Weigh-In: Down 9.3 LBS! Woop woop! (Plus, Last Week’s Meals)

Hi, loves!

Well, I obviously gave it away in the title… down another 1.5 lbs at yesterday’s weigh-in, for a total of 9.3 lbs gone since I started back on the path of goodness on 9/4! Man, that feels good:

I probably should’ve gone for the “HELL YEAH” but it’s my scheduled cheat day (still logging, though!) and I’m feeling like, OMG WHY AM I DOING THIS. But anywho.

Here’s what I made for food last week:

I already reviewed the Chicken Thighs with Shallots & Spinach in my last blog post, but I’ll definitely be reviewing some of the other recipes I found last week, too.

Now it’s off to finish off this logged cheat day with style – MREOW. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday evening!

Recipe Review: Taste of Home Chicken Thighs with Shallots and Spinach (LC, HF, GF)

As part of my calorie-counting plans,  I wanted to use actual recipes *gasp* for my meal plans. It’s just a little less thinking for me to plan all the things when I can at least start somewhere with an ingredient list. I decided last week that I wanted to incorporate at least three new meals or meal ideas into our week of dinners. Of course that meant heading to my favorite place to find such things, Pinterest.

I searched “low calorie dinners” and got really good results, but for things I wasn’t really down for spending the time/money on. Bird really love chicken thighs, so I narrowed my search to “low calorie chicken thigh dinners” and voila! Success. One of the results that came up was a list of 30 Healthy Dinner Recipes in 30 Minutes from Taste of Home. There were quite a few recipes in there I was interested in, but nothing strikes my fancy like a dish with spinach. I put spinach in my scrambled eggs every morning I’m home (I drink BPC when I have to travel) and so finding a recipe that would just allow me to buy a bit more spinach? That’s meal-planning winning fo’ sho. Enter this freaking gem of a dish: Chicken Thighs with Shallots & Spinach by Jenna Johnannes from Wrightstown, WI.

Here’s the ingredient and instruction list:

And here are the changes I made:

1. Instead of using seasoned salt, I used himalyan pink salt and Simply Organic Herbs de Provence (affiliate link for Amazon, just an FYI!). I also added waaaay more than 1/2 teaspoon of the herbs, because YUM. It’s so delicious.
2. I went with the reduced-sodium chicken broth. I’m sure the wine would be delicious, but meh.
3. I used full-fat sour cream (Organic Valley makes reallllly good organic sour cream!) because I don’t believe in low-fat and fat-free things, except for cooking spray, lol.

I also logged all of the things into LoseIt as a recipe and put it as 4 servings (she listed six, but I try to make things that we can each just have half of, that way there aren’t leftovers to mess up my pre-planned lunches). Here’s what the recipe looked like:

1010 calories for the whole shebang is perfect – that meant a 505 calorie meal for each of us. SO EXCITING when it just works out well! I knew that probably wasn’t quiiiite enough food for me after a really long day, so I added a side of roasted zucchini (zucchini, chopped with olive oil + salt + pepper, roasted at 400 degrees for 15 minutes) so the total meal came to 606 calories (29.4g fat, 14.2g net carbs, and 39.7g protein). Also, it plated up beautifully:

This recipe was definitely a winner – can’t wait to rotate it in to a meal plan again in a few weeks!

I’m feeeeeeeeling goooooood

First of all, I love Michael Buble’s version of this song (not that I don’t love Nina Simone’s — mmph) but damn, that boy is a delight to ears (okay, okay, and the eyes):

As I mentioned in my last blog, I had a pretty eye-opening weigh-in two weeks ago. I was sort of in shock, disbelief… how did I let myself get back to this weight? I didn’t have the excuse of a car accident, it’s been two years since my head/spinal injury and even though that certainly plays a role, I could have adjusted by now and still been on my game…. without excuses, I just had me to blame.

I took some time to write in my personal journal to get a grip on myself. I’ve been coasting. A lot of things in my life had been a result of me coasting instead of working toward my goals. I’ve worked on a lot of those things – gotten my shit together in so many ways. But weight loss… something so important to me for so many reasons… I was just fucking around, ignoring it, putting it off, being lazy. It was time for a change.

It’s always nice when you make a commitment to something and see immediate results:

Yeah, yeah, that’s what up.

