Tag Archives: keto

I Get A Do-Over

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I Get a Do-Over

Sometimes it’s great to have a do-over. For example, The Farmer and I went to a tractor pull a couple of weeks ago, and historically, the first guy that pulls, not only wins the right to pull 1st, but he also wins the right to choose to re-do his 1st pull, which is a great advantage if your 1st pull isn’t very good.

  • Ron and Cindra

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in one of the participants that we witnessed. The 1st guy that decided to re-pull a 2nd time, did worse on the 2nd pull than on his 1st pull. Oops.

Well, I’m claiming a do-over on my journey to losing weight, but after that 1st example I’m now 2nd guessing my 1st decision.

The Do-Over

But this isn’t really my 1st do-over, I had dabbled with the keto way-of-eating a few years back. It is so doable, but I just wasn’t committed.

In January, I decided to reorganize a lot of different areas in my life and I’m pretty excited that it’s July and I’m still talking about achieving my goals … For me, that’s quite an accomplishment. (as I pat myself on the back)

So, from January to middle of June, I averaged a loss of 1 lb. per week. Not a great number (there were a couple of weeks in March that I fell off the wagon), but definitely better than I had done the year (or months) before.

After I stopped the 28-Day Keto Challenge, I’ve just been flip-flopping back and forth, on and off, trying and not caring, until now. Now I’ve decided to commit.

I’m keeping track here on my blog and will be posting important and not so important stuff concerning my journey. Maybe you’ll find something that will interest you.

If you would like to receive updates and help keep me accountable, sign up by entering your name and email into the contact box on the right side of this page. (Scroll down to the bottom if you’re on your phone)

The Plan

  • To keep track of my meals, I’ll be posting my meals on Instagram to keep myself accountable. Just quick meal pics throughout the day. If you want to follow along, you can find me on Instagram.com @cindraenloe
  • I’ll be loosely following a meal plan designed by Drew Manning (fit2fat2thin)
  • Keeping my macros at 75% healthy fats, 20% protein, and 5% carbs, and under 1200 calories
  • I’m narrowing my eating window to 8 hrs.—12:00 PM – 8:00 PM, but will eventually decrease that as I begin intermittent fasting
  • Increasing my water intake
  • And only weighing myself 1x/week (well, only recording it 1x/wk)

They say that slow and steady is the best way to lose weight; 1-2 lbs. per week. I’m of course hoping for more, but we’ll see, I guess. I may get started and be thankful for 3 lbs./month!

Not gaining weight is losing weight

Too Much Information

If this is too much (boring) information for you, I’m sorry. If you stick around, you’ll see this is not all I’m going to be posting.

There are a lot of people out there that have proven that the keto way-of-eating is beneficial for weight loss and health benefits, so I’m excited to share my story.

And I figure there is no better accountability like telling everyone you know what your plans are. But connecting with you guys during my 28-Day Keto Challenge helped me to stay on track better than if I had done it alone. (Thanks!)

I hope to share some of the recipes that I’ve come across and some of the products that I hope will make this journey easier.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Lao Tzu

So, it begins…

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My Keto Journey – Week 3 and Week 4

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My Keto Journey – Week 3 and 4

I can’t stand the thought of giving details about not following this Keto Challenge correctly for the next two weeks, so I’m giving the results of the 28-Day Keto Challenge Week 3 and Week 4 together.

“Sorry Keto Challenge, but I can’t be with you anymore. It’s not you, it’s totally me.”

Seriously, the plan works. Unfortunately, I didn’t use it to its full potential. It’s totally doable, the meal plan is simple, the cook times are quick, and you could easily prepare some of the meals ahead of time or to take along with you. I just wasn’t that resourceful.

So to sum up the last two weeks (caution TMI):

On Sundays, I usually fast through breakfast and lunch, and then we go out for dinner. One Sunday we went out to Arby’s, so that was good. You can get a classic roast beef—I got 2 because that’s all I was eating for the day—and add mayo. 500 calories, 2% carbs, 74% fat, 24% protein. Like the perfect meal!

