Today's weigh-in: 222.4
Well, I'm down about 7 lbs
since the beginning of the week. What I've read about the ketogenic
(low carb, high fat) diet is that the quick weight loss at the beginning
is mostly water weight. That means it's easy to gain back. So I need
to be really careful to continue the diet to ensure that my weight
doesn't go back up. I know from watching my hubby in his attempt, which
has gone on about three weeks longer than mine has, is that after about
two weeks the weight loss will slow down. I'm hoping that, by that
time, I can be down about 20 lbs. I think that will make a big
difference, since I haven't even incorporated working out into the
equation yet.
Tomorrow is the first day of November,
and I think I'll try to do one of those workout "challenges" that I see
on Pinterest all the time. Maybe that will keep me from bogging down in
the diet.
But I just have no energy at all. I don't
know what it is; I guess it could just be my body wanting its carbs.
Hopefully this will get easier once my body gets a little more used to
the diet. Cross your fingers.
I don't feel incredibly hopefully about tomorrow's weigh-in, even though today's was good. I've "cheated" a little bit today. Brendan had some goldfish crackers, and I had one. Ian had some peanut butter M&Ms, and I ate two of them. The boys got McDonald's Happy Meals for lunch, and I stole two french fries. I don't know if that's enough carbs to cause a problem, but it indicates that I am not satisfied with my meals. I need to figure out how to head that carb desire off at the pass.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
If this really is a good thing, why do I feel so guilty?
Today's weigh-in: 223.6
Well, it seems to be working. I'm not counting calories at all, but I'm losing weight. I'm scarfing down a ridiculous amount of fat each day, but I'm down 6 lbs in four days. I'm pretty pleased so far, but it sure is hard. I so badly want to eat a couple pieces of toast, or a sandwich, or some potatoes, or something. I feel full after I eat, but I just don't feel satisfied. Today was the closest I felt to that, and I think it's because I got some chocolate.
At the grocery store last night, I picked up a couple different kinds of Atkins snack bars, chocolate with caramel. Unlike some of the other diet snack bars I've bought in the past, these weren't half bad. They only have 2 and 3 net carbs, which isn't bad. Also, my husband found some recipes for what are apparently called "fat bombs", things you are supposed to eat to get your blood back into ketosis if you haven't had enough fat or you've had too much protein. They were chocolate and peanut butter with nuts in them, made with a lot of butter and coconut oil. They were pretty good, although a little on the salty side. It's still more of a savory chocolate taste, rather than a really sweet milk chocolate one, but I'll take what I can get.
It's weird, though. This diet pretty much flies in the face of just about everything I've ever been told about eating. I've always heard that you need to cut back on fat, cut back on calories, eat a balanced diet with plenty of protein, eat lots of fruits, stuff like that. I haven't been able to have a piece of fruit all week because they all have too many carbs. I keep eyeing the bananas, but they are more than half of my available carbs for the day. Also, the diet recommends eating as late as 11 pm. Most diets always said not to eat late in the day. The whole thing is just really weird. And apparently you have to eat so much fat! I've never minded fatty foods; in fact, I've always liked the fat on my steak, park, or chicken. But I feel like I'm overdosing on it. Everything feels greasy and oily and thick. I find myself craving a huge swig of orange juice, like it would clean everything out. It's a really strange feeling.
I don't feel like I have much energy right now. I'm still drinking my coffee in the morning, but I've gotten some of those sugar-free Torani syrups to try to make my froo-froo coffee drinks at home. I keep seeing low carb recipes for "bulletproof coffee" with butter and cream in it. It sounds repulsive.
Anyway, it seems to be working, but it isn't really making me feel good, either mentally or physically. I'll be a lot more relieved when I hit the 10 lb mark. I hope I keep going; it's really nice to actually lose weight for the first time in years. I haven't even been working out.
Well, it seems to be working. I'm not counting calories at all, but I'm losing weight. I'm scarfing down a ridiculous amount of fat each day, but I'm down 6 lbs in four days. I'm pretty pleased so far, but it sure is hard. I so badly want to eat a couple pieces of toast, or a sandwich, or some potatoes, or something. I feel full after I eat, but I just don't feel satisfied. Today was the closest I felt to that, and I think it's because I got some chocolate.
At the grocery store last night, I picked up a couple different kinds of Atkins snack bars, chocolate with caramel. Unlike some of the other diet snack bars I've bought in the past, these weren't half bad. They only have 2 and 3 net carbs, which isn't bad. Also, my husband found some recipes for what are apparently called "fat bombs", things you are supposed to eat to get your blood back into ketosis if you haven't had enough fat or you've had too much protein. They were chocolate and peanut butter with nuts in them, made with a lot of butter and coconut oil. They were pretty good, although a little on the salty side. It's still more of a savory chocolate taste, rather than a really sweet milk chocolate one, but I'll take what I can get.
