Aldi used to carry Kerrygold irish butter and then they stopped. Now they carry their own brand of irish butter. I’ve had both of them before but not at the same time. So I went out and got one of each (and two others) to compare them side by side.
Watch my Aldi irish butter review
Aldi Countryside irish butter vs. Kerrygold
Both of these butters have the same two ingredients, cream and salt. When I unwrapped them, they looked identical in color. They were a medium shade of yellow. When it comes to butter, just like with egg yolks, the deeper the color, the richer the nutrients.
The texture was the same also. And when I tasted them, they tasted exactly the same to me. There’s no way I could tell one from the other in a blind taste test. It makes me wonder if they come from the same supplier.
Bonus review: Irish butter vs. european pasture raised butter
When I was shopping for irish butter, I happened to find this Danish Creamery european pasture raised butter.
It also has the same ingredients, cream and salt. The box implies that their pasture raised butter is better than grass fed because their cows are grazing all day on a “rich and varied natural diet.”
The color is definitely lighter than irish butter.
But the color is slightly deeper than your average supermarket butter. Here it is compared to Kirkland butter.
And the taste is different as well. It tastes more like fat and has less of that butter flavor that I prefer. When checking the box, indeed it does have one more gram of fat per serving.
The verdict: Does Aldi irish butter whip Kerrygold
When it comes to taste, Aldi irish butter and Kerrygold are tied. But Aldi butter wins because of price. It currently is $2.99 for 8 ounces ($5.98/pound). And that’s even cheaper than buying Kerrygold in bulk at Costco ($6.50/pound).
Have you tried Aldi Countryside irish butter? Which butter is your favorite?
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Recently I was doing a little shopping at Aldi and looked to see if they carry any pasture raised eggs. The answer to that is no. But they did have free range eggs that are “sustainably raised” and “raised on small family farms.”
That last phrase especially gave me hope that the hens might have a lifestyle almost as good as pasture raised hens. But the proof of that is in the egg yolk. So I bought some to see for myself how they compare to the Vital Farms pasture raised eggs I normally buy.
The difference between free range and pasture raised eggs
The term “free range” means that hens have access to the outdoors and have less than two square feet of space. They may actually spend very little time outdoors.
The term “pasture raised” means that hens have at least 108 square feet of space and they spend most of the day outside scratching dirt and eating bugs.
The moment of truth, cracking open the eggs
It was instantly obvious which egg is superior judging by the color of the egg yolks. Vital Farms eggs are a deep orange yellow, while the Aldi eggs are yellow with a touch of orange. (They do seem to have a bit more color than regular Goldhen eggs.)
And there is a difference in taste as well, with the flavor being more intense in Vital Farms pasture raised eggs.
My video review
The verdict
Aldi free range eggs DO NOT beat Vital Farms pasture raised eggs.
Even though Aldi free range eggs are half the price at $2.99, I will continue to buy Vital Farms eggs. I feel confident their hens are living their best chicken lives down on the farm which also means their eggs are more nutritious.
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Since I’ve been on the keto diet, almost three years now, I’ve learned what happens when I don’t get enough electrolytes. I end up experiencing fatigue and painful toe cramps at night.
After recognizing the problem, I spent a lot of time searching for a ready made electrolyte drink or supplement. What I discovered is (1) they’re really expensive, and (2) they don’t contain enough potassium.
Then I decided to find the raw ingredients and make my own electrolyte drink. So I’ve done that and I’m sharing it with you. And best of all, the cost is a mere fraction of what you would spend on any commercial product (like ZipFizz).
Potassium chloride (non affiliate link)Pink salt from CostcoPure magnesium (affiliate link)
The importance of electrolytes
Electrolytes such as potassium, sodium and magnesium, are responsible for virtually every metabolic function of the body:
Muscle protein synthesis Muscle contractions Regulation of body fluids Nerve impulses Blood clotting
For more information on the importance of sodium and potassium in the keto diet, please read this article by Dr. Stephen Phinney.
Symptoms that you need electrolytes
Here are a few symptoms that can occur when electrolytes are low:
When supplementing electrolytes, they need to be in the right ratio to keep sodium and potassium balanced. Please watch my short video to get my DIY electrolyte recipe.
Here’s a quick, simple keto recipe involving ground beef and jalapeños. Yes, those jalapeños are making another appearance because I still have about a half gallon left from the gargantuan bottle I got at Costco.