Mondays I fast breakfast, or just drink bulletproof coffee, usually lunch with the girls and Mom, and I like to bring home supper. However, in week 3 we didn’t get together, but I went out to the movies with daughter #5 later that evening. I did well all day until I walked into the theater and the sweet, warm, buttery aroma of popcorn assaulted my senses.

Tuesday I stayed on the meal plan, even though I baked cookies for the Neighborhood Watch meeting for that night. It helped that daughter #4 brought out the break-and-bake cookies you get in the frozen section. I wouldn’t have been able to resist all that ooey-gooey wonderness of chocolate chip cookie dough.

Wednesday daughter #3 came over and we tested out a new recipe in her Instant Pot. It was amazing! The name of the dish is Instant Pot Salsa Chicken with Lime and Melted Mozzarella. You’ll find the recipe at Kalyn’s Kitchen

Thursday, week 3, I went to the dentist with daughter #4 and we, of course, ate lunch out. Taco Bell has a power bowl that is great for the keto lifestyle if you take off the rice and black beans. So I did. The next Thursday I ate out at KFC—no potatoes, no cookie, just 2 drumsticks.

Friday is usually pizza night. I fix homemade pizza for The Farmer and cheesy crust pizza for me. Super easy, super delicious. In week 4, instead of eating pizza I ate Mexican. You can eat low carb at a Mexican restaurant, but I didn’t. Pollo Zarape—chicken, cheese, and rice.

Saturday night we always go out. That’s been our date night for years. However, in week 3 we were too tired even to run into town and bring something home! I mean, that’s tired. I can’t remember what we did, but it wore us out. Had to be farm work, because I don’t work that hard doing housework.

The next week we did go out. We ate at a buffet, and it went really well. I ate mostly meats and a small salad with ranch dressing. Unfortunately, I finished the night off with a delicious, but very small, piece of Banana Split Cake

On Father’s Day, I fasted breakfast and lunch, but broke the fast with a snack size bag of Cheetos, in honor of my Dad (his favorite) and a little piece of Banana Split Cake in honor of The Farmer (his favorite).

Monday- fasted breakfast, fried chicken for lunch, fasted supper

Tuesday- In week 4, I spent the whole day grazing on bologna, peanut butter, and cream cheese. For supper I had fried fish (no breading) and asparagus spears, which were a little overcooked.

Wednesday-no breakfast, bologna, peanut butter, a very small hamburger, and tiny little dill pickles. More bologna for supper, mayo, more peanut butter, and pork rinds. It was my grazing day.

Fun Fact

Firstly, the few days I went off script and didn’t eat what was on the meal plan, I watched my macros (fats, proteins, and carbs) and was able to keep them at a good percentage. For example, the fried chicken I ate on Monday was totally in my macros:

  • 15 carbs
  • 29 fat
  • 37 protein

However, I was sure to add healthy fats into my dinner meal, to keep me in ketosis. The problem was that I didn’t use all the foods on the meal plan.

Secondly, I discovered this week that I’m a Dirty Keto Dieter. I didn’t know it before, but this way of eating is separated into three different categories: Strict Keto, Lazy Keto, and Dirty Keto. I linked that to an informative article written by Rachel, on her website Aussie Keto Queen. She’s from Australia, in case you couldn’t tell by the name.

I assumed I would be in the Lazy Keto category, but come to find out I’m in the Dirty Keto category. Sounds like a subject for another post!

The Results of Week 3 and Week 4 on the Keto 28-Day Challenge

So what are my results for week 3 and 4?

In week 3 I lost 2 lbs. and in week 4 I lost another 2 lbs. Must be a thing with me. My total inches lost at the end of the 28-Day Keto Challenge is 14!! YES!

