I recently posted on facebook that I had spent the day making a total of 16 meals for the freezer. I got a lot of comments on that, and many people wanted my recipes. Most of them are Trim Healthy Mama and Brianna Thomas recipes, which are copyrighted so I shouldn't post them, but they are not hard to find on pinterest or on the websites of these ladies. And really, if you are going to do monthly meals, at least in the beginning, you should use recipes that are already tried and true for your family. It would be terrible to make a lot of meals, only to find your kids hate them!
What I will do is tell you what I did:
I spent four weeks in South Korea a couple of months ago, taking care of a son who had had complications from surgery. On one of his bad days, when he spent most of his time sleeping, I decided to allow myself as much time as I wanted looking at blogs and websites on frugal and healthy living. It wasn't something I want to do often, but I must say I really enjoyed that day, and I took a lot of notes.
One thing I found on monthly meal planning was to think of 20 meals that your family really enjoys eating, then write down all the ingredients you would need to make those, and there is your grocery list. So, while I sat there that day, that's what I did.
Since I try to stay gluten and sugar free, those are the recipes I listed. I had been using them for a while, so I know which ones the kids like and don't like. I have a little meal planning notebook I bought at Michael's that helped a lot (and it's always more fun when you have something cute to use for these things).
Recently, a few blogs I follow talked about freezer meals. I used to do that a lot, but hadn't in a while. I decided to try again.
I went to the Walmart grocery site, and ordered a month's worth of groceries. Then the next morning, very early before my kids are normally awake, I went to the store and picked them up (this is a great plus of your kiddos growing up, you can leave them asleep while you run errands. I had told them the night before I was doing this. They were FINE with that! 😁 )
Once home with my groceries, I spread it all out of the table, and got started. I had picked about five meals that we will have once a week or less, depending on what's going on that week. We have junk food night where I usually buy pizza or fast food hamburgers, and Sunday nights are more snacks. Lunches are usually left overs.
I won't kid you, it was a LOT of work. I fried, boiled, baked and mixed all day, from about 10 in the morning til 3 in the afternoon. It wasn't unpleasant, just hard. I also homeschooled while doing this, but again, my children are older and mostly work on their own. I was just there to put the passwords in the computers and answer questions where needed, like "If I read this whole book (the Jungle Book) can we watch the movie?" Answer: Yes.
I tried to wash dishes as I went. One bonus of cooking this way is you can just rinse pots, pans and mixing bowls and use them over and over.
I used my own pans and also bought a very cheap pack of aluminum pans at Walmart, 10 for $5. And yes, if we don't destroy them, I will wash them and reuse them.
I wrapped in cling wrap then in foil. I sure don't want my meals ruined because they become freezer burned.
The key is, just keep at it. Your back will hurt and you will get tired, but once you are done, you have a freezer full of good meals, you won't be tempted to run for take out, and you will likely eat healthier.
The only thing you have to do is remember to set your meal out to defrost in the fridge the night before!!
Showing posts with label Keto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keto. Show all posts
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Thursday, January 4, 2018
keto diet, in detail
A man without self control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Proverbs 25:28
I have had a lot of people lately ask me to explain to them how the keto diet works, since I have had success with it. While people do it different ways, I thought I would just explain how "I" did it. I encourage you to research it yourself to find what will work for you and your lifestyle. There is so much online, it will be very easy.
As I wrote in another blog post, I was becoming an overweight, achy, tired older mom. I hurt so much, I didn't want to do anything, and that's not good when you have a houseful of young people becoming teenagers. I was spending a lot of time at the chiropractor. I was taking up to 6 ibuprofen a day, plus other pain relievers. I thought it was something I would have to live with, just a fact of hitting my 60's.
Then I saw the picture of myself, from behind.
To say I was horrified is an understatement. I googled my BMI, and found that for my small body (about 4 feet 10 inches, and small framed) the 124 pounds I weighed was over into obesity. Not much, but over. And the picture told me it was true.
I started off with Atkins, but googling things soon led me to keto. I researched, and started.
