Keto On! | Fighting Fibro with Fire

As promised, here’s the rest of my latest food adventure 🙂

Dinners are usually made in large batches to be eaten throughout the week, which means they aren’t usually very photogenic. On the weekends, the husband and I usually cook together and enjoy making slightly more complicated meals. Here are a few of our favorites.

First up, PIZZA. I will tell you right now, that if I couldn’t have pizza on this way of eating, I wouldn’t have made it this far. This girl needs pizza. We’ve tried a few different recipes, but we keep coming back to cauliflower crust, (super simple and very quick to throw together).

Our other favorite is Fat Head pizza, which is slightly more complicated than the cauliflower, but almost identical to “real” pizza. For some reason, I don’t have any pictures!!

My husband is a pot roast fanatic, so of course we had to find a way to make that keto friendly. The only thing he misses is the mashed potatoes, but I thought the cauliflower cakes and roasted radishes we made were an excellent substitute. As you can see, there’s no shortage of veggies on this plate!

Here, we have some oven roasted ribs with coleslaw and cheesy cauliflower. It’s not quite mac and cheese, but it is darn good.

This sesame chicken is one of my favorite meals EVER. I don’t even miss the rice with this dish. (I do swap out the soy sauce for coconut aminos, since our version of keto is soy free). I like to use a bag of Asian Chopped salad or a broccoli teriyaki salad, (without the included dressing or toppings), instead of just broccoli, it really adds to the texture of the meal.

This meal is also excellent as leftovers, so it’s great for meal prepping, (win!).

One of our other favorite meals so far has been this shrimp alfredo with bacon wrapped scallops.

Who’s ready for dessert?

We try not to make desserts too often, but sometimes you just need a little something sweet. I’m still looking for my perfect non-sugar sweetener, but so far, my husband has been happiest with Swerve. When I use it in baked items, I find that it has an odd after taste, but that seems to be just me. We’ve made several cheesecakes, all with Swerve, but I’m going to try one with allulose soon!

This was the cake I made for our anniversary back in November. Overall, I was very happy with it, but again, I got a weird after taste from the erythritol. To be honest, this cake was so good that I barely minded the after taste. Chocolate covers many sins, apparently.

Here’s To Non Scale Victories!

Six weeks ago, my husband and I decided to completely overhaul our diet/lifestyle and follow a ketogenic diet. Essentially, it’s a very low carb, (20g or less per day), high fat and moderate protein. No sugars or artificial sweeteners, no grains, no legumes and no pseudo grains. Some of you may remember that I previously did the Whole 30 diet, keto is very similar, except it allowed dairy, (if you can tolerate it), and is meant to be a way of life, not a temporary trial.

The idea of intentionally eating high fat foods is somewhat foreign to most of us. It certainly was intimidating to me. I spent about a year researching this way of eating and watching friends who followed before I managed to find the courage to try it myself. To be honest, if not for my husband, I probably would never have made the leap. This way of eating goes against everything we Americans are taught about “healthy” eating. The standard American diet consists mainly of complex carbohydrates and processed foods with some red meat and vegetables thrown in for variety.

Our own government tells us this is how we should be eating. Fat is bad! Carbs are good! We are constantly bombarded with images of “low fat” and “whole grain” foods. What no one tells you is that in order to make anything “low fat” palatable, the manufacturers are loading their food with sugar to replace the fat. I have come to realize that fat, (good, non processed fat), is not the enemy; sugar is. If I want to have a fibro flare up, the fastest way to get there is to eat sugar. It doesn’t matter if I go for organic snooty sugar or the basic stuff found in candy bars, it causes a painful reaction. Unfortunately, sugar is also highly addictive and I have been an addict all my life.

Unfortunately, doing Whole 30 and then paleo did nothing to help me with this addiction. I made it through Whole 30 only because I knew it would only be for 30 days and then I went right back to my vices. Paleo allowed me to continue eating sugar, just in different, albeit cleaner forms like maple syrup and honey. Keto allows for no such slip ups. The whole point of eating a high fat, low carbohydrate diet is to teach your body to burn stored fat for energy; to go into ketogenesis. If you consume sugar or anything else high in carbs, your body will revert back to burning glucose and storing the fat.

So. How is keto working for us? In short, amazingly. In six short weeks, my husband has lost 20lbs, (and counting!). I am down about 10lbs, but I’ve already dropped a jeans size and heading towards a second. More importantly however, is how we feel. Both of us have experienced massive energy increases, better sleep, fewer headaches and much improved moods. Best of all, I’ve been in complete control of my sugar cravings. Not only was I strong enough to turn away from deep fried Oreos while at a haunted farm, I made it through Halloween without eating a single piece of candy!! I won’t say I wasn’t tempted, but it’s never been so easy to say “no”.

While I would love to be losing weight a little faster, I am beyond thrilled with the non scale victories I’ve been experiencing. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have control over my cravings and I have never felt better!