Keto Sharing

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

I’m starting a thread for those of us who have adopted the ketogenic/keto way of eating (WOE) to share recipes, product recommendations, tips, support, etc. To those who disagree, please be respectful are refrain from posting here. You have something negative to say, start your own thread. My wish is that this thread can remain positive.

So, what are your best tips? What alternative recipes have you discovered? What are your favorite packaged products. BTW, If you share a recipe, please include the nutritional info so users can decide if it will fit into their macros. Thanks so much. Let’s have fun here and be supportive.

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

I guess I’ll start.

Reading labels is SO important. Watch for hidden sugars. Maltodextrin is a common food additive. It’s sugar.

My DH and I started the keto WOE at the end of June, only to realize we’d been doing i5 wrong for several weeks. Even so, he can make his belt tighter and I’m down a size. I still haven’t gotten on the scale though.

lkat · ‎07-23-2014

Great idea to start a thread, hopefully the usual suspects don't hijack it.

I've been doing Keto since May. Have lost 24 pounds (almost at goal), my blood pressure is lower, my joint pain is gone and I'm never hungry. I got hit pretty hard with the keto flu on day 4, but except for that have felt great. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I've had hardly any cravings and have not had any cheats (or desire to cheat). Even though I haven't been doing it a real long time, these are the things that have helped me the most.

-I add one tablespoon of MCT oil to black coffee in the morning, it has no taste (I sometimes just have it off the spoon) and helps keep my appetite at bay (I have a 6-8 hour eating window). I know a lot of people like bulletproof coffee but it sounds gross to me and it also has a lot of calories.

-Drink electrolytes if you get the low carb flu or if you feel dehydrated and use Redmond Real Salt on food - it has a lot of trace minerals.

-Eat your veggies, I make sure to have a good portion at every meal. Get creative with them, there are a lot of delicious recipes online.

-Do not eat too much "dirty keto". Yeah, bacon tastes good, but it shouldn't be a staple in your diet.

-I hardly ever get the urge for sweets any more, but if I do, I make a little whipped cream (use Swerve confectioners instead of regular sugar) and have with berries and it tastes better than any cookie/cake would.

-There are a TON of delicious free recipes online and also some great cookbooks.

-If you like eggs, you'll probably be eating more of them, so invest in good organic, pasture raised eggs. You will notice a difference. One of my favorite meals when I'm home is eggs scrambled with sauteed mushrooms and onions, topped with a touch of butter and some nutritional yeast along with a side of avocado. Also an omelette filled with salsa and topped with sour cream and avocado is a great meal.

-Take advantage of all the online resources. There are a ton of forums, You Tube channels, bloggers, Instagrammers, etc. I did a lot of research before I started and it was worth it. It's not easy to stop eating sugar, bread, pasta, etc. all at once but it's much easier if you've done some prep work/research. There are a lot of really cool, helpful people out there.

-If you eat out, try to find nutritional info online for the meals before you get to the restaurant. A lot of meals that sound like they'd be good for keto have a lot more carbs than you'd expect.

-This isn't specific to keto, but I've found that a change in my mindset has really helped. I don't think of this as a diet. I'm not planning on ever going back to eating sugar/high carbs. I feel too good now. I also try not to ever think/say "I can't eat that", rather I think "I don't eat that". It sounds silly but it does help.

-And finally (sorry this is way longer than I planned), ignore the haters. So many people think their WOE is the only "right" way. Do your research and listen to your body. Tweak things as needed. Many people mistakenly think that all people who are keto live on bacon cheeseburgers and fat bombs. You'll never convince the militants that they're wrong, so don't waste any energy on them.

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

Thanks, @lkat. That was a great post. I recently watched a film on Netflix called "The Magic Pill". It was sobering to see how sugar impacts multiple areas of our health and wellness. We have decided that this needs to be our ongoing WOE rather than just for weightloss. I'm in another online forum and I feel so bad for those who have been successful and then somewhere along the line they make a series of bad choices only to return to where they began, sometimes worse.

Admittedly, my first week of no bread, I was dying for a piece of buttered toast. We've had a couple other cheats over the past couple of months, but they have gotten less important to us. When we have cheated, those foods we thought we loved and missed didn't taste the same. I don't know why or how that happens, if it has something to do with our built in sugar receptors.

lkat · ‎07-23-2014

@JeanLouiseFinch wrote:
Thanks, @lkat. That was a great post. I recently watched a film on Netflix called "The Magic Pill". It was sobering to see how sugar impacts multiple areas of our health and wellness. We have decided that this needs to be our ongoing WOE rather than just for weightloss. I'm in another online forum and I feel so bad for those who have been successful and then somewhere along the line they make a series of bad choices only to return to where they began, sometimes worse.

Admittedly, my first week of no bread, I was dying for a piece of buttered toast. We've had a couple other cheats over the past couple of months, but they have gotten less important to us. When we have cheated, those foods we thought we loved and missed didn't taste the same. I don't know why or how that happens, if it has something to do with our built in sugar receptors.

I totally agree about sugar. I think giving that up was the best thing I've ever done for my health.