Basically, here is what the keto diet entails: you eat 5% carbs, 20% protein, and 75% fat. Yes, it's hard to believe eating that much fat works, but it does. Research will tell you the science behind it, I won't get into all that here.
The 5% carbs should come from nonstarchy vegetables. No more bread, no more pasta, absolutely NO SUGAR. No white rice. The rice was hard for me, because I dearly love it.
Eat lots of full fat hamburger meat. The skin on the chicken. Pour cream into your coffee or tea, lots of it. Put butter, real butter, not margarine, on everything. Xylitol is a wonderful sweetner. Be careful, though, too much will keep you running to the bathroom. I mix it with stevia, and it works well.
When I began, I didn't worry about calories, because everything said I shouldn't have too. I logged into myfitnesspal. I went to goals, and then edit, and I put in the above: 5% carbs, 20% protein, and 75% fat. Every morning, I went online, and logged in everything I wanted to eat that day. Then I fine tuned it. If I had too many carbs, I adjusted. Not enough fat? I adjusted.
Many people tell me that's too much trouble, and they don't want to do that. My thoughts are: how successful do you want to be? It took less than maybe 5 minutes in the morning to do this.
In the beginning, the weight dropped off swiftly. I knew from research that at first, it was going to be water weight, but hey, any drop on the scales was encouraging. I lost a lot the first month, then it began to slow. After two months, it slowed enough that I decided to trim the calories a bit. I googled how many calories it would take to maintain my goal weight, which I decided would be 100 pounds. Then I went back to myfitnesspal, goals, edit, and changed the calories to 1200.
The weight began to drop again, and after two more months, I was at my 100 pound goal weight. The last came off slowly. One thing I learned with keto, is that you can have what everyone calls a "whoosh," which is no weight loss for a while, then a sudden drop of several pounds over a day or so.
Here are a few things to watch for:
The first week is VERY hard. Sugar cravings are strong, carb cravings are strong. But after a week, two at the most, you will find that you don't really want them anymore. In fact, you will have to make yourself eat, because you lose your appetite. All the fat you are eating makes you very full.
You will need a LOT of water. Remember, you are losing water weight, especially in the beginning. At night, I would wake up, so dry mouthed and dry eyed, it almost hurt. I began to keep a quart jar of water next to my bed, and took sips during the night. That took care of that.
There is a thing called keto flu. I never got it, but a lot of people do that first two weeks. I am told licking salt will help.
Here are a couple of more things I learned:
Forget most of the "copycat" keto recipes. You can't have bread. I never found a copycat recipe that tasted like bread. It might look like bread, and feel like bread, and maybe you can make a sandwich out of it, but anything made mostly out of eggs and almond flour tastes just like that, eggs and almond flour. I couldn't fool myself into thinking it was bread. It was yucky. Maybe you will like it, I didn't.
I wasted a lot of money in the beginning, trying copycat recipes and keto recipes. My dogs got most of it. There are a few that are good, but not many. Fathead pizza and chicken crust pizza are good. I finally quit looking at keto recipes, and just ate real food. Meat, by itself, or over salads. Lots of cheese. Eggs and bacon. Just eat real food the way it's supposed to be eaten. If you want a sandwich, crunchy Romaine leaves make amazing sandwiches. Even my 11 year old daughter eats them that way sometimes now. She says the crunch makes them so good.
I did learn that Trim Healthy Mama "S" recipes work pretty well on the keto diet. Not the "E"'s though. Many of them are already logged into myfitnesspal. If they aren't, go to "recipes" and add in the one you want. Then you can log it, and find out how many carbs it has.
Once the weight was off, I began to think I could maintain just by watching calories, and bring bread and sugar back into my diet. So I reworked myfitnesspal, adding more carbs, but keeping the calories the same. I actually dropped off two more pounds, which is where I have maintained, about 98 pounds, even over Thanksgiving and Christmas. But the inflammation came back. I began to ache again. My headaches came back. So, back on keto I went.