Anyway, I’ve discovered the heat and vinegar infusion from the jalapeños gives the ground beef a really good flavor. So here goes one of the easiest recipes ever.
Ingredients for keto beef jalapeño skillet
1 lb ground beef ½ onion, chopped ½ cup nacho sliced jalapeños (remove seeds) 1 tsp salt ½ tsp garlic powder 8 oz grated cheddar cheese Sour cream for garnish (optional)
Cooking instructions
In a medium skillet, brown the onion and jalapeños in oil or bacon fat. Chop the jalapeños up as they are cooking (or before if you prefer).
Add the ground beef and season with salt and garlic powder.
Stir all the ingredients together and cook until the hamburger is done.
Spread the cheese on top.
Put the skillet in the oven and bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
Dinner is ready! Add sour cream if desired.
This makes four servings for me and is a good recipe for meal prep or freezing for later.
I love keto jalapeño poppers but they’re kind of a pain to make. And I love chicken but sometimes it gets a little boring. So I decided to put the two together in a casserole using shortcuts that eliminate the hassle.
All the ingredients combine together beautifully and yet the individual flavors don’t get lost. You can still taste the jalapeños, the cheese, the bacon and the chicken. And it’s so rich and filling, a modest serving will keep you satisfied for hours.
Shopping for ingredients
I decided the biggest shortcut would be to use a rotisserie chicken so off to Costco I went. (Leftover turkey would also work well in this recipe.)
After picking up the chicken, I went over to the produce section for the jalapeños. How can this be—no jalapeños! Rather than go to another store, I decided to get the next best thing which was the biggest jar of sliced jalapeños I’ve ever seen. This turned out to be shortcut #2.
I almost succumbed to shortcut #3 by buying a bag of crumbled bacon at Costco, but I decided to cook my own.
Chicken jalapeño popper casserole recipe
18 oz cooked chicken, cubed 12 oz bacon, cooked and chopped 6 large jalapeños, roasted and chopped, or 1 cup sauteed nacho sliced jalapeños, chopped (Save a few jalapeño rings for the topping) 1 cup grated cheddar cheese + extra for topping 8 oz cream cheese, softened ½ cup sour cream ½ cup chicken stock or water 2 tsp chili powder 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp paprika Salt and pepper to taste
8×8 inch baking dish, greased Combine ingredients as follows and bake at 375 degrees 30 to 40 minutes Serves 6
Assembling the casserole
If using fresh jalapeños, cut in half, remove seeds, add a little oil. Roast on a baking sheet in the oven at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.
If using jarred jalapeños, rinse and dry them, then saute in butter until soft. Save a few rings for the topping and chop up the rest.
In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream and spices.
Then stir in the cheese.
Mix in the chicken broth or water to thin it out a little.
Mixture should be quite loose.
Add cubed chicken, chopped bacon (reserving some for topping) and all the chopped jalapeños.
Pour mixture into greased baking dish and top with a little extra cheese.
Sprinkle on reserved jalapeño slices and reserved bacon.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly.
Faster than you can say “DiGiorno” you can make yourself a low carb pizza. Okay not that fast, but faster than you can heat up the oven for that frozen pizza. My skillet pizza only takes ten minutes from start to finish. That means I can satisfy my pizza craving any time I want. And because it’s low carb and high protein, it fits into my keto diet.
Low carb
This pizza uses a low carb tortilla for the crust which is only 6 net carbs. I like using Mission Carb Balance low carb tortillas.
Mission Carb Balance flour tortillasCarb Balance tortillas nutrition info
The next most carby ingredient is the sauce.
Sometimes I make my own from tomato paste which is really low carb. But most of the time I use the lowest carb sauce I can find (that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg). Surprisingly, Great Value marinara sauce has 6 net carbs per ½ cup serving. I only use 2T for the pizza so that comes in at 1.5 net carbs.
High protein
The next macro I like to focus on is protein. Altogether with the toppings I’ve chosen, this pizza has around 30 grams of protein, the minimum for muscle protein synthesis. You can read more about that here.
What you need to make low carb skillet pizza
10 inch skillet with lid 1 pat of butter 2T marinara sauce 1 oz grated mozzarella 1 oz grated cheddar ½ oz grated asiago 16 slices of pepperoni (1 serving of Great Value pepperoni) Olives (optional)
Watch my video to see how I make low carb skillet pizza
See me make low carb skillet pizza
How to make a keto skillet pizza in 10 minutes
Heat up the skillet over medium heat.
