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Here in this part of the TN Cumberland Plateau, we don't have a whole lot of restaurants. Things that tend to be popular among the neighbors, various kinds of fried chicken, fried fish (from their own ponds, usually), fried okra, green beans, pinto beans, cornbread, greens (cooked in bacon grease, of course), and various kinds of hamburger or steaks, or pork depending on what's available.

To be honest, there are some things I like but there are quite a lot that I just don't eat, not because they're not tasty, but because my body doesn't like me so well when I eat that way. Potatoes, pasta, rice, too many beans, standard breads / cornbread / pies / cakes, stuff with lots of sugar, Pepsi / sweet tea / etc, hey, I'd love to chow down on all of that. But if I did eat like that, I don't think I'd be on the upper side of the sod, I'd be pickin' turnips with a stepladder, the groundhogs would be bringin' the mail, knowwhatImean?

I went keto / low-carb about 3 years ago. And while I will occasionally have just a bit of some of that stuff, or make my own versions of desserts and breads and muffins that are low-carb, a lot of stuff, I just don't eat anymore. But... bacon / sausage and eggs, I'm all over 'em. A good hamburger, I'm there, just without the bun. Pulled pork, oh yeah, again, no bun, or if I do, a low-carb one I made myself. I also make a mean meatloaf and some "mashed cauliflower" to go with (resembles mashed potatoes, don't knock it until you've tried mine, really good). And my wife makes a keto-friendly batter for on chicken or fish that is every bit as good as what I think fried chicken or fried fish is when eating out. We have ways, and we eat VERY well.
 
PopPopT said:
Here in this part of the TN Cumberland Plateau, we don't have a whole lot of restaurants. Things that tend to be popular among the neighbors, various kinds of fried chicken, fried fish (from their own ponds, usually), fried okra, green beans, pinto beans, cornbread, greens (cooked in bacon grease, of course), and various kinds of hamburger or steaks, or pork depending on what's available.

To be honest, there are some things I like but there are quite a lot that I just don't eat, not because they're not tasty, but because my body doesn't like me so well when I eat that way. Potatoes, pasta, rice, too many beans, standard breads / cornbread / pies / cakes, stuff with lots of sugar, Pepsi / sweet tea / etc, hey, I'd love to chow down on all of that. But if I did eat like that, I don't think I'd be on the upper side of the sod, I'd be pickin' turnips with a stepladder, the groundhogs would be bringin' the mail, knowwhatImean?

I went keto / low-carb about 3 years ago. And while I will occasionally have just a bit of some of that stuff, or make my own versions of desserts and breads and muffins that are low-carb, a lot of stuff, I just don't eat anymore. But... bacon / sausage and eggs, I'm all over 'em. A good hamburger, I'm there, just without the bun. Pulled pork, oh yeah, again, no bun, or if I do, a low-carb one I made myself. I also make a mean meatloaf and some "mashed cauliflower" to go with (resembles mashed potatoes, don't knock it until you've tried mine, really good). And my wife makes a keto-friendly batter for on chicken or fish that is every bit as good as what I think fried chicken or fried fish is when eating out. We have ways, and we eat VERY well.
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I only use Keto friendly bread for toast with sugar free jam, for sammichs, and just bread. Spensive but helps keep the weight down and heart ticking..
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Jim
 
None....

Its an interesting thing about Montana....we have no culture of our own. We probably don't like each other enough to form one. We have all kinds of good food...but its all borrowed recipes. There is no such thing as "Montana Style" french fries or anything.

As for Keto....I just fell off the wagon. I want to get back on but I need to figure out how to re-evaluate. About two months in and 20 lbs down I just started feeling so crappy all the time I couldn't stand it. Felt hungry all the time and barely had enough energy to get out of bed....and even when I got out of bed, my brain was so foggy and slow it would take me four hours just to make a cup of coffee. Couldn't even think straight enough to write a forum post which is why you haven't seen my much lately.

The other day I ate half a jar of applesauce and about ten minutes later I felt like I had just woken up after being asleep for a month.

Suggestions?
 
Aerindel said:
As for Keto....I just fell off the wagon. I want to get back on but I need to figure out how to re-evaluate. About two months in and 20 lbs down I just started feeling so crappy all the time I couldn't stand it. Felt hungry all the time and barely had enough energy to get out of bed....and even when I got out of bed, my brain was so foggy and slow it would take me four hours just to make a cup of coffee. Couldn't even think straight enough to write a forum post which is why you haven't seen my much lately.

The other day I ate half a jar of applesauce and about ten minutes later I felt like I had just woken up after being asleep for a month.

Suggestions?
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Dang, I can understand falling off the wagon if feeling bad & low energy. It did take me a few months to get to get stuff sorted out. Hungry, not hungry, constipation, diarrhea, sleep changes, lots of stuff all at once as I had a pretty crappy diet before (despite it looking "healthy" to some).

Wish I did have some good words of wisdom, would be glad to share if I did. Something I do notice for myself is that I feel kinda run down if I don't get enough fat. I really noticed that a couple of months ago and kinda put that together for myself. Back in the fall, we got a quarter beef that we've been eatin' off of. It's grass fed, grass finished, organic (for real), which sounds great. And it's got a good flavor. But... it's LEAN. To me, it's too lean. And I started noticing that I just didn't feel as good. What changed? That quarter beef. It replaced much fattier meats we had been eating. So we've been supplementing with some other fatty meats and not just eating the super lean. And that's seemed to make a difference here.

