The French Fry Connection
The other day, my husband and I decided to go out to our favorite restaurant, Cheddars. We always get the Monte Cristo and Fries.
This is a cheat meal for me. I only eat 1/4 of the sandwich, and a handful of fries. Once I got home, I started to put them into my keto tracking app. I had no problem tracking the sandwich. It’s when I got to the fries that I started to get really frustrated.
The problem that I have always had with tracking apps is the measurements of foods are not always common. Since I couldn’t weigh the fries, I had to go by restaurant fries.
As you can see, there are other options here for fast food fries (Cheddar’s is not listed, even in the restaurant tab). Of course, I ate more than one gram, but how much more? And who eats one gram of fries? A typical serving of fast food french fries is about 142 grams. But they vary by restaurant. I wanted to go by how many I actually ate. These are the options from the dropdown menu for serving size:
Umm, a teaspoon of fries??? Who makes up these measurements? I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how many fries to a gram ( there is no definitive answer). So I went with 142 grams which is a whopping 46.7 carbs. I knew that I didn’t eat this many fries, but after 20 minutes of trying to figure this out, I just took the hit.
Going to Cheddars nutrition page, I found this:
Of course, this is for the entire batch of fries, not per serving. I would still have to guestimate how to divide the nutritional values up.
I began to realize just how ridiculous this was. Was I becoming a slave to the numbers game? I don’t track every single thing I eat. I aim for about 50 grams of net carbs per day, but I often go over. And then I feel guilty. My husband told me not to, and he’s right. In the big picture, it won’t really matter. One or two days of high carb meals won’t affect my progress.
This leads me to a bigger question-what if I could stop tracking altogether? After seven months, it is becoming damned tedious. Yes, I am losing weight, and my carbs are on the low side, but what if I didn’t have to worry about it?
This is why I have been toying with the idea of ketovore. The first step for me is to stop eating junk. This is a big ask. I am totally addicted to it. I am tired of being a slave to this tracking app. The only way to free myself is to eat whole foods. But there are some issues with that.
I am still battling fatigue and arthritis pain. Could eating this stuff be making it worse? Being tired and having pain make it really difficult for me to cook from scratch. Giving up sweets and other junk food is the first step I am going to take to see if it helps my overall health.
There is no right or wrong way to do keto. I find that dirty keto suits me, but does it suit my health? Stay tuned for updates.
Writer, blogger and 60 something housewife who is exploring the keto diet. Follow me on my journey of discovery. View all posts by Janice Schroeder
Originally published at http://fromcarbstoketo.wordpress.com on September 7, 2024.
