Diane's Week
Last Friday Brian went out of town and I, of course, went on a low carb vacation . It always seems to start with a Coke. I pretty much ate whatever I wanted Friday evening to Sunday night. But I was determined to get back on plan Monday morning. I actually DID IT!! I was pretty proud of myself. I went up a pound during my 3 day pig out ( of course that's one pound up from the 2 pounds up from my lowest weight). By Tuesday morning I was in Ketosis!! Which shocked me since I've only been in it once this whole month. I was very good Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Today I didn't eat my salad for lunch and that was a BIG mistake. I ate 4 cookies and a small tootsie roll candy. I did go to yoga, so I may have worked part of it off. I ate a small dinner but it consisted of a hamburger bun which is lots of carbs, but no additional sugar. All in all, I feel this week has been pretty successful. I dropped that one extra pound, but I'm still not back to my lowest weight.
Since I spent the last 13 days with the world's worst cold, the yoga tonight was the first exercise I've done since the cold began. I'm also hoping to get back on schedule with running and yoga, too.
Dear Jesus, help me to have strong resolve and to look at this as a long term change of bad habits that are detrimental to my body, your temple. Amen.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Alexis - Week 4
Week 4
Well this week was a total fail. I didn't plan or prep and that in turn meant I did not do well.
Typical Day
My biggest problem was that I did not meal plan. Not for dinners and not for lunch. Not having a planned lunch for the week sets me up each day to fail since there are very few low carb options in the neighbrohood. I guess that is not totally true. I planned to make chili for the week. At one point I even pulled the meat from the freezer, but I never made it. The thawed meet is still in the freezer and will be tossed in the trash tonight. Bummer!
We ate a lot of take out this week and once I gave up on the week I pretty much just ate whatever.
Thoughts
Ugh. It is so easy to go off plan. Luckily there isn't a lot of junk in the house and when I made Greg go buy ice cream I made sure he only bought one pint and we shared it. That kept me from too many sugar binges. So while I was off plan, I didn't go too hog wild and that was very good.
TotalLoss Fail
I have no idea. I stepped on the scale a couple times and the number was up but I didn't write it down. Too depressing.
The only good thing, is that I did a 4 mile cancer walk with a co-worker on Sunday morning so for once I actually got some exercise. Of course I ate a doughnut and a full syrup chai latte first,.... you know to carbo load. So finally exercise would have been great and been the perfect cap to the week if I had also been on track with my eating. But next week is a new week and a good chance to get back on track.
Well this week was a total fail. I didn't plan or prep and that in turn meant I did not do well.
Typical Day
My biggest problem was that I did not meal plan. Not for dinners and not for lunch. Not having a planned lunch for the week sets me up each day to fail since there are very few low carb options in the neighbrohood. I guess that is not totally true. I planned to make chili for the week. At one point I even pulled the meat from the freezer, but I never made it. The thawed meet is still in the freezer and will be tossed in the trash tonight. Bummer!
We ate a lot of take out this week and once I gave up on the week I pretty much just ate whatever.
Thoughts
Ugh. It is so easy to go off plan. Luckily there isn't a lot of junk in the house and when I made Greg go buy ice cream I made sure he only bought one pint and we shared it. That kept me from too many sugar binges. So while I was off plan, I didn't go too hog wild and that was very good.
Total
I have no idea. I stepped on the scale a couple times and the number was up but I didn't write it down. Too depressing.
The only good thing, is that I did a 4 mile cancer walk with a co-worker on Sunday morning so for once I actually got some exercise. Of course I ate a doughnut and a full syrup chai latte first,.... you know to carbo load. So finally exercise would have been great and been the perfect cap to the week if I had also been on track with my eating. But next week is a new week and a good chance to get back on track.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Diane's Week
This has been a tough week for me. Sunday I began getting a cold, so I began a course of Zicam and Airborne. Monday morning my car battery was dead so we spent the evening going up and back to and from Les Schwab's twice. We went to Dairy Queen for dinner and I ate the entire serving of french fries and the burger. I had a good day until that meal.
Tuesday it was more going up and back to Les Schwab to get the car, but we didn't do dinner out. I was tired from work and the cold, so we had organic burgers for dinner with some salad. I ate 3/4 of the bun. I bought some little drumettes at the store. They are like the full size drumstick ice cream treats but only 110 or 130 calories (depending on flavor) and 16g carbs. They are the perfect size so I can have some ice cream, cookie and chocolate drizzle all wrapped up in a neat package. No temptation to put a big scoop in a bowl. The cookie ice cream had 30+g carbs for 1/2 cup.
Last night we had pizza for dinner but the rest of my day was low carb (except for the 5 hersey's kisses I had after school, ugh!).
Today was teacher inservice and I resisted tons of muffins, donuts, etc. I did eat 3 little chocolate donut balls over the course of the morning. There was pizza for lunch so this was NOT a low carb day. Thus, I'm up the 2 pounds I had off last Saturday, too. I haven't been able to run or do yoga because of the car and my cold.
Dad goes out of town for the week-end, maybe I'll get back to everything then.
