It's always more fun with a buddy! Figuring it out for the long run...

[dazygyrl]

yeah, i don't think i would stay honest if i didn't at least weigh once a week. so will keep doing that. i too think if i can get to jan 1 with little to no gain, i'll be happy...much as i'd rather lose.

how do you track eating out? i don't even try...i'd have to guess and i'm horrible at guessing.

[TerriMM]

In California they have to at least post calories. Sometimes I look online; a lot of fast food has build your own so you can take away the bun for instance. Other than that I just try to eat clean like steak and salad and just calculate like I cooked it.

[dazygyrl]

ah, gotcha. that helps some then.

so, am feeling good. been at 1600-1700 cals lately. (remember my 35cal/kg of goal weight is 2147!! ) and i CAN eat that much, but don't know if that's beneficial to losing. it should be since that is a cal level for 135 lbs, not what i am now...and i WANT to train my body to LIKE higher cals as opposed to lesser. just makes me nervous, kwim? i mean, as long as i eat the right things at 1600-1700 cals, i'm not hungry, but then there's that whole 'train your body to do better with fewer rather than more cals' thing. whatcha think??

[TerriMM]

Hey there,
I think there is definitely merit in training your body to maintain or lose on higher calories. I've been 1800-2200 lately. Higher then my losing target, but about right for my maintaining target. Not really aiming just ending up there particularly to keep the fat up. I'm feeling better in my own skin today too. I was tempted to weigh in and then choose not to go there.

I got a new bed Monday. It a memory foam, extra firm. I'm loving it. Made me think about your neck. How's it doing?

[dazygyrl]

my neck is fabulous! so nice to have it NOT hurting all the time. the only time i 'feel' it, is if i'm reading with my head looking down for a long period of time. or if i'm sitting in a recliner or something that is tall.

i have slept on a memory foam bed, they are nice!!

[dazygyrl]

new fat bombs!! super

So 1/4 cup butter (salted or not depending on preference.)
1/4 cup HWC.
You can add a bit of artificial sweetener if desired
Melt butter in saucepan stirring constantly until just beginning to turn brown--- be very careful that you don't cause the butter to burn.
Take off stove and add HWC (with sweetener if desired) and mix the two together.
Keep stirring, replace saucepan on stove and gently re-heat until the mixture thickens to a paste.
Remove from stove and use immediately as a dip, or to pour over a snack or a sauce. Or you can place the sauce in small candy moulds and let it harden in the refrigerator for eating later as a fat bomb.
Apparently once the mixture has hardened you will not be able to liquify it again although I thought I might experiment one day with my immersion blender to see if that is really so.
To find the source blog for this recipe just goggle Ketogenic Caramel Sauce :-)

i made these last night and poured them into these little silicone mini muffin cups (they hold about an ounce) so, perfect little fat bombs. they truly taste just like caramel!! soooo good!

altho...after i got 4 bombs poured (each 'pan' holds 4 bombs) the rest started separating out. not sure why that is...i asked the OP who posted these, but she hasn't responded yet. i also asked on the original blogpost. she just replied and stated that you should continue stirring after removing for the heat while it cools some before pouring. will try that.

edited: i used about 3T of truvia for 1 stick butter/1/2 c hwc. plenty sweet!! 2T would probably be good...of truvia anyway.

[TerriMM]

Wow, cool recipe thanks. And so simple. I like that it's not CO. For some reason that makes me gain.

[TerriMM]

Good Morning Bud,
How goes it?

Had lunch with my Dad yesterday and he brought me a big bag of homemade cookies. Beef day today. Might just work out with weigh in tomorrow.

[dazygyrl]

going ok.

shouldn't have talked about my neck. it was fine when i woke up and then after my shower it started to get stiff. not sure what i did. one wrong move and it's messed up. i ended up taking 800 mg of ibuprofen and that combined with the start of mid-cycle retaining, i'm not sure i want to weigh tomorrow.

other than that, doing good.

what's a meaty day look like?

[TerriMM]

I chopped up probably 3 oz of leftover roast and heated that up for breakfast. Rolled up about 5oz of deli roast beef with some pepperoncini peppers for the day and I'll pick up either some steak or hamburger and probably have a bowl of lettuce dressed with lemon for dinner. That seems to be the best formula for me I've found.