As my weight dropped off, I continued to wear my old clothes for a while. One of my rewards was that when I got to 110 pounds, I would buy some new things. So no one noticed the weight loss in the beginning. But when I bought clothes that fit, people began to really notice, and they all thought I had lost it all suddenly, and they cautioned me and rebuked me. They were sure I was sick, or that I was hurting myself. But I knew how hard I had worked for weeks. My long, loose dresses were hiding it.
I have had to buy a whole new wardrobe, as all my old things swamped me or fell off, nearly 30 pounds later. Remember, 30 pounds on me is like much more on a taller, larger person. I got rid of almost all of my old clothes, so the weight couldn't creep back up on me.
So, there you have it all, in a nutshell. I highly encourage you to log into my fitnesspal. I don't think I could have done this without it. I encourage you to research, and learn what works for you. And most of all, I encourage you NOT TO CHEAT. Each time you do, you throw yourself out of ketosis, and basically you will be starting over.
If I left anything out, let me know, and I will add it to this post.
You can do it!!
I have had a lot of people lately ask me to explain to them how the keto diet works, since I have had success with it. While people do it different ways, I thought I would just explain how "I" did it. I encourage you to research it yourself to find what will work for you and your lifestyle. There is so much online, it will be very easy.
As I wrote in another blog post, I was becoming an overweight, achy, tired older mom. I hurt so much, I didn't want to do anything, and that's not good when you have a houseful of young people becoming teenagers. I was spending a lot of time at the chiropractor. I was taking up to 6 ibuprofen a day, plus other pain relievers. I thought it was something I would have to live with, just a fact of hitting my 60's.
Then I saw the picture of myself, from behind.
To say I was horrified is an understatement. I googled my BMI, and found that for my small body (about 4 feet 10 inches, and small framed) the 124 pounds I weighed was over into obesity. Not much, but over. And the picture told me it was true.
I started off with Atkins, but googling things soon led me to keto. I researched, and started.
Basically, here is what the keto diet entails: you eat 5% carbs, 20% protein, and 75% fat. Yes, it's hard to believe eating that much fat works, but it does. Research will tell you the science behind it, I won't get into all that here.
The 5% carbs should come from nonstarchy vegetables. No more bread, no more pasta, absolutely NO SUGAR. No white rice. The rice was hard for me, because I dearly love it.
Eat lots of full fat hamburger meat. The skin on the chicken. Pour cream into your coffee or tea, lots of it. Put butter, real butter, not margarine, on everything. Xylitol is a wonderful sweetner. Be careful, though, too much will keep you running to the bathroom. I mix it with stevia, and it works well.
When I began, I didn't worry about calories, because everything said I shouldn't have too. I logged into myfitnesspal. I went to goals, and then edit, and I put in the above: 5% carbs, 20% protein, and 75% fat. Every morning, I went online, and logged in everything I wanted to eat that day. Then I fine tuned it. If I had too many carbs, I adjusted. Not enough fat? I adjusted.
Many people tell me that's too much trouble, and they don't want to do that. My thoughts are: how successful do you want to be? It took less than maybe 5 minutes in the morning to do this.
In the beginning, the weight dropped off swiftly. I knew from research that at first, it was going to be water weight, but hey, any drop on the scales was encouraging. I lost a lot the first month, then it began to slow. After two months, it slowed enough that I decided to trim the calories a bit. I googled how many calories it would take to maintain my goal weight, which I decided would be 100 pounds. Then I went back to myfitnesspal, goals, edit, and changed the calories to 1200.
The weight began to drop again, and after two more months, I was at my 100 pound goal weight. The last came off slowly. One thing I learned with keto, is that you can have what everyone calls a "whoosh," which is no weight loss for a while, then a sudden drop of several pounds over a day or so.
Here are a few things to watch for:
The first week is VERY hard. Sugar cravings are strong, carb cravings are strong. But after a week, two at the most, you will find that you don't really want them anymore. In fact, you will have to make yourself eat, because you lose your appetite. All the fat you are eating makes you very full.
