After our failed attempt at making keto cloud bread a few days ago, Nuri and I decided to try another bread recipe today. This one is made with flaxseed. I've never had flaxseed before this, so when we bought a pack today, I learned about how healthy it is - rich with Omega3 fatty acids, antioxidants and fibre. I still don't know enough about the ways it can be consumed, but here's something we baked in the kitchen:
1. For a loaf of bread with 8-10 slices, you need 2.5 cups of grounded flaxseed (blend until it's fine and smooth).
2. In a large bowl, add one teaspoon of baking powder, one teaspoon of baking powder, and mix with the flaxseed. Then pour in one cup of cold water, and one teaspoon of apple cide vinegar. Mix some more.
3. That's it! Bring out your baking tin and mould your dough into a loaf shape. It doesn't become as hard as normal dough (with flour), so you need to be a little gentle. Optional: top the bread with some pumpkin or chia seeds.
4. Bake at 180C for one hour. Yes, a whole hour.
5. Once the bread has cooled down, you can slice it up and enjoy!
The color settings of my phone camera isn't great - it makes the bread look very grey and dry, but it was far from it! It was brown and alive, almost like a loaf of brown wheat bread! The insides were soft and smelt nice. Naturally, the bread tasted seedy (the main ingredient was flaxseed!) The next day, we toasted a slice each (placed it on a pan with a little butter) then after the sides crispened up a bit, I had a bite with some peanutbutter spread and it was yummy! So I'd suggest you enjoy this bread with a spread of your choice, rather than consume it plain.
Day 8: May 17
Last night, Nuri read my week 1 keto diary and he was very happy and excited with my progress and the fact that I'm liking this diet! This afternoon we did some grocery shopping and I was impressed with how the heaviest bag was filled with cauliflower, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, whereas before our bags would be bulky because of chips and yoghurt! For lunch, as usual, I made myself some salad. I also found a few pieces of mushrooms in the fridge, and I didn't want it to go bad, so I stuffed them some of last night's salsa a la Nuri and cheese and placed them on a pan, covered it and cooked it on low fire. I was craving some kind of meat this afternoon, but couldn't decide what to bring out of the freezer, so I decided to try some canned tuna in oil with my salad:
My lunch at 2pm: stuffed mushrooms with salad and tuna
I also had a small bowl of chia seed pudding right after my meal. I sent Nuri a photo of my lunch and he now wants to start a food diary too! I was very happy with this meal - I poured lots of lemon on the tuna bits, and the mushrooms were juicy and delicious.
We had an early dinner last night because we had an online class to attend to at 7pm, so I thought of something quick to prepare. All this took only 30 minutes to prepare and cook! I made Nuri's favourite food in the whole world - we learnt it from one of my Ugandan friends here. You saute some onions, toss in some tomatoes until a little juicy, then in the last 5 minutes drop some sliced kale and cover so it can steam cook. Nuri loves kale, so he was excited when he learnt this dish, and we began to call it the "Alex dish". But because Nuri would make it every single week (no kidding), sometimes with his twists, I told him we might as well change it to Nuri's dish. Anyways, we've been calling it the "kale dish" these days. I made that for dinner, but right before adding the tomatoes, I added some shrimps. Oh and on top of the tomatoes, I added about a spoonfull of last night's salsa a la Nuri, for some extra taste. While that was happening, I made some cauliflower rice. In case I didn't describe the process last week - you saute some onions, add garlic if you like, and black pepper then add the cauliflower. Don't cook too long - 5 minutes should be enough or else the cauliflower will get mushy. And there you go - another quick and filling meal FULL of nutritious vegetables!
Dinner at 6pm
Day 9: May 18
Remember last week when I said I'll let you know when a certain miracle happens? Well, it happened today! I was up and out of bed very early in the morning for a walk! Nuri has been regular with his morning runs and workout. Today, we found ourselves awake at 5am, and he thought the weather was nice, so I decided to give it a try. We just walked - up and downhill, then I came home and he did his run. I'm blogging this at 6:30 because I'm wide awake and full of energy!
I've been thinking about what this week's keto diary is looking like so far. Yesterday, I just shared what I ate. Last week I had a lot of reflections and that's because it was new, I was learning a lot and wanted to share. But now that I have a hang of it, I don't know what more I have to say! But maybe I'll use this little space to clear out one misunderstanding I had. Last week, we learnt about keto snacks. But then I realized that between lunch and dinner, I never felt hungry! There was never a moment I craved something to eat. And that's because the high-fat food in our keto diet keeps us feeling full much longer. So Nuri recommended eating the fatbombs, for example, with the meal - right after lunch/dinner like a dessert and that's what we've been doing. Each time we snack, our insulin level spikes - even the more so when we snack on carbs/sugar. So this has been one of the many plus sides to keto, especially since I'm just home all day - previously there was often the tendency to munch on chips or have cookies or a slice of cake with my afternoon tea but gone are those days! And with no effort at all! I didn't have to control/resist the urge - this keto diet simply just took those habits away.
Lunch at 1:30pm: scrambled eggs, hotdogs and tomatoes
At around 1pm, I felt I wasn't hungry and thought I'd skip lunch and just have an early dinner but then I realized I needed to eat so I could take my medicine. The quickest thing I could pull together was three hotdogs, two eggs (scrambled with cheese, mayonnaise, black and red pepper), and one tomato. I'll make up for the salad/nutrients this dinner - I'm planning to make something exciting!
At 5:30pm I started preparing some rice-less sushi! I learnt that you can make cauliflour mushy and substitute for sushi rice, but because we had cauliflower rice two days in a row, I decided to leave it out of the rolls. This is pretty much salad rolled in seaweed paper. I learnt that seaweed paper is very nutritious - it's rich in calcium (10x more calcium than milk!), copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, and vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K, among others. And ten sheets of seaweed paper is only 9 calories! This is amazing! I made ten rolls for us, and cut them in half and we dipped them in soysauce but while eating, I realized I should have sliced them smaller (typical sushi-bite size) because it was a little difficult to tear through the paper.