Sorry about the neck!!

[dazygyrl]

cool...hope it treats well as always!

[dazygyrl]

yeah, i didn't weigh. the ibuprofen yesterday, the mid-cycle, the neck pain, and then ella fell out of her bed...top bunk...at 1:45 this morning and i didn't sleep well after that. i didn't need the scale mocking me this morning.

been totally on plan, so all is well there.

headed to st louis after the kids leave. will be back sunday night.

i had a friend take these last sunday. i was lame and just never got an appt scheduled at sears to get our pictures taken and didn't have time to wait the three weeks it takes for them. they look a bit 'snapshot'-y still, but they will work. (no, this isn't our house...we have no where in our crackerjack box to take a pic. these are taken at church. we wanted to take them by the barn on our acreage where we are going to build a house, but the weather just got too cold.)

[TerriMM]

Those are awesome pictures! I don't think they're snap shotty at all. What they are is real, not posed. I'll bet they become some of your favorites.

I would not have weighed either. If it was good you'd wonder how much better it should have been. If it wasn't you'd stress over whether it was bad because of the reasons you know or something else. Good choice! You know you're on track, and your picture proves it.

I was exactly, to the tenth, the same as last Friday. On the surface you could say Meh. But my buddy knows about my horrendous weigh in that couldn't be recorded Monday and my cookie attack Tuesday means I avoided a 3-5# bump. So all is totally well with the world.

Be careful on your trip to St. Louis, carry my prayers with you.

Tomorrow is dinner at my sisters. I'm bringing pumpkin cheesecake and salad; she's grilling steak & shrimp, so hope to make it out with reasonable numbers. How much you want to bet she bakes brownies anyway

[dazygyrl]

good morning, buddy!! hope you had a great weekend. did you and hubby hit the road?

ugh, what a puffy, bloaty mess i am in. ovulation was brutal this weekend. so glad i don't have to weigh till friday.

i indulged this weekend. but the cool thing is i feel completely ready to leave that indulging now and stick to NK (until the next 'need' for indulging , living, you know) i have decieded that my body simply does NOT like sugar anymore. small amounts are ok, but saturday, bestie and i went off the rails...lol!! sunday i felt like i got hit by a truck...the only difference was the sugar. soooo, while i hate how i feel, it IS good motivation for portion control where sugar is concerned.

inflammation from that is better this morning, just feeling bloaty from mid-cycle. need to get menu planned out for today. ella has a showcase of skill at gymnastics tonight with a potluck dessert thing afterward. i'm taking my cheesecake and will just stick to that.

had a good weekend with ridge and his mom and dad and little sister. celebrated his birthday sat which he was able to tolerate fairly well. he had another CT yesterday but haven't' heard final results from that so need to text his mom and see what they learned. i'll go down there in january again. maybe take ella this time to play with her bestie (my bestie's dd) if she has a fri or monday off in january.

how did dinner at your sister's go?

[TerriMM]

Morning Bud,
Sounds like you had a good weekend, all things considered. So is the little fella’s surgery put off until after the holidays or depending on the CT?

Sister’s dinner went well. I made a great pumpkin layered cheese cake and she didn’t make brownies. Had a little bread and potatoes but didn’t overdo it. I did however have some SF Chocolate Chips last night that my tummy revolted against so I didn’t even consider my interim Monday weigh in. Which is really okay.

My big event this week is the company potluck on Wednesday. I’m bringing Cole Slaw and the pumpkin layered cheese cake muffin style. I think I’ll plan a beef day for Thursday again to hopefully keep things in check. My sister in-law talked me into baking an old family cookie recipe for the Christmas Eve party, so that should be interesting. Funny DH and I decided our Christmas morning treat this year is going to be English muffins, amazing how your perspective changes. Then the day after we’ll take off to see our son down on the southern coast and drive back up the coast line. I’m taking between Christmas and New Year’s off, so we can take our time. But of course that means a couple days of eating on the road.

What are your plans for the holidays?

