More than two years ago, when I lost the majority of my weight, my strategy was to simply reduce calories enough to lose weight…and it worked, for the most part. Once I got closer to my goal weight I stalled, big time. There was only one thing to do, reduce calories again, but, my strategy stopped working. 😩
I increased exercise, which in turn increased my appetite, which made me eat more and gain weight. So frustrating. All the while, I was hearing about the KETO craze, that it was similar to the Atkins Diet, which meant low carb. A friend reached out to me and tried to share info, but I had no interest because I had a plan that mostly worked.
After stalling for a while, I got tired. I started eating a bit more, exercising less, gained 10 lbs and totally quit logging. I was down to about 1000-1200 calories oer day. WAY TO LOW. I felt fine, got tired easily, but was frustrated by the stall. I did notice 2 things though; I was very soft, and I did not feel strong. Lifting things that should have not felt heavy, were. My conclusion, I’d lost a LOT of muscle mass. No bueno. I needed a new strategy.
My goals were the same; be healthy, eat clean foods, be strong, not let food control me, and I really got tired of “logging” my food. 🙄
Sooooo, I joined a KETO page on Facebook just to sorta stalk it and see what these KETOers were all about. Now, I am not much of a meat eater, however, I remembered while losing weight, the weeks when I ate more chicken or beef, I lost more pounds. Hmmmm….
Long story short, (too late, I know🙃), I tried KETO, kinda. I just wasn’t that strict about it. I up’d proteins and kept up my veggie eating, but reduced carbs to minimal per day, and I increased my fats (that is HARD TO DO after decades of hearing “watch your fat intake” 🤯). I didn’t measure a thing. End of the week down almost 2 lbs. 🤷🏽♀️ What I noticed is, I was not hungry AT ALL. Matter of fact, I felt I had surely gained because I felt so full, or I should say, satiated all the time. I had energy so I exercised more. Go figure, there must be something to it. I’m going to try it again this week in my Kinda Keto way to see if this past week was just a fluke. I’d like to lose another 15 lbs bit I’m not stressing about it. I have more muscle mass and feel good so what more can I ask.
Anyway, thought I’d share some of the protein options I made in my Ninja Air Fryer. Love this thing!
Air Fryer Chicken DrumsicksAir Fryer MeatballsAir Fryer Chicken Wings
I also cook veggies in the Air Fryer sometimes. Works pretty good too!
Air-Fryer Asparagus
Well, that’s all folks! I’ll let you know what happens with my Kinda Keto plan. 🤗👍🏽
The struggle is so very real, people…. but that’s OK…. I’m not alone.
A couple of years ago when I was in the midst of my major weight loss, I started hearing about KETO eating. If you haven’t heard of it yet, never fear, you will when you return to this planet. 😒 I looked into it but I haven’t jumped into it …yet. It seems everyone is trying KETO now, but it must not be user-friendly because I’m seeing more about Dirty Keto… or what I like to call it, Cheap and Easy Keto.
I’m also noticing an increase in talk about ‘fasting’, specifically, Intermittent Fasting. I might try this at some point, just because it seems more natural and beneficial to the body.
Seems everyone is trying to figure out how to lose weight and keep it off. Like I said, the struggle is REAL! I’m a witness. I lost 57 lbs a couple of years ago, but gained about 14 lbs and have been holding steady since. I’m not to concerned because I realized at 57 lbs that I was lighter but I didn’t feel strong. I think I lost a lot of muscle tone, and was earing too few calories. I read recently that when you eat low-calorie for a while your body gets used to living on that low amount. When I increased my calories to around 1500 to 1700 per day I gained about 5 lbs. Then, because I felt weak, I started walking a lot and doing High Impact Interval Training exercises and sure enough gained more….but the curious thing is my clothes felt the same and loser in some cases🤷🏽♀️.
I guess it is true that muscle weighs more but takes up less space. That’s a hard concept to accept when you are addicted to the scales like I am. I’m trying to change my ‘scales’ ways. 😣 However, I do feel so much stronger in my core and overall. So, now I’m just trying to stay on a good eating path.