Dinner: rice-less sushi!
In case you're interested in the recipe, here's what I did: on each sheet, I first put a piece of lettuce, and spread cream cheese on it, then placed a thin slice of smoked salmon. Then I added a slice of cucumber, carrot, bell pepper and some avocadoes. With each roll, I press it inwards to keep it firm, and at the end, I dapped water lightly on the edge of the roll - this helps it stick.
Maybe an hour after dinner, we went out for a little walk - this was my first time taking an evening walk (well in the last two months, at least). This was refreshing, and helped digest this fun, filling and healthy salad!
Day 10: May 19
Similar to yesterday, I really didn't want to eat lunch but because of the medicine, I had to consume something. I sliced some lettuce and had some balsamic pork and carrots which we did not prepare.
Lunch: balsamic pork and carrots, and some lettuce
Dinner was fun! I made some zucchini pasta, pretty much like last Sunday but this time with meatballs. In case you're interested, here's the recipe:
1. The meatballs were ground beef, mixed with some salt, pepper, thyme and some grounded almonds. Mushed all together then rolled into little balls. I didn't oil the baking sheet; instead; I placed a few bacon pieces around the pan and it cooked in the natural oil of the bacon! They came out very soft and juicy!
2. Pasta - we spiralized six zucchinis. You need to cut them short before cooking, because they don't break as easily as pasta. We cooked it in the tomato sauce for maybe 20 minutes - until the zucchini softened a bit. So, the zucchini doesn't taste like your typical spaghetti. It doesn't become as soft. It's a little bit crunchy - I'm not sure if it will become softer if I boil it longer. That's something you can try!
3. Tomato sauce - I sauted some onion, with garlic, black pepper, turmeric powder, some jalapenos and mashed tomatoes. Very simple.
4. The zucchini pasta cooked in the sauce, and when the meatballs were cooked, I mixed them into the pasta/sauce so that it could soak in some of those juices.
5. Topped with parmessan cheese:
Day 11: May 20
Today's the last day to take meds! Nuri stayed home today - he prepared the salad, and then we also had some kuku sabzi (Persian omelet made with a lot of green, and topped with some walnuts) which, again, we did not prepare (it was just heaven-sent!).
And for dinner, I heated up some zucchini pasta leftovers from yesterday. I noticed that the zucchini was softer than yesterday - I think it's because it had more time to rest in the sauce. Left-overs in general always taste better because everything had time to soak in the flavours!
I've been thinking about how long this will go for - my keto diet, I mean. To be honest, I'm very comfortable and used to this already. It's been such a joy learning new keto recipes and trying them out with Nuri. These days because he's back in the office, I've been the one preparing dinner, and we laughed at how the tables have turned! He used to be the one sharing recipes and cooking up dinner, but now I'm the one surprising him with new dishes and taking the initiative to learn more. I really feel a difference - my energy is always up these days. Before, when I'd have a rice or pasta meal for lunch, I'd sometimes feel tired or sleepy afterwards...and I'd often crave maybe a sweet coffee later in the afternoon. Now, with salad or just protein for lunch, I no longer feel sloppy/lazy; I just feel really good inside - my digestive system feels healthy! I no longer feel guilty about anything I eat.
Day 12: May 21
Since I'm done with my meds, I didn't have to eat breakfast or lunch, so I decided to go without eating for as long as I could, and see if I can get a hang of the intermittent fasting part of the keto diet.
Lunch at 2:30pm keto burger
I've got to say this - of ALL the keto meals I've prepared/had in the last two weeks, and months prior, THIS IS MY FAVOURITE! I made a beef patty (similar mixture to the meatballs the other night), and grilled it. Then I got some cabbage - I spread cream cheese on the insides of the lettuce, then my burger was cabbage, beef, hummus, tomatoes, cheese, topped with another cabbage. It was so good!!! Generally I'm not a fan of burgers and it's usually because the bun is very thick, so I prefer smaller/slimmer burgers, so having cabbage to substitute the buns was perfect for me! Of course I couldn't hold this burger in my hands because the cabbage was slippery so I ended up slicing my bites with a knife but that was fine! It's pretty much like a salad but with a beef patty. The meat was juicy, the hummus was a refreshing extra; the whole meal felt light. I don't know if this happens to a lot of people, but I'm the kind of person who often wants a soda after I eat things like burgers and pizza - I guess it's because of the stuffy feeling afterwards, but this one didn't make me crave that. I look forward to experimenting with other greens to serve as the buns, or maybe next time we succeed at making keto cloud breads!
Nuri made dinner - he made cauliflower rice, and a chicken dish (shredded chicken breasts cooked with onions, garlic, some kale and tomatoes) and we poured a little soysauce over our plates before eating:
Day 13: May 22
Fridays is half-day work. When Nuri returned home at 12:30pm, after our hellos, the first thing he said was "I'm going to make ice cream". Keto ice cream?! I got very excited. Here's how he made it: first he whipped up around 600ml of whipping cream. Then he blended 3 avocadoes with half a cup of coconut oil. Then in the end, he mixed the avocado into the whipped cream with a baking spatula. We poured it into a tub, kept it in the freezer and we went out for a 3-and-a-half hour walk! This was our first real walk in over two months! The sun was out, but it was also breezy - it felt very good! We walked down to a beach, we just sat on a bench breathing in the fresh, sea air, soaking in some vitamin D, watching some people kite surfing. Going and coming - we walked a total of 8kilometers. When we returned home, unfotunately our icecream wasn't completely ready because we had to give it a turn so that everything freezes completely. Luckily, two days ago I filled some icecube molds with coffee, so I blended those and we had ourselves a very refreshing coffee shake!
