Tag: Diet

Cooking · just plain fun · Keto · Uncategorized

Fresh for 2024!

AuntGem1 Comment

Changes coming …

Everyone, welcome to the new year! Can you believe it? 2024 - where are the flying cars and jetpacks?

I’ve decided to make a few changes to this website. As many of you know, each year I either continue the diet I’m on or start a new one. This year, I’m going to be keeping a record of my journey – but on my new Substack newsletter – Lighthearted by Jennifer.

Why a Substack? That will give me the opportunity to tailor the content for a special group of readers. In my newsletter, I’m going to share my thoughts on my weight loss (35+ pounds so far) what’s working and what isn’t. And I’ll pen a few posts on how I’m keeping my sense of humor through it all.

Lighthearted by Jennifer is where I’ll write about Keto, cooking, nutrition, and exercise. Here at Notes from Aunt Gem I’ll post my book reviews and miscellaneous essays. Who knows – maybe this year I’ll make the garden bloom!

I’ll post once a week on my health journey at my new spot. For the select few – those who elect to become paid subscribers – I’ll send at least one more post per week, and that one will have:

  • My actual measurements
  • My actual weight – the good, the bad, the ugly!
  • More info on what I’m finding that works

Come join the Lighthearted crew and lose weight with us!

Keto

Failing and getting back up

AuntGem1 Comment

Keto is a journey.

What do you do when your willpower flags and fails? Do you get right back on the Keto way of eating, or do you wallow for a bit, then gradually make you way back to it? Me: I’ve done a little bit of wallowing over the past three days. Day 1, I had a small slip. Day 2, I said to heck with it at lunch and had a roll. Then snacks off the snack table at work. Then I threw Keto out entirely and chowed down on bread, bread and more bread at dinner, waking up the next day feeling awful. Day 3 – yesterday: I got it together and once again got back on my program.

Dust yourself off, forward ho!

That was a much quicker recovery than I’ve ever experienced before! In all my years of trying new diets, staying on diets, falling off diets, and getting back on diets – I’ve NEVER been able to get right back on my program the day after a big slip. What is helping me is realizing how much I like this way of eating. Plus, ketogenic eating, when done right, does suppress your appetite. All that fat satiates you!

In recovering this time, I decided to do something positive and scour the Web for inspiration. I chuckled at these memes, which I’m sharing below. The first is a good reminder from Mechelle Sellers:

Yes!

The next two are from my new favorite Keto inspiration website, The Keto Minimalist:

Next, one I intend to put up on a wall in my office:

And last, my favorite one of all:

Tell me how you’re managing to stay on your Keto program!

Keto Progress Report
Keto · Uncategorized

Keto Progress Report

AuntGemLeave a comment

It’s been a challenge. The newness has worn off, the first bloom of enthusiasm for this way of eating has faded. Now I’m struggling day to day to stay on it. Afternoons are the hardest time – especially when I’m working at the office two days a week. We have a snack cart, and it is so hard to turn that down!

Needed: all the tips and tricks

I got sloppy logging everything I ate in my Atkins tracker last week, and that’s shown. I’m back to writing it all down. I think I need to do better at weighing my food – I bought a beautiful food scale to make it easy; I just have to do it. And if I could get more keto-friendly veggies in my diet, that will be a plus! My lunchbox is my friend: I’m taking lunch to work each day and that is helping.

The good news

The weight is dropping – about a pound to a pound and a half per week. Total lost so far, since December: 15.4 pounds. My clothes feel looser! I’m constantly pulling up my pants. I have to go buy some new jeans soon. Or perhaps shop my closet – I’ve got lots of smaller size clothes squirreled away in boxes, in the hope against hope that one day I would wear them again. Maybe that day is now.