It’s a rainy, rainy day on this Sunday afternoon. I was invited to a Southern Buffet restaurant after church…. so tempted to do it but I had already planned to do some meal prep. I went shopping yesterday and bought some goodies…
Cucumbers, Yellow, Red, and Orange peppers are my go-to foods. I’ve blogged about them in previous posts. I just cut them and put them in jars. They are a great snack for me. I either eat them plain, or sprinkle them with a little rice vinegar.
Keeping my food in jars seems to extend the life of them. I don’t have to eat them all in 2 days.
2. Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts, I tried it! Wow! This is a keeper. I love my Air Fryer but never have I tried veggies in it. So, easy…tossed the Brussel sprouts (Premee cabbages as a young friend calls them, 😒🤣) in a tad bit of oil, Himalayan Salt, and garlic powder and put in my Air Fryer on 375 for about 12 minutes. YUM! They were so delicious. I know they look burnt but they are just roasted. I bet adding a little brown sugar and some bacon bits would make this instantly ‘gourmet’…I almost did it but remembered my new healthy eating ways.
3. Asparagus… you either like it or not. I love it, stinky pee and all. I actually saw a post somewhere recently that asparagus is a major cancer fighter. I meed to research this though. I usually eat it most when it is on sale and it’s been on sale so 3rd week in a row I’ve made it but this time I pur it in the Air Fryer to try. Boy! Good results again…just 6 minutes in and it’s done 👍🏽
4. Chicken Thighs. Nope, I’m not a vegetarian or vegan or anything, I just eat little meat naturally. I need protein to lose weight I learned, plus it helps keep my hunger in control. Since I was Air Frying, I put these in last; same seasonings. Also, I found 2 small Filet Mignon steaks in the back of my freezer from an Omaha steak gift pack I received…last of the beef goodies. Put those in the Air Fryer too.
This chicken was so juicy and delicious! I just sampled what I cooked because it’s for the upcoming week, of course. So, now I have no excuse for not eating healthy this week. I’ve got all these goodies plus a bin of apples.
Fortunately, everything I cook has to be eaten only by “me”…not sure anyone else would enjoy my kitchen science experiments…I’m not much of a foodie though; I just don’t want to feel hungry, so… let’s see if I can have a good week of eating healthy food. Hope you do too! ✌🏽😎
Peace and Love!😘
Jan
“…May the peace of God guard your hearts and mind (thoughts) through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:7❤️
When I started this blog, a couple of years ago, I primarily did so to share experiences during my personal journey to health and weight loss. It was mostly about food; what I ate, tips, struggles, etc. After a few months I started sharing other various life events. More recently I decided I wanted to, in addition, share more about the side of life that, in reality, is the most important; that on which all other parts depend.
It’s already mid-January 2019, and honestly, it has not been the blast off that I’d hoped it would be. I actually wish I could get a restart, a trial month, or a do-over. I’ve just been feeling a bit ‘slumpish’, kind of discouraged, sometimes sad, wondering if I was getting depressed.. who knows why? Just a series of little things pecking at my ‘stabilities’; you know relationship issues, life issues, day-to-day issues, just managing life. There is just so much going on with so many people every day it seems – bad health diagnoses, sickness, financial crises, deaths, national/government situations, it just becomes overload sometimes. However, the magnitude of what others are going through makes my little bouts of ‘blue days’ seem not worth mentioning to anyone, so I tend not to.
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This is how I felt this Sunday morning. I’m gonna be real with you.
Getting up and going to church, literally less than a mile away, seemed it wasn’t going to happen. I stayed in bed longer than usual and just thought about life, people, house repairs needed, friends, … you know, ‘thangs’ that keep you up in the night and in bed in the morning; processing all the good, bad and ugly news I’d processed in past days. Somehow, I managed to find the wherewithal to get up and get rolling.
I’m a Christian from the get-go; was a pew-baby and still ‘churching’ now. I love Jesus, I love church, I love the body of Christ. No shame in it for me, so that had nothing to do with my not wanting to go.
