This “fast frittata” was delicious, and super easy to make!
I call it a “skillet quiche” 🍳 or a scrambled omelet. 😉
You can probably tell by the shape that it’s half the skillet. I made one large one then halved it into two servings. This is what my daughter and I had for our main meal today:
For a single serving (mine, above): 40 grams of diced onions fried in butter, add in half a serving (40 grams) of frozen Pictsweet Farms brand cutleaf spinach to the pan and let it thaw & saute with the onions, add 4 eggs and 2 tbsp of pimento cheese and scramble it all together. I topped mine with 28 grams of shredded cheddar and 2 tbsp of Daisy brand sour cream.
My plate came out to 7 net carbs, but almost half of that is the onions (you could use less or skip those), and this was my “main meal” for the day.
I used double those ingredients to make two plates, and split the skillet with my daughter.
What’s great about this “recipe” is that it can be made into egg muffins using a silicone muffin pan for meal prep, it can be baked as a crustless quiche, it can be made into an omelet – and of course you can use any combination of low carb ingredients you prefer.
It’s such an easy meal to mix up into unlimited variations!
Monday Weigh-In ✨ How Did Your Week Go?
If you’re participating in the Free 30-Day Keto Kickstart and the weekly weigh-ins with us, here is the link to today’s weigh-in post in our private facebook group:
Week One Weigh-In (Private Group)
If you’re not on Facebook, or you prefer not to post there, you can comment here on this post (below) – and follow along here instead.
I mentioned in yesterday’s note: Real Life Keto (With Chocolate & Wine) that I didn’t have an appetite and hadn’t eaten yet. I did finally get hungry last night, and I ATE. 😋
I had the classic “Egg Roll In A Bowl” + added chopped steak. 🥣🥩🥦
There’s a little bit of everything in this bowl: ground beef, cabbage, mushrooms, fried egg, chopped ribeye, broccoli, etc. It was a HUGE super-satisfying low carb dinner. 💯 This was delicious!
If you want to make this yourself, the EASY way, get the “broccoli slaw” in the produce section at the grocery store to use as your base. 😉
I get asked a lot if I do fasting or OMAD (one meal a day) – or count calories.
I don’t, and I never have.
I just eat when I’m hungry and don’t when I’m not – and stop eating when I’m satisfied (vs stuffed). I call this “intuitive eating” which basically just means: listen to your body. 👍
Some days I wake up hungry, sometimes I eat several smaller meals throughout the day, some days two good meals or one large meal. I just keep it simple: hungry = eat. 👌
This actually took a lot of mindful practice for me because I grew up thinking “you should eat three meals a day” (plus snacks!) and also thinking “stuffed” was normal. I’ve since learned that “satisfied” feels MUCH better!
At first this usually meant I dished out more than I could eat, or needed to eat. I figured out pretty quick how much (less) to put on my plate, or to start with less and then get more if I’m still hungry after I eat what I plated (I’m usually not).
You’ll find as you get and stay in ketosis consistently, you have much less appetite, and also that you’re more easily satisfied – especially when you’re eating naturally high fat foods (eggs, beef, pecans, avocado, etc).
The key is to start paying attention to your hunger signals: hungry, satisfied, TOO full – and eat based on that. I find it MUCH easier than trying to count calories or restrict when I can and cannot eat.
Try “Mindful Eating” This Week!
For this week, start paying close attention to what you FEEL. Every time you reach for food, or find yourself looking in the pantry or the refrigerator, ask yourself: Am I hungry? Check yourself – ARE you hungry? If so, choose something healthy and satisfying.
If you’re not feeling actual hunger, and maybe reaching for food out of boredom or habit, do something else instead. When I did this, I would usually be in the kitchen, so I would turn around and do 10 tricep dips on the kitchen chair. That was a great redirect, plus it gave me a FEEL GOOD boost too!
Pay attention when you’re eating too, and stop when you’re satisfied – instead of when you finish your plate, or feel FULL.
I’m not saying you should eat more or less than you do (I don’t know how much you’re eating now!), or that you should change anything at all… but if you find that you’re struggling to lose weight, or you’re trying TOO hard to lose weight and feeling deprived or going hungry, just try this for one week!
Your body will guide you to eat when it needs fuel, and you’ll learn how great it feels to be “satisfied” vs “stuffed.”
The challenge: learn to listen to your BODY instead of your MIND when it comes to eating, and retrain your mind to eat for nutrition as needed.