Add the butter and put the tortilla on top.
Add butter to hot panTortilla in pan
Spread the sauce over the tortilla.
Marinara sauce on tortilla
Cover with all the cheese.
Cheese on top
Top with pepperoni and olives.
Pepperoni on topI like Kalamata olives for their extreme olive taste
Cover the skillet and turn the heat down to low.
Cover skillet with lid
Set the timer for 8 minutes.
8 minute timer
And presto! Your crispy thin crust pizza is ready to eat!
I hope that got your attention! Yes, I believe eating a little of my homemade sauerkraut every day helps keep my tummy flat. I will explain why and show you how I make my own sauerkraut.
Food fermentation has a long history
Humans have been fermenting food since an estimated 10,000 BC. The reasons for this were to preserve food and enhance the nutritional benefits.
Just about every culture has traditionally used fermented foods in their diet, such as yogurt, kefir, kimchi, natto, cod liver oil, high meat and, of course, sauerkraut.
Americans do not typically eat fermented food. In fact, most of us tend to treat our stomach like a garbage can and just eat anything without regard to the effect it will have on our bodies.
I want to have a long and healthy life (and fit into my size 4 jeans) so I decided to make fermented food part of my diet. And of that list, sauerkraut appeals to me the most.
The nutritional benefits of sauerkraut
Something magical happens when you mix cabbage, salt and water together in an anaerobic environment. It produces lovely probiotics, enzymes and vitamin K2, to name a few. All these things are good for gut health and your overall health because if your digestion is messed up, you won’t be healthy.
When your digestion works properly, you won’t have gas, bloating, heartburn, etc.
And you get all this good stuff for just pennies a day compared to buying nutritional supplements.
Making sauerkraut vs buying it
You don’t have to make your own sauerkraut but you’ll save a lot of money doing it and you can customize it to your taste.
If you’d rather buy sauerkraut, make sure to get it from the refrigerated section. Any sauerkraut that is shelf stable has been pasteurized which kills all the probiotics.
I could make vats of sauerkraut for what one jar from the store would cost. And here’s how I make it.
How to make sauerkraut
You will need a 64 oz mason jar with optional plastic lid, glass weights* (optional but highly recommended), large knife, cutting board, large mixing bowl, water, sea salt and cabbage (slightly over 4 lb).
*You need some kind of weight, not necessarily these, but these are perfect!
64 oz mason jar, plastic lid and glass weight
This basic recipe makes about a half gallon of sauerkraut.
Cut cabbage into thin strips. Save one leaf (cut into a circle) to fit inside the jar as floater control.
Cut a circle of cabbage to control floaters
Discard the core.
Put cabbage into mixing bowl with about 1T of salt. Knead and massage cabbage with your hands for a total of 10 minutes.
Sliced cabbage with 1T sea salt ready for kneading
After five minutes you can add extra spices or veggie slices if desired.
I sometimes add crushed red pepper, garlic and onion flakes
Transfer cabbage into mason jar and use your fist to press out all the air. Pour in the liquid from the cabbage.
Cabbage after 10 minutes of kneadingTamping down the cabbage with my fist to remove airAll the cabbage pressed into mason jar. This was a little smaller batch.
Add the floater control circle and put at least one glass weight on top. You may need to add extra brine to completely cover the cabbage and weight.
Adding cabbage circle to jarGlass weights keep cabbage under water
The recipe for brine is 1T sea salt to 4 cups of water (I use filtered water). Save extra brine in the refrigerator.
Save leftover brine in the refrigerator
Leave 1 to 1½ inches of space from the top of the jar. The liquid is going to rise during fermentation.
Lay the lid on top but don’t screw it on. This is just to keep bugs out.
Lid placed on top of jar and put inside bowl
Put the mason jar on a plate. Cover the jar with a clean cloth and set aside out of direct sunlight for 7 to 14 days. (Longer in cooler temperatures.)
Put a clean towel over the jar
Check sauerkraut every day to make sure there’s still enough liquid. Sometimes after the liquid rises it will begin to evaporate and you need to add more brine.
Bubbles produced during fermentation
When the sauerkraut is ready, remove the glass weight and cabbage circle. Now you can screw on the lid and place the jar in the refrigerator. This will keep up to a year.
After fermentation, remove and discard cabbage circle
Watch my video on how to make sauerkraut
See me make sauerkraut step by step
So there you have it! I eat about ¼ cup each day. Being a low carb food, it fits well into my keto diet.
