Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  266.6   Today:  267.6   
Change today:  +1.0   Loss-so-far: 12.2 lbs.

Day 15 means that my 2-week induction is over… or at least it would mean that if I were truly sticking to the Atkins diet formula, which I am not.  Don’t yell at me, okay?  If what I’m doing doesn’t work, fine, I’ll consider sticking to Atkins exactly, but for right now, this is working for me.  And it’s my informed choice. 

Anyway… I had told my husband that as soon as I got done with the first two weeks, that I would go to the movies with him.  I just could not imagine watching a movie without popcorn!  At 6g of net carbs per cup, I figured I could “save up” during the day so I could munch without worrying too much.

Well I got a call from Hubby this morning.  He was at work and he like NEVER calls me from work so of course I immediately thought something was wrong and picked up my cell phone and said, a little breathlessly, “Hey, what’s up?”

He said he was getting off work early and that he’d be picking me up from work at 2:30 this afternoon.  “We’re starting our date early, so be ready - oh, and don’t eat lunch because I’m taking you out for a late lunch.”  LOL!  This is so unlike him, you have no idea.  So I ate breakfast but didn’t eat lunch (had a SF Jello to hold me over) and sure enough, at a little past 2:30 he picked me up.  All my co-workers were oohing and ahhing and saying, “Your date is here!” 

We had a great lunch at one of our favorite restaurants (I had a salad with grilled chicken, it was awesome) and then went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D.  We both loved the movie but then that’s the kind of movie we both like.

And yeah, I snacked on popcorn.  And it was delicious!

A very good day.  :oD

1111

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  267.2   Today:  266.6   
Change today:  -.6   Loss-so-far: 13.2 lbs.

OMG I am loving this diet, loving it, loving it, loving it!  It is AWESOME to see PROGRESS finally!  I wish I had thought to switch up to low-carb about 6 months ago!

Another reason I’m loving it today is because I have new foods available to me.  These foods sure weren’t available back in 1976 the first time I tried this!!!  I did a little online shopping last night and ordered some cool stuff from netrition.com.  I’ll be interested to see what this cool stuff tastes like, but they are low/no carb things, so they’re cool unless they taste really bad anyway.

I’ve also been trolling for recipes again and I’ve made two new things!  ME!!  The person that absolutely loathes cooking and baking and all the hassle that goes with it!

Last night I made deep-dish-quiche-pizza.  It was tasty!  A little eggy-tasting but for the most part it was satisfying.  I’m excited, though, at the thought of trying Carbquik and making something more like real pizza dough.  Next week!  :oD

Tonight, as a treat (since today is technically the last day of induction), I made low-carb peanut-butter-fudge.  Oh. My. God.  It is really, really good.  I give it 5 stars, easy.  Kevin and I cut it up into 20 servings and individually wrapped each one in foil, then put it in a ziplock in the freezer.  Each piece has just a smidgen over 2 net carbs.  Wooooohhoo!!  Low-carb sweet-treat!  (I think it may be even a little too sweet, but Kevin disagreed with me, said they were perfect-sweet.)

So — was a good day.  I made chicken-with-taco-seasoning again today for lunch and ate the leftovers for dinner… again!  I know I’ll get sick of it but … umm, not today!  :oD

1094

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Friday:  269.2    Saturday:  269.4   Sunday:  268.6   Today:  267.2   
Change today:  -1.4   Loss-so-far: 12.6 lbs.

I got my hair cut and colored it - wanna see?

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I took another picture outside because you can’t really tell how much lighter I went.  It was really bright outside, though, so I’m squinting here.

That first picture was taken about a month ago - before I started carb-counting and lost 12 lbs.  I keep looking at it and I swear I can see a really small difference in my face already.  Maybe it’s just because I wasn’t smiling in the after photo, I dunno.

That first picture also doesn’t really show how messed up my hair was.  I had used a really strong red on it a while back and every time I tried to put another (less red) color on it, the red would come right back through - only in a lovely magenta/pinkish/mauve shade, especially up on the top.  On Saturday I stripped all the tinted color out of my hair (to get rid of that red tint once and for all!) and then re-colored it again on Sunday.

My next color is gonna be blonde, LOL.

