Low Carb Recipe – Cream Cheese Icing

15 Jul 2018 13 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: , , , , , , ,

cream cheese icing

This is an extrememly easy little recipe that I have thrown together in an effort to appease my renewed sweet tooth in my carb detox interim. Please forgive the loosey-goosey non-specifics of the measurements, but I tend to opt for a trial and error approach when looking for the combination of flavors that resonates with me.

*Quick tip – the combination of salty and sweet is always a big hit thus the salt and stevia inclusion in the recipe.

CREAM CHEESE ICING INGREDIENTS:

  • block of cream cheese (softened but still cool)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup – 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (depends on the thickness the prefer, start with 1/2 cup and add more based on your preference)
  • stevia / low glycemic index sweetener of choice – amount depends on preference of sweetness

In a mixer, blend all ingredients and whip on high for a couple of minutes or until whipped and creamy. Refrigerate and get a spoonful here and there to nip that sweet craving out of sight.

**The amount of sweetener you use is highly subjective, but you will probably use at least 1/4 of a cup of the granular or powdered version of the sweetener. By itself, this would not be particularly low carb, but you aren’t going to tackle the end result in one or two sittings. This recipe is very high fat, so a couple of bites go a very long way in satiating your cravings. I hope that you enjoy it!

Please feel free to share any links to your own websites that include low carb recipes. I’m a huge fan of our supporting each other on our collective journey to feeling healthy in all areas of our lives.

Big hugs!  Jo

Keto Catastrophe and Total Low Carb Loss

15 Jul 2018 20 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: , , , , , , ,

seal in la jolla - IG

This is an actual photo of me taken on the last day of my work trip to California.

Fail fail fail. <— And that pretty much sums up my travel eating choices over the past week. Sigh.

I don’t know what it is about the food selections that I make whenever I travel. If I had to give it a scientific designation, I believe that it would find a solid home in the “crapus maximus carbus” category.

So. Sad.

Maybe it’s a travel anxiety thing. Or maybe I just turn into teen wolf when I’m away from home and family. My bed remains unmade. I toss my clothes around the hotel room. I eat ice cream for breakfast. And I buy food shiznet like churros. Chur-frickin-ros. What. The. Eff.

churros

Damn you available churros…

But now I’m back in Texas. Back and away from sad food choice travel time. There are no available churros here. Well…they can be found here in the state but not here here. My local food supply (a.k.a. items found in my fridge and pantry) is free of basically every unacceptable sugary carby item that was consumed throughout my California quest to morph into a human seal.

I’m carb detoxing once more. Breaking the sugar cravings. Trying to get my energy levels back up once more. De-crapping the bod.

That’s it for me for today. No further sad consumption confessions du jour. In a moment I will post a low carb sweet recipe as a follow-up tribute to anyone else treading the food walk of shame. I am there with you, but, as always, today is a new day.  🙂

Big hugs to all. Jo

Trying to Achieve Keto While Facing Low Carb Challenges for a Picky Eater

21 Jun 2018 13 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: , , , , , ,

eating1

This is me when I believe that my salad has feta cheese but I take a bite of goat cheese instead. Bleh!

Although I have been more consistent at sticking with a lower carb lifestyle than all past attempts, my recent stumbles are definitely starting to catch up with me. Please note that I said “lower carb” because “low carb” didn’t feel totally honest.

Don’t get me wrong. I really am trying very hard, and my food choices have been exponentially better on average.

But…

Drastically cutting back your food options can be extremely frustrating when you are a picky eater. I haven’t figured out how to move past my daily menu consisting of meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, nut flour, a bite or two of fruit, and veggies (which I still really don’t love) (or even like) (I basically dislike them for the most part).

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carbs

I found the bread above and these sugar-filled fantasies located along my path between the meat, cheese, and veggies. That’s a stone cold move you made you naughty pretend health food store.

I go absolutely bananas (ironically I can’t have those either) when I walk into the healthy eating grocery store and am bombarded with aisles of sugary temptation. I have found and created a few sweet alternatives of my own, but sometimes I JUST WANT THE DAMN CAKE.

The good news / bad news is that whenever I throw glycemic caution to the wind, my body quickly reminds me why consuming carbs and sugar is a foolish move. In truth I am grateful for the physical payback because it stops my motivation from fizzling out into nothingness.

The positive side is that I can confirm that my sweet carby cravings have substantially decreased. The phrase, “I want something sweet” was once a daily mantra for me, but it doesn’t really exit my mouth or even cross my mind too often now. I have also learned that it’s worthwhile to keep a little prepared protein available to avoid poor snap decisions that lead to the feeding frenzies and subsequent sugar crashes.

So even though I feel a bit frustrated today, I know that it is getting better. I am getting better. I just wish that I was naturally drawn to more foods that would never land on the Children’s Menu list.

