What Do You Eat? Why are you counting calories?! (Video Q&A)

What do you eat?!  

In this post you'll find the following…

• Scroll down to find the video where I tell you what I eat in a day/week.
• Find out how I fit everything into my week/how I plan everything out.
• I answer the question: Why are you shooting for 20-70-10 for your macros?
• And:  Why are you counting calories?
• What to do when you're eating low carb and you get a sweet craving?!
• Info and links from the video.
• A written list of my meals.

Recently I asked my readers if they had any questions for me, and here's one thing that was asked:  “Kelly, what do you eat?!”  So I made this video to tell you just that–as I was editing though, it got long and boring, so I cut the video off and instead decided to list out the rest of what I eat here (below).

Also in the video I talk about how Sunday is my day to sit down and figure out my week…

I look at my schedule, any appointments I might have, and plan out the following:

• When will I go to Mass (usually at least a couple extra daily Masses per week besides Sundays).
• When will I get my exercise in, like pickleball, biking, walking–this is so much easier now that I've found what I LOVE doing.  If you don't love it, you probably won't make time for it.
• When will I get together with friends or family.
• What’re we having for dinner and plan out when I’ll have time to make it–cooking real food for your family takes time but if you plan for it, you can do it and it's so worth it!  By the way, my book has more about how to find the time for this.  There are days, however, when I just don't have time or when my day falls apart, and that's when I pull this list out of fast food at home ideas.
• And… yes, I have to fit work in too, so I look at when I’ll work on my business.  (Looking for a job you can do from home?)

This looked very different when our kids were young and when we were homeschooling!

But still, if you make a plan at the beginning of the week, then you’ll have a better chance of coming close to how you want your week to look.  Read more about how I made time for everything back then:  Real Food Sanity Savers–8 things I do and 3 things I definitely don't!

Also how I had peace in my life in the midst of the craziness and what to do when you have more than you can handle on your to-do list:

Here's the video (plays after the ad) and don't miss below where I list everything out that I ate, including what I cut out of the video when it got too long!

Why are you shooting for 20-70-10 for your macros?

I talked in the video about keeping track of my calories and macro nutrients (percentage of protein-fat-carbs) at 20-70-10, why is that?  Only because there's a menopause doc my sister follows online, and that's what she suggested!  And it's not that I *have* to do this just because I'm watching my carbs, and I don't *have* to enter everything I eat into the app, but it's just been a fun and interesting challenge and it has helped to keep me on track.  I probably won't do it forever, and if you don't want to mess with that, just read what I did in 2020 and try that instead.  Or do whatever works for you to help you eat healthy!

Why are you counting calories?

I've never been one to count calories because I've always believed that if you just eat real food, you won't need to.  BUT menopause changes things, ha! I've found that you can still overeat even when eating only real food, so yes, you may need to watch your calories, or just don't go crazy on portion sizes.

What I do when craving something sweet:

Everyone says that you lose your sweet tooth after not eating sweets for a while, but that hasn't happened for me yet.  However, what HAS happened, is that a tiny bit is all I need now…

• So the peaches and cream mentioned below (with half teaspoon of maple syrup as a sweetener) totally hit the spot.
• Another day I had a 1/4 cup of butternut squash with an ounce of goat cheese, a Tablespoon of butter, 1/8th cup crispy roasted pecans, and 1 teaspoon maple syrup.  That's it, and I was really happy.
• I also tried some “butter bites” as a way to get more healthy fats, colostrum and collagen into my diet.  They taste like little ice cream candies and are very low carb.  I'll try to get that recipe up soon.
• These butter mints are also a nice keto treat.

