Steak, Alzheimer's and Craps

I've been on this new WOE  (way of eating) since February now.  I'm down over 30 pounds and 3 pant sizes.  So very happy with the progress I'm making.  My parents came to visit at the beginning of June and stayed for 2 weeks.  We really had a wonderful time.  There was a lot of eating out, though.  I prefer to try to eat clean for most meals, but that wasn't going to happen.  I did at least manage to continue to eat LCHF.

I knew my protein was too high for those couple of weeks, but as we were in Black Hawk and eating at the buffets, meat and veggies was about all I could eat, and I'm certainly not complaining about having steak every night!).  I still managed to lose 2 pounds over the 2 weeks they were here, but that's definitely not as fast as I had been losing.

They've left for home on Tuesday, and I'm already down 1.2 lbs in those 2 days.

In other exciting, related news, I did awesome in Black Hawk!  My dad has stage 3 Alzheimer's, but he does pretty well for himself.  It's just the most recent things he can't remember.  So he can sit down at a black jack table and kick some butt.  But he decided he wanted to try to play some Craps with me.  I tried to explain, but there is so much going on, that he would forget what I had told him 5 minutes ago.  So I said, just do what I do!  We had so much fun together, and we won, which made it even better.  Mom didn't do so well, but we more than made up for it.  It was still a great time.

Low Carb Pancakes #LCHF #WheatFree #WheatBelly

I think I'll try these this weekend!

1 cup coconut flour. 

1/2cup almond flour. 

6 eggs. 

3 Tbl of sweetner. 

1/2 tsp salt. 

1 tsp baking powder. 

1/2 cup of hwc. 

2 Tbl of cream cheese.

1 tsp vanilla.

Dash of cinnamon. 

Cooked on med heat with butter. 

Each side about 5 min.

Jalapenos w/ Cream Cheese #WheatBelly #WheatFree #LCHF

I cannot wait to try these!  H/T to Kristen in my LCHF group.  Thanks!

2-8oz blocks of cream cheese
1 cup of shredded cheddar
1 t of sea salt
1 tbsp. garlic powder
Blend together---add 
3 strips of Bacon -crumbled 

Cut 18 jalapeños in half and remove the seeds (for the love of God and your eyes and other sensitive body parts, wear rubber gloves!) 
Use a spoon to scoop the
Mix and add into the 
Jalapeños. 
Bake on 425* for 30 minutes.

Sugar Free Yellow Cake Donuts with Chocolate Icing #Wheatfree #WheatBelly

H/T to Penny from my LCHF group

Makes: 12 Donuts

Ingredients:
2 cups Almond Flour
1/2 cup Swerve
2 dropper fulls of liquid stevia
3 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line donut or cupcake pans with paper liners or you may also grease donut or cupcake pans. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix at low speed for 30 seconds while scraping bowl. Mix at high speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl every minute. Spoon batter into greased donut pan until they are 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans then move to wire rack to cool completely. Frost your donuts with chocolate icing.

CHOCOLATE ICING:
6 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup Swerve and 1 dropper full of liquid stevia
1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To make the frosting, make Swerve into a powder in a food processor. Melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and butter; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the sweetener, almond milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled donuts and enjoy!

LCHF Gravy for Biscuits #wheatbelly #wheatfree #lchf

Serves 10

Ingredients
Cream Cheese, Plain, 1 container (8 oz ea.)
Organic Beef Broth, 1.5 cups
Organic Heavy Whipping Cream, 1/2  cup
Drippings - Bacon Grease, 3 tsp

In warm bacon drippings, add beef broth and  cream cheese, stirring until cream cheese is melted.  Add heavy whipping cream.   Salt and pepper to taste.  Whisk constantly until ready to serve.  

Per Serving:
Calories   166
Carbs      1
Fat           17
Protein     2
Sugar       0

In a Strange Turn of Events #wheatfree #wheatbelly

I've gone from posting recipes to going Wheat Free.  Yep, that's right.  No wheat.  I don't mean just gluten free, I mean the whole kit and kaboodle.

At the beginning of February, I met a girlfriend for lunch at an Indian restaurant I had never eaten at.  It was delicious!  It was so good, in fact, that I ate more than any person should be allowed to eat.  The next day at work I was still sick.  I actually went home early because I felt so horrible.

I looked in the mirror and decided I needed to do better.  Better for my daughter, better for my sons, and better for me.  What was I teaching my children?  Horrible eating habits that could plague them their entire lives.

