WOO HOOOO!

I get up this morning, stand on the scale bleary eyed and look down expecting to see the old Err message telling me I am over 400 pounds.

Instead I see this! 399.7lb

FUCK YEA!

I can use a normal scale again.

This means that since  started keto I have gone from around 425 pounds down to under 400 pounds, I hope to never see a 4 in the beginning of my scale again.

I was on the verge of wanting to give up due to not being able to just grab a snack and not really seeing results.
I know, sad huh, less than a month in and wanting to give up. This was the motivation I needed to keep me going.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for us has been the ages old question, "whats for dinner".

Well in our case breakfast is easy, bacon and eggs of some sort, simple. Modify with a sausage once in a while for differences.
Lunch is usually a sandwich made with provolone cheese crisp bread (Microwave a slice of provolone until it is brown and stops bubbling, remove, sit on level surface, enjoy crunchy no carb sandwich fixings holder).
Dinner?
We never know, I have made up some go to meals but those get boring, and we have yet to be able to do the cauliflower mashed potatoes perfectly, they keep coming out mushy and cauliflowery tasting.

As this goes on I plan to grab some Keto Standard recipes that my family likes, post them here and begin a cook book system for them, setting up needed ingredients etc. The hardest thing so far has been buying foods which can be quickly cooked as we seem to be constantly on the go.

Dammit all to hell

So after a 30 minute to an hour of arguing back and forth about what tyo eat we went to Red Robin, not that we do not have anything in the house mind you, the cabinets are full and we have plenty, but my wife is rather lazy and kept saying, there is nothing here to cook, so I knew she would be cooking nothing and I was sick of fighting.

I go to Red Robin, order a burger protein style (lettuce wrapped) and then proceed to eat my fries, yep, just ate em, order another basket and split em with John.

Get home, figure in for a penny in for a pound and ate a couple of fun size butterfingers.

I hate slipping, I know I will be out of keto tomorrow, I already feel like hell, not from eating it but from the sugars in me, just feel blah and like crap. Kind of a depressing feeling honestly.

So 1st slip, that sucks but lets make it my last.

Oh and I need a new battery for my scale, the battery is now dead, but it can no longer decide if I am 401.8 or ERR. So that is about 20 pounds down, in just over 2 weeks time.

Update picture

Just a simple picture update. Roughly 2 weeks in. Around 20 pounds lost. I can really feel the difference.

Already feeling changes.

Setting in karate class realised I am in the chair not on it.
Score!
To top that off I am not longer encroaching upon the chair beside me.
Starting to feel human again.

The perfect burger.

Hello Burgerville!
So after our disappointing run at Jack In The Box we headed out to Burgerville for dinner.

We walk in and explain what we are looking for, they grab a nutrition menu and immediately begin giving us ideas and working with us. After making the food and waiting for us to get about 3/4 through it ( I see them keeping an eye on us) they come over and see how it is and if there is anyway they can improve upon it!

This is customer service, this is how you make sure that the next time I want a burger I come back to you.

It was an enjoyable dinner and was filling.

Thank you Burgerville for doing what Jack In TheBox could not.

For those of you without Burgerville's I truly weep for you.

Oh Jack in the box

Jack in the box, why is it so hard to take a couple of burger patties, add on some bacon and cheese and wrap it in lettuce?

Why do we have to send it back to you twice and why would you possibly say "wow that's confusing".

At least the 3rd time was the charm, mostly, note to store managers, if your front line people are confused by stop signs, get rid of them.

For those of you wondering, Jack in the box has a great keto friendly sandwich, the Ultimate Bacon cheeseburger.
Order it plain (no sauce) and lettuce wrapped (no bun), zero carbs.

Keto Tacos

Oh man oh man.

Ok so I LOVE tacos, I love them so much that when my wife asks what I want for dinner she knows I will most likely say tacos.
Tacos are on my no list now because of the shells.
I am sad.
However while browsing Reddit yesterday I came upon an invention that may change my life, Keto Tacos!

It turns out you can make a perfect taco shell from a slice of provolone cheese.
the process is easy, simply put a slice of provolone cheese in the microwave for about 55 to 65 seconds on a piece of parchment paper (I used a Silpat and then eventually nothing as the glass is nonstick).
Allow it to cool for a moment then pull it out and form it, I used a 1 inch diameter candy thermometer sleeve suspended between two cups to drape mine over as they cooled and hardened.

It took a few tries and some were not perfect by a long shot, the price is of course higher than store bought taco shells and I have not yet perfected the CRUNCHY shells I want though some were darn close.

Few things I learned.

• make one at a time, seems like it takes more time, but trust me, one at a time or you will be sorry.
• Line the bottom of the taco with something, I prefer shredded cheddar, otherwise the hot meat heats up the shell again and you get a breakout in the bottom of the shell.
• The cheese is hot, amazingly hot, like napalm, if it sticks to you, it burns, there is no stopping it, do not let it stick to you.
• Keeps plenty of paper towels handy, while the provolone is rather light on grease this method does release a lot of it.

We really enjoyed these and they make perfect sized tacos for all of us, even helps cut our portion size a bit.

We added shredded romaine lettuce, shredded cheddar and taco sauce and sour cream to ours. Add what you wish.

And the shells themselves.

Keto lunch

Pepperoni, sharp tillamook Cheddar, Turkey slices and a special treat, salami filled with cream cheese. Net carbs, around 4.

Screw you Ikea.

So we stopped by Ikea today for some lunch and to pick up some needed furniture.
I order the Swedish meatballs, what would you know 35 carbs for 15 balls of meat. Damn you Ikea.

That's OK though, cause we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. 9 oz filet with a side salad and steamed veggies (mainly broccoli) for a side. Not a bad deal.

