🏡 Day 1 of Week 12 Staying Home

Everyone feels SO different about this… that it’s hard to talk about. The whole virus / quarantine / shutdown topic has become very polarizing – which makes me sad.

People seem anxious, angry, uncertain, annoyed, frustrated, confused, one or more, maybe all of the above. Either way they’re all negative feelings, and emotions seem to be running HIGH lately – which is totally understandable.

As for me, I’m just… HAPPY.

When I tell people I’m STILL staying home, this is what they imagine:

This is what it’s actually like, though. 🙂 🥰

The only REAL negative in my life at the moment… is the coffee-mate sugar free powdered creamer shortage. 😳😅

Update: It’s back in stock now AND they just dropped the price!

I’ve settled into a great routine, a nice relaxed flow actually. I’ve fallen in love with my home all over again and have been working on organization & updates.

I’m cooking at home too, and when I miss dining out… I’m having fun recreating my restaurant favorites, at home! 🙂

At first this whole situation brought on a lot of anxiety and uncertainty and felt like a major disruption to the path I was on in my life.

But now, 11+ weeks into it, this “pause in life as I knew it” has made me reconsider my priorities, all the things that were usual habits or routines, what REALLY matters… and has me putting A LOT of thought into my goals going forward.

This feels like a GREAT opportunity to totally recreate (or restructure maybe) my entire lifestyle.

I feel extremely GRATEFUL to be in a position to stay home – and continue staying home, happily – by choice.

And then I feel GUILTY for having that option (that “privilege”) even though I worked HARD (busted my ass, actually) to have the choices & opportunities I do at this point in my life.

Still, not everyone got to choose.

I get that.

I’ve thought so many times what my life would be like had this pandemic happened at various phases in my life. Like when I had a house full of teenagers, or when my son was at his sickest, or that time we were camping out in a remote cabin with no hot water or refrigerator when the kids were 5 and 9 years old.

Every time I think about all the different scenarios, I get that huge hit of GRATITUDE again about where I am in my life now (instead) – followed by that little hit of GUILT for feeling so grateful. 🤪

Everyone’s story through this pandemic is different. Yours is unique to you, mine to me. But we still have an amazing community and I’ve been overwhelmed by the support and kindness that runs strong through it. 💕

Speaking of, we had a GREAT live discussion the other night!

We talked about food guilt (and mom guilt), we talked about staying on track – or getting BACK on track. I also unboxed some of my latest packages because I’ve been hitting the sales, and stocking up on some NEW things to review for you. 😉

I shared what I like, what I don’t like, and there were a lot of great questions and fun topics too – just an all around fun conversation about low carb life!

Here’s the video if you missed it…

I mentioned I’m gearing up (and stocking up!) for a HUGE low carb ice cream comparison review, and the new Real Good Foods ice cream came up…

Yes, I ordered it – a BUNCH of it. 🙂

No, I don’t know the NET carb count on it. They don’t seem to want to disclose that for some reason. 🤔

I scoured the ingredients though and they LOOK good, and it is SUPER CREAMY and delicious – so I’m going to do a blood glucose/ketone test on it just to be sure.

But going by the ingredients alone, I’d say it should probably check out fine! ✅

Their newest flavors are in stock again now AND they marked the price-per-pint down (yay!) plus ➕ I scored you an additional 15% off their new lower prices. 💯

Yes, You Can Order Online at Real Good Foods!
📲 Use discount code LOWCARBTRAVELER for the extra 15% off

Their new cauliflower & broccoli crust pizzas are both GREAT, btw. 🍕😋

They ship fast & FREE on DRY ICE 🧊 so you can get every ice cream flavor & all the pizza delivered right to your front door still frozen solid! 🚚

As you can see… I am NOT doing without while staying at home. 😅

I’ve been shopping great deals in my spare time, working from home of course (as usual), doing some painting and organizing and rearranging, spending A LOT of time outdoors… and trying out some DELICIOUS new low carb foods to review for you! 😍

In that video (above) we also talked about Kiss My Keto MCT Oil and their Pumpkin Seed & Sea Salt chocolate bars 🍫 and what I did NOT like from there.

My discount code is LOWCARBTRAVELER there btw, if you also like their MCT Oil (it’s the only one that comes with a pump).

I unboxed my orders from Netrition and Perfect Keto and ChocZero too. Here’s my list of favorites from Netrition (which you saw me unbox), and tip: they have the ChocZero peanut butter cups in stock!

* * * * *

I’ve been cooking A LOT more than usual, given I’m happy staying at home (still).

Mostly it’s easy one skillet meals, or quick salads with LOTS of flavor & nutrients – that are honestly better than any salad I’ve EVER had in a restaurant!

My favorite meal lately is a “One Skillet Farm Egg Brunch”

Here are two videos of me making it, so you can see how EASY it is – and how DELICIOUS it turns out:

Those garlic-roasted grape tomatoes are my newest obsession!! 😍

I add them on my salads too:

Such an amazing burst of flavor in pretty much any dish!

🍅 Here’s how I make the garlic-roasted tomatoes:

Between those “brunch skillets” and delicious salads, that yogurt parfait (#3 on that page), and ALL the different brands & flavors of low carb ice creams I’ve ordered to try & review 🍦 😋 I’m definitely enjoying the FOOD at home.

