Creamiest Potato Casserole (Freezer & Low Carb Options)

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I have been a “freezer cook” or “mega cook for over twenty-five years. Throughout this time, I have done everything as small as making two casseroles and freezing one for later all the way to mega cooking enough meatloaves for six months–and so many things in between! I share some of these on my blog (see Crunchy Ranch Chicken), and as I add tweaks and suggestions to make them healthier, I will continue to do so. You do not have to be interested in freezer cooking specifically to enjoy these recipes. For example, the one I share below is one that we did in bulk for a luncheon that fed over one hundred and one that a friend used for our daughter’s rehearsal dinner–and I have served it at graduation parties with well over 150 guests! Bulk cooking, mega cooking, freezer cooking—they are ways to help others in need, ways to bless others who are not trained or experienced in an area that you are experienced in. We have found cooking to truly be a way to help others and serve others!

 

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Happy New Year!

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Just wanted to pop in to wish you a happy, healthy, prosperous, exciting, meaningful 2018…..

 

Thought you might like this graphic my tech girl just made of me and Hubby. (We are the second picture…. ROFLOL).

Sometimes life is just like this graphic. It isn’t quite what we think it is. It doesn’t really look like what we think it looks like.

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5 Tips for Getting BACK to Daily IF If You Fall Off the Wagon at Holidays, Vacations, and More! {Pictorial Slideshow}

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For optimal viewing on a mobile device, tilt your device to landscape mode.

5 Tips

to Get BACK to Daily IF If You Fall Off the Wagon at Holidays, Vacations, and More!

#1

Don’t Go Into Punishment Mode!

Keep the main focus the main focus. You know Daily IF works, so focus on that!

We have a tendency to want to make up for our “sins” by going no sugar, low carb, real foods, HIIT every morning, reduced calories, 23 hour fasts (or 48 hour Extended Fasts!). We can’t do it all! (And with a Daily IF Lifestyle, we don’t need to do it all!) So focus on getting right back to clean fasting as long as you can each day!

#2

Walk Away From Food–Literally!

Physical actions can help solidify our resolve. Go to the refrigerator, physically close your window, say aloud that your eating window is now closed, and walk AWAY from the fridge and onto something else that is physical–either taking a walk, yoga, knitting, journaling, running errands, cleaning, organizing, writing, going to an exercise class, etc.

Other physical actions that help solidify our fasting commitment might be tapping out something on our thigh or stomach. For example, tapping out Mel Robbins’ Five Second Rule: “5, 4, 3, 2, 1–Window Closed.” Or “5, 4, 3, 2, 1–Fast Now!”

#3

Don’t Wait Until a Certain Date

Waiting until a certain date or time to begin Daily IF is completely a Diet Mindset–not a lifestyle mindset. IF can be started this very day–any day that you wake up and have not eaten for the past eight hours, you are on your way to fasting that day!

The beauty of Daily IF is that you can reap benefits from fasting anywhere from 14 hours and up (with more benefits the longer you go, especially after 16 hours). Thus, some of the benefits will be reaped as you dig back into fasting even as little as 12-14 hours at first. Everybody has to start somewhere. Start where you can NOW!

#4

Plan Your Eating Window–and Include Treats If You Need To

If you know what you are going to enjoy food-wise when your eating window opens, you are more likely to stay with your fasting window at first. Some people like to look at their eating window in three parts: (a) Appetizer/Salad/Snack when window is open. (b) Main course a couple hours later, (c) Dessert or snack an hour or so later. Regardless of HOW you divide your eating window, knowing what you are going to eat that day helps IF’ers keep their fast better and longer. Oh, and if you still have pecan pie after a holiday–and it’s your favorite and totally worth spending some of your eating window time/stomach space on, save a piece for when it’s time to eat!

While planning what you’re going to eat can help you fast longer, be careful of fixating on food during your fasting period. There’s a fine line between planning your food and dwelling on food. Research shows that playing with/preoccupying yourself with the forbidden item leads to indulgence. So plan but don’t preoccupy!

#5

Work Super Hard Between Now and Your Next Holiday/Vacation to Make Daily IF a Lifestyle–So You Never “Fall Off the Wagon” Again!

IF can truly become a lifestyle for you! Because of the nature of it (simply not eating for XX number of hours each day), it can be adaptable to vacation, holidays, sick days, and celebrations. No other diet has the capability of truly being followed even when you’re having Christmas brunch or taking a cruise! (Usually those events are reasons to “fall off the wagon” from most eating protocols!)

Work on improving your fasting techniques and schedules in such a way that the next vacay or holiday will not cause you to “fall off.” Instead, you can adjust your fasting hours down to 12 or 14 or 16 whenever needed. Change your eating window from an evening window to a noontime window. Daily Intermittent Fasting CAN become a lifestyle for you!

