Keto Bread

Hal and I have been missing bread and rice but  as rice is a no-no I ordered the ingredients to make keto friendly bread from a recipe I found on the diet doctor website. It uses these ingredients:

• 1¼ cups almond flour
• 5 tbsp ground psyllium husk powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 egg whites
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
• Mix it quickly (don't pour the hot water right onto the eggs, mix the eggs into the dry ingredients first) and form flattish balls and bake at 350 F for an hour. We liked it so I made it again but raised the temp to 365 because they were a bit soft inside.
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• The second time the insides had a purple tint, but that doesn't change the taste which I find sort of like a multigrain bread with a hint of rye. Not for everyone but very satisfying. The link provides carb content, etc plus tips.
• Here are photos of my first batch and the hamburger buns they became.
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• I had a hard time getting the sesame seeds to stick so I left them off the second batch. Ate 2 of these yesterday, one for breakfast then one for dinner. It screwed up my macros so I will not be having 2 per day again.

The Ketogenic DIet Attempt

When my brother visited last November we somehow got talking about weight loss. I have been unhappy with my weight for a while and for the past few months I just really couldn't get "into" dieting, there is just too much tasty stuff to eat. And of course, there is wine and beer. And juice, love my morning glass of juice. So even though I would buy low fat or nonfat items, and then walk the dogs 3-4 miles a day, the weight kept creeping up and the holidays totally nuked me. From June to mid January I gained at least 6-7 pounds.

My brother mentioned the 3 week Keto diet and that you lose a lot of weight. When I saw my physician's assistant (PA) on January 2 I asked her about it and she said it was a lifestyle change. That is certainly not a 3 week plan. She also says I shouldn't eat bacon every day and often she's seen peoples' cholesterol skyrocket. I told her as she's been wanting to put me on pills for that anyway, so this should work out fine. She did give me the go ahead to give it a try though.

I did a lot of research on Keto, found a lot of conflicting information, (2 week plan, 3 week plan, lifestyle change only, tomatoes are bad, tomatoes are good, etc, convinced Hal to go on it with me, though he thinks he's going with a 3 week version, which will be hard if I decid to continue it, but I'll figure that out later. So after getting over the nasty stomach bug that I saw my PA for, and Hal and I finished up the holiday cookies, etc (dang, we forgot to finish the egg nog!) we started this past Monday, January 21.

I forgot to weigh myself that morning before I ate, as did Hal, so we weighed ourselves Tuesday. As of this morning he has lost 3 pounds and I have lost 3.6 pounds. If I go by my regular weigh-in the previous Friday, I have actually lost 7 pounds! Now I know this is all water weight so far and the real test will be how much I've lost (hopefully) in another week and another week after that. If all goes well I want to keep going because ideally I'd like to lose 25 pounds, hit a weight I haven't seen since I moved away from Virginia 19 years ago. Hal would like to lose 20 though I think he could go a little more than that.

So far I have to say, I'm not craving the carbs and sugar that I've dropped from my diet so far, but I am getting mighty sick of eggs for breakfast every morning. Skipping breakfast today was a bit of a relief. I'l try to post my progress now and then as I go along.

Thanksgiving 2018

Thanksgiving was fun. It was my first one in this house since I moved here 18 years ago. Till now it has been with Hal's parents every year. I invited my neighbor John and his dog Seamus. And my brother was here, too. Hadn't seen him in a little over 3 years. He seems to really like Kaylee, who likes him a lot, too. Ziggy was not ignored either. There was plenty of puppy love to go around.

Dinner was turkey, of course, and mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn (forgot the green beans and the corn, but managed to get the corn done at the last minute). gravy, mushrooms, and wine. Then blueberry and pumpkin pie. Everyone was well fed. The dogs got a bit here and there, too.

I know someone took photos of the table but I can't find them, so you'll jusst have to believe me that it looke good.

Christmas 2018

Christmas was AWESOME. The 4 of us humans had absolutely nothing to complain about and the 3 dogs seemed to have had a good time too. Here are a few photos.

Hal got lots of flannel

There was venison roasted over an open fire, caveman style

Kaylee and her best friend Seaums on top of Seamus' dad

6 month old Kaylee is as big as 10 year old Lyra

little sis enjoying unwrapping her big present

me and my gift box from big sis

wrestling with Kaylee, Ziggy and Seamus

My neighbor John and Seamus, his furry friend, joined us for dinner with was a ham with pineapple stuffing on the side and , green beans, asparagus and mashed potatoes with a pinot noir and a late harvest riesling.