Sauerkraut finished and ready for the refrigerator
I hope you’ll enjoy your sauerkraut and good tummy health!
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Two years have passed since I started the keto diet and intermittent fasting (IF) as a woman over 60. So what new things have I learned between year one and year two?
Not only did I lose a bit more weight, I learned some important keto diet tweaks that I’m revealing in this article. You will also see before and after photos from the first and second year. And I am posting pics of a full day of keto eating.
Keto weight loss results
Okay I’m going to start with the good stuff because most people are looking to lose weight.
In May of 2017 I started IF without dieting and lost no weight. In June of 2017 I started the keto diet (with IF) and that’s when things began to happen.
My starting weight was 150 and by June of 2018 it was 130. (I’m 5′4½᳓.) So I lost 20 lbs in one year.
I went from a size 12 to a size 6.
During the second year I was mostly in maintenance but then decided to lose a few more pounds. So I lost five more pounds and went from a size 6 to a size 4!
I’m happy with these results and I’ve gone back to maintenance.
Electrolytes are important
Sodium, potassium and magnesium are even more important on a keto diet because they are easily flushed out of our bodies.
I had been getting muscle spasms in my toes/foot once in a while at night. Eventually I realized it was only happening after dancing on Saturday night. I tend not to drink very much water when I’m out and after several hours of dancing I became dehydrated. And that caused me to lose more electrolytes which then caused the spasms.
So I got this electrolyte supplement that I only take Saturday night before I go to bed. Problem solved! I haven’t had any more spasms since then.
Lyteshow electrolyte supplement
And I got some NoSalt as a potassium supplement. I use it along with sea salt when salting my food. (I get enough magnesium from vitamins.)
NoSalt as a potassium supplement
I also learned that the keto flu I experienced when I started keto could have been eliminated by having more sodium. Now if I start to feel a bit sluggish I reach for the salt shaker and consume about ¼ teaspoon of sea salt. Other people make something called solé water with pink himalayan salt, but I’d rather just put the salt in my mouth.
Experimenting with keto macros
The difference between keto and a low carb diet is the amount of carbs you can eat. To be keto, carbs are limited to 20 grams a day. Then you can play with your protein and fat macros to achieve the results you want.
Much of the time my carbs are around 10 grams per day.
Keto is touted as a high fat diet. But you don’t need to consume excessive amounts of fat if you’re trying to lose weight. Fat is a limit not a goal. It’s more important to get the protein in first and top it off with fat. You should have at least 50 grams of fat if you’re losing weight and more if you’re trying to maintain.
During my second year of keto I ate fewer and fewer vegetables, and sometimes none at all. The reason for this is I had noticed some “adverse effects” from certain vegetables. However, I do try to eat a small amount of homemade sauerkraut for the probiotic benefits.
I also tried upping my fat intake, sometimes as much as 84 percent. And I have to say I felt really good with that much fat.
But was I getting enough protein?
Protein, the underrated macro
I practice lazy keto which means I don’t track my macros every day. Once in a while I do it just to see where I’m at. (However, I do always keep a mental note of how many carbs I eat.)
Because of the IF, I was only eating two meals a day. I felt really satisfied but didn’t think the 50 grams of protein per day, suggested by conventional wisdom and online macro calculators, was enough. Almost everybody says not to worry about it but I still did.
I didn’t want to look like so many older people I’ve seen with droopy, flaccid skin that hangs off of their bones. Every time I see that I think to myself, that person isn’t getting enough protein.
After a lot of digging I found this amazing YouTube channel, Keto Chaos, who’s done extensive research and explains the protein situation very well.
An explanation of protein synthesis
And I learned a new word: sarcopenia, the loss of muscle tissue in older adults. Aha! That explains the flaccid skin!
The secret to getting enough protein
Basically, the older we get, the harder it is for our bodies to utilize protein. That means we need to eat more of it.
But there’s a trick to it. You have to eat 30 grams at a time for protein synthesis to occur. And it takes three to four hours to complete the process before eating again.
There is some debate as to whether eating more than 30 grams in one sitting will do you any good.
I’ve been experimenting with three 30 gram protein meals a day during my eight hour eating window.
It was hard going from 50 to 90 grams. To make it a little easier, one of my meals often consists of whey protein. It’s pretty tasty in my iced coffee.
I’m working my way up to consuming more protein. I think 100 to 120 grams would be preferable.