The total inches I’ve lost in the 5 areas I’ve been tracking are:

  • Waist: 5 inches
  • Hips: 2 inches
  • Arms: 2 inches
  • Chest: 3 inches
  • Thigh: 2 inches

Pros and Cons—

The pros of the 28-Day Keto Challenge is that it works! The materials that are included give you the keto basics, teaches how to calculate your macros, warns you about the keto flu and how to reduce its effects. It also gives an easy to follow meal plan.

The cons to the 28-Day Keto Challenge is nothing really, except on some days there are more carbs than I really want to consume. And a few days the lunch is really skimpy. Of course, if I ate breakfast, lunch would be enough.

I’m definitely going to keep some of recipes that I have collected. They are delicious and they have given me different options than I would normally prepare.

There have been other benefits to this way of eating that I would like to share some time, which I’m more excited about than the weight loss. Maybe the next post I will touch on some of those benefits. Oh! Btw, I’ve lost 23 lbs. so far!

I hope you stay connected and come back to visit. If you have tried the keto diet, or if you’re on it now, I would love for you to share your thoughts in the comments section below. If you would like to start your own 28-Day Keto Challenge >>Click Here<< to use my affiliate link.

My First Before and After

before and after pics 2018-2019
May 2018 and June 2019

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My Keto Journey – Week 2

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My Keto Journey – Week 2

When I began the Keto 28-Day Challenge, I thought I would be able to go through it fairly easily, because I’m a stay-at-home mom. And what do we assume stay-at-home moms do? Right! Stay at home. Mmmm. Not so much.

The first week went well, although I did have to substitute 2 meals because I was running errands. However, during week 2 there were a lot of skipped meals and substitutes. In fact, I reverted back to just trying to maintain my macros as opposed to following the meal plan.

Skipping breakfast was the biggest struggle I had in week 2. I usually don’t eat breakfast and so it was hard for me to remember to eat. By the time 9:00 or 10:00 rolled around, I would remember that I had forgotten and decided it was too close to lunchtime by then since I’m trying to keep my meals at least 5 hours apart.

There were several days spent out running errands in week 2, so lunch was usually a protein and a healthy fat out somewhere, and an unhealthy meal one day. Supper was just as chaotic. I only ate the meal plan two times.

The Success of Any Plan

Well, enough of the excuses. There is always something that comes between us and our “best laid plans”. However, the success of any plan has one key component if it’s to be accomplished; follow the plan. I failed to do that in week 2, which definitely shows in the final results of the week.

Fun Fact

Eating out on keto is not really as hard as you may think. It can be quite simple. For example, most fast food restaurants are familiar with people ordering low carb, so if you order a burger without a bun, they usually place it in a container on top of a leaf of lettuce and give you a spork to eat it with. You can have the meat, cheese, mustard, onions, mayo, tomato, bacon, and depending on how strict you want your carb count, you may also be able to get ketchup.

Arby’s is really keto friendly. A Classic Roast Beef with mayo is almost the perfect percentage of macros:
• Fat 74%
• Protein 25%
• Carbs 2%

KFC is okay, but not great. For example, 2 extra crispy drumsticks macros are:
• Fat 56%
• Protein 32%
• Carbs 12%
You could add some ranch dressing to bring up the percentage. The problem comes when you buy the KFC Value Box for $5 bucks and you are tempted to eat the mashed potatoes, the buttery biscuit, and the warm chocolate chip cookie. Then your macros look something like this:
• Fat 51%
• Protein 14%
• Carbs 35%

Fortunately, the Carb Manager lights up in red, labels the food with an “F”, and sends out warnings to “Avoid this food”!

It helps to have an app like Carb Manager to calculate the macros when you’re eating out.

The Results of Week 2 on the Keto 28-Day Challenge

So what are my results for week 2?

In week 2 I lost 2 lbs. Woo-Hoo! Not the greatest result, however, I did lose 3 inches off my waist, and in the 5 major areas that I’m tracking, I’ve lost a total of 9 inches.

