Cheese, glorious cheese!

Cheese, glorious cheese!

If you have to give up bread, at least you can keep your cheese habit on the ketogenic diet. Recipe »

Pizza? On a diet?

Pizza? On a diet?

With a limited amount of sauce and a delicious crust made of cauliflower, pizza can remain a staple of your diet. Recipe »

A world of bacon

A world of bacon

The ketogenic diet will challenge your imagination. How many ways can I use bacon in one day? Oodles and oodles of possibilities. Recipe »

Wheres the beef?

Wheres the beef?

The mainstay of the keto diet is protein. Steak, chicken, seafood, and low-carb veggies keep you feeling full and happy. Recipe »

The perfect ending...

The perfect ending...

With some heavy whipping cream and cocoa, you can enjoy the same delish desserts you\\\'ve always craved. Yum! Recipe »

 

Day 102: Pizza “Squasherole” – and a bad weigh-day

Today’s weight loss: +2.5 pounds!

Total weight loss: 24 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 28th

DAMMIT! Gained again!
Saying I lost 26 and half pounds sounds WAY better than 24. I’m guessing it was the 10 or so alcoholic drinks I had last week. They were no carb, but I think they play with my hydration and loss. I did have that one carb-laden muffin, and I skipped a few meals. All in all, I need to get back on track with some healthy eating.
Yesterday was Friday and the end of a stressful and depressing week. My dad is still in hospital, although he is doing better. Rick and I are also trying to finish up the rental house repairs so we can sell it and recoup our investment. I’m back at work, plus we’ve been doing brochures and business cards for our clients.
Enough complaining…yesterday, I wasn’t hungry for breakfast, again. I waited until around 11 a.m, then had 2 Beddar Cheddar smoked sausages.
After work, we went to see my dad, then went back to Albert’s to have some more drinks on the patio, but this time, I ordered the steak bites with teriyaki sauce. They were good, but the 2 wings with blue cheese dressing that Rick gave me were even better.
We didn’t stay late, since the weather turned overcast and cold. Since I’d only had 2 meals, I was hungry by 8 pm. Rick was eating little pizzas made on English muffins. I couldn’t do that, so I decided to improvise and create a meal that would appeal to my need for comfort food.
I heated a small portion of spaghetti squash, then layered it into a glass dish. I topped it with 1/8 cup of pizza sauce, a layer of grated cheddar/mozarella cheese, then a layer of chopped onions. I topped that with a few dabs of cream cheese and I baked it in the oven with Rick’s pizzas for about 7 minutes at 350 degrees. I think I’ll call it “pizza squasherole.”
It turned out pretty good, not great. I ate about 3/4 of it, then had 2 squares of 70% cocoa bar with peanut butter for dessert.

Day 101: Buddy’s Pizza and a few drinks

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

Normal day at work yesterday. I skipped my traditional breakfast and ate the leftover chicken club salad from Albert’s dinner the night before.
For lunch/dinner, I waited until after work, and after I went to visit my dad at the hospital. By then, I was really hungry and we decided to go to Buddy’s Pizza. I ordered the chicken fajita pizza (4 piece) and ate only the toppings with sour cream. It was really really delicious. I also had TWO vodka and Diet Cokes. Yes, it’s been that kind of week.
At 8, I met my son, his fiance, my niece, and great nephew for some late night trivia at Marvaso’s. I had another drink and the shrimp scampi appetizer for a meal. It was just so so.
I stayed under on my carbs, ate out twice and had a bit of booze. Let’s see if that affects my weigh-in. Hope not.

Day 100: Grilled chicken club salad

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

 Yesterday was day two of my back to work week. I didn’t feel much like breakfast, so I ate a low carb yogurt.
I had a late lunch of two Beddar Cheddar sausages.
After visiting my dad at the hospital, Rick and I went out for drinks on the patio at Albert’s on the Alley. I had their super-delicious and nutritious grilled chicken club salad with blue cheese dressing. I must say one of the perks of a low carb diet is being able to eat blue cheese dressing. Every other diet I’ve been on it was forbidden. By the way, I could only eat half the salad.
For dessert, Rick made chocolate mousse.

Day 99: Back to work, one bad choice

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

Tuesday it was back to work for me. I haven’t been working the keto plan as well as I used to be. I eat too little, I splurged on the wrap yesterday, I went totally off while sick last week, and I’m not planning good, nutritious meals and lunches. Time to get back on track. (I AM losing pounds and inches; however, so that part is A-OK!)

