My Keto Story

Hi all,

Our little Facebook group is gaining in numbers as we all share our successes and experiences with our friends. Just for the record, just because “California” is in the name does not mean that we are restricting membership to Californians. The name just sounded cool, so I ran with it.

As my success with the Keto lifestyle, or way of eating has become more obvious to the people around me, I have been getting more and more questions about how I got started and who I read or what program I’m following. So, I am going to write my story on my blog. The first reason is because it will probably be longer than anyone wants to see in a Facebook post, but I am also reviving my very old blog I hopes of turning it into fame. Just kidding… It’s just easier to share the blog link with those not into social media.

I decided a long time ago that I was tired of being fat. I realized that, although I did not “feel” that I was in bad health I knew that my weight was causing issues that I could not see or “feel”. I also knew that my weight WAS the cause of the pain and discomfort in my knees, back, feet and everywhere else that being fat made painful. It wasn’t just all the weight I was carrying around all day and all night. It was the swelling, or as the doctors say…inflammation. Some things you don’t think about, but I realized when they weren’t an issue anymore; My shoelaces were not short, my feet were swollen, my hips were bruised and sore because my belt was too tight…trying to keep my pants up, my glasses had to have springs on the arms because regular glasses didn’t fit my fat head, according to my wife when I slept on my back I would stop breathing (due to the weight on the outside as well as my internal organs pressing on my lungs), there are more and I am sure y’all have some of your own. Even through all of that, there was always an excuse. There was always a reason to do nothing about it. Anyhow, I was consistently bouncing the scale off the 300lb mark. Something had to give.

My dad was apparently going through the same or similar thoughts, but he actually did something about it. He found some videos or something by Dr. Eric Westman that struck a nerve with him and he began transitioning his way of eating to a Ketogenic diet. This is not diet in the sense that you eat this way until you lose some weight and then go back to eating the crap that put you in the position you are now. This is how you eat from now on…your new diet. The definition of diet that I am talking about is a noun, not a verb. This is your diet; you are not on a diet.

When I started researching this way of eating, I of course ran it past my wife first, for a couple of reasons. First off, she does the shopping and most of the cooking. Without her on board, this was going to be a rough go for me. But most of all, she was already into the “eating healthy” thing. She was already researching foods and how and what to eat and do for her personal progress. I knew that she would do the bulk of the research and let me know if it was worth it to try. I knew from prior experience that I could do this. Was it healthy was a new concern that didn’t worry me 15 years ago. Apparently she had heard of “Keto” and was seeing its popularity begin ramp up. So, now she’s in.

I gave myself a start date of two weeks out. I needed to read more about it (when I say read, I mean watch videos) and figure out how I was going to go forward with what seemed like was going to be a major transition. It was during these two weeks that I discovered the more technical and literal Dr. Eric Berg as well as the knowledgeable yet humorous Dr. Ken D Berry. After watching these guys (and others) I knew this was going to work out just fine.

Okay folks, this is turning out to be a lot longer than I originally anticipated. I can tell some of you are already bored. So, I am going to break this up into a few smaller posts instead of one long post. I am going to post the link in a couple places. If you see this, please feel free to subscribe to this blog or join our Facebook group… California Keto Club. (click here)

Keep an eye out for the continuation if you would like to see how my story plays out.

Keto Belgian Waffle

This was copied directly from the Keto Daily webpage


KETO BELGIAN WAFFLE RECIPE

     I have to admit, I have always eaten Belgian Waffles a little differently than everyone else. Unlike the majority of people that probably like their waffles sweet, I tend to prefer mine totally different. For the sake of typical presentation, and how my wife likes to eat her’s, I will show them with Butter and Lakanto Maple Flavored Monkfruit Syrup on them. I on the other hand like to eat mine with sausage patties, 4 over-easy eggs (one on each waffle section) and Jalapeno Tabasco sauce. Maybe I was just born to be Keto, LOL!

     If you have tried our hugely popular Keto Pancake Recipe before, this recipe is very similar. You could make this with 1 & 1/2 Cups of Almond Flour instead if you prefer, but we figured for this recipe we would feature Coconut Flour and also flavor these a little differently. This produces a thicker batter, which makes the waffles very fluffy and full too. If you follow the recipe as written you should get 3 Full-size Belgian Waffles out of it, depending of course on the size of your waffle maker at home.

     If you like your waffles a little crispier than fluffy, you can opt to add some oil to the waffle mix too which will help crisp up the outer edges. Once you get these bad boys out of the waffle iron you will want to top them and eat the right away. Feel free to top them with some fresh blueberries or strawberries and some homemade whipped cream if you prefer that over butter and syrup. Or try them my way with the sausage, eggs, and hot sauce!