Anyway, I get to my Connections class (a.k.a Sunday School for us oldies) as usual. It’s a class called the Encouragers, with about 25 or so regular attendees who are mostly a generation older than I am, which is fine because I like the wisdom of people older that I am; especially in the things of God. I have a buddy who sits near me each week now. His name is Solomon. Solomon is 89 years ‘young’. He has dropped all sorts of wisdom tidbits in my ear for the past couple years; from concoctions to knock out cold symptoms to handling life problems.
I don’t know what your religious beliefs are, or how you feel about such but when you meet someone like Solomon, who has walked with the Lord for nearly 90 years, there is much wisdom to be gleaned.
Today, Solomon taught our class from the Bible in Psalm 1. It’s a short chapter, but powerful, direct, simple to grasp but listening to Solomon speak in his Jamaican accent about the wonders of God’s Word in this chapter transported me out of the ‘ gloomy space’ in my head by the end of class.
I’m not planning to turn this blog into a straight up Bible study but I do plan to share how God’s Word is so relevant, timely and needed. Here is the New International Version of the chapter:
Psalm 1 (NIV)
1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Solomon started by reading the Psalm. Now, I have to stop and say, whenever Solomon prays aloud in class, his choice of words, and phrases, along with his accent, often makes me think to myself, “He prays in King James Version”. 😍 I sometimes wish I could record it.
Anyway, in a nutshell, we discussed each of the verses. Fascinating! In case you aren’t a Christian, or haven’t studied this before, here is my one-minute summary of what Solomon taught.
God blesses those believers who while being a light in a dark world do not make it a habit to intimately mingle with those whose heart is not towards living a Christian life; only because doing so will likely sway/seduce you away from the heart of God.
For those who are delighted to tuck God’s work in their heart, who long for God’s word and who think on the things of God day and night.; they will be like a tree that is deep-rooted, well nourished, and well watered by a river. They are full of sap and produce good fruit. I loved Solomon’s exposition on this part of the Psalm. He referenced it to Psalm 92:12 (The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.) He then told of how there is a country (I don’t remember which one) where their entire economy is based on the Palm tree. All parts of the palm tree is used; the wood for homes, the leaves, for roofs, the seed for food, the oil for other things, etc. I’m a visual person so I could so easily picture this, and how God can use his righteous ones.
But, for those who choose to do otherwise (keyword: choose) they are blown away like chaff in the wind; not able/allowed to stand before the righteous Judge in the end. Solomon explained how chaff is the trash that is left over after the winnowing process.
One of the things that stood out the most was in his closing he mentioned that those who have made the decision to live for Christ have been ‘Registered in Heaven’.
Those simple words seemed to stick in all the cracks, crevices, holes, and dents in my spirit today. They made me happy inside. All those things that were weighing on me could not stand against the thought, the reassurance that I am Registered in Heaven. Needless to say, much of the ‘blue and bleakness’ was lifted as I drove home, and the words ‘Registered in Heaven’ have rang in my ears all day today. I love that I, as a human being, was given this choice to be, and instructions on how to be, Registered in Heaven. This wasn’t a matter of not knowing this passage, but of the healing effect like balm on a wound, of God’s living Word on a soul.
I write all this not to preach and/or proselytize but rather to encourage and to give hope in Jesus. Life is hard. You see and know that. Things are getting more and more difficult each day. I was with a friend the other day whose father-in-law is 96 years old. He was telling her how he’d gone out to buy a new tablecloth for his home; not only 1, but 3! He said he’d use one but maybe the others could be used later :)…. he’s 96 people! Later??? What is ‘later’ to a 96 year old??
That got me to thinking, you know what that is called… HOPE! Even at 96 years old, he had hope that he might still be able to use those tablecloths one day. That also got me to thinking about those who have no hope. Suicide is on the rise as we can see in our country; these are those who have lost all hope. Even in the deepest, darkest days of life, it is HOPE, that clears a way to see vision for the future.
