Week 18 Results! Post Holiday Results.

18 Weeks in Summary:

- Weightloss

- Conquered Christmas

- Rosacea


- Sorry the video/information is so short.  I am not feeling well today.

A miraculous ending to the night Week 18 Day 126

Yesterday was Saturday.   And as you all know,  yesterday was our big family party.   I allowed myself one wheat thin,  one club cracker and many NORCAL margaritas.   Did I mention MANY NORCAL margaritas?

This is how it went....

Around 1 pm,  I made my very first NORCAL margarita as follows: 

- 1.5 Limes, juice and pulp (mine weren't the greatest resulting in minimal juice)

- 2 Jiggers of Tequila (I started with 1.5, and slowly turned it into 2 very full ones)

- cup full of ice

- topped off with 1/2 watermelon flavored water (no carbs, just "flavor") & 1/2 flavored soda water (strawberry kiwi).  

I continuously made them until about 6 pm.  I think I went through 6 or 8 Limes at 1.5 Limes per drink the first few hours,  than one lime per drink the last couple of hours.   You see how that works out in numbers right?  

For dinner,  I stuck with low carb high fat (LCHF) and had prime rib with extra cuts of fat,  and salad with Homemade ceaser dressing.  

We were also celebrating my husband's birthday,  so a Breusters ice cream cake was also cut and served by the only person in the room not eating sugar... Me! 

Within the hour everyone was packing up and saying their goodbyes.  Other than a couple m&ms I stole off the centerpiece (my son's gingerbread house),  I had done pretty good so far.  

After cleaning up a bit,  I decided I had done so good this past week,  and screw it, the drinks alone probably knocked me out of ketosis,  I  might as well have some cake too.   Now,  remembering the number of margaritas I had,  you can only image the size of that piece of cake.   I wish I would have taken a picture for this post alone.   I do deserve the public shaming after all.  

Oh, and my sister made oreo cheesecake balls (dipped in chocolate of course).  I ate two of those, than I took my heaping pile of ice cream cake held in place by a bowl and retired to our upstairs living room to watch a movie and be alone in peace and quiet.   Plus,  I didn't want to watch football with the boys.   Blah!

After consuming my mountain o' Shame,  I continued to watch the movie "Love Actually"  (which I do not recommend by the way).   For the next 2 hours (why are bad movies so long),  I  continued to feel sicker and sicker to my stomach.   Once the pain ended (the movie not my stomach),  I  went downstairs,  grabbed a sip of water and laid down. 

At this point,  I  could only hope that the vomit king,  whom paid quite a few visits during my partying days,  would come by and say hello to an old friend,  in hopes of ending my misery.   Sounds dramatic I know,  but I was in that much pain.

About 30 or so minutes of laying there,  I  made my way to the bathroom in hope.   Where there is hope,  there is a way.   Or something like that.  

In as few words and details as possible...  I went to bed with a very empty stomach and digestion tract and and slept like a baby.   Phew.  

Now this morning,  I felt a little off,  but nothing to complain about.   So I  won't.   Although not hungry,  my husband made breakfast,  so therefore I ate some bacon,  eggs and sausage.   After a couple of hours of drinking water,  I decided to see if the damage had been done.

With Ketostix in hand, I  headed to the royal room.   Low and behold,  I was still in ketosis.   Although it was very dark purple indicating possible dehydration,  I was in ketosis!

And there you have it folks,  I had my Christmas miracle 4 days late.  

But don't think I  didn't get that at a cost.   I felt horrible all day today and my stomach just wasn't right.   But that is what I get after so any margaritas.

And it was all worth it!

Merry 2014 Christmas!

After exchanging Christmas gifts, my husband and I moved to the kitchen to make Christmas Breakfast.  My job - To make the Cinnamon Swirl pancakes with vanilla glaze.  My husband cooked the sausage, bacon, and eggs.  

I DID NOT touch the pancakes.  I didn't even want any.  MY son, on the other hand, ate for the both of us.  

For a snack, I ate pork rinds dipped in spinach & artichoke cream cheese.  That is yummy if you haven't tried it yet.  

And now...

I am sitting here pondering my first Christmas without sugar, treats, chocolate (although I do see some dark chocolate in my future), cookies, candy canes, etc.   

It is very hard for me to fathom the change that has happened to me by taking part in this Low Carb High Fat adventure.  My life has literally been flipped right side up and landed where it should have been all along.  

