Being accountable to myself

So this is where I start to get serious about being accountable to myself. I am going to log some of my meals, some of my stats for fats/proteins/carbs, and report on the challenges and successes of eating out while eating Keto. Not sure yet what my organization is going to be for this, or weather I will stick with the same thing from week to week. We will just have to see how this evolves. 

So my start to Keto was this week, Monday 3/19/2018. My nutritionist asked me to start keeping a food diary. Are you serious??? I couldn't even keep up with my little Anne Frank Diary with the little lock on it when I was 8 years old, and now I have to keep a food diary??? Well, I wont bore you with every single day and every single meal... but I will do my best to give a good idea of what I am doing and if its working or not. Please, if you are more experienced with Keto, feel free to leave me suggestions and comments. But please remember, I am under a nutritionists guidance for this, and she has her own way of doing things. Also, be nice. If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all. I am by no means an expert at this or many other things in life. There is enough hate and bullying in the world. I would like this to be a positive place for me and others. So here we go...

Monday

• Breakfast: 1 cup almond milk, 1 scoop Slim & Sassy V Shake from Doterra, 1 Scoop Intest Restore Vanilla from Energy Health, scrambled egg. 

This went pretty well, although I need to use more almond milk in my shake and I am not sure about the scrambled egg. I only ate half because I was just not hungry for it. But I need to get some more fat into this breakfast. I included the link for the Doterra V Shake. I am a Doterra consultant, so I would love if you purchased from me, however you can order from whomever you like. This just happens to be the protein powder I had in my pantry this week and next week might be something totally different. According to my nutritionist, the macros for this particular shake were ok for what she is wanting me to consume, so I thought it was a good opportunity to use it up. If your curious about essential oils in general or Doterra, feel free to ask me questions or shoot me an email.

• Lunch: Chicken Swedish Meatballs from Ikea (don't laugh, its what was left over from dinner this weekend and not a normal item for us), roasted sliced zucchini,  sweet potato tots (again, leftovers gotta eat them), 1cup blueberries raw, 1 cup green tea.

This went pretty well. I know sweet potatoes are not on the menu for Keto, but they were left over in the fridge and we were trying to finish them off. 

• Dinner: Home made cobb salad, with paleo dressing. mixed greens, bacon, hard boiled eggs, chicken fingers seasoned and cooked in skillet, chopped red pepper and avocado. Here is the link for the Whole30 Paleo Cobb Salad recipe with dressing too.

This went well. I will try to find the link for this salad and post it here for you. We use Primal Kitchen Mayo which is paleo friendly. For all you taking Metformin out there, my mom says mayo gives her tummy troubles, but this mayo doesn't seem to do the same to me. It seems to be pretty safe. 

• Snacks: I had a handful of dry roasted and salted sunflower seeds when I got home from work, as well as 1cup almond milk with 1 scoop of Collagen Fuel Chocolate Coconut flavored.  (this was mostly because I was starving and didn't snack well today. The collagen fuel makes a nice sweet snack. This may become a staple in the cabinet from now on.)

So my first day went well, but of course there were things I need to work on. This was also the first day using the My Fitness Pal app to track all my foods. It was surprisingly easy to enter foods. After playing around with the app I decided to do the 30 day trial for the full version to see if it would help with measuring protein, fat and carb content in my meals. OMG, its totally worth the upgrade! I will post some screen shots here to show you how awesome it is. I love the graphs, and the macros that it shoes me. I am still learning how to use the app, but its really helpful. 
So as the week went on, my breakfast is pretty much the same. I think I ate an egg on Tuesday as well before drinking my smoothie. However, on Thursday and Friday, I opted to add a spoonful of almond butter to my smoothie instead of eating an egg. I am super sleepy in the mornings. No matter how well I sleep, I have a lot of trouble getting out of bed. So I need my breakfast during the week to be super easy and fast, otherwise my husband will have to take over making breakfast for me and he already does most of the house work and chores, so I feel bad making him get up early to make me breakfast too. 
I am a super lucky girl. I really don't deserve my husband. He is amazing and I am beyond grateful that he has joined me on this journey. What I eat, he eats. Although he does not need to loose as much weight as me, so his snacks and breakfasts may look a tad different then mine. 