Here’s what my focus is on:

• Meal planning (with intention of cost-savings and calorie counties)
• Meal prep (getting all my basics cooked every Sunday so it’s not overly difficult to stick to plan because I’m being lazy)
• Calorie counting in LoseIt, my fave app for weight loss (and totally worth the paid version; they’re a great company and the freaking data is amazing)
• Carb-conscious (aiming for less than 100g of carbs per day, and those carbs need to be valuable, not empty)
• Organic eats (my body is important to me and I want to treat it like I give a shit. I accept the trade-off of the cost of organic food to the cost of going to the doctor’s, something I rarely do unless it’s related to my injuries)
• Do-able (for me) exercise (walking/hiking and Zumba once a week. I’m still considering a gym membership but have to talk to more doctors first about lifting with a spinal cord and brain issues)

Is all of this planing, prepping, and counting a pain in the ass? Yeah, kinda. But look at this progress. I can have an extra few hours a week to do whatthefuckever, or I can hunker down and take care of myself. I’m choosing me.

And it’s working.

Weight Loss Pro Tip: Use a Big F*cking Cup

In case you missed my IG post earlier this week, I had a miserable minute or twelve when I weighed myself and had gained a substantial amount of weight (substantial is in the eye of the substantiater – YMMV). House-buying, work-changing (eventually? Shoutout to my job for keeping me around <3), living-in-two-places, moving, (temporarily) losing our Maine Coon cat… the excuses are limitless. I was eating like shit and telling myself all the physical labor from moving would keep the balance.

WRONG. 

I weighed in at 230.2.

230.2. 

Fucking. Hell. Man.

I haven’t weighed 230 since after I put weight back on post car-accident. Granted, the lowest I’ve gotten since my car accident is 202. And my current weight pre-moving was 217.8. But, still. That number hit me like a ton of takeout containers. Normally I’d wallow in self-pity and give myself another five days of eating bullshit to get my ass in gear, but nope – straight on the calorie-counting train of goodness.

A big part of successful weight loss for me is drinking water – I know, I know. That’s a big part of successful weight loss for everyone. But listen – for me, it’s one of those things that if I don’t constantly have water near me, I’ll forget about it until I’m so dehydrated I can barely function. Enter my Weight Loss Pro Tip: A Big Fucking Cup (I edited in the title because not everyone knows me and my foul mouth :D).

Bird got me this for Christmas last year:

It’s 24-oz and, most importantly, it has a STRAW. I drink out of it ALL THE TIME. Having it near me and it being so accessible – I just do. I’m on my fourth one today and it’s only 6PM. That means I’ve already had 9 cups of water. It also means I’ve peed about 10 times, but I digress. Bonus: it saves you some small change when you get it refilled at Starbucks – just tell them you have a “personal cup” and make sure to take the lid off/straw out for them.

PS – I have been faithfully planning/tracking my food for five days now (today included) and am already down 3.8 lbs. So, wahoo to me and eff you to my recent poor decisions. Time to kill it.

Cauliflower Hash Brown Patties – OMG YUM (LC, GF, DF, Keto)

So friends.

On Sunday I just wanted potatoes. I woke up and it’s what I was thinking about–fucking POTATOES.

So I went a pinterest-ing to look for mock potato breakfast recipes with cauli in them, but I just wasn’t inspired. So instead, I just did my own thing, and made these beauts:

KetoDeb’s Cauliflower Hash Browns

KetoDeb’s Cauliflower Hash Browns (Low Carb, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Ketogenic)

Ingredients!

• 1 Bag of Green Giant Steamable Riced Cauliflower
• 1 medium shallot, diced
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Things You’ll Need!

• A microwave or the time to pan-steam the cauliflower
• A cutting board and knife
• Cheese cloth/paper towels/a strainer with holes small enough not to let the riced cauliflower through
• A mixing bowl and mixing spoon
• Parchment paper or a silicone baking mat
• A baking sheet
• An oven

Steps!