I have been pleased that when I derailed a bit here and there this week, I didn't use it as an excuse to go hogwild and binge. I made some small, but smart choices here and there when eating truly lo-carb was hard.
Dear Lord, Please help me to stay the course during the coming week. This is often the point where I usually quit. Help me to keep my mind on a life-style change and to think about and do the changes that will help my body and mind. Amen
Tuesday it was more going up and back to Les Schwab to get the car, but we didn't do dinner out. I was tired from work and the cold, so we had organic burgers for dinner with some salad. I ate 3/4 of the bun. I bought some little drumettes at the store. They are like the full size drumstick ice cream treats but only 110 or 130 calories (depending on flavor) and 16g carbs. They are the perfect size so I can have some ice cream, cookie and chocolate drizzle all wrapped up in a neat package. No temptation to put a big scoop in a bowl. The cookie ice cream had 30+g carbs for 1/2 cup.
Last night we had pizza for dinner but the rest of my day was low carb (except for the 5 hersey's kisses I had after school, ugh!).
Today was teacher inservice and I resisted tons of muffins, donuts, etc. I did eat 3 little chocolate donut balls over the course of the morning. There was pizza for lunch so this was NOT a low carb day. Thus, I'm up the 2 pounds I had off last Saturday, too. I haven't been able to run or do yoga because of the car and my cold.
Dad goes out of town for the week-end, maybe I'll get back to everything then.
I have been pleased that when I derailed a bit here and there this week, I didn't use it as an excuse to go hogwild and binge. I made some small, but smart choices here and there when eating truly lo-carb was hard.
Dear Lord, Please help me to stay the course during the coming week. This is often the point where I usually quit. Help me to keep my mind on a life-style change and to think about and do the changes that will help my body and mind. Amen
Monday, October 15, 2012
Alexis - Week 3
Week 3
I weighted in this week at 196.3. The big change is I am now allowing desserts again. I made a pumpkin bake this week to enjoy at night (recipe to come) and bought some sugar free whip cream. I usually try to avoid splenda but I don't have the energy to whipped cream each night for this dessert and it is so good with whipped cream. I also bought some Truvia baking blend which has bulking agents to make it almost a 1 for 1 sub in recipes (which adds carbs). I usually avoid it since it is made with stevia and sugar alcohol but darn it, it made the pumpkin bake so much better! That and low carb tortillas are my compromise foods right now. I am going to try really hard not to compromise more than that (please note I wrote this part early in the week!).
Typical Day
Breakfast: So far still the same for breakfast, tea with half and half or some sausage. Had a work meeting with breakfast on Tuesday so I made sure to eat at home. I packed my favorite tea bag and used their cream and enjoyed my tea at the meeting (all pastries, juice, coffee and water for tea. Not even fruit this time).
Lunch: This weeks lunch is chicken salad on crackers. Really yummy if I do say so myself! See recipe. I also bought a six pack of Zevia cherry cola soda which is sweetened with stevia and sugar alcohol. Not really carb free if you count sugar alcohols but it has been a treat. That flavor is not bad. Avoid the Dr. Pepper version which I found to be disgusting. Lunch out on Friday was to a Spanish Restaurant with all the Directors in my school. I had a chicken masala type dish with some string beans on the side. They put the bread bowl right in front of me and I had some major internal dialogue going on for a long time, but in the end I held strong. I resisted the free wine, the bread and the yellow rice and felt really good about it. The sauce probably had some carbs (it is made with white wine) but I figured it was still lower than if I added all the rest.
Snacks: Cheese sticks, pickles, beef jerky, almond butter, and squirts of sugar free whip cream directly in my mouth! Terrible but delicious. 2 pump, whole milk Chai from Starbucks. Definitely my weakness. The Chai mix is of course loaded with sugar so I limit it to 2 pumps, and whole milk is about 8 grams per cup (!). Definitely a treat that is not very low carb. I avoid walking by Starbucks because I have a hard time saying no to that.
Dinner: So hard this week. I am back in my rut of being overwhelmed with having to make 3 dinners at night. I start to think of an option and then it is either not low-carb convertible or not veggie convertible. I finally settled on lasagna and made a regular vegetarian lasagna for Greg and Vivi and a zucchini noodle lasagna for me. While it is tasty to use thin strips of zucchini instead of noodles (with layers of sauce, herbed ricotta, and mozzarella) it is a mess. It basically becomes a liquid pool when you try to serve it hot. Luckily I was not serving it to company! That meal lasted us three days until I could get over my cooker's block. We had take-out one night and I chose fajitas. I just eat the meat and onions with sour cream and guac in 1 low carb tortilla from home. Luckily they forgot to include the regular tortillas that come with the meal which is great because I have a hard time dumping them.