You will need a LOT of water. Remember, you are losing water weight, especially in the beginning. At night, I would wake up, so dry mouthed and dry eyed, it almost hurt. I began to keep a quart jar of water next to my bed, and took sips during the night. That took care of that.
There is a thing called keto flu. I never got it, but a lot of people do that first two weeks. I am told licking salt will help.
Here are a couple of more things I learned:
Forget most of the "copycat" keto recipes. You can't have bread. I never found a copycat recipe that tasted like bread. It might look like bread, and feel like bread, and maybe you can make a sandwich out of it, but anything made mostly out of eggs and almond flour tastes just like that, eggs and almond flour. I couldn't fool myself into thinking it was bread. It was yucky. Maybe you will like it, I didn't.
I wasted a lot of money in the beginning, trying copycat recipes and keto recipes. My dogs got most of it. There are a few that are good, but not many. Fathead pizza and chicken crust pizza are good. I finally quit looking at keto recipes, and just ate real food. Meat, by itself, or over salads. Lots of cheese. Eggs and bacon. Just eat real food the way it's supposed to be eaten. If you want a sandwich, crunchy Romaine leaves make amazing sandwiches. Even my 11 year old daughter eats them that way sometimes now. She says the crunch makes them so good.
I did learn that Trim Healthy Mama "S" recipes work pretty well on the keto diet. Not the "E"'s though. Many of them are already logged into myfitnesspal. If they aren't, go to "recipes" and add in the one you want. Then you can log it, and find out how many carbs it has.
Once the weight was off, I began to think I could maintain just by watching calories, and bring bread and sugar back into my diet. So I reworked myfitnesspal, adding more carbs, but keeping the calories the same. I actually dropped off two more pounds, which is where I have maintained, about 98 pounds, even over Thanksgiving and Christmas. But the inflammation came back. I began to ache again. My headaches came back. So, back on keto I went.
As my weight dropped off, I continued to wear my old clothes for a while. One of my rewards was that when I got to 110 pounds, I would buy some new things. So no one noticed the weight loss in the beginning. But when I bought clothes that fit, people began to really notice, and they all thought I had lost it all suddenly, and they cautioned me and rebuked me. They were sure I was sick, or that I was hurting myself. But I knew how hard I had worked for weeks. My long, loose dresses were hiding it.
I have had to buy a whole new wardrobe, as all my old things swamped me or fell off, nearly 30 pounds later. Remember, 30 pounds on me is like much more on a taller, larger person. I got rid of almost all of my old clothes, so the weight couldn't creep back up on me.
So, there you have it all, in a nutshell. I highly encourage you to log into my fitnesspal. I don't think I could have done this without it. I encourage you to research, and learn what works for you. And most of all, I encourage you NOT TO CHEAT. Each time you do, you throw yourself out of ketosis, and basically you will be starting over.
If I left anything out, let me know, and I will add it to this post.
You can do it!!
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Feingold, again
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
Our family is going back to the all natural, "Feingold diet" to help one of my kiddos again. We- well, I - bagged up all the left over cereal, granola bars, and chocolate syrup and tossed it. I put all white flour and sugar on a top shelf that needs a ladder to reach it. I am determined to do this, and help my child without medication if it's at all possible.
We were already basically on this diet because of how I have been eating. What's changed is that I won't be buying anything AT ALL with corn syrup and artificial coloring's and preservatives anymore, once again.
So the kids were lamenting this (no more candy, no more ice cream, we are going to die of a boring diet) - especially the one who has caused this change - while we drove to the bank, where, of COURSE, they gave them a large bag of chocolate for Halloween, which we take no part in, anyway! The kids were delighted. This is your last hurrah, I told them. Eat it and be done.
We went to the Family Nutrition Store to buy supplements. While standing in one place in the isle, I saw no less than THREE friends. I hardly knew who to talk to, but I saw friend Rebecca first, so I talked to her. Then I went to friend Sarah, who was in the isle I wanted, the children's supplements. As we caught up, she suddenly said, "You have lost a LOT of weight!"
