Category Archives: Bacon on keto
Day 322: Unplanned Buffalo chicken salad
Total weight loss: 39 1/2 pounds
I cooked 3 scrambled eggs for breakfast and nukes some pre-made bacon. It was quick and I had time to relax before work, although I missed the waitress pampering me.
I ate 2 beddar cheddars and some almonds for lunch in the late afternoon.
After work, we were planning to have Cincinnati chili, but Rick didn’t start cooking the sauce early enough. He was out working on cleaning out the garage and forgot. Oh well. It was almost six, and we made the executive decision to grab something quick. We pass Big Boy on our route, so we went there. I do love that buffalo chicken salad. I have to admit, the time I goofed and ordered it with the regular chicken tenders, it was tastier. However, the grilled chicken is much lower carb and it is good as well.
I ate an Adkins chocolate coconut bar for dessert. Oh, and I drank a glass of red wine. Still on track.
We eat out a lot. It’s just a necessary part of our lifestyle – and something we enjoy. Combining a full-time job and with owning a small business means we are working almost around the clock. After eating at Big Boy, I spent about 3 hours on the computer working on client projects and bookkeeping for our business. Having dinner out is a nice treat between the day job and the evening work.
That said, it really is fantastic that there are so many delicious low carb options in so many restaurants. And if it’there aren’t readily apparent options, there are always choices that come with bun, potato, or tortilla that can be substituted for something better. If that fails, remove and toss the offending carby product.
A coney dog with no bun, a burrito with no tortilla, a burger with no bun, spaghetti squash instead of pasta, cauliflower instead of potatoes – all these options have become second nature to me by day 322. I can do this. Once the weight is off, I can also maintain. Carbs are not a necessary part of my diet. I just need to remind myself of this every now and then. Here’s to “re-losing” that 2 pounds I gained over the past month.
Day 321: Monday trivia and a cheat cupcake
Total weight loss: 39 1/2 pounds
We started our week at the diner. We’ve pledged to only go 2 times a week, and I think Monday morning is the perfect day to start.
I had the omelet and bacon.
For lunch, I heated 2 beddar cheddars at work. In the late afternoon, I ate some almonds.
Dinner was at Albert’s for trivia. I have to say, their chicken club salad is one of the best salads in town. In fact, my trivia team and I agree that ALL their food is really really good. The salad is chock full of ingredients: arugula, cheese, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, really good “real” bacon bits hot off the grill, and of course, the grilled chicken. I gave away my tomatoes and cukes and it still took me about 45 minutes to eat the salad. I’ll take a picture of it next week.
I drink about 4 glasses of water while I’m at trivia. For one thing, although the food is delicious and well cooked, the pop leaves something to be desires. Flat and tasteless. So, since I’m always trying to drink plenty of water, I opt for that in most restaurants in the evening, especially if I start the day at a diner and have pop for breakfast. I really am trying to cut down, even if I only drink diet cola. I just know it isn’t healthy, even tho low carb.
There were 2 birthdays being celebrated last night. I was offered 2 cupcakes, and I caved on the second offer. I ate it. It’s over. ‘Nuff said.
Day 320: Dinner guests and Jet’s pizza
Total weight loss: 39 1/2 pounds
Sunday morning, I made an omelet and some of that precooked quick-zap microwave bacon. I enjoyed my NYT puzzle and had a cozy meal in my pj’s.
After breakfast, I unexpectedly fell asleep in my chair. I’m still not quite recovered from the respiratory ailment and I was really tired. Rick convinced me to go back to bed even though I’d only been up for 2 hours! I did, and I had a great sleep. When I got up, I sat in my recliner dozing while he cleaned the house. What a treat!
Rick’s son George, wife Beccy and our granddaughter Danielle were coming by to let Rick take pics of Danielle with his new camera. After a couple hours of visiting, we decided to get a pizza. I hadn’t been up very much during the day, so I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. I was hoping I would have the will power to avoid the pizza crust.
