Ultra-Rare early meal… With the Wife’s surgery coming up this week, I have some sites I want to review before COB Thursday, so plan to be out in the field all day. So made up a quick OMAD for today & then decided to eat it when I got to work so it will be out of the way… Cottage Cheese w/ some Strawberries, Celery w/ Peanut Butter, Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate & Habanero Almonds. Almond Milk. 20+/- c
I’ve always liked Peanut Butter on Celery, but I only do it rarely these days. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year as of late. Averaging it since I changed to this WOE nearly 3 yrs ago. Though I also have 2 jars of PB2? in the house, but haven’t fooled with it yet. My Son picked it up a while back and I haven’t looked into it.
I haven’t had any either since I started keto. It’s probably ok, and there are a lot of nut butters with different food values. Next time I go shopping I’ll look into it.
I’ve always enjoyed peanut butter, and will definitely be looking into what the PB2 stuff is, and what it can be used in/for, etc. … But presently, I’m also trying some stuff to make a good Coleslaw. I’ve always enjoyed that as well, and we buy the bag that has the mix, you just add the wet ingredients. Had some tonight with just Mayonnaise and Red Wine Vinegar and it wasn’t bad just like that. But think it can be better. Though I might have added just a bit too much of the Mayonnaise this time? At least I think so…
Broke a Fast with 24 hr. Sous Vide Top Sirloin, Coleslaw, Boiled Eggs & some Cottage Cheese with a couple Strawberries cut up into it. The Wife also gave me one of her Halo, Brownie Ice Cream bar. And lastly had some Habanero Almonds. - Depending how tomorrow goes, may go back to Fasting. Unsure
For some reason the picture won’t load, but lunch is ribeye steak and pan-fried red and yellow bell pepper and onion, with a glob of sour cream.
We get our beef 1/4 cow at the time from a local farmer, insanely cheap. I wish everyone could access such a resource! We might have peace in our society if everyone could have a good steak.
Well, I took the long drive today taking the Wife into DC, just for a freakin’ 1.8 second nose swab so we could then turn around and drive another hour+ to come back home. 
Such a waste of time.
But I decided to turn it into a Meat Run, on the way back, stopping and getting a Whole Top Sirloin, and a 1/2 NY Strip. (Now just need to cut and vacuum seal it all) Also picked up Also picked up some Polish Sausage, Pepper & Onion Sausage, 2 packs Uncured Knockwurst & a pack of Hot Uncured Sausage. And since they didn’t have any Country Sausage ready, we picked up 5 lbs. Ground Hamburger.
So we made lunch when we got back, and since it was after 2:30pm, decided to make it an OMAD, or might just turn it into a Fast? Not sure yet… Hamburger with Swiss and Cheddar, 3 Polish Sausages (Wife didn’t want one of hers, so I took it and gave half to the Girls) Plus, I tried one of the Pepper and Onion ones, and it wasn’t bad. Also mixed up a batch of Coleslaw, trying a new mix, and since I wasn’t going to eat again later, had some Habanero BBQ Almonds & the Wife gave me a Chocolate Cheese Cake Halo Bar. Grapefruit Citrus Zevia. … Going to start cutting up and wrapping stuff here shortly.
Did some drawing for a while, then came back upstairs and started cutting and packaging the meats…
Picked up a whole Top Sirloin on sale $4.99 lb., (@15 lbs.) which is one of my personal Favorites…
Then got a half a NY Strip at $7.99 lb. (@ 8.7 lb.) Which the Wife and Son like more, so we double up some of these, since they will do NY Strips, when I do the Top Sirloin…
Lastly, took the whole Roast I picked up, ($3.49 @ 6.5 lbs.) and decided instead of keeping it as a whole, to simply cut them into 2 to 2.5" personal pieces. (Which looks nice indeed) Can’t wait to Sous Vide these for about 30-35 hrs. just to try it this way. … We usually just throw one into a Crock Pot, and add stuff with it. But this will be the first time I try them as single servers… Can also possibly see some experimenting, like maybe making a creamy Beefy/Onion Gravy to pour on top or something similar.
Will do the hamburger packaging tomorrow, and the Sausages are already packaged. And the ones that are not, will be used in the next few days, so not worried about vacuum sealing them.
For Digital Work, I mostly use PhotoShop. Whether I sketch things out traditionally and then scan it in to work on, or draw it directly on screen with the use of a Wacom Intuos 4 wireless tablet. … Though PS is what I use 95% of the time, (mainly because I know it so well) I do have additional digital programs but don’t use them too often, but they can do everything PS does. - The ones I have are; ArtRage, Manga Studio, PaintStorm Studio, etc. There are quite a few digital painting programs out there these days and I find you can pretty much do the same with all of them, but I just find PS to be familiar since it was the one I actually started with for Digital work. … But honestly think having a nice tablet is most important.
