Keto Journey

About one year ago I started having medical problems.  After a few months my sister suggested I try the Keto Diet to see if it would help with regulating my hormones.  I tried it and it did help.  The good results my husband saw led him to try it a couple months later.  After 6 months I have gotten a lot of attention from people about my weight loss and I get a lot of questions about Keto.

I am going to give you a review and some tips and you can do your own research if you want to know more or try this out for yourself.  Also I will be doing another post on what I used to track my progress.  I called it my Body Recovery Record.  A big part of my success came through the mindful approach to changes in how I treated and thought about my body.

#1  Is it hard?  Yes and No.

Every diet with restrictions is hard.  Before Keto I had done low carb before and it was hard.  I had done Mommy without Pounds and it was hard too.  Any time where you are going to be vigilant about what and when you eat is difficult.  Any lifestyle change where you establish new habits and veer away from what is considered normal is hard at first.  But when you find a groove that works for you it gets easier too.  When you focus on the benefits of the new habit you find enjoyment.  When you decide to get creative and innovative you find new ways to make it work for you instead of against you.

It WAS hard doing it alone.  The timing was a blessing though.  In the 2 years previous to this one I have been teaching my older kids how to cook simple meals and my husband supported me immediately by getting some freezer foods the kids could prepare for themselves as well.  So instead of cooking 2 meals for dinner everyday I was just cooking a family meal a couple times a week and my personal meals were either single servings or something I made in a batch and could reheat easily.

It was hard giving up some of my favorite carbs like french fries, rice, beans and especially popcorn.  If I wasn't motivated by my health issues I might have given up after a few months.  But then my husband joined me too.

He has been the innovator and creative thinker.  When you try to get creative and have to eat your failure literally, by yourself, for a week it can be discouraging.  When you have another person to help you it makes it so much easier.  I was timid.  I was only trying recipes I found online and I ate it and decided I would make it a staple or never eat it again.  With my husband at the helm, we started experimenting with the sugar substitutes because each of them leave a slight aftertaste on the tongue.  But in Utah I got to try Virgil's sugar free soda which used a "proprietary blend of erithitol, stevia, and monk fruit."  It made me believe we could do better.  Eventually we found a blend that we love and use in our sweet treats.  It was a lot of work pulling from each source so I did the math and now we measure it in cups and blend them together to use as our sugar substitute.  After making a few treats with this sugar blend I had the fortitude to look sugar in the face and say "I don't miss you, you don't treat my body right.  I don't need you anymore because I have a better option."  That was when Keto got a lot easier.

Day 1 picture

 246.5 lbs 43 inches waist

#2  What do you eat/what is a typical meal?

This is tough to answer.  Keto confuses people because it is a HIGH fat LOW carb diet.  Really low carb.  Really, REALLY low carb.  It cuts out a lot of typical foods so it is easier to tell you what I can eat instead of naming what I cut out.  I CAN eat nuts, seeds, a small portion of berries, proteins like meat and fish and the greenest most cruciferous veggies plus avocados, also coconut milk and almond milk and heavy cream are good too.  I have to be careful of tomatoes, onions, garlic and peanut butter etc. but I can have them in small amounts.  So my goal for each meal is to have 70% of my calories from fat, 23% from protein and only 7% from carbohydrates and this is based on a calculator I use from Keto Karma.  I began with looking up keto meals and read from websites and picked stuff that looked good to try.  I started shopping for ingredients at the stores and built up my pantry with my new diet staples.
One of my favorite breakfasts is a waffle made from eggs and almond flour topped with fresh berries and whipped cream.  Another one is a cereal I made from toasted nuts and seeds with homemade coconut yogurt.  I like eating leftovers for lunch so for dinner we make a variety of things and eat them throughout the week. This week is cheesy, bacon wrapped chicken tenders and coleslaw made with an apple cider vinegar dressing.  I also got some asparagus spears from Costco and cook them with coconut oil as an alternate side.  Lucas adapted my favorite mug cake recipe to make donuts last night in the microwave with silicone baking mats.  That was my dessert after lunch today.  We have some taco meat with all the favorite toppings in a bowl or cook some Italian seasoned meat and add fennel for the sausage flavor and Rao's marinara sauce and eat it on spiralized zucchini noodles (zoodles, or zuddles?) for our keto spaghetti.  Cream cheese is another staple for us because we make creamed spinach, alfredo sauce and my favorite, keto cream cheese danishes (where we perfected our sweetner blend the first time).