I was up several times in the night because the hospital kept calling to update me on my dad’s condition. Is that an excuse for what followed? Maybe.

I went back to work and started in on meetings and deadlines. I took time to heat my McRick breakfast of eggs, sausage, and cheese. There was a public workshop taking place in the conference room and lots and lots of bagels and large, inviting Dunkin Donut’s muffins for employees and students.

I think you know what happened.

I ate a huge, sugar-topped, chocolate chip muffin.

I was tired, my dad may be dying, I didn’t want to be back at work, blah de blah blah. I ate the friggin’ muffin and relished every bite.

Then the carbs took effect. I was really really tired. Sluggish. Muddle-headed. I felt just awful – physically and psychologically.

An hour or so later, I made 2 beddar cheddars. I felt a little better, but still logey. I looked up the bad news on these muffins here. For a cheat “meal,” it was a really bad choice — 81 net carbs. Sigh.

After work, Rick and I went up to the hospital to see my dad. He didn’t seem as bad as I expected. He may pull through this latest crisis, after all.

We headed home, and I skipped dinner. I wasn’t very hungry and I had lots of phone calls to make. I think in my head I decided to minimize the carb damage by skipping dinner, but I was hungry in a couple of hours. I made a “comfort food” concoction made up of a cup of spaghetti squash and a cheese mixture I threw together: sauteed onions in butter, heavy cream, cream cheese and grated cheese. It was bland, but did the trick.

Tomorrow: BACK ON TRACK!

Day 98: Last day of vacation

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

Yesterday was Monday and the last day of my one-week vacation. I’m glad I took the extra day. I needed it to get my taxes done.

I started the day packing Ebay sales for the UPS store. Afterwards, Rick and I went to Baba’s for brunch. I had just gotten some bad news about my dad. He’s sleeping alot and not doing well. It may be time for hospice.

It was time for some emotional eating. Partly in honor of my last day off, and partially because I was still upset about my dad, I decided to eat one and a half chicken shawarma wraps – WITH the wrap. I haven’t done anything like it since starting the keto plan. Removing crusts, wraps, and buns is second nature to me now. BUT, I ate it all.

The day progressed. We worked on the rental house, then I came home and started in on the taxes. We got a great refund, but it took awhile to get all my receipts in order. We have a small business and a rental house and we spent quite a bit of money on both in 2011.

I worked through dinner, then around 9 pm, I was satisfied that I had found all of our expenses. I didn’t file, because I wanted to go over it all one more time, LATER. I met Rick out on the deck for a vodka and Diet Coke.

Around 10 pm, I received a call that my dad needed to be hospitalized. It was a bad ending to a tiring day. I ate some chocolate mousse in lieu of dinner and called it a night. In all, I only went over about 10 carbs, since I once again had eaten very little for the day.

 

 

Day 97: Sunday at Pizza Hut

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

Sunday morning at home was productive. Rick and I finished up a brochure and some more client cards. I worked a bit on our new site, and gathered more expense receipts for our business taxes.

We set out around noon to get some brunch and supplies for day 1,450 of home improvement. Rick was in the mood for Italian (it was his lunch, my breakfast). We decided to try Pizza Hut.

I had read on some blog somewhere, that Pizza Hut made a personal pan pizza without crust for a keto dieter. I ordered the personal pan pizza and salad deal and requested no crust. No such luck. The pizza came with it’s usual very think deep dish crust. I slipped off the toppings and ate them along with a huge salad from the buffet.

The bad news about the buffet was that I added a few tbsps of sesame seeds to the salad before looking up the carb count. They were higher than I thought, but I could still stay under 20 grams of carbs for the day.

The pizza and salad were really good and filling. It’s a good option, but next time, I may try a thinner crust pizza which may get me a thicker topping.

Afterwards, we picked up some supplies, then worked through the afternoon on molding in the kitchen. It was evening when we got finished and we headed home. I wasn’t very hungry, so I ate some almonds and 2 pieces of 70% chocolate with natural peanut butter. I was way under count for the day. I have to get some better nutrition going this week.