Avocado ice cream topped with cinnamon powder
Later, we tried the ice cream and I LOVED IT! The blend was light. It's SO amazing, how you can enjoy your favourite treats but in a healthy way - sugarless ice cream! We have stevia (this is a sugar substitute derived from plants, and is keto friendly, but neither of us like the taste, so we didn't use it but you can!) Of course, it's not your typical ice cream because it's sugarless, but the cream and avocadoes naturally taste really good. On our way back home, we stopped by a shop and found a 90% cocoa dark chocolate bar. We bought it (I mentioned last week, chocolate over 85% is keto approved), and we just loved it! I was very surprised with myself because I've never really liked dark chocolate, but I thought to give this a try and I was surprised that I didn't find it bitter like I normally would find dark chocolate. Does it taste better, the higher the cocoa percent? Or have my taste buds adjusted because I haven't had sugar in two weeks? Nuri told me that people who don't like dark chocolate don't actually like chocolate - because dark chocolate is pure/real chocolate (the higher it goes). If you like milk/white chocolate, it's because you like the sugar (those have less of the actual cacao). This made perfect sense! I can officially say I love chocolate!
Dinner at 7pm: shrimp sinigang
Apart from the iced coffee and few scoops of avocado ice cream, the only other thing we both consumed that day was our dinner at 7pm. I made sinigang soup (similiar to last Saturday's soup), but with shrimps. We also made some cauliflower rice to go with this.
Day 14: May 23
I didn't take photos of our meals today - lunch was salad, and dinner was pork and cauliflower rice.
And this wraps up two weeks of the keto diet. For now, I plan to strictly do another two weeks, but I will not blog the next two weeks. Instead, I'll blog recipes every now and then. Maybe at the end of my first month, I'll share some reflections.
It's been exactly two months that I've been working from home. The hardest part was the first three days - March 17 to 19. I still remember what March 17th felt like - I had my computer set up in the living room of my former flat; it was very cold - I couldn't find the remote of the heater and I didn't think of bringing out my blankets. I spent so much time just reading the news trying to understand what was happening and fearfully thinking about what could happen (I would refresh the new button every 15 minutes - no exaggeration). The news was scary - the cases around the world was increasing. I was just counting the hours to the evening of March 19th which was when I could move to my new flat (where my husband and I currently live), hoping and praying that there won't suddenly be some kind of lockdown that would prevent me from moving. March 19th evening came and in the evening I moved to the new flat, but we were restricted from visiting other flats/meeting friends but I felt so much better in the new neighbourhood I moved into because I had a lot of friends who live nearby. Even though I couldn't see anyone, I just felt less isolated that in my previous flat. I was very surprised with this feeling; I was always happy and content being alone, but I think those three days felt very different because it also meant I couldn't see my fiance! The 20th was Nawruz, and I spent the 21st cleaning and organizing the new flat which kept me happy and busy, and on the 22nd I resumed working feeling a lot more comfortable and at ease. Later that morning, we got a call that changed everything - our wedding, which wasn't schedule until two weeks later, got moved to...that evening! Nuri moved his things in that afternoon, we got married in the evening and it's been bliss ever since. We didn't take a break after our wedding - we continued working the next day and for nearly two months we've just been at home, in the lockdown together.
Around two weeks ago the government started easing the restrictions, and Nuri had to return to the office. This was a very difficult change for me because since we got married, we've been together every single day and suddenly I had to be alone at home 10hours a day - five times a week without him. I didn't panic or slow down; I wasn't "sad" especially because he's just a few meters away and he would visit/continues to visit during his lunch breaks, but I had to reorganize my daily routines. A few activities came naturally to me, and I thought I'd share the few things I did to cope:
1. Around the same time that Nuri resumed working in the office, the weather started becoming hotter. During the lockdown we went from spring to summer. So little by little, I started re-organizing the flat. I went through my closet and folded away all my jackets and sweaters and kept away the boots; I packed our duvets and replaced them with thin blankets. I used to light candles on the tables, but since we're using the ceiling fans now, we can't light candles so I've placed them here and there as decorations. I went through our kitchen and looked for things that would be affected by the heat and either stored them in cooler cabinets or in the fridge. All this took a few days. I've always enjoyed cleaning and organizing the home/work space (I find it therapeutic). Our flat is completely exposed to sun/open space on one side, so it can easily get hot - and while cleaning I made sure things were organized in such a way that air can pass through and that there were no stuffy corners. There wasn't so much to change since we're still relatively new in this flat, but for those who have lived in the same place for a long time, this quiet/down-time is a great chance to deep-clean!
2. I took some time to think about all the things I've wanted to do for a long time but never got around to. This included simple things like:
Cleaning out my phone and laptop (we all have photos/documents that we don't need, will never really need and are just taking up space!)
Reading - I started reading a book at the beginning of March and stopped after I moved, and I recently picked up from where I left
Blogging!
Cut my hair! My plan for a long time was to cut my hair after my wedding. Since hair dressers were closed, I chopped off nearly 30cm of my hair by myself!
Learning how to bake. For the longest time, the only thing I knew how to bake was a cheese cake. More than a year ago, I bought a hand blender to encourage myself to learn how to make new recipes...but I never did this! Every time I had to make a dessert, I'd opt for my easy no-bake ice cream cake. During this lockdown, I learnt how to make two new cakes!
3. Actually work. There are times when my work load is low - and that's when I'd used the time to do some personal things around home. But I noticed that on days when my work load is high, time would go by very fast and I'd feel very satisfied at the end of the day especially when I accomplish the tasks. There were/are times when I don't have personal things to do around home, so I started giving myself more actual work. I looked back at my work diary, and found a lot of items on my to-do list that have been unticked for many months. I found tasks that I once marked as on-going/not urgent and we know what happens - they sometimes become forgotten! So I brought a lot of those tasks to the forefront of my to-do list and starting getting back to them. A lot of these tasks require detailed research and reading, and I've really enjoyed this because it's helping me catch up with work and learn, and stay connected to my work.
