Hello! 

My ketones were back up to 1.0 this morning, which was a nice surprise after they had been so low for a few days. I decided yesterday that I need to improve my stress management, and started yesteday with a guided meditation. I used to meditate daily and I really feel like it is effective in so many ways. I feel calmer, more productive and focused, and much less stressed when I meditate daily. 

I also have not been happy with my skating and feel that I do better when I am visualizing skating well and feeling confident, so I need to write out a new roller derby visualization to practice. I also have been finding myself annoyed with people when they suggest things I can do to improve. I get annoyed with people because I am already really hard on myself, and chances are I have already been beating myself up about whatever it is that I did not do well or need to improve on. That said, I know suggestions are intended to help me and I realize getting annoyed when people try to help me is not acceptable. 

The font that I have been using on this blog is pretty hard to read, so I think I am going to go ahead and use something different. 

Something else that bothers me is that I sometimes act like a know it all. I  have a hard time letting things go when I know someone is wrong. I will start out polite saying something like "I don't think that is how it works" but when they insist that it is I usually have a hard time leaving it at that instead of setting them straight. 

Work is busy right now, and I am getting ready to go play OKVD so I need to actually get pretty far ahead. 

Speaking of work- I had better get at it. 

♥
Erica

Enjoy the guided meditation I did this morning: 

Food Journal
Yesterday
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breakfast 
2 eggs scrambled with green chili and cheese
2 slices bacon
1 cup fatty coffee.
( I noticed some add supplements. I take Vitamin D, Multivitamin, Potassium, Magnesium and desiccated liver) 

Lunch
not hungry

Snack
2 oz cheese (a variety of what I had small thin slices of: raw cheddar, robusto, dubliner. Yum. ) 

Dinner
5oz chicken tikka masala, less than 1/2 cup sauteed squash, 1 cup salad (mixed greens, dressing, olives, sprinkled with Parmesan) 


Calories:1238 Carbs: 16 Fat: 92 Protein: 73

Water- about 7 large glasses.

Good morning! 

Yesterday my vision got spotty in the afternoon and it was followed by a mild headache. I Used to get the spotty vision thing pretty regularly, my husband thinks they are ocular migraines... but this is the first time since in keto. I started feeling a little ill after that and this morning, so I may be catching something. I have felt so invincible lately that this surprised me.  

I also woke up to ketones at 2.2 this morning. I have not eaten anything off plan, so I wonder if it was stress, or because I may be catching something? or maybe I felt unwell because I was kicked out of keto? I don't know. I have been eating more protein, so I may be over- shooting.

Food Journal
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Yesterday

breakfast 
2 eggs scrambled with green chili and cheese
2 slices bacon
1 cup fatty coffee.

Lunch- Keto Enchilada (1.5 oz raw sharp cheddar, 2 oz chicken, 1 serving green chili sauce, put in oven and broil for a few min. yum) 

Snack- Keto lemonade (2-4 drops liquid stevia, apple cider vinegar, lemon wedge squeezed in) 

Dinner
Broccoli cooked in butter and herbs, Small grass-fed burger topped with pickles. 


Calories: 1257 Carbs: 19 Fat: 85 Protein: 74

Good  Morning! 

I don't feel like I have much to say... so lets see where I go. 

I entered the food I ate last week in to a food calculator. My calories were suprisingly consistent, so that was cool. I did notice I was way under on protein, so I am going to try to step it up. I did well with that yesterday. 

I feel pretty good, but I am bummed out that I seem to be stalling. I am thinking about starting a youtube video blog because I find the vlogs I have seen about others on the keto diet to be really inspiring. I just worry because it seems like people can be pretty cruel on youtube and a lot of people seem to troll around there.

The kids made a huge mess upstairs in their rooms yesterday, so that was disappointing.  I did not see it, but when Adam put autumn to bed he said it looked like they spilled a whole gallon of water on the floor.

I made a new design yesterday, maybe I will post it on my other blog... it is a drawing of one of our cats wearing a crown :)

I am feeling a little apathetic today. I would like to feel happier. I guess the best way to do that is to get happy- I strongly believe we create our lives and are in charge of our emotions ( for the most part, of course, I have also suffered from severe depression, etc. so I know how that feels uncontrollable) .

So... lets end this post with five things that make me happy...

1. My awesome, sweet, handsome, wonderful husband
2. My Children (when they are not driving me crazy, lol)
3.  Cats. I love cats.
4. Being self employed.
5. Playing roller derby.

Life really is pretty awesome.


Food Journal:

Yesterday

breakfast 
2 eggs scrambled with green chili and cheese
2 slices bacon
1 cup fatty coffee.

Lunch- Still working on that roast chicken, Skin on 1/2 serving (4 small squares) of lillys dark chocolate (no sugar, stevia sweetened) 

Snack, Fatty chai

Dinner
1/2 cup sauerkraut (leftover from yesterday, Brats were cooked in it) , 6 uncured pepperoni slices(large) 1.5 oz Robusto cheese. 1/2 avocado

Calories: 1358 Carbs: 15 Fat: 117 Protein: 70 

I did much better on the protein !

