Catching up--get used to it!

Yeah, well, maybe it would have been fair to warn you that I'm a flighty blog-keeper.  Sometimes I feel like posting a lot.  More often I start doing other things and then remember this exists.

In any case, it was way more important to spend a lot of time with my daughter before she went away to college and once we got back from dropping her off I had to attend to all the other things I put off while we were getting ready.

It was my goal to go pretty low-carb for about a month and I made it just about through August.  But I had every intention of being very liberal with carbs when I got close to Katie leaving.  I wanted to make a lot of her homemade favs and hit a few restaurants we like and then, during drop off, I knew we would have to be eating some school and restaurant food.

When I'm on a food program, I try to make better and conscious food choices.  On a menu, I try to make the best selection I can from the choices I have.  If I think I'll be indulging, I try to pick my times and keep to the plan for the rest of the day.

This has worked out pretty well.  I kept asking myself "is this what I want to spend my carbs on?"  The answer has been yes for cookies and tarts at a reception; tuna casserole; fruit; a doughnut from the Apple House; real NY style pizza; papdum and maybe the sauces at an Indian restaurant; packaged peanut butter and some things I've forgotten but you get the idea.  Not worth it to me were rice; bread; crap pizza; ice cream; chocolate milk; candy and a bunch of other carby things.

Lots of cheat days! I even skipped a couple of workouts!  Still, the bloating has remained at bay, I enjoyed many good times with my family and I even lost a few more pounds (about 5lbs total now).

In other news, I made two kinds of Cloud Bread.  The original recipe was good but then I found one for a loaf of cloud bread and I tried that one. Both were pretty good.  Have to say I like them better right out of the oven, they seem to taste eggier once refrigerated.  But everyone here liked them overall and I was nice to bite into something bready for a change. Not hard to make, but I do need my mixer which means hauling out the ten-ton Kitchen Aid. I'll make it every now and then. It sure is pretty out of the oven.

Bulletproof coffee, cheating and Food Diary 8/13

Been seeing a lot of references to Bulletproof Coffee in low carb menus and articles online and I wanted to find out what it is and all the fuss around it. First, it seems like there are a lot of individual butter coffee recipes out there AND there is an official (and seemingly pricey) "real" Bulletproof Coffee that has branded oil and coffee products. 

I was skeptical of the brand and its claims and came across THIS article that confirmed my thinking on a "miracle coffee" offering too good to be true results.  I'm also not interested in anything that would have me lose 1lb a day.  That sounds way bad for a body and I could just image how my face would sag lol!  This Old Liz's skin needs time to get used and adjust to body changes! And is regular caffeine intake a good idea for a diet that tends to dehydrate?

As far as the recipe, I tried a lungo coffee Americano from my Nespresso machine (Envivo lungo pod with two lungo pulls) with a Tbs each of unsalted butter (Kerrigold) and organic coconut oil.  I've also seen butter with half and half, with MCT oil, and salted butter. I also used a hand blender for a quick mix up--that means a little frother I have, not my electric stick blender.

It was....fine. I didn't taste any coconut flavor which for me was a good thing. I've had problems with a lot of oil at one time and I think this might be bearing out here too, but nothing alarming.  I might try the butter/half and half on a day I think I will need to ward off hunger pangs.  In the past, caffeine has helped with this and on days when I really need to run around and will get a late lunch that has been helpful.  I think this might have tased better with coffee rather than espresso.

Katie and I are interested in trying butter tea (mentioned in the article linked above), which sounds like it might be a better combo with butter.  Will be ordering some more unsalted butter from the farmer this week so we can experiment.

With all the bulletproof coffee talk I see around the internet, I feel sure that we'll be seeing butter coffee on cafe menus any time now.

Will let you know any results from my consumption of this concoction in tomorrows posting of today's food log.


Food Diary Stuff--8/13
Just to clarify again, I post food diaries at least a day later so I can include the whole day.
 
I decided I'd be fine with "cheats" from the start. I knew weekends would be the toughest, since we tend to eat out or on the run. Not going crazy--especially in this first month, but also not stressing over every little thing.  BUT--one cheat I didn't plan on and was not worth it.

