How to get started...

I always say the biggest challenge with starting this lifestyle is 'deciding you want to do it'.  Other than that, it's pretty painless.  The deciding part for me came very easy.  I was 'sick and tired of being sick and tired' of how I looked and felt and was flat out ready for a change.

Once you've decided, you need to get familiar with how many carbs are in the foods you love.  There's a shopping list of items on my website under 'How We Keto'.  Go through and make a grocery list from those foods, that you love.  Don't make a list of foods you don't love....this is the Keto Diet not the 'no fun diet'.  Then go to the store and stock up.  The biggest test with this lifestyle is when you're hungry or 'bungry' (bored and hungry) and there's no Keto foods available in your casa to eat.  Been there done that and you'll cheat.  So, make sure you've got some choices.

Once you get home with all your groceries, start deciding what kind of meals you can put together and go ahead and get started.  If you like chicken salad, make up a big tub of it and throw it in the fridge.  I like to mix up canned chicken, Hellman's Mayo, a little red onion and salt & pepper.  If you're a 'chip & dipper' make sure and get some Pork Skins.  They will be great to eat with chicken salad or maybe Pimento Cheese, tuna salad etc. Cook up some breakfast sausage so you can add it to scrambled eggs in the morning.  Grill up some hamburger or ground chicken burgers, make up some taco meat for salads...you get the idea.

The more food you have, readily available, the easier it will be to stay on track.  One word of caution, you still need to read labels and be familiar with the carb counts on all the foods you love. The name of the game in the beginning is to stay under 20 carbs per day.  As you get a little more familiar with the lifestyle, you'll want to start counting your macros.  Meaning all the calories you eat throughout the day should break down into 75-80% fat, 15-20% protein and no more than 5-10% carbs. I highly recommend selecting an app on your phone to help you keep track of all your macros (carbs, protein and fat).  I use 'MyPlate' (orange with a white knife and fork) and I upgraded once to track macros. You can always keep a journal and look up foods online as you go, as well.

There are a lot of low carb goodies out there.....bars, shakes, cookies, chocolates etc.  I know it's hard when you get started to go 'cold turkey' but you'll be better off if you do and lose weight much faster.  If you're about to de-rail and cheat, buy one bar.....maybe a Quest Bar or Atkins Bar.  Don't buy the whole box....you'll end up eating them all and throw yourself right out of ketosis.  Just get one....cut it up in pieces and leave it on the kitchen counter and eat one piece at a time.  Most of all, hang in there.  You can do this!!

Donuts got me into this mess.....

So, I figured if donuts got me into this mess maybe they could help get me out, lol!!  I'm such a sugar/carb nut and donuts are literally my kryptonite!  Got super hungry for something bad last night so I created a Blueberry Cake Donut that's all Keto and oh my goodness, it was a huge success!!  I added blueberries but you could sooooo add sugar free chocolate chips or anything else along that line to change it up!  It felt so good to eat my donut and drink my coffee this morning with absolutely no guilt whatsoever.....ahhhhhhh.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Keto Cake Donuts

Blueberry Keto Cake Donuts

Sift together and mix 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/4 cup coconut flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum, pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup Swerve Confectioners Sugar. Add to this mixture 2 tbsp of cold butter. Using your hands, work the mixture until the butter is incorporated....it'll be a crumbly mixture.
In a bowl mix together 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar free almond milk and a big squirt of liquid Stevia. Microwave 1/4 cup blueberries and add to the milk mixture.
Add the blueberry mixture to the crumble mixture and stir until just mixed together.
Using a piping bag (or gallon storage bag), pipe the mixture into a donut pan or into circles on parchment paper.
Cook in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.
Pipe on the glaze which is 3 ounces of cream cheese melted together with 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 cup Swerve Confectioners Sugar. Sprinkle just a little granulated Erythritol on top of the glaze

Keto in Quebec...

After 75 weeks of keto, it gets easier everyday...even on vacation!  I took my sweet mama and 19 year old son to Quebec a couple of weeks ago and aside from a few bites, here and there...I managed to stay keto.  Yes, yes....I realize even a bite can throw you out of ketosis so let's just say that I didn't completely 'abandon ship' and eat everything in site.  I made great choices along the way and had fun without completely 'carbin' out'.

Walked the Aquarium du Quebec

Brunch at the Hotel Frontenac....yes, I had a bite of several desserts!

Before I started this journey, I would have gone nuts and eaten everything I possibly could.  Don't get me wrong, I could easily do that now as well.....I just 'choose not to'.  WOW....that sounds so sensible and easy but that's not how it used to be.  It's taken me quite awhile to get to the 'sensible phase' of this journey.  There are so many times I just wanna go nuts and devour everything but I'm able to talk myself down and make good choices.  Who'da thunk I could ever have that much discipline....?  I literally amaze myself at times, lol!  Honestly, I think  the main reason is that I've tried so hard to get to this point and I'm just not willing to fail after all this hard work.  I choose to be comfortable in my clothes and confident with how I look instead of gorging myself...... been there done that.  I 'choose my hard' and it's much more hard to be fat than it is to make good choices and be happy.  Yep....I got this,

We took a fun dinner cruise with live entertainment

The streets of Petite Champlain

Carriage ride around Old Quebec

Many steps along Avenue Cartier

That feeling when everything you try on is goin home...