This really helped me break some unnecessary “food habits” and learn to do other things to relieve stress, boredom, anxiety, etc. (Food never actually helped with any of those things anyway, to be honest…)
I would love to hear your thoughts on those ideas.
I’m not against fasting, by the way – it has it’s place, and it works well for some people because it’s a form of discipline.
For others, it feels like deprivation, which in any form… can set you up to fail. For people who have struggled with eating disorders 🙋♀️ fasting can be a form of CONTROL and can easily become as obsessive as binge eating.
Everyone is different, so you have to decide what is right for YOU given your history and relationship with food and dieting. If you’ve had a habit of extremes (me), fasting may not be right for you.
Eating low carb is not meant to be about feeling deprived or going hungry – or dieting, even. You actually burn more calories at a resting state when you’re in ketosis than you do when you’re not. There’s a science to the way a ketogenic low carb diet works to burn body fat, so keep it really simple and just relax into a habit of mindful eating while you enjoy all the great low carb foods you can have!
Fasting is more of a new trend (and one that some people are taking to extremes, in my humble opinion). One of the reasons I decided to go low carb to lose weight almost 10 years ago, instead of choosing low fat or low calorie, is because I DIDN’T want to go hungry. 😉
I get a little crabby when I’m hungry. 👀
Okay, A LOT crabby. 😅 #truth
Thoughts or Questions?
I look forward to hearing your updates this week!
Best,
Lynn Terry
aka @LowCarbTraveler
Discount Code: LOWCARBTRAVELER
Hi Lynn! I have been heavy my entire adult life. Last year I lost 50 lbs on keto relatively quick. It is the only diet I have ever lost weight with. After a few months I stopped and I have regained most of that weight back. My lab numbers were horrendous. I had never had a problem with my cholesterol until keto. What are your thoughts on this and how do you manage? I want to go back to keto because I wasn’t hungry all the time and I did drop the weight. Suggestions?
Hi Tina,
I’m not a doctor (obviously) but a few things stood out to me that might help you find the answers you’re looking for. There is A LOT of new research out about cholesterol now, by the way – I recommend a search at both Amazon and YouTube for: keto cholesterol
From what I’ve read and also heard from others, it’s not uncommon for your overall or total cholesterol to go up at first, and then balance out and improve. I have been eating very low carb (keto) for almost 10 years now, and my numbers are perfect.
I don’t think a way you eat or a lifestyle change for just a few months can have a dramatic or detrimental affect on your health or cholesterol. You mentioned you’d been heavy your entire adult life. What were your lab numbers prior to eating very low, and what are they now that you’ve stopped? I would venture to guess you want to look at the bigger picture – long term changes/effects.
Our metabolic health state, cholesterol, etc are going to be a combination of both lifestyle and genetics. But both take time to manifest or present as true health issues or concerns I think.
My advice would be to research it more – there are some great books on Amazon, and interesting videos on YouTube – and also to just consider how you can make a ketogenic low carb diet work for you, in a way that doesn’t concern you.
Salmon is a great superfood, for example – and it’s hard to argue with grilled salmon and steamed broccoli as a healthy meal, which is also very low carb.
One of the biggest concerns I have personally is seeing people “carb cycle” or having trouble staying on track. Your body will either burn carbs/sugar for energy, or burn fat for energy. If you’re eating a lot of healthy fats (keto), you can achieve great weight loss and health markers. But eating high fat and ALSO eating sugar/carbs, that’s where most health issues come in. It’s less about certain foods (bacon, eggs, butter, etc) and more about the science of food combining – like combining fat and sugar – that causes most problems.
Anyway, if it were me, I would do an experiment for this year (2021) with a goal of losing body fat and eating very low carb with a focus on healthy food choices. Have your bloodwork done before you start, and then not again until one full year later.
I think there is more you want to look at than the standard tests or results the doctor usually gives you btw, but you’ll learn more about that on Amazon/YouTube when you research that topic.
The only time that I have fasted was when I got a steroid shot and it threw me out of ketosis. A 24 hour fast is a good way to get into ketosis. You have to be careful that you are not using it as a way to cheat and then get back in ketosis because it becomes less effective the more you do it (so I have heard).
I do like the idea of “mindful” eating. Why would you eat if you are not hungry. I have found this very easy to do with a keto lifestyle because the foods I eat tend to keep me feeling fuller much longer.
