Well, its been a while.

So...

It has definitely been a while. Its been a rather mental last year, and this totally just stopped being a priority. Now though, back to Keto. Keto keto keto. I need to, as I want to be thinner! I mean healthier. No, its Thinner.

So, now Im back to doing Keto, and Ive lost another 20lbs in 5 months. Which I suppose is a fairly average weight loss, but Im also doing it with two bad knees and nerve damage in a leg. Ill take it. 

Im starting off my day today with a Pint of Coffee (sploosh) with heavy cream, and Ive got three little cheese strings lined up for later.

Ive also got no idea if anyone reads this blog, nor do I mind if no one does, as Im hoping this will help focus me back to doing what I need to do.

Current weight today:

166lb ( :O, Im up a lb from drinking wine last night)

Ill force myself to weigh in next week and post it. No shame in the weight loss game! 

Weigh In Week 1 Results Woo!

5.2 lb gone!

 This was my dinner tonight. Right?! A WHOLE Camembert, 3 slices of Prosciutto, which I dipped into the Cheese. It was glorious.

Tonight was my official 1 week weigh in, after starting my diet properly again. Im pretty pleased with the result really! 

Anyways, I wanted to log this on here so I can keep a running count of the losses. And hopefully this will inspire me to keep hard at it, as I will have to publish this online each time... Oh my!

Keto for the win though, 5.2lb loss in a week! Get in!

Salami Cream Cheese Rolls...omnomnomnom Keto Lunch!

As it says in the title, LOOK AT MY AMAZING LUNCH!

Spread that cheese, spread it goooood

I find that Salami and Cream Cheese are a couple of things that fill me up on rabbit size portions on most days. Plus they are super delicious and even better combined! I was running out of ideas for work lunches, and these were the only things I had in the fridge. Might not sound like much of a brainwave, but when you are mind focused on being keto amazing, new ideas can sometimes forget to happen.

Rolly Rolly Roll

I take 6 of these little meat rolls to work now for my lunch and I honestly find myself completely sated. I also, normally, snack on some nuts around 10.30am post Coffee with cream, so thats probably why. Sometimes, I even through in a Dairylee, if Im feeling crazy adventurous! 

These have practically Zero Carbs, are well tasty, fatty, keto supreme, and you can easily transport them. No mess!

Anyhoo, this is my yummy lunch and I wanted to share it, because I can :D

Cheese-y Cream-y Leeks...thank me later.

OHMYDAYS.

I cooked Christmas one year for my friend and invited a load of her peeps along, who happen to be American. Dyou know what puzzled them? Leeks. And Parsnips. Mainly the Parsnips. But everyone inhaled my Leeks.

Now these are a little more carby for a Low Carb Diet, but still plenty fine. I think for 100g there is around 14g Carb and 1.8g Fiber. However, I am more than happy to make this my yummy higher carb dish of the weekend, as its bloody AMAZING.

Its got cream, sour cream, butter, a boat load of cheese, season all, and whatever the hell else I feel like adding to it at the time. Of course, a good Chefs pinch or two of Salt and Pepper is required to make them even yummier, but please, let me enlighten you below to the majesty that are these Leeks.

WHAT YOULL NEED

Leeks, obvs. Duh. However many you like,. but increase your other quantities as needed. I made this lot with Trois Little Leekies and it made about a Chinese Take Away Tub Full, if thats of help. Maybe 2 1/2 Cups worth, shall we say.

Lets start that again.

Leeks, x 3. I use the bottoms and not the tops (pics to come)

Small Tub of Sour Cream

Good Glug of Double Cream

Hearty amount of Butter to cook the leeks down in

Mozzarella, a handful pre grated. Half of a Fresh round

Mexican 4 Cheese, a good handful

Philadelphia Cream Cheese, about 2 dessert spoons

Garlic

Salty Salt/Seasoned Salt

Pepper 

Paprika

Cayenne - or whatever seasoning you want, its up to you babycakes

Parmesan if you fancy it

Olive Oil if you want it

Yummy!

Now let me clear this up ingredient wise a little. I am English and live in the UK. However, most of our groceries come from a US Commissary, which is why, dear Britons, you may get confuddled about what the chuff I use from time to time. Do note however, that you just need to sub in our fine old English stuff and itll all be just as tasty.

WHAT YOURE GONNA DO NOW

Ok so now its choppy choppy time.

All Bottoms, less Tops

Get Chopping your leeks until you have only the rough tops left. You can save the tops for other things if you like. 

Mmmm Butter

Add however much butter you would like to cook the leeks down in. I guess I used about 100g here, as I wanted the higher fat content. I also drizzled it with some Olive Oil, because FAT FOR THE WIN.

Cook them down for about 10 mins or so on a medium to high heat, until they are starting to soften but still have some crunch. I like to continue to cook them down in the cream mix so that when theyre done, they arent a pile of mush.

