Category Archives: ketogenic diet
Six months on Keto: thoughts and resolutions
Total weight loss: 35 pounds
For anything to be successful, one needs to look back over the successes and failures to plan for a better future.
Things I’ve learned:
Plan meals in advance
Always have keto-friendly snacks on hand
Always have keto-friendly cooking ingredients on hand
Remember which cheat meals didn’t satisfy
Keep a list of fast food keto-friendly foods in mind
Look at bread, rice, buns, tortillas, pasta, cakes, cookies, donuts, and other high carb food and think negative thoughts: “how pasty looking that is,” “it looks good, but it’ll make me feel lethargic and half-dead after I eat it,” “that rice under Chinese or Indian food, will make me gain, and really doesn’t have much flavor; cauliflower rice tastes just as good”
Even if you eat twice the amount of almonds you’ve planned, it’s still better than potato chips
Cheat meals/days must be thought out VERY carefully. Pick something that will really satisfy you and allow you to keep on the keto plan longer
Drink lots and lots and lots of water
Drinking no-carb alcohol may be okay, but keep it in limits. Over indulging makes me gain water weight and being drunk makes me really tempted to binge on whatever high carb party food is on the table.
There is ALMOST ALWAYS SOMETHING YOU CAN EAT in a fast food place or restaurant. For example, what about chicken marsala in an Italian place?
And there is usually some salad option anywhere you are. Burger joints, just remove the bun.
Mexican and Chinese restaurants give me the most difficulty, because any low carb option is not the reason I would go to the restaurant in the first place.
If you MUST go to a Chinese buffet (I attended a funeral dinner at one), you can find options, but they probably aren’t going to be your favorite General Tso’s. How about the salad bar choices? eggs? the insides of eggrolls, and I even ate the insides only of crab rangoons. Leaves quite a pile of discarded shells on the plate and look like you really waste food.
That’s all I can think of right now, but these ideas have helped me realize the first real weight loss I’ve achieved in more than 15 years! YAY KETO!
Day 191: Back in the keto routine
Total weight loss: 31 1/2 pounds
Well, I’m officially back in the routine. I ate no carbs yesterday, and I admit, it was a bit difficult staying true to the diet.
We’re in the midst of the house showing, with some competing bids, and a lot of stress. I worked at home again, and there’s a bit of stress there, too, since the building we work in is smoked damaged and we’re winging it as best we can. The stress, a headache, and being a bit exhausted by too much life, left me tempted to have some comfort food a few times. And by comfort food, you know I mean carbs.
But I didn’t succumb to temptation.
I ate yogurt for breakfast, almonds for snack, and beddar cheddars for lunch – no bun.
For dinner, I chopped up some leftover grilled chicken, put it on a low carb wrap, and added salsa, onion, and sour cream. I followed it with 70% chocolate and peanut butter dessert.
I’m BAAACK on track!
Review of some no-carb and low-carb foods
I’ve ordered and tried several low carb options, and now I’ve even found some zero-carb food items to try. I ordered these items from Julian Bakery.
- Two loaves of bread: carb zero white and carb zero cinnamon
- Two candy bars, one regular, one raspberry
- A box of zero carb chocolate cookies
The bread – I’ve only tried the white bread so far. It’s dense, tasteless, and nothing to write home about. AND, it was $8 for a loaf! It’s similar to the texture of home-made flax bread. It doesn’t darken when toasted. It just gets really hard.
I don’t miss eating bread all that much. Sometimes, however, I’d just like a sandwich, or a piece of toast with peanut butter. This definitely is not worth the money and is not a very satisfying substitute.
I’ll update my blog with the cinnamon bread review soon.
The chocolate bars – Both chocolate bars tasted really really good. They were each a very good imitation of a high-carb bar, for only 2 carbs each. HOWEVER, it is really hot outside right now, and the box came with two extremely melted bars. I think I would either look for these in a store, or only order in the winter. They did ship from California, so maybe the winter idea wouldn’t work. The raspberry bar was dripping from the bottom, but, bonus!, it gave the plain chocolate bar a little raspberry flavor since it soaked up a bit of the juice.
