Easter Tidings

Hope all my readers who celebrate it, have a blessed Easter. Hey I hope all my readers who don't celebrate have a great day too!

We had our holiday meal yesterday at my parent's house. I woke up not hungry at al, not even enough for a BPC. I decided to heed my body and save my calories for lunch. A regular coffee with a splash of heavy cream was it. It was about then I began to wonder if maybe I had become fat adapted. The whole concept of "fat adaption" is confusing to me, and elusive. It's sort of the holy grail in keto diet circles, because it means your body is burning stored fat as energy and oxidizing dietary fat for energy. Once you fat adapt, you can easily fast or skip meals without feeling ravenous or tired. Once you're in ketosis it can apparently take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months to fat adapt. This is what I can say, I was not hungry before lunch yesterday. I was not hungry after lunch yesterday. I am not hungry this morning. I am not experiencing any crazy levels of energy or euphoria though and many people describe those as part of fat adaption. I'm not sluggish and tired though, on the flip side. I'm just normal me. So am I fat adapted? Maybe. I really just can not be sure.

Lunch:

Holiday meals can be a huge pain to navigate when you're in a hardcore change of diet mode. Fortunately my parents have been eating much healthier themselves in recent months. My mother was also aware of my dietary restrictions and made sure there was plenty for me to pick from. I had ham, I used the "deck of cards" eyeball portion method I have read about on other pages. About 1/2 C of a cheesy, creamy, bacony cauliflower side dish, some asparagus, and some salad.

One of our shared table limitations is that my parents rely on low fat substitutes where possible. My father is a cardiac patient and they have their own medically approved diet. The dishes were delicious and I felt like I avoided most non-Keto ingredients, but mom does rely on low fat cream cheese, low fat sour cream, low fat cheese in her recipes. Interestingly, I could actually feel the difference. This is a pretty cool thing- because it means my body is recognizing what fuel it likes/needs. So while portion was pretty on point to my typical plate, I wasn't exactly sated. Not a hungry feeling, but this certain knowledge in my gut it needed more fat. I'll share how I fixed that momentarily but first look up at those desserts. My weakness is coconut chocolate stuff, and mom's home made coconut easter eggs are a standard favorite. This was a HUGE NSV ("non scale victory") because I looked, I smelled, I said no thanks. She suggested I could have just one, everything in moderation- and I replied, no I really can't. It's true. A sugar bomb in the middle of the day would have been the worst mistake ever. And choosing something I love that much- would have surely led to me saying "screw it!" and eating more because oh well, the day was wasted. Big victory!

I don't mean to suggest I'll never "cheat". Many purists believe cheating is never an okay part of your diet plan. Personally, I have an allowance for slips (1 meal per month). But I'm saving it and using it wisely, and I already have this months planned. Anyway, onward.... to that little fat deficiency problem...

Snack:

 

So what to do when you know you're way low on fat, but you're not exactly wanting a meal considering you just ate one? I made a massive fat bomb BPC. 1 C coffee, 1 tbl butter, 1 tsp coconut oil, a bunch of canned coconut milk (sugar free) with the thick stuff too, and topped it all with whipped cream. Good golly, drank that and it was like I had eaten a philly cheesesteak and bowl of fries, I felt so full!

Dinner:

The PLAN for dinner had been these delicious keto bagels, made into sandwiches with leftover Easter ham and fried eggs. The reality was, I was stuffed from my one modest plate and 1 bulletproof coffee. Again, am I fat adapted?? The family had ham sandwiches on them, I finally was able to get one of these yummy delights down with some butter in the evening without any ham or eggs.

These WILL be made again. My husband doesn't eat low carb, he likes his gluten and his grains and his sugar and these had none of that- but he LOVED them. They're not really bagel consistency, softer, chewier and honestly more flavorful.

The recipe is from Reddit and has been reposted many times so I don't have an original author to credit. It goes as follows, and makes 6 bagels. I did not use a donut pan and it was fine, I used Trader Joes Everything But The Bagel seasoning on half and cheddar on the other half:

3 cups shredded mozzarella

1.5 cups almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)

2 tsp xantham gum (Bob's Red Mill again)

4 Tbsp. cream cheese

2 eggs

Toppings (to taste)

Sesame seeds

Poppy seeds

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

Preparation • Preheat oven to 400° • In a bowl mix the almond flour, xantham gum, and eggs until combined • Place mozzarella and cream cheese in a medium pot and cook on low heated until melted • Once the cheese is melted, combine with the other mixture. Knead until thoroughly combined (you will need a mixer, the flour, eggs and xantham powder get really hard to mix after a little bit) • Roll the dough into log shapes and rest them into your donut pan, then sprinkle your toppings • Bake for 18 minutes

Finally the numbers, and these include a few glasses of red wine last night and my usual powerade zero in the morning.