It's weird, though. This diet pretty much flies in the face of just about everything I've ever been told about eating. I've always heard that you need to cut back on fat, cut back on calories, eat a balanced diet with plenty of protein, eat lots of fruits, stuff like that. I haven't been able to have a piece of fruit all week because they all have too many carbs. I keep eyeing the bananas, but they are more than half of my available carbs for the day. Also, the diet recommends eating as late as 11 pm. Most diets always said not to eat late in the day. The whole thing is just really weird. And apparently you have to eat so much fat! I've never minded fatty foods; in fact, I've always liked the fat on my steak, park, or chicken. But I feel like I'm overdosing on it. Everything feels greasy and oily and thick. I find myself craving a huge swig of orange juice, like it would clean everything out. It's a really strange feeling.
I don't feel like I have much energy right now. I'm still drinking my coffee in the morning, but I've gotten some of those sugar-free Torani syrups to try to make my froo-froo coffee drinks at home. I keep seeing low carb recipes for "bulletproof coffee" with butter and cream in it. It sounds repulsive.
Anyway, it seems to be working, but it isn't really making me feel good, either mentally or physically. I'll be a lot more relieved when I hit the 10 lb mark. I hope I keep going; it's really nice to actually lose weight for the first time in years. I haven't even been working out.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Progress, maybe...
Today's weigh in: 227.6
It might be progress, but it is also within the +/- 2 lbs swing that I often experience. We'll have to give it a few days, to see if I continue to have some weight loss.
Of course, today wasn't a great day. I had a cup of cappuccino (10 g), carrots and peanut butter (19 g each time, x2 = 36 g; it's a lot fewer carbs to eat the natural peanut butter that is higher in calories and fat than the reduced fat stuff), a couple pieces of gum (about 4 g), and a granola bar because I got desperate (17 g). That's 67 g, well over the 50 g mark. So I don't know what will happen.
And the worst part is, I'm starving. I'm soooooooo hungry. I really want a huge pot of pasta or potatoes or something. And it's almost Halloween, which means candy...
This low carb thing sucks.
It might be progress, but it is also within the +/- 2 lbs swing that I often experience. We'll have to give it a few days, to see if I continue to have some weight loss.
Of course, today wasn't a great day. I had a cup of cappuccino (10 g), carrots and peanut butter (19 g each time, x2 = 36 g; it's a lot fewer carbs to eat the natural peanut butter that is higher in calories and fat than the reduced fat stuff), a couple pieces of gum (about 4 g), and a granola bar because I got desperate (17 g). That's 67 g, well over the 50 g mark. So I don't know what will happen.
And the worst part is, I'm starving. I'm soooooooo hungry. I really want a huge pot of pasta or potatoes or something. And it's almost Halloween, which means candy...
This low carb thing sucks.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Apparently, carbs make food taste good.
Today's weigh-in: 229.4
I'm embarking on an experiment, one I fully expect will not last long. A friend of mine has lost more than 100 lbs in the past 6 years, mostly following a low carb diet through a meal plan company (not WW but one of those). She's an incredible person and a huge inspiration. After all her success, she's now become a health coach and is encouraging her husband to do the same. He's following a similar plan, although I believe they are cooking at home instead of getting the premade meals, and he's lost a bit of weight so far (I don't know how much). All this (along with a fitness check for his work that didn't end with pleasant results) inspired my husband to give the low carb diet a shot. He started about two and a half weeks ago, and he's lost about 20 lbs. That's pretty inspiring to somebody who has never lost more than two pounds in a week (me). I decided that, once the birthday season was done (my birthday followed by my son's), I would give the low carb thing a try. I started this morning, and, after about 12 hours of doing the low carb thing, I'm severely depressed.
I used to joke that calories were the things that made food taste good. I was wrong. Carbs are the things that make food taste good. I know I'm a sugar junkie, but I never realized how much of a starch junkie I was. Potatoes, bread, pasta, rice...oh how I love them. And things that I never realized had lots of carbs, like carrots, bananas, corn, birthday cake...ok, I knew that one. Even my gum, which is sugar-free, has 2 g of carbs per piece. How does that even happen?
A couple of weeks ago, I tried to make mashed cauliflower as a substitute for mashed potatoes. It didn't go well. Oh, I know I could doctor them up with a lot of sour cream, butter, salt, and garlic, but they still wouldn't be mashed potatoes. I know you can make zucchini "noodles" or use spaghetti squash. I know you can make a crispy cheese "crust" for pizza. Yes, I know these things, just like I know that there are vegetarians who eat bean and grain "burgers" and tofurkey. I know these things. But I also know that real food, the stuff with carbs in it, tastes best. I don't even want to start on the low carb desserts.
We went to a buffet last night for my father-in-law's birthday. We chose the buffet because we figured it would be easier for my husband to find low carb offerings than a regular restaurant. He found a few things to eat, but it was very hard for him to see them side by side on the buffet display with all the foods that he can't eat.
