Keto Diet vs. Kitchen Renovation

If your kitchen suddenly went away for a few weeks – no refrigerator, range, dishwasher or sink – can you still eat keto? I’ll find out in T-minus six days. That’s when the demolition of our 35-year-old kitchen starts.

With no refrigerator, range or sink for potentially a few weeks, it’s time to get creative when it comes to eating healthy. It isn’t uncommon for us to eat one meal a day a few days out of the week. So naturally it makes sense for us to extend that during the entire demolition. Could be it’s time to pull the trigger on moving to a 42-hour fasting schedule, hmm?

That leaves me with managing two meals a day for four days out of the week.

No Cooking Available for First Week
Most families undergoing a kitchen renovation rely on the microwave to prepare meals. That won’t work for us for two reasons. First, microwave cooked food tastes horrible. Second, we don’t have a microwave…yet. Six years ago we tossed our microwave. We found that the convenience of warming up leftovers meant we were eating more than we needed to.

We’re not buying a microwave just to cook food for the next three weeks. However, we did buy a low-profile microwave to install over the range. It’s sitting in a box in the basement. Since it’s part of the install, it is not available to us.

I thought about using my slow cooker. But given our bathroom sinks are too small, I have no way to clean it. Plus, keto dishes are high in fat and I’ll have no way to dispose of the excess grease.

The only option for cooking is also our favorite – grilling! But a quick check of our extended forecast shows nothing but rain next week. Ugh!

Coffee Station to the Rescue!
I’m setting up a coffee station upstairs away from all the dust. The station will include our bullet blender for protein shakes (lunches!) and a large cooler packed with ice, cream, almond milk, berries, hard boiled eggs and cold cuts.

Finding Balance
With lunches taken care of, I’m still working on a high protein solution for dinners. I’m trying to keep eating-out to a minimum. That means I’ll have to tap into our grocery store’s prepared foods. Since I don’t know how they cook their meat, I’ll stick to sushi and rotisserie grilled chicken for our protein needs. Veggies will come from the prepared salads.

We may get our refrigerator back by the end of the first week and possibly our grill if the weather improves.

If not, it’s going to be a long three weeks. (First World problems, I know, lol)


Confession Time

IHOP - My downfall on Saturday.  They actually add pancake batter to omeletts.

IHOP – My downfall on Saturday. BEWARE: They actually add pancake batter to omelets.

I made a promise to my husband on Friday that we would go to IHOP. I felt sorry for him. He had to fast all day Thursday for his colonoscopy on Friday. As the anesthetic was wearing off after the procedure, in a very pathetic weak voice, he asked if we could go to IHOP.

“Of course we can, but we need to go home first.” I thought he was so out of it, he wouldn’t remember.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. After my 5k I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in. My husband, who was driving, didn’t go straight home after Weight Watchers. Nope. He went to the nearest IHOP. Damn!

As we rolled into the parking lot, my tummy was rumbling loudly. I was in trouble. I quickly came up with a game plan – order the Create Your Own Omelet with tomatoes and spinach, and just heat half. Easy peasy.

What I didn’t count on: 3 silver dollar pancakes on the side.

Really!?! Cauliflower mash is a side dish. A side salad is a side dish (the name sort of says it all). Three fluffy, delicious pancakes? Not a side dish.

I was so hungry I tore into the omelet, doing my best to ignore the pancakes that seemed to be calling to me. I ate about 40% of the omelet. I felt satisfied. However…

Those pancakes…so warm…so fluffy. And with a scoop of melting butter sitting on top. Hmmmmm.

I tried to be strong, but I heard a little voice say, “You just did a 5K. Go ahead. Have a few bites. It won’t hurt.” That little voice belonged to my loving, supportive husband. Thanks honey!

I cut off a small piece. Then I had another…and another. I ended up eating about 3/4 of a pancake before stopping.

I didn’t beat myself up. The old Dot to Trot wouldn’t have stopped. And that omelet would be toast too. All in all not terribly bad.

Then I went home to look up the Points Plus value of my meal and discovered that IHOP actually puts pancake batter in their omelets. Crap!