Resources

#1 Don’t Go Into Punishment Mode! Delay, Don’t Deny book

 

#2 Walk Away From Food–Literally! 5 Second Rule book

 

#3 Don’t Wait Until a Certain Date–Intermittent Fasting Journal Podcast in iTunes

#4 Plan Your Eating Window–and Include Treats If You Need To

 

#5 Work Super Hard Between Now and Your Next Holiday/Vacation to Make Daily IF a Lifestyle–So You Never “Fall Off the Wagon” Again!

Find ME–and Find Out More About Daily Intermittent Fasting!

(1) FB Group for Support and Daily Help

(2) Blog with all videos, articles, 5 Top Tips for IF Slideshow, and more.

(3) IF Journal Podcast at iTunes

(4) YouTube channel

(5) Donna Reish Blogger FB Page

Thanks for Viewing My…..

5 Tips for Daily IF Slideshow

Find More of These Weekly Slideshows here at donnareish.com

PIN THIS POST!

In the slideshow above are a couple of links to books I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links above I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!

Intermittent Fasting Journal: Week 5

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Episode 5 of The Intermittent Fasting Journal! That means I am five weeks in to IF! I am loving it–as you will be able to tell from this episode!

 

I am learning so many things–and I am growing as a person through the empowerment that I experience from the fasting window. And I love getting past the twelve hour mark and onto the sixteen hour mark–and knowing that my body is burning its own fat. So exciting!

 

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Creamy Greens

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My hubby is doing so great three weeks into Intermittent Fasting*! I am excited to be doing this lifestyle with him, getting healthy together and losing weight. (We have been on our Plexus journey together for nearly two years, but now he is also losing weight with Plexus and IF!) We have big ballroom dance goals for the coming new year–and our weight loss efforts will go a long way in helping his knees and heels feel strong enough to dance more. (And I have secret plans for some amazing dips and twelve-consecutive-twirls!)

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5 Reasons You Might Need a Shorter Eating Window in Daily Intermittent Fasting {Pictorial Slideshow}

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For optimal viewing on a mobile device, tilt your device to landscape mode.

5 Reasons

You Might Need a Shorter Eating Window in Daily Intermittent Fasting

#1

Your Fasting Window Might Not Be Long Enough to Burn Through Your Glycogen Stores in Order to Burn Body Fat.

People often think the benefits of Daily IF are those of calorie cutting, having less opportunity to eat, etc. But this is a small part of Daily IF. One of the greatest benefits of IF is turning your body into a daily fat-burning machine!

Your glycogen stores are burned through somewhere between the 12 and 16 hour fasting mark. If you have an eating window of 8 hours, you have a fasting window of twelve hours. Your body might not be burning its own fat yet at the point you start to eat!

#2

You Might Not Experience Appetite Correction (AC) in a Longer Eating Window.

Appetite Correction is a phenomenon in which, after three to four weeks of a consistent daily IF lifestyle, you stop being hungry during the fasting period AND you get full more quickly during your eating window. This occurs most often for those who are doing short eating windows of say, two, three, four, or five hours (often called 22:2, 21:3, 20:4, or 19:5).

With a longer eating window, you will often eat two full meals. While you may get full faster, the real beauty of AC comes in a shorter eating window with less time to “get hungry” again and again within that window.

#3

You Will Likely Consume Too Many Calories for Weight Loss to Take Place.

While burning body fat is a huge benefit of IF, there is an element of Calorie In/Calorie Out (CI/CO) that cannot be overlooked in any weight management protocol. An eight hour window is long in terms of eating time.

A shorter eating window of 2 to 5 hours will usually result in OMAD–One Meal a Day. Within this time period, most people will eat an appetizer/snack/salad to open their window then an hour or two later have their meal followed by dessert within the hour or so, if desired. The short window, coupled with appetite correction (AC), yields a much lower total caloric intake for the day than an 8 hour eating window.

#4

Your Body Will Experience the Other Benefits of Daily IF More Fully.

Autophagy, the body’s natural recycling program, occurs when your create membranes that “eat up” old cells. This process makes us more efficient machines–and plays a role in slowing down the growth of disease and aging. (Yay!)

This process, along with Appetite Correction, lowering of important lab numbers, body fat burning, energy, and mind clarity, all seem to occur more readily in longer daily IF windows/shorter eating windows.

#5

You Will Likely Experience More “Personal” IF Benefits With a Shorter Eating Window.

If we cook, shop for, and clean up from two full meals (and perhaps a snack or two) in a longer eating window, we are missing the time saving benefits of a longer daily fast.

A longer fast also yields us more empowerment, more personal growth, and time to pursue other interests. Frankly, a longer fasting window can change your life in many positive ways.