Why Ikea are your balls of meat filled with Carbs!!!!!

Lunch!

Double baconater lettuce wrapped, no condiments.

Before Shots!

I just realized I have not put up a before shot, without that how am I supposed to compare it to an after shot.

So, here is a before shot, I will need to figure out a better spot for the camera.

And another before, but man do I need to clean that mirror again, kids brushing their teeth do a number of a clean mirror.

That's all for now.

Snacking and breakfast.

Ugh, I am hungry, so we picked up these Jack links beef jerky tender strips.
For 5 strips you get 2 carbs.
These have been my go to snack lately, sadly I LOVE crunch, I love chips and of course I am a huge fan of the rye chips in the trail mixes.

So breakfast today, 5 strips and a Mt dew, this feels really unhealthy even for keto.

I need to figure out a way to make a quick breakfast since I work from 6am to 5pm daily.

Dinner out.

After that amazing breakfast we headed out to the kids karate classes.
As they run until 7pm it is hard to make it home, cook and eat before bed time.

So we headed out to dinner, thankfully we have a Red Robin on the way home.

My mean (no pics sorry) was a nice Royal Burger wrapped in lettuce with a side salad.
I will admit that I cheated, I ate probably 4 or 5 of the steak fries form my sons refill bowl, but man they are so good.
The royal consists of a hamburger patty, topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato and a fried egg, pretty much a keto perfection when wrapped in lettuce.

John went with the burning love burger (which we cal the STD burger for obvious reasons) in a lettuce wrap as well with a side of steamed broccoli.

Audra went with a grilled chicken salad loaded with ranch and cheese and a side of steamed broccoli and the kids had mac and cheese for Ayla and a burger for the boy.

All in all less than 12 carbs on that meal for me, total carb intake for the day came from that meal so at 12 carbs I am golden.

I am going to have to get some ketostix to start checking.

Oh and I have forced myself to like diet mt dew, gives me the carbonation I want, without the carbs I don't want. I have also not had an issue with it making me want sweets, which is good, I have never been much of a sweets person, but now that I cannot have them I want them lol. What was I thinking doing this after halloween!

So it is entirely possible to eat at a burger joint and stay within keto.

Breakfast!

OMG, I have not eaten like this since I was a kid.
All of my life I have been told meats and fats are bad for you, yet someone I still ended up at 400+ pounds while eating relatively healthy but being sedentary.

So this was my breakfast/lunch today.

What we have here is one of the steaks from last night, cooked to a nice medium, 5 or 6 strips of nice chrispy bacon, and scrambled eggs cooked with butter (instead of fat free oils as normal) and a bit of minced beef with Tillamook medium cheddar scrambled in and topped.

This was too much for me, I was able to eat half the steak, most of the eggs and all of the bacon, and yet while I was full I was not nearly as weighed down as a normally feel. Normally after lunch I am rather tired and ready for a nap in the chair for an hour or so, instead I was wide awake.

First Dinner!

OK so we are jumping into this feet first.
I am trying to keep my carb intake below 20 a day.

This was the beginning of our dinner.

What we have here is 4 rather nice steaks and for myself (as I am a snob) 2 bacon wrapped filets.
Ok so it is not because I am a snob, I just prefer the flavors and the softness of a bacon wrapped filet, sadly these were from Fred Meyer and were not exactly top quality.

After a few minutes on the grill a nice medium...

And all plated up with some nice green beans.

I have the feeling this is the start of a beautiful diet!

What are you planning to do?

So how are we planning to lose weight.
Well thanks to Reddit I came across discussions of Ketosis.
After a few weeks of research on the topic and speaking with others who had gone through the same struggles as me I decided on trying Ketosis.

I brought up the information to my family.
My wife and John were both supportive, both wanting to join.

So now here we start.

Ketosis is simple.

In the most basic terms Ketosis involves getting your body used to running on ketones rather than glucose from sugar in the blood stream.
In most bodies under our currently nutritional guidelines your body takes in sugar from the foods you eat and creates glucose, it is this glucose which our bodies and brains burn in order to survive. Without fuel we die, simple as that. Most people know this.
However what is not known as much is that the body and brain can run off of ketones.
In fact the body runs well off of ketones.
However where does the body get ketones.
Well that is why I like this diet, the liver uses fat to create ketones, this is the only place where the body can get ketones. Due to this the diet consists of plenty of fat, adequate protein and minimal carbs.
What this translates to is dinners consisting of a large steak with a side of broccoli covered in cheese sauce. Lunches that include grilled chicken salads and homestead style breakfasts consisting of plenty of bacon and eggs.

During the course of this story you will see what we eat and what it is doing to us or for us.

One of my motivating factors was this post on Reddit.

Wish us luck.

Who are we?

I guess the most important part is to tell you who I am.
I am Jim, I am 6 foot 2, 420+ pounds and I need to lose weight.

This is the story in the making of myself and my family going on a weight loss journey.

You will find pictures, information, links, funny ideas, sad times and a general overall daily updated story of our Journey.

Introducing the other characters here.
Jim (Me), Husband and father, tech support worker, 420+ pounds and RC car fan.
Audra, Wife and Mother, home maker, 297 pounds, pregnant and lover of sewing.
John, Room mate of 4 years who is weighing in at 332 pounds. Geek and RC plane enthusiast.
J.P. 8 year old with a penchant for Kajukembo, junior black belt trainee and lover of tomatoes.
Ayla, 4 year old lover of meat and cheese, makes a heck of a cup of imaginary tea.
Gizmo, monorail cat who brings up more food than puts it down.
Casey, 60 pound short hair collie (lapdog).

This is us.