Hellobee Boards

How was everyone’s thanksgiving? I gave myself the day off yesterday and ate whTever i wanted but I’m not too large of quantities. Back on track today. What surprised me though is that the food wasn’t as satisfying as I remembered

I ate pretty keto yesterday. I made a full Thanksgiving dinner for family, but I made some low carb things for me. Keto stuffing, cauli mash, bacony green beans with toasted almonds, turkey, and sugar free cranberry sauce. I made some low carb lemon raspberry cheesecake so I had a slice of that and a few glasses of wine. I also ate a low carb cookie later on when people were having a second round of dessert. I was definitely over my calories the last two days (I felt really snacky while cooking the night before), but I just aimed at keeping things low carb and didn't actually go over THAT much. I'm up on the scale today, but I'm certain it's because I've been awful about drinking water this week. Gotta flush all this stuff out!

Today, we had a family day with our visitors. I made pancakes, sausage, and eggs and I ate with everyone and even heated up some leftover low carb pancakes I made last week. Then for lunch I had a burger bowl at Five Guys. Tonight we have a make your own salad bar and turkey soup at home with the leftover carcass and meat. I'm going to eat a little salad and then DH wants to take me for sashimi after the boys are in bed (free babysitters!).

@WinterBee: woot that's awesome! I am definitely a night snacker, so the whole intermittent fasting thing is super hard for me!

I went up and down the same 1.5lb over Thanksgiving so I'm at a net neutral for the holiday. I kept it keto but went over my calories a bit for 2 days. I meal prepped all my lunches tonight and made bone broth and bacon too, so I should be set to stay on target the rest of the week.

I'm thinking of doing a strict keto fast with no desserts or sweeteners for like 2-3 days because I think just having the keto treats the last few days has been waking the sweets monster. I'll see how I feel tomorrow just eating normally and see if I have to go that far.

Does anyone know if there are any keto “crackers” I can buy at the store? I’m dying for something crunchy and I don’t have time to cook before work today!

@gingerbebe: awesome thanks! I think he pork rinds will be perfect!

@gotkimchi: I have 2 versions I use most often.

The first is the classic Bulletproof coffee - coffee plus a tablespoon of butter or ghee, a tablespoon of collagen powder (currently I use Great Lakes), and 1 tablespoon of MCT oil (I currently use Bulletproof Brain Octane). You blend it up in the blender or just use a hand frother if you don't want to bother. I also add some kind of sugar free Torani syrup to sweeten it up.

The second kind I make is Healthful Pursuit's Rocket Fuel Latte, which doesn't use a dairy/ghee base, but uses raw cacao butter and hemp hearts. You use a tablespoon of each plus MCT oil and collagen and blend it in a high power blender (I use my Vitamix).

I bought a bunch of stuff on Cyber Monday deals, so I'm getting Perfect Keto's collagen/MCT oil powder in the mail soon. MCT oil powder is supposed to mix in creamy without the need for a blender and it doesn't create the GI issue a lot of users have (they get the runs). MCT oil is derived from coconut oil, so if you don't want to buy that as a product, you can just add coconut oil.

Plenty of people just use butter and coffee and that's fine too. On days I don't do a Bulletproof, I just make coffee with heavy cream and it holds me for a few hours.

@gotkimchi: I find that shirataki noodles work better in Asian preps like stirfry or in soups (pho, ramen, etc). They're also good in cold noodle salad preps. I like them in that Egg Roll in a Bowl recipe I posted above.

But I've also gotten used to their texture and I've eaten them as a pasta replacement from time to time.

@gotkimchi: For BPC I use butter, coconut oil and heavy cream. Then blend it in our nutribullet. It’s creamy, frothy, easy and delicious!

End of the month weigh in results: I'm down 4.8 pounds for the month! It was actually lower yesterday, but whatever I guess. Considering I gained and lost the same two pounds twice over during my period and Thanksgiving, I guess I'm just happy I lost anything!

At this rate, I don't think I will be in one-derland by the end of the year, but DH and I did get a treadmill on Cyber Monday and hopefully a little extra exercise will help things moving soon.

I largely met my goals for the month, which were to drink more water (need to still get better), win my DietBet, and do Bulletproof-style intermittent fasting 4 days a week. So now I have to think about December goals.

How's everyone else doing?

