Kristy's Journal
I know this probably doesn’t help and please don’t think I’m belittling your or your parents feelings, but it’s only one Christmas out of what? 40, or 50 or 60 that you guys get to spend together? Under the circumstances, I think I’d be staying home and prioritizing safety and health. And besides:
I was trying to add this to the bottom of my post but apparently I haven’t mastered multiple quotes… 
@Myhnabird I 100% agree with you. I appreciate the candor
Doesn’t make the emotions any easier to cope with. The thing is I would be the one to get sick more than anyone else. Have a very Merry Zoom Holiday!
Woke up today with a heavy heart but so astounded that I didn’t wake up in the night needing pain meds or food! The ah-ha moment where I consciously knew (even though I’ve known all along but was diluting myself) that I can’t go home for Christmas for the first time in my entire life has left me feeling heavy hearted but also hollow and resigned. I emotionally ate yesterday. By no means a binge but I was hungry a good portion of the day. Although my stomach hunger wasn’t too much my heart and mouth hunger needed something. I could have fed them with something other than food but chose food because it was easy. Will try something different today.
Haven’t checked my ketones yet today. I want to fast. However, with whatever this body is doing seems to make it difficult. I’m trying to restrict my eating window and hope I can straighten my fasting muscle again to at least continue with OMAD or ADF. I’ll get there when I get there. Pressuring myself would not lead to success.
Celebrated (a month early) my husband’s and mine’s 12 year anniversary with new phones. We were due for an upgrade anyway. Also got the pups groomed yesterday- will post photos. Ended up eating some jalapenos with cream cheese, nut butter, keto marscapone mousse, and some homemade full fat keto gnocchi made with mozzarella, local eggs, almond flour, flax meal. I cooked them in a pan until golden and crispy with local butter, some EVOO, garlic, and crushed red pepper.
All in all I only gained 4.5 lbs over the last month. After I got the water weight off and the BM’s moving I’m down to 180.
Trying to find something special to have food wise for X-mas. The only decent restaurants are a good hour to hour and a half away. Indian food is our favorite but I could make that from scratch. We’re vegetarian. Any ideas from the wonderful community would be appreciated!
Have fasted at least 14 hours! Made some nut butter with roasted : macadamia, Brazil, walnut, pepita,pecan, flax, pistachio and almonds. Haven’t tasted it yet. Debating on whether to eat now when I’m only moderately hungry. Or wait a bit longer to see if it passes?
Everything you described for your meal sounds amazing!! Especially the gnocchi and marscapone mousse. I LOVE cannolis… so, that mousse would be right up my alley. I have a tradition of doing Jambalaya for Christmas dinner as my family hails from New Orleans. I don’t think you eat meat, however, and there’s a lot of meats involved(we don’t add seafood but you could).
Congrats on 12 YEARS wow!!! That’s fantastic!! Congrats on the new phones!!
My phone is 6 years old and I could probably use an upgrade… but it works so… I’ll keep it until it doesn’t. I’m the same way w/my car. It’s going on 11 years old in January and 240K miles… but it still runs so… I keep things forever if I can. LOL.
I’m sorry you won’t get to be with your family for Christmas. 2020 will go down in the record books for being the worst year of the last century for sure. Hugs to you.
.8mmol today! On hour 15 of my fast. Had a 5 hour eating window yesterday. Could have done OMAD and wasn’t really hungry but ate a second smaller meal closer to bed. I was hoping to be able to sleep through the night again which I did! Only had to take 2 sodium naproxen this morning!
My husband and I have decided that it’s time for him to start looking for another job. I can’t tolerate living in Iowa a moment longer than we need to. We’ll still be here for awhile because we want to move back to Colorado specifically to be close to my husband’s family. He also needs a very specific type of library job with a salary that could support us in CO, which is insanely expensive. Also, CO has a huge Buddhist community.
Yesterday my desire to bake artisanal pastries again hit me like a load of bricks. Since there is no where for me to work here… well I can only tolerate a complete lack of amenities for so long. I’ll probably never be able to work full time again, and honestly do not want to. It’s important for me to have a lot of time for my dogs, hobbies and volunteering.
Hopefully we will not be here for more than a year. Wish us luck!
Have everything prepped to make a veggie green curry and sagg paneer. I think I’ve been eating too much protein and that it’s hindering my ability to get back into ketosis. Hopefully all the veggies won’t upset my tummy too much. Need to take it slow
Library job!? Is your husband a librarian? 
