Category Archives: Almonds on keto
Day 80: Anyone else like cream cheese?
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: tomorrow!
I started work at 8 a.m. Another crazy day at work, another missed breakfast.
At noon, Rick took me to get coney dogs at the local diner. I asked for them without buns, and all was well.
Around 4, I ate the usual handful of almonds.
At 7:30 p.m., I left work tired and hungry. Thankfully, I had a serving of Indian butter chicken and cauliflower rice left over.
Around 9 p.m, I wanted a little snack. I still had about 8 carbs left. I ate 3 oz of cream cheese. Odd, I know, but delicious.
As a side note, I found this about the benefits of eating cream cheese. Okay, it was a site for pregnant women, but the bennies still hold true for the rest of us.
Benefits of cream cheeses:
Cream cheeses, unlike other unsafe cheeses are made from pasteurized milk which makes it safe to eat.- They are a good source of protein.
- Calcium and phosphorous content of cream cheeses can be trusted highly in preventing bone decalcification.
- The carbohydrate content of cream cheeses is in a minimum extent so would not add on weight to your body.
- They have considerable amount of vitamin A.
I was still well under carb count (and calorie count) for the day. I just hope I don’t UNDER do it and trigger starvation mode (if it even exists!).
Day 79: Surviving the celebration lunch at work
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Sat., March 31st
Yesterday was our celebration day at work. Our first shipment of the new engineering textbook we’ve been working on for more than a year was due. As it happens, the shipment didn’t come in on time; however, lunch went on as planned.
I ate a yogurt for breakfast, since lunch was at noon and I wanted to be hungry enough to enjoy it.
We went to Hayden’s, which is one of my favorite area restaurants. I hadn’t been there since my birthday last November, which was before keto.
The menu offered a few keto-friendly sandwich and entree choices. The appetizers were not anything that I could eat. The boss ordered some fried mozarella balls. I tried one and it didn’t have a lot of breading, so I ate 2 more. I’ll have fun trying to figure out the carb count on those.
I opted for the blue cheese, bacon, balsamic burger. It came open-faced and I moved the bun to my bread plate, but ate the burger using the bottom bun as a sort of bed. The bacon was nice and crisp and the burger was well cooked. It was a great low-carb choice.
Dessert. Hmm. Since it was a celebration, the boss told us to select whatever we wanted. There DEFINITELY wasn’t a good choice on the menu. Cheesecake, ice cream, waffles, carbs, carbs, carbs. I was a little tempted to call it a cheat day and order the deep fried Oreos, but nah. If I’m going to have a cheat day, it’s going to be on my own terms with at least 2 of my favorite forbidden meals.
My coworker Jim and I are also on the Monday night trivia team. We often share what we order. He piles his jalapenos on my plate, and I give him extras of things I don’t like. He very graciously gave me a small bite of his cheesecake. It was okay. No big temptation and crisis averted. Here’s a lovely picture of what I DIDN’T eat.
I wonder if I would eat a deep-fried Oreo on a cheat day? Maybe, maybe not.
I worked until 6:30, and I became a little hungry by 5. I ate a handful of almonds.
Back home after work, I did a few chores, then thawed and cooked some chicken tenders in Indian butter chicken sauce. I put it over the usual cauliflower “rice” and topped the dish with sour cream. YUMMMMMY. I followed it with a bowl of keto-friendly chocolate mousse.
Day 74: Breaking the weight barrier – 21 pounds lost; many more to go
Lost: 3.5 pounds Total weight loss: 21 pounds
EUREKA!
I broke the 20 pound weight loss threshold. Since I’m just over ten weeks into it, that averages 2 pounds a week. I can live with ~10 pound loss every month or so. In fact, as Rick always says, no matter how fast or slow I lose, I’m going in the right direction.
I’m debating another cheat day tomorrow. We’ll see.
I had the day off work, but it was a busy day.
We had to be at Rick’s dentist appointment by 8:15, then rushed from there to the memorial service for a dear friend. On the way, we stopped at 7-11, where I picked up a small cheese packet and a sausage biscuit. I gave Rick the biscuit.
After the service, we were invited to a lunch buffet. I put together a salad, then chose some cooked cauliflower and broccoli, a chicken breast, and some roast beef au jus.
I had to talk myself past the pasta salads. They have always appealed to me, and I was thinking, hey, it was an emotionally tough morning, just eat what you want. Then, I thought, no, I WANT to make this plan work, and once I ate the food on my plate, I wouldn’t crave the salads anymore. Amazingly, the chocolate mousse and other desserts didn’t affect me as much.