Thoughts
So this week I did great until Friday afternoon when I was completely derailed by Greg's parents. Of course they had no idea I was on a diet. They sent a box of frosted sugar cookies in halloween shapes for Vivi. They did this last year as well. They come from an upscale cookie company and they are delicious! I can say no to a lot of things. In fact I have treats in the house that I can avoid with little problem. Chocolate, sandwich cookies, m&ms (healthy version), kettle corn, chocolate chips, etc are all in my cabinets and as long as they are not in my sight all day I have no problem saying no. But one look at those cookies and I ate 6 of them in an hour. I couldn't stop. I have a special place in my heart for sugar cookies and I ate them until I had a belly ache. I felt such shame when it was over and a lot of anger at Greg's parents for sending them (why did they have to send a dozen and half!). I threw the rest in the freezer so Vivi could have at least 1. I tried to get back on track immediately but the whole weekend ended up being a wash. I didn't binge again, but we had company over for dinner on Saturday so I just ordered whatever I wanted at the restaurant and didn't go low carb. For lunch on Sunday I had cheese and crackers. For dinner we made oven nachos and had ice cream for desseert. And of course I made sure all the cookies were gone by Sunday night. Greg and Vivi ate a few but in the end I probably ate 12 of them myself. They were 30 grams of carbs each by the way.
So, my great 4.5 days were completely tainted by 2.5 bad days. I am committed to getting back on the horse on Monday morning and learned that certain foods are really really off limits because I lose all will power when I encounter them. Ugh! Even when you think you are safe at home, trigger foods can sneak up on you in the mail!
Total Loss
I gained 3.8 pounds! I also have my period so that may account for some of the difference. Not to mention carbs and junk food make me puffy and bloated so hopefully it will go away again once I am back on track.
I weighted in this week at 196.3. The big change is I am now allowing desserts again. I made a pumpkin bake this week to enjoy at night (recipe to come) and bought some sugar free whip cream. I usually try to avoid splenda but I don't have the energy to whipped cream each night for this dessert and it is so good with whipped cream. I also bought some Truvia baking blend which has bulking agents to make it almost a 1 for 1 sub in recipes (which adds carbs). I usually avoid it since it is made with stevia and sugar alcohol but darn it, it made the pumpkin bake so much better! That and low carb tortillas are my compromise foods right now. I am going to try really hard not to compromise more than that (please note I wrote this part early in the week!).
Typical Day
Breakfast: So far still the same for breakfast, tea with half and half or some sausage. Had a work meeting with breakfast on Tuesday so I made sure to eat at home. I packed my favorite tea bag and used their cream and enjoyed my tea at the meeting (all pastries, juice, coffee and water for tea. Not even fruit this time).
Lunch: This weeks lunch is chicken salad on crackers. Really yummy if I do say so myself! See recipe. I also bought a six pack of Zevia cherry cola soda which is sweetened with stevia and sugar alcohol. Not really carb free if you count sugar alcohols but it has been a treat. That flavor is not bad. Avoid the Dr. Pepper version which I found to be disgusting. Lunch out on Friday was to a Spanish Restaurant with all the Directors in my school. I had a chicken masala type dish with some string beans on the side. They put the bread bowl right in front of me and I had some major internal dialogue going on for a long time, but in the end I held strong. I resisted the free wine, the bread and the yellow rice and felt really good about it. The sauce probably had some carbs (it is made with white wine) but I figured it was still lower than if I added all the rest.
Snacks: Cheese sticks, pickles, beef jerky, almond butter, and squirts of sugar free whip cream directly in my mouth! Terrible but delicious. 2 pump, whole milk Chai from Starbucks. Definitely my weakness. The Chai mix is of course loaded with sugar so I limit it to 2 pumps, and whole milk is about 8 grams per cup (!). Definitely a treat that is not very low carb. I avoid walking by Starbucks because I have a hard time saying no to that.
Dinner: So hard this week. I am back in my rut of being overwhelmed with having to make 3 dinners at night. I start to think of an option and then it is either not low-carb convertible or not veggie convertible. I finally settled on lasagna and made a regular vegetarian lasagna for Greg and Vivi and a zucchini noodle lasagna for me. While it is tasty to use thin strips of zucchini instead of noodles (with layers of sauce, herbed ricotta, and mozzarella) it is a mess. It basically becomes a liquid pool when you try to serve it hot. Luckily I was not serving it to company! That meal lasted us three days until I could get over my cooker's block. We had take-out one night and I chose fajitas. I just eat the meat and onions with sour cream and guac in 1 low carb tortilla from home. Luckily they forgot to include the regular tortillas that come with the meal which is great because I have a hard time dumping them.
Thoughts
So this week I did great until Friday afternoon when I was completely derailed by Greg's parents. Of course they had no idea I was on a diet. They sent a box of frosted sugar cookies in halloween shapes for Vivi. They did this last year as well. They come from an upscale cookie company and they are delicious! I can say no to a lot of things. In fact I have treats in the house that I can avoid with little problem. Chocolate, sandwich cookies, m&ms (healthy version), kettle corn, chocolate chips, etc are all in my cabinets and as long as they are not in my sight all day I have no problem saying no. But one look at those cookies and I ate 6 of them in an hour. I couldn't stop. I have a special place in my heart for sugar cookies and I ate them until I had a belly ache. I felt such shame when it was over and a lot of anger at Greg's parents for sending them (why did they have to send a dozen and half!). I threw the rest in the freezer so Vivi could have at least 1. I tried to get back on track immediately but the whole weekend ended up being a wash. I didn't binge again, but we had company over for dinner on Saturday so I just ordered whatever I wanted at the restaurant and didn't go low carb. For lunch on Sunday I had cheese and crackers. For dinner we made oven nachos and had ice cream for desseert. And of course I made sure all the cookies were gone by Sunday night. Greg and Vivi ate a few but in the end I probably ate 12 of them myself. They were 30 grams of carbs each by the way.