4. As I mentioned earlier, during the first three days of the lockdown, I read global news religiously and I was deeply affected, but after I got married I've just been in another world - HAPPY! I would still read the news every now and then but mainly just the headlines and not the specifics. While the news was mostly negative, a lot of inspiring and exciting news came in from the Baha'i communities around the world. The creative ways Baha'is and friends have taken to cope with these circumstances - zoom classes, devotional meetings, service projects to neighbours, informative radio programmes, even here in our community the friends have very swiftly come up with creative means to stay connected and keep each other uplifted... This is the news/social media I've been tuning into over the last few weeks. I've basically chosen to tune in and read just positive things. This was a conscious effort. The Nawruz and Ridvan messages from the Universal House of Justice this year remind us humanity's inherent oneness, and calls us to remain firm, steadfast and prayerful as we rise above this. Reading/watching/listening to the global efforts of people seizing the opportunities presented by this crisi has kept me positive and hopeful.
5. Not knowing when things will get back to normal, and seeing how time is just passing by made me decide to write down some goals. Even though I don't exactly have a lot of free time on my hands right now, there are of course perks to working at home - you have a little more control over how you organize your time. So I thought of writing myself a list of some things I would seriously like to get done (eg. study/read this, learn that, create this, continue this, etc.), and this list has a time-frame. I don't often make myself lists like this - I habitually make daily and weekly lists (mostly work-related), so this might take a little while to get used to but so far, just knowing I have this list have given me a little more focus. I have three goals on my list - two are ongoing, but one is time-sensitive, and just seeing this list on my table everyday is helping me fill in blank moments and not lose track of time.
So let's rewind a little... back to the day Nuri and I first shared our feelings for each other. A little bit after the whole "I like you", "I like you too" bit, he asked me "do you have any dietary restrictions?" I laughed and said nope! Then he said "Oh great, we'll get along just fine!" This was very exciting - this sounded to me like I found my foodie partner! However, this became one of our favorite memories to laugh at many weeks later when we realized that although he appeared happy that I was the kind of girl who ate everything, HE was the one with the dietary restrictions! It turns out that many months before we met, Nuri went on a keto diet. But he broke it right about the time we met because I made him sushi twice in two weeks! The first few weeks into our relationship, he went with the flow - he ate the pancakes I made, he made us pasta because he learnt how much I love pasta... But it didn't take long before he wanted to go back to his old healthy habits. See, a keto diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet, this involves reducing carbohydrates intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. So by carbs, we're talking about sugar - cake, icecream, rice, bread, pasta, potato... Nuri had cut these out of his diet for many months and he was strict on checking the nutritional value of anything he consumed. This was Nuri before we met. So, after a few weeks of spending a lot of time today, he started telling me about his keto diet. I was interested - I thought stopping rice and chocolate was easy. After a few months, I decided to join, but I wasn't so strict. While Nuri went hardcore, I couldn't resist lasagna or fries, and I didn't know how to eat my khoresht without the rice. But I definitely learnt to reduce my portion of carbs, and eat more salad. Yes, Nuri introduced me to the world of salads!
BUT it wasn't all that easy. My philosophy with food has always been "everything in moderation". I always thought eating moderate amount of anything/everything was harmless. Even though I said I'd join the keto diet, I couldn't stay off the carbs for long, and during the time we'd hang out, I found it difficult making my own food separately. We both agreed that we enjoyed it better when we could prepare something together that we both could eat. I enjoyed some keto food, but sometimes I wasn't satisfied with just having salad for dinner. So to meet half way, he broke his diet a few times, so that we could have more fun. In December we traveled for a few weeks and our diet went on vacation mode too! When we returned, we decided to go do keto together but keep Saturdays at cheat days. This worked for a little bit, but wasn't too sustainable. The little problem with this is that on weekends, we would "go all out" with our carbs - I can't count the number of junk-food parties we had to ourselves. Even though that was just 1-2 days in a week (because for the rest, we ate clean and healthy), it just didn't feel completely right. Anyways, we fasted in March and sworn off sugar for 19 days and it was pretty easy! And then... marriage and corona happened! Marriage meant we ordered three large pizzas on our wedding night (all to ourselves) and made a chocolate cake to celebrate one week of marraige (all to ourselves) haha! We were just too happy! But we still ate nutritous food - there was always salad, and dices of onions and bell pepper in our meals. But still, a lot of carbs and chocolate too. And I think at some point, our bodies just started begging us to show some mercy. See, what we eat affects our mood, our work efficiency, the way we sleep, and how our bodies feel when we wake up! Corona meant we couldn't go out on walks, get some sunlight... Corona called for a lot of Netflix and chips. So it was time to do something about our health!
Nuri decided to go back to keto, seriously, from next week. I said that this time I will be more supportive because we've been together for a long time now, off and on keto and I believe I now have a better understanding of what this really means and am more aware of the value and effects. Nuri is a big fan of Dr. Berg on youtube. He watches a lot of his videos, and gets a lot of his nutrition knowledge from him. What I've always admired about Nuri is he makes sure he understands why something is healthy or good for you and not just accept it at face value. I can't count how many nutrition lectures he's given me! I've come to learn that Knowledge is, indeed, power! When Nuri was on keto, he would eat strawberries and whipped cream several times a week as a snack! Doesn't that sound like that would be unhealthy?! But no! Apparently strawberries has low carb content and whipped cream doesn't have that many calories which makes it safe! He got to enjoy, in a healthy way!
