Slow start keto with some concerns

gallbladder
coffee
blood-pressure

#7

I have no gallbladder and I enjoy fatty foods and am fat adapted now. What gives me digestive issues is lactose.

You will find tons of things you will love to eat, and that your family will likely enjoy also. Peek at the recipe section here. No bread? Chaffles are so much better. There is a long chaffle thread with recipes too. Use them for sandwiches, to mop up your gravy or whatever you like.

I always say that Keto is not a rule book, it’s a guide. If you start reading here you will see that there are as many different versions here as there are people. Stay under 20 carbs and you are Keto. Lots of ways to shape it so it fits you personally.

I am off my blood pressure meds and good riddance. I had no idea how badly they affected my overall health. My blood pressure is fine now, without meds. My feet were increasingly numb from diabetes - they are thawing out. Blood sugar is perfectly under control.

Your whole body starts to repair on this diet. The first few weeks can be a bit trying, but once you are fat adapted, it’s easy sailing.

Oh, and by the way, I lost 70 pounds.:grinning:


#8

No gallbladder here too.
I also don’t like the taste of stevia. I use erythrit MIXED with a bit of stevia. It tastes fine that way. Erythrit is very mild and the stevia gives it a little boost without that aftertaste we dont like.
If I may say so- change doctors. This doctor will NEVER support your choice to go keto and will always find negatives. I say this as a doctor myself. I have colleagues - like a good friend who is a cardiologist-- who told me “How could I tell my patients to eat eggs and butter?? I could NEVER do that.” There are some old school doctors who will never change their POV. It would help you a lot to change doctors, I think. He will give you more fears to contend with and make this journey harder for you by filling your head with doubts.
I have been on keto for 3 months. I have lost 7-8 kilos and was just for checkup. My blood pressure is 130/80 and my doctor wanted me to quit taking my meds altogether but I was too afraid to go cold turkey yet- so we halved the dosage. Blood glucose is no longer prediabetic. And my blood fats are lower than a year ago.
And as for your fears of loss- all that you might miss? There is a surrogate for everything that is simply modified to be keto. There is keto bread and there are keto desserts. But the thing about this is that your tastes will change, and in maybe 3-4months you wont want to eat what you used to crave. Those cravings will have disappeared.


#9

I am a big snacker, myself. It’s nice to know that some of that craving may fade with keto. But as I am not the cook of the house and not everyone will be embracing keto, I expect I will sometimes need to “snack” my dinner, charcuterie style.

Chaffles, huh? Well, out of all the things I might need/want to buy for going keto, a waffle iron was about the last thing I expected, lol! :laughing: But those do look quite good! Maybe I had better start with some things I already have though, like a muffin pan or a cookie sheet. (Man, even our cookware is carb focused!)

I saw some “Lavash” crackers at the grocery store, but the carb counts were too high. I’d love some tips on making something like that that works for keto. I was surprised that even Nut-thins have as many carbs as they do!


#10

I swear I have never found anything as addictive as this coffee creamer! I started out like a normal person, adding a little sugar and milk to my coffee and I loved it. But ever since falling for those liquid non-dairy creamers, I couldn’t be happy with anything else. Even knowing I was overdoing it was no defense against it. I tried using less even just to save money, but it was a constant battle between wanting to improve things for tomorrow or having hot bliss in a big insulated tumbler right now. This is why I knew that whatever I switched to would have to be just as decadent or it would never work. Fortunately, I love the rich, creamy mouthfeel of the bulletproof coffee enough to work through switching to low-carb sweeteners and then later weaning off them, hopefully.

@Shinita What sort of coffee did you find that helped you switch to black coffee? I don’t particularly like a weak brew, but then I have always put in stuff to dilute the coffee flavor and it has to be fairly stout to be tasted through all that.


#11

My waffle maker isn’t good enough and I usually make a mess and like being simple anyway so I just made cheesy omelets after I have found the chaffles topic here… Cheese on the outside, it’s so good, crunchy, tasty… Waffles are a bit more fun though.


#12

I doubt I can help you as I am a weirdo, I only like instant coffee and only use cheap ones (with my huge coffee addiction, even that costs too much. I don’t mind spending money on good food but a useless drink? I could drink water. It’s not like coffee does much good to me).
Try out different brands, add your things… A little bit of HWC can make a somewhat bitter, boring coffee nice to me…
And I admit I still don’t like black coffee. I am just able to drink it. If it’s super weak and/or not the very bitter kind. If I want to really enjoy it, I usually need something in it.


(Full Metal KETO AF) #13

They are very addictive, you’re absolutely right. I would get it on sale and buy three or four half gallon jugs of my favorite flavor. I made a travel mug/nursing bottle full twice a day, 20 ounces each which was around 1/4 creamer and the rest stovetop espresso. I would drink it over a couple hours to make sure my blood glucose and insulin was always jacked up! :scream::joy::joy::joy::cowboy_hat_face:


(Natasha) #14

Hi and welcome to the forum. Don’t feel that you have to drink bulletproof coffee. You could try a cup with 2, 3 or more tbsp of HWC and some sugar free flavoured coffee syrup. :coffee:


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #15

You might like cold brewed coffee. Less bitter and acid comes out of the grounds than with hot brew. I drink a liter of cold brew every morning for breakfast. I have my own ‘keto’ mix I add to give a lot of nutrition. No sweetener other than a very small amount of sucralose in one of the whey powders.