At 5, the family met in the activity room at the nursing home for my dad’s birthday party. Brandon made a delicious spinach and artichoke dip so we’d have a low carb option. I ignored the pizza and ate the dip, at first with a bit of pita bread, then just with a fork. I ignored the chocolate bumpy cake.
After the party, we went for an unplanned movie outing. I bought a water ($3.50!). I was pretty hungry when I got home, because I hadn’t eaten much all day. I ate some crab dip on 3 pita chips (6 carbs). It took restraint, but the dip was really good and I only needed 3 chips to scoop up a couple of tablespoonsful.
Day 73: The flu puts me way under my daily carb count
Weight loss to date: 17.5
I woke up feeling a little under the weather and wasn’t up to eating eggs. I ate a low carb yogurt instead.
By lunchtime I was quite hungry and went to Checkers for a baconzilla. I’m getting very adept at eating burgers in the bun by sliding the burger forward bite by and leaving the bun behind.
After work I dropped by to see my dad. I was really tired and just wanted to get home and nap. One home, I realized I had a fever and headed right to bed. I woke up for a little while at 9 pm and the only food that appealed to me was cream cheese! I ate about 3 ounces and went back to bed with a raging fever.
Fortunately, I woke up feeling fine. That was the fastest flu on record.
Day 72: An evening outside at the bar
Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th
Yesterday started as usual with eggs/sausage for breakfast.
Rick and I were planning to go out to lunch. The weather has been unseasonably beautiful and I have enjoyed leaving my cubicle for at least a half hour in the sunshine. However, at the last minute, he decided to go over to the rental house and take down the fence. We had only put it up on one side of the yard and the paint job we started didn’t look very good. To be fair, since it’s a corner house, it wasn’t noticeable that there was only a half fenced-in yard, but Rick wanted it gone.
I was on my own, so I ate some almonds and a low-carb yogurt.
When quitting time came around, I was hungry and he was tired. We both wanted to have a drink somewhere with outdoor seating, so we went to a local bar not far from work: U.S.12.
I had 2 no-carb vodka and Diet Cokes. There was a new Mexican Restaurant installed in the bar, so we could choose from that or the usual bar menu. I was tempted, but the fajitas were pretty expensive, and everything else had chips, beans, or tortillas as part of the meal.
The regular menu had steak bites as an appetizer choice. They were cooked with mushrooms, and one of the choices for sauce was teriyaki. I checked out the carb count on myfitnesspal Iphone app….2 grams of carbs per tablespoon, so I ordered that.
YUM. The mushrooms, the tender steak, and the teriyaki were a great combination. I ate one corner of the pita bread that accompanied the meal, but it did nothing for me. It was a perfect evening: great food, alcohol, and my man.
Day 71: Taking stock of the past 10 weeks
Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th
I realized last night that I’m really getting the hang of this low-carb diet. It was around 10 pm, and I was done eating for the day. It occurred to me that I hadn’t entered any of my meals into the myfitnesspal.com website. I usually do it as the day progresses, so I can evaluate how many grams of carbs I have left.
I entered all the meals for the day at once, and, lo and behold, I was just about spot on for a carb count. I guess I can estimate what I’m eating pretty well at this point. More than two months into the plan, I think I’ve got it!
It also occurred to me that it’s been a very long time since I…
- Ate between meals
- Had cake, cookies, pies, or donuts
- Ate bread, bagels, buns
- Ate ice cream
- Ate pasta
- Had pizza with crust or french fries
It’s been 71 days, in fact.
I’ve found a nice pancake substitute, low carb tortillas, and pasta, rice, and potato substitutes (usually consisting of cauliflower). I’ve eaten a couple of squares of 70% chocolate. I’ve also had maybe 4 slices of low-carb bread.
This is definitely an big life change for me. And it has not been difficult at all, in terms of cravings. It has been more difficult to saunter into any restaurant or deli and easily order a meal. It takes some calculations and substitutions, but it isn’t too onerous.
And, as usual, I have to give a big shout out to Rick, who is keeping the house stocked with low-carb food items, cooking lots of burgers and chicken, and meeting me for lunches that help take the monotony out of having a salad at work every day.
Back to the food diary:
Yesterday began with eggs/sausage.
I skipped lunch AGAIN. The work deadlines keep me so busy (and I’m so OCD) that I forget to eat. I grabbed a handful of almonds at noon.
When I got home from work at 6:30, I ate the tops off of two leftover pieces of Albert’s pizza. I threw some eggs on the stove to boil, and headed to my office to work on web company issues. Then I needed to work on Dad’s affairs, again. I didn’t finish until 9 pm. I grabbed a vodka and Diet Coke and met Rick out on the deck.