@WinterBee: I made this over Thanksgiving. It was SO good. Its like half cake, half cheesecake.

https://ohmyketo.com/2016/07/19/ooey-gooey-lemon-cake/

The only changes I made was to cut the crust amount in half and I added a handful of fresh raspberries before pouring the cheesecake topping over the top. I also used real lemon juice and added 2-3 tablespoons to each part (cake and cheesecake). The sweetener I used was Swerve. I think it was the same amount as called for in the recipe, but you may need to taste the batter and double check.

My non-keto friends tried it at Thanksgiving and they really liked it. I also made a pumpkin spice version (swap the lemon juice with 2-3 tablespoons of pumpkin puree and some pumpkin pie spice in the batter) and my non-keto DH polished it off.

A really easy no-bake thing is cheesecake fluff and you can serve it with fresh berries and serve it over some crumbled cookies for non-keto folks if you like. There are a zillion recipe for cheesecake fluff on Google.

Anyone around? How are you all doing? Any plans to end the year strong?

Still here too, doing pretty good. Not quite 100% on the diet. I do great at work or home but have run into a few snags while around family. Will weigh in tomorrow but last week I was at my lowest weight yet. Hoping to get down at least 5-6 more lbs before the end of the year. Will be off diet the 23-25... thinking I will fast and then just do a cheat meal while with family so 1 meal those days.

@skinnycow: @gotkimchi: @gingerbebe: Wow, sounds like you all have been progressing nicely. Good job!

AFM, my app had pinned me hitting my goal weight at the end of February, but I've since moved that up to the end of January. I'm pretty stoked and have even started getting a few better-fitting pieces for my closet.

For fun: at what point does everyone go shopping? Do you wear bigger clothes until you hit your goal weight? Just celebrate getting back into old clothes?

@Raspberry: Right now I'm still fitting BACK into some old clothes, but once I'm out of a larger size, I donate it so its out of the house. I buy pieces as I need them but try to buy them as inexpensively as possible. Last month I bought 2 pairs of Old Navy jeans on clearance, two clearance long sleeve shirts, leggings in a size down, and a sweater. Not a lot of money, but makes me feel good and motivated. I also tend to buy more shoes or purses when I'm on a diet, since those are motivating/rewarding, but will keep regardless of size. Once I'm at goal, I will probably invest in nicer longterm capsule style pieces.

I am about 60lbs from my lowest weight ever, but I don't know if that's honestly reasonable. That low weight is technically "healthy" for my height, but I was 17 at the time and had an eating disorder. I think if I lost 40 more, I would be ecstatic.

In my mid-thirties, I'm honestly just trying to be healthy and keep up with my kids, so I'm hoping to get into a better fitness routine (our treadmill is on its way!) and learn to maintain a reasonable diet and weight for the long haul. If that means I'm technically overweight, fine.

@gingerbebe: ha so true, a healthy weight for me would be 20lb less then where I was before kids! So I’d at least like to get down to that and that’s 20lb from where I am so I feel like that’s reasonable

@Raspberry: yah the last few are always the hardest! But you’re so close keep it up!

@gingerbebe: I’m 4lbs away from my next goal!! So freaking excited, I might actually hit my goal before Christmas!
On another note I got AF yesterday and went up almost a pound. Fully expecting to ‘whoosh’ it away next week though, at least hoping!
I’m staying strong with 16/8 fasting and starting taking collagen today to hopefully help my hair growth!

@WinterBee: Awesome! Yeah, the going back and forth on a pound is maddening. But what can ya do!?

I really love having these smaller goals, because saying "oh I wanna lose 50 pounds" sounds like forever away. First it was losing 5 pounds, then it was getting to the next round number, then 10 pounds, my pre-pregnancy weight, trying to lose 4% in a month on Diet Bet - all these incremental losses help so much to stay focused. I've been trying to use that same approach to monthly goals. Keep them reasonable and attainable to keep motivated.

My next goal is the 1.4lbs to hit 20 pounds lost. Then I want to lose 6 more to get to onederland! I will be joining a new DietBet in December that ends in January to keep up with my eating over the holidays.

Also, this is my favorite quote when dealing with weight loss blues:

If anyone is doing keto but still tracking calories what app are you using?

@gotkimchi: I use My Fitness Pal as well. I used the free version for 50 days, and at that point felt confident enough to upgrade to the paid version (its like $50 a year). I like the premium version bc it gives me macros/% broken down for each meal. And I think it has the best database.

How’s everyone doing? I’ve hit a plateau and I’m not sure how to get past it. I’ve cut out diet soda and am trying to up water. I’m also going to try intermittent fasting for a little longer per day and cut out any cheating - there wasn’t a ton but a bite of things here and there. Any other ideas?