I have decided to dive into this diet as well. To be honest, I feel a little bit sad that I have to give up pasta and potatoes! But Nuri made me watch these two videos which briefly describe what really happens to our body. So the first video below talks about how our body will change from running on sugar to running on fat as fuel. It really put into perspective the health value of this lifestyle change.
Nuri made me watch asecond video to assure me that it will be hard the first few days and it's completely normal because your body is adapting to changes, but you will push through. It's very comforting knowing this.
One evening Nuri and I came up with our weekly keto dinner menu. He has done this many times in the past two years, and he knows his stuff very well. But this will be new for me, so he will be here to guide me. I thought it would be nice to write about this experience. I love looking back at these things, and also it would be helpful for when I want to recommend this to others in the future. So here goes!
***
Day 1 - May 10
Last night, when I told Nuri that I'm planning to keep a diary for this, he decided to join in and keep track by making voice notes! This morning we both woke up early - around 6am and all of a sudden, he felt like going out for a jog! He came back from his jog very excited! He said it really woke him up, he felt so good and energetic! (Oh by the way, three days ago our government toned down some of the policies. For a long time we were limited to 100m and then 500m walks from our home, but there's no limit now. Yesterday was the first time we went out for a walk!) In Nuri's voice note this morning, he said that if you're starting a diet and planning to work out, don't do both at the same time. Start with eating healthy, then maybe after a week you can start working out, so that it's a gradual process. So his jog today was just to boost his energy. I will let you know when I am able to miraculously get up early to run with him too!
It's 1pm and I haven't had lunch yet. Until now, I've only drank four cups of water. I'm not yet hungry! An hour ago, Nuri came over during his lunch break. We went for a short walk outside - to go to a place where we could weigh ourselves! I was surprised with my weight - I've been this exact same kg for many years now. It made me happy to know that corona didn't inflate me but I decided to set a weight goal for myself which I'd like to reach over the next few months. Nuri, on the other hand, does not have a dream weight, but he's calling his voice notes project "Road to Six Packs!" Our little walk in the sun a while ago was very good. But let's go back to talking about goals. I've never been the diet kind of person. I'm not doing this to get in shape (but I happily accept it as an extra). I'm doing this because I want to learn to eat healthy - in the long term. I tried keto a few times here and there over the last few months and like I said earlier, I was very happy that I finally learnt to eat salad. But now I want to learn to be completely satisfied with only eating salad for dinner. When I start to crave for mid-day snacks, I want to automatically reach for a glass of water because that can work too! I've seen Nuri over the past several months and the way he LOVES his vegetables. He snacks on tomatoes and bell peppers! He snacks on peanut butter and nuts. He wasn't always like this! He started reading about nutrition on his own, less than two years ago, and that knowledge empowered him to make better eating choices. I remember how I always opted for orange or lemon juice during our lunch breaks, and I'd tell him it's my daily dose of vitamin C, but when he told me that you can get three times more amount of vitamin C from bell pepper, I totally dropped the juice!
So, until now I've been writing too much! If I keep this up, this blog will be too long! Anyways, it's also just the first day, so I have a lot to say. But now, something I'd like to share everyday is what we're eating!
My first meal at 1:45pm (salad + grilled pork ribs)
At around 5:30pm, I felt a little headache. I'm not sure why, but I just drank more water. For dinner, Nuri and I spiralized some zucchini (first time!) and used last night's left overs (ground meat pasta sauce - tomatoes, onion, ginger, garlic). We were done eating at 8:30pm.
Dinner (zucchini pasta + meat sauce)
Day 2 - May 11
Half way through dinner last night I suddenly felt so tired! My energy dropped. I didn't understand why I was feeling so. I also got out of bed pretty late today. Nuri and I went for a 45-minute walk in the sun this afternoon. I felt weak! But we spent most of our walk talking about keto recipes. Nuri has been very excited discovering interesting new keto recipes we could try. He also said that I might be feeling weak before my calory intake yesterday was pretty low. So he reminded me of all the keto snacks I can have during the day. This will definitely take time to get used to because I'm generally not a snacker. He also said I should increase the fats in my food, so for my lunch today I had the same amount of salad as yesterday but just doubled the cheese and mayo. Nuri also told me to take it easy. He reminded me that he failed 6-7 times when he started keto in the beginning. First day would be good, second day he'd cheat...a few times until he finally got a hang of it.
My lunch at 1:15pm
Second day in a row that I'm having lunch pretty late. So, if you watched the first video, you would see that we're also taking up intermittent fasting. I'm not going to be so strict though - I'm just following Dr. Berg's advice to not eat for as long as you can. Nuri on the other hand is going to take the 20-hour intermittent fast seriously. This means that he'll have his first meal at around 4pm and last meal at 8pm, and within those 4 hours he can eat/snack etc. then fast for the remaining 20 hours. He's done this many times in the last few years, so he feels this should be easy. Because I felt really fatigue this afternoon, I took a little nap and then made myself a small cup of coffee. For dinner, Nuri and I went for eggs! He made himself a fancy omelete with a lot of veggies, while I opted for a simple sunny-side up. This is what I had:
3 eggs, hotdogs (I ate twice what's shown here), two avocados and some cheese
Honestly, this was filling...but I didn't love it! Although I say I eat everything, but there are some things I'm just not a big fan of. I generally don't like eggs and avocados. I usually eat avocados as a dessert (with condensed milk), and eggs - well, I don't like the white part, so when I make scrambled eggs/sunny-side up, I make sure to break one egg and mix with the white of the other egg (as you can see in this photo...hide the white! haha!) Nuri said keto might not work for everyone, and why it works for him is he loves what he eats. But for me, I'm not kidding when I say I only started eating salad when I met him last year! But I want to learn to like this. I mean, I don't dislike it. I'm just not used to it...yet. I understand that these are all healthy fats that my body needs. It's funny when you think about it - how keto stresses on having lots of fats in your diet. We grew up on the notion that "fat is bad", but now we know it is one of the sources of fuel for our body, and it's good because it keeps you feeling full for longer and cuts down on your overall eating throughout the day. You just need to really understand what are good fats (or else you might mistakenly think you can run on fried chicken everyday!) Here's one of our reference sheets - it's Dr. Berg's list of foods you can eat, and what you should avoid. (link here) This will help you tell the good fats from the bad fats. You'll see that there's so much you can eat! Once you know these things, it will hardly feel like a diet because whenever you crave something you can't eat, you can easily find a substitute from the list of what you can eat (at least that's what we do!) It's actually funny, the list of what to avoid is a lot shorter than the list of what you can eat. But then again, I do admit that a lot of the things we love more are on the naughty list!