If you have faced and survived low carb menu boredom and protein overload, I would love your tips. You inspire me to keep trying and keep researching options. I can do this. I am sure of that. It’s just nice to have partners and friends in the process. 🙂

Best wishes to all!  Joanna

***Much love to Julie at https://juliehcares.com/ for the support and ideas. I so appreciate the tips you have given me and the website referral for keto cooking. Also ginormous hugs to my darling friends at https://itrippedoverastone.com/ and https://playamart.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/who-me-passionate-about-nature/. You inspire me with every word you write. Truly. 🙂

Low Carb While on Vacation? Beach Please.

11 Jun 2018 22 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: , , , , ,

Few things inspire me to take a nosedive into poor eating habits faster than going on vacation. Eating has always been an extremely social event in our home, and I adore going to familiar favorite restaurants at the places we enjoy visiting. The good news / bad news is that this was more of a mini-holiday, and I only spent three of the five days living up my carb-packed feeding frenzy.

In the past, my departure from the ketogenic menu has been swift and unforgiving. I would misstep once and would instantly find myself back at square one. My old eating patterns would resume, and I would be disappointed once more but unsurprised.

The interesting part about this keto hiatus was that it was more eye-opening than derailing. Within a few hours of my chowing on chips and some fried naughtiness, my digestive system decided to prove how unhappy it felt about that action. I won’t be elaborating any further on that. My head started to hurt, my muscles and joints ached, I felt exhausted, and I had nightmares when I slept.

Maybe my symptoms were due to the heat or perhaps they were a direct response to the way that family holidays have a tendency to be significantly NOT relaxing. But I honestly don’t believe that. I just didn’t feel good eating the old foods. The flavors tasted good to me but not so good that I was willing to keep feeling sluggish and achy.

So now I’m back to low carb. I’m not gonna lie. I wish that I could have all that other stuff and still feel good. But ultimately, I can’t because I don’t. It just isn’t worth the body drama and trauma anymore. At least I’m back on track again.

Quick Update on Week One of Low Carb – Keto-ish Me

29 May 2018 12 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: ,

Well I’m still alive, so that’s a positive. Also I’ve stuck to the low carb menu with shocking ease. I keep waiting for the standard carb rage / sugar craving temper tantrums to kick in, but those have yet to occur.

A couple of days ago, I had a check-up with my hoo-hah-ologist and was inadvertently forced to weigh myself while there. The number showed that I was down six pounds (in less than a week)! I was so stunned that I threw caution to the wind and decided to weigh myself at home, too. Six pounds down confirmed! Unfortunately that number bounced back up by a couple of pounds once the week marker actually struck a day or so later, but hey – that’s still four pounds in a week. Overall I’d say that doesn’t suck. 🙂

I Feel Guilty About the Food I’ve Been Giving My Family

25 May 2018 33 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: , , , , ,

Picture_20180523_053716869.jpg

A week ago, I would have done backflips to get my paws on the naughtylicious crepe in the pic above. My kids would have been right there with me, too. Now a few short days later, it actually does not look that appealing to me. Even though it has only been a few days, no  one in the world is more stunned about this change in approach than I.

But my kids aren’t riding the low carb / no sugar train with me. They continue to eat the prepackaged sugar-ridden everythings that have adorned the shelves of our fridge and pantry for years.

So over the last week, I have started to include a few better options along with their standard selections (a.k.a. the normal crapola). I’m doing this gradually to avoid being met with miniature yet effective torches and pitchforks.

The part that makes me feel extremely
guilty is that whenever I have offered healthy additions, they have gobbled those up, too. No complaints (other than the squash dry heaving incident). No significant gripes. They have just eaten them and asked for more. I didn’t even have to push.

I’m not telling you that my kids are raising their voices to the angels in praise for kale. No one in my house is going to have that religious experience. But baked chicken, almond flour pancakes, avocado chocolate mousse (sounds gross but it’s actually fantastic), and other grilled veggies are being polished off as they lift their plates and ask for more.

They have been getting chicken nuggets when they would have been just as happy with baked chicken. And they would have been exponentially healthier for it. For years.

It’s one of those heavy “feel like a terrible mom” kind of moments. I wasn’t intentionally cheating them of nutrition. I simply didn’t try many alternatives.

It’s spilt almond milk at this point, but it does make me feel sad. All I can do is do better tomorrow. And the day after that. But the day after that I plan to regress so additional better days will have to follow that one.

For me, true self-improvement initiatives are always coupled with epiphanies about the positive changes I can implement as I continue along my human journey. I can handle that it takes me years to stumble into some of these epiphanies. My only wish is that my children’s well-being is not left hanging in the balance in the meantime.

Oh well. A little better each day will turn into lots of wonderful in the long-run. I just have to keep trying. ❤️

 

The Carbs are Gone but the Pounds Have Yet to Disappear

23 May 2018 39 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: , , , ,

I have been living the low carb lifestyle for at least five days now. Despite this extensive commitment that I have displayed, I have yet to lose dozens of pounds. I am further confused because Oprah hasn’t contacted me to discuss my inspirational life shift. I’m an intelligent woman so clearly I recognize that she’s probably just waiting for Deepak’s schedule to open up so they can conference call me. Nevertheless that still doesn’t explain the nonresponse from my body. It seems scientifically logical to expect that my fluff would disappear and my physique would reflect an instant bikini bod. I have made this change for days and days so clearly it can forgive and forget the decades upon decades of crappy eating in return.