(Jane) #16

You have to be careful and not binge on them, but they are a nice snack with some protein and fat (chx or tuna salad). 1/2 sheet is 6 g net and is a nice portion.

Take a sheet of the Joseph’s Lavash bread out and spray or brush with olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle seasoning on one side (ranch dressing mix, garlic salt and cracked pepper, cinnamon and sweetener for sweet ones). Score into cracker squares with a pizza cutter.

Place on parchment paper and bake at 400F for about 5 minutes. Watch carefully as ovens vary a lot. They can go from crispy brown to burnt in a hurry! I flip mine over for another couple of minutes. You want them lightly browned so they crisp up but not too brown.

Remove from oven and let cool. Break along score lines into crackers and store in plastic containers. They keep and stay crisp for quite some time.


#17

I have heard about trying this as well as some odd sounding methods like mixing egg into the grounds as it brews or a yolk into the coffee afterward. I really like coffee hot though and I love the convenience of my auto-drip machine… I know microwaving brewed coffee effects the flavor. Maybe I could use cold brew for a bulletproof frappe. :thinking:

@Janie Oooh, I will look for that. Probably won’t be able to afford often anyway even if I can find them, but it’s nice to know there are options. It feels less… confining.


#18

@Natasha I was intrigued by the idea of bulletproof coffee when I first heard of it. It was a big draw to try Keto, honestly. I have subsisted off some form of liquid breakfast all my life. When I was a kid, it was cereal with lots of milk. This just naturally transitioned to coffee (with sugar and milk) once busy adult life set in and somewhere along the way, I lost the desire to consume solid food in the morning. I have swapped coffee out for tea with honey when I was cutting caffeine and/or dairy and for fruit and yogurt/kefir and/or green smoothies.

Frankly, this is the first way of “healthy” eating I have tried that doesn’t want me to drop coffee like a hot rock and that makes me very happy! :star_struck:


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #19

@bluedove I brew my coffee cold, I drink it hot. I don’t use egg. I do use a couple of different whey powders and hydrolyzed collagen, MCT and coconut oils, ghee and whipping cream. I use a blender with a mason jar to mix. Here I am with Bubba:


(Jane) #20

Waaaaay cheaper than a box of crackers! A bag of 4 is less than $3 at Walmart (are you in the US?) and it make a huuuuuge tub of crackers. I had company over and she showed me how to make them and we baked up the 4 sheet that came in a package and the 4 of us munched on them for days. I had chicken salad and pimento cheese to go with them. Yum.


(Lynn Roitt) #21

I found that I prefer less sweet and more bitter/sour/pungent flavors now that I’m off carbs. And I fixed my coffee just like the op. But sweet became more an idea than a preference, after only 3 or 4 weeks on keto. I also don’t have a gall bladder, but the only thing that sends me rushing to the bathroom is coffee, or eating after a long fast. Somehow fat never has bothered me much.


(Natasha) #22

Yes! Me too! I absolutely love coffee - sometimes I feel excited to go to bed because that means morning coffee! I don’t eat breakfast either, usually have ‘lunch’ about 11.30 - when I started this WOE I would drink 4 cups of really strong coffee with 2tbsp extra thick double cream (I’m in the UK) in each cup, it was delicious and really kept me full. Somewhere over the past 20 months I have transitioned to 2 cups of strong black in the mornings and 2 cups with 1tbsp normal double cream in the afternoon - I really wouldn’t want to give up my coffee and I’d definitely struggle to do my fasts without it! :coffee:

I hope you find a solution that means you can carry on enjoying your coffee just as much as always! :grinning:


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #23

@Natasha Coffee lover here, too! For me, though, I view coffee as a delivery vehicle. If I’m going to bother making and drinking the stuff, it’s going to be worthwhile nutritionally. See my photo with Bubba above. That liter of coffee is my ‘breakfast’ every day. Here’s my recipe with my current macros if you’re interested in what’s in there. :crazy_face:


(Natasha) #24

I wondered about ‘breakfast with bubba’ as your thread title, now I understand! Your coffee breakfast sounds delicious, Michael! :grinning:


#25

I have run over my grocery budget for the month, so full blown keto is going to have to wait about another week. But I am continuing my “farewell to carbs” tour. My last bottle of Italian sweet cream coffee creamer will be finished by the end of this weekend!

Dinners the last few days have been a bit carb heavy and oddly seem to have caused the old problem of running to the bathroom that I associated with a high fat meal. Perhaps I have been wrong about what really caused that issue. :thinking:

Also I went to Starbucks yesterday. Tried to be good and had them use the skinny mocha, sugarfree vanilla syrup and heavy cream in my cuppa. Then they had someone take off after ordering on the drive through and asked “Would anyone like some free Frappuchinos?” and my inner sugar addict leaped up and shouted “Hell yeah!” before I could stop her, lol! At least it was a small one… :blush:

I also raided their stock of sweeteners for Splenda and one(Whole Earth brand) with erythritol, stevia and monk fruit . I tried the one w/ monk fruit today and found it sweet and slightly fruity without the nasty aftertaste, even though it has some stevia! So I think I may have found a go-to sweetener, yay! :metal:

@amwassil Bubba looks tough! Mine is a Swig and not very photogenic anymore after a few tumbles from the top of the car. :laughing:

@Janie I found the Lavash bread! :grin:
They had pitas in the same brand, which I resisted, but might have to try when I’m ready to kill someone for a slice of pizza! :skull::pizza:


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #26

I also have one of these, which holds a bit more than Bubba:

314877168674250p

I travel with the Manna. Bubba stays home.