14 weeks later

220.5 lbs 38.5 inches waist

#3  Is it healthy?

This is also tough to answer.  The long time Keto eaters have been keto for 10 plus years and look fit and healthy so I want to say yes.  But you can do this diet in an unhealthy way too.  I have had to pay a lot of attention to my body and how it is affected.  I take supplements, I take probiotics.  I look for ways to include veggies with my meal in reasonable portions.  I know I am doing it right when I don't have cravings between meals.  Typically, I feel full after a satisfying meal and don't need to eat for hours.  I like that a lot about this diet.  I have had to watch carefully to make sure I was getting the macro nutrients my body needs and not letting the sweet treats take the center stage.  I also use intermittent fasting which is another aspect of keto dieting.
The biggest indicator of the benefit to my health besides the weight loss of course, is my hormones have improved drastically.  I don't experience PMS to the level I used to and my periods cramps are barely discernible and I saw a big reduction in bleeding (which was the major problem that came up in the last year).  I have hope that when I achieve a healthy BMI I will see a big improvement in that area.

18 weeks later

190 lbs 35 inches waist

#4  How much weight have you lost?

So far I have lost 50 pounds.  It is very noticeable.  I have also been doing exercise, mostly Yoga and a some cardio like walking and Zumba.  I also started a Body Recovery Journal.  I measure and weigh myself 2 weeks apart and every 8 weeks I check in with myself on how I feel mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  I made a goal to take a picture every 16 weeks.  An interesting thing I noticed was that I did lose the same number of inches in my bust, waist and hips in the first 20 pounds lost.  I thought my waist and bust were going down faster than my hips but they all shrunk pretty evenly.  Measuring was helpful because some weeks I weighed in and lost 1 or 2 pounds but had shrunk half an inch.  My 2nd picture day I had gained 1.5 pounds but I was an inch smaller in the waist!
Lastly, I made sure my goals were not outcome focused but SMART focused.  Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timebound.  For example, I will drink 64 oz of water a day.  I will do one yoga video when I get up before breakfast.  I will use veggies as my main carb for lunch and dinner.  I will go to bed by 10:30 pm.

2 weeks later:  Time for a new Day 1 outfit since the old one is too loose!
This was taken 3 days after Thanksgiving ;)

187.4 lbs  35 inches waist

I will be sharing our Ultimate Keto Sweetner Blend recipe on a new tab called Creative Keto Recipes.  When we come up with something new that we don't see posted by long time Keto Bloggers I will post it in that tab.  By the way the biggest complaint I have about recipe blogging is the huge story I have to scroll through before I can see the recipe.  No need for that since my blog is and will remain ad free.  If you want to support me financially go buy a printable in my etsy shop *wink, wink.  My husband created his own pancake recipe that isn't cream cheese based and we may be close to a hot chocolate recipe as well.  My sister is trying our sweetener blend in some regular recipes to see how it does with regular baking as well. 

My biggest encouragement is for you to do your own research and decide what you can reasonably do for yourself.

Tooth Fairy Letter

The Tooth Fairy has a tough job.  I know Santa has to work a lot and produce a lot of toys.  Sure he waits until the kids go to sleep but trying to sneak into the bedroom and put the present UNDER THE SLEEPING HEAD OF A CHILD!  Who came up with that crazy idea?  Why isn't the tooth left out on the kitchen table?  Like it could be left on the dinner plate.  Or in the bathroom next to the toothbrushes.  But no.

I have 5 kids so I have seen my fair share of Tooth Fairy fouls.  She forgets to visit because she fell asleep before the kids did or she couldn't get through the mess in their bedroom to deliver their present.  Anyway, here is a free printable to help your local Tooth Fairy out:

Print out a few of them for your local Tooth Fairy so she can more efficiently do her job.  :D

Ready... Set... Summer?