There is one other slight detail that I haven’t verified at this point. I have yet to check my weight. I’m too nervous to take that obvious step because I know that I will be bummed if my weight is the same. Even worse, if my weight has gone up, I will be extremely disheartened and will probably retaliate (against my own health???) and go back to nutritional garbage. When I get to the point where I can take that dramatic photo of me standing gleefully in one pants leg while holding my waistband out to Louisiana, I think that I will then be comfortable checking the scales.

Did I mention that I also removed caffeine from my daily everything as well? YES. I have removed carbs, sugar, AND my long-term beloved – caffeine. I recently noticed that I was experiencing consistent energy crashes after the short-term wake-up I was getting from the caffeine. It was that “trying desperately to keep from falling asleep on your desk at school” kind of exhaustion except that it was happening at work. And home. And while I was driving. And all within an hour of consuming caffeine.

So in an act of desperation and analytical curiosity, I removed caffeine, too. As a reward for these changes, I have been working through some lovely caffeine cold turkey headaches. I also went throuht a few days of my feeling like my allergies were in overdrive. The only time that I have ever experienced this was when I was going to have a medical procedure amd was forced to take a two-week hiatus from an over the counter antihistamine that I had been instructed to take daily (for years). I would have never believed that you could experience withdrawal from an antihistamine, but I absolutely did. My reaction was so severe that I will never allow anyone in my family to use an antihistamine on a daily basis ever again. Please note that I am not a doctor nor am I implying that you should ever ignore your physician’s recommendations. I am sayosa that it’s worthwhile to take a closer look at how your long-term medications might impact the natural processes within your body.

However my latest reactions haven’t been in response to pharmaceutical changes. I only made some food intake modifications and caffeine restrictions. Again this is unnerving to me.

What was I consuming previously that would send my body into histamine overload? I suspect that the answer is a simple one. I have been putting crap into my body for decades and the crap most of us are eating grows progressively crappier with every year that passes. And worst of all, my body didn’t know what to do without the crud.

Thankfully, it appears that I have finally moved past the histamine flare ups and the caffeine headaches, and my energy level has skyrocketed (relatively speaking). In addition I don’t seem to be having the blood sugar crashes that have consistently forced me out of bed in the middle of every single night for years to get a snack. Literally years. In less than a week of diet changes, that problem has suddenly stopped making its standard 2 or 3am appearance.

Joking aside, I do miss feeling like I can eat the same foods I see everyone around me eating including most notably my own family. Even then, I genuinely feel very positive about the changes I’ve made so far. I feel better overall. While I doubt that I’ve lost several pounds to date, I am hopeful that this will occur if I can continue making choices that my body seems thrilled to accept. Fingers and toes crossed.

I would love to tell you more, but I need to take care of a few things while I still have time. Oprah and Deepak will surely be calling at any moment, and you know how much they love to gab on and on. Oh well. In the meantime, take care and best wishes for your health, too.

Love and light always. Jo

I Mustache You What You Are Eating

17 May 2018 30 Comments

by Jo Price in Positive Energy Tags: , , , , , , ,

eating3

I’m cutting out carbs. Aaaaagain. My track record on this surpassed “not good” long ago. To put it mildly, my healthy eatibg conviction and follow through has been at “stanky to the max” level for quite some time.

eating4

I prefer fruits, but even fruits are loaded with sugars. Some fruits are great, but the emphasis should be on the veggies. Bleh.

eating2

I’ve tried the liquid route – protein shakes, blends of veggies and fruits, etc. – but I just don’t feel satiated with those.

eating5

Clearly I need to up my protein intake, but even that can problematic for me. I can be extremely picky, and my getting burnt out and grossed out with the meat overload doesn’t help. Whenever someone throws out the word “tofu” as a possible protein solution, I find myself thinking about how it’s ironic that “tofu” is a four letter word that I associate with multiple other four letter words. I would provide examples, but this is a family show so you’ll have to use your imagination.

eating6

Maybe I’m nuts to go this route yet again, but I don’t feel good in my body. That makes me feel sad, so I have to try. And as I read that last sentence, I hear Yoda in my mind… “Do or do not. There is no try.” I’m guessing that Yoda never struggled with being a sugar addict.

If you have any websites or tips on low-carb, no sugar, paleo-esque, or other similar options, I would genuinely appreciate the advice. Please note that intelligent / common sense recommendations with regard to overall health are lovely, but they don’t sustain long-term commitment to low carb eating for this girl. I know what I should do, but somehow that’s not enough.

Thanks in advance.  😉  Jo

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