Up until the other day, my shopping for clothes was at an all time low.  Even after losing 40+ pounds it was so difficult to go into a store and shop.  I had total 'fear of not fitting' issues and would literally be overwhelmed.  Inevitably, I would leave with a new black shirt and call it a day. Well, you can only have so many black shirts so on Sunday, I decided to hit Loft.  I am a huge fan of Ann Taylor and Loft....they sell pants that will actually fit me 'length wise' and I don't have to hem them.  At 5'3"ish and too heavy in the tummy and seat, pants are tough to find that fit.

I walked in the store and a really nice girl asked what I was looking for and I just let her size me up and gather clothes...clothes I would ordinarily not even think about.  She left me in the dressing room and the magic began, everything fit!  There were a few things I didn't like but EVERYTHING fit and if you've been shopping, overweight, you know what I mean.  It was so exciting...smaller sizes, different looks.....such an amazing day.  I've now crossed the 'fear of not fitting' border and will be more adventurous on my next shopping spree.  Thanks to the folks at Loft, couldn't have been nicer and more help.  Still left with a black shirt......some habits are hard to break.

Sometimes you just need something sweet....

Bear with me while I try to post more often.  It's not so much that I'm busy, I just forget!  I'm in week 72 of my Keto journey and have lost a total of 46.2 pounds.....hooray!!!  This Keto lifestyle has literally become just that, a 'lifetyle' and I am militant about staying Keto but every once in awhile, ya gotta have something sweet.  SO....when you do, here's a great idea.  I call them my Cinnamon & Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Pinwheels and they are D-Lish!  Enjoy.

These Pinwheels are great right out of the oven or cold from the fridge. I like them without the drizzle but the boys like them, with. 

Start off by making a double batch of Fathead dough. You microwave 3.5 cups of grated mozzarella cheese and 4 tbsp of cream cheese. To this mixture add 1.5 cups of almond flour, 1/4 cup Erythritol and 2 eggs. With damp hands work this into a ball of dough. Place on parchment paper and pat it out into a circle. Place another parchment paper over the dough and work with your palms and fingers to form a rectangle with the dough or you could use a rolling pin. Spread 6 oz of cream cheese (you may want to warm in microwave or use room temperature) over the entire dough. Microwave together another 1/4 cup Erythritol , 1/2 cup of butter and 2 tbsp of cinnamon and pour over the cream cheese spread, evenly. Sprinkle some sugar free chocolate chips over the dough as well. Using the parchment paper to help lift the dough, very carefully roll up the rectangle to make a long log and stick it in the freezer for about 45 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and cut slices (I got 50). Place the slices on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and cook for 12-14 minutes at 375....or golden brown. The drizzle is 4 oz of melted cream cheese, 2 tbsp of Erythritol and 1 tsp of vanilla. I used a piping bag but a baggy would work, as well. I also sprinkled just a tiny bit of Erythritol on top of each one. Absolutely delicious!! 

Hey hey hey!!  Today is the first day of my new blog and I'm really excited.  I guess I should start first by saying that I started the Keto Lifestyle on Valentines Day....2016.  My boyfriend David and I just returned from a beach vacation with our kiddos and were looking through pictures from the trip.  One of the kids had snapped a shot that neither one us had posed for and when it came up on her phone, we were horrified. We literally started that minute on this journey and have never looked back.  Both of us have lost 40+ pounds.  Our two boys 17 and 19 started Keto in November last year and have lost a total of 75 pounds between them. We do a lot of family challenges and truly embrace all things Keto.  I've had this website for a year and never could figure out 'where' I wanted to start so I guess I'll just start here....today is a Father's Day and a very good day to begin.

We are all about food in this house and this weekend was no different.  For Fathers Day the kiddos and I took Lovies (their father, my boyfriend) to an early dinner last night at a neighborhood sushi restaurant and about cleaned them out!  They make a roll called a Butterfly Kiss that's made with hammered out tuna as the coating for the roll instead of rice and then crabmeat inside.....it is delish.  We also had quite a bit of sashimi.  For breakfast this morning we hit Grandy's breakfast buffet and then for lunch we had burgers at Del Frisco's Grill.  The best part was that every single bit was KETO!!  That's one of the things I love the most about this lifestyle....you can eat anywhere...just takes a little bit of effort to figure out what.  I like to go online in advance and look at menus and nutrition info and then I know exactly what I'm gonna get when I get there.  I also have a list of fast food restaurants that I can hit up on the go like grilled chicken nuggets at Chick fil A.  Who doesn't love Chick fil A?!!

The Butterfly Kiss Roll and Sashimi

Breakfast buffet at Grandy's

Burgers at Del Frisco's Grill