. The brand I ate the other day (Gold Emblem from CVS) tasted exactly like salt and vinegar potato chips. The Blue Diamond brand only has a slight vinegar taste, plus some type of tangy chili-like flavor. They’re okay, and I like them enough to eat as a daily snack, but I much preferred the Gold Emblem brand almonds. I’ll have to see if I can find them in bulk.
After work, Rick and I went outside on the deck. It still isn’t very warm in Michigan, and I’ll bet it was in the high 30’s. I lasted about a half hour. I HATE the cold.
I drank a Michelob Ultra 2.5 grams of carb beer and 3 small pieces of andouille sausage dipped in mustard. For dinner, I reheated the Cincinnati chili from Sunday.
For dessert, I made keto-friendly chocolate mousse.
Day 8: Finally, a perfect day
And by perfect day, I mean I stayed on plan all day.
We were going to go to the diner, but we were running late, so I opted to throw together a quick omelet and microwaved bacon.
My lunch was a luxury: Rick made me some chicken kabobs (minus skewers) for me to take during the week. He is the most supportive husband a woman could ask for, especially since he actually likes bbw’s (big beautiful women). He knows I want to lose weight, and he does all he can to support me, even going out of his way to think up the plan to make chicken/veggies for my weekday lunch.
So, I reheated the chicken, didn’t have a tortilla as I had planned (too stale), and that was that for lunch.
Snack was almonds.
Dinner was at Albert’s for trivia night. I had the chicken club salad (grilled chicken), and Jim gave me one of his french fries.
Dessert was at home later: an Adkins bar.
Whew. It felt good to be back on track.
Day 7: Cincinnati Chili over spaghetti squash
It feels odd seeing “day 7” again. I started the plan more than a year ago. I actually forgot to weigh myself this morning (Freudian issues?).
I rose relatively early for a Sunday and made myself some eggs and bacon. I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at home with the NYT puzzle.
We attempted to visit our daughter Cindy at the Ram’s Horn where she works. I was already trying to plan what keto offerings I could choose from, but, unfortunately, the restaurant was packed and her station was full.
On to a new Mexican restaurant we’ve never tried. In keeping with my new “no all or nothing,” non-perfectionistic attitude, I ordered a cheese/onion enchilada and a bean enchilada. Not keto. Okay.
Back to the plan: dinner was Cincinnati Chili over spaghetti squash. We haven’t had it in awhile and it sure was good!
I have no idea if this middle of the road kind of low carb idea will work. I guess I’ll find out soon.
Day 6: Better, not great
Saturday progress:
Brunch – coneys (ate the buns and about 10 fries)
Dinner – Steak with onion cream sauce and a side of cauliflower mashed potatoes. Delicious!
That’s it. It was a short day, and I hit the hay early. Since I’ve never done “low carb” and only strict keto, I’m not even sure how many carbs were in the buns and fries, so let’s take a look:
buns = 18 grams carbs each
fries = a little bigger than shoestring, so I’ll say 15 grams to be safe
So I went over 33 grams from “non-keto” eating. And then I went right back to keto-friendly for dinner.
That’s something I’ve decided to try. I’m working on getting rid of this all or nothing attitude, where I screw up one meal, then go on a binge for the rest of the day. Instead, I ate the carbs at brunch, then went back on the keto plan for the rest of the day.
My son (who is doing very well on the keto plan) proposed an interesting idea –
He suggested that I add up my carbs by the WEEK instead of the day. That would definitely help rid the “I’m a failure” attitude that is so pervasive after one binge meal. I’ll think about trying that next week.
Day 5: The birthday party
It was Friday, and I had a good start with a keto-friendly breakfast (eggs/bacon, of course).
I was only working until 1:30, then my son/wife, niece/husband/kids and I were getting together at 3 to celebrate my dad’s birthday. My dad died last May, and his great-grandson Owen decided we should get together as usual and have a party for him. We ordered his favorite pizza, I made the cake he always baked, we watched some videos of him, and had some pictures out.
It was nice, and I decided to go for a cheat meal and just enjoy it. I had 4 pieces of pizza (with crust) and some lemon/lime refrigerator cake.
Breakfast and the party food was all I ate for the day. At home that evening, I was pretty hungry, and made the unwise decision to have a glass of wine. Maybe it was thinking about and missing my dad, but I ended up eating no more, but drinking a bottle of wine. Sigh. Bad decisions all around.
I’m pretty sure the carb count was astronomical. Let’s start over tomorrow.
Day 4: Macaroni Grill on keto and movie night success
Thursday is date night. We keep our dates economical, and we discovered that Thursday night is a great night to go to Macaroni Grill.
First of all, they have good happy hour deals between 4 and 7 pm nightly. Wine is $3 a glass, and appetizers are 2 for $9. On Thursdays, they also have a deal where you can buy a bottle of wine half off.
Here’s how to handle this while working the keto plan:
- Order bottle of Chianti ($30, half price = $15)
- Order two appetizers that are (hopefully) keto-friendly – peppadew peppers with goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette
- Order husband a $5 sausage pizza
- Ignore bread and oil
- Drink one glass of wine and follow up with multiple glasses of water
Note that BOTH plates of peppers became mine. It was like a $9 gourmet meal.