Pros and Cons—So Far

The pros to the 28-Day Keto Challenge is that the recipes are simple and tasty. I’ve become more familiar with the plan, so I’m able to know what meal will allow me to have leftovers, and I’m able to incorporate them with my regular meal planning much easier.

The con has been totally on me. I haven’t used the plan to maximize it’s potential.

There have been other benefits to this way of eating that I would like to share some time, which I’m more excited about than the weight loss. Maybe at the end of this challenge I can.

In the meantime, stay tuned. If you have tried the keto diet, or if you’re on it now, I would love for you to share your thoughts in the comments section below. If you would like to start your own 28-Day Keto Challenge >>Click Here<< to use my affiliate link.

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My Keto Journey – Week 1

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Since January 7 I’ve lost 19 lbs. on the ketogenic diet. Not too disappointing for a 59-year-old woman who has been overweight most of her life. And for a woman who lives by the principal:

“If you’re not gaining than you’re losing.”

So, in 5 months I’ve lost 4 lbs/month. Unfortunately, I screwed up for several days (weeks) when I fell off the wagon .

When I started the keto diet, I had been kind of winging it. I calculated my macros, settled on a certain number of calories I wanted to stay at, and tried to balance my percentages so my diet would consist of 80% healthy fats, 15% protein, and 5% carbs.

Fun Fact

I’m naturally a grazer. Maybe it has something to do with living on a beef farm, but I don’t think so. However, just as the cows like to slowly creep through the field, snipping up some grass here and there, raising their head and chewing on their cud for a little bit, and then go back to creeping and snipping, I do the same—just in the house.

Typically, I drink coffee in the morning, as I’m fixing The Farmer’s breakfast, I may snatch a piece of the bacon, drink another cup of coffee, and around 10:00 I go back into the kitchen to grab a little snack.

As I’m fixing his lunch, usually around 11:00, I may take a bite or two of whatever I’m fixing for him, drink a soda, eat some chips, munch on a cookie, and not be hungry enough to actually eat lunch.

Around 2:00, I go back into the kitchen, snoop through the cabinets or fridge looking for something simple to grab. Maybe a slice of ham, or a bag of chips (snack bag size), another cookie, and a diet soda.

4:00 another pass through the kitchen, but it’s pretty close to supper time, so I grab a snack cake and a cup of coffee.

5:30 we’re eating supper, and that’s after I’ve nibbled while I’m cooking.
Of course, it doesn’t end there, there’s a dessert while we watch TV that evening, then another snack, and if I stay up until 11:00 (which I do every night) there’s time for another snack.

Hmmm. I’m starting to realize that I may have a problem with food. You would think me being overweight would be the first clue.

At any rate, I’m not a big eater—like sitting down at a meal and eating a big ‘ole plate of food. In fact, calculating my calories of what I eat at meal time would show that I don’t eat that much. And when we go out to eat, I bring a to-go box home with half my leftovers. But I always eat the leftovers that I bring home before the night is over. And all the snacking I do is probably the reason I don’t eat more at meal time.

So, the point is I’m a grazer.

Grazing on Keto

I use the Carb Manager App, so it’s been fairly simple to keep track of my calculations while I’m doing keto, even as I’m still grazing. The difference has been that the snacks I’ve been eating have been low carb or zero carb.

However, in hopes of getting better results in weight loss, I’ve recently started a 28-Day Keto Challenge, which I purchased for $37.

After digitally receiving all of the material, I skimmed the plan, skimmed the recipes, made a quick grocery list and began the challenge.

In the first 2 days, I felt like I had the keto flu. Not sure that’s what I was really experiencing, because I’ve been in ketosis before, so my body is adapted to burning fats. It was probably coming off the insane amount of sugars that I had consumed the few days before. However, the material that I purchased included information on how to quickly get through the keto flu, and maybe prevent it altogether, but I hadn’t read it, because I didn’t think I would have a problem—and I was only skimming through what I thought I needed.