Lynn, glad to see you back in the swing of things. I will have to try that egg roll in a bowl…it looks supper yummy and I have all the ingredients in my fridge.
Why would you eat if you are not hungry? Good question. π I used to binge eat and it was usually: stress, depression, boredom, habit – you name it! I started out with a very bad relationship with food, often using it to comfort, reward or punish. Those were tough habits & mindsets to break/overcome, but totally worth it. FOOD FREEDOM has been a wonderful thing!
Hey Lynn!!! I’m back!! My husband and I started keto again for the 1200033444th time and I immediately came to your site to see how you have been. First off, I am so sorry to hear about your father and Aaron. But you are strong and I know you will rise above it. You are such a strong person. I’m happy to hear you are over the “rona” lol thats what we call it.
Funny story……Christmas of 2019 me, my husband and all 3 of our boys got really really sick. Coughing, fever, no appetite, chest congestion, you name it we had it. So the day after Christmas I took the boys and I to urgent care and we all got tested for the flu. Our tests came back that we had the flu but it was a different strain of the flu. There was nothing they could give us and were instructed to go home, stay hydrated and drink lots of fluids. Hubby (who refuses to go to the drs) did the Dr on-call and they prescribed him an antibiotic for a sinus infection. 2 weeks later his antibiotics hadn’t done anything to make him better and the kids and I were finally starting to feel better. So, needless to say I am convinced we had Covid-19 before it had really started to blow up here. Crazy!!! Luckily we haven’t had any lingering symptoms and now I’m a total freak about sanitizing and keeping ourselves at home ββοΈ.
During those 2 weeks I had zero appetite. Even with having a huge Christmas dinner and brunch and snacks and goodies around I was just plain not hungry. I just so happened to weigh myself Christmas day. Cause I was over feeling uncomfortable and bloated and was determined to get back on track with my diet. I weighed 252!! The biggest I’ve ever been even during my pregnancies (which by the way I had 3 10lb babies). I was mortified. I weighed again on the 1st of January and without doing any diet or anything cause I was still sick then I had lost 11 pounds. That opened my eyes and made me jump head first back into Keto. Since then even with a few hiccups I have lost a total of 52lbs. Woo hoo!! My confidence is so much better and I am determined to stick to it this time for good. And for the first time in a decade I wore a bathing suit this past summer. I went from eating all day to really only eating 1 meal a day with maybe a small snack. I’ve really tried to keep it simple. I have my youngest son doing keto as well so recently I’ve been forced to eat a little more than I usually do to keep him on track (whatever I eat he’ll eat). I’m hoping to lose another 20-30lbs before summer.
Sorry for the novel lol. I’m so happy to be back and with you during this journey. Good luck everyone!!!
Hi Justine!! It’s SO great to hear from you. π And KUDOS on losing 52 pounds over the last year, that’s amazing. Even more amazing though… is hearing your confidence and determination and HAPPINESS. It feels great to wear a bathing suit in the summer and LIVE YOUR LIFE doesn’t it?! π
I’m glad you’re back. I look forward to hearing more from you again. I’m still recovering, I’m over two months out from the initial exposure, so now it’s more the slow and hard recovery from what I can only guess is Post Viral Syndrome, which unfortunately seems more common with this particular virus. Some days are very hard still, but I’m just glad to be improving and recovering, no matter how slow. π
Hey!!! I’m beyond excited to be back. It does feel so good to be able to live my life and not be so ashamed or held back because I have no confidence because of my weight. Between COVID, hours being cut, raising 3 boys and all 3 are doing virtual learning, family issues, and just daily life I am super proud of our progress. We even have our friends doing this with us and they are doing great and are so much more energetic and happy.
I’m so sorry you are still recovering. My prayers are with you and I hope before too long you’ll be back to your old spontaneous and happy self
That makes me SMILE, Justine. π WAY TO GO!!
And thank you. I’m very much looking forward to a full recovery and FUN spring and summer. π
I have bad knees and back problems. I need to lose weight because health issues. I want to be more active in things that I used to do.
Hi Diane,
I was not at all active, and also in chronic pain before going low carb. Those are the two BIGGEST perks I’ve enjoyed – way more than the weight loss even. π It’s SO nice to be able to get out and do things, and to NOT be in constant pain all the time. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself, and I can say without a doubt: it’s totally worth it!! xo ~Lynn