Front Door Makeover

 A little facelift for the front door.  

And now I don't have to worry about someone falling off the porch. 

(Before)

California

Isaac & Jenna's cute garage apartment includes a balcony.  

It's a beautiful place to live.  So happy for them.

Maybe they'd hire me?

Yubas River.  It was 100 degrees and 14% humidity.  

Maybe next time we'll avoid the month of August.

Still, it was gorgeous. And of course the company was awesome :)

We toured Empire Mine, the gold mine that started it all.

Crystal Junction

California Coffee Shop

 Miss them something awful.  

Hope they will be home sometime soon

Isaac's Studio

I loved visiting Isaac's studio!  I want a studio like this :)

 Lots of cutting & grinding & polishing goes on here.  Doesn't he look happy?

Cute community kitchen included

LoVe the bathroom sink too!

 

First Day

So glad Rachel takes their pictures on the first day of school.  This year is 1st & 3rd grades.   I always took the boys pictures on the first day and it was always so much fun.  Well, until they started hating it and then it wasn't quite as much fun.  But still, I'm glad we have those pictures.  I should go look for them.  Maybe Betsy & Kyle would like to see their dad & uncle Ike on their first days. 

We're Still Keto Strong :)

Top image was taken at Ryan's wedding a couple of weeks ago.  Bottom is from back in 2012. 

A few pictures of what we've been eating lately:

cheeseburger, no bun with a side salad & ranch dressing--lunch at Augie's

Carne Asada with scrambled eggs & cheese @ Boone's

wings from Canada Garden :)  one of our favorites this summer

poppers.  who says this is a diet?

beautiful salad at Mangia in downtown Springfield

 Yeah, we're so not deprived on this way of eating!  I'll be so happy when everyone knows what  grains and sugar have been doing to us.  If you're interested in knowing more about keto, here's another good website, Ketovangelist.

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!

Low Carb Happy @ 6 Months

Well, here we are at the 6-month point and we're still going StRoNg!  Meaning this is something we can live with and trust.  Mark is feeling much much better and we're looking forward to new lab work in a couple of months.  It's certainly a different feeling to be looking forward to getting lab work done rather than dreading it as we have for so many years!

I've lost 45 pounds in this six months.  Some people lose much more quickly than this, but I'm averaging a 6 pound loss a month these days.  Six pounds a month at 60 years old--I'm so thankful to have finally learned that grains, potatoes, and sugar (GPS as Dr Hallberg says) are the culprits and that we only needed the right information and the right support in order to lose weight and heal our blood sugars and feel so much better. 

 I have to say thank you to my mama & sister who were so supportive during my visit this month.  In past visits, we were all into cake & pie & pasta & bread and well, you get the picture. . . But we had a great visit even without the bad carbs, which again helped me learn that going low-carb  actually means eating lots of full-fat healthy foods, not being hungry, and feeling satisfied and happy--not deprived! I even lost a pound while I was there on vacation! 

PJ made this wonderful loaded cauliflower casserole.  Mama made a yummy almond flour biscuit and Jeff grilled hot wings for us. And did I mention the fresh strawberries from Peggy's u-pick farm??  

Let's see, what else have we been eating? Fathead pizza is one of my favorites.  Yes, pizza! No, they don't deliver it from Antonio's--unfortunately, but maybe one day??  Actually, someone should talk to them about that.  Anyway, until Antonio's finds their way to low-carb, fathead is easy to put together and well worth the effort.

This is what I've been ordering when I go to Starbucks:

And this lemon cloud pie was a hit!

For the recipes, check out my pinterest low-carb board.  If you explore Pinterest, there's an endless supply of low-carb recipes--pretty much anything we want to eat, there's a way to make it low-carb.  

For those of you who have joined me in this low-carb way of eating, thank you so much!  It makes me happy to hear about your successes, your weight loss, your lowered blood sugar numbers, your new-found energy.  You help me keep going too!

If you're interested in knowing more about low-carb, check out those facebook groups Ketogenic Success and Low Carb & Losing It Original Group.  There's a mother-lode of support, inspiration & hope that will show up in your news feed.  And if you have questions or need help getting started, get in touch with me and let's talk. We can do this!

Michigan June

A few pictures from the birthday celebration in Michigan:

Not one, but TwO birthday cakes :)

Where's Ray??

Rachel posted this sweet birthday message

My mama has been urban gardening ever since she was transplanted to Michigan 40+ years ago.  It's amazing to see how many vegetables & flowers she can grow on her little plot.  The strawberries were delicious!  They were my splurge instead of cake this year.  

 If we look a little sad here, it's because we were saying good-bye.  It's always hard to leave.  Time to plan the next visit!

Visit The Farm

Raised bed of Kent Beauty Oregano

What to do when you're upset about something you can't do a thing about?  Visit The Farm, of course!  The garden is gorgeous this year.  And then the world is right again.   

Coral and peach begonias--they don't look real!

Bear's breechees in bud