The total bill is about $30. This is not exactly the cheapest meal one could hope for, but it’s very good for Macaroni Grill, plus half a bottle of wine goes home with us for another night. In our hey dey, we had lots of money to throw around and we would rack up a $100 check at M.Grill, so this seems like a good deal.
As for the movie night success part, see my blog about salt and vinegar almonds here.
Here’s a peppadew pepper recipe. It’s basically the peppers stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. YUM.
Yummy new keto snack to add to my arsenal: salt & vinegar almonds
Rick and I went to the movies last night, and I knew enough to prepare by snacking on something before going in. Those concession stands are nothing but a big, expensive, and carb-filled enemy to the keto plan.
I love chili lime almonds and eat them daily as a snack at work. They have often saved me from pigging out on one of the fatty treats that my workplace always has on the snack table. I am a BIG lover of salt & vinegar potato chips, so when I discovered S&V almonds on Amazon a couple of months ago, I started looking for them on the local shelves. I always order in bulk from Amazon, and I didn’t want to take a chance by ordering a whole lot of something that I didn’t like very much. I needed a small taste test first.
Well, Rick found a 1.5 ounce pack at CVS, and they are as good as a handful of salt & vinegar chips. I loved them! I felt like I was indulging in some forbidden treat. Needless to say, I ordered a dozen cans from Amazon this morning. That amount should last me quite awhile, and I’ll always have a nice back-up treat when temptation calls.
Day 3: Successfully dodging the temptations at work
Yesterday was hump day. I started the day with breakfast at home: scrambled eggs with cheese and a side of bacon.
I decided to start acknowledging the successes in each day:
- There was a workshop going on at work. I circumnavigated the donut and juice table and went to my cubicle.
- On the way to the printer, I passed the Doritos, grabbed my paper and returned to my cubicle.
- After a skype meeting with the boss, I ignored the candybar bowl and grabbed a handful of almonds from the can in my drawer.
WHEW. I made it! I may “fail” quite a bit at staying on plan, but I also succeed several times a day/week/month.
I heated up my Indian butter chicken over cauliflower for lunch.
Once home, around 7pm, I relaxed with my man and a Michelob Ultra 2.5 carb beer. For a snack, I had barbecued pork rinds. I can’t believe it myself. The thought of pork rinds used to make me gag. They weren’t so bad, especially since they are zero carb. I can see this is one of those items I need to buy in bulk from Amazon. In fact, I’m a little disappointed that Amazon no longer offers 3 packs of chili lime almonds. I can only order one pack as an add-on to any $25 order. Bring back the cheap 3-packs, Amazon! I need my daily almonds.
For dinner, I heated a Costco pot roast and made 2 or 3 days’ worth of cauliflower mashed potatoes. It’s good to be prepared!
Rick and I have started watching old episodes of the Twilight Zone on Hulu. We each had an Adkins coconut bar.
Good info about ketogenic diet with food list, menus, and advice
Found an inspiring blog with some solid keto diet advice. I especially agree with this:
One of the most effective tricks during a diet is routine. Eat the same meals over and over or plan your meals ahead for the whole week. I’ve found it effective to pre-make dishes on Sunday and have them ready for the week. That makes it incredibly easy to stick to the diet because I avoid thinking which means I avoid creativity and creativity requires decision making which leads to hard choices. Just avoid the hard choices and have it all planned and some of it ready to grab and go.
The Basic Keto Diet, a page on Mike Maunder’s blog, has about everything you need to understand the ketogenic diet principle, plus a list of foods and menu plans. It’s thorough and inspiring.
Day 2: Chicken Marsala in a foil pack
So far so good.
I was running late yesterday morning. I would have gotten to work about 1/2 hour early if I skipped breakfast or stopped for a drive thru McDonald’s breakfast. Hmm. Hardly the way to get back on track. I had really been looking forward to hitting the diner with Rick, but we both hate rushing through breakfast in fewer than 25 minutes.
I hit on the remedy – carryout breakfast from the diner. It’s just a little out of the way from work, so I called ahead and ordered an omelet and bacon. We swooped by to pick it up, and I arrived at work 1/2 hour early, where I relaxed, did a crossword and ate breakfast at my desk.
It was more expensive than a breakfast at home, and a couple of dollars more than a Micky D’s breakfast, but I’ve spent money on worse things. It was a good start to a fresh keto diet day, and I’m glad I thought of it.
Lunch was late – around 2 pm, after an afternoon meeting. I ate 2 Beddar Cheddars and some almonds.
Dinner was a recipe I haven’t posted before: Rick’s chicken Marsala. He makes a quick and convenient dinner in individual foil packets that we can both easily eat as leftovers the next day – or for lunch. He usually sacrifices and leaves the leftovers for my eating pleasure, because he can eat anything, after all.
Here’s his recipe.
And the final product, with some cauliflower mashed “potatoes.”
Dessert was an Adkins coconut bar.