Diet Doctor Low Carb Challenge

Oh... nice! I unexpectedly had a very nice low carb porridge for breakfast: https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/judys-low-carb-porridge but, again, my BG has gone up.

@Brunneria I'm beginning to think that adjusting the nuts and bolts of a diet is much like the way you and I make alterations to recipes.

@maglil55 How's your FBG this morning? I'm hoping that The Walnut Experiment is going to be what cracks it (no pun intended)

@Chook Absolutely! I have never been able to follow any form of regimented instruction. Without creativity, there is no joy, eh?

@maglil55 congratulations on being lower this morning than you were last night. Are you planning to have a 'just got out of bed' mini breakfast before the school run to see if that helps?

I'm still not used to eating breakfast so I'm wondering whether to add in a couple of fasting days - it sounds a bit weird to say it, but I really miss fasting. I'm thinking about fasting from after dinner until dinner time the next day then having a DD keto dinner. I'm definitely sticking with the keto evening meals as I don't think I've ever slept so well.

Brunneria said:

@Chook Absolutely! I have never been able to follow any form of regimented instruction. Without creativity, there is no joy, eh?

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LOL. Same here. I look on recipes as basic ideas and work from there.

Chook said:

Mmmmmmm, muesli.... another thing I miss.

That chicken, cream, feta and olive dish was lovely last night. I had it with some cauliflower rice which I fried in chilli and garlic oil with a slab of butter. I made three portions of the chicken dish which were amazingly filling and neither of us finished it all, especially after the salmon at lunch. I'm not calculating calories because I know I'd panic. Note to self: caulirice is a good absorber of fat.

Not great BGs this morning... it was 5.1 when I went to bed last night and woke up to a FBG of 7.5. I've had my kippers for breakfast (very salty) and I'm hoping my BG will go down by the next test instead of going up like it normally does.

Tonight is the meal Mr C is dreading....Stuffed cabbage casserole. To those who have made it before, which would be best: savoy cabbage, spring greens or white cabbage?

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I tried Savoy cabbage. It was tasty, and better than it sounds!

LAR said:

I tried Savoy cabbage. It was tasty, and better than it sounds!

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I don't know why I didn't like it. I like mince in shepherd's pie and chilli or bolognaise sauce and I like buttered cabbage (in normal quantities) but I just didn't like the two put together. Something about the texture, I think.

Chook said:

LOL. Same here. I look on recipes as basic ideas and work from there.

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I'm exactly the same. I use the recipes as a base for an idea and then add my own touch!

Which breakfast muffins are they?? Muffins as in English or American ones?

Well, here's how today went for my blood:

FBG at 7.15 was 6.9
7.15 - breakfast (chia seeds, coconut milk, flax seed and sunflower seeds - microwaved hot)
8.15 - 8.2
9.15 - 8.3
10.15 - 7.3
11.15 - 6.5
12.15 - 5.5
1.15 - 5.8
1.45 - lunch - whole avocado with few drops of lime juice
2.15 - 5.5
3.15 - 5.3

Basically, no matter what I have for breakfast it always goes up!

BTW, if you are ever constipated then I recommend that breakfast.....

maglil55 said:

I knew I'd posted this somewhere.

Breakfast Muffins - you can make in advance , keep in the fridge if you are going to eat in next couple of days or you can freeze and take out the day before you want them. You need large muffin tin, put muffin cases in or grease the tin . Roll out slices of streaky bacon - 6 Muffins 6 slices (you roll them to stretch them out. ) use the bacon as a wrap for the muffin (put in raw). Now you can add anything low carb e.g halved cherry tomatoes, spiralised courgette, onion? My favourite is button chestnut mushrooms fried with parsley and wilted spinach. Add to the muffin tin then add 1 egg to each muffin. You can either add whole or beat with a little double cream. Season and sprinkle some grated cheese on top. Bung in the oven at 200c and will be ready 10 - 15 mins ( when there's no wobble in the egg). Delicious hot or cold. You can also give them a quick blast in a microwave.

The quick blast in the micro I refer to is if you want to warm up the cooked muffin. It is very much a grab and go breakfast and you can vary what you put in it - even cabbage

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Thank you for that recipe - it sounds perfect for a quick breakfast or linch and very yummy. I like the idea of the mushroom version.... not sure about the cabbage one though.

Hh - I just realised that my lunchtime avocado didn't affect my BG at all. Woohoo!

Well, the Keto Effect has kicked in.
I completely forgot to have lunch. So did Mr B, who did have a larger-than-DD breakfast and then skipped lunch at work.
So now we have cold Salmon and salad for dinner instead of lunch, and I am a day behind on my schedule.

Getting a bit peckish now though...

It's pizza day for me, woo hoo

Me 'n' Mr C are really looking forward to something fairly normal. Last night's chicken with herb butter and spinach was so..... buttery..... that neither of us managed to finish it and it was the first time I've seen Mr C not have an evening snack.

I've made some changes to next week's menu taking out the meals that one or other of us wouldn't enjoy but subbing them with meals from DD's keto recipes with avocados for lunches and some light breakfasts like coffee and cream or this seed porridge.

we started the day with bacon and egg - both of us have the day off, so all normal routine goes out of the window.

We're also out to lunch (a late lunch) for a birthday dinner at the new Rib Shack kind of place. I am guessing I can go high protein low carb, even if I can't tip ooodles of butter over everything à la DD.

Dinner may not happen at all. And I think I need to put some of the DD chicken into the freezer because I am falling behind on the schedule...

@Brunneria

I'm going to ask a question that I think you might be able to answer and I know you're going to think I'm a bit dim.

Is there any carb definition for a 'keto' meal or recipe?

I do understand that a keto diet is under 20g of carbs each day but I don't get why a recipe or dish as should be called keto as, surely, it will depend on what else you might eat that day? Or is it just easier to describe a very low carb dish as 'keto' rather than 'very low carb'?

Yes, I know, I've got too much time on my hands and a brain that likes to go off on a tangent every now and then. And maybe I ought to get out more.

Haha! Not 'dim' at all!

If you have ketones in the blood and are in a state of 'nutritional ketosis'* than you must be eating a Ketogenic diet. Doesn't matter how many carbs there are in the diet. The general idea seems to be that under 50g carbs a day = ketosis. But i don't think that is very helpful, because there are other variables which can muck things up. Too much protein. Too little activity. Illness. And so on.

Ketones can be measured, so in theory we can test for ketosis, and adjust carb and protein and fat intake accordingly in order to fine tune it. Ketostix (urine test), prick blood tests (strips are expensive!) and there is a breathalyser thingy too (£100+ as a one off payment). But the amount of ketones present isn't always helpful. The longer we have been in ketosis and the more efficient our bodies become at using ketones, then the less are found in urine. After all, they are used as fuel, so efficient fuel use means less are dumped out of the body as waste.

So to (finally) answer your question i would guess that labelling a meal as 'keto' probably just means 'eat this and similar meals all day, and you will probably be in ketosis'.

*nutritional ketosis is when you are eating low enough carbs that your body switches from glucose burning to fat burning as its main fuel. This is a very different thing than Ketoacidosis, which happens to people (usually type 1s) when they have a combo of too high blood glucose and not enough insulin.