To make things easier, I got this sleek little food scale to measure my protein.
digital food scale
What I eat in a day
Here are some pics of one full day of keto meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Breakfast: bacon, egg, salsa, queso frescoLunch: keto whey protein coffeeLunch: 2T peanut butterDinner: Shredded pot roast, green beans, sauerkraut, Malden sea salt flakesDessert: five chocolate almonds
Keto cheat days
As I did in year one, I have one cheat day a week. I feel like it makes the diet more sustainable and has given me metabolic flexibility. That means my body can run on glucose that day and the next day it switches back to burning ketones.
I know this because of how I feel the next day. Some people feel crappy but I usually feel normal, like I can delay my eating if I want to.
Will I stay on keto?
This way of eating has been so effective and almost effortless for maintaining my weight so I intend to keep going.
I also intend to keep experimenting with macros and cycling between keto and low carb. Limiting carbs will always be necessary for me.
No doubt about it, cold brew coffee is really hot right now. For me there’s nothing more refreshing than cold brew coffee poured over ice with billowing swirls of half and half.
Iced coffee is my favorite drink and I used to just make it in an electric drip coffee maker and then refrigerate. But I started noticing a bitter taste no matter what type of coffee I used. So I went on the hunt for a better brewing method.
Through a lot of trial and error, I finally devised an easy method for making cold brew coffee without the mess.
The benefits of cold brew coffee
The main benefit of cold brew coffee is the taste. It’s mellow and smooth, not sharp or bitter, because less acid is released.
The next benefit is that less caffeine is extracted with this method. That might not be considered a benefit by some but it probably should be.
Too much caffeine is bad for your adrenal glands, and that’s a concern for me. So I use half decaf to bring the caffeine level down even more.
Finding this filter was a game changer. It strains out all the sediment without having to use an additional paper filter inside.
Cold brew coffee making supplies
It’s also nice to buy plastic lids for the mason jars. I prefer those to the two-part metal lids that come with the jars.
You probably already have a funnel which helps when transferring the brewed coffee into a storage vessel of your choice.
How strong do you like your coffee?
Before getting to the recipe, you need to determine how strong you like your coffee and I have a little test to help you figure that out.
Using a Mr Coffee-type drip maker as an example, if you use one scoop of coffee for two cups of water, then follow the recipe below for regular strength coffee. If you use one scoop of coffee for one cup of water, then double the amount of coffee. The filter can hold up to 2¼ cups of coffee grounds.
My recipe for cold brew coffee (one gallon)
Use one cup of coffee per gallon of water.
One cup of coffee in the filter
Place the metal filter in the mason jar and put one cup of coffee inside. Take a one gallon bottle of water and pour water over the grounds until you reach the top of the jar. Put the remaining water aside until the next day.
Pouring cold water over coffee grounds
Put a lid on the jar and stick it in the refrigerator. Let brew for 12 to 24 hours. I go up to 24 hours. Beyond that it starts to get bitter.
Coffee ready to brew in the refrigerator
And that’s it, simple as can be.
Twenty-four hours later, I take the jar out and balance the filter on the jar to let the coffee drip out.
Coffee after brewing for 24 hoursDraining the filter
After a few minutes, I take the filter to my trash can, dump it out then rinse it.
Then I put a funnel into the plastic gallon water jug and pour the brewed coffee inside where it mixes up into the perfect strength, ready for drinking.
Pouring brewed coffee into plastic water jug
If you don’t want to store yours in a plastic jug, you can get glass carafes. I just find this method more convenient and there’s one less thing to wash.
Cold brew coffee stored in plastic gallon jub
As soon as I’m finished making one batch, I rinse out the jar and repeat.
How long can you keep cold brewed coffee
I would say the coffee is fine for at least a week, maybe even ten days, in the refrigerator. Always keep it refrigerated so things don’t start growing in there.
I keep about a week’s worth on hand. I usually make coffee for four days in a row, then I wash everything in the dishwasher so it’s ready for the next time.
Today I want to share my experience with intermittent fasting (IF) and the ketogenic diet I’ve been doing for the last six months. My main goal in trying both of these was to lose weight, which I have done and continue to do.
The great thing about this way of eating is that there’s a lot of flexibility. So there’s no “right” way to do it. That’s good but also bad because it can be confusing when you’re just starting out. Hopefully my experiences will clear up some of the confusion.
I’m going to talk about how much I’ve lost, the foods I eat, how much exercise I’ve done, how I’ve felt, and the benefits besides weight loss that keep me motivated to continue. I will also list some resources at the end where you can go to get more extensive info on both IF and keto.
