Perfect keto calorie restricting snack for March to Weight Loss (drum roll, please?)

 Hey my friends! This blog explores how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass with keto diet, calorie restricting on a 1200 calorie diet. This month, I've issued a March to Weight Loss challenge. And today I'm sharing the perfect keto calorie restricting snack to lose weight, reduce inflammation, relieve pain, curb hunger boost metabolism, burn fat, prevent dehydration and even ward off effects of long covid 19! What is this superfood? Drum roll, please...

GUACAMOLE! Yup, homemade guacamole is the perfect dip, spread, snack, smoothie, you name it, guacamole is it! Here are simple keto diet recipe for this wunderkind snack. 

Avocado: cram packed with high electrolyte potassium goodness, MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids), good saturated fats (for keto fat burning and metabolism boosting) and anti-inflammatory properties avocado is great for weight loss, fat burning, metabolism, lowering blood sugar (ergo inflammation and pain) post Covid 19 recovery (which includes avoiding dehydration) . For guacamole, cut avocado around the long end, remove pit (if only using half, leave pit in to prevent browning and spoilage). Scoop out avocado and place in blender. 

Garlic (minced with juice). Garlic is one of nature's best infection fighters (so good for Covid 19 prevention) plus anti-inflammatory (so perfect for preventing and healing obesity) building gut bacteria, providing antioxidants, reducing blood sugar level (so fighting diabetes) and more! 

Cilantro: This handsome herb has a reputation for helping lose weight and fighting obesity and diabetes by boosting metabolism. Add a handful to blender with avocado.

Onion: Another miracle superfood, onions are bulbs like garlic and have many of the same properties: anti-inflammatory, metabolism boosting, fat burning, infection fighting, lowering blood sugar (diabetes) plus even improving brain functioning. Mince and add to blender with avocado.

Tomatoes: These are one of my favorite potassium rich superfoods for weight loss and just plain yumminess. Lycopene is good for metabolism, circulation, prostate and heart health, blood sugar, boosting electrolytes and astringent fat burning and system cleanse. Being essentially zero calorie, tomatoes are the perfect calorie restricting food for the 1200 calorie diet. 

Lemon or lime juice: high potassium, Vitamin C and fiber, lemons and limes are good for gut bacteria, weight loss and infection fighting. Drinking water with lemon was part of how I lost 100 pounds. 

Pepper and Himalayan pink salt: Pepper for the pain relieving anti-inflammatory win and pink salt for infection fighting, electrolyte win!

Blend together and enjoy in place of sour cream, cheese, mayonnaise or salsa. Try this guacamole on tacos, burritos or nachos. Or  just plain. 

How I lost 100 pounds with Popeye

 

Hiya friends! If you follow this blog on how I lost 100 pounds, you know that I like to write enigmatic titles to provoke your curiosity. Today we're looking at weight loss with Popeye. Not, alas, the famous Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen. I wish!! But Popeye the sailor man. (Whom my grandson Moses used to call Potpie, which makes me laugh to remember, and ponder how the baby grands are growing so quickly, but I digress...)

Anyway, Popeye says he's "strong to the finish cuz I eats me spinach." And that's great for weight loss too. One cup of spinach has $5% RDA vitamin A, 20% vitamin C, gobs of Vitamin K, Vitamin B and 10% potassium (the most difficult-to-get-enough-of of the electrolytes, as I learned by getting seriously dehydrated during Covid 19.) 

But how does spinach help lose weight? Popeye demonstrates when he eats a can, he gets super strong. That is a genuine benefit of spinach. Because it contains such high quantities of vitamins and electrolytes (calcium, magnesium) it boosts metabolism and energy. Metabolism boosters help food digest more efficiently, improve circulation and even enhance mood. Speedier metabolism gets the most bang for your food buck. 

You'll notice on shows like "My 600-lb Life" that most gastric bypass patients never eat a green vegetable unless it's saturated in butter or drowned in salad dressing. It's true that green leafy vegetables like spinach require some fat to digest. But it should be something high in MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids) or PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids), low in saturated fats (unless avocado or coconut oil) and free of transfats. 

