March 21 - Family Dinner and Fed Up.

Good Afternoon and Happy Spring!

I love the spring, every year I decide I am going to do something ambitious with my beautiful property. Every year I decide that it feels like way to much physical work! I think possibly this year I may just get a garden in. I am having fantasies about growing cauliflower that will not cost me 8.00 at the store.

For those of you who are not from the great white north, we are averaging 8.00 Cauliflower currently and I have not bought one in about 2 months!

I believe the sunshine is making me spring drunk! As Bambi would say I am twitterpated.

Ok enough with the silliness, I had a very interesting day yesterday, I consider it a huge win in the life of this keto girl.

It was my sister and my nephew's birthday, and in the spirit of family I was hosting a dinner for the two of them. I was more than a little concerned about this. My " recovery" from carbs is just 25ish days old. ( I have stopped counting days as I know that March 25 is my monthaversary).

The requested menu was chicken, veggies, potato fries, bread stuffing, then of course there was corn, carrots, pickles and the dessert. A cupcake cake set on a brownie.

I had to cook all of this , prepare the cake and sit down to a feast with 7 people. I am so proud to say that I survived. I did not even really feel much temptation. I did eat some carrots, I had cooked them in garlic and herb butter and they smelled amazing. I was surprised at how sweet they tasted actually. I made a sour cream and cream cheese dip for the veggies and cooked the chicken with half a pound of butter.

Really.. half a pound of butter

There was a request from my lovely fellow ketoers on the Ketogenic Success page to make sure that the picture appeared on the blog so there it is!

I found the bread stuffing to be my biggest challenge. I really love bread stuffing and it is hard to feel like it is a dinner occasion without it but I found that once I just sat and began on my heaps of veg with the sour cream dips and my beautiful buttered chicken I was ok.

I love to cook and so the family dinner prep usually falls to me. I found it was fun to create and smell the foods that were forbidden this time. I was surprised at how much I didn't want to eat them.

So dinner, was a win.

I have a cold. I am fairly whiny when I have a cold. I will admit it is the one thing that will slow me down and turn me into a 5 year old wimp.

As soon as I got rid of my houseguests last night I sat down with my 13 year old to watch Fed UP. I had watched it the other night but I really wanted her to see it.
Both my girls have been asking questions and looking into a Paleo eating plan. I encourage that but I do not feel that they should go full keto. Neither need to lose weight and the energy they put out in a day I think they would feel awful. Besides the fact I do not believe either one of them would be dedicated enough to take the magnesium, drink the water and over salt the food to keep electrolytes up.

She made it half way through the movie and asked me some very interesting questions. One of which was " what is diabetes?" It is a very hard thing to explain to a younger mind. She also wanted to know how thing that were not sugar could BE sugar when you ate them. Again, this was a very hard thing to explain.

I managed to say in simple terms that if it came from a plant or once had a heartbeat you should probably eat it. If you had to open a package , you should probably not eat it. We are going to work together to help the concepts make more sense. I am a big one for encouraging independent thought so it is her choice to do this or not.

Alright, well, I think that is my update for the day. I am very very excited to do my one month weight in this Thursday! I have move my weigh day to Thursday as it makes better sense in my life.

I want to take a second to thank everyone who has let me know they are reading along, it means everything to me. I am an artist and words are one of my best art forms. I believe in what we are all doing through the health of Keto. I am happy to share my journey with you. Thank you so much for letting me know that you have been sharing it with me.

Cheers and good eats.

- Ginger

March 19 - Fed Up and lettuce enchiladas

Hello cats and kittens!

I passed my exam! I wrote until 1 am last night but when I finally finished and submitted, ended with 72%. Not perfect but a pass and I will take it!.

2 more to go before I can call myself a certified financial planner!. It has never been my ambition to be this but for my job it will open all the doors I need to maximize my job there and go for the bigger positions. I seem to not be able to settle for where I am when I know there is a higher level to reach, even if I kick myself for it later.

I had a few glasses of wine afterwards, I am thinking this is something I need to dial back on a bit, Make sure I am just having a glass or three on Fridays and not the rest of the week. I have always been a wine drinker, as a foodie it is just par for the course. The thing is every time that I do, I pause the ketosis process in my body as it has to burn the alcohol sugar first. It is not really hurting per say, but it is slowing and pausing the healing process that my body is trying to go through.

So, I think I am getting a cold, my man is down with one and I thought I was going to avoid it but then tonight.. poof, my nose is running and I have a headache, hallmark cold symptoms for me. Oh well, not the end of the world, irritating with a nose piercing but hey guess I did that one to myself!

But, given that I am feeling slightly under the weather I have tossed my plan of cleaning out my closet while listening to my daughter and her 13 year old bestie giggle in the other room beside me. I am instead watching " FED UP" which is one of the best documentaries on sugar effects I have seen ever. I have watched it before but I was feeling the need for a reminder after going to the movies this afternoon and narrowly avoiding popcorn.

I made myself the most wonderful dinner to go with it, Lettuce enchiladas.. not from a book, I just played with food and that was what I produced. I made a guacamole for the inside and grass fed ground beef from my Uncle's ranch. Then I made cheese crisps and a siracha sour cream to put on top, was so amazing. The only thing I was missing was cilantro.

I added cream cheese to the ground beef and cooked it in butter to make sure I got the fat ratio in there. The grass fed beef is delicious but naturally lean due to how well it is fed so you have to add fat.

Anyway that is today's update, I have noticed the scale is going up and down daily , I am not concerned about that as I am feeling smaller daily as well, so strange this ketogenic world.

My goal after being keto for 8 weeks will be to give up diet pop. It is an issue for me. I have limited it alot but I am still not able to quite let it go. For tonight it is time to knit and watch movies and listen to my perfect kiddo laugh with her best friend. Life is good today, plus there is a ladybug living in my bedroom. The pagan in me thinks this is a wonderful sign of more good to come.

Good night all,

cheers and good eats!