I did. We ordered Jet’s pizza, and it had a nice thick topping that slid easily off the crust. Some pizzas, like Buddy’s for example, are just too difficult and frustrating to eat sans crust. The crust is almost the central point of a Buddy’s pizza and eating only the topping leaves me feeling dissatisfied.
The Jet’s pizza topping were filling and tasted great. George and I shared one with pepperoni, spicy pepperoni, jalapenos, Italian sausage, and something I can’t remember. I also ordered naked boneless wings so the others could add bbq sauce, and I could eat mine with low carb buffalo sauce.
At the end of the meal, I made low carb chocolate mousse.
The crazy thing is, before going to bed I was disappointed that I had gone off and had an unplanned cheat meal. I just had a bad weigh in, what was wrong with me? Then I had to laugh when I realized I had eaten okay for the whole day. I didn’t eat crust, I didn’t eat boneless wings with coating or bbq sauce, and I had stayed well under my carbs. You know it’s a good meal for keto when you think you went off. Jet’s pizza is going on my list of good keto options.
Day 318: Mongolian Barbecue inspires
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
After the usual breakfast at the diner, I headed off to work. I only needed to work until 1:30 because I worked late a couple of days this week. Rick called and offered to take me to Bonefish Grill for lunch to make up for a “bad vacation weekend” as he called it. It’s true, Thanksgiving Day/birthday was great fun, but driving up north and back in two days, followed by an upper respiratory ailment did make for a short and awful vacation.
But I digress. We stopped by the Apple store to pick up a new battery for my Macbook, then headed to Bonefish Grill. We were both very hungry since breakfast was at 7:30 am. I am not a fish lover, but I do really really like their shrimp tacos. Unfortunately, the sign on the door said they opened at 4!
What to do? Well, if you read the title of the blog, you know the answer. Brandon has been telling me that Mongolian Barbecue is a great place to eat on keto, since they now labeled all their sauces with nutritional content plus offer lettuce for wraps in place of tortillas. We decided to check it out.
I loaded up my bowl with chicken, shrimp, onion slices, and mushrooms. Brandon recommended the Asian black bean sauce. I know beans have carbs, but the label says 1 gram of carbs per ounce. Sounded good to me! I added a bit of garlic and waited for the griller to do his work.
It was very very very good. It was one of my favorite keto dinners to date! Rick liked his alot too. I went for seconds, and didn’t change a thing. It was spicy, nutritious, and delicious. We didn’t take the waiter up on the offer to take a full dish home in a carryout container for only $2.49. I was full and it didn’t appeal to me, but the next day, I rued that decision. It would have made a cheap and delicious leftover meal on Saturday at home. Oh well. Next time.
I do have to say, the only spoiler was trying to roll up a lettuce wrap around a portion of my meal. It was just too soggy to handle. I ate the meal with a fork and ignored the lettuce altogether. I also ignored the bowl of rice. I know it is deceivingly delicious looking. In reality, I didn’t need it as filler to detract from my flavorful dish.
All in all, I would say this is in my top five low carb keto meal choices when eating out. In fact, if I could find that Asian black bean sauce, I would cook this at home in our wok at least once a week. So far, I have scoured Amazon.com and other sites, but many of them have similar looking sauces without any nutritional info. I’ll keep searching.
Day 317: Family trivia night and some boring food
Total weight loss: 41 1/2
Wow. My fingers slipped on the keyboard, and I accidentally posted 51 instead of 41. I can’t wait to see that number. I have been stuck at this weight for months. Of course, that’s bad AND good. I still have more than 40 pounds off. That’s a bit of success for me.
Yesterday started at the diner, AGAIN. We really will stop doing this, but after some long busy and broke months, we are relishing the free time and the extra cash. Pampering ourselves feels good. And my breakfast is always very low carb.