Late breakfast around 10am
2 eggs scrambled with some cheddar cheese shredded on top

Lunch-out
Went to DRP for lunch I love their Belle Haven salad and added some grilled chicken to it, cheated a bit with the dried cranberries in the salad since they are always sweetened.

Snack
Handful of wasabi almonds
5 prunes--THESE were the big cheat I didn't plan on. Looked at the label and WOW a lot of carbs, most of them sugar.  I guess I thought the fiber would balance it out.  So, not crazy off the ranch cheat (not processed crap) but not worth the extra carbs imo. No more prunes for me.

Dinner--I liked this, my kids (older teens) did not
Chicken thighs with smoked paprika, onion powder and salt with a sour cream/pan drippings gravy.
Broccoli Slaw with nuts and seeds and dried cranberries-this was a mix that i didn't realize had the cranberries, which I could have skipped.  I made a dressing of mayo, lemon juice and garlic powder.

Lowish not no/possible effects on the family/Food Diary 8/10

Sometimes I'll be filling this in throughout the day and publishing later, so I may screw up the verb tense as I go along.

Breakfast
3 egg omelette with leftover veg from dinner-mushrooms, onions, asparagus
handful of blueberries

Snack?
Coffee with half and half with a friend.

Lunch
Leftover steak from dinner
Baybelle cheese

Weird full/not full feeling so decided to wait and see if the desire to eat more subsided.
Still peckish a half hour later so had
5 pitted prunes.
That seems to have done the trick--also, not a good idea to eat too many prunes!

Dinner
Ordered in because we all got in so late.  I used Foodler to order from Namaste, a Nepalese restaurant (similar to Indian food).

Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Curry
Saag (creamed spinach) with chickpeas

I had some of each and skipped the rice and naan that came with the meal.

I haven't been including non-veg carbs with dinner lately, figuring the family was probably getting enough throughout the day. This isn't very uncommon even pre-low carb for me.  Zack has also been having trouble sleeping through the night.  Not exactly aligned with my food changes, but he really loaded up on the rice last night so it will be interesting to hear if he slept better last night. If so, I might need to adjust the dinner menu for the family.

Read up a bit on low carb, high fat diets (LCHF) online last night and this morning.  I've been doing what I usually do when I make a diet change--just going with my intuition at first.  So, I learned I've been on a moderate low carb diet and certainly not a no carb, tho some meals probably have been no carb. Apparently, I've been eating too much of "nature's candy" (fruit), oh well.

That's all fine with me, but still worth reading about.  Learned that there can be side effects and that most of the ones I've been experiencing are likely from not drinking enough water (typical for me anyway) and possibly low salt intake. Salt intake is tricky for me.  My homeopath/MD told me to up the salt, but because I can get vertigo, the ENT docs tell me to limit the salt.  Since I haven't been having a problem with vertigo lately, I will probably up the salt a bit and it's good to know to keep an eye on it.

The only positive I feel so far is the lack of that bloated feeling.  My clothes still fit the same and I only weigh myself on Fridays so have no idea if that's changed yet. But one day in and I didn't feel all blown up and if that's the only benefit, it's worth it!

I try not to stress about food.  Having to prepare meals is a really stressful activity in and of itself for me, so I try not to pile on or I end up really being mindless about what I eat. I don't have a carb intake goal, a target weight (not really, though I always have a number I'd love to get back down to, I try to ignore it!) and I have no intention of doing this perfectly or not going back to the occasional slice of pizza, baguette or bowl of pasta.

As one of the sites I've looked at said: "Don't eat processed crap." Good enough long-term goal for me ;-)

Food Diary 8/9

Breakfast
Plain whole milk yogurt with figs and pecans

Lunch
Leftover crab legs

Dinner 
Steak, sauteed asparagus, onions and mushrooms

Felt very snacky and hungry after lunch, lots of walking around the kitchen and looking into the fridge and pantry.
Snacks throughout the day
handful of wasabi almonds
blueberries
cherry tomatoes
coffee with a lot of half and half

Not eating anything after 8pm was especially hard.

Was planning to make bean soup for tonight but found out that there is barley mixed in with the beans I bought. Grrr.  Normally I wouldn't care, but not in the first couple of weeks of limiting carbs.  If I was going to be cheating, barley is not the fist thing I'd be grabbing!