Day 14 - Cheater Cheater Apple Crisp Eater

So me and my keto diet have been going steady for 2 weeks. We survived our first weekend together [although he was very clingy and demanding at times with all the non-carb eating]. All the bacon and cheese and delicious other food is great and all, but man do I want a french fry. I would just die for an apple! I would completely hoover a bowl of pasta. So instead of completely throwing in the towel and having a carb-fest, I tell myself I can have a cheat day.

I feel like there is only one circumstance under which cheating is allowed. 

Dieting.

.

I'm not talking about all out glutinous cheating. Shoving-every-morsel-of-food-in-sight-down-my-face-hole type of cheating is not allowed [like this cute little hammy hamster]. Nope. I'm just gonna go ahead and make up a word for it.

Controlled Cheating. Yep, that sounds good.

We have to set some ground rules.
1 - Set a date, one day only.
2 - Don't cheat AT ALL until that one day.
3 - If you cheat, you must make up for it with exercise.

So I set my date for 2 weeks after my start. That is how I got through the first couple of days of the diet. [It's ok Leah, you can have pasta in 12 days!] That got me through a lot...
So Saturday we went to our friends house Dave a Meredith [who we met years ago playing beer league kickball!]. Meredith kindly let me make a dessert for our dinner. I settled on an apple crisp. Oh man was it delicious. The sweet tart apples along with a crispy sweet buttery topping. Not keto friendly at all. Oh man was it worth it though.

No cheating until the designated cheat day. So many days I looked at all the sweets we have in our house and longed for just a taste. BUT what was funny was I really wanted the mundane things like yogurt and cereal and pretzels.  Sometimes you can figure out replacements like keto pancakes for regular buttermilk pancakes [below, from Low Carb Yum recipe]. And then there is keto bread too [not as good as the real thing].

If you cheat, you have to make up for it by exercising. Yep, that's right. You have to punish yourself for cheating...its like repenting. You have to repent after you sin and I guess cheating on your diet is kinda like sinning against your diet? Sure, why not. I figure if you are eating extra calories, you have to burn extra calories or you will ruin all those days you deprived yourself of delicious carbs. On my cheat day I did an extra hard spin workout. So my penance was paid.

Getting back on the straight and narrow was hard after my cheat day. We went to the in-laws house and there were chips and tortillas and cheese dip...yum. I brought my low carb tortilla with me and had my cheese dip with that. [And maybe sat in the bathroom and cried because I wanted all the chips...ok, not really].

That's the thing with cheat days, the next day is so hard. It's almost like a cheating hangover. Yep, carb loving cheating hangover. Yuck. Is it worth it?

Yep.

Now I'm looking forward to my next cheat day....February 3rd. Only days away!!! 

Maybe I'll have donuts....after I do my spin workout....for only one day....

Day 12 - Snow Days, Bonking and Results!

Sitting here in lovely Georgia looking out my window on the snow. Yep, snow. It snowed 3+ inches here with temps in the teens. It's so beautiful and so serene. 

NO. NO, ITS NOT. IT IS A PAIN. 

Streets are icy, it's so cold in my house, and I can only take the kids out to play in the frigid temperatures for small amounts at a time before their eyeballs start freezing over. Ok, ok, snow is beautiful, but we in the South have NO CLUE what to do with it or how to handle it. GDOT has like 3 salt trucks and Gwinnett county has probably 0 of those. [Forgive me for my sarcasm.]

Ok, enough complaining. I'm sorry. I just need my kiddos to get back on their schedule of going to school and seeing their friends [and coming home tired and letting me work!]. Love them so much.

So how has it been going? 

Well, pretty good. I do notice that for a few days last week I was bonking [fancy workout speak for running out fuel/energy while working out] during the middle of my workouts. I use the Peloton App for spinning routines on my spin bike in my basement. I normally do 30-45 min. It is tough! I burn anywhere form 300 - 500 calories per workout. I love it! 

Love this image from Working On Your Now!

When I'm doing Keto, I sometimes run out of energy about 15 minutes in. I'm not sure why, other than, duh, my body doesn't have fast energy to burn in the form of glucose carbs in the bloodstream]. The body has to use your fat stores to be able to provide fuel. This take longer, so you can feel like you are hitting a wall if you are doing a lot of high intensity training. [Not sure 15 min of HIIT spinning is exactly that, but I'm gonna go with it]. So I'm not an expert. I'm also not a super fit athlete who does 90 minutes of high intensity exercise per day. BUT I am limiting my carb intake and finding that I hit that wall during higher intensity workouts. I can't add carbs, so I have to find something else I am lacking to give me a boost. 