Sooo, enough rationalizing…we ate at the diner, and I had the omelet and bacon. For lunch, I heated up two better cheddars in the late afternoon. My niece picked me up from work at 6:30 and we headed straight to the bar/grill for trivia at 7. I was really hungry. I hadn’t eaten much and drank a bit of water to hold me over.
I ordered a grilled chicken salad. I had looked at the menu online before going to this new venue. It always pays to be prepared. The salad was extremely boring. Not enough GOOD lettuce (I really having iceberg lettuce in a salad) and there wasn’t much cheese or anything else besides grilled chicken. I made it through the day on keto, but didn’t have very inspiring meals. Let’s hope it gets better tomorrow.
Day 315: Back to work after the long holiday weekend
Total weight loss: 41 pounds? (I haven’t weighed in weeks – Saturday is D-Day)
I still felt a bit under the weather, but it was time to get back to work. I only have a week of vacation left, and I don’t want to waste it lolling about the house in the winter. I foresee a beach in my future.
Since I had to make the sacrifice of getting out of bed and all, we treated ourselves to breakfast at the diner. I had the onion and cheese omelet. I keep reading that eating the same foods as a habit for each meal is good for you. I hope so, because I do that alot.
Lunch at work was a tortilla with some shredded cheese and a dab of cream cheese. Low-carb tortillas are a pretty good way to stay on keto yet still feel like I’m having my traditional Mexican food. Quick, easy, comfort food, all rolled up in one gooey cheesy tortilla. YUM.
I had some almonds for a late afternoon snack.
Dinner was the chicken with artichoke that I bought from Costco. (I love Costco!) It takes 6 minutes and tastes great with some quick caulitatoes. I know processed food isn’t good for you, but I worked all day, I was tired, and it took less than 10 minutes to have a nice warm meal. So sue me.
Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate (topped with 2 squirts of Reddiwhip! – 1 gram of carbs per 2 tbsp).
Day 313: Back on track
I took a little break from blogging. Did you really want details of birthday celebrations, Thanksgiving feasts, car trips that involved fast food WITH buns? (5 hours up north on Friday; 5 hours back on Saturday – I just gave up fighting the carbs)
HOWEVER, I am back on track. Again, this prolonged no-carb trek has at least provided me with consistency and habits that I (hopefully) won’t lose. I go off, have a cheat meal, climb back on. I will have my day of reckoning soon (weigh day), but have made the decision not to weigh until I feel like myself again. Eating carbs sure has a bloating effect. My pants still fit, but not quite as loosely as before. At least I stayed in this lower size.
Sooo, after all the bad carb days of celebration and travel, I was finally back to a “normal” Sunday at home. I ate a home-made cheese and onion omelet with a few pieces of bacon for breakfast. Lunch was a few almonds and some low-carb tortilla with cheese.
For dinner, I decided to make a batch of low-carb taco soup again. It was really good the first time, and I love having things prepped and ready for the week ahead. I did forget an ingredient, but it was pretty good without the heavy cream.
Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate.
I’m baaaaaack!
Day 298: Hidden carbs sabotage my meal
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Yesterday was Friday. We started the morning at the diner, where I had my usual: cheese and onion omelet with a side of bacon. I was very happy it was Friday, but I knew I had a long day at work ahead of me. Breakfast out was my “pre-treat” to myself.
For lunch, I ate 2 Beddar Cheddars. I had almonds later for a snack.
While I was working, Rick was also working on websites and newsletters. In the afternoon, he cooked up some chicken fajitas and stopped by the grocery store for some low carb tortillas, so I could eat right after getting off work.
I don’t know what I would do without his support. He is supposedly “retired,” but each day is spent working on our web and print design business. He also took care of a million details when closing the house we sold, does the banking, grocery shopping, and most of the cooking. I might cook something twice a week. Anyway, he has been behind me 100% and goes out of his way to buy low carb foods and find me low carb dinner ideas. My husband is one in a million!