The food was better than I thought it would be when I first skimmed the recipes. Some recipes were familiar, like the eggs and ham. I have a recipe similar to it using bacon, but I call it “Birds in a Nest”. But some of the food I had never even bought before. I mean, who knows how to pick out an avocado? Is it supposed to be light green or dark green? Hard, soft, or squishy? Not to mention, every time I write avocado I misspell it—advocado, advacado, avacado

I spent 15 minutes in the cheese aisle looking for prosciutto, and finally remembered it was a slice of meat. Yeah, so there have been a few challenges. I’m still looking for goat cheese for my button mushrooms.

And because I “skimmed” through all the reading material, I messed up the challenge a little. Not too much, but I didn’t follow the meal plan like I should’ve, and there have been days that I wasn’t able to eat off the meal plan because I wasn’t home.

The Results of Week 1 on the Keto 28-Day Challenge

So what were my results for week 1?

I’m back down to my starting weight from where I gained weight! Yay!!

I lost 6 lbs. in the first week, which is not surprising considering how quickly I gained the 6 lbs. a few weeks ago.

Pros and Cons — So Far

Pros to the challenge: it seems to keep me more accountable because there is a plan. I haven’t been grazing.

Cons to the challenge: I think the only con in the first week is that it was unfamiliar to me, so there was a learning curve.

There have been other benefits to this way of eating that I would like to share some time, which I’m really more excited about than weight loss. I’ll share that soon.

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Anyone else out there doing the keto diet? Leave a comment below and let us know how you’re doing.

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trees in a heavy snow storm on the farm

Ready To Spring Forward

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Good news—Spring is only 17 days away! This Sunday will be the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, where we set our clocks to “spring forward” an hour.

Bad news—we lose an hour of sleep, and Winter is still refusing to leave!

We’ve had to cancel church 4 times this year because of snow or ice, and I know other churches have done the same.

So, yeah baby, it’s cold outside!! Well except for the couple of days we’ve had when it went up into the upper 50’s and 60’s. Weather is never boring when you live in Missouri.

However, the great thing about living in the country during snow storms is that I get snowed in. I love it. Not having to worry about going anywhere, not worrying about company stopping by, being able to stay in my pajamas until 10:00. In fact, there’s been 2x’s this year that I didn’t even put on makeup!

And it has given me more opportunity to work on my goals for the year. I can’t believe it’s the 4th of March and I’m still talking about goal setting. I usually don’t last this long.

So just an update of what I’ve set out to do and what I’ve accomplished:

My first goal was to lose weight and get healthier. Update: I’ve lost 15 lbs! Not great, considering it’s been 8 weeks, but I’m grateful for what I’ve lost. Just disappointed that I haven’t lost it faster.

I’ve been really strict following the keto diet—no sugar for the first 6 weeks, less than 20 carbs per day, and intermittent fasting (which I love!) on a daily. I mean, seriously, for a grazer (me) to be able to go 16-30 hours without eating is pretty amazing!

However, I did set my goal to lose 30 lbs. by April 15, and that’s only 6 weeks away. Doing the math, I may not make it. Stay tuned.

My next goal was to be more active on my website: Update: Well…I have been active on this website. This is my 6th post, so that’s pretty consistent. Oh yeah, I’ve also updated some of my recipes, downloaded a new recipe plugin, re-setup my subscribe button, and started 4 new subdomains off of LifeWithaFarmer. One is for my recipes, one is for my keto info, one is for teaching others about starting a website, and the last one is for Bible study.

In case you’re not understanding the implication of the craziness; I had a goal of being more active on 1 website, so to remedy that I started 4 more. Yeah… may not be crushing this goal setting thing after all. 

Anyway, I think I’m doing well on the diet front, but I think I need to keep working on the website thingy. Maybe drop a subdomain? But I’m thinking I like to build websites more than I like to maintain a website.

I will be keeping my recipe domain. Maybe next week will be its debut.

Thanks for stopping by, and as usual I would love to hear who’s out there and what you have to say.

OH! And if you want help building a website I’m your guy gal!