Here is my Low Carb Food Diary for Day 75 of the “Get Lean For Summer!” 90 Day Low Carb Challenge. It’s NEVER too late to join if you haven’t already!
Note: I haven’t set a date for the next 90 Day Low Carb Challenge yet, but the group stays open & active year round. I may do a short mini-challenge in July before the next big challenge. 🙂 Join in and stay tuned!!
I found something random in the cabinet yesterday while I was browsing around in the kitchen… and decided to get creative.
That didn’t turn out so well, lol. Not terrible, but I think I figured out a delicious way to fix it! 🙂
I’ll share the details with you, along with my meals for the day, and how I plan to fix this “experiment” into a great low carb recipe…
Day 75: Friday’s Low Carb Meals
I had my usual healthy breakfast. 🙂 It’s 1/2 cup crushed pecans, 1/4 cup Daisy brand cottage cheese and 4 small diced strawberries.
It comes to 5 net carbs and 85% healthy fats.
Here’s what I found in the cabinet (left by the kids maybe??). It’s Knorr Vegetable Recipe Mix. I flipped the package over and scanned over it.
ICK – deadly ingredients 😛 (lol)… but fairly low carb. I decided to try it. I was more afraid of ruining half a tub of Daisy Brand sour cream than anything. 😛
Here’s the ingredients so you can see what I mean… 😯
It seemed promising though…
I realized right away that I really needed some crisp cold cucumber slices to truly enjoy this dip, but I just grabbed what I had on hand: salami, pepperoni, cheese & pecans – and made a “finger food” plate of it. 🙂
I kinda just made “snack stacks”…
It was a very salty lunch. 😛 The dip was WAY too stout too. I’m going to fix that though. No way I’m letting all that Daisy sour cream go to waste!! I’ll share more about my ideas for it in a second…
For dinner I went super simple and just made sausage & fried eggs.
It kind of looks like a smile. 🙂
I also had a Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding snack cup late last night, which put me a little over for the day. That and my ridiculous amount of coffee (and creamer, lol). 🙄 I need to work on that!!
Here’s My MyFitnessPal Diary for Friday:
Tracking Macronutrients (Simple Explanation of Macros)
How To Get Net Carbs in MyFitnessPal
Net Carbs: 24
Total Carbs: 35
Protein: 70 Grams
81% Fat, 14% Protein
Exercise: Ab Carver Pro, 100 Reps
Plus 10 Tricep Dips
FitBit Steps: 2,205
Water: 64 ounces
Those 100 ab rolls and 10 tricep dips were TOUGH last night. 😛
I am SO committed to toning up and getting in amazing shape though, so I’m really PUSHING myself and trying to make exercise a daily habit.
What I love about toning (vs cardio) is it takes MUCH less time. 🙂
It was my friends on Instagram and their great comments that inspired me to fix the dip. So I ran to the store and got shrimp, spinach and cucumbers. 🙂
Stay tuned to see what I come up with. 🙂
It should be MUCH better tomorrow, lol…
And YES – I’m going to have DIP FOR DAYS, haha. I’m already trying to come up with creative ideas for ways I can use this “dip” in a variety of low carb recipes so I don’t get sick of it. 😛 If you have any ideas, I’m all ears!!
How are things going on your end?
I look forward to hearing from you…
Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler
Discount Code: LOWCARBTRAVELER
You need to add some mayo to the veggie dip & it will be perfect. Thanks for the idea-I happen to have a packet in my cupboard-would be grat with celery, radishes, etc..
That dip probably came with a jar of mayo as I have 2 packages of it that came with my hell mans as a free sample! Look forward to your recipe!
Looks great Lynn, Add some shredded chicken to some of that dip might just make a good chicken salad. nice cool and refreshing
Hey Lynn,
I love that you are such a coffee lover- cause I am too :). Wondering, have you ever tried using a French coffee press? It takes a few minutes longer than brewing a regular pot, but it is sooooo delicious! Me and my husband have such a great weekend coffee indulgence- we grind fresh beans and use the French coffee press. If you haven’t ever tried this, you should and I bet all your low carb friends would love it too! π
Lisa, I’ve debated on one of those! I’ve heard good things about them. Just not sure if I want to take the extra time to make it! I like setting my timer and wake up to it already made! Yes, lazy! Lol
Barb it is such a nice way to force yourself to slow down for a few minutes. We only do it on weekends, cuz we’re both so busy too!