It felt like I was busy over the weekend - too busy to even post — but now that I look back on it, I didn’t really accomplish much!  Hubby and I slept in late both days (that was delicious) and went shopping both days (that was fun).  Other than that, we hung around together — oh, and the whole hair coloring thing, we did that together too.  I love that I’m married to a man who is willing to put the gloves on and help me.  I can’t see the gray roots in the back!

The carb-counting is going well, still.  I’m still shedding pounds, which is awesome.  I’m not hungry all the time and I am not miserable, and so those are two big pluses!  I mean, I do miss mashed potatoes and I miss buns - not really bread, just buns - but it’s not like an overwhelming craving that I have to battle.

Today at lunchtime I cut up some chicken and seasoned it like taco meat.  Everyone else grabbed a tortilla and made soft chicken tacos - I just spooned my meat onto my plate (next to a lovely large portion of caesar salad), put some shredded cheddar on top of the meat to melt and then some sour cream on top of that, and OMG it was sooooo good!  I ended up having more of the same for dinner!  =D

1063

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  269.6    Today:  269.2    Change today:  -0.4
Loss-so-far: 10.2 lbs.

The “yesterday” weight that is listed above is actually from the day before because yesterday morning I forgot to weigh myself!  This is so strange for me because I totally obsess about my morning weigh-in, which is why I do it every day instead of once a week.  I’m not saying that just because I forgot one day that I’m not still obsessive about weighing in, oh, I definitely still am.  It’s just really strange that I forgot.

Both Kevin and I apparently hit the bottom of the first-week-slope.  I only lost .4 lbs in two days, and he actually gained .8 lb. instead of losing any.  We were both a bit disappointed this morning because this is what always happened on the calorie-diet, we’d make some progress then it’d disappear. 

I’m just hoping that this doesn’t mean we’re gonna stall for any length of time - I don’t think I can keep Kevin interested in yet another ineffective diet for very long.  His progress is what will keep him in the game, and if I’m determined to lose weight myself, well, I want him to succeed even more.

I just re-read what I wrote up there, “I only lost .4 lbs. in two days…”  That’s like almost half a pound!  LOL that ain’t exactly small potatoes!  Wooohooo half a pound in two days is okay by me! 

Geesh, I liked that whole losing-water-quick-weight-loss thing so much, I’m all impatient now!

1037

Hit counter web design gallery.

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  270.4    Today:  269.6    Loss-so-far: 10.2 lbs.

 Woohooo!  This morning’s weigh-in was in the 260’s - finally!!!  I’ve been in the 270’s since March!!  OMG FOUR MONTHS struggling with the same 10 pounds!!!  I hope I stay here instead of popping back up into the 270’s again.  I did a lot of physical exertion stuff today and usually (on the OTHER diet) I gain poundage when I push myself.  I hope I hope I hope!!

Hubby and I finished the project that we started on Sunday when we set some posts up and concreted them in.  At my office, the county code enforcement guy is making us build an enclosure around our dumpster.  So of course hubby and I volunteered our time and energy to see it done.  It’s awesome!  I never thought I’d be so proud of a dumpster enclosure, LOL!  It’s got doors on hinges and handles and a latch and even one of those drop-down-thingies that keep the doors from moving.  We ROCK, hehe.

Anyway, it was good exercise, all the bending and lifting out there in the heat.  We waited until 6pm so the sun wasn’t beating overhead and we finished just as the sun was disappearing over the horizon (about 9?  9:30?  I dunno).  Anyway, I got my workout for the day.  :oD

996

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  271.2    Today:  270.4    Loss-so-far: 9.4 lbs.

Sunday afternoon my husband and I dropped three posts into the ground and mixed and poured cement to ensure that the posts stayed where we wanted them.  We did this out in the heat of the day and by the time the sun was going down we were both sweaty and dirty.  So what do I do?  I handed a camera to my son and asked him to take a picture of me, LOL.

Not just any picture… THE picture.  The dreaded “before” picture that I never got around to taking, not in six whole months of calorie-counting!  Well now as a show of good faith in the future (and in this new plan I’m on), it occurred to me that it was time.