I have decided to cling to HOPE for the my future; to my Hope in Jesus. I will pray that if you are reading this blog, and you do not have HOPE, that the Lord of heaven will show and send his HOPE your way. It is real, is it stable, it sure, it is free, it is everlasting.
May the peace of God reign in your hearts always! 😘
P.S. Let me know if you’d like to be Registered in Heaven. 🙏🏽
I’m sitting here wondering if there is a real reason for broccoli cuts.?🤔
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I mean, Broccoli florets make sense; they are pretty, flavorful, and healthy, but ‘cuts’ are basically the stems – cut up, right?
The picture looked all luscious and delicious but the bag of frozen cuts I bought did have one or two small florets…whatever, I really did expect what I got, not what was on the bag.
I added a bit more chicken broth and let the cuts get softer than how I usually eat my veggies but I had a plan. Then I got out my Ninja blender. I added the thoroughly cooked cuts, added a bit of half and half (all I had), added more broth, salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric and hit the ON button.
It whirred around until, it was light green, smooth, a bit creamy and ohhhhh so tasty.
VOILA! Turned those worthless cuts into a delicious gourmet soup.
I had some for dinner tonight. It’s a cold, dark, long winter night and this concoction hit the spot. I think I might try this with fresh broccoli stalks next summer.
Might not look so tasty but this was quite delicious!
So, not only can you turn lemons to lemonade but you can also turn blah broccoli cuts into deliciousness.
I had no intention of joining the FitBit craze, only because I’m somewhat …frugal (euphemism) , but last week I received an email about some points sitting around that I had apparently earned by using a bank card some years ago. With these points I could shop…and with my 24,000 earned points I could get the latest FitBit device for 21,000 points! SCORE! 🤗
So, after using MyFitnessPal for personal motivation and accountability for the past 2 years I was becoming bored with it; which manifested itself in skipped food logging, skipped weigh sessions., etc.
As soon as I received my FitBit Charge 3, I put it on and watching the number of steps increase every time I moved was an immediate hook. Then, when I saw that I could monitor my sleep stages I was like…whaaaaaat? I’m a Registered Polysomography Technician (a.k.a. Sleep Tech) and though I don’t run studies anymore I work in the sleep field. So I had a double hook
Why this little gadget changed my world I’m not sure but since getting it I have literally walked a marathon, yep, 26 miles… in over two weeks, but still, I’m imlressed with myself. During my weight loss stage I admittedly did minimal exercise and I now ‘now a lot of my loss was muscle loss. That’s not good. 😕
I started ‘picking them up and putting them down’ immediately after getting the Charge 3. As of yesterday I hit my daily ‘step’ high of over 12,000 steps. That’s mostly because I went for a 3.5 mile walk first thing in the morn.
I have a desk job so getting in that many steps daily would be nearly impossible but I am so much more motivated to get up and move each hour.
I had no real surprises about my sleep patterns…except that of the 7 hrs I try to be in bed each night only about 6 are actually ‘sleep’ hours. I’m okay with that though…I always wake feeling rested and have never required much more. Than 6 hours per night…I just thought I was getting at least 6.5 hours per night.
Anyway, I’m trying to work my way up to walking some 5k races … with no plans to ‘run’ any of them.😎
Fortunately for me, the area where I walk is all hills. I’m either going up or down. I’m not talking baby inclines; these are steep hills. This is one of them…
… I started out calling this ‘Killer Hill’….but after a couple of times climbing I now call it ‘Champion Hill’ because I feel like a champion when I reach the top 🤗 I try to hit this one 2 or 3 times on my walk…it makes all the other hills seem smaller…though they are quite steep as well.
All this to say I’m enjoying this little gadget so far time will tell if it helps me maintain my weight in the long run but I can say for certain that it motivates me to move and I feel stronger overall for it. 👍🏽
Are you a walker? How do you stay motivated? Let me hear from you.
The picture looked all luscious and delicious but the bag of frozen cuts I bought did have one or two small florets…whatever, I really did expect what I got, not what was on the bag.
Vessels and Vittles 