Advice requested: Keto foods and cooking
Hi. I'm trying to lose weight, first time around I did this I had good luck with a keto diet. I suck at cooking lentils for some reason now, so I'm hoping you all here on Lemmy and not reddit can throw some recipes and products and ideas my way. If I'm being totally honest I am a somewhat mediocre cook, and I like foods that can be bought in bulk and for cheap. I can follow recipes just fine, even complex ones, I just can't freestyle my way into a good dish.
Eggs and skinless chicken breasts are good but I gotta mix it up sometimes. Any good carb free cereal that's cheap? Anything quick and easy I can snack on? Hit me with everything and anything, please. I'm dumb and open for ideas.
1 reply
When I got serious about it, I used an app to track my carb intake. I did that to learn which foods had higher carbs, because I didn't know. Then I went through my pantry and threw out the garbage foods. I got used to eating low-carb, but I wasn't always ketogenic. I did lose a lot of weight, and got down to about 15 pounds above my ideal weight. That's where I stalled for many years, but I was comfortable enough so it wasn't stressful, I just didn't try to get lower.
The next big change for me was deciding that "food is not reward, food is not entertainment." Because, I used food both ways my entire life. Recognizing that, and changing my mind about it finally helped me drop the foods I was using as "comfort food", and not miss them.
I've been solidly ketogenic for the past five years, although that was never a goal for me, it just happened as a result of eating extremely low-carb. I've also been at my ideal weight.
My diet has been virtually unchanged in that time. I haven't ate out since the pandemic, I've made all of my own meals. This is exactly what I eat every day:
Morning: a small handful of baby carrots with some roasted cashews, and coffee.
Main meal (lunch): Spinach, onion, brussel sprouts, tomato, broccoli, heated in a bowl in the microwave with a small amount of water and corn starch to make a simple sauce. Add parmesan cheese and spices to taste. Chicken thigh, pan-fried in olive oil on top.
Evening meal: frozen blueberries with a sprinkle of instant coffee, some milk, some roasted cashews, some cinnamon, and a sprinkle of sugar. Plus a square of 85% chocolate.
Snack is only roasted cashews and/or carrots.
That's it, that's everything I eat*. I'm not bored by it because food is not entertainment. I like everything I eat, and I eat everything I buy, zero food waste. Tomorrow is the end of my week, and my fridge and freezer will be virtually empty. I know where everything is in the store and I shop once a week, it takes 20 minutes. I don't even need a list, and I know about how much I'll spend each time, barring needing something like spices or other things I don't buy every week.
*I "cheat" once a year around the holidays. I get a four-pack of pumpkin spice muffins.