KETO BELGIAN WAFFLE RECIPE
Ease of Preparation: Easy
Prep Time: 5 Minutes (assuming you’ve already softened the Cream Cheese)
Cooking Time: 4 Minutes per Waffle
Total Time: 9+ Minutes



Ingredients:
1/3 Cup Coconut Flour
8oz Cream Cheese (softened)
6 Large Eggs
1 Tablespoon Maple Flavor
1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
4 Teaspoons Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
For Syrup: Lakanto Monkfruit Syrup

Instructions:
1. Pour the 1/3 Cup Coconut Flour into a Large Mixing Bowl or a Food Processor.
2. Place the Softened Cream Cheese in next.
3. Pour the Maple Flavor on top.
4. Crack the 6 Large Eggs and add to the mixture.
5. Add the Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener, Baking Powder, and Xanthan Gum, and blend thoroughly. 6. Pre-heat your Waffle Iron, and spray with either Avocado Cooking Spray or your preferred Non-stick spray.
7. You will probably need to cook this waffle on the iron’s darker settings, about 3/4 of the way dark is about right on our Waffle Iron.
8. Cook for about 4 minutes or until the Waffle Iron tells you it is ready.
9. Plate them and smother with butter, or toppings of your choice.

     If you like the flavor of Maple Syrup you should consider the Lakanto Maple Flavored Monkfruit Syrup. Optional: You can experiment with adding different flavoring extracts or spices to the mix to make them taste the way you like. Sometimes we add pumpkin spice mix for a seasonal flavor, other times we may add Pecans or Lily’s Dark Chocolate Chips for some variety too.

http://keto-daily.com/keto-belgian-waffle-recipe/

Hi all,
     It has been a long long while since I posted anything here. I decided to revive this old blog page because I have a couple friend that do not use social media and there are things I would like to share with them. This way, I can share links via their email and they don't have to get bogged down in the whooha of the social media swamp.

Anyhow, If you would like to subscribe to the blog, feel free.

I will be updating some of the bio stuff to bring it more current.

Mohn family garden

3-28-2012

Well, just more than a month ago I planted a handful of seeds in one of those “Jiffy window sill
starter kits” that I purchased from The Home Depot. This thing uses dehydrated peat pellets (just add water) to germinated your seeds and house them until they are ready to transplant into your garden. It started out well enough. However, being my first endeavor with planting from seeds (gardening period) I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I followed the directions to the letter, but not all of my seedlings made it through to today. The cabbage and Brussels sprouts made a good showing followed by the cauliflower. The turnips did not make it at all. In all, I came out with 11 of the 24 I started with. I am not sure why, but it seems they grew too fast. They grew tall…fast, and the stems would not support the weight of the leaves. You will notice I added some support stakes in the new peat pots. The reason I chose to go into peat pots rather than planting
outside is simply weather related. We are not quite warm enough up here to start putting stuff outside. Also, (in my amateur opinion) they needed more room for root growth in order to stabilize themselves.

When I was getting the peat pots, I also bought some new pellets and corn seed. While clearing
out the mini greenhouse and getting all of the seedlings transplanted into new pots, I started rehydrating the new pellets and getting ready for round two. This time around I did 6 more turnip pellets, 6 more cauliflower pellets, and 12 corn pellets.

Mohn Family Garden

Today I have started the garden. I was originally going to build 4’x4’ boxes to plant in. But, a nicer more aesthetic idea popped in to my head recently. I am going to plant in wine barrel halves. I eventually will have a whole garden full of the barrel halves, both horizontal and vertically split barrel filled with yummy veggies. And with them, some crushed gravel walk ways and a water feature…possibly a small pond with a water fall. We’ll see how it grows…pun intended.
I started by sewing some seeds in a store bought mini window sill greenhouse designed to germinate seeds. I started with Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and purple top turnips.


2-26-2012

All starting to sprout nicely,

Your Tax Dollars At Work

I put a post on my Face Book page the other day and boy did I stir the stink pot with it. The original post was this:

"Some of you might think I am being an ass, but why do We...The U.S. have to lead the efforts to save Haiti again? Where is the all mighty U.N.? Sure it is a sad thing what happened to then, but it is also sad for all those is Humboldt county California. They are going through a similar thing and no fund raisers for them."

And with that came the comments. Which is why I post to Face Book. I speak my mind and others follow suit. Sometimes with me, sometimes against me, and on some rare occasions with and against at the same time. If I get a good thread going I will paraphrase and post it on my blog. In this case there were too many good points to just paraphrase a blog post, so I am putting the good stuff together in order as best I can, and sharing it with all of you.

After the original post I left for work and came back to a couple of my FB friends just going at each other. That was not my intent, but it was a healthy exchange. Both of them were able to speak up and say their piece, and are still doing so as I write this piece. CMH started off with:

"I understand what you are saying completely, however there is no place in America where people are enduring what the Haitians are. It is the humanitarian thing to do, that's all. Those are the things that make Americans set apart from others. We have soup kitchens and housing across our nation, granted not enough, but many homeless choose to not participate in those offerings. I am proud of America in their efforts."

and,

"not making efforts to help them is not humane. If we had family or friends in Haiti we would not feel so strongly against the efforts. They need food and water and Meds.. New diseases could start and get very devastating over there and they would make their way to the US. We certainly don't need that either. "

Had I been able to post right then I would have replied; I am not against efforts to aid them. I am against MY tax dollars going there and not staying here. As I mentioned in the original post there was a 6.5 earthquake in Humboldt county just days before the one in Haiti. No one came rushing to help them and they live right here. At first word in the global media of the Haiti quake, half of Hollywood gathered millions of dollars and rushed half way across the world to help. Where were they three days earlier when people in their own state were devastated by an earthquake only .5 less than the Haiti quake?

