It’s been a while since I last posted. This is because I recently went on a family holiday to Brittany in France with my mum, dad, sister, baby niece, the dog, bro-in-law and his mum. It’s where my BIL is originally from and his mum spends half the year there, so we were fortunate enough to be able to rent one of the summer houses next door.
It was beyond amazing being able to wake up to view of the ocean, playing with my niece and watching her learn and grow before my very eyes. She developed so much in just a week. We also ate a lot of home cooked food including fresh fish and seafood which Plozevet is known for. My BIL even barbecued on the massive indoor fire!
I have to hand it to my sister, we were a hard bunch to feed considering my dad and I are Keto, mum doesn’t eat seafood, and sisters MIL doesn’t like garlic, onion and some spices. Nevertheless, we found a mutual love of simple food, and her MIL’s homemade Mayonnaise (where is the heart emoticon when you need it?!). My dad indulged in cheese and creams which were incomparable – the quality seems so much better there, or it might just be the holiday mood made everything taste better.
Preparing for travel
For the flight I bought some spiced seeds, and made some buffalo spiced nuts, zucchini pancake ham and cheese rolls, as well as keto bounty bars. They kept quite well in a cool bag and the bounty bars even lasted until we reached our destination!
I knew that we would have access to kitchens and for the holiday I prepped by making a loaf of keto bread, crackers, I knew we’d be having alot of cheese and didn’t want to miss out on the fun!
For breakfast I prepped some granola which I had with yogurt every morning. Alternatively we had eggs, Jamon and bread. I had this with a spiced chai (we took some garam masala spices with us which I used to make the chai), with almond milk.
Giving in to Keto for some quality family time
There were three meals during my week long trip where I ate carbs for the sake of quality family time:
- Day two for lunch when my sister had booked a meal at the local creperie which is always booked up – it’s that popular. This place has nostalgic memories for us as it’s where we went when they got married with the whole family and their close friends. It wouldn’t make sense to go to the creperie and not eat a crepe. I made the decision to get a buckwheat crepe which seemed like the healthier option. However I totally caved when my sister asked if I wanted to share their special profiteroles with ice-cream in the middle. I had a few bites :-/. Or half the dish.
- The day when we all went out as a family and I resorted to eating ice-cream, crepes and French pastries. I outdid myself in carbs that day.
- The last full day that we had my mum, sister and I did a crepe making class where we learnt about the history of crepes, social context, about the ingredients, utensils, and techniques, as well as practicing and making our own savoury and sweet crepes and galettes.
Why I don’t eat gluten (apart from Keto)
On that last day I ate nearly three crepes and that day I remembered WHY I don’t eat gluten anymore. Even before starting the keto diet I’d avoided gluten for a while. The reason being my upper lip swelled up, it was like a bee had stung it, or I’d just gotten botox! It was a harsh reminder indeed, and trust me, I will not be touching gluten again. Luckily the eating was done at the end of the class and I swelled up on the way home! BUT, I got certificate for making crepes, and hope to make some beautiful keto crepes now.
Lessons Learnt
Before I left for holiday I thought I’d be able to stick to Keto during my trip: I would have access to a kitchen, I’d be with family, I knew what to expect in terms of food as I’ve been before. However, even in the most Keto friendly circumstances here are my tips:
- Keto is a LIFEstyle right? The key work being life. It needs to fit into your day and priorities in that moment when you’re making a decision as to what to eat. I chose having some family fun over keto and allergies/intolerances. (Partly because I knew I was in a safe environment so I could risk testing my limits! I didn’t have to go work the next day.)
- Prepare for success: I think my mentality that I was going to stick to Keto helped me to at least stay low-carb during the majority of my trip even though I was probably kicked out of ketosis on day two. I really liked the food that I’d prepped as well!
- Don’t mix fat and carbs: If you do eat carbs, try not to eat (too much) fat as well. Anyone that’s doing keto knows why so I won’t go into this. This was hard for me being in France because they put butter on everything!
- GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK! You’re on holiday after all! De-stressing is great for epilepsy and I’m sure being around loved ones does great things for stress levels.
I’ll put up recipes of food I prepared for travel in due course!
Managing epilepsy with a keto diet 