First Time Mom and Losing It

Since our big move to Texas I have been struggling to live a ketogenic lifestyle. I would do good for about 4 days and then eat anything I wanted the rest of the week. This caused me to gain back almost all of the 70 pounds that I lost.

After the holidays and my birthday, I had no more excuses. I joined Maria Emmerich's 30 Day Ketogenic Cleanse Facebook group because I was curious about the cleanse. For a long time I wanted to go back to basics with keto and try to cut out some dairy. The 30-Day Ketogenic Cleanse was the perfect plan because it is nut and dairy free. After a couple of weeks in the group and seeing the success that other members were having, I decided to start the plan myself.


I ordered the Kindle version of the 30-Day Ketogenic Cleanse and decided to start on February 2nd. A few days before I had my grocery list ready and went to Trader Joes, Sprouts Farmers Market and Aldi to find everything I needed.

I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it on the plan. I love cheese, heavy cream and snacking on nuts. I also didn't know if I would be able to only eat two meals a day. Day one was a total success with the Bacon & Mushroom Rosti and Umami Burgers. Everything was delicious, fresh and worth the work. On day two of the cleanse I was hit with a painful case of the keto flu. It was so bad that I didn't think I would be able to continue on the cleanse. I was in bed most of the day and kept telling myself it would be better the next day, and it did.


Currently I am on day 19 and am down 12.6 pounds. I have lost pounds, inches and feel so much better. I have a lot of energy and since I am only eating two meals a day, during a short window, I have time to do so much more.


Check out my YouTube channel for videos on how I did on the First and Second week. I also have grocery haul videos for the First and Second week. I highly recommend this cleanse for anyone just starting or restarting the keto diet. The cleanse is also great for people who want to do keto in a cleaner and dairy-free way.

When you are on a ketogenic (low carb, high fat) diet it is super easy to plan the protein side of your meal. Since meat doesn't have carbs we have a huge variety to choose from. The tricky part comes with the sides. Every side I used to make before starting a ketogenic diet was full of starches and sugar. It was always mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, breads and macaroni and cheese.  To get around all of the carbs you have to be creative in the kitchen and substitute all of the starches and sugars with keto-friendly ingredients.

One of the most typical side dish at a Thanksgiving meal would be a bowl of mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes can easily be substituted for my Low Carb Sour Cream and Chive Mash. Instead of potatoes I use cauliflower. Click on the link to find out the secret to my smooth and fluffy mash that tastes better than mashed potatoes!


Macaroni and cheese is another staple side at Thanksgiving. Since pasta is not allowed on a low carb diet I substituted cauliflower again. With all of the butter, cream and cheese in my Low Carb Baked "Mac" n Cheese you will never miss out on the pasta.


Years ago I saw this deliciously creamy brussels sprouts recipe on a Food Network Thanksgiving special. Full of butter, cream and pancetta I knew it would be easy to modify. I "ketofied" the recipe with my Keto / Low Carb Creamy Pancetta Brussels Sprouts.


You have to have some kind of bready side to complete the meal. One of my favorite breads comes from my favorite Keto YouTuber Cooking Keto with Kristie. It has quickly became my go-to "bread" recipe because I always have the ingredients on hand and they are super easy to make. Keto Test Recipe: Low Carb Biscuits.


What Low Carb Sides do you like to make on Thanksgiving?

The Egg Fast is mostly used when you are on a ketogenic or low carb, high fat diet and have a weight stall of more than two weeks. The Egg Fast formula is where you eat 1 tblsp of fat for each egg you eat. You are also allowed up to 6 ounces of cheese per day. That's it, eggs, fat and cheese for up to seven days. Some people do a 3-day, a 5-day or a 7-day like I did.


Although I technically never stalled since starting on August 31st I wanted to do the egg fast because my pounds lost per month had slowed down significantly. I was getting discouraged and even had a cheat weekend right before starting the fast. I gained 4.9 pounds over the cheat days so the 10 pounds lost was also my body getting rid of what I gained. I might have lost less than 10 pounds during the egg fast if I had not gained the weight.


There was no way I would be able to eat just straight up eggs and butter for seven days so I followed Egg Fast Meal Plan from the I Breathe I'm Hungry blog. I can't not believe how many delicious and creative recipes she thought up with just eggs, cheese and fat. I ate exactly what was on the menu plan and made sure to measure everything. There were times that I wasn't hungry but I still ate what I was supposed to eat. I didn't drink any diet soda, seltzer water or have any artificial sweeteners. I also made it a point to drink 112 ounces of water every day and took a magnesium citrate at night. Every morning I had coffee with 1 tblsp of MCT oil and 1 tblsp of Kerrygold butter.


I didn't exercise during the 7- Day fast because I wanted to see how much I could lose with just eating what was on the plan. I was so shocked and happy when I saw that I was 10 pounds down because that is result I hoped for. I definitely recommend the Egg Fast for a stall or a jumpstart to weight loss if you are already fat-adapted and have been doing a low carb high fat (keto) diet for at least a few months. I think if you are just starting on a low carb journey it might be a little hard to complete.

Breakfast: I don't have an appetite in the morning so I will usually just have some bulletproof coffee. When I go out it's iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. Lately I have been visiting my local Starbucks and having an unsweetened iced coffee with some sugar-free vanilla syrup and sugar-free caramel syrup. I have it with heavy whipping cream so it keeps me full until 2pm-4pm where I will usually have some lunch.  I like to go out for walks with my daughter early in the morning to beat the after school crowd. The Starbucks is super convenient for me to go to since it is on the way to the park.


