JOURNEY TO ONEDERLAND

Following a low carb ketogenic diet

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Hypocrisy :[

Hey guys...gonna be honest with you. After my big post about coming back to keto things got really really hard. Sparing you the details, I can't afford to eat low-carb anymore. At just under $600 on special Low-carb groceries alone last month, we had to make some choices. Either sell the car and the bikes and anything we can find in the house...or stop keto for now. I know some of you are gonna be upset and tell me I can still live a keto lifestyle on the cheap but it's honestly extremely difficult for me. I haven't been able to stop the "frakenfood" like LC bread or sugar-free coconut icecream. I've been indulging in all my favourites but making sure they were keto-friendly and wow it was great. I went from 265 (technically 270) and got down to 225 and it was AMAZING, but I just couldn't quit the ready-made options. The biggest challenge was that my fiancé can't eat cooked veggies, only raw. So stirfrys, cauliflower pizza, eggplant lasagna etc. etc. were just so not worth it if i was eating alone. His idea of a good meal was 2 smokies and a glass of crystal light -.- he also has a great deal of patience for eating the exact same thing day in day out.. Well I can't do that! It's ridiculous and frankly i have a "sweet" addiction that only Atkins peanut-butter cups can fill. So here we are, at the very least until I'm back on my feet, I'm living off of rice and noodles and multivitamins and it's awful. I hate that I have to do this but I almost didn't make my bills this month and we only had so much food that was keto friendly. To say the least, our wedding is on ice and I'm terrified. 

EDIT: Hey another thing, any tips for cheap clean eats that aren't too tough to prepare? Thanks guys :)

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Stalling :/

So... I've been between 226 and 235 since November 18th :( Ended up falling off the bandwagon because of the stalling but no more! I'm back baby! Keto and me are gonna be butt buddies all over again. Gonna eat me some chicken wings and salad. Also on a lighter note, I just bought a 99' Nissan Pathfinder yesterday. Sure it's a little rusty-- but whoever owned this puppy treated her real good! she purrs and almost always starts ;) great brakes, new fanbelt and mmmm a killer Bose sound system. And hey! Now I don't have any excuse to not get out and go hiking with the dog! OK that's a bit of a fib... I'll need to pass my drivers test first, so,  baby steps? Anyway, I have a question for you guys, if you so choose to answer...

As someone who is under a loooot of stress with work and wedding planning, I need all the help I can get. So...If your entire savings were dwindled down to about 8K CND and you had a mortgage, car payments, etc. and still had a meager income, what would you do about the wedding you'd already planned, booked, and placed a deposit on? Would you continue as scheduled and just go for it? Would you try to cut costs as MUCH as possible (ie no flowers, minimal jewelery, cash bar only, etc) and would you try to seek help from others or try to do it alone?

**BONUS** How do you manage not eating out? Any tips or strategies? I can't stand cooking anymore and my kitchen is always dirty... cant afford to replace the dishwasher. Any idea how to cut costs at home and save $$ so you aren't tempted to eat out?

[fromsmallvilletosuperman-deacti]

Week 3 - Day 13

How active are you? Share with us your typical exercise week.

Hello darlings! <3 So how active am I right now? I am as active as I physically can be while my stitches/abs/and uterus heal. I walk as often as I can, I do lightweight arm exercises here and there, and I do only a few yoga poses that are safe to do while my abs heal. However, pictured above are the types of workouts I do, how I had planned to workout for January assuming I didn’t know when Baby Wiley would be born. The weekly example of my workouts is where I write what ACTUALLY gets done. And then the last three pictures are of my exercise library- organised by how difficult the exercise is to me.

So this is how active I plan to be once ALL of my postpartum healing is done. And I can’t wait to finally be at a point where I can start adding type 1 and type 2 workouts into my schedule!! <3

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Productivity!

Hit my 10,000 step goal before 10:30 this morning AND worked out at the gym. Time for an omelette :D

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Omw to the gym! And look, no glasses!