[dazygyrl]

good morning! glad to hear dinner at sister's went well.

what surgery were you thinking of with ridge?

you mention your son...you know, i have been a lame friend and don't know that i even know how many kids/grandkids you have?

so christmas...i think we will do our family christmas on christmas eve in the afternoon, go to the candle light service at church, then go to mom's and stay overnight. my sister from MN will be down. then hang out at mom's christmas day. wednesday we go to in-law side of the family for overnight and be home thursday late afternoon. friday noah has a MRI night and early at 8am then he'll see his dr at 1pm. not sure what new year's eve/day looks like yet.

hubby and i are christmas shopping today. haven't done any yet...lol!

[TerriMM]

Hey Bud,
I thought the name was wrong, but couldn't remember the little guy needing the heart transplant name. Is he still off the list?

I have one "step" son but we are very close. Unfortunately he has spent his life in-between two families with very different values. On the whole he is a very good person that I am very proud of. He spent a lot of time trying to make it in the music business so he's a little behind in relationships and now a career. He lives down in Southern California (where his other family is), manages a Radio Shack, but hasn't found the right person to start a family yet.

Shopping is pretty much done. Without the passel of kids and gift certificates and $ being the gift of choice for most of the others it makes it pretty simple. Wrapping, now that's another story. I sorted out my DaisyGirl soaps last night and will wrap those tonight for the girls at work and a friend I'm having lunch with Thursday.

[dazygyrl]

ah...I see. I hope he finds the perfect gal to do life with. I feel so embarrassed to have asked that. forgive me if we have talked about this before...sometimes I'm appalled a my memory.

ridge is still on the transplant list, thank God. I thought the last brain bleed would have taken him off by it didn't. he was moved out of icu today and his kidney functions is doing better than it had been as well. PTL!

shopping going well. I'm so grateful for the way god has blessed my biz that I can contribut to bless my kids.

[TerriMM]

I probably don't mention my son a lot since I don't see him a lot. You talk about yours all the time and I still can't get them straight.

[dazygyrl]

.

[dazygyrl]

I just a text from ridge's mom. he was moved back to icu. they think he has a GI bleed which is not good with the blood thinners he's on.

[dazygyrl]

RIDGE IS GETTING A HEART!!!

[TerriMM]

[TerriMM]

Morning Bud!

How's Ridge doin?

[dazygyrl]

he's doing amazing, mama says. awake and happy!! PRAISE THE LORD!!


his heart arrived at 10:15 last night. at 12:50 this morning they removed him from bypass and his new heart began beating. what a great God we serve!!



i'll put a pic of him when i get one.

[TerriMM]

Praise the Lord!!

[TerriMM]

So Bud, what do you know about the Dukan Diet?

[dazygyrl]

absolutely nothing...lol. why do you ask?

so i think i'm not weighing till after the holidays. i can tell i haven't gone down, no need for visual confirmation. will do NK when i can and the best i can when i can't. this is a season of living and enjoying, not obsessing.

[TerriMM]

I got onto it yesterday and did some research. It’s nicked the “European Atkins”. Basically Low Fat/Low Carb. Four phases
1. Attack – Lean Protein only – beef, chicken, fish, eggs, NF dairy (except cheese) 3-10 days. Less than 20# to lose 3 days (Beef day anyone?)
2. Second phase you add low carb veggies to the protein on alternating days and just protein the others, plus some oat bran. Not sure if it’s every other day or a few days at a time.
3. Third phase you start adding whole grain bread, starchy veggies and free meals - some daily, some weekly. One day a week is protein only.
4. Forth phase is more lifestyle.
I’m still trying to figure it out, piecing it together from threads. It kind of reminds me of what those girls were doing when we first started checking out NK only they were doing high fat. (what with the Oat bran & all) I may consider it after the 1st, it f I can’t lose on consistent NK. At this point I’m doing exactly the same as you through the holidays. Today however I’m doing a beef day so I can hopefully still fit into my clothes.

[TerriMM]

Originally Posted by CherylB

Please send my love to Dazy. I think about her from time to time. I hope all is well with her and her family.

Hey Bud,
Just passing on a little Christmas love from an old friend.

Hope your Christmas weekend is spectacular and blessed!!