There are definitely things I miss (buttered toast being a big one!). I tell myself that if I ever can't stop thinking about a certain food, I will let myself eat it (I'm sure I'd also find that it didn't taste as good as I imagined it would). I worry about letting little cheats turning into big cheats and ending up back where I started. One of the things I like the most about keto is that I rarely ever have a craving for what I used to eat. Yeah, when my husband and son are eating pizza and fries, it smells good, but so far I've never been tempted enough by it to eat it.

Personally, I do better if I just don't eat certain things. When I was younger, I was "all things in moderation" and always maintained a healthy weight. That's become much harder after menopause. I'd eat "healthy" all day and then have a little of this and a little of that at night and I found myself 30 pounds overweight.

There are lots of recipes for keto bread, desserts, etc. I'm a bit afraid to go down that road though. During my first month, I made keto rolls with almond flour and my weight loss stalled that week. I also try to stay away from keto packaged foods like Quest tortilla chips, etc. Even though the macros fit, I'm a little afraid that eating that type of substitute will make me want the real thing more.

It sounds like you and your husband are off to a great start. It must be great to have your partner doing it with you. My husband and son (who are both thin) have no interest at all in changing their eating so my house is still filled with lots of sweets (hubby) and lots of salty snacks (son). Very annoying sometimes!!

meem120 · ‎03-09-2010

I use Coffee Booster original flavor for my bulletproof coffee. Its on the A site. I add cream and it tatse like a Dunkacinno.

Grouchomarx · ‎01-23-2019

Birch Benders Keto pancakes from Amazon are life changing! I haven't eaten regular pancakes in ages. Now I can have pancakes and sausages on Sunday. They taste normal and are not loaded with lots of weird ingredients. Sugar free maple flavored syrup is the perfect compliment (also Amazon).

Cauliflower pizza is also a godsend. I use the recipe from the Pioneer Woman on Food Network's website. I top it with sauce, pepperoni and cheese. Yum. (I know some company makes it pre-made but I can't find it anywhere by me.)

Make a batch of breakfast frittatas in muffin tins. You can microwave them for a minute in the morning, a batch keeps in the fridge for a good week. Add anything you like, such as bacon, ham, spinach, diced zucchini, broccoli, onion, various cheeses. It makes breakfast in a hurry so easy.

I like to snack on olives. All different types. I try not to eat too much meat or cheese but it gets tempting. So a veg snack of olives of cucumber slices in blue cheese dip is refreshing.

We found great keto ice cream recently, the brand is Rebel. Absolutely delicious and made with real cream. You just have to let it sit out a while before attempting to eat it, it's like astonaut ice cream straight from the freezer.

The best low carb tortillas I found are Tumaro's. Multi grain (which doesn't taste like it) has only 3 net carbs and 7 grams fiber. They are great for so many recipes including quesadillas, burritos, cold cut wraps, you name it. I live on these things and keep extra packs in the freezer.

Chia seed pudding is a nice dessert. Chia seeds, coconut milk, unsweetened cocoa powder, flaked coconut, stevia, vanilla extract. Very rich and satisfying.

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

@Grouchomarx I'm delighted to read your recommendation on the Birch Benders pancake mix. We're having out of town company soon and bought the mix so I could make them pancakes, bacon, and eggs one morning. What syrup are you using? I bought some Choc Zero, but the bottle is so tiny that I want to get more to have on hand. I'm thinking I'll get the Lankanto.

I've been using the Fathead Dough recipe to make pizza. It's really easy and tastes so good. Plus it feels like you're eating a real crust. The RAO pizza sauce is really good and a good low net carb option. We were grocery shopping a few weeks ago and I grabbed a crust from the freezer section, called CauliPower, without reading the label. BIG mistake. That thing is loaded with carbs, so it's stilling in my freezer until I can bring it back. I also made the mistake of buying the bulk, measures like sugar, stevia. Another lesson learned. The ingredients are stevia and maltodextrin - aka sugar! Ugh!

We tried the Halo ice cream and have mixed feelings about it. The flavors were great but the consistency wasn't as creamy as I'd hoped. I've tried some ice cream experiments on my own with just so-so results. There's only one store in our area that is listed as selling Rebel. I'll need to plan a trip there. They only have three flavors and it's like $6.50/pt. I could actually order from Amazon if I wanted 8 pints of the same flavor. The price isn't too far off from the store price and shipping is free.

I'll have to look for the tortillas. I found some little round flat things called Egg Thins. They're paper thin, OK for a small wrap as long as you don't overfill it. A nice piece of lettuce is sometimes easier.

I bought chia seeds but haven't tried them yet. I'm waiting until I get some non-dairy yogurt so I can make a recipe I came across.

Grouchomarx · ‎01-23-2019

@JeanLouiseFinch wrote:
@Grouchomarx I'm delighted to read your recommendation on the Birch Benders pancake mix. We're having out of town company soon and bought the mix so I could make them pancakes, bacon, and eggs one morning. What syrup are you using? I bought some Choc Zero, but the bottle is so tiny that I want to get more to have on hand. I'm thinking I'll get the Lankanto.

The brand of maple flavored sugar free syrup is called Lakanto from Amazon. It's quite good. I bet your company would never be able to tell the pancakes are low carb! I hope you like it. My partner gets very excited for Sunday breakfast now. If I don't feel like making them he gets so depressed!