Friday, October 28, 2011

First Week Back on High Fat #lowcarb

So I'm down 8# - yeah, it's all, or mostly, water weight...but that's good, it's the first step.

This week I've eaten a couple of delicata squashes LOADED with butter (1/2 squash per meal) which isn't considered a low carb food, but obviously it's not hurting me too badly. I've also eaten fatty pork chops, eggs fried in butter, lots of mayo on anything I could think of, I cooked up a good fatty hunk of beef brisket that I've been eating - I make enough for leftovers, then have a little when I get hungry, so haven't been really eating full meals; had a couple big bowls of popcorn also, 1/2 stick of butter on each bowl (we're talking BIG bowls), which obviously also didn't hurt me any (it's never been problematic for me when I've been losing weight in the past)...and I made a chocolate cake :).

My grandson wanted to make cookies yesterday but my back still isn't up for standing at the counter spooning out dough. So we made a chocolate cake. As usual I didn't keep track of the ingredients, but I know I used 4 eggs and about 1/2c of coconut oil...some salt, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, granulated splenda (about 3/4c) because I'm out of erithrytol and xylitol, a lot of cocoa powder (1/4c maybe?), a couple of scoops of chocolate whey protein powder, and for my "flours" I used mostly coconut and almond flours (maybe a cup each?), plus a little oat fiber (not bran), polydextrose, and peanut flour (maybe 1/4c each?). Then as it was all mixing together I drizzled in strong decaf coffee until it was thinned out to cake batter consistency.

The batter was enough for an 8x8 baking dish which went in the oven @ 325 for about 35 minutes. Next time I will add butter also, because I miss that hint of a buttery taste in the cake - but other than that is is excellent :).

While the cake was baking (pan "floured" with coconut oil and protein powder) I made up the frosting: a couple of scoops of the chocolate protein powder, a little splash of vanilla, a couple Tbsp. of soft butter, a tiny dash of salt, a couple drops of liquid sucralose, and then I drizzled in cream as I whipped it until it was the consistency I was looking for. It made an AWESOME frosting!

This cake is very very filling, and a 2x2x2" square is more than enough for a serving. Since I didn't keep track of ingredients/amounts, I can't look up the carb counts...but since I didn't put anything carby in it, and since the servings are so small, I'm not worrying about it. If you read my blog you already know I don't count my carbs - I just don't eat carby foods, and do eat lots of fat.

Not sure what I'll be eating over the weekend, but I do know it will be low in carbs and high in fat! I'll keep you posted...meanwhile, I hope I'm about done losing all the water, it would be nice to sleep through an entire night, or get through an entire hour without a potty break - lol!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

1st 2 Days Back on High-Fat, & Eggplant #Recipe #lowcarb

Yesterday I had an egg fried in bacon fat with chopped ham and some cheddar cheese for my first meal, and a pork chop - the fattiest one I had - with half of a delicata squash, which I mixed with 2Tbsp. melted butter. Not enough fat for the day.

Today I had chopped turkey with a lot of mayo for my first meal, my own sort-of eggplant parmesan for my 2nd, and a leftover porkchop, reheated with butter, for a snack.

Here's how I made my eggplant dish:

peeled and sliced an eggplant, laid out the slices on a couple sheets of paper towels, and salted both sides of each slice; set aside.

Mix together in a dish finely-ground - like powder - pork rinds with parmesan cheese in the can, about 50-50.

chopped 1/2 onion and sauteed in olive oil over medium heat until translucent; added hamburger (high fat) and browned; stirred in SF pizza sauce (without draining fat); let simmer, covered, over low heat.

Coated a baking sheet generously with olive oil; topped the eggplant slices with more paper towel and pressed out the water; mixed up 2 eggs in a shallow dish, dipped each slice of eggplant into the egg, then the porky/parm mixture, laid them out on the baking sheet, and lightly sprinkled a little more parmesan on them. Put them in the oven at 425 for about 12 minutes until bottoms were browned and crispy, flipped each slice, sprinkled more parm lightly, and returned to the oven for another 7 minutes. Cooked until eggplant was soft but not mushy and coating was very very crisp.

To serve I put several slices on a plate, spooned some sauce (after mixing the beef fat back into it) over the slices, and topped with some finely shredded "italian blend" cheese.

Not fatty enough for weight loss...but definitely low carb, cheap, easy, and DELICIOUS!

Once again...

...physical issues (arthritis in my spine, lumbar problems) prevented me from doing things the last week or so, and my dear wonderful husband did the shopping and cooking last week, in between working his full-time+ midnight job, taking care of me, and everything else that needed to be done around the house and for our 11 pets...so convenience food was what he was fixing. Time was more important that quality, and as I was helpless, I had no right - or desire, my love was running himself ragged because of me - to complain. 10# gained in a week or so was the result. Yes, mostly water weight I'm sure, but hate seeing that on the scale!

So now I'm on steroids and strong drugs (percocet for pain, valium for spasms), and determined never to go through that again! Such pain was hell...but the helplessness was almost worse. And I've been-there-done-that way too much in recent years. So, as much as I've said I don't want to, I'm going to lose more weight. I hate the thought of all the ugly hanging skin on my body, I absolutely detest it to the point that I'd already determined to remain 100# overweight than have any more than I already do. But the hell I went through last week I hated more.

Losing weight hasn't been difficult for me in the past, although I haven't really tried in a few years. The last I tried, though, simply increasing my fat intake to 75-80% of my caloric intake (NOT EASY!) and eliminating all grain-based foods was enough to guarantee 2-3#/week gone, even though I was eating 3000 calories/day and sometimes more.

So I'll go back to that again I guess. It's actually easy and painless...the thing that will be tougher now is avoiding my Lovely Loaf. I've grown accustomed to a sandwich now and again...but I will experiment with other options that are out there if I feel the need. Meanwhile, lots of butter, coconut oil, mayo, and olive oil on or in just about everything I eat. And we'll see if my body still responds the same way it did the last time I did it. If not, well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it :).