Oh what do you do in the summertime... when your house is full of kids?

In the past, my summers were pretty hard to manage.  I was either pregnant or nursing for six years straight.  Focusing on growing babies and keeping them alive past one year did not leave me a lot of time to think about doing anything else.  I struggled to get out of the house and to not rely on screens to keep my toddlers occupied without giant messes that stressed me out.  I was really grateful to my brother for rescuing my oldest child from my toddler/baby world by taking him on outings with his family during that time.  The main event every summer was going to visit our family in Utah and other than that I was pretty lazy.  Sometimes I would buy one of those big books of school worksheets with the intention of having my kids work in it everyday.  I paid around $8 for them to work about 4 pages out of it maybe 2 or 3 times PER CHILD.  That means I paid $24 for 3 different grade levels and used about 12-16 pages total.  What a waste.

To help get us out of the house more, I made a goal last year to write down activities to do on a schedule for the week every week.  I committed to myself that I only needed to spend 2 hours doing the outing and that made it easier to stick to our plan.  We had purchased passes to the Safari Park Zoo for the year (with parking) so I wanted to go at least once a week.  Plus the beach was on the list.  For several years I went to the beach only once a year or sometimes not at all.  This was mostly because my little ones could not swim--1 mom and 3 potentials for drowning are not a good combination.  Fortunately, I got my kids swimming lessons so I wouldn't be afraid to take them once a week finally.  We were also lucky to have someone at church pass a sign up around to all the pool owners willing to have people come over on Tuesday each week.  Only a couple people took a turn twice and we could visit the pool once a week too.  It was an awesome summer last year.

Instead of buying an expensive worksheet book I pulled out a blank composition notebook and wrote "Family Journal" on it.  I thought, "If I get them to write a journal entry, maybe a few sentences about what we did on our outings and draw a picture, then they are getting something educational out of it right?"  Boy, was that difficult.  My oldest ones agonized over what to write and my younger ones dictated long things to me that barely talked about what we did and then drew a picture of what they talked about.  Well, I did get them to write a couple times so that is something.  We filled about 10 pages of the notebook.  So yeah.  Pretty much the same amount of effort and consistency.  But I did get them out of the house more and we loved it.  I am definitely planning to do a similar goal of scheduling outings this year.  But I have been wondering, "How will I help them to keep up on their math and writing skills?"

Out of the blue...a couple weeks ago I got an email from someone asking if I would consider doing guest content on my blog.  I was actually extremely flattered.  I feel like a very, very small fish in this ginormous internet pond even if I have been trying to swim around a little more in Pinterest, and Etsy.  So I am pleased to introduce the few of you who read this to Education.com.  I looked through their website and it is very easy to navigate and filled with plenty of great content.  They have free printable worksheets, learning games, and even simple lesson explanations of the skills.

Warmer weather is right around the corner. Why not celebrate with some summery reading practice? For little ones, read this with them to promote early word and shape recognition. Visit Education.com for more learning games, resources, and activities.

If you have had similar experiences to mine then you probably know what I am talking about.  So how am I going to make sure they actually do some of these worksheets?  Well fortunately, I got back into my chore chart habit a few months ago.  Remember my post about teaching my kids to do chores?  My youngest is 4 so it was time to get back to the original way of doing it.  That first version with the "Have To" and the "Can Do" lists really works well for the younger kids.  And I really had to make 2 separate ones because the 6 year old needed to work on his chore skills too.  My 10 year old enjoyed helping me make a couple "wallets" out of card stock to hold their dollars and we taped them to the wall of their bedroom.