While I was in my office, Rick barbecued some chicken. I cut up a couple of ounces and put it in 2 Mama Lupe’s tortillas with some cheese, salsa, and onion. They were great!
Oh, and I quickly peeled the hardboiled eggs and made up a dozen deviled eggs so I’d have snacks on hand. I ate about 4 of those as a pseudo dessert.
Day 70: Back to work and a lovely evening
Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th
Again, I missed breakfast. I took my egg/sausage meal with me to work, but didn’t have time to heat it. I decided to have a yogurt instead, but didn’t have time to eat that and forgot about it.
Around noon, I had a handful of almonds and I called Rick to ask him to meet me for lunch. He came up around 2 and we went to Checkers where I feasted on a Baconzilla.
After work, we went to see my dad at the nursing home. He was himself and it was a great visit out in the courtyard, so I called Marsha and the family came up to join us. We stayed until about 8 pm, then set off for dinner.
We had planned to visit for only a little while, then go find an outdoor cafe. Instead, we went up to trivia at Albert’s so I could deliver the gift card we won last week, so the team could pay for their meal. Rick and I ate pizza out on the patio. I, of course, didn’t eat the crust. I had a vodka and Diet Coke to end our beautiful, relaxing evening.
Day 67: Seeing progress–a good weigh day
Today’s weight loss: 2.5 pounds; total weight loss: 17.5
I was relieved and happy to see the numbers starting to go down for a change. It still seems like slow progress, but as Rick says, it’s going in the right direction.
TGIF. I worked four 10-hr days Monday thru Thursday, so my weekend began yesterday. Rick and I started our day at the Toast diner. I tried a 3-cheese mushroom omelet with a side order of crispy bacon, and it was very tasty. I forgot how much I used to enjoy mushrooms with my eggs.
Around noon, we worked on cleaning out the garage and I skipped lunch. After going to the funeral home to see a coworker whose mother passed away, I was tired and hungry and didn’t feel like doing much, including tiling the floor as I had originally planned. We stopped to get some groceries then headed home.
I heated up 2 Beddar Cheddars with a side of almonds and had a quick nap.
I didn’t have much for dinner: some microwaved cheese chips with guacamole.
A few hours later, I had quite a few carbs left so I made 2 pieces of low carb toast with almond butter.
Day 66: Chili dogs at the diner
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat, Mar 17th
Now that our textbook is off to the printer, the pressure is off a bit. However, now it’s time to get our software finished. I was running late in the morning, plus we were out of breakfast sausage, so I grabbed a yogurt.
Around 11, I was getting hungry, but Rick was out delivering a client’s newsletter, and I wanted to wait for him to finish and meet me for lunch. We didn’t get to the diner until around 2 pm. I ordered 2 chili dogs. I never bother asking restaurants to remove the bun, since that always seems to get complicated (don’t know why). The buns did make nice little beds to hold my dogs and chili. I treated myself to a Diet Coke as well. I knew it would be a long day and I wasn’t getting off work until 7 pm.
Once I finally arrived home, I heated up some Indian butter chicken and the rest of the cauliflower from the fridge. Even after dinner and mousse, I still had carbs left again. I have to plan better.
One discovery I forgot to blog about was in the “healthy” isle at Kroger. In the refrigerated section where they keep the soy milk, I found hummus that had only ONE net gram of carbs per 2 tablespoons. …and it was on sale! I microwaved little piles of cheese to make some handy little crackers. The whole snack was only the amount of carbs in the hummus, because the cheese was zero.
Day 65: Love that Indian food
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat, Mar 17th
I got to work at 8 and never had time for breakfast. To hold me over until my late lunch date, I had a handful of almonds.
It was a beautiful sunny day, so Rick and I decided to meet for lunch and Checkers and eat outside. It’s only a little ways from work, so I walked down to meet him and we had a nice time outdoors for a bit.
I ordered a Baconzilla with mayo and tossed away the bun. 
I worked until 6:30, then met my niece Marsha at the nursing home to visit my dad. The visit didn’t go too well, he was depressed and not too aware of what was going on. I didn’t get home until 8.
Rick had thawed some chicken tenders for me, so I cut them into pieces and made some Indian butter chicken from the convenient package mix. I chopped up a half head of leftover cauliflower and micro’d it a couple of minutes to use as the rice base. I didn’t eat dinner until 10 pm, so I ate very little. I followed it with some chocolate mousse.
I know it was way too late to eat, but I usually don’t get to bed until after 1 a.m., so it’s probably the equivalent of most people eating dinner at 6, then going to bed by 9 or 10 p.m.
I did my day’s calculations and was way under on the carbs again. I also drank very little water. Time to get back on track with both of those goals today.