Resources

#1 Your Fasting Window Might Not Be Long Enough to Burn Through Your Glycogen Stores: IF Journal Episode 4

#2 You Might Not Experience Appetite Correction (AC) in a Longer Eating Window: Appetite Correction by Burt Herring

#3 You Will Likely Consume Too Many Calories for Weight Loss to Take Place: Delay, Don’t Deny

#4 Your Body Will Experience the Other Benefits of Daily IF More Fully. The Obesity Code

#5 You Will Likely Experience More “Personal” IF Benefits With a Shorter Eating Window: IF Journal Podcast

IF Fasting Journal here at Donna Reish

Recipes and Tips here at DonnaReish.com

YouTube Channel

IF Journal Podcast at iTunes

Find ME–and Find Out More About Daily Intermittent Fasting!

(1) FB Group for Support and Daily Help

(2) Blog with all videos, articles, 5 Top Tips for IF Slideshow, and more.

(3) IF Journal Podcast at iTunes

(4) YouTube channel

(5) Donna Reish Blogger FB Page

Thanks for Viewing My…..

5 Tips for Daily IF Slideshow

Find More of These Weekly Slideshows here at donnareish.com

PIN THIS POST!

In the slideshow above are a couple of links to books I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links above I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!

5 Reasons You Will Love Daily Intermittent Fasting (IF) {Pictorial Slideshow}

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Scroll through the slideshow below for the top five reasons you’ll LOVE intermittent fasting! 🙂

For optimal viewing on a mobile device, tilt your device to landscape mode.

#1

It Will Probably Be Easier Than Anything Else You’ve Done for Weight Loss

Most people who have done years of various types of deprivation (keto, point counting, calorie counting, low fat, etc.) find a daily IF protocol easier than the other approaches to weight loss they have tried.

This is because a daily fasting window of 18-23 hours is a short term deprivation. People who have been in bondage to stringent food limitations love eating whatever they want.

#2

It Gives People Freedom—Food, Time, Kitchen Work, and Mind Freedom.

People love the option of eating formerly-forbidden foods during their eating window. The food freedom is huge!

Busy people also love the time, kitchen work, and mind freedoms. Most people who practice daily IF gain one to two hours a day in eating time and kitchen work time–and do not spend as much mental energy on planning their diet foods and regiment.

#3

It Burns Body Fat as You Do Nothing!

Most weight management programs are based on what you DO or what you EAT in order to lose weight and burn fat. Daily IF is the opposite of this—it burns body fat as you do nothing!

After 12 to 16 hours without food, the body goes into fat burning mode. Thus, your body is burning its own fat for fuel–simply by your doing nothing!

#4

It Is Simple–No Counting, Measuring, Weighing, Shopping, Prepping, Joining Programs, or Denying Yourself Long Term.

Busy people, as well as those seeking a simpler way of life, love the fact that you don’t ADD anything to your schedule in order to practice daily IF. You do not need to join a program, record food, cook elaborately, or count macros or calories.

With daily IF, you simply count the number of hours you do not eat (the fasting window) or the number of hours you do eat (the eating window)–or both (if desired). Easy-peasy!

#5

It Is Sustainable Forever–So You Don’t Have to Gain Back Weight You Lose When You “Quit.” (You Don’t Need to Quit!)

With most “diets,” there is the assumption that you are “on” –so you eventually go “off.” People cannot tolerate the deprivation, food limitations, and “rules” forever. (Plus, they find that as they get closer to goal, they have to eat less and less in order to lose weight!)

Daily IF is so simple, adaptable to your life, and health-giving that you do not feel the need to go “off” and then try to get back “on”! Once you reach your goal weight with IF, you just continue with the IF lifestyle to maintain that weight.

Want to Learn More?

Check out the following resource slides!

Learn More About Intermittent Fasting

#1 Easier Than Anything Else You’ve Done: Three Surefire Ways to Lose Weight

#2 It Gives People Freedom: IF Journal Podcast

#3 It Burns Body Fat as You Do Nothing!

#4 It Is Simple: Delay, Don’t Deny

#5 It Is Sustainable Forever: Feast Without Fear

IF Journal FB Group

YouTube Channel

IF Journal Podcast

PIN THIS POST!

In the slideshow above are a couple of links to books I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links above I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!

Intermittent Fasting Journal: Week Four

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I went to Disney World! And I went to the Plexus Leaders’ Retreat that I earned for my summer Plexus biz. And hubby went with me. AND.. I did IF the whole week! Yep, Intermittent Fasting passed the true dieters’ test–a plan you can stay on while on vacation without feeling deprived. Wow!

 

Here is my Week 4 video/podcast. Watch it here. Listen to the podcast in iTunes, follow the outline here!

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