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

It's a new year! Good morning Folks, I know I'm a week late on this one but I've been pretty busy with doctors, appointments, and my new favorite--the gym!

Ahhh the gym, I'm not sure how or why this is becoming a staple in my life but so far so good! I bought a month pass to my local rec center and I really love it so far. I've found that working out for a couple hours every few days really helps me relax and feel less anxiety, plus it has great health benefits. I can see how what you eat plays such a huge role in the weight-loss you actually achieve though, I've been steadily losing weight but I've also eaten more than I should be and I could be losing faster if I had been watching my caloric intake closer. I love keto but the butter and cream adds up fast lol! I've had to take a good look at what it is I'm putting into my body. Overall however, it would seem that exercising is less about weight loss and more about long-term health. That being said, since I've started at the gym, my whole body "feels" like it's becoming more toned and I feel I'm becoming curvier. I haven't been going for long but I'm looking and feeling the best I have in years. If that isn't a sign to keep it up then I don't know what is.

What my workout looks like:

-3-4X per week (once every other day)

-Bike or power-walk to the gym and back (2.8 miles total)

-15 mins of cardio (elliptical or uphill-treadmill-walk)

-1 hour of full body strength training

-Another 15 mins of cardio to end the workout (bike or elliptical)

-Cooldown and stretching for 5-10 minutes

-Once a week, lap swimming for 30 mins upon completion of workout

So I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, honestly I feel better, less hungry, less depressed and overall healthier when I workout so at least I've switched from being primarily sedentary to light-moderately active :) I'll soon start posting some fitbit stuff for your viewing pleasure ;)

Well, I'm off to my morning workout, KCKO :)

[silly-luv]

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Not my regular material but this is so beautiful.

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Holidays are evil

So I got through Thanksgiving, I got through 2 birthday parties, I got through 3 Christmas dinners- all without cheating. Then tonight, the fiance and I are hungry, its seriously cold out and the keto-friendly cauliflower pizza I planned out was gonna be delicious. That is, until I realized we were out of eggs and Italian sausage. You see, this morning a young man was sleeping on our lawn. He was noticeably homeless and at first I asked my fiance to go yell at him to get the hell off our lawn but then the holiday spirit or some shit told me that it's cold and shit, let's make this guy coffee, bacon, eggs, and sausage. I put together a toothbrush, Questbar, toilet paper, napkins and sani-wipes and cooked up the food and sent my fiance out to our lawn to deliver the goods, along with my old ski jacket. Homeless kid got a warm holiday breakfast...and I forgot to buy more eggs and sausage, so i got to fuck up my diet. We were making Dixie Diner brownies and cauliflower dough when suddenly it hits me...where are the eggs???? Where's the sausage???? Unfortunately my fiance and I are lazy assholes so rather than going out to brave the cold, we did something truly horrible. We cheated on keto...bad. We got French fries, sweet and sour pork, pork fried rice, chicken chow mein and egg rolls and after stuffing our faces....it hit us....what the hell??? That was so goddamn gross...oh god what the hell?! Seriously I couldn't remember Chinese food being so horrible. I wanted to complain to the restaurant. Omg then it got worst. We throw all the food into a big garbage bag and deem "never again!" I fell into a food-coma for an hour and a half then woke up and went back for more D: I actually pulled it out of the garbage bag and resumed eating out of sheer hunger. Hell, I'm STILL hungry as I write this. What the hell is with carbs???? What the hell is with me???? Anyway....this is why I can't cheat and will not be doing it ever again.

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

First world keto problems...