Day 96: Inches coming off

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

I measured myself this morning. I’ve lost 2 inches in the bust and hips, 2 and 1/2 in the waist. I’ll take it!
Yesterday morning after weigh-in, I threw on my one size smaller jeans, and we hit the local diner. I ate a cheddar cheese and onion omelet with a side of crispy bacon and gave Rick all my extras.
We headed off to work on the rental. We are very close to completion, so we go to do at least a little every day. We finished putting up the new house numbers, then did more kitchen molding. Will it ever end?
Back home at 6 pm, we did some more chores around the house. I ate a handful of almonds for snack until dinner.
Dinner was late again. I heated up some Indian butter chicken and chopped up frozen cauliflower for the rice base. Rick made chocolate mousse all by himself! I think it tastes better when he makes it.
I drank a few glasses of water and got to bed by 1:30 a.m. Trying to get ready on my early rising work schedule which starts Tuesday morning. I’d also like to get some food ready for the week. I have some leftover chili for lunches, but I’d also like to make a batch of bacon trying the oven cooking method Brandon and Lindsey use.

Day 95: Weigh day again

Total weight loss: +1 pound   Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

After having the really successful 6 pound loss a couple of days ago, I was fearing this weigh-in. I just assumed the big loss was a fluke caused by sickness and dehydration, and that all 6 pounds would be back today. Well….it wasn’t and they weren’t! I did regain one pound, but no big deal. I’m really geeked about the whole experience and flying high today because….

I lost a size!

Yes, last night I was going over to my niece’s for a bonfire and I decided to get out the next size smaller blue jeans. The ones I’ve been wearing have been feeling very very baggy this week, but I knew it was only a couple of weeks ago that I tried on a smaller size and still couldn’t snap them closed. I pulled out 2 pair, and VOILA! I had some “new” clothes to wear. And, for the first time, someone actually noticed that I was losing weight. My nephew said he thought I looked different. Thanks, Todd.

So, if this trend continues, about every three months, I could be down one size. That makes me very happy.

Back to the food report:

Yesterday was Friday. I slept in, then worked on a brochure for a client until noon. Rick and I went to Leon’s for brunch, where I had a really juicy M.O.P. burger. That stands for mushroom, onion, peppers…which were grilled and added to the top of my burger, along with some melted swiss cheese. I skipped the fries and subbed a salad with blue cheese. It was filling and delicious.

After lunch, we hit the Home Depot for supplies, then worked on molding and a new address plate for the front porch.

I skipped dinner and took a long nap. I’m still not completely over the flu, but just need to nap now and again. At 9 pm, we went over Marsha’s for the bon fire, and I ate some of her delicious Frank’s red hot buffalo chicken dip (with a spoon, not chips) and about 1/4 of taco salad. I drank one vodka/Diet Coke, since I was the designated driver. We had fun out by the fire until 1 a.m., then headed home.

I am completely off kilter in my sleeping schedule. I’ve always been a true night owl, and vacation usually sees me back to my old schedule. I stayed up until 3:30 a.m. watching tv and playing around online. I ate 2 70% chocolate squares topped with natural peanut butter for a snack.

Day 94: Back on track

Total weight loss: 27.5 pounds   Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 14th

Yesterday continued my vacation week. We had more construction work to do, and we decided to try another new restaurant.

I woke up late (the perks of vacation!) and had brunch for my first meal. I chose two lovely chili dogs with no buns and topped them with mustard. Skip the fries, etc.

After another day of accomplishment at the rental, Rick and I headed home. I worked on Palmerworks websites for awhile, then decided to make a quick Indian butter chicken meal and use up the rest of the cauliflower for rice. I topped the dish with sour cream and it was heavenly. It was so delicious, I wanted to eat the entire recipe, instead of half. I decided to sit it out for a few minutes, and after letting the food actually hit my stomach, I was okay with one serving. It’s all about timing, eh?

I made chocolate mousse for dessert. Back on track, still under on calories, but it’s good to get back in the keto groove.

 

Day 93: A day off keto

Total weight loss: 27.5 pounds   Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 14th

After being sick for 4 days, I decided to go easy on myself yesterday. I still didn’t have much of an appetite, so I skipped breakfast.

I spent the morning doing taxes, wrapping up and sending ebay items, and running errands. After that, I had a brunch of….a taco and an enchilada. Yes, I decided to have a real taco, with a real shell, and an enchilada to boot! I skipped on the rice and beans. I just felt like going rogue and forgetting about keto for one more day.

I know it’s playing with fire, but I feel that I’m in control of this plan enough to take a cheat meal a little more often. I plan to do the keto diet for one full year (or more) before being at my goal, and I think being ill and out of it for a few days on a not-so-vacation-like vacation awoke me to the fact that I don’t need to be so regimental about the whole plan.

We worked on installing molding in the rental house, then called it a day. For dinner, I ate the leftover taco from my lunch. I skipped dessert. All in all, it was a bad day in terms of nutrition–not because I went off keto, but because I ate way too little. I’ll get back on track tomorrow.