• Carbs: 21 net
• Protein: 43g
• Fat: 109g
• Cals: 1165

And my favorite part of this morning? 

Scale -1.3 lbs!

With that, Keto on bunnies!

Drop a giraffe

She did it! April the giraffe brought her new calf into the world after a long 13-15 month pregnancy. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/live-april-the-giraffe-finally-giving-birth-watch-with-us Welcome to the world little one!

Now watch this segway.....

If April can be patient and stay with the plan for 13-15 months and then give birth to her 150 lb newborn, I can be patient and stay with the plan for 13-15 months as well and give up a mere 60 lbs! That was really nifty the way I did that, wasn't it. ;-)

Onto yesterday's food diary.

Breakfast - BPC.

Lunch-

Spinach salad with soppressata (a spicy salami), swiss cheese, sundried tomatoes in oil, hard boiled egg, Trader Joe's Everything But The Bagel, olive oil. A note about salad dressing- you can eat any full fat, sugar free dressing you like on this plan, as long as the macros fit and it doesn't contain any forbidden ingredients. Lot's of people eat ranch for example. I just happen to hate creamy dressing on my salads, so I always defer to olive oil.

Dinner-

I sauteed a small sliced zucchini in olive oil with salt and pepper, then topped with ground turkey (2 1/2 ounces which was a lot more than it sounds like), 1/4C Trader Giotto's Tuscan marinara, and a parmesan/romano cheese mix. I do have a tool to make zucchini noodles but tbh, I was once again lazy and it seemed easier to slice and cook than put together my spiralizer, make noodles, and then have to wash all the parts. See? Told you I was lazy. This was super simple but also super yummy. The family had spaghetti and I didn't miss the noodles one bit. That's saying a lot as a former pasta princess. 

Snacks-

It was a snacky day. I had my usual morning Sugar free no carb Powerade. I had an afternoon coffee with coconut oil to up my fats. I indulged in 1/2 oz dark chocolate after dinner. And I had one (three) of these yummy drinks late at night (hey it was a Friday night! And I was on giraffe baby watch... )

When I went to bed I felt a little heavy and I realized I hadn't drank as much water as usual. I fully expected to wake up a little heavier today. Surprisingly, I actually lost another .9 lb so I guess my macros were good enough.

Yesterday by the numbers:

• Carbs- 19 net (23 total)
• Protein- 45g
• Fat- 120g
• Calories- 1714

Again, that protein is a little low, I really need to work on increasing it because it's not great for your muscles to stay too low on protein long term. The fat and carbs though are on point, calories a teeeeeeeny bit higher than  like but not excessively so and the fact I still lost means I can afford to occasionally bump over a few calories.

Tracking is proving to be so interesting to me, not only to see where I go overboard- but where I go UNDERboard. I think no matter what WOE (way of eating, the new slang for "it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle" that every diet pushes) you're doing- a good tracking app can only help!

Off for my Easter meal (a day early) at my mother's house today. Let's see how on point I can keep this for tomorrow's update!

Keto on April.... (or just eat grass and leaves and whatever it is giraffes eat!)

Thursday's Round Up

Geek time, then fun time. I've noticed some people refer to Keto as a "high protein, low carb" diet. There are high protein, low carb diets out there and they work for some people really well. Keto however, is actually high FAT, low carb. A little on the science behind this in layman's terms. When you eat simple and excessive carbs your insulin spikes. Your body digests the carbs and then wham- it stores all those sugars in your fat cells. Your body can't access those immediately so you end up hungry again pretty quickly. When you eat fat though, it sates you quickly. There is no insulin spike, and your body goes right to those fat cell stores. This doesn't mean eat all the fat all the time. If you eat tons of fat, it's also tons of calories- and regardless of what some aficionados may believe, calories still matter. The TYPE of fat also really matters, trans fats are still going to clog your arteries and be really unhealthy.

Using one of the many calculators out there will give you a good idea of where your fat intake should be. Or try the easiest one of all- your goal weight in pounds is how many daily grams of fat you can eat. These are limits, not goals. Your fat intake should be at least 60% of your overall daily consumption, I aim for 70%. The fats you choose should be healthy fats- saturated and monounsaturated, eggs, avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, animal fat. Stay away from polyunsaturated and trans fats!

So that quick primer over, let's move on to the part I like, food. Actual food eating. Yum!