1. You lose weight so fast it's hard to buy clothes that legitimately fit well and look good for more than a few weeks. 2. You get to eat tasty food and yet you still lose weight so now your friends and family don't believe you're dieting and think you're on drugs, bulimic, or getting 'work' done. 3. You can't stop pigging out on Xylitol candies, thus leaving your wallet empty and your butt regretting. 4. You spend waaaaaay too much time researching low carb recipes, before and after pictures, and success stories. Seriously, it's been like 4 hours since you've sat down, look outside. 5. A) You look like a stereotypical fatty when you go grocery shopping. Your checklist is like 80% bacon. B) Bacon is ridiculously expensive lately so your wallet is suffering pretty hard. 6. People keep trying to talk you out of keto, despite all your progress. (Because bread and rice=healthy. Duh.) 7. You feel bad for all the misinformed folks out there and often rage at health studies that say bad things about LC eating. How dare they! 8. When people look down on your eating choices and offer 'healthier' suggestions without you asking, and you take it as a challenge and start a bloody debate in the middle of Christmas dinner that ends in a collective awkward silence and possibly hurt feelings. 9. Your significant other is doing keto too and losing weight faster than you. This makes you unnecessarily envious and resentful in their presence. 10. Sugar-alcohol farts. No longer being allowed to eat sugar free chocolate due to choking out your significant other every night for the past week

[hellyeahlowcarbrecipes]

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies - Keto and LactoPaleo

Makes 24 good sized cookies Or more if you go smaller! Just remember to adjust your baking time if you make them a different size. Ingredients

2/3c almond flour

1 cup sweetener

3 eggs

8oz cream cheese, softened

2 tbs butter, softened

1/4 t salt

1/4 t vanilla

1/2 t xantham

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 c coconut shreds (optional but amazing)

1 tablespoon coconut flour

1 tablespoon cashew butter (optional, any nut butter will do)

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips of choice

Directions

Cream together butter, cream cheese, cashew butter and sweetener.

Add in eggs one at a time, mixing well in between each.

Add remaining dry ingredients (except chocolate chips and coconut) and mix well

Add in chocolate chips and coconut pop the mix in the freezer to harden up a bit (10 minutes or so, roughly as long as it takes to heat the oven)

Preheat oven to 350

Spoon cookies onto lined baking sheet (about 1 tablespoon sized cookies) and bake for 20 minutes or until the top of the cookie is no longer moist and begins to brown on the raised parts.

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

These look so yummy!

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Good afternoon folks!

Merry Christmas Eve :) I gotta say, I am so not ready for the holidays. I've lost 40 pounds thanks to Keto but I am sooooo not ready in every other aspect. Let's see what I have on my plate: -Need to prep cauliflower mash for Christmas dinner -Wash ALL the dishes. Seriously, my dishwasher is completely toast and I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. -Sweep, swiffer, vacuum, mop...every room in my 3-story townhouse -.- -Finish wrapping presents -Wash all the bedsheets and laundry -Workout with the dog -Prep the turkey -Prep the spaghetti squash OK you get the point, the list is much longer actually but I'm sure you don't need to know how dirty I keep my house lol. Anyway, I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I hope you all get what you wanted for Christmas and get to share this wonderful time with your families and friends. :)

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Mmmm

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Dinner with the hubby in Vancouver today. Had an amazing Mediterranean salad with marinated beef souvlaki and the most amazing hummus I’ve ever had. If you’re ever in gastown on west hastings and looking for something with keto-friendly, gluten-free, organic and/or vegan options, give ‘Nuba’ a try :)

[dennys]

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Almost Christmas. Just putting the final decorations on the tree...

[dennys]

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Happy Holidays! Hope you're all enjoying your cauliflower mash and turkey :)

[dennys]

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

My Christmas list

[cautiouslyoptimisticllama-blog1]

Whoops

Saw a girl on my train-ride home who looked an awful lot like someone i went to highschool with.

Didn’t want to say anything for fear it wasn’t her.

25 minutes of awkward staring at one another ensued.

She gave in first and starts telling her friend about the time she was on the train and saw someone from school but didn’t say anything cuz she didn’t know it was them or not.

It became apparent that I’m fucking oblivious when she looked in my direction and I said nothing

She scoffs and gives up.

10 minutes later, just as she gets off the train, her friend calls her name and I feel pretty stupid.

'Crap it IS her!' I think.

I turn to say hi, only to have the doors shut in my face.

I bet she thinks I’m an asshole :[