After a bunch of reading, I've found that possibly using electrolyte supplements could help! Sodium, magnesium and potassium are electrolytes that your body needs to work. When you are on a keto diet, you eliminate a lot of the processed foods that contain these types of minerals. Also, it is hard to make sure you are getting enough of these by food alone. If you are running out of these, you are likely to end up having Keto Flu. This is when you feel very fatigued, lathargic and sometimes nauseous. No good. Here is a good article from ketogains.com that will explain it more for you.

I do think that part of the issues I'm having with bonking are from not replenishing my electrolytes adequately. When doing high intensity exercise you sweat and lose sodium and water. I usually drink a lot of water while working out, but that then displaces the already lowered amount of electrolytes in my body from ketosis. I have added in a Magnesium supplement, but I need to find Potassium and Sodium. 

Ketoconnect.net has some great suggestions for supplements [I love these guys!]. 

https://www.ketoconnect.net/keto-products/ Look under Essential Keto Supplements.

I will try some of these and get back to you. Hopefully they will help!!!

Oh yeah! Results!!! Almost forgot. I am officially down 5 lbs! Woohoo! This is why I love this diet. I get to eat cheese and bacon and lose weight!

I hope you have a wonderful [and warm] day wherever you are! My kids actually have school/nanny today, so I may get some work done!!! [THANK YOU GWINNETT COUNTY SCHOOLS and MRS. DEANNA! I LOVE YOU SO!]

Have a great weekend! 

Day 5 - Keto you say?

It's Day 5 of Keto dieting. How has it been you may ask? Weeellllllll, going from putting all of the carbs in my face hole to putting none of the carbs in my face hole is always a challenge. The first two days usually are ok, and then the third day. Oh the third day. Ever heard of "keto flu"? Well, its a thing. Basically your body is freaking out because you haven't given it carbs. [And it got really used to and comfortable with the Christmas cookies, chocolates, bread and chips you were feeding it for 2 weeks straight, basically your body hates you for a day.] It's trying to switch from burning carbs to burning fat. So, I was dragging on Wednesday this week. BUT I made it through! And I lost 1.4 pounds. YAY!

I forgot to mention in my last post this this type of diet is not for everyone. Want to be on a diet that you can eat cheese, bacon, eggs, steak, avocado, butter, olive oil, veggies, nuts, nut butters and cream? Keto is for you!

If you can't live without real pasta, bread, sweets and other carbalicious things, Keto may not be for you. 

But wait, it could be. 

There are tons of alternatives that sometimes live up to [or close to] the deliciousness of these things. For example: zoodles [noodles made by spiralizing veggies like zucchini {zucchini+noodles=zoodles}], cloud bread [low carb bread made with eggwhites], low carb sweets like lemon bars and cookies [made with carb free natural sweetener like stevia or erythritol]. Just google "Keto ____ [bread, cookies, cake]" and you will find recipes.

Um, YES PLEASE! Thank you Low Carb Maven!

Some folks excel at just counting calories. Some do great at macro counting. Some love plans like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. I have tried just about everything. I've lost weight on most plans, but I have kept the most off for a long period of time with Keto. You are actually burning the fat stores in your body [bu-bye hips, tummy, junk in the trunk] for energy instead of burning glucose [carbs] in your bloodstream. KetoDash.com does an excellent job explaining this:

"You've probably heard of the fact that you can go weeks without food but only a couple of days without water.The reason for this is ketosis. Most people, for better or for worse, have enough fat stored on them to fuel their body for a while.

When your body is in a state of ketosis, it produces ketones. Ketones occur from the breakdown of fat in the liver. You might be thinking why isn't the body constantly breakdown fats in the liver? Well, when your body is producing insulin, the insulin prevents the fat cells from entering the bloodstream so they stay stored in the body.

When you lower your carb intake, glucose levels, along with blood sugar levels, drop which in turn lowers insulin levels. This allows the fat cells to release the water they are storing (it's why you first see a drop in water weight) and then the fat cells are able to enter the bloodstream and head to the liver.