Dr. Now, gastric bypass physician on "My 600-lb Life" uses a 1200 calorie diet to help patients lose weight before and after surgery. This 1200 calorie diet is vegetable forward and features spinach and other green leafy vegetables prominently. These not only help with metabolism, they help cleanse and flush stored fat and end obesity. 

Another green leafy veggie that is great for weight loss is kale. However I find that kale has a stronger and more bitter flavor whereas I can hide spinach in most anything and not taste it. My favorite way to eat spinach is in a salad or breakfast smoothie. Add a few handfuls to your protein shake, with half a grapefruit, pea protein powder and blueberries or raspberries and drink your way to weight loss! 

How I lost 100 pounds being a heavy drinker: fat flush for weight loss

 
Hi pals! As you may know, if you've followed this blog, that my husband and I got very serious Covid 19 infections early in 2021 just prior to getting vaccine. (Yes, we social distanced, masked, sanitized, etc. Covid is a crazy illness that doesn't follow rules). We are long haulers and still struggling with "Covid brain" and exhaustion. And one MAJOR takeaway from this is the disastrous nature of long-term fever and cellular dehydration. 

You'll also know, reading this blog that I share a lot about  how I lost 100 pounds in 2014 (and kept most of it off). I have been exploring links to dehydration and obesity and discovered that part of how I lost 100 pounds was by being a heavy drinker. 👀😁 Not alcohol (though I do drink wine and have done throughout my weight loss process). Alcohol is dehydrating. And so, believe it or not, is plain water. 

Lemme splain. Now I do drink a LOT of plain water which is good for weight loss as it is a fat flush. However, alone, without electrolytes (particularly magnesium and potassium) it will actually dry you out. And that will cause water retention or water weight gain, the thing that people on "My 600-lb Life" so often blame their obesity on. True water weight gain, from dehydration, is completely different.

My MIL weighed 100 pounds soaking wet. She became dehydrated because she drank too much water and flushed out all her electrolytes. She collapsed and was hospitalized with delirium (another symptom we experienced in Covid 19 fever). The staff could not figure out why, until I mentioned that she had what looked like belly fat which she has never had. Turns out  it was pooled water that she couldn't expel, due to low potassium and magnesium (electrolytes which help the body utilize water efficiently). 

 So the solution to avoid dehydration, fat flush and lose weight is to consume proper amounts of electrolytes: sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium. The first two are easy, the last two, not. I became a label reader. And I found Gatorade, Powerade and other "hydration drinks" contain little to no magnesium or potassium. My drink of choice is BodyArmor (sugar-free kind, cuz sugar dehydrates too). Other coconut water works well too. Coconut water not only hydrates, the fatty acids fat flush too. 

So Slainte! Bottoms up on the coconut water, for weight loss and just general feelz goodz! Subscribe to my blog for more on how I lost 100 pounds and other happy pills. Love, mar and Emmett (top left, newest baby grand, isn't he handsome?) Top right is me in 2008 before weight loss, with lots of inflammation  in face (another sign of cellular dehydration). 

How I lost weight using Covid 19 lessons, rainbow diet and beefed up electrolytes

Hey there! Just mar with another update on how I lost 100 pounds and beat obesity without gastric bypass surgery, and kept it off. Today I'll explain how I used lessons learned from Covid 19 about weight loss to lose weight gained back after shoulder surgery. 

What Covid 19 taught me about dehydration and hydration: first electrolytes are essential to prevent dehydration (and obesity). Hydration involves not just drinking water but also keeping electrolytes, minerals and vitamins up. Hydration also helps weight loss because it boosts metabolism and reduces stored fat. 