Probably one small thing, and might not be relevant for everyone, but it was something that kinda clicked for me. No idea if it's that way with anyone else. I'd have probably asked if I were still on any of the keto forums. I kinda drifted away from them once I had pretty much lost the weight and wasn't having any particular issues anymore. Don't know if you ever sought out any of those or not. I was on ketogenicforums.com for a while. Sometimes a few of them can get a little snippy but some good folks there, too. I guess that's how it is in most forums.

Anyway, good luck, whatever you end up doing. I do believe there are healthy ways to eat that aren't all identical. Gotta figure out what'll work for you. :)

P.S., I don't know if you have heard of him, but I kinda like Dr. Ken Berry, who is a big advocate of keto. He's got quite a few videos on YouTube, and most of them aren't super long, lots of topics. Don't know if he might have anything of interest or not. Just a thought.
 
I may have slacked off on fat. It can actually be hard to eat that much fat day after day. Sometimes I just want some vegetables besides cauliflower and asparagus. Who would think fatty meat could get boring?

I want to get back on it, because it was incredibly effective and cleared up some cronic health issues almost overnight. But I need to feel at least semi-functional or what is the point?
 
I don't do strict keto. I allow veggies of any kind. I just don't go whole hog on the non keto ones and don't have them every day. When its corn season here, about three weeks long, I am eating corn. Weight loss is slower, but still happening.

If SHTF, non keto root veggies will absolutely be back on the menu as they are the storage veggies. The work horses of subsistence living.
 
Aerindel said:
It can actually be hard to eat that much fat day after day.
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It can. I love butter and cream whipped into my morning coffee so that helps. We often find hamburger really cheap at a local mom n pop store, usually 73/27 and I've grown to really like that, too. Love me some good cheese, too, all different kinds. One food that I really like that I have a hard time getting here is avocados. Some parts of the country, they're cheap and even locally grown. Here, they're expensive and we end up throwing about half of them away because of spoilage. So I've gotten away from eating them. Love them, but the frugal side of me just hates paying $2 to $3 for one avocado and have it be a 50% chance of being bad inside when we cut into it. Avocados were more of our diet when we first got started. Hmmm... guacamole... that would taste good... LOL!! :)
 
lonewolf said:
I dont even know what Keto is, its not something I have come across over here. I'm a carnivore I do love meat.
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Basically, "low-carb". Generally means you don't eat sugar, or consume a lot of starches.

Unfortunately, that cuts out a lot of foods that people are accustomed to eating and a lot of cheap foods. Quality protein and quality fat tends to be rather expensive.

Dr. Ken Berry is one you might enjoy on YouTube, he basically eats a carnivore diet, which is one of the flavors of a "keto" diet.
 
Low carb is a little bit of an understatement. More like extremely low carb. A single slice of regular bread would blow your carb budget for the day, which is 20 grams of carbs and extremely easy to blow through.

The idea is to put your body into Ketosis, something you can actually measure, which is when your metabolism shifts from consuming carbs, you consuming fat. You can have extremely rapid results, especially at first.

The hard part is, you basically run without blood sugar all the time and all fruits, grains, legumes and most vegetables are off limits because they are too high carbs to stay in ketosis. You also have to keep from doing too much protein or your body will actually start converting protein to glucose. The your body will do anything it can NOT to burn fat so you essentially have to give it no choice in the matter.

It has some other benefits like being anti-inflamatory.
 
phideaux said:
Mama's fried taters with onions.

View attachment 66057

Jim
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I used to love those! Grew up on 'em.

And even though I'm mostly keto, I still give in and eat a few on rare occasion. I enjoy 'em, too. But... I know better than to make it a habit. I could gain 100 pounds faster than a jackrabbit on a hot date. ;)
 
I have some of those red beets growin' in my garden. May sell some, don't know, but we like having some pickled ones around. Yeah, they're on the "naughty list" with our diet, but sometimes, we like to have Red Beet Eggs. It's a PA Dutch thing that I grew up with. Basically, letting hard boiled eggs marinate in pickled beets until the purple goes all the way through to the yolk, or even through the yolk. Lots of pickled beet flavor in there. No idea how any of it actually affects the eggs, but I ain't gonna lie, we eat some beets, too. ;) Oh, and the greens are good eats, too. They didn't do that in PA so much but as we migrate southward, greens become a much bigger thing... beet greens, turnip greens, rutabaga greens, collards, lots of different kinds of greens, and some of 'em are pretty tasty. :)
 
NevadaBlue said:
As far as ethnic food in the area... Mexican? LOL

There is a large Basque presence in the area. There are a couple of restaurants and one in particular, The Star, is stellar. They serve food family style, all you can eat. One of my favorites is their pork tenderloin with pimentos. We haven’t been there for a long time, must order some food. I see they do serve that way now.
Pics from the net.

View attachment 64593


View attachment 64594
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I love that restaurant.
 
PopPopT said:
Hmmm, that looks interesting. Is that raw celery or cooked?

This is the first year I decided to try my hand at growing some celery. Have about 3 dozen stalks in the garden right now so we'll see. :)
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Raw celery, stuffed with cheese, cottage cheese and,yes, peanut butter.
Mom set those on the table to eat with a meal or as appetizers.

Never was a favorite of mine.

Jim
 
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