Lunch: I have been having breakfast for lunch lately. I take the premium pork breakfast sausage roll from Aldi and split it into two ounce servings. I put each serving in a small plastic baggie and freeze them until I am ready to use them. At night I will take one of the packets from the freezer and put it in the fridge to eat the next day. For my breakfast-lunch I had a serving of sausage and pan fried it. I cooked an egg in the grease left over from the sausage. I also had a low carb biscuit on the side to dip into my egg that I added some reduced sugar ketchup to.


Dinner: One of my favorite things to eat out is from a Puerto Rican restaurant and it's Pernil (pork shoulder) and aguacate (avocado). My husband got me a large order so I ate half of it yesterday and the other half today. I decided to make some cauliflower tortillas to go with it and have it with the leftover avocado, salsa verde and sour cream. The tortillas were ok but at 4g of carb per tortilla it was a bit high for me for that size.


Snacks: I just had a couple of squares of coconut flavored Lily's chocolate bar. It tastes just like a Mounds chocolate bar. I ate a quarter of the bar and it was so satisfying.

Breakfast: After a week of being sick and not being able to taste properly I had a craving for the taste pf Bullet Proof Coffee. Since I didn't have much of an appetite while being sick I just drank BPC for breakfast but was so sad that I couldn't taste it. Today I got to fully taste my BPC! It's cold brewed Starbucks house blend coffee with 1 tblsp of Kerrygold butter, 1 tblsp of heavy cream and 1 tblsp of MCT oil. I added some liquid stevia drops and a splash of DaVinci Hazelnut syrup. Not a huge fan of the hazelnut flavor but I am trying to finish it up. After everything is added to the coffee I use my little frother to mix all the oils in and create the foam on top.


Lunch: I drank my BPC at 12:30pm so I still wasn't hungry when 4:30pm came around. I decided to warm up some of the fresh turkey bone broth I made. I added some Himalayan Pink Salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Since the broth has lots of fat and collagen it really does keep me full until dinner time.


Dinner: I made some fresh bone broth over the weekend with turkey wings. I bought some turkey legs to go in with it but they didn't fit in my pressure cooker. I looked up recipes on pinterest and came up with this pin. All you have to do is season the legs, wrap them with foil and cook on low in the pressure cooker. It was so easy to do and the meat came out extremely tender and delicious. I shredded the meat from the bones and served it with cauliflower mash. I also felt like eating salad so I made a small one with mixed greens, cucumbers, caesar salad, olives and Cello Wisps for the crunch.


Snack: I made a pecan brittle with Sukrin Gold, butter and pecans. I also had an ounce of my new favorite cheese, Kerrygold Skellig.

Breakfast: I had four slices of uncured bacon that I buy at Aldi's supermarket. When I first started keto I used to buy regular bacon and right after eating it I wouldn't feel so good. I think it was too salty and the nitrates were giving me headaches. Since I discovered the uncured variety I am able to eat as much bacon as I like. With the bacon I had two fried eggs that I fried in some of the bacon grease and a low carb biscuit. These biscuits are made of mostly egg whites and almond flour. They are really fluffy and moist and kind of remind me of cornbread.


Lunch: My big breakfast kept me full all day long so I skipped lunch. At about 5pm I was getting a little hungry so I decided to have a cup of bone broth. I made a huge batch of bone broth in my pressure cooker the weekend before from mostly turkey bones and some chicken bones. I added a few stalks of celery, some bay leaves and Braggs apple cider vinegar to bring out the minerals in the bones. I put some in mason jars for cooking and then froze the rest in silicone muffin cups for drinking. I pop three in a big mug and heat up until hot. I then sprinkle on some Himalayan Pink Sea Salt and fresh cracked black pepper.


Dinner: We went food shopping after my husband got out of work so I didn't eat dinner until about 9PM. The broth kept me full until then so I wasn't hungry at all. I took four ounces of beef, formed into patties and sprinkled on some Goya Adobo seasoning. I put my cooked burgers on oopsie rolls with cheddar cheese, sandwich pickles and a squirt of reduced sugar Heinz ketchup.


What is your favorite way to eat a burger? 

Breakfast: My favorite thing in the world to eat for breakfast is a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. I keto-fied it by substituting the bread for oopsie rolls. My husband and I made a huge batch of oopsie rolls for the week while we were snowed in. I cooked two slices of uncured bacon until golden and crispy. Then I fried the egg in the bacon grease and melted half an ounce of sharp cheddar cheese on top. I put it all in between two oopsie rolls and squirted a little bit of reduced sugar ketchup on top. I had some cold brewed Starbucks coffee with some heavy cream, stevia drops and DaVinci amaretto syrup.


Lunch: I ate my breakfast a little after 12pm so I didn't get hungry for lunch until 3:30pm. One of the easiest things to eat for lunch is canned tuna with a good helping of mayo. I took a whole can of tuna and mixed it with 1 1/2 tablespoons of mayo. I will usually add finely diced celery and onion but didn't this time because I wanted to save my carbs. I cut a leftover cheese taco shell into chip sized pieces to eat with the tuna.


Dinner: I had my dinner at 7:30pm with is a little later than I usually do. I made these delicious pizza puffs with pepperoni. They taste like little mini pizza flavored quiches. I had a simple salad of romaine and shaved parmesan cheese and some caesar dressing to go along with the puffs.


Snacks: I had planned to eat a chocolate brownie mug cake with some whipped cream on top. By the time 9:30pm came around I was still super full from dinner. I try to make it a point to not eat after 9pm so I decided to drink the rest of my 64 ounces of water and call it a night.