The electrolytes sodium and calcium are fairly easy to get. Magnesium less so and potassium hardest of all because the RDA is 3,700-4,000 mg. The good news is that its easy to boost potassium within the intermittent fasting, 5:2 diet, Zone diet, calorie restricting, keto or 1200 calorie diet. Foods high in potassium (and calcium and magnesium electrolytes) top of the list of recommended foods for weight loss (yay!) namely fruits, vegetables, seafood and legumes (double yay!)

During Covid 19, I was calorie restricting but not for weight loss. Everything tasted terrible and the nausea was crippling. So I did lose weight but also electrolytes and metabolism. I got into advanced dehydration. In recovery I'm back still calorie restricting on my 1200 calorie diet, to avoid getting overweight. But I'm also bumping those high-potassium, calcium and magnesium foods using a modified rainbow diet. 

A rainbow diet includes colorful fruits and vegetables: tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, squash and sweet potatoes, bananas, avocadoes, watermelon, grapefruit, mangoes, peaches, almonds, pistachios, spinach, potatoes, purple cabbage, peas, edamame, black beans, salmon, tuna, shrimp and whole grain keto bread. Keto frowns on the fruits and sweet potatoes and squash, but if you're doing keto there are keto there are plenty other foods on the list that you can have. And a rainbow diet is also hugely vitamin-rich. 

So I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass. But I do follow a 1200 calorie diet, with some intermittent fasting (5:2 diet) like gastric bypass surgeon Dr. Now of "My 600-lb Life" advocates. The "My 600-lb Life" diet allows most all of these except large amounts of fruit, potatoes and avocadoes. "My 600-lb Life" treats with morbid obesity so extra sugar of any kind is restricted while that overweight. 

And regardless of which diet you're on, all will allow low sugar coconut water such as Bodyarmor. Bodyarmor and other such coconut water are the only "hydration drinks" with potassium and magnesium. I prefer the zero sugar peach mango Bodyarmor Lyte coconut water with 15 calories and 10% of RDA. 

 you can have. 

How I lost 100 pounds with high potassium diet: electrolytes affect metabolism and weight loss

Since my long and somewhat still ongoing bout of Covid 19, I've been researching minerals and electrolytes. You probably know the importance of electrolytes (particularly potassium and magnesium) for recovery after workout, during illness and to prevent summer heat exhaustion (which is essentially dehydration). You may know that electrolytes like potassium and magnesium boost metabolism, aid weight loss and prevent depression. 

What you might not know is how much potassium you actually need. Or how little potassium and magnesium most "sports recovery beverages" and even potassium supplements actually contain. Some can even increase dehydration.  Even drinking plain water while calorie restricting can cause dehydration. And dehydration causes water retention and obesity.  

I've discussed before how gastric bypass patients on "My 600-lb Life" always say, when they fail weight loss, that it's probably "just" water weight (as if that's somehow safer or not really overweight). Water weight is still overweight AND what's worse, long term dehydration and water retention mean your cells are failing. Your immune system fails, too. "My 600-lb Life" type obesity is a direct result of calorie-dense, non-nutritious food and beverages. 

But even calorie restricting can cause problems. During Covid 19, I didn't eat for a week and drank only plain water. I lost 10 pounds that week but also got seriously dehydrated. My body couldn't process the water because it had no electrolytes. My metabolism all but shut down and I'm still recuperating from exhaustion 3 months later.   

So I started looking into electrolytes and the role they play in weight loss. And I found that following low carb diets like keto or Dr. Now's "My 600-lb Life" calorie restricting diet, if you aren't that overweight,  can actually make it harder to lose weight. Keto disallows a lot of foods that are high potassium and magnesium. Calorie restricting often means you miss vital electrolytes and so metabolism drops. 

I lost 100 pounds seven years ago (without gastric bypass) and I included these foods on my diet. My depression was more manageable. My blood sugar leveled and pre-diabetes healed. Then I started a keto diet. I  got c.jejuni (or campylobacter) food poisoning with dysentery and dehydration, and that's when I think the electrolyte imbalance began. Although I didn't eat, my stomach bulged, I think from water retention.  My immunity dropped and depression started up again. 