So, my great 4.5 days were completely tainted by 2.5 bad days. I am committed to getting back on the horse on Monday morning and learned that certain foods are really really off limits because I lose all will power when I encounter them. Ugh! Even when you think you are safe at home, trigger foods can sneak up on you in the mail!
Total Loss
I gained 3.8 pounds! I also have my period so that may account for some of the difference. Not to mention carbs and junk food make me puffy and bloated so hopefully it will go away again once I am back on track.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Day 10 for Diane
This week end was a little rocky, but I still counted it sucessful. I have only been in Ketosis one day out of all these days, but my calorie count and carb grams have been on the low side so I'm keeping my 5 pounds off. Saturday I was planning to run 10 miles and allowed a few more carbs but didn't have the motivation to do the run. Even still I had a fairly low carb count and NO sugar. Yea! Felt good about that.
Sunday I went for the long run at Green Lake. It was LONG and ARDUOUS. I had to have some gels, sport beans to make it through. Afterward I had a chocolate milk for the protein/carb ratio. I had NO other sugar which made me feel very successful.
I was at 145.3, 145.6, and today 146.3. All that fluctuation is probably liquid related. I probably shouldn't weigh every day, but I'm kind of addicted to it.
My menu this week is nearly the same as last week. For dinner we are eating low carb sausages from Costco and a vegetable. One night I had 1 1/2 sausages for 2 carbs and 1/2 head of (small) cauliflower. It was something like 11 carbs but nearly no calories. The butter made it so yummy! Since the calorie count was so low, I was hungry before bed so I had one Tablespoon of cashew butter--WHAT A TREAT when you haven't had sugar for a while.
My all time favorite snack at school is to have 2 T. of almond butter when the kids leave for home. YUM and YEA. Then it is off to a run or yoga. I'm 10 days with out sugar and I'm amazed that I'm not craving it like a mad person.
This week end was a little rocky, but I still counted it sucessful. I have only been in Ketosis one day out of all these days, but my calorie count and carb grams have been on the low side so I'm keeping my 5 pounds off. Saturday I was planning to run 10 miles and allowed a few more carbs but didn't have the motivation to do the run. Even still I had a fairly low carb count and NO sugar. Yea! Felt good about that.
Sunday I went for the long run at Green Lake. It was LONG and ARDUOUS. I had to have some gels, sport beans to make it through. Afterward I had a chocolate milk for the protein/carb ratio. I had NO other sugar which made me feel very successful.
I was at 145.3, 145.6, and today 146.3. All that fluctuation is probably liquid related. I probably shouldn't weigh every day, but I'm kind of addicted to it.
My menu this week is nearly the same as last week. For dinner we are eating low carb sausages from Costco and a vegetable. One night I had 1 1/2 sausages for 2 carbs and 1/2 head of (small) cauliflower. It was something like 11 carbs but nearly no calories. The butter made it so yummy! Since the calorie count was so low, I was hungry before bed so I had one Tablespoon of cashew butter--WHAT A TREAT when you haven't had sugar for a while.
My all time favorite snack at school is to have 2 T. of almond butter when the kids leave for home. YUM and YEA. Then it is off to a run or yoga. I'm 10 days with out sugar and I'm amazed that I'm not craving it like a mad person.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Recipe - Chicken Salad
Chicken Salad
So very easy and a nice change of pace. Make a whole batch to eat throughout the week.
Ingredients
1 package organic chicken breaks from costco, frozen (2 breasts in the pkg)
4 small pickles, chopped
4 stalks celery (4-5" long), chop or slice
1/4c. mayo
1/4c. sour cream
1/4c. chopped nuts (optional)
1/4c. chopped apple (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Bring a pot of water to a boil and toss frozen breasts in. Bring back to a boil and cook through. I did this while working on other things in the kitchen. When done pull out of the water and chop/shred. Pur in a big bowl in the fridge and cool completely.
Mix shredded chicken (~3 cups) with the pickle and celery (and nuts and apple if using. I used nuts only). Add mayo and sour cream. You can add more mayo and sour cream until you have the amount of wettness that you like in your chicken salad. Salt and pepper to taste.
Carbs:
Chicken = 0
Pickle = 4
Celery = 2
Mayo = 0
Sour Cream = 4
Nuts = Depends. I used walnuts = 3 but Pecans = 7.5 for instance.
Apple = 8.5 (someday I think this would be nice to use)
**I got about 4 good sized portions out of this recipe but you could stretch it by eating it in a salad.
A note about crackers. I am on the hunt for a good low carb cracker. I made one this weekend that was delicious but when I followed the recipe instructions and rolled it very thin, the crackers were not strong like the recipe author promised. They are extremely breakable and can't even hold my chicken salad. Since they taste good I didn't want to throw them out so instead of eating my chicken salad on a cracker, I ate my cracker on chicken salad! Strange but still tasty. Once I find a better cracker recipe I will share it here.