The cookies – These were okay. They remind me a bit of the Snackwells chocolate cookie that I tried a few years ago. For zero carbs, they are a satisfying option. However, they are a little more than a dollar for each cookie, which should be factored in. I may try some home made cookie recipes from some keto recipe sites.
The problem with this whole order, is that I paid a REQUIRED $14 for shipping – supposedly 2-day air. The order arrived about ten days later. With the high price of the items, plus the shipping cost, these went over my usual food budget.
Day 111: Wait a minute? I can have French onion chip dip?
Total weight loss: 20 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, May 5th
Yesterday was Sunday, and I did my usual work at the computer when I woke up. I caught up on the week’s web business invoices and records. I’ve never been a breakfast person. I have to force myself to eat before 3-4 hours have passed, just because I know I must to wake up my metabolism. However, Sunday’s I go easy on myself.
Brunch was at Pizza Hut. We had tried it for it’s keto-friendliness a couple of weeks ago, and it worked out well. I ordered the personal pan pizza, salad, Diet Coke deal for $6.99. I love building a big salad at the bar, and I topped it with creamy Italian and bacon bits. The waitress helpfully suggested that she’d ask for thick toppings when I told I’d be skipping the crust.
For dinner, I reheated the Indian Butter chicken.
I was trying to think of uses for the new cheese snacks, when it hit me! I can eat chip dip. It’s basically sour cream. So, we picked some up and I ate tiny little cheesy crisps with dip while we watched some tube.
Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate topped with a tbsp of peanut butter.
Day 104: Pizza buffet on keto
Total weight loss: 24 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 28th
Sunday morning, and I wasn’t hungry for breakfast. I worked on gathering 2012 business expenses into an organized binder. Yes, I can learn from last year’s tax mistakes. LOL
After bills, budgets, design jobs, and other fun paperwork, it was time to go work on the rental house. For brunch on the way, we went to Papa Elias’s Pizza Buffet.
I had a huge salad with Ranch dressing and about 5 pieces of pizza TOPPINGS. I felt really bad when they came to clear our plates and there was a pile of crusts on mine. It looked so wasteful, but a woman’s gotta do…etc. If anyone ever questions my behavior, I plan to tell them I have a flour allergy. LOL
We worked on installing doors again. What a pain.
Afterwards, we headed home. I wasn’t hungry because of the huge brunch, so I headed back to my office to list ebay items and work on catching up on this blog.
In the evening, I decided to try the hamburger/broccoli alfredo casserole recipe Brandon tried last week from Linda’s low carb recipe site. It wasn’t too complicated, although Brandon recommended using more heavy cream and 1 1/2 times the cream cheese. I did, and it was very tasty and I ate 2 servings.
I’ll take a picture of it when I heat it up for dinner.
For dessert, I made some chocolate mousse.
Day 96: Inches coming off
Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st
Day 89: Working through the disappointment
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 14th
After yesterday’s weigh-in, I debated having a cheat day, or even just a cheat meal. We were at breakfast, and I ordered eggs with cheese and onions. My meal came with toast and hash browns. I don’t particularly care for hash browns, but this restaurant also offers potato pancakes as a substitution. I ordered them.
When the meal came, I stared down the pancakes. I really really like them, and I was still reeling from the zero loss disappointment. Should I just have a cheat day? Naw. I gave them to Rick. I think I need to NOT cheat when it’s an emotional decision. If I’m having a cheat day, it’s going to be because it was a planned maneuver to restart my metabolism.
We worked on the rental house all day. I finished grouting tile, painted a door, put on new door hardware, tried to unstop a drain, put an electric box cover on, and painted a fence.
In between chores, Rick ran up to Del Taco and got me the mucho grande burrito, or whatever it’s called. I skipped the tortilla.
Back home, we were both pretty tired, but our own house needs work, too. We started cleaning off the deck and getting the yard ship-shape. By then it was late, and I was too tired to cook. I had a handful of almonds and joined Rick outside by the bonfire for a drink. Afterwards, I heated up grilled chicken in a Flat Out tortillas with the usual garnishments. We had some chocolate mousse for dessert.
I made it through the disappointment. I’m going to beat this fat or die trying.
Day 88: A big fat ZERO
Today’s weight loss: ZERO
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 14th
AARRRGGGHHHH.