Yikes! I missed my post yesterday!

My kids were out of the house for a few hours and I really wanted to take advantage of the peace and quiet and write then without distraction. Unfortunately the time they were gone flew by, as did the rest of the day. I feel like I have been annoyed lately, and I would really prefer to focus on the things I am happy about rather than the things that annoy me. Lately I find myself in the shower bitching in my head about one thing or another. Yesterday it was calories. I think calories are stupid. I spent a while ranting in my brain about it. I planned to continue the rant here, but did not get around to it.

Today it was last nights roller derby practice.

Suddenly, while scrubbing my knees, I realized that bitching- about anything- is a really shitty way to start the day. When negativity is the first thing that pops into my head, it seems that is likely to continue as the day progresses. I changed my focus to  the many things I am happy about and thankful for in my life (my amazing husband, kids, having an awesome house and everything we need, loving my job, etc.) and I hope to do this more often when I a catch myself falling in to a negative mindset.

So... for today I would really like to... STAY POSITIVE!


Food Journal For Yesterday
----------------------------------

breakfast
2 eggs scrambled with green chili and cheese
2 slices bacon
1 cup fatty coffee.

Lunch
Broccoli cooked in a little grassfed butter
one egg scrambled

Snacked on 4 slices of large pepperoni in the afternoon.

Bone Broth Before Practice

Dinner/late snack after practice... 2 slices raw cheese a little carne asada (bought a total of .3 lbs and used less than 1/3 of container... so whatever that is) and 1/2 avocado and fatty chai.

A small rant.

Good Morning!

I found myself ranting in thought while in the shower about a certain  youtube-famous vegan fruitatarian and how bad fashion is sometimes.

I listened to a video of a vegan ranting about how she is allowed to be angry at paleo people specifically- but I am sure she really meant all meat eaters- for eating meat and then listed a lot of reasons that made her look like a complete idiot. Probably because she IS a complete idiot. I don't agree with factory farming, but it is incredibly ignorant to think that just because you don't eat meat that nothing died to feed you. Agriculture has practically wiped out entire species of plants and animals AND animal products are required to grow healthy plants. She also feels that she is paying for peoples sickness (from eating meat) but meat, cholesterol, and saturated fat are not responsible for heart disease, or any disease, that was a big lie based on bad science. In fact, fat, protein, and cholesterol are necessary to build healthy cells (yes your body can scrap together a low quality version of these, because otherwise we would DIE...) . In addition not eating any animal products leads to major deficiencies in most people that CAN cause severe health issues. I hesitate to say all will get sick on that diet, because some seem to do well on it,  but I really feel that a raw vegan low fat diet will eventually take it's toll on almost everyone. I certainly don't care what they eat (with the exception of the vegans I know personally and care and worry about) but the lies being spread like gospel concern me A good read, with some facts about nutrition  (I have seen the linked site accused of "cherry picking" evidence, but in reality that just seems to be an excuse to dismiss the evidence, which is not really hard to find, but very concise on this site.). I could go on... but I don't like being a hater, life is too short for that, and honestly, I don't want to stoop to this person's  level. I just really believe that eating responsibly and ethically sourced meat (especially including organ meat, wild salmon, marrow broth, etc) in addition to as many veggies as your body can tolerate (I can't tolerate many, but I love eating them) is better both for health, society, animals, and the environment.

Then there is fashion... I have been looking at Vogue Collections and am very disappointed in the collections I have been seeing.

I have a degree in fashion design, and while I have not exactly followed that path, I it is still a passion of mine. At least I think it is... the collections I was looking at last night were pretty disappointing, and it makes me question that passion. Sometimes fashion seems like such a joke. Adam Commented on how unhappy one of the models looked, and my response was "look what she's wearing". There were a few gems, but fewer than I am used to, and honestly I page through slowly to really take things  in, so I may see some redeeming collections as I proceed. I found myself feeling bad for the models and hideous, gimmicky, styling the designers put them in. I guess that is part of the job, but it bothers me that designers humiliate models like that. 

Okie dokie, I need to get on with things. 

Have an awesome day! 

♥Erica

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Food Log (decided to get back to that)

yesterday

Bf: 2 slice bacon, 2 eggs, sprinkled with a little cheese and green chili, fatty coffee
L: not really hungry, at 3 applewood uncured pepperoni slices and one small piece of sugar free chocolate.
D: Bison liver cooked with onion and yellow bell pepper, and a salad (spinach, arugula and spring mix) with fancy cracked pepper dressing, fatty Chai

( I do organic, free range, fed natural diet, etc. and as much is locally sourced as possible)
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Happy Thursday!