I then add the whole small pot of Sour Cream, and the Philly Cheese, as well as the start of the salt and pepper. Do bare in mind that this is all to taste, so if you want to do whatever you want, DO IT. Itll taste amazing for you. But for sure season this good. You need the salt as its a heck load of dairy.

Now stir this all up and now add your seasoning and spices if you like. I find that the spices add to the flavour of the the overall dish as they accent the cheese. 

Now add your other cheese to the pot, if its the ones from the ingredient list or others. I usually put any Parmesan in at the end as I use just a sprinkling, but again, personal preference.

Mix it all up and add a glug of cream if you feel it needs loosening, or a little boiling water to get your desired consistency. Now, I know this is a fatty dish. It should be, its Keto adapted. However, if you want it a little less slick, just add less cheese and reduce your butter and maybe braise the leeks in just olive oil or use a spray type like Fry Light or something. 

Keep tasting all the way through to make sure that your seasoning is right for you. Mine ended up like this:

I served myself about half a cup full once I was done as I had been tasting all the way through, and the leeks are now super soft but still firm enough to hold their shape, which is what I like, instead of being over cooked and going into weird soupyness.

I stuck the rest in a tub that I will snack on for the next couple of days. These taste good cold, but I prefer to blast mine in the microwave as I like the texture more!

I think it works that 100g is half a cup, so I would say I was right in thinking that there are about 2 1/2 cups in this recipe. I would eat half a cup per serving, as this is a super filling dish, so it should be roughly 8g net carbs, and 0.9g of fibre, so 7.1g per half cup. But its totally worth it.

ENJOY LEEK LOVERS!

How You Know Youre In Keto

Ketosis is a really good thing to get into, especially if youre following the Ketogenic Diet...kinda the point, really. But how do you know if you are truly in ketosis and are working your body into making your fats into your energy?

Some people do experience a Keto Flu when they start this diet, as their body transitions over from the use of Carbs to Fats for its energy. Myself, I really didnt experience this, but a couple of friends did struggle for about 4/5 days. They felt sluggish, grumpy, tired, and had cravings. I think this is because they ate a load more carbs than I did anyways, so they had a worse 'withdrawal' time. I on the other hand was just super thirsty and wanted to drink the world.

Once you have settled into the diet, I think the norm is to be in Keto from about a week, if you are new to it. You can go out and buy Keto Sticks to pee on which are like pregnancy tests but for ketones, and will show you how much you have in your pee. Ive never bothered doing this, as I dont need to test, I can feel it in myself. How so, you ask? Here are some little pointers from my experience:

• Crazy thirsty, like I will drink up to 3L pr day
• Lots of wee wee trips, in addition to the more drinking of water
• Perky moods
• Better sleep
• More energy
• Better skin, nails and hair - mine become stronger, from the fats maybe?
• Rumbly tummy but not actually hungry - like I can hear it growling, but more like wind
• Speaking of wind...WIND
• Lots of WIND
• And, the most final way that I know I am in Ketosis is...that special Keto Poop. You ALL know what Im on about if you have been doing this diet for a while! Some people either get super backed up, or your colon will get as clean as a whistle...and be warned. The Keto Poops arent for the fainthearted or those with a sensitive gag reflex. Two girls, One House...lots of air freshener gets used. Yeah. That.

Some people find that they get tummy cramps, feel sick, their breath changes smell, headaches, metallic taste in mouth...the list can go on, as obviously everyone will have an individual experience. I think Im quite lucky as I really dont get any negatives from Keto, just the main positives. 

Once I notice these 'symptoms', I know that Im hitting my sweet spot and Im onto a roll, and the pounds literally start melting off of me.

Obviously, once youre in Keto, you want to stay in it. But, people do like cheat days, everyone likes treat days! Just be aware that whilst treats are absolutely fine, and I would encourage them to an extent, so that you can shock your body back into Keto when needed...just remember that whatever you put into your body that will kick it out of Ketosis will take a couple of days or more to get out of your system. So if you think of having a pizza over the weekend, go for it! Just remember to add in about 2/3 days for your body to get back into the swing of using Ketosis for energy, rather than carbs. So, whilst treat days re good, if you have them all the time, you wont really see the benefits of doing this diet as your body will always be playing catch up.

Keto Strawberry Cream Pops - FROZEN YUMMY

So Im back doing Keto after a scrumptious holiday to NY, and I must say, that it has been pretty easy for this week so far. However, now its the weekend, I want to eat ALL THE THINGS. I mean, I havent, and for that alone I deserve a cookie, but I am actually quite proud of myself. Today though, I went out into town and there were Ice Creams EVERYWHERE. All in my eyesight. So of course, my summery Ice Cream want kicked in, but I DIDNT CAVE. See what I mean about the proud?!

Anyways, enough waffle. I got myself some cream cheese and went home and made these bad boys!

