July Wedding

Ryan and Clarissa got married this weekend.  Ryan and Isaac have been friends since high school.  It was great to spend some time with Isaac and Jenna in beautiful--albeit hot & muggy!--southern Illinois.  The church was so sweet--located in Eddyville IL and home church of the bride's grandparents.

 Isaac stood up with Ryan in the bridal party--here he is with Jenna, his beautiful and sweet girlfriend.  They came in for the wedding all the way from California.

The wedding reminded us of Judson & Rachel's July wedding so many years ago.  We wish Clarissa & Ryan a lovely future together.

Fathead Pizza

This recipe is all over Pinterest because it's just that good!

• Mix 1 3/4 cups grated mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup almond flour together in the food processor. 
• Add 2 Tbls. cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and mix together until the dough sticks together in a ball.
•  Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper to desired shape & size.  Take off the top paper and bake at 350 degrees about 20 minutes til golden.  
• Top with your favorite pizza toppings and bake til cheese is melted & browned.

Some of those pinterest recipes  melt the cheese & cream cheese together before mixing and  bake both sides of the crust.  I haven't found either of those steps necessary; but if you're interested, you can find those directions here. 

One recipe of the crust will also make 8 mini rounds.  Those can be baked, kept in the fridge, and then toasted for breakfast with lots of butter. 

If you want cheeze-it crackers, make the recipe using cheddar cheese.  Once the crust is baked, cut into cracker or chip shapes & fry in coconut oil.

Once you've made this a couple of times, it becomes an easy recipe to make.  I can hardly believe that we've lost all this weight while still eating good pizza!  If you're on the low-carb way of eating with us, treat yourself to fathead :)

Puppy School

Betsy & Kyle helped so much with Skye's training.  

Many many opportunities to practice NO JUMPING!

Drink Lots of Water

Getting myself to drink enough water has always been a challenge and even more so on this way of eating.  These little Stur water-enhancer drops are sweetened with stevia and fruit extracts and have no aftertaste.  My favorite is strawberry-watermelon and Betsy likes fruit punch.

Science Center

 Such fun at the science center!  

A few shots of Kyle at his best--when he's winning :)

All In

We went to breakfast at Boone's with friends this morning.  We used to love their wagon wheel pancakes & green-onion-garlic hash rounds.  Sigh.  But we're doing so well with our weight loss,  feeling good, and Mark's blood sugars have never been lower.  So.  Now we have huge omelets--meat lover's for Mark and cheese for me with a side of sauteed mushrooms.  The potatoes have only the tiniest bit of come-hither power any more and we just don't pay any attention to them.  

Over the course of our breakfast this morning, a warning comment was made:  "Be careful with low-carb.  When you go off it, your weight goes way up."   Yes, that's exactly what would happen.  That's why we're not going to go back to eating carbs. . . 

What we really need to be careful about:  Dwelling on never having  potatoes or cherries or cake again.  That will bring on a serious depressive episode.  Guaranteed if we feed that carb-craving monster, it will grow.   So, whenever those thoughts come up, I think about everything good that's happened in the last six months.

• We get to eat really good food.  Like butter.  Tonight we had green beans that tasted like my mama's.  Cooked in bacon fat.
• I get to eat until I'm full.  And when I get hungry, I get to eat again.
• I now fit into non-plus sized pants.  
• Everything in my closet fits or is too big.  
• I don't have to worry about what I'm going to wear tomorrow.  I don't dread getting on the scale.  
• I don't have to take anti-inflammatory meds anymore.  I don't ache all over. 
• Mark's blood sugars got down into the 60's twice today and he HaD to eat! 
• His feet don't hurt any more.  
• He doesn't need as much medicine now.  From today's numbers, maybe his doses will go down even more.   

If you'd like more information, check out this online  support community  that can give you information, encouragement, inspiration, and hope every day.     If I can do this, you can do this too.

So if someone says to you, "be careful you'll gain it all back when you go back to regular eating", just smile and agree.  And keto on!