ST was available to comment and said:

"I'm sorry if this offends, but, no hungry people choose to starve, no sick people choose to have no medicines, no homeless people choose to live on the street. It is circumstances whether illness, poor luck etc. that cause huge amounts of people in the united states to suffer. I understand where you are coming from Robbie about Haiti, we give because we as a people are humanitarian but we also turn a blind eye to those who suffer across our own country...when you give to those who starve here you don't get the tax breaks either. There is always an underlining selfishness that comes with the generosity of Americans. ..... In my opinion yes we should help Haiti, but also we should allow the UN to run it, that is what they are for!" From there it turned into a battle between CMS and ST about the homeless. In the midst of that feud a few others chimed in about the Haiti thing.

TD said: "I asked the same question this morning... My son and I talked about it this afternoon... it seems to me that with the economy the way it is and the state of our county we would be worried more about the US... although it is a terrible what happened over there, this Country is in serious trouble also and we should be focused here..."

BC wrote: "I've been wondering this for two days. Did someone forget about hungry Americans?"

and JB wrote: "I wonder that every time I see the foreign aid budget. Why send billions to other countries with all the "needy" here at home?"

It seems to me there was quite a bit of anger in the thread. Most of it misplaced. We should not be angry with each other, but more so at the people who cause our passions to rare up in this way. And that is the key word here...passion. We are all very passionate about our point of view, and rightly so. But there is no need to turn on each other. This turned into a "Homeless" issue, and this is not just about homeless adults that standing around a burn barrel smoking and drinking. This is about displaced families all over the country that are cast aside and looked over to feed and rebuild other countries. It is about children without parents who scrounge for food in an alley behind a restaurant, it is about men who returned home from a war to have their country turn away from them, it is about women who have turned to prostitution in order to eat and/or feed their children, the old man with Alzheimer's who doesn't know why he is there.

There are a lot of homeless folks who want to be out there. Whether they are protesting in some way or just can't handle civilized life any more, they just want to be left alone. BUT, for those who are packed into shelters who DON'T want to be there, they are the ones in need of our humanitarian aid. They are not out in the intersection pan handling, they are not begging for money, they are searching for ways to get back on their feet. They WANT to work. They WANT to earn a living and pay their own way and support their families. SO, where is the George Clooney telethon for them? Where are the PBS infomercial explaining their plight? It is plain to see that our government run media outlets are not showing those stories. Granted it is not world news, but it should be in the public eye and, in my opinion the media and the government are to blame for that.

Humanitarian aid is a good thing, don't get me wrong. But look at it like this; If you are on hard times and work is slow and you or your spouse is out of work. With each paycheck you fall a little deeper in debt, but you are still managing to keep your head above water...barely. Now, someone you know from work or a neighbor from down the street asks you for a hundred bucks...what do you tell them? They are not family or a close friend, just someone you know. You know they need it, and you want to help...what do you do? I know what I would do...I would look them right in the eyes and tell them the truth. Tell them "I want to help you, but I just can't afford it right now!" Now, take a look at our U.S. economy and imagine the Haiti and everyone else that "expects" the U.S. to come running to them with handfuls of cash and free labor is that person asking for money you worked hard for or saved to pay bills with. We just need to tell them "Sorry, we just can't afford it right now"

Now, about giving away money, food, building materials, etc.. I have no problem with people giving money and aid to Haiti. I do have a problem the government giving MY money to them. Charitable giving should be up to the individual. I should have a say where MY charitable dollars go. All of these "freebies" that are heading for Haiti are coming out of my pocket, and I was not asked if I wanted my charitable dollar going to Haiti. Can I write that off as a charitable donation when I file my taxes this year?

The government should not be telling us who gets our tax dollar. I say that we should be able to dictate where each of our own tax dollars go. When we file our taxes each year we should get a check off sheet with a list of where taxes need to go. With that, a number or percentage of our income that we owe in taxes. From there WE check the boxes from the list where we want each of our dollars to go. That way everyone pays there taxes and no one has to support something they feel is wrong. When something on the list isn't being funded enough to continue then we know that no one wants to supports it, and it should be eliminated.

International aid??

You know it is wonderful some of the games on faceBook have partnered with groups to feed hungry children...but why Haiti and Cameroon? Why not New York City...East Los Angeles... Detroit? The people in OUR country need help and the focus is on someone else. When do the people living in our streets matter? In every city across the country you can see a news clip or article in a news paper bitching about the homeless population rising and spilling into the city streets, and in the same breath try to figure out a way to get rid of them. I see a constant flow of commercials to help needy people and children in other countries, but I have never seen a commercial to raise money to help our own needy citizens. Do you think there are counties out there promoting programs to feed our homeless children?