Part of me feels sad.  Not because I wished that I could have those things, as I have NO cravings, even while I spent 45 minutes making the pancakes.  I am sad because I wish I knew about this way of eating BEFORE 2013.  I know everything happens for a reason, and I do feel that if I had learned it at a younger age, I would have blown it off.  

And a thought just occurred... I tried Atkins, and it failed me.  It only failed me because I dealt with daily diarrhea and was told that I would have a heart attack by the media and my peers. Then later, when the rumors that Dr. Atkins died from his own diet, that set in stone that I had made the right decision. 

So the natural answer was that low fat, low calorie was the right diet after all.   

If I had not taken the journey of trying low fat, low calorie and later vegetarianism, I would not have been where I am today.  If I hadn't tried those ways of eating, I would still be questioning my way of eating now.  It is my experience in those other "ways" that I am 100% confident in the correct way - LCHF.  

So yeah, part of me is sad that this is my first Christmas doing the right thing, and that I may have wasted so many years of eating terribly.  

But the rest of me is extremely happy.  Extremely happy because I am SOOOO Strong now that I CAN eat healthy on Christmas Day with NO regrets, NO cravings, and NO doubts.  

I look forward to a lifetime of holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, etc. of knowing that I can not only "handle" eating healthy, but I will be "HAPPY" eating healthy.

I hope that you can find this same moment in your life and feel the same happiness.  

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good LCHF night! 

P.S.  Dinner is grilled buffalo cornish hens with green beans.  

Week 17 Results... and it was GOOD!

This has been another amazing week on my adventure.  

I discuss some of the following:

- Feeling like crap after eating

- Walked 3 miles, and half was extremely hilly.

- Still staying positive with every thought.  Having trouble with the father-in-law cramping my style, but trying as hard as I can.

- Holidays, sweets, and artificial sweeteners

- This week's Facebook Group challenge is A Pledge to not lose weight over the Christmas Holiday.  

Join us at www.facebook.com/groups/LCHFapprentice 

Week 16 Results!

I talked a LOT in this video.  Hopefully you can get something from my ramblings.  

Addicted to the Scale & Adobo Marinated Pork with Chipotle Sour Cream Dip - Week 16 Day 108

I purposely chose not to weigh in this morning.  I admit, this is mostly because I knew I would have gained weight after accidentally overeating yesterday.  But on the flip side, this is amazing considering that I have been religious about weighing in every single morning, even if I knew I would gain.  I know its not healthy to weigh yourself every day, but I can't stop. 

And then today, I made a conscious effort, albeit based on a fear of seeing bad news, it was still a decision I would not have made in the past.  Even when I wasn't attempting to lose weight, I weighed in every morning.  

Why is it that women are so addicted to their weight in numbers?  Why is it that I hide my weight from my husband, family, and even friends?  If I could wave a magic wand, it would be that the scale was never created.  Can you imagine a world where nobody knew how much they weighed?  We are controlled by one stinking number on a scale which means absolutely nothing in the scheme of everything in life.  

My son (7 years old) started to ask about our weight yesterday.  I don't ever talk about weight, I only talk about "getting healthy and not eating carbs/sugar".  My husband answered with his weight, and I dreaded being the next one asked.  When asked, I simply told my son that it is very rude to ask a female her weight.  When he asked why, I told him it was a secret for a girl to hold that information, and that the number means absolutely nothing.  He said "okay", and that was it.  THANK GOD.  Hopefully that is the end of that subject.

But then I got thinking later on, wow, I was scared to tell my son my weight.  Holy Cow!  This number is controlling me.  Ugh.  Unfortunately, I don't think it is anything I will be able to share with anyone, even when I lose all the weight.  

If I had one word to explain why our society cares about weight in numbers, it would be "Media".  

So thank you media for ruining millions of women's lives and making them care about a number, that without a scale, they would never know.  


On the brighter side of things....

When I took off for the grocery store yesterday, my husband told me to grab some meats for this week's dinners.  Well, I am the WORST at picking out meats.  I know nothing about anything, except which animal it comes from and whether its steak or bacon.  That is it.  

So I came across a package of pork called "Pork Steaks" and they were huge.  I like huge, so I grabbed them up.  

I came home to find my husband making a unique dinner that he put together himself.  He was so proud that he looked at the carbs on everything and ensured that I could eat everything.  