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Steam the cauliflower according to the directions (this is a great time to get out some tissues and dice that shallot).
3. Let it cool (I didn’t do this, because I was impatient, and I definitely burnt myself, lol).
4. Once cool, drain the excess water from the cauliflower. You can do this with the bag it’s in, or cheesecloth, or paper towels, or even a strainer if the cauliflower won’t fall out. I got a lot of water out of it, so that should be your goal!
5. Put your steamed, drained, riced cauliflower in a mixing bowl (I’m a Pyrex gal myself).
6. Add all of the other ingredients and stir until the egg is fully mixed through. You should have a fairly disgusting looking bowl of mush.
7. Put parchment paper or a silicone baking mat on your baking sheet (do NOT skip this step, it’ll suck, trust me) and place dollops of your cauli mixture on the sheet. Depending on how you’d like these to come out, they can be whatever size you want–slightly bigger than quarter size is fine, but I prefer them to be slightly bigger than baseball sized (you can also make them rectangular, whatthefuckever, really). Smush the dollops into even, consistent heights to ensure even bake-time.
8. Stick ’em in the oven! Bake 14-16 minutes or until they start to crisp. As long as you keep a close eye on them, you could let them in longer to get a nice brown crust.
9. Remove from the oven and let them cool for about five minutes, then you’ll be able to easily remove them from the parchment paper/silicone mat without them breaking on you.
10. Serve plain, with ketchup (there are low-carb varieties, in case you haven’t seen them!), as a side with cheesey eggs–you name it!
11. EAT!

Served with cheesey eggs, of course ❤

You could change up this recipe for days… put in different spices (I think Herbs de Provence is going to be my next choice), make them spicy, spread the mixture out on a pan, bake it, then top with eggs and bake again for a hash brown quiche… limitless. options. Also, if you don’t need these to be dairy-free, adding in literally ANY cheese would bind them more and give them an even better consistency than what they already have!

If you decide to make these, let me know how you like them, what changes you made, etc.! I’d love to keep changing it up and making it better as time passes 🙂

 

Recipe Review: I Breathe I’m Hungry’s General Tso’s Meatballs

One of my “To Do’s” in my planner yesterday was to pin new recipes, which I did during my lunch break at work (because at least then I’m not making myself ridiculously hungry by pinning delicious food!). One of the recipes I came upon was for I Breathe I’m Hungry’s General Tso’s Meatballs, which immediately intrigued me because I fucking LOVE Chinese Food. And it’s one of my go-to cheat meals, and since I’m trying to avoid cheat meals right meow, it seemed like a perfect substitute. I had other plans for dinner, but as I was still at the grocery store at 8 o’clock last night, these made a much more time-friendly (read: me not murdering someone out of hanger) option.

Let me just tell you–these meatballs are BANGIN’. 

They’re made with chicken and a lot other ingredients I had to purchase (rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, etc.), so I’ll definitely be making them again. Initially I was going to roast some broccoli to have with them, but then decided on cauli rice instead:

IBIH’s General Tso’s Meatballs over Cauliflower Rice – YUM

I was a little hesitant from the get-go because when I mixed up the ground chicken, almond flour, ginger, egg, and scallions, it was, well…disgusting. Goopy chicken all over my hands, and I was just worried they weren’t going to hold consistency. But they did! I fried them in Filipio Berio Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil for about 8 minutes per side to make sure they got that crunch Melissa talks about in her recipe post.

For the sauce, I had to make two edits:

1. Our grocery store (Redner’s) only had gigantic bags of dried chiles, which I just couldn’t reason buying because I knew I wouldn’t use them all. So I got a can of chipotle chiles in Adobo sauce from the “mexican foods” aisle. Then they were drained and seeded and replaced the dried ones in the recipe.
2. Because of this^, the total of the xantham gum in the recipe was upped by 1/4 tablespoon to accommodate for the extra water from having those chiles instead of dried ones, which worked out perfectly in terms of the sauce and it’s marvelous consistency.

Guys–the sauce in this recipe is fantastic. It was aromatic, had a perfect flavor profile, and the perfect kick of that classic General Tso’s heat. I loved the sauce on these so much, I’m tempted to make a double batch of the sauce next time I make the meatballs, so I can have more of a coated cauli rice dish! As always, Melissa, I just adore everything you do!

Any other interesting meatball recipes out there I should try? Please do tell!

Holy Shit, It’s 2017

When you’re waiting and waiting and waiting for a thing to happen, and then it happens and you’re not even sure what to do with it….

Oh hey, 2017.

Except that I am sure what to do with it–Kick It In The Ass.

Last year was mediocre. It wasn’t terrible, and it wasn’t great. It had moments of each of those… losing one of the most inspiring women I know to cancer, and running my first half marathon, for example. But overall, I don’t feel like I owned it. I feel like I let it happen to me, instead of taking control of it. So that’s my goal for 2017: take the bull by the motherfucking horns.

