Recipe - Asian lettuce cups

Asian lettuce cups

1 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

Alexis - Week 1

Week 1.

I weighed in on Monday morning 9/24 at 204 pounds and started my low carb diet. My plan was to stick to 20 grams of carbs a day. I have no restrictions on where the 20 grams can come from except that I pledged to avoid sugar for 2 full weeks including desserts made from artificial sweeteners and stevia. I want to get my sweet tooth under control. I also pledged to exercise for 15 minutes a day from several excercise options: 15 min T-Tapp video, 15 min of Kettlebell (I've owned one for a year and it is still in the box), a brisk 15 min walk, or 15 min of sun salutations.

Typical day:
Breakfast: Usually tea with some half and half. Meant to eat eggs and sausage but most days I don't get around to it. Had eggs one day and had sausage alone another day. Otherwise it was just tea.
Lunch: each day I had my favorite chili with cheese and sour cream. One day I went to Japanese BBQ with Sandra. I ordered 9oz of steak, zucchini and a side salad. I limited my dipping sauce (very sweet) to just 3 tablespoons and there was lots left over after the meal. On the weekend I took a class so my meal options were really limited. 1 day I just had a greek yogurt for lunch. The second day I planned ahead and took a box with cheese cubes, bacon slices, big dill pickle, and a handful of olives. I drink seltzer most days with my lunch.
Snacks: Cheese sticks, pickles, almond butter on a spoon, herbal tea.
Dinner: Various depending on what the family is eating. I had tacos 3 times. Taco meat, sour cream, cheese, and olives on 1 hard corn shell (6 grams vs. 12+ for a flour tortilla). I eat about half the meat in the shell and the rest with a fork. When we had it I added a little lettuce.
One night we had creamy seitan bake over rice. I had no energy to make a separate dinner so I limited my portion to just 1/4 cup rice and 1/2 cup seitan and veggie mix (it had cream soup, high in carbs).

Thoughts:
Man, why do I ever go off plan?!?! I felt so crappy for the first few days coming off the sugar and the caffeine. Once my blood sugar stabilized I felt much better but it is a hard transition. I was in ketosis by day 2 which was awesome and I have stayed in ketosis throughout the week, even when eating higher carb dinners because I really limited my carbs and had been good the rest of the day. I did a lousy job exercising, of course this is typical for me, with only 2 days were I did any and in both cases I did a lot of walking at lunch time and considered that exercise.

Total Loss:
5 pounds! Also am less bloated as well which is very nice.

Recipe - Fabulous Chili

My current favorite lunch.

Low Carb Chili

1 pound of ground beef
1 can of fire roasted tomatoes with green chile (I buy Meir Glenn as a healthy alternative to Rotel)
1/2 c. copped onion
2 cloves of garlic minced
1T Chile Powder
1T Ground Cumin
1t. Salt
1t. Oregano

Brown and drain the beef. Add the veggies and saute until soft. Add the tomatoes with their juice and all the spices. Simmer 20 minutes until thick.

This makes 3 cups. I divide it into 4-5 servings servings and take them to work in a glass bowl. Microwave 1 minute and stir well. Microwave an additional minute and then top with 1/4c. shredded cheese and 1T. sour cream.

Entire chile recipe = 16 g of carbs
1/4 cup shredded cheese = 1g of carbs
1T sour cream = 1 g carbs

It is delicious and filling and I can make it on Sunday night and it covers my lunch for the whole week. Love it! Recipe adapted from http://yourlighterside.com/low-carb-chili-recipe-2/

Diane - Day 1

Well, so far so good.  It's only 1 pm but I'm on target.  I've had a great breakfast (2 eggs and 6 asparagus stalks) and a lovely lunch (the famous salad).  I've got cheeses and almond butter slated for snack later.  Now to think about dinner --- ugh!  that 's always a challenge.  Trying to decide if I'm up for yoga tonight since I ran 9 miles yesterday afternoon.   Talk to ya tomorrow.  Oh yeah, the scale registered a nice round number so my goal is 12 - 15 pounds.  Just read a blog that said it takes 30 continuous days to change the neural pathways of the brain.  So I'm going to try to go without my sugar treats for 30 DAYS -- yikes!