So very easy and a nice change of pace. Make a whole batch to eat throughout the week.
Ingredients
1 package organic chicken breaks from costco, frozen (2 breasts in the pkg)
4 small pickles, chopped
4 stalks celery (4-5" long), chop or slice
1/4c. mayo
1/4c. sour cream
1/4c. chopped nuts (optional)
1/4c. chopped apple (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Bring a pot of water to a boil and toss frozen breasts in. Bring back to a boil and cook through. I did this while working on other things in the kitchen. When done pull out of the water and chop/shred. Pur in a big bowl in the fridge and cool completely.
Mix shredded chicken (~3 cups) with the pickle and celery (and nuts and apple if using. I used nuts only). Add mayo and sour cream. You can add more mayo and sour cream until you have the amount of wettness that you like in your chicken salad. Salt and pepper to taste.
Carbs:
Chicken = 0
Pickle = 4
Celery = 2
Mayo = 0
Sour Cream = 4
Nuts = Depends. I used walnuts = 3 but Pecans = 7.5 for instance.
Apple = 8.5 (someday I think this would be nice to use)
**I got about 4 good sized portions out of this recipe but you could stretch it by eating it in a salad.
A note about crackers. I am on the hunt for a good low carb cracker. I made one this weekend that was delicious but when I followed the recipe instructions and rolled it very thin, the crackers were not strong like the recipe author promised. They are extremely breakable and can't even hold my chicken salad. Since they taste good I didn't want to throw them out so instead of eating my chicken salad on a cracker, I ate my cracker on chicken salad! Strange but still tasty. Once I find a better cracker recipe I will share it here.
Alexis - Week 2
Week 2
I weighed in on 10/1 at 199.0 pounds. A 5 pound loss in one week made the sacrifice worthwhile. I am continuing on with the same plan though I am looking forward to adding in a stevia sweetened dessert or square of dark chocolate starting next week. I miss the sweet treat at night.I have been soda free for almost 3 weeks which is awesome. Don't know why I ever drink that crap!
Typical Day:
Similar structure as last week.
Breakfast: Most days I don't eat breakfast. Not really for diet purposes, mostly for lack of time. When I have a morning event where I know there will be food I made sure to eat at home so I am not tempted. I also keep a box of frozen sausages in the freezer at work. Two runs through the toaster oven and they are hot and delicious. I had eggs one morning this week and YUCK. I think I ODed on plain scrambled eggs a while ago. Can't stand them right now.
Lunch: This week I have taken my asian lettuce wraps which have been really really yummy. A definite recipe to repeat. Friday I went out to lunch with Sandra. I think that may become my tradition, to find a low carb lunch in the neighborhood to enjoy so I don't feel deprived. My favorite is Japanese BBQ where you grill your own meats at the table. It is pretty easy to avoid carbs. Another is a bunless bacon cheeseburger at the Knickerbocker Grill with a side salad instead of fries. Always a winner is a salad from Chipotle with no dressing, lettuce, meat, cheese, sour cream and guacamole (6 grams of carbs with the sour cream acting as a dressing).
Snacks: I am loving my dill pickles as a snack. Such strong flavor and crunch. String cheese is still a favorite and I found an almond butter that is 1g per Tbsp so I just eat a spoonful and it tastes so sweet when you have been off sugar for a while. In the afternoon I like to sip herbal tea at my desk as well.
Dinner: I made chicken rollatini. It made 3 portions so I had that when Greg and Vivi had a high carb meal. It is a little work on the front end but it lasted a long time. We also had pizza two night and I made my pizza on low carb tortillas.On Saturday Greg wanted to go out to dinner at Brooklyn Label. I checked the menu online and was sure I could eat there. I ordered the steak which was the most "legal" meal on the menu. We had to wait a long time for the waiter to take our order and right before he arrived I started to second guess my choice and was afraid I would end up hating it (I don't generally like steak). I wish I had listened to my gut. I should have ordered the BBQ chicken or the pulled pork. Both have sauces that have more carbs but a little bit of carb in a meal I know I will enjoy would be better than a meal I hated. Then to make it worse Vivi had the house mac and cheese which was gourmet and so so delicious. She of course ate 8-9 bites and then was done so I ate the rest. Oh well. She shared a gourmet ice cream scoop as a family which was very nice. A small portion split between three people. It was more controlled that way but very delicious.
Thoughts:
Still averaging moderate ketones all week which is fabulous. Even my bad days I never went negative. On Sunday night I broke down as Greg ate kettle corn and had a LOT. Felt like a failure after eating it but got right back on the wagon! Still not exercising much due to lack of time and desire.
Total Loss:
2.7 pounds this week for 7.7 pounds total!
