Here is my junk from yesterday:
Breakfast- 1 medium, hot coffee from Dunkin' Donuts, 1 shot sugar free caramel syrup, DD cream, and one Splenda packet (courtesy of my awesome SIL), 1/4 c roasted, salted almonds
Lunch- 1/4 c Publix Turkey Club salad, 4 celery sticks, 4 tbsp salad olives (I ran out of whole ones), and 2-oz cheddar
Dinner- 1 serving Oven "Grilled" Asian chicken, 1 c baby spinach salad mix drizzled with the pan drippings from the chicken and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes
Snacks- 1 serving Quick and Dirty chocolate pudding, 1 quest bar
Water- 172.1 fl oz
This morning I want to take a minute to extoll the glories of Bulletproof Coffee (BPC).
The original recipe can be found here:
https://www.bulletproofexec.com/how-to-make-your-coffee-bulletproof-and-your-morning-too/
The nutshell version is this: you dump fat and desired spices into your cup, pour coffee over it, blend, then drink. The flavor possibilities are pretty endless.
Now a lot of folks turn their nose up at the idea of putting fat in their coffee. It honestly did not sound appetizing to me at first, either. Once I tried it and realized that I can tailor it to my own taste and caloric needs I was pretty sold. As of this point this is basically all I have for breakfast every day and it keeps me full until lunch. The trick is to drink it relatively slowly.
My own version of BPC entails dumping about 1/2 tsp Truvia (I'm weaning it down from a full tsp), 1 tbsp Kerrygold unsalted butter, 1 tbsp Nutvia extra virgin coconut oil, 1 tbsp Organic Valley heavy whipping cream (HWC), and a good sprinkle of ground cinnamon (approx. 1/4 tsp) into my immersion blender cup, sticking the cup under the Keurig, and brewing my coffee right over it. At this point, if you really, reeeeeeally want to you can stir it and drink it, but you're going to have a ton of oil on the top, which is pretty unappetizing, IMO.
What you really should do is blend it. I use my stick blender and give it a good 30 seconds or so to get it done. Essentially you are emulsifying the oil into the coffee, which disperses it evenly in the liquid instead of it separating and floating to the top. The result is a creamy, very frothy cup of coffee. It's almost like having a cappuccino.
As to the ingredients, you may have noticed I was very specific about what I use. The reason is that the entire point of drinking coffee in this way is to get healthy fats into your body and keep you fueled for quite a while. Fat keeps you full!
Consuming fat is generally a good thing on keto because that's what's fueling your body. When you're in ketosis your body will initially take a couple of days to deplete the glucose in your system and then be forced to switch over to burning fat instead. This is not starvation. That is a very common misperception and lots of folks confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis, which are two completely different bodily functions that just have similar sounding names. The former is perfectly safe, the latter is very dangerous and can be life threatening.
It is also a terrible idea to cut your fat intake while in ketosis. You need a minimum amount of fuel for your body to function properly, so you need to eat enough fat to keep your body from truly starving, but not so much that it doesn't burn the fat already stored in your body. A really good way to see how much fat you need is to use a keto calculator. I am partial to this one:
I digress.
Fat is important in the keto WOL, but that doesn't mean you should just dump gallons of vegetable oil into your pans or smother your veggies in "buttery spreads." Why not, you ask? Because that crap is nasty, chemically processed sludge and, contrary to what you've likely heard in the past, it is NOT healthy. Not in any way, shape, or form. In fact, many long term studies are out there that have found these kinds of chemically created fats are a source of chronic inflammation and contribute to all the nasty diseases they were supposed to help you avoid, like heart disease, diabetes, etc and so on.
The fats you want to consume are healthy, natural, full of health-promoting properties......and they're exactly the ones we've been told to avoid for the better part of half a century. Yes, I mean animal fats (drippings and butter!!), as well as coconut and non-hydrogenated palm shortening. Olive oil is also very healthy, so that's one the "experts" managed to stumble into getting right. Don't believe me? Check out this piece:
It's a summary of quite a few pieces that have come out in major publications within the past six months. Long story short, several long-term studies as well as comprehensive reviews of the medical research from the past fifty years is showing that medical experts have been stunningly wrong about fat, especially saturated fats. And not only that, but there's a pretty big paper trail that shows the nutrition industry in bed with Junk Food, Inc. The Food Lobby is just as big a player in DC and at the ADA as is Big Pharma. And what about those FDA health guidelines, MyPlate, the Food Pyramid, etc.? All designed to promote specific agricultural industries and to justify using our tax dollars to subsidize propping them up. If we say you need 11 servings of carb-laden grains per day and vegetable and corn oils are heart healthy then you can't scream at us when we give those farmers your hard-earned money to keep production up.
It's infuriating to me that those at the top would play politics with the health of millions upon millions of people.
I digress again.
The point of my mini-rant is that what we've been told is good for us isn't really so. Information showing the stuff that's supposedly bad for us really isn't has been trickling out for a while now and hopefully the flood gates won't hold too much longer.
Back to ingredients.
I use specific ingredients because of their quality, really. Truvia, to me, is just about the perfect sweetener. It's a blend of Stevia and erythritol, both of which are the only sweeteners that are zero on the glycemic index, meaning that they won't raise your blood sugar. Contrary to popular misconception they're also not artificial. Stevia, as you may already be aware, is the extract from the stevia leaf. It's a plant. Can't get more natural than that. Erythritol is a naturally occurring chemical found in many fruits, and is collected as a byproduct of fermenting said fruit.
More info about erythritol here:
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/herbsupplementguide/a/erythritol.htm
I also use Kerrygold butter pretty religiously, as well as Organic Valley HWC. The reason is that these two companies grass-feed their cows. I'll be honest and say I've never noticed much of a difference, aside from price, between grass-fed and corn-fed cow meat. But there really is a difference in the dairy products, specifically the cream (of which butter is a product). It is creamier and slightly sweeter, and honestly it keeps longer than the other stuff. It's not just me, either. Both of my kids were not fond of milk until I started buying Organic Valley whole milk. The few times I've tried to sneak in regular old milk they were highly displeased. Both children insisted their milk didn't taste right. As to the butter, even Hubby noticed a difference in taste there. He is a big popcorn lover and initially he was buying his own cheap butter to put on his air-popped corn.... until he ran out and was forced to use the Kerrygold. He was stunned at how much better the flavor was and has insisted on using it ever since.
There is a taste difference. Trust me!
As to the coconut oil. I highly recommend doing some research on coconut oil. We've been told for so long that it's awful for us and so I know a lot of people are afraid of it. In fact, it'sactually one of the healthiest foods on the planet. Ketovangelist author Brian talks about it here:
http://www.ketovangelist.com/one-food-you-should-be-eating-every-day/
I use the Nutvia extra virgin coconut oil because it's the least processed, best quality oil that I can find in my area. It also has a really nice taste. Its flavor is coconutty, but fairly light. I will also sometimes get the Target brand virgin coconut oil if I cannot find the Nutvia. Target's is a really good price and is pretty decent, IMO. I don't cook with the extra virgin stuff, nor do I recommend it because of the coconut taste. When I'm cooking and need a neutral flavor I use the LouAnn refined stuff. You still get the benefits of using coconut oil, but no coconut taste to go with your savory foods.
I don't use any specific brand of cinnamon, but interestingly enough I recently discovered that what we know as cinnamon is not true cinnamon. You can find out more about that here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon
I could go on about the health benefits of cinnamon (even our sort-of cinnamon stuff), but honestly I just use it for the taste. It adds a nice depth to the coffee that I enjoy, so I use it.
After all that ranting and 'splainin' I hope you will give it a try.
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