Category Archives: Successful dieting

Day 281: Update on progress, 39 pounds off

Total weight loss: 39 pounds

In case you think I have fallen off the keto wagon, I have not. I have simply been overwhelmed by life and far too busy to blog. There is no chance for me to catch up on my daily progress, but here’s a recap:

When last I blogged, it was on the cusp of my son’s wedding. I blogged just before the celebratory dinners began. For the week or so before/after the wedding, I had cheat meals galore. In fact, I was off the plan.

The next week (the end of August), I started afresh. Before going off the keto plan, I had lost 38 pounds. I weighed myself before starting back on the plan, and was sad to see I had gained 4 pounds during my cheat fest. Sigh, back into the routine I went.

I stayed on the plan through September and October. Each week, I saw slow progress: 1.5 pounds down, .5 pounds up, 1 pounds down, .5 pounds up, etc. etc. No consistent loss or huge drops in my weight, but I did have at least one-two cheat meals or days a week (planned, and unplanned, depending on the week).

At my weigh in last Saturday, all the weight I gained in August was gone, plus one pound – total 5 pounds lost in September and 3 weeks of October. WHEW!

As an added bonus, I am in one size smaller in my work slacks. For some reason (the cut of the pants or whatever), I have not been able to get in a smaller size all these months. In jeans, I dropped a size long ago. Well, whatever the reason, the pants fit, so I must not quit. [bad pun, sorry]

There isn’t much to report from the past week. I have no new recipes or food ideas, and my meals have been somewhat boring, so I will begin my daily meal journal with tomorrow’s blog.

Oh, one thing I do have to report: I’ve had a stupendous amount of energy! From dawn til dusk, I’m going going going, and feel great! I guess a nearly 40-pound weight loss can relieve the body of  a lot of stress. I know if I pick up something that weighs 40-50 pounds, I appreciate how heavy that is.  I think it’s time to work more exercise into my routine. I feel very healthy now, and that will speed up weight loss and make me feel more energetic as well.

Goals – I’d like to get back to more inspirational meals. I’m going to spend this weekend investigating new ideas. I’m also thinking about recording my meals in myfitnesspal.com again and getting more regimented in my intake. I have been estimating carbs based on the fact that I’ve been doing it so long. I’d like to see how much leeway I’ve been allowing myself by not recording every meal in a food calculator.

Six months on Keto: thoughts and resolutions

Total weight loss: 35 pounds

For anything to be successful, one needs to look back over the successes and failures to plan for a better future.

Things I’ve learned:

Plan meals in advance

Always have keto-friendly snacks on hand

Always have keto-friendly cooking ingredients on hand

Remember which cheat meals didn’t satisfy

Keep a list of fast food keto-friendly foods in mind

Look at bread, rice, buns, tortillas, pasta, cakes, cookies, donuts, and other high carb food and think negative thoughts: “how pasty looking that is,” “it looks good, but it’ll make me feel lethargic and half-dead after I eat it,” “that rice under Chinese or Indian food, will make me gain, and really doesn’t have much flavor; cauliflower rice tastes just as good”

Even if you eat twice the amount of almonds you’ve planned, it’s still better than potato chips

Cheat meals/days must be thought out VERY carefully. Pick something that will really satisfy you and allow you to keep on the keto plan longer

Drink lots and lots and lots of water

Drinking no-carb alcohol may be okay, but keep it in limits. Over indulging makes me gain water weight and being drunk makes me really tempted to binge on whatever high carb party food is on the table.

There is ALMOST ALWAYS SOMETHING YOU CAN EAT in a fast food place or restaurant. For example, what about chicken marsala in an Italian place?

And there is usually some salad option anywhere you are. Burger joints, just remove the bun.

Mexican and Chinese restaurants give me the most difficulty, because any low carb option is not the reason I would go to the restaurant in the first place.

If you MUST go to a Chinese buffet (I attended a funeral dinner at one), you can find options, but they probably aren’t going to be your favorite General Tso’s. How about the salad bar choices? eggs? the insides of eggrolls, and I even ate the insides only of crab rangoons. Leaves quite a pile of discarded shells on the plate and look like you really waste food.

That’s all I can think of right now, but these ideas have helped me realize the first real weight loss I’ve achieved in more than 15 years! YAY KETO!

Cheez-its? Taco shells? I’m all set, thanks.

I’ve never been a big bread eater, but chips are another thing. I love nacho chips, not for their own sake, but because they are such a convenient way to transport various dips into my mouth.

I was wondering how I would handle not having snack foods on the keto plan. I’m the type who often orders an appetizer as a dessert. I love cheesy artichoke dip, salsas, guac, and all those yummy good things that can’t just be eaten with a spoon.

Then I remembered trying this idea years ago: drop grated cheese into several small mounds on parchment paper and bake in the oven. Well, I don’t even have the patience for that, so finding this recipe on the “Sin or slim” website helped buoy my spirits. Just nuke the cheese!

Even more exciting was finding that provolone slices can be heated in the microwave (again, on parchment paper) and folded in half after heating makes them the perfect shape to use as taco shells!

Credit should be given to the reddit.com “keto” subgroup: http://www.reddit.com/r/keto/. The redditors are so supportive of fellow keto noobies, that most of my questions were answered just through their comments.

More about pulled pork tacos later.