Yes, my husband has lost an impressive amount of weight in the two or so weeks he's been doing low carb, but I haven't seen him happy or content after eating. Instead, he wistfully opens and closes the fridge and pantry, looking for some miraculous low carb offering that will satisfy his cravings, but none can be found.
So, I decided I would try as well. I've never lost weight quickly, and I'm about 80 lbs overweight, so I need something to jumpstart things for me. I'm hoping the low carb thing will do it, but I just don't know how long I can keep it up. Today I had a cup of Keurig cappuccino (10 grams), carrots and peanut butter (a combined 24 grams), a cheese stick (1 gram), and four pieces of gum (8 grams). I'm not sure what my dinner carbs were, but I had a lettuce/kale/spinach/chicken salad with cheese, some slivered almonds, a few tortilla strips, and some southwestern ranch dressing, so I wouldn't think it was more than 15 grams. That puts me at around 53 grams of carbs today. That might not be the ideal below-50 level that many low carb diets recommend, but it's surely way fewer carbs than I usually consume. It's probably also fewer calories, because I couldn't find anything else to eat.
Oh, and I had a square-inch cube of birthday cake. That was probably another 15 freaking carbs right there. Whatever.
Anyway, we'll see how things look in the morning. If it looks like I'm getting a weight loss jumpstart, I'll try to hang with it as long as I can. If not, I'm eating some damn toast for breakfast.
I'm embarking on an experiment, one I fully expect will not last long. A friend of mine has lost more than 100 lbs in the past 6 years, mostly following a low carb diet through a meal plan company (not WW but one of those). She's an incredible person and a huge inspiration. After all her success, she's now become a health coach and is encouraging her husband to do the same. He's following a similar plan, although I believe they are cooking at home instead of getting the premade meals, and he's lost a bit of weight so far (I don't know how much). All this (along with a fitness check for his work that didn't end with pleasant results) inspired my husband to give the low carb diet a shot. He started about two and a half weeks ago, and he's lost about 20 lbs. That's pretty inspiring to somebody who has never lost more than two pounds in a week (me). I decided that, once the birthday season was done (my birthday followed by my son's), I would give the low carb thing a try. I started this morning, and, after about 12 hours of doing the low carb thing, I'm severely depressed.
I used to joke that calories were the things that made food taste good. I was wrong. Carbs are the things that make food taste good. I know I'm a sugar junkie, but I never realized how much of a starch junkie I was. Potatoes, bread, pasta, rice...oh how I love them. And things that I never realized had lots of carbs, like carrots, bananas, corn, birthday cake...ok, I knew that one. Even my gum, which is sugar-free, has 2 g of carbs per piece. How does that even happen?
A couple of weeks ago, I tried to make mashed cauliflower as a substitute for mashed potatoes. It didn't go well. Oh, I know I could doctor them up with a lot of sour cream, butter, salt, and garlic, but they still wouldn't be mashed potatoes. I know you can make zucchini "noodles" or use spaghetti squash. I know you can make a crispy cheese "crust" for pizza. Yes, I know these things, just like I know that there are vegetarians who eat bean and grain "burgers" and tofurkey. I know these things. But I also know that real food, the stuff with carbs in it, tastes best. I don't even want to start on the low carb desserts.
We went to a buffet last night for my father-in-law's birthday. We chose the buffet because we figured it would be easier for my husband to find low carb offerings than a regular restaurant. He found a few things to eat, but it was very hard for him to see them side by side on the buffet display with all the foods that he can't eat.
Yes, my husband has lost an impressive amount of weight in the two or so weeks he's been doing low carb, but I haven't seen him happy or content after eating. Instead, he wistfully opens and closes the fridge and pantry, looking for some miraculous low carb offering that will satisfy his cravings, but none can be found.
So, I decided I would try as well. I've never lost weight quickly, and I'm about 80 lbs overweight, so I need something to jumpstart things for me. I'm hoping the low carb thing will do it, but I just don't know how long I can keep it up. Today I had a cup of Keurig cappuccino (10 grams), carrots and peanut butter (a combined 24 grams), a cheese stick (1 gram), and four pieces of gum (8 grams). I'm not sure what my dinner carbs were, but I had a lettuce/kale/spinach/chicken salad with cheese, some slivered almonds, a few tortilla strips, and some southwestern ranch dressing, so I wouldn't think it was more than 15 grams. That puts me at around 53 grams of carbs today. That might not be the ideal below-50 level that many low carb diets recommend, but it's surely way fewer carbs than I usually consume. It's probably also fewer calories, because I couldn't find anything else to eat.
Oh, and I had a square-inch cube of birthday cake. That was probably another 15 freaking carbs right there. Whatever.
Anyway, we'll see how things look in the morning. If it looks like I'm getting a weight loss jumpstart, I'll try to hang with it as long as I can. If not, I'm eating some damn toast for breakfast.
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