Oh, yeah! I had forgotten how I must have changed since the last time I saw her. 20% of my body weight gone IS a lot...
I am grateful that I have been able to maintain this new weight. I have been carefully adding back a few things. Tonight, I was COLD and tired, and since I had hardly had any carbs all day, I ate a small bowl of oatmeal with blueberries for dinner, and a cup of hot ginger lemon tea. I haven't had oatmeal in over six months, and it tasted wonderful!
I put on my warm PJ's early ( no visitors tonight, please), and I plan to crochet and read the night away, while other people are out celebrating Halloween. I am thankful to live at the end of a long country road, far away from all that activity.
So the kids were lamenting this (no more candy, no more ice cream, we are going to die of a boring diet) - especially the one who has caused this change - while we drove to the bank, where, of COURSE, they gave them a large bag of chocolate for Halloween, which we take no part in, anyway! The kids were delighted. This is your last hurrah, I told them. Eat it and be done.
We went to the Family Nutrition Store to buy supplements. While standing in one place in the isle, I saw no less than THREE friends. I hardly knew who to talk to, but I saw friend Rebecca first, so I talked to her. Then I went to friend Sarah, who was in the isle I wanted, the children's supplements. As we caught up, she suddenly said, "You have lost a LOT of weight!"
Oh, yeah! I had forgotten how I must have changed since the last time I saw her. 20% of my body weight gone IS a lot...
I am grateful that I have been able to maintain this new weight. I have been carefully adding back a few things. Tonight, I was COLD and tired, and since I had hardly had any carbs all day, I ate a small bowl of oatmeal with blueberries for dinner, and a cup of hot ginger lemon tea. I haven't had oatmeal in over six months, and it tasted wonderful!
I put on my warm PJ's early ( no visitors tonight, please), and I plan to crochet and read the night away, while other people are out celebrating Halloween. I am thankful to live at the end of a long country road, far away from all that activity.
Maybe I will have more ginger lemon tea! With Xylitol, instead of sugar!
- God is light, and there is no darkness in Him. 1 John 1:5
Monday, June 12, 2017
Keto diet
Sometimes we can get too comfortable with our lifestyle, and not take as good of care of ourselves as we should. It works ok when we are younger, but as we age, it can hit us pretty hard...
For me, after being very healthy all my life, moving into my 60's pulled me up short. I am sure a lot of it was the stress we have gone through, some of it is genetic, but some of it also was just not trying hard enough. And I had always felt like I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle.
Arthritis has taken a toll on my hands and especially my feet. When my feet were bad enough that my chiropractor suggested if I didn't do something, I would end up crippled, I went to a podiatrist. I found out there I had a broken bone - a stress fracture, and I also had severe arthritis in my feet.
So I tried several things, apple cider vinegar, which works better than you can imagine, diet, supplements, so on. It helped, but I was still in a lot of pain.
I researched and researched. It all kept coming back to diet, supplements and....weight loss.
Gulp...
Okay, while I wasn't WAY over weight, a BMI check showed me that I was, in fact, on the wrong side. Barely, but over. And at 124 pounds, my 4 foot 10 inch frame was at the highest weight I have ever been unless I was pregnant.
During all this, son Beau dragged me off to the half price book store, and while he browsed, I picked up a copy of the Atkins Diet. Beau himself had lost a lot of weight with this diet as a young boy. Since the book was only about $2, I bought it, and started the diet after Beau headed back off to Colorado.
Seeing a picture of myself from the back made me more determined than ever. I didn't realize I looked like that...
The first four or so days were kind of hard, but I kept remembering that picture...
After four days, I quit craving sugar. After a week, I wasn't hungry anymore, and had to make myself eat.
I was very strict, and only cheated twice, because of my birthday. And I did that very small. One cupcake, one very small ice cream dessert.
I bought keto strips three weeks into it. Those let me know how well I was doing, and inspired me to do better.
