Winding Down Keto Week

As I wind down from doing Keto this week, I am trying to reflect the positive aspects. Keto is a new lifestyle for me to incorporate. The more I experiment and research the diet, the more I can discover fun and delicious ways to eat healthy. But this week, I STRUGGLED to keep food interesting, healthy, and satisfying.

Part of the struggle for me is wrapping my head around cheese being approved food while apples are on the do not eat list. That really doesn’t compute. I understand goat cheese and feta being better choices than cow’s milk cheese. But the amount of cheese I ate this week makes me feel almost ashamed. It’s just a difficult concept to put my head around.

Cheese is approved, but just like any other approved “comfort food”, these foods should be consumed in somewhat moderation. I’m going to have a long hard look at my meal plan to see if I can cut down the cheese. And increase the really healthy fats- avocado, olive oil, nuts, and yogurt.

I also know cutting out ALL carbs and all veggies is not the answer. The rule of thumb is eating leafy green veggies, and other vegetables high in fiber. These cut down the net carbs (which are the total carbs minus fiber), and they are approved to eat. We did have zucchini this week (because we have zucchini coming out of our ears right now), and broccoli, celery, and kale. But there are tons more to try. Mushrooms are good, so I could potentially make my famous Broccoli Casserole, or Green Bean Casserole on the Keto diet.

Potatoes aren’t approved, but switching out radishes for potatoes worked out really well for us tonight. I made a radish au gratin dish, with well, yes, cheese, but had a nice big radish I baked in place of the high starchy potato. When you put cheese on a dish, it’s like cheating to me. Same thing goes when you put bacon in a dish (which I will happily tell you I did NOT do this week!). It’s bacon. Of course it’s delicious. Try it without the bacon. If it still tastes great, you’re onto something.

The cheesy radish dish was mainly to get rid of the extra cheese still in our house. Starting Paleo on Monday means no cheese for the entire week. If it’s in the house, though, we will eat it. And it’s not like I can take it out of the fridge and put it away with my other “off-limits” foods. So, I decided to get creative with my cooking and use what I had available to me.

PJ’s Radish AuGratin Experiment

Ingredients
– 2 to 3 large radishes
– Between 1 to 1 & 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded or diced
– 6 oz cream cheese

Directions:
1. Slice radishes into discs. Place on a baking sheet and set oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes.
2. While radishes are baking, start a double broiler and melt the cheddar cheese and cream cheese together, stirring often.
3. When radishes are done and cheese is melted, pour cheese over radishes and return to oven for 15 minutes.
4. Stir cheese around to ensure all radishes are covered.

I do have one final day on the Keto diet. But just as last week I started switching focus to Keto on Sunday, I will be switching gears to Paleo tomorrow. Prepping my Paleo breakfasts and lunches.

For today:

Breakfast: Coconut flour breaded and fried green tomatoes with Keto ranch
Lunch: Avocado and Cottage Cheese

Dinner: Halibut with butter basil sauce and Radish AuGratin
Snack: Keto Naan bread

Workout: At home dowel rod workout- OH Squats, Bar Facing Burpees, and Swing Jumps

Mood:  I feel lazy even though I got quite a lot accomplished. Over 700 words at co-works writing my intro pieces and editing. Printed Week 3 at the library, and went grocery shopping for about half my list. I slept in today, which my body is grateful for. And rocked it with our at home workout. Beat my old score of burpees by one whole round. Feeling lazy, maybe, but perhaps I earned it.

Challenges: I faced a few challenges and overcame some. Wanting to make something Chris would actually somewhat enjoy, I changed the menu for today and prepared zucchini caprese for him. And then I rocked dinner with halibut and radish au gratin.

Hope tomorrow we end Keto with a bang. Omelets for breakfast, Croque Madame for lunch, and then out to dinner in Bellingham.