You may find this especially helpful if you’re a mature woman who’s having a hard time maintaining and/or losing weight.
Intermittent fasting
Let me start by saying I’m 62, post menopausal and living without a gallbladder. (That hasn’t been a problem for me on this high fat keto diet although it can be for some.) I’ve lost 18 pounds in the last six months and am still losing about half a pound per week.
Prior to that I had been dieting for a few months and had been on a plateau for about a month when I discovered IF.
I was really resistant to the idea at first because it sounded potentially unhealthy. But when I learned it’s a good way to keep insulin levels down, and therefore lose weight, I decided to give it a try.
Without going into too much detail, IF has been described as an eating window. You only eat during a certain period of the day which can be anything from 12 hours to four hours. Another way to look at it is skipping breakfast or not eating anything after dinner.
I do the 16:8 method which means I fast for 16 hours and eat during the other eight hours. I like to eat soon after getting up in the morning and then eight hours later I stop.
There are days I choose to fast longer or shorter. I’ve gone as long as 21 hours fasting or as little as 12 hours. I intentionally vary the schedule to keep my body guessing and to have a normal social life.
In the beginning I was confused. Do I eat three meals a day or just two? I started with three meals a day but felt too full so I cut back to two.
Then I was worried I wasn’t eating enough. And because some people claim you can eat any type of food you want, I started eating chips and cookies. Well that was a mistake and I put on a couple of pounds.
Around that time (about three weeks in) I discovered the keto diet.
Wearing size 6 jeans Xmas 2017
Keto and keeping it simple
The keto diet is a low carb high fat diet, or LCHF, generally defined as 60% fat, 35% protein, 5% carbs. This forces your body to use fat (ketones) for fuel rather than sugar (glucose) from a standard high carb diet.
Most people say you need to keep track of your macros and recommend recording your meals in MyFitnessPal.
I did this for maybe one day. I don’t like tracking macros, counting calories, adding up points, etc. I’d rather learn to eat intuitively.
The most important thing to remember is to keep net carbs at or below 20 grams. And if you’re trying to lose weight, eat a little less fat so your body will burn stored fat.
I keep a mental note of my carb count which is pretty easy because my meals are simple and repetitive. If I want a special treat, I work it into my daily carb allowance.
How do you know if you’re in ketosis
Ketosis is when your body has made the switch from burning sugar to burning fat. It can take a few weeks to adapt and it’s different for everyone.
A lot of people will test their ketones and blood sugar and generally obsess over whether or not they’re in ketosis. Once again, this is not for me. I just go by how I feel and since I’m losing weight, I know I’m on the right track.
I did have the “keto flu” for what seemed like forever. In real time it was three or four weeks. How did I know I had the keto flu? Well I just generally felt like crap. I was so lethargic and tired I could do almost nothing but lay around. And my symptoms were exacerbated by a summer heatwave.
Then I learned that keto flu could be remedied by taking electrolytes, specifically sodium. I started sipping on some homemade bone broth and began to feel better within about three days.
Eventually I became quite energetic as is typical on a keto diet. Increased energy and the fact that I can go long hours if need be without food tells me that I’m in ketosis. Another sign is keto breath which I do notice from time to time.
Foods I enjoy and what I eat on a typical day
I like buying high quality food and cooking most of my meals from scratch. I buy grass fed beef, organic free range chicken and organic eggs. This is not mandatory on a keto diet, it’s just my preference.
I try to stay away from artificial sweeteners but every now and then will have a Zevia diet soda.
I also have no interest in keto versions of high carb foods like pancakes, cakes and cookies. The only thing I make once in a while is coconut flour muffins. But it’s perfectly fine to eat keto treats occasionally if it helps keep you on the diet.
The foods I like to eat most often are eggs, bacon, beef, butter, cheese, half and half, peanut butter and sour cream. Sometimes I also eat avocados, almonds, chicken thighs and mayo.
My usual breakfast is one egg and two pieces of bacon. Lately my favorite concoction is what I’m calling a cheesy jalapeno egg with sour cream.
Cheesy jalapeno egg and bacon
I don’t usually have lunch but if I’m hungry I may have a bite of peanut butter or pork rinds. And for a tasty treat, I mix half an avocado with a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. I either eat it with pork rinds or homemade cheese chips. Yum!
Avocado dip and cheese chips
So good!