Day 3 - May 12
I felt a lot better this morning. I got of our bed on time and had energy! Nuri says I really needed those fats from last night's dinner. Around 11/11:30am, I decided to eat two teaspoons of pure peanut butter. Don't ask why! Well, I know peanut butter is a terrific source of fat for the keto diet, but I've also always seen Nuri snack on it. I decided to give it a try, to see if I like it so that I have another snack option. And it was good!
My lunch at 1pm: three sticks of beef kebab, and a smaller portion of salad
These last three days, me and Nuri's conversations have been mostly about keto! Even during work, he sends me keto videos, and during our walks we talk about it! Today, Nuri asked me what my favorite vegetables and meats are, so he could look for recipes around them and make this easy for me. He also sent me an interesting video called "Keto for women". It's giving both of us a new perspective - it talks about how women go through things like menstruation, hormonal imbalances, pregnancy and these often come with carb cravings. It says that women generally need a little more time than men to adjust to low carb. I went straight in, which is probably why the fatigue and headaches the first two days.
I really liked today's lunch. The kebab was very dense and filling that I wasn't even hungry at dinner time, which is why I ate very little:
Dinner: 1.5 sticks of kebab, two mushrooms, cauliflower bread, salsa and cream cheese
I want to tell you about this cauliflower bread Nuri and I have been making for many months now. Before, we would make keto pizza: the crust consists of grated cauliflower mixed with egg and mozzarella cheese. You bake it for a bit, then take it out and you add the toppings (cheese, pepperoni, tomatoes...) and then bake some more. This cauliflower bread is simply just the crust! We mixed two cups of grated cauloflower, one cup of mozzarella and one egg. Spread it thin on a baking tray and bake until golden brown. Nuri made a very nutritious salsa - he blended tomatoes, bell pepper, ginger, onions, jalapenos, leek. We ate the cauliflower bread with the salsa and some sour cream (sort of like what we would have done with nacho chips!) Generally it was a very good day - no headache, fatigue, no hunger, no cravings.
Day 4: May 13
I'm feeling great today, energy-wise! This morning I prepared a jar of water+mint leaves+lemon, and another with lemon+ginger. Nothing keto-related; I just thought since I'm drinking a lot more water now, I might as well play around with it! I had maybe 6-7 pieces of cashew nuts before lunch, not because I was hungry but ...okay, I really don't know why I ate them. I'm not a nuts person, but if there's one kind of nuts that I don't mind and like just a little - it's cashew nuts! And I found a packet just lying around. For lunch, I took subtracted bell peppers from my salad (same as yesterday). I'm starting to feel that I don't like too much of it. So to make up for this, I drenched my salmon in lots of lemon juice! This is my plate before I added ranch sauce on the salad. Salmon is one of the keto-friendliest meats to eat. It has plenty of healthy fats, a great source of B12 and Omega 3 fatty acids (Dr. Berg mentioned in the second video above that we need these, especially when we're starting out the diet).
Lunch at 1:45pm: Salad, baked salmon, steamed greenbeans
Around mid-afternoon, I made myself a small cup of cold coffee (black coffee, zero sugar/low-carb coffee creamer, topped with some whipped cream and dark cocoa powder). Apparently, chocolate is okay for keto as long as it has more than 85% cocoa. I had this drink because normally after I eat fish, I like to have something sweet to wash the taste away, so I thought of this keto-friendly drink.
In the evening, Nuri and I prepared ourselves a nice little dinner. At first, we were going to have only veggies, but I needed meat! I'm always craving meat during this keto period. So I brought out some bacon. This is what our romantic keto dinner looked like:
Nuri had some salmon and bacon, and he also made some chutney! I don't like chutney so much but he basically blended garlic, mint leaves, coriander leaves, lemon juice and jalapenos. We shared some veggies (carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, kale) and leftover cauliflower bread with dips (sour cream, hummus, leftover salsa). I made myself a little something extra:
I baked four large mushrooms wrapped in bacon!
I discovered that kale dipped in sour cream or hummus is amazing! I also spread some sour cream on the cauliflower bread, and put slices of the mushroom and bacon on it and ate it and that was divine - felt like a little sandwich. It was a pretty light dinner, but very filling. My mental and physical energy today was GREAT! It means I'm getting a hang of this, and quite sooner than I expected! After dinner, Nuri and I excitedly prepared some fatbombs! I'll tell you about that tomorrow.
Day 5: May 14
So after reflecting on my first few days, one thing I realized is that during the first two days -which is when I had headaches/felt very tired- I was keeping myself hungry. I don't know why I kept imagining that I'm fasting for the whole day, or that I shouldn't eat until I'm really really hungry. So I thought to myself, maybe I should snack on something small. I coudn't think of anything at first because generally I'm not a snacker. When I do feel like snacking, I'm happy with a cup of sweetened coffee, maybe a small piece of pastry or some chips and yoghurt and this would happen around 3-4pm. When I talked to Nuri about this, he reminded me of all the keto snacks possible, and the next question was - which one do I find appealing? So I'm planning to try a few different things over the next few days until I figured out what do I like.This visual guide helped me!