He decided to chop them up and make kabobs, instead of the steaks I envisioned.  He then decided to marinate using adobo sauce from chipotles.  He used the remaining chipotles and adobo sauce to mix with sour cream and made an excellet (and spicy!) sour cream dip for the meat.  

It was so good, I couldn't wait to share with everyone else.  

Sides = Pan roasted green beans and steamed broccoli (yes that's butter on top, and I had already ate half of it before I remembered to take a photo)

Let me know if you try it, and how it turned out!

PORK MARINADE:

1/2 cup mustard
1/2 cup Soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, mashed or minced
2 tablespoons adobo sauce (look for chipotles in adobo sauce)
Orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice

CHIPOTLE PORK DIP:

1 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano
orange zest
1 teaspoon orange juice
Remaining chipotle and adobo sauce from 1 can

Cook pork as you prefer.  Serve dip on the side.

Enjoy.  

Week 15 Results are IN!

I still can't believe I have been doing this 15 weeks already.  As my husband said, "you've been doing this as long as the football season".  I'm glad he remembered I started when the NFL season began.  ha ha

I had a good week with a great weightloss!  Today is the first day I really felt more energetic since being back on the wagon.  I was extremely motivated and got a lot done at work today.  

Below is the video capturing this week's results and thoughts.

p.s.  I couldn't drink the kombucha drink anymore after the video.  It really grossed me out the more I tried.  

p.s.s.  I tried a new technique of applying my makeup, so my skin has not cleared up as it may appear.  

Italian Wedding Soup for Dinner...... Week 15 Day 105

Today's dinner is brought to you by Grass Fed Girl's recipe (FOUND HERE).  

I was able to purchase some grass fed ground beef for a whopping $10/pound! So, as you can probably guess, I only bought 2 packages.  

Other than a few changes, I think it turned out really well.  Sorry I didn't figure out the nutrition data, but I'm sure its Low Carb and I don't feel guilty eating it at all ;)

The changes I made:   

- Fried veggies in duck fat

- used almond flour instead of coconut flour

- added more sausage like spices (since its missing the sausage) i.e.  sage to the meatballs

- added Parmesan cheese to the meatballs

- Used half homemade turkey stock and half homemade duck stock

Unfortunately the meat that I purchased was 91% lean.  Not my preferred amount of fat levels.  It wasn't until after I dropped all the meatballs into the pot that my husband said "You know, you could have mixed duck fat into the meatball mixture".  Too late.  Oh well.  

I highly recommend adding this recipe to your Low Carb recipe book.

Enjoy!

 Now I can't wait for leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Back in Ketosis! Week 15, Day 101

I have been back on the LCHF wagon for 3 full days now.  Today, I had a hint of "ketosis" breath cross my nostrils.  

I couldn't wait to get home and test my urine.  

POSITIVE!  My levels showed moderate.  I'm hoping by Friday I will be in full "heavy" ketosis.  I can't believe it took less than 72 hours!  

Who would have thought you could look forward to having such bad breath!

If you end up falling off the wagon, just know it won't take long for you to get back on and into the swing of things.

YOU CAN DO IT! 

Week 14 Results!

I'm going to cut to the chase and let you watch the video.  Between the most recent post and this video, you get the picture ;)

My name is Jenny, and I'm a sugar addict. Week 14 Day 98

Some of you may have already heard with my posts on Facebook, but tomorrow I am jumping back on the LCHF wagon. I took about a 3 week hiatus and have been cranking the carbs down my throat as fast as I can.  I have felt nothing but horrible, and guilt.  Lots of guilt.  Not only have I let myself down, but also the people whom found inspiration from my videos.   But there is one thing I learned, which made this emotional rollercoaster worth it.  I learned that Low Carb High fat is the life for me.  There is no longer any doubt (not that I had much to begin with). 

I have felt a grab bag of crappy side effects from eating high carb these past few weeks.  I have felt lethargic, emotional, very tired, unmotivated, sad, lost, aggravated, constipated, ashamed, and most of all.... alone.  

How can one feel alone while surrounded by family, friends and co-workers you ask?  Well actually, its very easy. I do not feel that I have one thing in common with the people around me.  I don't feel like I can share a thought with any of them.  They don't understand me, nor can I make them understand.  They don't wish they could eat the whole pie; they aren't sneaking around with bits of chocolate candies in their pockets to eat when no one is looking; and they aren't willing to drive 10 minutes from home just to get a sugary iced coffee drink.  Who does those things?  Well, unfortunately, I do.  Some of these things I won't even admit to my husband.  He does not have the address to my blog.  When I make the videos, I make him leave the room and go upstairs with the door closed.  He also doesn't know my Facebook group page name.  

