The upside is that we had to tell the lawn crew not to come the week after we asked them to come every week. How ironic. *eye roll*
SO, we spent that money on a nice dinner on "date" night (which is basically stopping for something to eat on Friday night before we do all of the errands). Had some good parmesan crusted steak medallions and a cocktail.
The other silver lining is that my seasonal depression has lifted with being able to get back outside.
I had my monthly trip to the clinic on Thursday. Saw my doc this time. I hadn't actually seen him since April. I only see a nurse or the doc every other month. The alternate months, I just go for my shot.
Anyway, I expressed my concerns about the weight gain issue re-emerging, and he approved me to try a different diet idea.
I've been researching the "ketogenic" diet. It's similar to the "paleo/primal" diet, in which I am already well-versed.
It's still a real food/whole food diet, or what I like to call "eating style."
The main differences are that keto allows for more healthy fats, and it DOES allow grass-fed dairy.
You eventually cause your body to go into a state of ketosis, in which it burns fat for fuel, instead of burning glucose for fuel.
I only need to lose about 12 pounds to get back to my original size, but on my frame, that weight is ugly and uncomfortable. It's all around my middle (like happens to women in natural menopause, but in the case of hormone blockers, it's exaggerated).
I can hardly reach my feet, and for someone who works hard to stay fit and flexible, it's VERY frustrating.
Dave also has stalled in his weight loss efforts, so this will help kick start him as well.
As a life long nutrition geek and liver of healthy lifestyles, I am concerned that long term ketosis is not healthy for the body, so I am not planning to dive in with both feet at this point. We'll do a week and see how we feel.
We are already almost there in our eating style, and just have to remove a couple of grain foods, and really stick to the NOT DRINKING on weekdays (there is no booze in the house at the moment)!!
I've become very fond of little whole grain crackers and kefir cheese as an after work snack, and have gone back to cooking white rice to go into some dishes. Taking those items out of the diet won't be too difficult.
I think the hardest part will be NOT having what I call "frosty treats" in the freezer during hot weather. I love me some little ice cream treats from Trader Joe's, or a bowl of Braum's sherbet.
Replacing carrots (too much sugar) and hummus (which is made from legumes) with "keto friendly"snacks should be pretty easy, too. It won't be a big shift, but hopefully, it will be an effective one.
For example, last night, we had grilled steaks and brussels sprouts. The only difference between paleo/primal and keto is that I added more fat to the sprouts in their foil packet.
Today, I am making a fritatta for us to have for breakfasts this week. Eggs, cheese, mushrooms, spinach. What's not to love about that?
Snacks will shift over to these lovely little things called "fat bombs," which I still need to learn more about, and celery with kefir cheese, instead of crackers!
We're already pretty much on track, eating delicious salad kits for lunches a couple of times a week (with added protein from grilled chicken or organic cold cuts), salmon and veggies once a week, skillet suppers with meat and veg.... this will be pretty easy, and I sure hope it works.
Since the shift won't be drastic, it may do nothing at all.
We went to another music show at the Tower theater last night. It was a cowboy group called Riders in the Sky....an old favorite of Dave and his son.
It was great fun! We took Uber rides to and fro so that we wouldn't have to worry about parking.
The credit card balances are all $0, and we made the first payment on our home equity loan.
Things should start to look better in our cash flow situation pretty quickly, like in August...and then, in September, the loan for the concrete and hot tub from 2013 will finally be paid off!
Dave plans to redirect that monthly amount into his savings plan at work, so we won't see a difference in real life. The money will just be put somewhere else, as opposed to repaying that loan.
Off to another quiet Sunday. Shutting down the social media and news, and focus on peace!!
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