As you can see, I personalized them.  I let them pick their favorite colors for the highlights and then I let them pick a bathroom chore to learn.  When I had one child I was ambitious enough to teach him to clean the whole bathroom but now I have 5 kids... so they can share the bathroom chores.  Here is a generic version I made in case you would like to use this for yourself

I learned from the theory of motivation that we are not just motivated by pleasure or pain but also by what we know to be true and by having choices.  I use this knowledge to focus on helping them know that they CAN do their chores and that they have CONTROL over their choice to do them.  When my youngest says it is hard I say "I know it is hard and you can do it!"  When he cries that he doesn't want to do it I reply, "You don't have to do it.  You just don't get screens until you do."  Then I walk away and let him decide if he wants to do it and get screens.  About 90% of the time he decides to do it about 10 minutes later.  The other 10% he ends up taking a nap and then doing it when he wakes up.  I don't make my standards impossibly high either.  For the first month I did help them with each chore and focused on how they could get it done on their own but I could be available to help them for a minute or two.
This is how the 4 year old made his bed completely on his own this morning:

4 year old bed making skill

It is a sheet because he didn't want the big blanket.  He likes his baby blankets still (which are piled up on his pillow) and he is warm enough at night so I can let it be that way until he is ready to trade for a bigger blanket.
Here is how the 6 year old made his bed entirely on his own this morning:

6 year old bed making skill

I love that he lines his dolls up on his pillow there and his precious 10 color pen that he purchased yesterday is sitting in a place of honor where he can access it when he is ready to draw.

I also added in a couple ways to earn dollars for "non-chore" skills that my young kids need to work on as well.  Playing nicely together outside for 30 minutes and playing a board game or card game nicely (no tantrums or fighting) for 30 minutes.  The learning curve has taken a month but my young boys finally don't whine that making their bed is hard work or brushing their teeth is hard work--at least not every day.  As a side note, for me, some days making dinner feels as difficult as lifting a mountain. while others I can put together a 3 course meal with ease, so I can relate and have some compassion for their perspective.

I also found that for my older kids, who don't need the dollar system, it still helps for them to have a visible checklist to know what I need them to get done.  So I created a morning and evening checklist for them and put some ambiguous things like "Put away 10 things" for the bedroom and "Put away 15 items" for the general house and "1 Kitchen chore."  They get to control a lot about those directions like which items they put away and which kitchen chore they do (which can include preparing a meal for the family).  They are old enough to have that kind of freedom.  Plus, I could put more personal reminders on there for acne care and flouride application.

I have a separate one for the middle child too which is like a combination of the Responsible kid checklist and the younger kid checklist.  She is young enough to still need the dollar system but old enough to have more chores for morning and evening so that is all the explanation I want to give right now.

I realized the need to make a homework slot on the younger kid's "have to" list because next year they will be doing homework and I want to start the learning curve on that NOW when I have 6 more hours to help them come to terms with it.  The best thing I have learned about teaching young kids work is to keep it simple and focus on one thing at a time.  That is why I am excited about  Education.com.  This website has free printable worksheets from pre-k up to 5th grade.  No need to shell out $30 for 4 different grade levels.  You can print a worksheet as needed.  This is the perfect answer for me and my family.

In the past when I tried putting a big book in front of my child and asked him to work on a page, it was intimidating.  If he didn't like the page he would want to flip through the book and then we spent 10 minutes just trying to find one that looked good to him.  Instead I can print a couple pages or just 5 for the week like the teachers do for homework packets and tell him we will work on one a day.  Plus their website has games and explanations for the skills.  Even my older kids can keep up on their math and reading comprehension skills and be better prepared for next year.  A lot of you probably know about Starfall and PBS kids websites and I love those too.  It is always nice to have some variety and choices.  I love free content.  Let me know what you do to get out of the house and keep up on your kid's learning during the summer in the comments.  I hope you have a great summer!

New Free Printable

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I get lots of opportunities to use my creative talents to serve others.  Currently, I am serving in the Young Women leadership in my area  and the church as a whole has a new scripture theme each calendar year.  For 2019 the theme is:

John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments."  

I was asked to look at it and consider making a lettering design for it.  I pondered on it for a while and decided that message I wanted most to portray is that when we keep the commandments we are protected and that God gave us commandments because He loves us and wants us to be able to return to Him.  Inversely, when we keep the commandments, we show God that we love Him and want to be with Him too.  So here is my contribution to the many other choices available to use for displaying this scripture:

I could go into the details of how hard I worked all this week to create the design and how many sheets of paper I had to doodle on and practice the layout and the details inside the letters...(yawn) but, I would really rather go lie down now.  Maybe I will upload pics of the process later.  Just be glad I finished it.  ;)