So I went back to the gym that weekend, innocently enough, starting to count calories again and exercise.  It was the same ol same ol, hungry all the time, no energy.  My gym was offering a two week detox class, and I figured why not.  It wasn't a liquid detox.  This detox was about clean eating.  No toxins.  No food with labels, and if there was a label, the only ingredient should be the food itself.

So I trudged to the local health food store, which I swore I would never go to, and picked up enough food to last me the first week.  Free range chicken, wild caught salmon, grass fed beef, lots of veggies, and raw nuts.

What happened next was so unexpected, I couldn't believe it.  One week into it, and I felt better than I'd felt in over a decade.  And I am not exaggerating.  My ankle pain was gone, my skin wasn't oily, and I had more energy than ever, and it stayed even throughout the entire day.  And on top of it all, I wasn't hungry!  After 2 weeks on the detox, my body had changed, and I could feel it.  I wanted to keep that going, but at that point, I had started to reintroduce wheat to my diet because I didn't realize that was one of the main culprits.

About two weeks later, I read Wheat Belly.  What an amazing eye opener.  Everything in that book made sense!  It was like a light bulb went off.

I've now been wheat free for over a month, and have done my best to remove all wheat from my diet.

I'm losing weight, WITHOUT COUNTING CALORIES, and I'M NOT HUNGRY!  I didn't even know that was possible.  I'm eating healthy, and feeding my kids health foods.

I've got a lot of weight to lose, but my journey has begun.

Pinterest

Too true!

Low Carb Crab Cakes w/Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Low Carb Crab Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Low Carb Crab Cakes w/Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (GF)
Recipe Courtesy Now You're Cook'in
Makes 8 three-inch cakes

Crab Cake Ingredients:

1 cup lump crab meat
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 Tbl fresh lemon juice
2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
2 Tbl parsley, chopped
1.5 Tbl coconut flour
2 Tbl coconut oil

Gently pick through the crab to make sure there are no shells or cartilage in the meat, and add to a small bowl. In another small bowl, combine the egg, lemon juice, and dijon mustard, mixing until smooth. In a third bowl, combine the old bay, parsley, and coconut flour, mixing thoroughly. Gently add the egg mixture to the crab, folding until combined. Then add the dry ingredients to the crab mixture and gently mix in. Try not to break up/shred the pieces of crab too much. Heat the coconut oil over medium heat in a nonstick saute pan. Form 8 small cakes and place carefully in the hot oil. Cook for about 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Remove from the pan to a plate lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with kosher salt, squeeze half a fresh lemon over them and serve with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:

Makes 8 servings:

1/4 cup roasted red peppers
1 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh avocado

Blend all of the ingredients until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Approx nutrition info per cake:
65 calories, 4g fat, .4g net carbs, 6g protein

Approx nutrition info per serving of sauce: 30 calories, 3g fat,
.7g net carbs, 0g protein

Annie starts kindergarten today.

Today is Annie's first day of kindergarten. She's my fourth and final (and only girl), so this is pretty bittersweet for me. She got dressed all on her own.  She put on her favorite dress, cute little knee high socks, and I curled her hair. She put on her little dangly earrings shaped in cups of milk (I put on the ones shaped like bacon strip with googly eyes, you know, cuz bacon) and then finally her Minnie mouse pink backpack.

She looked absolutely adorable if I do say so myself. 

So we leave for school and I told her I was taking her to daycare school and then they would take her to her new elementary school on their bus.  The plan was for me to meet her at her new school. I wanted her to know where the bus would drop her off and pick her up after school. 

She looked right at me and told me she didn't want me to meet her there! Excuse me what? She said she was a big girl now, going to a big girl school and she'd be fine. She then said Ryan, her 9 year old brother, would be there if she needed anything!

I told her ok, but of course I'm waiting here in the parking lot for her right now.

She's growing up way too fast!

Math is Hard and I'm Still Fluffy

Saw this coupon on Groupon from Cherry Creek Medical Weight Loss that I almost purchased.  It was for B-12 injections (and weight loss, but that's a whole other story).  Anyhoo, the price actually looked pretty good, but darned me, I always want to read everything but the heading.  It's amazing what you find in the details.

So in the "About this Deal" section, they actually write that people using supplements can run the 40 yard dash in only 20 yards.  Seems to me, doesn't matter how fast or slow you run, the distance must remain the same.

I don't know if this was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or not, but I'm now pretty sure I do not want these people coming anywhere near my body with needles.