I weighed in on 10/1 at 199.0 pounds. A 5 pound loss in one week made the sacrifice worthwhile. I am continuing on with the same plan though I am looking forward to adding in a stevia sweetened dessert or square of dark chocolate starting next week. I miss the sweet treat at night.I have been soda free for almost 3 weeks which is awesome. Don't know why I ever drink that crap!
Typical Day:
Similar structure as last week.
Breakfast: Most days I don't eat breakfast. Not really for diet purposes, mostly for lack of time. When I have a morning event where I know there will be food I made sure to eat at home so I am not tempted. I also keep a box of frozen sausages in the freezer at work. Two runs through the toaster oven and they are hot and delicious. I had eggs one morning this week and YUCK. I think I ODed on plain scrambled eggs a while ago. Can't stand them right now.
Lunch: This week I have taken my asian lettuce wraps which have been really really yummy. A definite recipe to repeat. Friday I went out to lunch with Sandra. I think that may become my tradition, to find a low carb lunch in the neighborhood to enjoy so I don't feel deprived. My favorite is Japanese BBQ where you grill your own meats at the table. It is pretty easy to avoid carbs. Another is a bunless bacon cheeseburger at the Knickerbocker Grill with a side salad instead of fries. Always a winner is a salad from Chipotle with no dressing, lettuce, meat, cheese, sour cream and guacamole (6 grams of carbs with the sour cream acting as a dressing).
Snacks: I am loving my dill pickles as a snack. Such strong flavor and crunch. String cheese is still a favorite and I found an almond butter that is 1g per Tbsp so I just eat a spoonful and it tastes so sweet when you have been off sugar for a while. In the afternoon I like to sip herbal tea at my desk as well.
Dinner: I made chicken rollatini. It made 3 portions so I had that when Greg and Vivi had a high carb meal. It is a little work on the front end but it lasted a long time. We also had pizza two night and I made my pizza on low carb tortillas.On Saturday Greg wanted to go out to dinner at Brooklyn Label. I checked the menu online and was sure I could eat there. I ordered the steak which was the most "legal" meal on the menu. We had to wait a long time for the waiter to take our order and right before he arrived I started to second guess my choice and was afraid I would end up hating it (I don't generally like steak). I wish I had listened to my gut. I should have ordered the BBQ chicken or the pulled pork. Both have sauces that have more carbs but a little bit of carb in a meal I know I will enjoy would be better than a meal I hated. Then to make it worse Vivi had the house mac and cheese which was gourmet and so so delicious. She of course ate 8-9 bites and then was done so I ate the rest. Oh well. She shared a gourmet ice cream scoop as a family which was very nice. A small portion split between three people. It was more controlled that way but very delicious.
Thoughts:
Still averaging moderate ketones all week which is fabulous. Even my bad days I never went negative. On Sunday night I broke down as Greg ate kettle corn and had a LOT. Felt like a failure after eating it but got right back on the wagon! Still not exercising much due to lack of time and desire.
Total Loss:
2.7 pounds this week for 7.7 pounds total!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Day 6 for Diane
I would say I've had a successful 5 days so far It took 4 days for me to come into Ketosis. But I've been there for 2 days now. Yea!!
My menu for the days has been pretty routine: Breakfast is 2 eggs, 1/2 T. butter with some small carb serving. Monday it was 5 asparagus spears and 1/2 T butter, Wednesday & Friday W it was 1/4 cup shredded cheese on top of eggs, Thursday I added 1/4 c. greek
yogurt and 1/4 blueberries along side the eggs and Tuesday I did 1 cup greek yogurt and 1/4 cup blueberries.
Most of my breakfasts come in a 0 -2 grams carbs. That 1 cup gr. yogurt breakfast was my highest start for the week with 14 carbs but my overall calories for the day was quite low.
Lunch is a breeze. I've been doing the famous salad. I'm still loving the dressing and all the ingredients because I haven't had it as much as you. I finally decided to take a whole bag of the Baby Bell cheeses and the Tilla Moo cheeses to school so I don't have to drag them daily in my lunch bag. I even put a whole jar of Almond Butter in my little refrigerator, so I always have my standby snacks available.
That leads me to snacks. All week it's been the same. 1 Baby Bell, 1 Tilla Moo, 2 T. almond butter on a spoon. It's becoming a little boring, but I am satisfied all day.
Dinner has been more challenging. Monday I did the Pork rinds breading on pounded chicken breasts, 8 buttered Brussel sprouts and I snacked on pork rinds as I cooked.
Monday had 11.3 carbs and 1290 calories and I did 90 minutes of hot yoga.
Tuesday dinner was a reduced version of salad, 6 brussels sprouts, 1 Aidelle's sausage, 1 T. slivered almonds, 1/4 c. shredded cheese. The day had 26.1 carbs and 1224.5 calories. No exercise
Wednesday dinner was 1 c. whole wheat egg noodles with 1/8 c. sour cream, 1/4 c. cottage cheese with 1T butter, 1/4 c. onions, 1 Aidelle's sausage. I made this up like mom's Polish Noodles dish. The day finished with 29.8 carbs and 1533 calories and a 2 1/4 mile run.