Last night I made a simple chia seed pudding - 2 cups of almond milk, 4 spoons of chia seeds, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract all mixed in a bowl and soaked overnight. I had around 10 teaspoons this morning. I guess I broke my intermittent fasting with that, but it's not that I was hungry - I just wanted to try it! It tasted very good! Apparently chia seeds is great for keto because it's rich in fibre. I normally get my fibre from bread and pasta, but since we're not having any of that, chia seeds comes to the rescue! I'll take a photo of the pudding next time I make it more fancy - I'll try to add berries next time! Since I felt that I already broke the fasting, I made myself a little bowl of olives and cheese:
Morning snack at 10:45am - black olives, cheddar cheese and cream cheese
My lunch was exactly the same as yesterday. However, I didn't add cheese to my salad because I already had a lot with the olives earlier. When I was pouring my ranch sauce, I was thinking - does this have sugar? Nuri's the one who always checks the label. I have not yet reached the point of calculating calories. These days I tell Nuri what I've eaten and he autmatically estimates how many calories that's given me. His voice notes keto diary is very detailed, with how many grams of this and that. I'm not yet there! But for now, I'm not going to worry too much and instead, rely on him :) But I like how this diet is really making me think about everything I consume. Ketchup, for example contains added sugar. Incase I find out that the ranch sauce I use has sugar too, well I will continue to use it until it's finished (small amounts every now and then just because I don't want to throw it away) and when it's finished, I'll learn to make my own ranch sauce!
My lunch at around 2pm: baked salmon, salad and some steamed green beans
A few days ago, Nuri told me about fat bombs, and I had to look it up! Fat bombs are basically snacks for those on a keto diet - they're usually made from a combination of ingredients such as butter, coconut oils, nuts. Fat bombs are pretty much like our version of energy balls or bars. As the name implies, they're high-fat. So last night, Nuri and I prepared some peanut butter balls! We made two kinds:
I made keto cheesecakes - it's simply 115g of cream cheese, 1/4 cup pure peanut butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract! Mix it all together, then scoop and make little balls. I also sprinkled some dark cocoa powder on top, then freeze. Nuri made what tasted like Reese's peanut butter cups (but with dark chocolate!) His process was: melt dark cocoa powder with coconut oil. Pour a little into silicone moulds. Then for the filling - it was just natural peanut butter combined with almond flour.Put it into the mould and then cover up with more chocolate syrup, and freeze. I'm not sure about his measurements because we were both making ours at the same time.
Right after lunch I had one of Nuri's and one of mine and I LOVED IT! I downed these with a small cup of cold coffee and a little whipped cream. I'm not a big fan of dark chocolate, so I liked the one I made more because I love cheese and this tasted like cheesecake! The cheese made it creamy, and the peanut butter made it a little thick, almost had that crushed graham crackers taste. Nuri loves his dark chocolate, in fact there was some chocolate syrup leftovers and he poured it into another mould and now he has so many mini cubes of real dark chocolates to snack on! We had a lot of fun making these very simple and quick recipes!
In the evening we went out for a little walk, and then we skipped dinner. I didn't feel hungry at all. But between 6-9pm, I had around 7 thin carrot sticks with hummus and 3 teaspoons of chiaseed pudding. I'm learning that the high-fat meals keep us feeling full much longer, and keep us from overeating/excess snacking. I'm loving this already!
Day 6: May 15
Last night, Nuri wanted to follow a keto "cloud bread" recipe but it didn't work. In one bowl we had the egg yolks mixed with cream cheese and in the other bowl we had the egg whites which we had to beat until stiff, but it just wan't happening! So instead of throwing it all away, I mixed the two together, tossed in some almond flour and cinnamon powder and I've decided to make keto pancakes out of it!
The pancakes came out really thin. I didn't really enjoy it plain because it really tasted very plain. I think it was a mental thing - see, I'm used to eating pancakes with honey or nutella, but even the plain normal pancakes would taste a little sweet. I had one piece with whipped cream and I didn't enjoy it so much, but then I tried it with pure peanut butter and it was so much better! I ate maybe 5 pancakes!
I had three leftover yokes from last night's experiment, so I decided to bake them in avocadoes! I've done this a few times in the past. Instructions: Slice an avocado in half, remove the seed, pour an egg into each hollow (in this case, I only had egg yokes), then sprinkle what you want on top! I went with salt, pepper and mozzarella cheese. Bake and enjoy!
Baked avocado eggs
This was a filling breakfast meal which we had for lunch. This was our first meal, at around 1/1:30pm. Later in the afternoon, we went to the clinic. So, something I haven't shared is that since three days ago I've been feeling a new and unusual pain in a certain part of my body. I shrugged it off, believing it might be hormonal. But today during lunch, I couldn't stand the pain anymore! It was getting out of hand, so we went to a clinic to get some tests. And it was what we suspected - an infection. While waiting to see the doctor, I looked at the test I took and they were written in codes and Nuri and I used Dr. Google to try to understand what it meant. One of the test results was "ket", and we found out it meant ketones. Apparently I had a high amount of ketones, among other things, so we quickly did a google search to see if this keto diet had to do with this infection, and we couldn't find anything. When I went in to meet the doctor, I decided to tell the doctor that I was doing this diet. He didn't know about this keto diet, so when he asked what I'm eating, I said "lots of fats and protein". He asked why fats? I said "well, fats like cheese, avocadoes and eggs" and he nodded saying aha, aha. He said he doesn't think this diet has anything to do with this infection, and he said it was okay for me to continue. So I'm happy to say, it's not keto's fault! But after we left the clinic, Nuri reminded me that "keto is really about all these nutritious vegetables you're eating too". And I realized yes! I didn't introduce keto the right way - see, if someone hears that keto is all about high-fat, they might think yey fried food, why not! But it's not at all (long story short - when you deep fry food, they gain transfat which is harmful.) Veggies are RICH in vimatins and nutrients, and have very low calories, some nearly zero - though not all veggies are keto-friendly:
Anyways, I was able to get some medicine and the pain subsided. In the evening, Nuri and I weren't hungry but we still decided to eat some salad because Nuri wanted his nutrients for the day, and I needed to eat dinner before taking the medicine.