This is the end goal of the keto diet. You don't enter ketosis by starving your body. You enter ketosis by starving your body of carbohydrates. When your body is producing optimal ketone levels you begin to notice many healh, weight loss, physical and mental performance benefits."     https://ketodash.com/ketogenic-diet

Now that you know all of the things about Keto, what do you think? Good? Bad? Do you think I'm wrecking my life with low carb? HA! Ha?

Don't worry, I only do low carb for about 2 weeks, then give myself a little break. I see a healthy serving of pasta in my future in approximately 9 days....maybe.

Day 1, Again

Is it just me or does everyone pretty much despise January?

Me in December:

Yes, more wine!

Yes, more chocolate!

Yes, more donuts!

Yes, more ice cream!

Yes, more cocktails!

Yes, more donuts!

Yes, more donuts!

Yes, more donuts!

Me in January:

Why did I drink so much wine?

Why did I eat so many sweet deliciously yummy fantastic treats?

Why did I shovel donuts in my face so often? [ok not that often, but come on]

If you haven't seen 10 Things I Hate About You, stop reading this and watch it for the love of everything teenage, angsty and cheesy.

So, here I go. I'm gonna have to start telling myself no. No thanks. No ma'am. Nope-a-dope-a-lope [you can thank Ellis the 6 yo for that one]. About 10 months ago I started a new type of weight loss journey. I started Keto dieting. Yep. The dreaded low-carb diet. Before you stop reading this because you love carbs, just give me a sec.

A friend from my church that I grew up with started doing a low carb diet and lost a lot of weight. I can't remember exactly how much, but somewhere between 75 and 100 lbs. Her health improved exponentially. [Yay Joy! You are an inspiration!] So, I figured I'd give it a try. Well, I lost almost 20 lbs in a few months! I also didn't get the afternoon sleepies that I was getting with my carb heavy diet before. I could see the fat coming off and staying off. 

So Keto diet. Here is the basic run down. It is a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet. You eat 65% fat, 25% protein, 10% net carbs [20 - 30 grams]. Think bacon, avocado, eggs, steaks, veggies, cheese...and wine! Yes, wine! But, no donuts. No pasta. No sweets.

So this is what I will be doing, along with exercise. Oh, yeah, I had knee surgery a year ago, so that has changed the whole exercise situation. More on that later.

If I found this great diet, and lost 18 lbs, why would I need to come back to this blog? Well, because I am a human being [who likes donuts] and also I just love food and baking. I missed it. And as everyone knows, dieting through the Holiday Season is just sad and depressing. Ha. OH, and I have to put on a bathing suit in front of coworkers and customers in March. Correction, March 1st. That is really not far from now. Yikes. And I gained back about 9 of those 18....sooooooooo, time to get back on it.

If you want to find out more on the Keto Diet, here are some GREAT resources:

www.ketoconnect.net - Awesome folks who live Keto, great videos and recipes

www.ketoconnect.net/ketogenic-diet/ - Learn about the diet and how it works here

www.ibreatheimhungry.com - Love her recipes

So there is a lot to unpack about this diet. If you are interested, take a look at these links above. I'm happy to answer questions too! 

More later!

Baby got back.

Yep, you read that right. Baby got back. 

Ok, maybe not this kind of "back"...Mr. Sir Mix A Lot. [Ok, maybe a little]

Who is baby, you may ask? Well, baby is me. I got back...and by back, I mean I got some pounds back. [Booooooo!] You guessed it. I gained some of the weight back, and I've actually lost some too. But a lot has happened between now and my last blog post back in September 2015. So, to give you a run down:

• I have aged 2.5 years [sniffle, sniffle, quiet sob]
• I have lost 2 lbs, then gained 9, then lost 5, then gained 2, then lost 3, then...you get it
• I have been in a wedding for the first time as a Matron of Honor [Yay Michele!]
• My kids went from 1.5 to 3.5 and 3.75 and 6 [so big!]
• We bought a house a few doors down from the in-laws
• We renovated that house...you never know how strong your marriage is until you go through a move and renovation of the house you are living in [still going strong for 9 years this year]

You get it. A lot has happened. 

It's that time of year again. Time to make the donuts...that I ate a few months ago that have taken their residence on my backside...disappear! As in the past, this blog has been my way of keeping accountable with myself. If that can help anyone else [all two of you that are reading this], that will be amazing.

So come back on occasion, and I'll share some of my adventure of losing some weight ....again! This time around, I have a new way to do it.

See you in a few days with more!

Day 36 - The Scoop on Protein

No not scoop of ice cream...although a nice scoop of salted caramel sounds great right now. I mean, the low down.  The down and dirty truth. [And the two scoops of protein powder I make my shake with...chocolate!]