It feels like Friday today! I am ahead on orders- barely- but more than usual. I have my orders for Friday completed and ready to ship today. This is unusual because I always have the most to ship on Fridays so I am often trying to just keep up by working on Friday orders all week. It is not super busy, but it is also not super slow, so I feel like I have accomplished something. :)

I do feel like there are a few things I should be doing to be more productive. I tend to get very distracted looking at forums and checking email. YES, my work email is important, but I could probably be more productive if I just checked it a few times a day. I should also only look at the nutrition and etsy forums briefly during lunch or in the morning before I really wind up for the day.

I have been doing my planks and high intensity intervals in the morning before breakfast, and I am noticing the benifit of that. I am finding that I am faster when I skate and I can get people out when I want to. My legs are still killing me from Monday. Ok... Maybe not KILLING me, like yesterday, but they are sore.

I have been enjoying fatty chai tea in the evenings and my ketones are getting back up to normal. I feel pretty good, but in the afternoons I am still feeling a lull. I am not sure if it is because I should not be drinking coffee, or if it is because I need more salt. When I drink my bone broth in the evening before practice I feel like I am coming back to life, so that would indicate it is a salt/nutrient issue.

I still have not been eating in the evenings, but lately I have been wanting to snack after practice. I am not sure that is a good thing, but I will see what the scale says on Monday.

Okie dokie, Adios for now.

♥Erica

Everything is going well, and like most people, I tend to stay more quiet when all is well. I am going to try to write in this every day- not sure that is likely, but I am hoping to spend just a few minutes here every day before I check my email and my orders. Unfortunately, today was supposed to be my first day doing that and I already failed! I have already checked and answered my personal and work email, my etsy shop, my facebook,  and two message boards I look at (a low carb one and the etsy one). So, tomorrow I hope to do a little better.

My weight loss journey is going well, generally. I have lost over 20 lbs in about 6 weeks rather effortlessly. After trying for over 5 years with no improvement I am extremely pleased with that. I still have a long way to go, but I am making great strides towards my goal, and my overall health has improved dramatically. I have energy, my skin has improved, joint pain has gone away, and my teeth feel strong and look healthy and white.... just to name a few ways I feel better.

I love ketosis.

Unfortunately, I learned for the third time yesterday that my body can not tolerate fruit.  After having a PAPER THIN slice of watermelon that was LESS THAN AN INCH, square I noticed keto-flue symptoms, and when I checked my ketones I was barely in ketosis. Yikes. I should add, that was eaten with a meal. I find it really amazing that such a tiny amount of fruit and carbs could have such a huge effect on me. I think it is the fructose, our bodies metabolize fructose differently. I am shaky on the facts, so I will listen to more talks about that today while I work.

Speaking of work, I should get to that...

Take care !

♥ erica

March 12, 2014

FOODS	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Cholest	Sodium	Sugars	Fiber
Breakfast
Drinks - Black Coffee, 1 cup	2	0g	0g	0g	0mg	5mg	0g	0g
Fat - Coconut Oil, 20 g	172	0g	20g	0g	0mg	0mg	0g	0g
Kerry Gold - Grassfed Butter - Salted, 1 TBSP (14g)	100	0g	11g	0g	30mg	100mg	0g	0g
Organic Valley - Organic Heavy Whipping Cream, 3 tbsp	150	0g	18g	0g	60mg	15mg	0g	0g
Fresh - All Green Vegetable Juice, 3 oz	14	0g	0g	0g	0mg	0mg	0g	0g
Whole Foods - Organic Omega 3 Brown Egg, 2 egg	140	0g	9g	12g	430mg	130mg	0g	0g
Lunch
Whole Foods - Black Forest Bacon, 4 slices	160	2g	16g	8g	20mg	540mg	2g	0g
Earthbound Farms - Spring Mix, Organic Salad Greens, 1 cups, 3 oz (85g)	10	2g	0g	1g	0mg	48mg	1g	1g
Annie's Naturals - Organic Goddess Dressing, 2 Tbsp.	120	2g	12g	1g	0mg	320mg	0g	0g
Generic - Vine Ripe Tomato (Correct), 1 oz (91g)	5	1g	0g	0g	0mg	1mg	1g	0g
Oil - Olive, 2 tablespoon	239	0g	27g	0g	0mg	1mg	0g	0g
Snacks
Organic - Avocado, 0.5 avocado	150	2g	4g	1g	0mg	2mg	0g	2g
Generic Coffee - Black Coffee From Usda, 1 Cup	1	0g	0g	0g	0mg	5mg	0g	0g
Kerry Gold - Grassfed Butter - Salted, 1 TBSP (14g)	100	0g	11g	0g	30mg	100mg	0g	0g
Spectrum - Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, 28 g (1 tbsp)	240	0g	28g	0g	0mg	0mg	0g	0g
Cheese - Cheddar, 2 slice (1 oz)	226	1g	19g	14g	59mg	348mg	0g	0g
TOTAL:	1,829	10g	175g	37g	629mg	1,615mg	4g	3g

EXERCISES	Calories	Minutes	Sets	Reps	Weight
Cardiovascular
Skating, roller (rollerblading, roller blading)	1,486	120
TOTALS:	1,486	120	0	0	0