I’m tired of agonizing over what I could be doing wrong. My clothes are getting looser. That’s a plus. But, man oh man, I would sure love to see more progress when I get on the scale.
So, I’ll just keep keeping on. No alternative.
Yesterday was my numero uno vacation day. We started out eating at a new diner. I ordered the cheese omelet with onions and a side of bacon. It was great! The cheese/onion combination was very “pieorgi-like,” so I asked for a side of sour cream and it was even better. The bacon was also thin and crispy, just the way I like it. I finished my Friday NYT crossword, and declared it a wonderful beginning to my vacation week.
>We were off on lots of errands after that. When we got home, I wasn’t really hungry for lunch, so I had some almonds.
Rick napped, I relaxed and watched some “The Good Wife” episodes. It was nice just hanging out for a couple of hours.
Later in the evening, I joined Rick out on the deck. I wanted to have a vodka/diet drink, but hadn’t eaten much, so I made some ham, cream cheese, and onion pinwheels. You know, the kind mom made in the 60’s. You roll them up, then cut them and they look like little pinwheels…or eyeballs, if you ask me. Anyway, it was something I thought of the other night when trying to find a conveyance to get the cream cheese into my mouth without just eating it out of the package. Apparently, my family members think it’s an odd thing to do.
For dinner (at 9 pm!), I chopped up a bit of the chicken Rick had grilled. I put it in a large low carb flat bread and topped with cheese, onions, salsa, and sour cream. Those are my go-to toppings for just about everything.
Dessert was 2 pieced of 70% chocolate topped with organic peanut butter. I think I went over about 4 carbs.
Day 85: Love those steak bites
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 7th
Work wasn’t quite as crazy as usual. The book is at the printer, and now we just need to update little details for our upcoming class. I had time to heat my eggs for breakfast, but didn’t really prepare for lunch, so I just ate a yogurt I found in the fridge.
After work, we decided to go to a local bar that has outdoor seating. It was a beautiful day, and we sat outside watching the traffic go by. I ordered the teriayaki steak bites, gave Rick my pita bread, and enjoyed 2 vodka and Diet Cokes. It was a relaxing and fun date.
The steak bites were delicious, but I hadn’t eaten much all day, so I had a handful of almonds before bed and and topped so 70% chocolate squares with natural peanut butter. I was still well under 20 grams of carbs for the day.
Day 84: How many carbs in a stuffed mushroom?
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 7th
What a way to start the week. I had a 3-hour long dentist appointment: one crown and one new filling. By the time I left, I had a numb mouth and a ravenous appetite.
On the way to work, I stopped at Checkers for a Baconzilla to go. I knew it would be a while before my mouth was functioning, but I wanted to be prepared for lunch. When I arrived at work, I ate a low carb yogurt to hold me over until the numbness was gone.
Around 2, I ate the burger with no bun, and I ate some almonds, as well.
After work, we had some Palmerworks business to attend to. We hadn’t gotten around to opening our company bank account, so we stopped at 5/3 Bank to do that. We stopped off at home afterwards and I ate another handful of almonds to tide me over until I had dinner at Albert’s trivia.
I usually order the grilled chicken salad, but my friend Jim pointed out that the crab-stuffed mushrooms appetizer looked like all low-carb ingredients: mushrooms, crabs, and cheese. I ordered them and they were really delicious. I donated the garlic bread to Jim. Keeping it honest, I also had one of his steak fries. I ate it in 4 very slow bites. LOL
When I returned home last night, I discovered a problem. As I attempted to enter my dinner into myfitnesspal.com, I found a HUGE variety of numbers for the amount of carbs: everything from 3 grams of net carbs for 3 mushrooms to 10 grams for ONE. I started wondering…did they contain bread crumbs or some other high-carb ingredient I hadn’t thought of? What about the carb count of crab vs. KRAB?
How do I truly know if there are any carb-laden ingredients in anything I order at a restaurant?
I suppose those are the chances one takes when eating out. Keeping track of carbs is so much easier when I cook a dish at home, but neither Rick nor I have had time to cook this very busy weekend/week. I start my “vacation” Friday, so I’ll have some time to get a few dishes together for next week. I’d like to try a low-carb crock pot chili recipe I found online.
I ended the day with low carb chocolate mousse.