Info/links mentioned in the video:

• How I lost 20# in 2020 even after menopause

• Fitness Pal app for tracking your macros and calories
• More links (mostly recipes) are below in the ‘What do you eat' list

“What do you eat?!”  Here's the rest of what I ate:

Broken down by day…

• Lunch:  My favorite salad
• Dinner:  Chicken tacos (fam had tortillas or rice) w/ lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream, you could also try some lower carb tortillas or some cauliflower rice
• 5 Crackers & cheese

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• Lunch:  Leftover chicken tacos
• Dinner: Flank/skirt steak, half cup summer squash sautéed in butter, salad with homemade dressing, 2 oz. Pinot Grigio

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• Breakfast:  2 large eggs fried in butter, cheese, 4 cherry tomatoes from our garden
• Dinner:  Small amount of Shepherds pie, caprese salad, 6 crackers & cheese, 1/4 cup keto snack mix from Costco (nuts mostly)

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• Lunch:  Turkey rollups, chicken sausage links fried in butter
• Dinner:  Steamed broccoli, keto cheese sauce, leftover flank steak w/ basil dressing, caprese salad

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• Lunch: Chicken salad with oranges instead of grapes, plus celery, onion, homemade mayo
• Rasberries, blueberries
• Leftover caprese salad
• Dinner: 6 oz. Pinot Grigio, small fried plantain, one half of a waffle fry, 9 ounce steak

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• Breakfast: Big omelet, small piece of banana bread, raspberries
• Dinner:  Grassfed chuck roast w/ horseradish sauce, 1 ounce sourdough bread with lots of butter, 1 ounce sweet corn w/ lots of butter

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• Breakfast:  Small piece of sourdough, keto snack mix, leftover chicken salad
• Dinner:  2 chicken legs, tablespoon gravy, 1/4 cup fried potatoes, 1 ounce sweet corn

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• Breakfast: Omelet, tomatoes, sausage
• Dinner:  Caprese salad, berries, leftover chicken salad

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• Lunch:  Salad, sausage links fried in butter & dipped in mustard
• Dinner:  Brussels sprouts, 1 ounce white wine, caprese salad, buffalo cauliflower, 1/4 cup risotto that the family had

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• Breakfast:  Buffalo cauliflower
• Dinner:  Steak bites w/ more horseradish dressing, leftover chicken breast

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• Lunch:  Celery and peanut butter, cucumbers w/ cream cheese & everything but the bagel seasoning, steak bites
• Dinner:  Small cube of watermelon, salad with cheesy chicken (family had chicken sandwiches)

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• Lunch:  1/3 peach with 1 T. heavy cream and 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
• Mini peppers dipped in a feta dip made with heavy cream, beef stick, salad (lots coming from our garden right now), more mini peppers & dip, leftover chicken breast (I ate before we went out so I wasn’t too hungry)
• Dinner:  1/3 cup quinoa salad, 1/3 cup sweet pickles, pulled pork with no bun

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• Lunch:  Roasted mixed nuts
• Dinner:  (I called the chef ahead of time to make sure he could make this with no seed oils):  walleye, 2 bites of mashed potatoes, asparagus, 1 ounce red wine.

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• Lunch:  Peach, omelette with veggies and bacon
• Dinner: 1 cup gazpacho with sour cream & avocado on top, pork shoulder with mustard glaze, vegetable fritters w/ horseradish sauce (these turned out to be too high in carbs: 43 carbs for 3 of them!)

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• Lunch:  Jimmy Johns for the beach (got an UNwich with just meat, veggies, lettuce, and I brought my own mayo).
• Dinner:  Leftover pork, gazpacho, and half slice of my favorite fermented bread with butter.  I needed to get more protein & fat that day so my sister told me about a yummy snack:  chop up nuts, fry in butter, and add Franks red hot sauce, it's so good!

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• Lunch:  Salad w/ feta ranch dressing (leftover from the dip, just added more cream)
• Dinner:  French onion soup with one small baguette, arugula salad, fam had bagel dogs with organic hot dogs—I had one which was too much, 44 carbs for one, darn!  Live and learn.

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• Lunch:  Half piece fermented bread, butter, organic peanut butter, half cup raw milk (need to have that more with dinner, it was only 6 carbs for 4 oz.), favorite salad again
• Dinner:  2 chicken legs, 1/4 cup gazpacho, salad with maple vinaigrette 

That's it for now, please email me if you have any more questions that I can answer for you!

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