Breakfast- Again, Bulletproof coffee (let's just call this BPC from here on out)

Lunch:

Winner winner! I tried the Paleo 90 Second bread found here- http://paleomagazine.com/microwave-paleo-bread/ This was SO easy, seriously, go make it. You can do it in 90 seconds!

Ingredients:

1/3 C almond flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg

2 1/2 tbl melted butter, gee or coconut oil.

I used butter. After stirring together these ingredients with a fork, dump into a greased/buttered coffee mug and nuke it for 90 seconds. Let it cool a few minutes and slice - I got 4 thin slices out of it.

Added 2 slices of bacon, 1/3 avocado, and cream cheese for these very filling, good fat loaded sandwiches.

Dinner:

This has become one of my favorite easy peasy fresh and squeezy recipes to turn to when I am feeling lazy. I feel lazy most days so.... I eat it a a lot. Wrapperless eggroll bowl, AKA "dirty cabbage" or "dirty slaw". Sautee some garlic and ginger paste, cook meat, add bagged slaw. That easy. My measurements, a splat of minced garlic from a jar, a squeeze o ginger, 3/4 C cooked ground pork, 1 1/2 C mixed slaw. Note carrots are not strict keto, since they come in the bag mix I eat them and pretend I didn't notice but if you want to be super pure- just do cabbage.

Because I cook for more than just me and my husband hates cabbage, I used the rest of my ground pork to make panko meatballs, cooked them on the stovetop, added broccoli and a stir fry sauce, and those other people in my life ate that over rice and were happy. Learning to adapt around multiple diets and tastes is all part of the fun in this household.

Snacks yesterday were my Powerade zero, 1/4 C mixed nuts and a cocktail (club soda!) last night.

By the numbers:

• Carbs: 11 net (21 total) Good!
• Protein: 47g Low, I need to be in the 55-65 range to avoid losing muscle.
• Fat: 118g - awesome!
• Calories: 1625- okay. I like to stay under 1600

A loss of .2 lb, which really means nothing right now, it's about the overall downward trend. What that .2 lb really means will be more clear a month from now.

Keto on!

Meal Roundup

Yesterday's meals in a nutshell.

Breakfast- Bulletproof coffee. If you google, there are a ton of ways to make this and everyone swears their way is the best. People spend a lot of money on special oil and organic special coffee. I spend a lot of money on wine and vacations, so my coffee is Folgers. My oil is Trader Joes unrefined coconut oil and Kerrygold grassfed unsalted butter. Many recipes call for 2 tablespoons of each- through trial and error I discovered this was too much for me. I need to actually leave the house during the day and not be anchored to a bathroom, so I use 1 tablespoon of each, a splash of heavy cream, a dash of cinnamon, and a half packet of truvia.  I whip it all in the bullet blender for 20 seconds and that's it. It's filling, it helps me meet my fat macros for the day (which is harder than you would think!)  Keto doesn't mean you can't eat a solid breakfast, lot's of people do- but I have never been big on breakfast (except at 2 am after screaming karaoke into a beer scented microphone, but that's a whole other blog). The idea of a plate full of greasy eggs and bacon and sausage at 7 am makes me feel queasy. Bulletproof coffee makes it a non issue. The fats fill me up, it amps my energy level and increases clarity of thought.

Click for link to purchase @ Amazon

Lunch- This is where I shined yesterday. It was a beautiful tasty thing. A deviled egg. The filling was an egg yolk mashed with 1 oz cream cheese and a healthy splash of olive oil, some salt and pepper. And a spinach salad that was so simple but just so ON POINT delicious. 3/4 C spinach, 1/3 avocado, 1 oz cubed swiss cheese, 1 tblspoon sunflower seeds,olive oil and lemon juice with more salt and pepper. You note how exact measurements are. This is important. To accurately track macros you need to be able to scan bar codes, have a food scale on hand, and measuring cups/spoons. This sounds like a pain but eventually you (and I) will be able to eyeball measurements accurately. It's about retraining oneself to better understand portions. This lunch was filling, without giving that "yuck too full" feeling- and it was very very tasty.

Dinner- Here is where I failed to impress myself. This happens a lot when I wait until the last minute and don't plan a meal. My husband and kid had grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. I threw together this ugly concoction- 4oz grilled turkey (thick slicked deli turkey), I stuffed slices of turkey with provolone (2 slices) cheese, a little spinach, and roasted red and yellow peppers. It wasn't bad tasting, but it wasn't good enough to make again and it sure photographed ugly.