 

Approx Per Pop:

Calories: 76.3

Fat: 7.8g

Carbs: 0.26g

Protein: 0.9g

LOOK AT THEM AND REVEL IN THEIR GLORY. I have also literally just munched on one (notice the empty slot), and I am quite excited about it all...can you tell?!

So, to make them, I did this - note, I know that there are only 6 pops here, so clearly there is a craptonne left, but do with that what you will; halve the recipe, make more pops with more moulds, stick them into ice cube trays...Ill let your minds run rampant. To the business:


YUMMY RECIPE 

8oz Cream Cheese - Room temp
1 Cup/140ml Double Cream - Fridge temp
Hartleys Sugar Free Jelly Sachet - You can also use Jell-O if you wish
Carb Free Sweetener/Splenda/White Sweet Powder stuff that you, yes you, use
Butter, 60g thereof, if you are feeling adventurous 

Cake Pop Molds and Spare Tupperware for spare and a big spoon to eat it with
Two Mixing Bowls

1. Stick the Cream Cheese and two sachets of sweetner to your first bowl. Get Mixer. Mix. Mix that cream cheese gooooood til its all whippy and soft. I also added a knob of unsalted Butter to mine (about 60g) just to make it a little more fatty to make it into a type of Fat Bomb, but thats purely up to you.

2. In your other bowl, stick your Double Cream and get to whisking. You want stiff peaks for this sexy creation, so whip away til you get that. Test by running up to beloved and holding above their head. Run away sharp like if it fails and now their hair is white.

3. Get whipped Cream Cheese and stick it into the Whipped Cream, gentle like. Fold this in with your spat-u-lar and mix til half combined. 

4. JELLY/O - Open 1 sachet of this yummy stuff and tip, with no regard, into your bowl. Carry on folding all the good stuff together until you are happy with the combindness of the mix.

5. I stuck all of the mix into the tupperware first and stuck it in the firdge to firm a little bit first, only because it was a crazy hot day for England (28c yo). If its like normal and its holding its shape, carry on to 6.

6! Molds! Get your cake pop molds and sticks and basically fill em. Fill em and then stick em together, then stick a stick up its hole. Wiggle said stick so that the rubber is 'out' so that when you pop it out, it wont stick. Now stick em in the freezer for an hour or so until they're set.

7. Wait.

8. Get excited that they are ready, go to freezer. Open freezer and unpop a pop.

9. OPEN MOUTH AND INSERT. Enjoy.

Oh, I suppose I should give you the nutritional info of these too, as I worked them out macro wise. So, for the whole batch there is:

Calories: 1832
Fat: 188g
Carbs: 6.4g
Protein: 22g

I said that there were 4 one cup sized servings in each batch, which makes each Cup:

Calories: 458
Fat: 47g
Carbs: 1.6g
Protein: 5.5g

And then I *think* that I used about a cup using the molds, so that makes for each pop roughly:

Calories: 76.3
Fat: 7.8g
Carbs: 0.26g
Protein: 0.9g


Hope that helps and well done for reading this far :D

My Fitness Pal Saved My Macros (no way that can be made funny)

My Fitness Pal. Youre either gonna love it, or nothing it.

You do need to be quite on top of yourself to actively remember to log all your food and snacks and whatever, but trust me, it helps HEAPS.

Its surprising when you start Keto or any Low Carb diet, to find out where all these hidden carbs are. I used to do the Slimming World Green Diet, and for this reason I did find it quite hard to wrap my head around the whole no carb thing - on Slimming World, all carbs are free and you limit your fats. I did well on it too, getting down to 140lb, but maaaaan was that hard to keep up. I dont think Im biologically designed to be that skinny. 

Anyhoo..yea, food tracking. You can set your own goal and macro goals o MFP which is super duper fricking awesome, as it is easily shown then what the chuff you have eaten and how much of what you have got left. If you also have a gizmo gadget like a FitBit, they also talk to each other which is nice, so you know how many calories you have burnt off throughout the day/exercise/etc.

I use the sexy little Pie Chart diagrammy thing to keep my butt in check; I do my best to log everything, as I seriously eat subconsciously. I eat for happy, for sad, for boredom, for fun, for whatever, I will be able to eat whenever and not even notice its passed my lips. Using MFP, I make myself log the food I am GOING to eat BEFORE I eat it, so I am consciously making a decision about food. I can then also assess in real time if I am actually wanting that food because Im hungry, or because of other reasons. I do try and have a drink of vasa when I start to feel hungry, to see if it is hunger or Im just thirsty too.

So I try and stick to 18-20g Carbs per day, which is about 5%. Then I aim for 75% to be from fat, but I like to get it up to about 80%, and the use around 15-20% for protein, but I actually dont eat that much meat. 

So... if you think youre gonna benefit from this, TRACK IT. It will help you, but like everything else, you need to want to do it! :D