Protein can come in lots of different kinds of foods!

How much protein do I need to eat to gain muscle and lose fat?

These are my two main goals - work out every day and eat more protein to help build lean muscle mass.

How much protein do I need to consume to gain muscle and lose fat? In order to up your metabolism and burn more calories per day at rest, we need to gain lean muscle mass. Right now, I have 132.1 lbs of lean muscle mass.  I need to up that. In order to do that AND lose fat, you have to be really careful. If you work out and are working at a calorie deficit [you burn more calories than you take in] to lose fat, you are less likely to gain lean muscle mass. You body needs carbs and protein to be able to rebuild muscles that have been broken down while strength training. The only way to ensure that you have enough protein to do that is to eat more!

I found this handy little table that will tell you how much protein you need to achieve goals: [from here]

So, I would say I fall into the 1-1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.  Whoa. That is a major lot of protein!  Also, protein has about 4 calories per gram, so say you weigh 150 lbs, you should eat 150-180 grams of protein a day and that translates into 600 to 720 calories out of your calorie goal. If you are working at a calorie deficit of 20% of your burned calories [lets say 1400 cals per day is your goal] that is about 43% of your caloric intake. Just keep that in mind when you are trying to figure out what protein to actually eat! If you eat high fat protein like burgers, you will blow out your calorie goal. If you eat lean protein like chicken, egg whites or whey protein shakes, you can manage your calories better.

Do I have to eat steaks every meal to get that much protein? NO!

There are lots of choices for protein. The obvious choices would be:
Eggs, Chicken, Lean Beef, Lean Pork, Fish

There are many non-meat sources of protein as well, check these out:

My favorites are peanut butter, eggs, Greek yogurt, nuts, chicken and pork tenderloin. 

When you are working out, make sure that you pair a protein with a small fat and a small carb.  This will help your body use the nutrients to their best abilities.  For example: apple with nut butter, Greek yogurt with some almonds, pork tenderloin with half a sweet potato.

Happy eating!  [I'm gonna go eat a chicken to get in a quarter of my protein intake!] soooo much protein!!!!

Day 26: 4 Weeks Already?

Yes! It's already been 4 weeks!  Craziness! I have been on my weight-loss journey for 4 weeks.  And the results? Well, that is hard to tell.

Weight Lost: 3 lbs
Inches Lost: 1.5 waist, 1 hips

So, not that great.  Sustainable, but not impressive.  I am not even going to look at how I was doing at this time on my last "journey". Ok, I did.  Ugh.

What am I doing differently?
1 - My calories are set a little higher  - not 1200 per day
2 - I'm working out at home, not the gym
3 - I haven't been logging my weekend food for most of the time [started last weekend]
4 - I'm 35, not 32  [wow what a difference 3 years makes]
5 - I have gone through 2 pregnancies, not just 1

These seem like a LOT of excuses.  And if I am honest with myself, i have been using these excuses as a crutch.  NO MORE!

I was so sad this Thursday when I weighed myself, it said I had gained back the 1.5ish I had lost last week. And I had been working out and burning at least 2500 cals each day.  So I started looking into weight fluctuations.  Did you know your weight can fluctuate from 1-15 lbs during the day and week depending on water intake, food intake, water retention, muscle soarness, and a bunch of other factors!  I had no idea.  

This has made me start thinking, what if my weight is not what I should be worried about? BINGO! Measurements!

Thank you Muffins vs. Muffintop

How totally awesome is this!  Yes, I would like to compare myself to Wonder Woman and collect my super awesome measurements on this chart!  Thank you!

In addition to measurements of my bod, I went to a gym my friend Michele goes to and got a body assessment done.  Let me tell you, it was so cool!  They give you a print out of what your bones weigh, what your fat weighs, and what your muscles weigh!  And it tells me where I should be, and even tells you how everything is distributed throughout your body.  Like I have more muscle mass in my right leg than my left, and most of my fat is located in my "trunk" which makes me feel kinda like an elephant. [Trunk is your midsection...not to be confused with junk in the trunk] But the nutritionist lady said that was normal.

So, here are my new goals.
-Reduce fat mass
-Increase muscle mass
-Lose inches

If I do all of that, my weight will naturally go down.  More to come on how to actually do that!

I'm coming for your month 2!  You are doing down!!!!

Had to, just so cute...and true