And best of all.... he doesn't know my weight.  I remember when I was about to give birth to my son, and the lady needed to ask me a bunch of questions.  I made him leave the room just to reply with my weight.  He thought it funny, I thought it sad.  Very Sad. He of course, being a gentleman, has never once discussed anything about my weight, with me.  Thank God!  

After returning from Thailand and continuing to not do LCHF, my hubby told me I need to get back on.  Being in the high carb grouchy mood as I was in, I asked him if it was the fact he was looking forward to having a skinny wife. Ouch.  I know it wasn't right to ask him that.  But hey, I am high on sugar.  Give me a break.   His reply to me was that he was so proud of me and what I was doing.  He went on to tell me he has even been bragging about how motivated and driven I had been, and that would suck to just give it all up.  What he didn't know, is that I never planned on giving it all up.  By then, I had already learned that I had planned on getting back to being Low Carb and that I would continue it the rest of my life.  I was just in a slump, that's all.

From the moment I decided to go low carb, to now, I have never once thought of giving up.  I have never once thought to throw it all down the drain because I'd rather have my sweets.  As much of a sugar addict as I am, I'm definitely not an idiot, and I refuse to give up.  Being on this sugar high for 3 weeks taught me everything I Need to know, to keep on going with LCHF.  

So as I sit here and write this the night before my week 14 weigh in, and also the restart to my LCHF adventure, I can't help but ponder what I have accomplished over this time.  The old me would only be seeing my failures, but the new me, I only see accomplishments.  Isn't that a wonderful thought?  I have done horrible the past 3 weeks, and I still have nothing but positive things to say about it?  That in itself is a huge deal for me.  I have never had this feeling before, and I gotta admit, its pretty damn awesome.  I think its another step towards self esteem.  

Tomorrow I weigh in for the 14th week in a row.  Tomorrow's weigh in will be very emotional for me, as I know I will have gained a TON of weight.  And by a ton, I'm guessing a good 5 to 7 pounds.  A lot of weight!  But I know that in the whole scheme of things, it will mean nothing.  It is only a minor stepping stone in the path of my life.  

And how cool is it going to be when I read this post after losing 100 pounds, and smile, because I conquered?  

Thank you for reading my posts and watching my videos.  Most importantly, thank you for your comments.  I started out making the videos and posting on this blog so that I could inspire others.  I selfishly never once thought that the viewers would be inspiring me.  Your comments resonate with me, and have at times, helped me get through a day.  THANK YOU

God works in wonderful ways, and for that, I am Thankful.  

Turkey White Chili Soup Recipe Week 14 Day 98

So I decided to get a little crazy today and make my own Turkey White Chili Soup, from scratch (I've always thought that was weird term).  

Yes, I said soup.  I didn't stop at chili, I stopped at Soup.  You can make it more like "chili" by reducing the amount of liquid, or boiling for much, much longer.  Your choice. 

So here is how I did it, and honestly, it turned out good (if I do say so myself)!

Oh, and hubby liked it too, and he has VERY high standards.  

4 T butter
1 med onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, diced
2 celery stalks, diced

8 c Homemade Stock (I used 6 cups turkey stock and 2 cups duck stock)
3 c chopped Leftover Turkey meat (or any meat) - We used smoked turkey 
1 rounded Tablespoon Cumin
1/2 rounded teaspoon Paprika
1/2 rounded teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
2 1/2 rounded teaspoon Chili Powder
1 rounded teaspoon garlic powder
1 14oz can artichokes, chopped
1 can Green Chiles, not drained
S&P to taste

Option 1:  Top bowls with chopped cilantro and sourcream
Option 2:  Make it creamy by adding heavy whipping cream before serving

1.     Melt butter in pot.  Add onions and saute ~15 minutes, until they are soft and start to caramelize

2.     Add garlic and celery.  Saute an additional 5 minutes.  

3.     Add remaining ingredients, bring to boil.    Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.  


Carb Breakdown:  My calculations are 67 total carbs.  My pot made 80.65 ounces of weight.  Therefore, every ounce of weight = 1.2 grams of carbs.  

Not too bad.