I wont bore you with every detail of every day of my meals. Breakfast is mostly the same for me as stated previously, my lazy ass is still half asleep while making breakfast in the mornings. Lunches most days will be left overs from the night before. Although this week was a little different. I did eat out a couple of times for lunch and made a few mistakes in ordering, but I didn't beat myself up about it, because what is life without mistakes. Life is messy and I won't allow myself to feel guilty or unsuccessful for making one mistake or 10 mistakes on this meal plan. If you allow yourself to feel guilty every time you make a mistake while trying to make dramatic changes to your eating habits, you are setting yourself up for failure in my opinion. This is where the door opens to say to yourself, "well I messed up again, I can't do this. May as well eat that piece of cake I wanted." 
Well, that's not how I roll. I don't dwell on the mistakes. I pick myself up each time and get back on the horse immediately so to speak. That is how I learn from my mistakes and move forward. 
So here goes the rest of the week in a nutshell:

Tuesday

• Dinner: burger bowls. Simple paleo meal. Make hamburger patties, toss on your favorite salad and dress it anyway you see fit within the guidelines of paleo/keto. 

Wednesday

• Dinner: I was at a friends house working on a super secret crafty quilting and crochet project for super special new mom. So we were working late and went to dinner at one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants. I ordered what is essentially a Korean beef Bolgogi bowl (no clue if I am even spelling that correctly). I had them hold the rice and give extra veggies. This was not the worst but also not the best meal for me for 2 reasons. 1. there were carrots in the veggies which is not really a compliant food for keto and 2. the meat is prepared in an Asian sauce that I believe has some soy sauce which resulted in my feet swelling to the point I had cankles by the time I got home. Opps. Live and learn. But darn it if I don't love that menu item!

Thursday

• Lunch: crazy work day, so I ate at the same restaurant as dinner last night. I ordered the orange chicken bowl this time no carrots, no rice, add extra chicken and a fried egg. This was a way better meal for me, although the sauce is still pretty sweet tasting so probably not the most compliant thing for Keto. Again, live and learn. 
• Dinner: Keto Tuscan Chicken substitute the cream and Parmesan cheese for dairy free equivalents. This recipe is awesome!

Friday

• Dinner: Keto Chicken Enchilada Bowl This recipe was super easy and fast to make and ridiculously yummy! OMG, this recipe reminds me of my days in West Texas eating real Mexican border food! We even fried up a couple of eggs real quick to throw on top just like my friend Michelle taught me one night in her kitchen making real traditional enchiladas. This recipe won't disappoint if your looking for a good compliant Mexican dish!

Saturday

• Lunch: There is a nice new little eatery that opened up about 1 block from my house. So I ran down there to catch up with a friend who checked in there at lunch. I didn't anticipate eating there, but as I watched their food come out I decided I could make a keto meal there. This place is called Grassroots Kitchen and Oh my gerd! Its good stuff. I love that one of the chef's is also GF and DF do she understands my dietary issues. I ordered brisket, hold the corn bread, hold the sauce. Sides included collards and sauteed spinach with garlic. I could have also gotten cole slaw, but I figured most cole slaw has a spoon full of sugar in the dressing, so I opted for the safer spinach. I had a lovely lunch catching up with my former co-worker and her family and also with the chef's of this tiny neighborhood restaurant. 
• Dinner: My lovely bearded husband was busy working hard on finishing our fence all day. So by the time I got home from a fundraising party for the lovely Winker couple and their Mission trip, It was after 6pm and no one felt like cooking. So we went to eat at one of our favorite dinner spots, Mudhen. Its a locally owned farm to table restaurant. We both had the Loco Moco which is basically a burger bowl, but somehow always tastes better when someone else prepares it. 

So that's about it for today. I started out this journey at 280# about a month ago. And as of Friday morning the scale read 268.5# I know that number will fluctuate a little more before we see it stay below 270, but I am pretty happy about this baby step. If you have read this far, then I hope you will read again soon. Thank you for following me on this journey. Thank you for your support and positive encouragement. I hope you have a wonderful evening. 

God bless you and goodnight. 

Cece