Goals:

1. Lose weight. IDK how much, IDK how quickly, but I’m not content with my weight so I’m going to keep working on it. For me, setting numerical goals leads me to creating crazy, unmanageable habits that always lead to failure, so I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to work on it. Be better. That’s all I can do.
2. Read more. I have 100’s of books, but I tend to end up spending my time watching TV and playing video games, both of which have their merit, but I’d like to spend more of my free time reading and taking in the knowledge the rest of the world has to offer me. I’m starting out with Eat & Run by Scott Jurek, one of the world’s foremost ultrarunners.
3. Learn to use my sewing machine. I don’t why I keep putting this off… it’s not going to be difficult, and I have so many bits of fabric and things already, so I just need to do it.
4. Run more races. Last year I KILLED IT with my racing goals (ran multiple 5k’s, a 10k, and my first half marathon) so I want to keep it up. Someday I’m going to run a full, and you never know when the inspiration to do it will hit. I also want to join up with JAM and do some more OCRs, too 🙂
5. Keep up my volleyballin’. I’ve learned SO MUCH this year from my amazing teammates, and I’m actually starting to feel like a real player. I’m going to keep on keepin’ that up in 2017, because volleyball is BADASS.
6. More dates with my friends. Sometimes I go months and months and months without seeing people I truly love and care about, and I want to stop that this year. Even if it’s a Google hangout/Skype date, I want to see more of the lovely faces I adore so much.
7. Happy Planner my life. I got my first Happy Planner (did you know there is an entire community full of planning addicts? I had no idea, but now I’m in it, sooo, yeah.) and I freaking LOVE it (and capital letters, apparently).
8. Travel more! Bird and I did more travelling last year than we have in years previous, plus I took a girls vacay with Steph, and it was really, really lovely. I want to expand that this year and do even more! Plus I really get a kick out of the gamification of TripAdvisor… 😀

I think eight goals is enough? Who knows. I’ll edit them as they need to be, but right now, I’m pumped.

What about you?  Did you set new year goals and/or resolutions? Is there a difference? If so, what are they? Tell me tell me tell me!

 

KetoDelivered Review: Coffee Blocks

Because I plan my meals out like a lunatic, it’s taken me awhile to fit the Coffee Blocks from my KetoDelivered box into my schedule, but I finally tried them this past Friday!

Coffee Blocks – $23.95 for an 8-pack (and free shipping in the US!)

I switch between having BPC for breakfast and having hard-boiled eggs. I’ve been having hard-boiled eggs for like, six months now, so it’s going to be BPC time again soon. I have an AeroLatte at work, so I’m fairly well prepped, but totally into the idea of being able to use a to-go option instead! I made them at work, which according to the lovely fellas that make them is how the idea was started–not hauling all yer hubbub to work to brew and blend:

“Why Coffee Blocks” – http://www.CoffeeBlocks.com

I took one our lovely Star Wars Tervis Tumblers to work with me, and followed the instructions to the T (which is normally not my style, but coffee is deserving of nothing less!). It was definitely easy to make, and there is no waiting or anything of that nature, it’s just ready to go. Some of the reasons why I love it:

1. It’s made in ‘merica! (Wanna chat about politics sometime? Hit me up at ketodeb@gmail.com :))
2. Super-high-quality organic and/or grass-fed ingredients–all five of them.
3. Uhh, it’s EASY. Who doesn’t want their breakfast (or whatever other meal you want to use it for) to be super simple and quick? Especially if, like me, you don’t eat until you’re at work.

My hold-up:

1. I don’t know why I’m numbering this list–there is only one hold-up. I do not particularly care for the taste of coconut oil. When I make my own BPC at home, I use salted butter because a) I mean, I love salt, and b) it helps mask the taste of the coconut. Coffee Blocks, to me, tastes way too coconutty. That being said, I know my bird will love them, so he’ll benefit from them being in our pantry 🙂

Overall review: While the flavor of the coconut oil is a hold-up for me, that doesn’t change the fact that this a great product, made by what seems to be a great company. For me it’s a 4/5, but for anyone who doesn’t mine the coconut oil flavor, I don’t think you’d ever rate it less than a 5/5.

Thanks for the box, KetoDelivered! To get your own box full of small batch Keto food delivered right to your door, visit this link: http://www.ketodelivered.com/?aic=LVH3BW5

It’s June?! Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey!

Hi, friends!

I can’t believe tomorrow is June. I’m feeling a bit like I must’ve been traveling in a blue box! May just flew right by… probably because it was filled with so much awesomeness, like giving away a LoseIt Premium Subscription and running the ChesC0 5K!