So now I'm adding high potassium/magnesium foods back into my diet. Getting the RDA of electrolytes calcium and magnesium I can manage with a powdered supplement. Sodium is too easy, LOL. But the RDA of potassium is harder to hit at 3,510 - 4,700 mg. So I eat a combination of these foods daily to hit the total. 

one 800 mg potassium supplement (20%)

avocado

small sweet potato

butternut squash

regular potato

spinach 

broccoli

vegetable juice

purple cabbage

grapefruit

watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew 

banana 

dates or dried apricots

16 oz BodyArmor Lyte 15% (coconut water is by far better than Gatorade or Propel for electrolytes)

pistachios

tomatoes

spaghetti sauce

tomato paste

peas

mushrooms

cucumbers

pomegranate

pumpkin

zucchini 

cauliflower

carrots

lentils

tuna

In my next post, I'll share specific high potassium diet recipes for weight loss and Covid 19 recovery. 

Surprise things Covid 19 taught me about electrolytes, dehydration, potassium and weight loss

I've been blogging about how I got overweight and then how I lost 100 pounds and recently, about my prolonged bout of Covid 19. Well, let me just say that although Covid 19 was awful and recovery challenging, I have learned some surprising things about obesity, weight loss, calorie restricting, dehydration and electrolytes (particularly potassium). 

I got Covid 19 in early May. Surprise! I was scrupulously careful but it is a tricky disease. I'd waited to get the Covid vaccine because I was recovering from shoulder surgery. Thinking, I guess, that it might make recovery worse. Surprise! Turns out I shoulda gotten it right away because Covid definitely made it more difficult. 

I lost 100 pounds seven years ago and had started calorie restricting again to lose weight gained back after surgery. Covid nausea and diarrhea did provide me with weight loss but also dehydration, exhaustion, dropped metabolism, lethargy and brain fuzz which have continued through July. Surprise! Weight loss also stalled. 

During the Covid fever, I was insanely thirsty but water tasted funny and made me sick. My poop turned orange. My husband (who also had Covid) had brown pee. Surprise! That was dehydration but I was too sick to connect or think to drink Gatorade or coconut water or some beverage with electrolytes. 

But it's a good thing that I was unable to lose weight and shake Covid exhaustion because it sent me researching. First, what is dehydration? Lack of electrolytes. What exactly are electrolytes? Calcium, potassium, sodium and magnesium. But I was confused. Sure during Covid I was dehydrated. But normally? I drink water all the time and take calcium, potassium and magnesium supplements and drink Emergen'C. What gives?

Well, I started reading labels and surprise, my potassium supplement only has 2% of the RDA, which BTW is 4,000 mg. So I got some Propel but misread the label. It only has 60mg not 60% RDA. Most "vitamin water" has little potassium. The best is coconut water but even Body Armor Coconut Water only has 10% is a 12-oz serving. 

So why am I now struggling with weight loss and dehydration when I was able to lose weight before? I think one reason is because I switched from calorie restricting to more of a keto diet. I quit eating some high electrolyte foods (potatoes, beans, watermelon, sweet potatoes, bananas) because they're not keto. So I'm not getting enough potassium, at least, on my diet. 

No surprise, most people don't whether they're trying to lose weight or not. That's because most of us, overweight or not, eat the wrong foods. I always source "My 600-lb Life" for roots of obesity.  "My 600-lb Life" patients got overweight and end up needing gastric bypass because of poor diet. Their metabolism is frozen and they end up with diabetes, hypertension, etc. 

You never see anyone on "My 600-lb Life" drinking water and always soda. So yeah, hydration is just a small part of their problem, but is it? I think hydration is at the core. I've found that Covid 19, obesity, metabolism (or lack thereof in metabolic syndrome, aka insulin resistance aka pre-diabetes), hypertension, high cholesterol, liver problems, you name it--all can be remedied with proper hydration and balanced electrolytes. 

More tomorrow on how I lost 100 pounds and diabetes without gastric bypass using a high potassium/magnesium diet.