I found a facebook group called "low carb and loving it" which is helping me tremendously.
On that site, in the files, I found a four week meal plan, which so far, has been so good. It has the shopping list all planned out, and the recipes are delicious. Even my kids are eating them.
I lost 6 pounds the first two weeks, then stalled. For two more weeks, I didn't lose anything, although I was pretty sure I was losing inches. It occured to me that although I was low carb and in Ketosis, I was eating a LOT of meat and cheese and those have a lot of calories. So I downloaded an app on my phone, and now I track carbs AND calories. My weight loss started back up, and this past week, I have lost two more pounds.
Friend Irene would be so proud of me! She challenged me to lose back down to 100 pounds. We shall see. 105 is my goal.
And no, that's not too low, according to the BMI scale, that's about half way in the middle for someone my size.
So what do I have to show for all this? More energy. More clarity. Better sleep.
And less pain. I have gone from one Excedrin and six Advil's a day, to one or two Advil's a week - maybe. And that's huge!!
My next goal is to get this figured out enough to feed all of us this way. The kids like most of the food so far. I need to get more recipes for desserts, and I think I will have them hooked!
If you have tried this diet before, I would love to hear your experiences!!
For me, after being very healthy all my life, moving into my 60's pulled me up short. I am sure a lot of it was the stress we have gone through, some of it is genetic, but some of it also was just not trying hard enough. And I had always felt like I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle.
Arthritis has taken a toll on my hands and especially my feet. When my feet were bad enough that my chiropractor suggested if I didn't do something, I would end up crippled, I went to a podiatrist. I found out there I had a broken bone - a stress fracture, and I also had severe arthritis in my feet.
So I tried several things, apple cider vinegar, which works better than you can imagine, diet, supplements, so on. It helped, but I was still in a lot of pain.
I researched and researched. It all kept coming back to diet, supplements and....weight loss.
Gulp...
Okay, while I wasn't WAY over weight, a BMI check showed me that I was, in fact, on the wrong side. Barely, but over. And at 124 pounds, my 4 foot 10 inch frame was at the highest weight I have ever been unless I was pregnant.
During all this, son Beau dragged me off to the half price book store, and while he browsed, I picked up a copy of the Atkins Diet. Beau himself had lost a lot of weight with this diet as a young boy. Since the book was only about $2, I bought it, and started the diet after Beau headed back off to Colorado.
Seeing a picture of myself from the back made me more determined than ever. I didn't realize I looked like that...
The first four or so days were kind of hard, but I kept remembering that picture...
After four days, I quit craving sugar. After a week, I wasn't hungry anymore, and had to make myself eat.
I was very strict, and only cheated twice, because of my birthday. And I did that very small. One cupcake, one very small ice cream dessert.
I bought keto strips three weeks into it. Those let me know how well I was doing, and inspired me to do better.
I found a facebook group called "low carb and loving it" which is helping me tremendously.
On that site, in the files, I found a four week meal plan, which so far, has been so good. It has the shopping list all planned out, and the recipes are delicious. Even my kids are eating them.
I lost 6 pounds the first two weeks, then stalled. For two more weeks, I didn't lose anything, although I was pretty sure I was losing inches. It occured to me that although I was low carb and in Ketosis, I was eating a LOT of meat and cheese and those have a lot of calories. So I downloaded an app on my phone, and now I track carbs AND calories. My weight loss started back up, and this past week, I have lost two more pounds.
Friend Irene would be so proud of me! She challenged me to lose back down to 100 pounds. We shall see. 105 is my goal.
And no, that's not too low, according to the BMI scale, that's about half way in the middle for someone my size.
So what do I have to show for all this? More energy. More clarity. Better sleep.
And less pain. I have gone from one Excedrin and six Advil's a day, to one or two Advil's a week - maybe. And that's huge!!
My next goal is to get this figured out enough to feed all of us this way. The kids like most of the food so far. I need to get more recipes for desserts, and I think I will have them hooked!
If you have tried this diet before, I would love to hear your experiences!!
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