And when it comes to tablets, you can’t beat Wacom, mostly their Intuos line. And though I’ve only used 1 of them before, some love their Cintiq line of products, where you draw directly on the screen. A lot of pros use these and they’re really nice, and expensive, but I actually prefer to use a tablet. The biggest thing I find is that working digitally allows one to work faster, but not necessarily better because of all the additional stuff you can do with the digital enhancements. I still basically use it as I would a pencil, but some use all the bells and whistles, filters, etc. to help produce works. 
Here’s one I just did a few weeks ago, just to help get me back into the swing of doing some artwork…
Since then, I’ve been just traditionally sketching with pencil drawings, using my sketchbooks.
That looks delicious!
I have some sweet corn extract I use when I make keto cornbread and it is really good!
Lunch… Brought in some Coleslaw & Cottage Cheese with Strawberries, but still wanted some sort of meat. (Hate to feel like I’m snacking) But unfortunately, my choices were quite limited where I was, so I just went with 2 McDoublers? & 2 McChickens. (One Spicy/Regular) … I can’t recall what they call stuff there anymore and don’t think it matters much TBH. I didn’t even bother telling them no bread, since it seemed they were struggling with pretty much everything else. … Even if I didn’t eat this WOE, I would have thrown the bread out. It was hard to the touch, and hell, two of the slices were broken in 2 pieces. And yep, it looked like it was put on there that way too. Wasn’t like it tore freshly, but was simply broke in two when they grabbed it for use. … Also 1/4 Cup of Sunflower Seeds and 20 Olives not pictured.
Dinner… Wife threw in some Ground Hamburger, Mushrooms, Chopped Broccoli, Rao’s Sauce and then added some Mozzarella Cheese on top. Also ate a few Almonds.
OMAD, or 24 hr. Fast as some call it… Didn’t really plan anything today, so I just pulled out some quick, go-to foods. First ate the last of the Coleslaw I made, w/ some Sunflower Seeds and a bottle of Almond Milk. Then the Wife fried up some 1/4 lb. HotDogs, followed by 2 Knockwurst. And lastly got one of her Halo Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream Bars. Thinking of dropping in some Steak for tomorrow.
Thanks, I do try. And yep, I’m actually still loosing weight presently. 
I dropped 87 lbs. in the first 7 months I started Keto nearly 3 years ago, but unfortunately, had to have emergency surgery for a hernia that I had nearly 10 years prior. (ended up being 3 total) But apparently the weight I lost, was in hindsight, helping to hold/keep that damn thing in place. - But once the weight was gone, it became a strangulated hernia in no time that ended up completely blocking my digestive system. Since then, I have had only 2 other times that cause any gains & I’ve noted those on my chart. One was having to be on meds for nearly 3 months, and the other was this past winter season, when I was working extremely long hours, getting very little to no sleep & wasn’t home much for 2 months.
So even though I’ve stayed the course and not strayed from Keto ever since starting, I’ve found that at times, some things will indeed cause issues with weight loss or stalls. (Medical related issues probably being on top of that list) I’ve just kept on keeping on and not even think about it TBH. There were times it was like I was just maintaining, bouncing up a pound or two for weeks, then back to loosing? So I just figure let it do it’s thing and just enjoy the journey. I weight in on Sundays only for record keeping, but presently at 240 as of last week. - Here’s a screenshot of my chart, showing mountains I’ve formed.
I lost 115 pounds in one year, and have been on a long stall now. I have not tried to break it as yet, since I am still busy firming skin up again (I am old and it’s slow going but happening). I figure come summer I’ll get serious about losing again. I have kept strictly to keto all this time too, though. Once I do OMADS regularly again (have been eating two or even 3 times) I know I will lose again, albeit slower. You can’t really look at pounds you lose, in reality your speed of losing is proportional to your weight, the less you have to lose, the slower it goes. Somebody ought to work out the math on this, I suck at math.
Yeah, I was thinking along similar lines. (First, just a disclaimer, I’m no expert by no means, but I did do a ton of research the first full year when I started this WOE.) And in my personal opinion, based off both my results & reading a lot of others (mostly on here) I think there will be times that the body will plateau, even if you’re staying Keto. - And this may be for numerous reasons. One I believe is that so your body itself can just be halting things to adjust to the loss you already achieved? Almost like a reset of sorts & maybe this is something the body needs to do? But I’ve heard too many complain and freak out, when they are not doing anything wrong. Its just there’s too many variables to let it bother you. Sometimes things happen you won’t understand, but I’d say don’t fight it, but let things do what they need to do.
Such is what I had to do with the surgery. Some told me up front weight gain was not unexpected, since it takes so much out of the body just healing, and during that time, things just don’t work the same. … But I too have been staying closer to TMAD though I do prefer OMAD. But I’ve also read enough up on doing OMAD, to know there is a lot of folks who believe doing OMAD for long periods of time, can/will? slow your metabolism. (Though I can’t prove or deny this, I trie to make sure not to do them constantly. But instead, try to mix things up to keep the system guessing and not adjust.)
Throwing some Steak into the Sous Vide for Steak & Shrimp tomorrow. Not sure if lunch will show?
Big lamb shank at an Irish pub on holidays. More potato mash than most would like, but no problem to leave some behind. Absolutely delicious real food!