 So here I am, all 270 lbs. of me.  (And oh yeah, that’s my cute Mustang Convertible in the background.  Have I mentioned that I love my car?!  LOL)

I am CONFIDENT (this time) that in a few months, I will have new pictures to share, neat pictures that show the progress I’ve made, the change in my upper arms, the decrease in my belly… I AM GOING TO DO THIS.  I have never been more committed to anything, not even when I quit smoking last year.  I want to be fit.  I want to feel good.  I do not want to be a slave to ANYTHING, not cigarettes, not carbs, not sugar… not FOOD.

No one ever leaves me comments - well, I’ve come to accept that - but does EVERYONE get this spam crap on their blog?!?!?  Isn’t there anything that 3FC can do to stop it?!? OMG I get like 4 or 5 spam comments a day, I’m totally over it. 

Am I the only one??

971

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  270.0    Today:  271.2

 Okay, today’s weigh-in brought me back down to earth - it’s not all gonna be down, down, down every single day - this is the price I pay for daily weigh-ins instead of weekly - I get to see the ups and downs.  That’s okay.  I’m still way ahead this week in terms of progress, miles ahead of what my calorie-counting weeks were like.

I’m still sticking to it… almost obsessively!  I made spaghetti and meat sauce tonight for my hubby and I had to test the spaghetti for doneness and the only way I know how to really do that right is to bite down on it - so I did.  I gave it a couple bites and determined it was perfect… then spit it out into the trash!  My son, far from being grossed out, thought it was funny.  “I knew you’d do that,” he said.

I tasted the bread last night - warm out of the oven - and thought it was weird, but good.  So this morning for breakfast I warmed a slice and slathered on the butter (it’s been so frustrating to know I could have butter yet have nothing to PUT it on!!).  To my surprise, I was like “yuck.”  The bread was a weird texture to begin with but the warmth and the butter had turned it to a gelatinous weird texture.  I ate half a slice (thinking surely it would get better) and then threw the rest of the slice away.

Later today I tried it again, this time cold from the refrigerator.  Much better!  It still has a weird taste and texture but I think as long as I put something on it (like a nice juicy burger dripping with cheese and onions) I can deal with it.  My son, on the other hand, did not like it at all, warm or cold.

This morning I added up the food I consumed yesterday and the carbs came to only 14 and the fiber was 6, so I only took in 8 net carbs for the day.  THEN I looked at the calorie count (even though I’m not supposed to be counting calories, well, geez, it was right there how could I miss it?) and to my surprise, yesterday I only consumed a total of 684 calories!!!!  Not good!  We were so busy yesterday that I didn’t get to eat lunch until about 2:30 and then I didn’t have anything else to eat until my bread was done — and that was close to midnight!  Nine hours after a meal and I FORGOT TO EAT!  LOL when is the last time THAT happened?!?

I did much better today — consumed 25 carbs but then 13 grams of fiber, for a net carb total of only 12 — and my calories today totaled 1656.

It’s weird, though that I ate hardly anything yesterday and gained 1.2 lbs.  And it’s also weird, that I’ve been eating pretty much the same number of calories as I was before, yet this week I dropped over eight pounds.  EIGHT POUNDS!!  I don’t care if it’s mostly technically water - it’s still friggin’ eight pounds!  LOL.  :oD

957

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  271.6    Today:  270.0

 I have now officially lost all the weight that I had put back on since my lowest weigh-in while calorie-counting.  In fact, the lowest weight I had recorded before was 271.4 — so I was very happy to see 270.0 this morning!  I’m really looking forward to seeing two-sixty-something!  And I’m hoping that happens tomorrow!

I’ve done a lot of research in the past few days, looking at the pros and the cons that are out there on the net about low-carb dieting, specifically the Atkin’s plan.  I’ve also been looking at more recipes, lol.  I have gone to the store three times in two days, just because “oh i need that ingredient!”  This, coming from someone who hates to cook and hates to bake is amazing!  Even more amazing is the fact that I have a low-carb bread in the oven right now this minute!  It’s less than one carb per serving (made with flax seed and I need that fiber!) and so I can have some now, even though I’m still in the induction phase.  How cool is that!  Bread!

 Well, i haven’t actually tasted it yet, so maybe I should reserve my excitement for after the bread is done.  :o)

 943

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  272.8    Today:  271.6

It’s kinda cool, starting over.  Especially since I don’t actually feel like a “failure” this time.  I did the diet, I stuck to it, I lost a little weight, just not enough, not quick enough.  So starting over with a new plan in hand, that’s not failure, that’s just strategic!