For dinner it’s often ground beef with vegetables. Sometimes I make my own version of “crack slaw” (without sweetener or sugar). Once in a while I’ll have steak or chicken with sauteed vegetables or my homemade sauerkraut. And last week I had taco salad with ground beef, cheese, lettuce, olives, salsa, tomatoes and sour cream.
Taco salad
For dessert I like to have exactly five chocolate covered almonds from Trader Joe’s. I work it into my macros. It keeps me from feeling deprived and doesn’t trigger any carb cravings. Now ice cream or chocolate chip cookies would be another story.
Daily treat: chocolate almonds
As for bulletproof coffee, it’s not for me and maybe not for you if you’re trying to lose weight. I make my own cold brewed coffee that I either drink black or with half and half and no sweetener.
To supplement or not to supplement
I’ve been taking a variety of supplements for the last few years and will keep taking them because I notice a difference. Some people believe you should get all your nutrients from food. That would be ideal but I’m not sure it’s really possible. However, I’ve been able to cut down with no ill effects which is saving me money.
Exercise
For the first four months I did the T-Tapp barefoot basic plus workout five days a week. Then I took a couple of months off and recently started doing T-Tapp three days a week, and a kettlebell express workout two days a week. I still lost weight when I was not exercising.
I keep a file of my exercise schedule with weekly measurements and monthly weigh-ins. It gives me encouragement and perspective on how far I’ve gone.
Strategies for living an IF and keto lifestyle
Everyone has to decide how strict to be with the diet. Are you going to cheat, carb up or bring your own foods to non keto gatherings.
My goal is to have a normal life that includes celebrating holidays, special occasions or going out on Saturday night.
After two months on keto I incorporated “cheating” into my lifestyle. It’s also part of my strategy to avoid a plateau. So far it’s working.
Saturday is my free day from keto and IF because I like going out on Saturday night. I reserve that day for eating things I might be wanting such as bread, pizza or dessert. And I almost always make organic popcorn.
That is not to say I go hog wild because I don’t. I try to keep the net carbs under 75 grams.
Sometimes I’ll switch my cheat day for a night out with friends or celebrating a holiday. I just got through Thanksgiving and Christmas this year by doing that.
For those holidays I ended up having one meal that day. I ate mostly meat and green veg with very small servings of everything else including dessert. I was really stuffed and fasted for 21 hours afterwards.
The key is to enjoy yourself for that one day and go right back to keto the next day. No guilt.
Benefits of IF and keto aside from weight loss
The very first thing I noticed on day two of IF was how much better my foot felt. For those of you who don’t know, two years ago I suffered a severe ankle injury, breaking all the bones in my left ankle. My goal is 100% recovery, currently around 98%.
Anyway, after making this observation I did more research to see if there’s a connection between IF and joint pain relief. Turns out it’s something called autophagy, a process the body uses to rid itself of cellular debris. Autophagy reduces inflammation and boosts the immune system. This alone makes me want to keep doing IF.
Watch this short video for more information:
Some of the other benefits have been curing a persistent toenail fungus, saving money on food and supplements, experiencing sustained energy throughout the day, and generally feeling strong.
Recommended resources for more information on IF and keto
Recipe ideas and general information on keto: Keto Connect on YouTube
A doctor’s perspective on keto and intermittent fasting: Dr Eric Berg on YouTube
IF and keto wonderfully explained in plain terms: Butter Bob Briggs on YouTube
https://lyndamakara.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/bacon2.jpg488650[email protected]http://lyndamakara.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/logo-2.png[email protected]2017-12-29 17:41:262020-02-17 17:59:11Intermittent fasting and keto after 60
This year I planted my first vegetable garden in many years. My motivations were to save money on food and be able to eat nutritious organic vegetables within minutes of harvesting. One of my choices was yellow squash because it’s low carb, easy to grow and has lots of vitamins.
I was so excited watching the little sprouts rise out of the ground and couldn’t wait for my babies to start bearing fruit. I resolved to keep on top of the situation by picking the squash while they were still quite small.
Every day I got such satisfaction watering the plants and charting their progress: the first leaf, the first blossom, the first tiny squash developing. I longed for the day when I could start harvesting.
Well that day finally came and nearly every day afterward I’d pick four or five little squash and sauté them up for my dinner. Things were under control. I got this, I thought.
Then the inevitable happened. Not content to stay neatly in their little plot, virtually overnight my babies had grown into monsters, seemingly bent on world domination. They began choking out my other vegetables, spilling out of the garden and marauding across the sidewalk.