Back to that though:

🏡 I’m happy to keep staying home for now…

It’s interesting really, how just a few short weeks changed my perspective on so many things. Things that were so routine or habitual that I never really questioned them – I just did them.

I’m still working that out and making decisions, but I definitely see a LOT of positive changes coming out of this – and already in the works. 🙂

Right now I have everything I need at home: my work, Slim (who is not well, so it’s the perfect time not to be traveling and to stay home with him), I can get any foods I want delivered right to my front door – easy, all is well. I’m content here.

I’m spending a lot of time outdoors of course. 🌼 I haven’t been hiking because they shut down a lot of the places I would normally go, but those have opened back up so I’ll be back out hiking my favorite waterfalls soon! 🌞💦

Being completely honest… it’s the “weird vibe” with people that makes me less than enthusiastic about going to a store, dining out inside a restaurant, or going ANYWHERE public really.

Like I said earlier, people seem very odd – what little I have been out. Some are antagonistic, judgmental, angry, hateful, disrespectful, etc. Others seem anxious – or look at you and walk WAY around you like you have the plague (oh wait: you might!).

I get it. Most people are on edge in one way or another, or the extreme opposite: there are people who don’t care at all about any of it and don’t mind to get all in your space (which I never liked even before all of this) – and totally ignore any guides set up, like one way aisles in stores, or even “considerate” social distance.

And then there are the people that are going out of their way to antagonize anyone they think is being cautious or feeling anxious – which is just crappy.

It’s just the whole vibe – it’s SO far off.

It sort of takes the fun out of usual social stuff.

No, it DOES take the fun out of it. (period)

Then there’s the fact that everything is different…

Nothing is casual and easy like it was before. There’s yellow caution tape around the playground where I used to love to go swing on Tuesday mornings, there are barricades and roped off entrances, there are head-counters at the door, lines in the floor, everyone looking at each other oddly… yada yada yada.

I’m simply more content staying home, and staying out of it all.

Everyone gets to make their own choices, what choices we have within our specific circumstances at least, and that’s mine: I’m happy at home for now.

I think about all the traveling I’ve done, the five trips to Australia on LONG packed flights, the beaches I’ve visited, all the concerts I went to packed shoulder to sweaty shoulder singing our lungs out together, all the events I’ve attended, fun nights out dancing, crowded restaurants buzzing with conversation and laughter…

It would be one thing if ANY of those things would be the same now, or feel anywhere near the same as they used to. I guess that’s the bottom line:

Things are not FUN out there anymore – to me.

Maybe someday they will be again. But not yet… so I can have a dance party in my kitchen to live concert videos on YouTube, cook up amazing meals at home, enjoy the outdoors like I always have, and otherwise enjoy my home life for awhile.

Of course, that’s easy for me: I’m a natural introvert. 😊

I can’t imagine how hard this has been for teenagers, young adults, people with large families and full houses, those who lost jobs – or worse: lost loved ones…

Two of my closest friends had to shut down their business – for good.

I can only imagine how THAT feels, being in business for 23 years myself, in a career I created myself. Losing something you poured your whole life into has to be … I don’t even have the words for it. 🙁

Yes, I feel very fortunate indeed. I do.

I’m glad both of my children are raised, out of on their own, and safe & healthy. And that I have the option to be home alone, and that I ENJOY being home alone as much as I do.

The only other thing, besides that shortage on coffee-mate sugar free powdered creamer I mentioned 🤦‍♀️ is WORK – it’s been extremely busy the last few months, and keeping me going non-stop most days! Which is probably a good thing, and the reason I haven’t found myself “bored” yet. 😉

I’ve had to “shift with the changes” with my business and my usual work, so that’s kept me pretty busy.

It didn’t help that the basement flooded, the water heater went out, the A/C on my car stopped working, my refrigerator went on the fritz, my dane injured his foot – etc (ETC!) – lots of extra expenses while work was requiring a lot of adjustments and shifts in flow. Ack!

That’s life though, right?

I will confess though that I haven’t been working out at all lately. I’ve pretty much lost ALL of my muscle tone the last few months.

That’s my next BIG goal: to get back to my daily workouts! Even if I have to do home workouts for now, until I feel comfortable leaving Slim to go out for a hike…

His foot seems to be healing up well (fingers crossed!), but the antibiotics made him sick, so I’m just keeping a super close eye on him right now. He’s VERY old for a great dane (11 years).

What about you?

Are you back to work and HAPPY to be back to work?

Are you out of work, working from home, back to work and NOT happy about it?

Are you going back out now that things are opening back up, or not really feeling comfortable with that?

I would love to hear what YOUR experience has been, how you feel about it all NOW, and how you think it might change things for you going forward…

It took me ALL day to hit “send” on this note to you because – well, like I said, this is just a VERY sensitive topic.

So yeah, I think I’ll just stick to low carb recipes & easy keto meal ideas for the next few posts. 😉

But I do look forward to hearing how you are, how you feel, and what’s going on with you…

💚

Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler

p.s. Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s anything I can help with when it comes to the keto diet or low carb lifestyle, or any problems you’re having lately. I always look forward to hearing from you!

p.p.s. I got my Perfect Keto delivery this morning while I was writing you this note. 🙂 I just ordered it a few days ago!!

📲 Get 15% off at Perfect Keto with this Discount Link

Here’s a video unboxing so you can see what I got:

 

---

🔎 Shop Low Carb / Keto at Netrition
Discount Code: LOWCARBTRAVELER

---