June is shaping up to be just as great, and I’m ready to set my goals for the month.

Monthly Goals: June Edition

1. Back to Keto

I’ve been eating like crap the last few days… er, weeks? I’ve been slightly more than emotionally trainwreck-y, and all of that has been manifesting itself in my B.E.D. Which is stupid, and I know I’m stronger than that, so I’m cutting that shit out. Starting now. My goal for June is to get back to 50net carbs/day (and by “back to” I mean, right now, damnit) and make sure that 90% of that is super-clean food choices.

2. Lift 2X/Week

One of the biggest problems with eating like crap is that you no longer feel compelled to carry on with the other great parts of your life, like lifting heavy. We’ve kept up with our cardio because most of that is what we do for fun (volleyball, disc golf, running), but our lifting has suffered. So, back to lifting regularly (which is only going to be twice/week because of the next goal…)

3. Plan Our Race Training (Including Our First Half Marathon!)

Bird is totally on board with long-distance running, so we’ve made our commitments for basically the rest of the year (including our first half Marathon!), and we need to make sure we’re appropriately training for them. We’ll have to edit our lifting schedule a little on-the-fly to make sure we’re not overdoing it or making ourselves injury prone, so training will take precedence here.

4. Get Better at Volleyball

I freaking love volleyball. Normally our club ends when school lets out, but one of the members has a court at her house, so she’s invited us all to continue playing throughout the summer! Normally summer is when I barely play, but this year it’s going to be about getting better. We got a small put-it-up-take-it-down-easily volleyball/badminton net at our local sports store that was closing (75% of, so we paid $25 dollars for two nets, poles, four badminton rackets, a volleyball, and a pump) and played for an hour or so last Friday. It’s definitely “cheap”, but it’ll work just fine for our needs (and for our July 4th party that will be here before we know it)!

You may have noticed that I don’t have any weight loss-specific goals this month. That’s entirely intentional… after eating like crap for awhile, I’m definitely up a few pounds. I’m also travelling for work this month, so I won’t be able to weigh-in for one week, and counting calories during that week will be impossible-enough that I don’t intend to do it, so I need to be “OK” with not being a perfectionist for a smidge. Instead, I’m going to focus on doing what I know is the right thing for my body, regardless of the data that I’m usually so obsessed with.

Here’s to a great June–let’s kick off summer with some ass-kicking!

I Am a Runner.

I’ve always wanted to be a runner. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be able to move… Fast.

Third Time’s a Charm
When I first started actively trying to lose weight, I was over 300 lbs and was advised that running at that high of a weight wouldn’t be good for me. When I got down to 250-ish, I tried to run a few times but always got discouraged when I didn’t make it very far, and I quit trying.

Then when I went keto and lost 50 pounds rather quickly, my at-the-time-doctor said running was a great idea. So I did C25k at my marathon-running-cousin’s suggestion… And loved it. I got way-super-interested in the science of weight loss and fitness, and I got smarter about how to get better at running. That year I ran several races, including obstacle races. I loved the added challenge of obstacles and mud… I was in love with running and ready to start long-distance training.

Boom, crash, the sound of my car…
In January of 2014 I had a life-altering car accident, the result of which was losing a lot of mobility and use of my right hand (surgery the day of, surgery a week later ((got me a wrist screw!!)) casted to my shoulder for 8 weeks, half-casted for another six, several months of occupational therapy, and only now am I getting strong enough to turn my hand over). I put back on 50+ lbs and didn’t run again until March of 2015 (although against doctor’s orders at the time), which was when I started training for the First Annual Chesco Half and 5k. I did six weeks of C25k before the 5k, and definitely didn’t train for the hills. The race took me 43:29 to run/walk with my love Sara, pictured below.

I also had a lot of self-loathing then. I hated how I looked and I was really struggling with losing weight.

This year, I was determined to do better.

I am down more than 30 lbs since then, I trained more, and I am much more disciplined than I was last year. Well, those things did the trick:  This year I finished the 5k 35:53 (without any walking), and placed 21st out of 34 in my age group.

Here are Bird and I after finishing the 5k (he finished in 28 mins!)

This, friends, is only the beginning. We’ve both found a love in running, and in running/training together. We’re signed up for an obstacle course 5k on June 4th, another 5k on June 18, another 5k in August, and a 10k in September. Like I said, I’ve always wanted to be a runner, and now I am. It’s a fantastic feeling.

Also, look at those pants–who doesn’t want to run in purple/pink ombre pants?!