I’m feeling good so far.  I don’t feel all shaky and bubbleheaded anymore and yay, that’s a plus.  I’m just today starting to not feel such intense craves for carbs.  At least compared to yesterday!!  OMG yesterday I would have sold my grandmother for a candy bar or a big old slab of freshly-baked bread!  Today I’m not so edgy, not feeling like I need to be eating something constantly.

I do have one small gripe today, and my son Kevin (who is doing this low-carb-Atkins-kinda-thing with me) is having the exact same gripe… constipation.  Lovely!  He can’t blame it on all the cheese he’s been eating (since he doesn’t like cheese) so I’m not sure why he’s experiencing it too.  So I did a little research on fiber and have added ground flax seed to my grocery list. 

Speaking of my grocery list, I’ve been doing some research on low-carb menus and I’ve made a list of stuff I absolutely need to have on hand.  Most of it is weird stuff that I would never normally buy.  But just like I did on the calorie-counting diet, I want to make the MOST out of the carbs I’m allowed to have!  So some low-carb yummies is a must!  Right now, Kevin and I are surviving on sugar-free jello as our ONLY sweet thing every day.

 Okay, here’s my list so far:

unsalted butter, natural peanut butter, cream cheese, granular & liquid Splenda, whey protein powder (vanilla flavor), Davinci sugar-free syrup, salted peanuts, pork rinds, low-carb ketchup (if my store sells it), celery, and the flax seed stuff.

Yummy, huh?  Now here’s the thing:  I hate to cook.  I hate to bake.  I absolutely loathe the process of preparing food and then cleaning up after.  BUT - we tried to go out to lunch yesterday, and it was a nightmare, getting something to eat while on this induction phase.  So I’ve been cooking every meal.  And not only cooking, but making stuff from scratch.  OMG I NEVER do that!!!

My husband is loving all the meat-type-food that’s coming out of the kitchen!  I’ve also been making him stuff that I can’t have - what torture that was!  Until today, anyway.  I made him a couple grilled cheese sandwiches at lunchtime and it didn’t really bother me at all.  I made an egg/sausage omelet for Kevin and me and threw in a couple bacon slices and so hubby got some sausage and bacon with his sandwiches, boy he was liking that!

927

906. 

Okay, I’ve come to the conclusion that the diet my dad sent off for in 1976 was, in fact, Atkins.  I did a little googling and discovered that Dr. Atkins developed his revolutionary diet in the late 60’s but didn’t get it out there in the public until the early 70’s — and it was met with much suspicion.

So now I know what to call this part, the induction phase.  According to modern day Atkins, this phase calls for keeping carbs to 20g a day or less.  My recollection of the plan I was on years ago was that the goal was to keep it as close to zero as possible.  I’m doing that, but even though I’m eating food that is labeled “zero,” FitDay is chalking that food up as “one” or even “two.”  Either way, it doesn’t matter, I’m still staying well below 20.

I felt kinda yucky on Tuesday and then I woke up Wednesday all shaky and sick-feeling.  I remember feeling this back in the day when I was 15!!  I went to my sister’s house on Day #2 or #3, and she saw that I was pale and shaky, thought I was starving myself, and sat me down with a bowl of ice cream! 

Nahh, I was just detoxing from the carbs / sugar / white flour that I’ve been so freely consuming for so many years! 

I went back and looked at my FitDay eating records from when I was maintaining 1500-1600 calories a day, and found that I was consuming an average of 180-200 CARBS a DAY!!  OMG!!  No wonder I’m feeling withdrawals!

So I’m feeling better today - WAY BETTER!  Part of that good feeling is the fact that as of this morning my scale told me that I was SEVEN POUNDS lighter!  OMG!  Now I know I’m not really seven whole pounds lighter because my starting weight on Monday (279.8) was noted in the afternoon rather than first thing in the morning like today’s weight (272.8), but I’m thinking at least ONE or TWO of those pounds is actual LOSS!!  WOOOHOOO!!!

I’m gonna count ‘em, all seven of ‘em, because I did see 279.8 and I did see 272.8 and HELL it just makes me FEEL good, so why the hell not?!?