I may have to try that, Lisa! Especially since I’m going to be giving up my coffee creamer soon… Ack! I do love my sweet creamy coffee, but I’m eventually going to go black, so it will need to be GOOD coffee. π
I hope you will try it Lynn. There’s something so nice and special about the ritual of slowing down and enjoying the aroma of grinding the beans. And the flavor of the French press coffee is better than regular brewed coffee. I’m sure you have a large audience of coffee lovers who are also low carb. Oh, and one more thing – once you ditch your creamer, you *must* try your coffee black with cinnamon in it. It is delish! π
Be prepared to possibly see water weight gain from all that sodium in that dip mix but maybe since you fixed the dip a bit, it might not be so bad.
anytime i eat high sodium foods my scale goes up temporarily. Even sausages or soups do this to me.
My food experiments are often a failure too… π π
How did you incorporate the cucumbers and spinach in the dip? I wondered.
I see that sometimes too, Gigi – like with the Oscar Mayer Smokies. It may be coincidence given my weight tends to fluctuate, hold, drop on a regular basis – but my weight definitely “holds” with higher sodium. Water weight doesn’t concern me too much though, on the long-term trend of weight loss.
I’m working on the “recipe” now. Geez, wish me luck. I hate for THAT much good food to go to waste π lol…
Lynn real quick question….How do you get your fat grams that high….im doing fine and losing but my grams are only around 55 to 60…..Usual meals are breakfast: 2 eggs 2 sauage 1 cheese….Lunch & dinner 8 oz chicken, 1/2 cup green beans at each meal…Any ideas would be appreciated.
Hi Shelly,
First – you have to go by ratios or percentages instead of grams because some proteins are also fats. This explains that really well: http://www.travelinglowcarb.com/7006/macronutrients/
If you’re having chicken breast, switch to chicken thighs. They are juicier, have more fat AND they’re cheaper. π Green beans are a higher carb green vegetable of course. Try “loaded broccoli” (steamed broccoli topped with butter, sour cream, bacon & cheese) as a side.
Great healthy fats include: salmon, avocado, egg salad, deviled eggs, tuna or tuna salad, pecans, walnuts. I love avocado browned in butter. π
Hi Lynn. I love your posts. Congratulations on staying so true to the low-carb way of eating. I like to eat simple foods, too. Not much cooking goes on around here. Have you tried heavy whipping cream in your coffee? It’s wonderful !!!
Thank you, Donna! Yes, I used to drink HWC in my coffee daily. It does have 1 carb per 2 TBSP plus you are supposed to count 1 carb per packet of Splenda, which is what I was using before – so I cut my carb count in half by switching to the Coffee-Mate sugar free hazelnut powdered creamer.
My next big move is to “go black” – or I do like just butter in my coffee, so I’ll start there. I like HWC, but I got grossed out by the clumping, lol. If you accidentally shake it or move it around too much it starts turning to butter. π Half & Half is much better, but slightly higher carb count.
I truly just need to drink less coffee, or go butter/black. π lol
LYN i look at it this way, if sf hazelnut creaner is my only guilty pleasure then so be it. I am still having great results with my weight loss with the sf creamers. I cannot or will not give it up.
And you look fabulous and are losing weight. So WHY give up the sf creamers?
I think my coffee cuts my cravings for other worse things
life is too short……enjoy your coffe . Haha. π π i do!
often i will drink hot flavored tea in the evening but enjoy my coffee earlier. π
I feel the same way, Gigi. π The only reason I want to work toward butter/black coffee is – well, there are two reasons:
1) The sugar free hazelnut creamer is $5 bottle. That is getting to be an expensive habit because I drink A LOT of coffee, lol.
And 2) I drink A LOT of coffee. π That equals about 1/2 cup of the creamer a day, which is A LOT of chemical ingredients to be putting in my body every day.
I’d really like to work toward a cleaner diet, and use those 6-8 carbs a day on something like spinach – which is great for my hair. π
Not a big deal or a big rush for all the reasons you said, which I agree with, but I’d like to use it as a treat… instead of another “obsession” (I’m bad for those! lol)…
I have been looking for an alternative to the sf creamers as well
i think cutting down on thise would be good. The only thing that helped me for a while were the SF da vinci syrups. I love the Irish cream flavor in my coffee and then i add a splash of sf coconut milk or half and half to make it creamy but i ran out of the davinci syrup and i can only find the flavor i like online.
Believe me, i have been struggling to find a replacement for the carnation creamers. I think it is ok if used occassionally or no more than once a day but i have not been able to do it yet
i DO love my creamy flavored coffees. π