He’s an awesome librarian. Right now he is director of a small university library. He has a lot of bonafidas and would have kept getting more degrees if I didn’t put my foot down and say “you need a job not another decade of grad school”
My favorite thing in the whole universe is books so I needed a partner that “fit” that part of me
I’m a librarian, too! It’s a great job, it’s been so much fun.
You are a very special type of person! Library jobs can be pretty hard to come by so I want him to start looking now! What’s your library passion @maywind ? My husband only wants to work at universities or museums. He loves working with students especially ones from outside the states. He loves getting their fresh perspectives.
Right now he’s doing a lot of mentoring with this student from Mongolia. She’s so amazing!
I work in public libraries. It can be difficult but I get to meet so many different people and at my last job I did everything between collection development, programming, outreach, reference, etc. My days were never boring! At my current job, I mostly do programming which I’ve always found to be one of the more enjoyable parts of my job.
Jobs can definitely be difficult to come by. I was so worried when I was about to graduate. I worked as a clerk and I said to my supervisor, “Have you noticed that the job emails coming from the city no longer include any librarian openings?” He seemed surprised so he checked his own emails and said, “Huh…I guess they don’t…” Great timing!
Down to .5mmol. Kinda frustrated. Only had a 5 hour eating window yesterday. Was able to fast for 18 hours. Ate veggie green curry (made with coconut cream) and some sagg paneer. Didn’t really need to eat a second meal but didn’t want to wake up in the night. Still too much protein?!? Had cauliflower in my curry yesterday and it did not sit well on my tummy even though I take digestive enzymes. Patience. However I lost almost another 3lbs. So I guess I put on more water weight than I thought? Carbs are tricky!
Making my husband Dhal curry and Channa Masala. Like… LOTS. I have a hard time making small portions. He doesn’t mind eating the exact same thing everyday so we can freeze it and he’ll have lunch food for quite some time.
Had to do some taste testing of the sauces which technically broke my fast but w/e. Since I’m feeling loads better it’s awesome being up and about doing things!
Was delighted to spend an hour on the phone with a dear friend yesterday. I guess her oldest daughter (8) has been quasi vegetarian for about a year but now absolutely refuses to eat anything with a face. So my friend reached out to me for legitimate and researched resources on kids going vegetarian, how to support them, nutrition, and cook books. So much pseudoscience out there! My youngest niece (7) is kinda like that too (but she’s a picky eater I’ll only eat pasta and cheese kinda girl). However, my family would burst a gasket if I encouraged her to be vegetarian. I wouldn’t- that is totally not my place (nor am I remotely dogmatic) but it’s an unstated rule that when my nieces ask why I don’t eat meat I can’t talk about animal rights, ethical reasoning, or environmental impact. I’m sure when they get older we’ll have to have a real conversation about it.
Going to fast for as long as I can today. About to make some deviled eggs
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This!
This is why I got the little airfryer/convection oven/ dehydrator.
This is why I got the food saver.
I had a nice discovery this last week. I have some perfect size pyrex dishes that fit into the new little oven thing. One of them held just enough for me and a neighbor for a casserole meal.
I’m getting into just make the large batch and portion freeze perfectly. Dating, labeling, etc.
It then becomes a game of thaw the night before. No worries about leftovers and if they’ll be eaten.
“When we first hear about emptiness, we feel a little frightened. But after practicing for a while, we see that things do exist, only in a different way than we’d thought. Emptiness is the Middle Way between existent and nonexistent. The beautiful flower does not become empty when it fades and dies. It is already empty, in its essence. Looking deeply, we see that the flower is made of non-flower elements — light, space, clouds, earth, and consciousness. It is empty of a separate, independent self. In the Diamond Sutra, we are taught that a human being is not independent of other species, so to protect humans, we have to protect the non-human species. If we pollute the water and air, the vegetables and minerals, we destroy ourselves. We have to learn to see ourselves in things that we thought were outside of ourselves in order to dissolve false boundaries.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
@Miramar totally! My biggest problem with feeding myself is that I do not like eating the same thing over and over and when I do freeze something I usually won’t ever eat it again (most of the time). I have no idea why.
Dialectically, I am also what my friends call a mono-eater. Where I only want to eat a single food (say avocado, salad or nut butter) for an entire week or month then am unable to eat it again for like a year. I can’t pretend to fathom any of this!
My father passed early December. My sister went into the hospital Christmas last year.
I feel badly for my nieces and brother in law.
Last week I tried to replicate the way my sister made her brussel sprouts. I failed miserably. Not like me at all as I’m a really good cook.