So, back to the food diary. I ate 2 servings of the fajitas, and topped them both with avocado slices and sour cream. They were delicious and low carb. The tortillas are just sliced up frozen chicken tenders with a spicy marinade from a bottle. He uses all different kinds, like Lawry’s. Oh my. I just looked at the carb count on the marinade. It says one serving is 4 grams of carbs. Well, that sounds dandy, until I read the details: the bottle contains 24 servings!!! Rick says he uses about a half a bottle, which makes 4 servings when combined with chicken and cut up peppers and onions. That means 12 servings x 4 grams of carbs = 48 total, or 24 grams of carbs if I eat 2 servings, as I did last night. That one meal puts me over carb count for the whole day. Sigh. I guess I’ll have to find some other seasoning for this meal.
There have been a few other incidents like this, where I think I’m eating something just fine, but discover later that the meal was overflowing with carbs. The Taco Bell hot sauce in a packet that Rick adds to my morning egg dish is fine. The Taco Bell verde sauce is not. Guess it pays to be more conscious of those hidden carbs!
Day 297: On again, off again
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Thursday started off okay. I went into work a little early, because we were going to a movie after work, and I didn’t want to work too late. I took a homemade sausage/egg/cheese bowl from Rick.
I was working pretty intently, and the next thing I knew it was 1 pm. I put 4 pieces of bacon in a low carb tortilla and warmed it up. Pretty tasty. I followed that with some almonds.
I made the mistake of not eating enough to make it through the movie. I was hungry at 5:30 and bought an order of nachos from the concession stand. It was at least an historical event from the standpoint that I didn’t eat them all! I don’t think I have ever NOT finished nachos, but there were far too many for me to eat knowing how many carbs I was ingesting. And so much for saving money by not purchasing costly concession stand treats.
Next week, I’ll be sure to eat more during the day so I’m not hungry when I get there. The plan worked well for me last week.
I completed an evening of poor decision making by eating a ham sandwich on sourdough bread. Didn’t hit the spot and was a waste of carbs.
The movie we saw was “The Flight.” I don’t want to post any spoilers, but there are a few characters with alcohol and drug issues. I can empathize. Food is still ingrained in my psyche as a means to comfort. I’m proud that I keep getting right back on the plan after small failures, but watching the addicts battle for sobriety reminded me that the keto diet is not just going to solve all my weight issues. Many of my poor decisions with food are caused by ingrained habits, wrong ideas, and emotional decisions that I’ll probably be battling for the rest of my life. And, although I’ve lost the weight a little too slowly for my own satisfaction, I’m happy that I have stayed with it this long, and that I jump back on the plan daily, instead of throwing in the towel after bad decisions.
Today, I enjoyed a pleasant, albeit poor choice of nachos for dinner, but tomorrow is a new day.
Day 292: Busy Saturday – stayed on track
Today’s weight loss: 1 pound
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Today, I did something a little different. I reweighed myself. I gained a 1/2 a pound at yesterday’s weigh in, and I wasn’t terribly upset about it. However, last night I was reading a motivational article for business owners that says one should chart small victories and I decided to reweigh this morning to see if yesterday’s gain was an anomaly. This morning I weighed one pound less than yesterday, for a net loss of 1/2 a pound since last week.
That’s more like it! Only 8.5 pounds to reach the 50 pound goal!
Saturday breakfast at the diner – cheese and onion omelet with 4 pieces of crispy bacon
We stayed inside and worked on websites all day. We have 3 currently in the works. I updated the product information for the ecart client, while Rick worked on the layout for a church and a hair salon. It was a relaxed day and we both really enjoy working on our business.
I paused for lunch around 3pm – leftover keto lasagna (yes, there is still some left! and it’s as good as ever)
Dinner – I wasn’t very hungry after my late afternoon lunch, so I just had a handful of chili lime almonds and 2 squares of 70% chocolate while watching a movie.