Snack- I had 3 really, a Powerade 0 calorie sugarfree energy drink in the am because I believe it thwarts any electrolyte issues with this diet, an after dinner coffee with coconut oil because I was still low on my daily fats and then later 3 shots of Jack Daniels, which was actually medicinal. Not like, wink-wink because I had a bad day medicinal, but seasonal allergies brought on by the wrath of yellow hell pollen everywhere medicinal. My throat has been on fire for days and since allergy pills, theraflu sore throat, and motrin all failed I'd hoped whiskey might be a cure. It wasn't. It did have pleasant side effects though. ;-)

My macros for the day were

• 8 net carbs (Total carbs 14, from this you subtract the fiber, and yes there's an app for that. I can't handle this much thinking.)
• 70g Protein- this was about 5 G higher than I would have liked, but not excessively so.
• 100g Fat- this was decent, I still had about 30G leeway, I could have eaten more but I was full and fine at 100.
• 1539 Calories- I don't necessarily track these, my app does it as a "by the way" function. I do like to see it stay under 1600 and above 1000 so this was in the good range.

So what about exercise? Lots of keto people are big into their work outs. I'm not there, yet? Ever? My cardio of choice is a nice brisk walk (which probably contributes to this allergy hell to be honest, but I won't give it up) Yesterdays walk was 2 miles.

Net results, here is where I confess something that makes many in the diet industry cringe. I weigh in EVERY day. I religiously track. I have found I need to do it- and after a few weeks of seeing those little spikes up and down on my tracker it has given me a realistic view of how weight loss happens. It's not linear, it goes down, down, up, rests, down, rests, rests, up, down, down.... and that's okay! As long as the long term overall trend is downward. This morning's scale is .9 lb down putting me EXACTLY where I was before I went on a cruise last week. This feels great, even if my throat doesn't! 

Want to figure out your own keto macros beyond the simplified formula I gave in post #1? Check out this tracker, it's pretty detailed! https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/index.html?launcher=true

Keto on y'all!

Where it all began....

I actually created and quickly abandoned this blog many years ago for a drop an anchor weight loss challenge. It seemed appropriate for my purposes to bring it back to life.

A little about me, I'm a 45 year old mother of three, currently attempting transformation through the keto diet. I've been in that super enthusiastic, annoy the crap out of your friends and family with reports of every carb avoided and every ounce lost stage. I'm going to assume the enthusiasm may eventually wane and I may begin to bore even myself but until then it felt like it might be a good idea to not make every post on social media be about my diet.

So brief history, like many women I gained weight with each pregnancy, became less active, had my share of hormonal issues, started eating like crap and puffed up. I've followed the Oprah model of yo-yo weight and dieting over the years, some successes, some failures, nothing really stuck for very long. At some point I will reveal my start weight but in my own good time, when I no longer cringe saying it! I had heard about the keto diet from others for quite some time but didn't feel inspired to try myself until something curious happened.

So this January I turned 45 and instead of feeling depressed about that, I felt strangely excited. It probably helps I rang it in in Italy. ;-) But it wasn't only Italian wine that had my feeling sort of rejuvenated. For whatever reason, that's when I decided I was at peace with me. A few weeks later, I'm on holiday with my husband celebrating my 25th anniversary and it's amazing. I was feeling bold and sexy and fun and younger than I had in years. The result was when we returned home I wanted to harness all that energy and confidence and so I decided since my spirit felt so good I wanted to take the leap and work on my physique next.

I started my keto plan February 20th. Keto is basically low carb, high fat moderate protein. Meats, dairy, above ground veggies, healthy fats are all good. There are off limits foods as well (namely grains, sugars, and starchy below ground veggies). You eat to your ideal macros and avoid the bad foods.  After scoping lots of pages and calculators I found this group on Facebook that laid out the simplest formula imaginable. Your desired weight = grams of fat, divide that in half = grams of protein, stay under 30 = grams of carbs. There are some tweaks, for example women are not recommended to get more than 65G of protein if you can help it. Protein apparently can convert in some cases to glucose if you have too much. I found several apps to track my macros and have narrowed them down to what works best for me.

Since starting I've lost about 15 lbs which is great but really- the 4 inches off my waist are what motivate me most! For the record, I am doing this because I care about my health and because of the brain clarity that comes with this way of eating- but I am also doing it to lose this weight (Or as the blog title suggests- drop an anchor.) I'm still a relatively young woman and I want to be able to wear a hot little dress now and then without worries of rolls hanging out. ;-) I have quite a way to go to my goal weight, but along the way I am greatly enjoying WAY fewer gastro problems, less achy joints, more energy and greater clarity of the mind. I used to eat and feel so tired afterward, barely able to keep my eyes open. I felt like I was on the verge of diabetes- and right now I NEVER feel that.

Along the way here I'll be sharing my food journal, recipes and food pics, my own progress and stalls, challenges that rise up and moments of victory.

Keto on friends!