Polish noodles: Carmalize onion in butter, add sliced sausage, heat through. Add cooked egg noodles, heat through. Add equal parts sour cream and cottage cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and saucy and hot. The sauce will pick up color from the meat and onions. This can be made with out the meat, too. It was my dad's favorite dish.
Thursday dinner was 1 Red Pepper and Garlic Sausage, 2/3 c. grape tomatoes. Not a filling dinner but I was alone because dad was at his club meeting. So I finished the evening eating an ENTIRE $2 bag of pork rinds and a seltzer. I was alarmed to see how may calories it was- 560 -but I counted it as 0 carbs. I stayed in Ketosis despite that binge and I lost weight. I finished the day with 17.55 carbs and 1619.1 calories. Did 90 minutes of Hot Yoga.
Friday dinner was very bad and wierd because I got home at 8 pm and dad arrived at the same time, I just didn't feel like cooking so I had 1/2 c. of granola with 1/3 c. heavy whipping cream and 1 hot dog that dad cooked. I was shocked this morning when I looked up the calorie count on the cream - 250 calories! But I finished the day with 21.3 carbs and 1643 calories. No exercise.
I started the week at 150.1 pounds and this morning I am 145.8. A fair amount of that may only be water. But we'll see. I plan to do a 10 mile run today.
I have to say that I am proud of myself. I resisted A LOT OF SUGAR this week. I resisted all the candy treats given as reward to the students (quiet resters get a small halloween candy) and Jelly Bellies that are given for bringing a sharing item (kids get three beans from the Jelly Belly canister guy). A cream cheese frosted, red velvet cupcake came into my room from a 3rd grader celebrating her birthday. A birthday cookie came into the room from a student in 1st grade. Both those went right into the garbage when they left. I almost took a swipe of the cream cheese frosting with my finger to taste but pulled back and said "NO!" to myself. Yesterday on the porch someone brought me a chocolate chip cookie for her birthday. I put that one in a baggie and put it in my freezer. Not sure if I'll eat it later. Friday the staff room had a great display of casseroles, fruits and muffins from the Preschool Staff as an appreciation gesture. I had a 1/2 cup serving of the egg and bacon casserole. I noticed as I ate that it had some potatoes in it, too. I ate 2 medium strawberries. No juice, no watermelon and no muffins. I was pretty proud of my self-control. There were also pretzels and cookies available throughout the week in the staff room. I ate NONE! I did break down yesterday and had 2 diet colas. Otherwise it's been my herb tea, water or seltzer.
LOVE the recipes. Keep them coming because I am going to have to branch out from my routine to avoid boredom. Dear Lord, let me keep my resolve throughout the weekend. Amen.
My menu for the days has been pretty routine: Breakfast is 2 eggs, 1/2 T. butter with some small carb serving. Monday it was 5 asparagus spears and 1/2 T butter, Wednesday & Friday W it was 1/4 cup shredded cheese on top of eggs, Thursday I added 1/4 c. greek
yogurt and 1/4 blueberries along side the eggs and Tuesday I did 1 cup greek yogurt and 1/4 cup blueberries.
Most of my breakfasts come in a 0 -2 grams carbs. That 1 cup gr. yogurt breakfast was my highest start for the week with 14 carbs but my overall calories for the day was quite low.
Lunch is a breeze. I've been doing the famous salad. I'm still loving the dressing and all the ingredients because I haven't had it as much as you. I finally decided to take a whole bag of the Baby Bell cheeses and the Tilla Moo cheeses to school so I don't have to drag them daily in my lunch bag. I even put a whole jar of Almond Butter in my little refrigerator, so I always have my standby snacks available.
That leads me to snacks. All week it's been the same. 1 Baby Bell, 1 Tilla Moo, 2 T. almond butter on a spoon. It's becoming a little boring, but I am satisfied all day.
Dinner has been more challenging. Monday I did the Pork rinds breading on pounded chicken breasts, 8 buttered Brussel sprouts and I snacked on pork rinds as I cooked.
Monday had 11.3 carbs and 1290 calories and I did 90 minutes of hot yoga.
Tuesday dinner was a reduced version of salad, 6 brussels sprouts, 1 Aidelle's sausage, 1 T. slivered almonds, 1/4 c. shredded cheese. The day had 26.1 carbs and 1224.5 calories. No exercise
Wednesday dinner was 1 c. whole wheat egg noodles with 1/8 c. sour cream, 1/4 c. cottage cheese with 1T butter, 1/4 c. onions, 1 Aidelle's sausage. I made this up like mom's Polish Noodles dish. The day finished with 29.8 carbs and 1533 calories and a 2 1/4 mile run.
Polish noodles: Carmalize onion in butter, add sliced sausage, heat through. Add cooked egg noodles, heat through. Add equal parts sour cream and cottage cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and saucy and hot. The sauce will pick up color from the meat and onions. This can be made with out the meat, too. It was my dad's favorite dish.
Thursday dinner was 1 Red Pepper and Garlic Sausage, 2/3 c. grape tomatoes. Not a filling dinner but I was alone because dad was at his club meeting. So I finished the evening eating an ENTIRE $2 bag of pork rinds and a seltzer. I was alarmed to see how may calories it was- 560 -but I counted it as 0 carbs. I stayed in Ketosis despite that binge and I lost weight. I finished the day with 17.55 carbs and 1619.1 calories. Did 90 minutes of Hot Yoga.