And with it came squash. Lots and lots of squash. I gave away as much as I could but was still left with a small mountain. By this time I was ready to find some new recipes for all that squash, and here are my favorites—roasted yellow squash and jalapeño soup, tamale squash pie casserole, and pepperoni pizza squash.
Roasted yellow squash jalapeño soup
Roasted yellow squash jalapeno soup
Ingredients
1½ lb yellow squash, cut into ½” slices
3 jalapeños
1 chopped onion
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
1T ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1½ cans of chicken broth
4 to 6 oz half and half
olive oil
salt and pepper
sour cream and chives to garnish
Instructions
Place the squash, jalapeños, onion and garlic and in roasting pan. Drizzle with olive and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 425° for 30 to 45 minutes, until they look like this.
Roasted squash, jalapenos, garlic and onions
Peel the skin off the jalapeños. You can also scrape out the seeds if desired. Put all the vegetables in a saucepan with cumin, oregano and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Purée the vegetables with an immersion blender. Add the half and half. Turn the heat back on until soup starts to bubble.
Pureed yellow squash jalapeno soup
Serve with a little sour cream on top and a sprinkling of chives.
Spicy yellow squash jalapeno soup topped with sour cream and chives
Tamale squash pie casserole
For this recipe I used squash instead of corn and it came out great! This tamale pie is a little bit spicy and very cheesy.
A slice of tamale squash pie
Ingredients
1 lb hamburger
1 chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp salt
black pepper
1 to 2T chili powder
1 lb yellow squash, sliced
1 7-oz can green chilis
1 lg can olives, sliced
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp cayenne pepper
olive oil
grated cheese
For the corn meal topping:
¾ cup corn meal
2 cups water
½ tsp salt
½ tsp chili powder
1T butter
grated cheese
Ingredients for tamale squash pie
About a pound of squash for tamale pie casserole
Instructions
Cook the onions in a large skillet with olive oil. When they start to brown add the hamburger, garlic, salt and pepper. I also threw in a few jalapeños for good measure.
Browning the meat, onions and garlic with a few jalapenos
When the hamburger is cooked, add the chili powder and cook for about a minute. Then add the squash, green chilis, olives, tomato sauce, sugar and cayenne pepper.
Vegetables added to browned meat
Simmer for 25 minutes then stir in a generous amount of grated cheese.
Adding grated cheese to tamale squash pie
Ten or 15 minutes before the meat mixture is done, start cooking the corn meal in a pot with water, salt and chili powder. Stir constantly until it starts to thicken up. At that point add butter.
(I actually used organic polenta because I couldn’t find organic corn meal. The polenta is a coarser grind than corn meal and has more texture. Why organic? Because it’s non GMO.)
Adding butter to cooked corn meal
Add even more cheese.
Putting cheese into cooked corn meal
Spread the corn meal over the meat.
Note: If you’re not using an oven-proof skillet, you’ll need to transfer the meat into a buttered casserole dish.
Cooked corn meal goes on top of meat mixture
Top with—yes—more cheese. I probably use about 8 oz of cheese altogether.
Cheese goes on top of the corn meal
Pop the casserole in the oven at 375° for 40 minutes. This is what it looks like when it’s done. Saucy with a thin crunchy shell on top from the melted cheese.
Tamale squash pie casserole
Let it cool for a little bit before serving.
A serving of tamale squash pie casserole
Pepperoni pizza squash
This is by far my favorite recipe with all the flavor of pizza and none of the carbs. It’s so good I don’t even miss the crust, and the quickest to put together of the three recipes. The amounts are left off because you can make as little or as much as you want.
Pepperoni pizza squash
Ingredients
yellow squash cut into slices
marinara sauce (my favorite one is Bertoli Organic Olive Oil, Basil & Garlic)
quattro formaggio grated cheese
pepperoni slices
olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh basil leaves (optional garnish)
Quattro formaggio and pepperoni
Instructions
Sauté the squash in a frying pan with olive oil, salt and pepper until browned.
Sauteed yellow squash
Transfer to a baking dish to cover the bottom in one layer.
First layer: squash
Put enough marinara sauce on top to cover the squash.
Second layer: marinara sauce
Then sprinkle with cheese.
Third layer: cheese
Top with pepperoni.
Fourth layer: pepperoni
Bake in a 350° oven for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Baked pepperoni pizza squash
Garnish with basil leaves torn into pieces if desired.