My early dinner: lettuce, kale, tomatoes, bell pepper, cheddar cheese, mayo
Day 7: May 16
I feel super great today! The pills for my infection is working, so no pain! My energy is great! For lunch, Nuri and I made our favourite thing to eat on Saturdays - sinigang soup! It's a Filipino soup, but we don't add the sinigang powder. Here's how our sinigang is made: fry some onion, garlic and ginger, then add chopped pork spare ribs (or shrimps or fish - another two great choices!). Let is brown, then add lots of water (it's up to you how much soup you want), and once it comes to a boil, add around 2 chopped tomatoes (chopped into 6 pieces). Then you can add any vegetables of your choice - we often add leek, jalapenos, sometimes some eggplant. Instead of salt, use fish sauce - add until it tastes the way you want. And in the last five minutes, add some chopped bokchoi.
I always eat this soup with some rice, so a part of me wasn't sure how I'd enjoy just having soup. Then Nuri told me about cauliflower rice. First we blended half a cauliflower (until it's in tiny pieces), then he fried some onions, and added the cauliflower. He seasoned it with some black pepper and thyme. While all this was happening, Nuri made a sauce (kind of like a salsa) he LOVES making. He makes different variations each time, but for today, he chopped the following veggies into very tiny pieces: onions, garlic, ginger, cabbage, bell pepper, tomatoes, leek, jalapenos and chives and cooked all together with some black pepper, cumin seeds, corriander powder and garam masala. His ideas was to add this to the soup on our plates, just for extra taste. And indeed, when we mixed all these three things in our bowls, it was AMAZING! I must say I was very impressed with the cauliflower rice! It was soft, and tasted like couscous. It was filling, and I was very happy to know that I could enjoy something I've always enjoyed, but in a healthier way. Honestly, when I look at everything we've been eating on this keto diet, it's been nothing but healthy! All these vegetables! Sometimes these veggies don't taste good on their own, but you have to find a way to cook them, mix them, until you find a recipe that works! It's been an experiment-filled week and I truly love it!
Cauliflower rice
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Pork sinigang
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Salsa a la Nuri
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We had an early dinner (around 7:30pm). We cooked some remaining pork spare ribs into another of our favourite Filipino dishes - adobo, which is as simple as frying some pork (you can do this with chicken) in onion and garlic, then adding some soysauce! We often add bits of garlic and jalapenos to the sauce while it's cooking. While I did this, Nuri made another serving of cauliflower rice, but this time he added little bits of bell pepper and mushrooms. This tasted very good! I'm still mind-blown with how perfect cauliflower is in substituting rice! Now I can eat my favourite khoreshts!
Dinner: pork adobo and cauliflower fried rice
And salad, of course
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So this wraps up my one week on the keto diet. It helps a lot that I'm doing this with Nuri who has months of experience doing this diet, and is the one who is always eager and excited to find new recipes! Right now I plan to do another week of keto diary blogging. I don't know how long I plan to blog this journey - maybe until it no longer feels new. Let's see how this goes!
It's been nearly two whole years since my last entry! A lot has happened... where do I even begin?!
Well, I remember posting that last entry to organize all my post according to themes/topics so that you could see everything in one go and let me know what you would like me to write about more! But I never got back to working on that because... I moved! And after I settled down, well...I just couldn't get back into blogging. My days in this new, wonderful place became very full - Apart from my primary service, I spent a lot of my time making new friends, exploring this place, taking classes in the evening, attending deepenings/talks, reading books and volunteering in other areas after my primary service. I was really set on maximizing my experience, which overwhelmed me with so much joy, and believe me, there were many times I wanted to open my laptop to share all the things I've learnt, but unfortunately I couldn't. My experience here has been very uplifting, spiritual, and very personal...and I really found it hard to put it down in words.
For example... this place where I currently live has beautiful gardens! I brought my DLSR camera with me here, but for a whole year I never took it out to take photos. In fact, because I wasn't using my camera, I sold it. I just couldn't capture the beauty. I just knew that no lens could capture the gratitude and humility I feel when I walk through the verdant gardens filled with the sweet but gentle scents of the flowers. I've had the opportunity to attended many inspiring deepenings and talks...I would bring a diary but the most I could note were in bullet points. Everything here just felt so overwhelming and wonderful that I just couldn't write about it. I would just listen and allow my soul be transported somewhere else. I knew all these would be things I'd just have to carry in my heart forever. No poem, photograph, diary page can do justice to the blessings and insights I've gained here.
But I never stopped thinking about my blog. I always thought that one day I would just feel that it's time. Now it does! In March this year I GOT MARRIED! I was bursting with energy and the zeal to write all about how I'm feeling, what I've been learning, and I started having all these ideas of projects with my husband, Nuri! For many people around the world, this corona-down time has given them an opportunity to finally pick on projects that we've kept on hold for so long and this is exactly what this is!
I also came to learn that my domain name subscription has expired so it's back to .blogspot.com and I had to edit all the old hyperlinks. Doing that made me go through all my previous posts and that was very inspiring! I got to remember all the things that I enjoyed doing and writing about. It was also an exciting chance to share with Nuri bits and pieces of my life before now!
I don't yet have concrete plans for how my blog will continue rolling, so we'll just take it one post at a time.