Friday dinner was very bad and wierd because I got home at 8 pm and dad arrived at the same time, I just didn't feel like cooking so I had 1/2 c. of granola with 1/3 c. heavy whipping cream and 1 hot dog that dad cooked. I was shocked this morning when I looked up the calorie count on the cream - 250 calories! But I finished the day with 21.3 carbs and 1643 calories. No exercise.
I started the week at 150.1 pounds and this morning I am 145.8. A fair amount of that may only be water. But we'll see. I plan to do a 10 mile run today.
I have to say that I am proud of myself. I resisted A LOT OF SUGAR this week. I resisted all the candy treats given as reward to the students (quiet resters get a small halloween candy) and Jelly Bellies that are given for bringing a sharing item (kids get three beans from the Jelly Belly canister guy). A cream cheese frosted, red velvet cupcake came into my room from a 3rd grader celebrating her birthday. A birthday cookie came into the room from a student in 1st grade. Both those went right into the garbage when they left. I almost took a swipe of the cream cheese frosting with my finger to taste but pulled back and said "NO!" to myself. Yesterday on the porch someone brought me a chocolate chip cookie for her birthday. I put that one in a baggie and put it in my freezer. Not sure if I'll eat it later. Friday the staff room had a great display of casseroles, fruits and muffins from the Preschool Staff as an appreciation gesture. I had a 1/2 cup serving of the egg and bacon casserole. I noticed as I ate that it had some potatoes in it, too. I ate 2 medium strawberries. No juice, no watermelon and no muffins. I was pretty proud of my self-control. There were also pretzels and cookies available throughout the week in the staff room. I ate NONE! I did break down yesterday and had 2 diet colas. Otherwise it's been my herb tea, water or seltzer.
LOVE the recipes. Keep them coming because I am going to have to branch out from my routine to avoid boredom. Dear Lord, let me keep my resolve throughout the weekend. Amen.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Recipe - Chicken Rollatini
Chicken Rollatini8 thin chicken cutlets, 3 oz each. (If you can't get these ready made from the butcher you can cut a breast in half and then half again then pound the pieces thin.)
8 slices of prosciutto
8 slices of provalone or other cheese
1/2 cup ground pork rhinds (I use a 99 cent package and crush)
1/4 cup parmessan cheese, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
Pound chicken if needed. Mix the pork rhinds and cheese in a small bowl. Lightly beat the egg and pull in small bowl.
Take a piece of chicken on your work surface. Put a piece of prosciutto on the chicken and then a slice of cheese. Fold as needed so they all fit together. Roll the chicken, ham and cheese up and put in a pan seam side down. Repeat until all 8 are rolled.
Brush the tops and sides of the rolls with the egg wash and sprinkle (and pat on) the rhind/cheese mixture.
Bake 25-30 minutes until the chicken reaches 165 degrees. You can eat one or 2 for dinner.
Note: You can scale this depending on the size of your chicken. The original recipe suggests dipping in the liquid and breading both sides. This is a waste of carbs since anything inside the roll or on the bottom will not brown and will be soggy. Much of the cheese leaks out of the roll. I am planning to eperiment with wrapping the cheese up in the prosciutto to make a small bundle that is then rolled in the chicken to try and contain the cheese a little better. Original recipe added slided onion in the middle. Cutting and onion was too much trouble for me. I have been warming these in the toaster oven subsequent nights and they are still very tasty. A little bit of work but pretty easy if you can get the chicken pre-cut thin. Very yummy.
Adapted from http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chicken-rollatini-with-prosciutto-and.html
Recipe - Asian lettuce cups
Asian lettuce cups1 pound ground turkey or beef (I used beef)
1 can of water chestnuts (drain and chop)
1 large celery stalk (chop)
1/2 sweet onion (chop)
1 clove garlic (minced)
2T Hoisin Sauce (look for a low carb version. I got mine at whole foods. 365 brand, no weird ingredients and it was 3g of carbs per Tbsp. Another one on the shelf was 30g per Tbsp!)
2T Soy Sauce
1t. grated ginger (I buy this in a tube ready made)
6 bibb or iceberg lettuce leaves
Chop up the veggies. Grown the meat and drain excess grease. Add veggies and saute in leftover fat until soft. Add sauces, garlic and ginger, mixing well. Simmer for 15 minutes. Divide onto lettuce leaves and wrap them up to eat.
Makes 6 servings. With my hoisin sauce each serving was 5g of carbs. I chose to add an additional 2T of hoisin sauce bringing each serving up to 6g. In the future I would opt for larger servings and less hoisin.
I made this Sunday night and then took a portion to work each day along with a lettuce leaf. Warmed in the microwave. By day three I skipped the lettuce wrap and just ate it from the bowl (it is really really good) and then had the lettuce on the side as a small salad.
Adapted from http://peaceloveandlowcarb.blogspot.com/2012/07/asian-lettuce-wraps.html
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