Low carb Oopsie rolls attempt 1

3 weeks to go and we are doing Keto for the remainder of my prep. It's always tough adjusting diets. I starting looking in to some low carb recipes and found oopsie bread. 

I read some horror stories about how difficult these were and although it takes some care, I didn't have too much problem.  I found several recipes and though the one I used came out well, I think I will cut out one ounce of cream cheese cause I found a lot that only called for 3 instead of 4.  So, lets get to it..

Ingredients

3 eggs

4 oz of cream cheese (or 3)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

optional: spices/seasonings to taste

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit 

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites

Mix the egg whites and cream of tartar until the whites form peaks

Mix the yolks and cream cheese and any seasoning. For this first run I opted for just 1 packet of splenda.  You can use italian herbs, splenda and cinnamon or any combo of spices you choose. 

Gently fold the yolk mixture back into the whites mixture, take care not to break down the whites.

Gently scoop 6 dollops of the mixture on a baking sheet, I used parchment paper to ensure they didn't stick.  You should use all the mixture making the 6.

Bake for 35 minutes.  Let cool, can be stored on the counter for several days or in the fridge, though the fridge will keep them SUPER moist so I recommend pulling them out and letting them sit before you want to use them.  Mine are still on the counter and I made them 5 days ago.. Still fine.

I'll be trying these again and will post up any other variations I come up with. 

Macros per the 4 oz recipe are, Per 1 of 6

Calories 102

Fat 8.5g

Carbs 2.2g

Fiber 0  (I'm toying with adding fiber powder to this next time)

Protein 4.3g

Keto mini no-bake cheesecake

Hey there FitFam! Work is finally easing to a slow steady crawl after tax day, I'm a CPA for those who don't know. This was the first time I've actually been in the office doing taxes on tax day (normally I'm out working on an audit).  It was CRAZY!!  So even though I've been a bit quiet I have still been hard at work in the gym and in the kitchen making all my foods for my ever changing diet.  We are having pretty good success with Keto, but we are going to cycle off for a couple weeks. Before I do though I wanted to share a few recipes with you that will always be my in my Keto back pocket.  Today I want to share with my coffee lovers out there.  (Not a coffee lover..keep reading, I've got you covered too!)  If you're not keto you could sub low fat cream cheese and sub almond milk for the heavy cream to make it lower fat friendly.

Let's start with the odd fact that I am NOT a coffee lover! I drink a little.. I like to add a lot of milk and sugar so, I haven't had coffee in quite a while.  But I do have some mocha cappuccino mix and thought it would be an excellent addition to the mini no-bake cheesecakes I've been making. This is something pretty simple to whip up and since I'm the only one in my house I make a lot of single serve dishes. If you wanted to make a few at once you can just multiply the recipe by the desired number of servings, easy-peasy!

Ingredients:

Basic recipe:
2 oz cream cheese
2 tablespoons heavy cream (I've also used 1 so if you need a bit less fat 1 will work!)
sweetener of choice to taste (this is optional if you're a cream cheese lover you might omit this)

Flavor options:
2 tsp mocha cappuccino (for the coffee lovers.. this had a pretty strong coffee flavor, you could easily cut this in half if you wanted to tone it down)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder (if you like a chocolate cheesecake)
1-2 tablespoon(s) waldon farms strawberry syrup (calorie free, carb free and delish!!)  I find mine at the local grocery store but you can get their stuff here https://www.waldenfarms.com/

I like to garnish with a little waldon farms syrup too!

Procedure:

Pick your flavor above and mix all the ingredients. If your cream cheese is straight out of the fridge then pop in the microwave for 10 seconds oro so to soften it a bit.

Once its all blended, pour the mix into a small container or glass or however you wish to serve it, and place it in the fridge to set. (30 minutes should do the trick, but I tend to make mine a bit more in advance and let it sit longer)

It should be about a 1/2 cup serving size.  Perfect to satisfy a sweets craving and excellent macros for a keto diet!

What I ate today. Ketogenic.

Hi there #fitfam .. Just over 5 weeks out O_O .. About to wrap up 2 weeks in keto and go back to a "traditional" 40/40/20 bodybuilding split. I've kind of gotten the hang of keto. Still sometimes have a hard time getting all the fat without many carbs or the protein level I was used to. I took pics of all my food yesterday so you could see what keto is looking like. 

So here's everything I ate and a total from myfitnesspal on macros for the day. 

2 pieces of bacon, egg white and cheese omelet 

Homemade keto "mounds" bar.. I skimped on the "chocolate" a bit :). And mozz stick 

Chicken and asparagus. (Probably the least keto of all my meals) 

OMG these were delish! I have a bad sweet tooth and these hit the spot. 

Mini mocha cappuccino cheesecake and a mozz stick 

Green bell pepper with some ground beef and cheese. 

My carbs are a bit high.. About half come from fat sources though so it's not like I'm eating startchy things. Still figuring it all out. After 2 weeks on 40-40-20 I get to try my hand at keto again.  Will be looking up some recipes and things getting ready. 

7 weeks out and Diet info

Hello everyone!

It's been a while.. where does the time go??  I've been super busy working and hitting the gym. We've been doing a lot of decision making.  So I posted about a month back that we decided to delay our original "debut" show date.  We hoped the extra time would help with my conditioning (leaning out for the stage)  It's still been REALLY slow coming on the fat loss and progress.  We have been carb cycling but I still haven't had much success.  This week we are starting a keto diet. Half way through Day 1.. I'm not as hungry as I thought I'd be. However, my meals have been pretty interesting. Switching from high protein to high fat has really been difficult.  I think I'm getting a better handle on it. I even found some flax meal muffin and pizza crust recipes I'm going to try out. (will post them if they are edible!) :)

So, I wanted to post a little bit more about my diet. Now keep in mind if you're not cutting for a show you probably don't have to be SO strict but I've had a lot of people comment on how lean I'm getting and ask me what I've been doing.  So carb cycling. The last several weeks we have been carb cycling. I started with 6 low and 1 high day, and we moved to 3 low days, 1 high, 2 low, 1 high rotation. I prepare 99% of my own food. Even on my high carb days I rarely went out to eat because you really can't be sure what you're getting. I think I had some decent progress doing carb cycling. I count all carbs (even veggies) I guess a lot of people don't.. I'm not sure if it would have been more effective to get more starchy carbs and feed my metabolism that way?? BUT...

We are getting into super crunch time here and my legs especially have a way to go. We are going Keto.  I also started tracking my macros and water more diligently with my weight fluctuations so we can track changes more effectively.  This whole process is a lot of trial and error. There is no right or wrong way to do this.. ok, there are probably a LOT of wrong ways, but different things work for different people. This is the first time we are doing this so it going to be a HUGE learning experience. I've already learned a lot and we still have so far to go.  I'm going to post below a few examples of what I ate on different low and high carb days.  You can follow me on myfitnesspal (Username: Jennibeanxo ) to see what I'm eating everyday.  (but please don't follow it blindly, it's based on my height, weight, goals and activity level)  I've also started to track ALL my cardio with my Polar watch too. Because those machines and even the myfitnesspal estimates are not accurate to each individual.

Low carb day 

High carb day:

Just a note.. I kept my fats relatively low and protein high. This isn't typically how carb cycling works. Protein stays consistent and fats and carbs cycle (one high, the other low). This might be why I didn't see the results I hoped for. I think when I try again in the future I'll have a better handle on the process. It's all a lot of trial and error. The key is to stick with it and continue to make adjustments.