Still on track - shockingly!

I have to say, I'm really pleased with myself for managing to stick to this diet for so long, something I've never managed to do with any diet for more than a week or so, ever.  And I"m pleased that it's having such good results.

I'm noticing that the weight loss is slowing down a bit.  Last week I didn't lose anything, and this week I lost one pound, to make it 14 pounds lost, total.  I've also lost in inches - some of my clothes are now too big!  I've lost 3 1/2 inches from my waist and from my hips, too.  How cool is that?

It's becoming more of a habit to follow the diet, as well.  Once I decided that beans were out for me at breakfast, mornings improved immeasurably.  I usually do some sort of scrambled eggs, mixing in onions or mushrooms and garlic, or spinach - whatever I happen to have on hand.  I also discovered the most delicious maple chicken sausages at Whole Foods, made by Applegate Farms.  I have three of them and a couple of eggs, and I'm seriously not hungry till noon or 1 o'clock.  I used to be starving by 11, so that's been a nice change.  The fact that I don't eat pork or beef limits some of my choices, but having poultry and fish seems to be working just fine.

One thing that I have noticed is that preparing meals is more time consuming, and I do have to plan things out to make sure I have things I can eat, particularly to take with me to work for lunch or dinner.  It was sure a lot easier when I could just have a bowl of cereal (or three) and a banana for lunch.

My favorite lunch involves a salad that includes beans, usually great northern, and sometimes I'll add some salmon and avocado, or some tuna and olives, and I make it a really, really big salad.  I also make lots of soups, usually vegetable soup with beans, sometimes spicy, sometimes not, and while I can't say I'm always thrilled to have the soup or salad to look forward to, once I start eating, I'm generally quite happy.  I do have tons of energy these days, without spikes and dives the way I used to.

I could never make it through this without the cheat day, though, which I've taken to calling my "eating day."  (As though I don't eat the rest of the week - ha!).  If it weren't for the fact that I have Sunday to look forward to, I'd have given this thing up months ago.  It has been particularly difficult this summer as so many of my favorite fruits have become available at the farmers market.  Today is a cheat day, and so far I've had two amazingly sweet and juicy peaches and a huge bowl of delicious dark cherries.  Yum!  It is such a nice change to be able to eat whatever and however much I want without any demoralizing guilt!  It is worth it to me to be able to do that, so I honestly don't mind so much avoiding certain foods for 6 days.  It goes pretty quickly, and with the inches lost, and the weight I've lost, it inspires me to keep going.

My goal from the start has been to lose 20 pounds.  I have 6 more to go, and then I will have to figure out some sort of maintenance plan - that's something that seems to be lacking in the book.  There is a ton of information online, though, so maybe I will find some ideas there.

I can never go back to the way I ate before - and that realization would have once terrified and depressed me.  Now I honestly feel great about that.  I am confident that I'll be able to do a modified version of this diet to maintain my weight.  Maybe I'll do two eating days. Maybe I'll just add some forbidden foods a few times a week.We'll see how it goes!

Update

Sorry I have been so delayed in posting here (I'm sure my single reader has been disappointed, ha ha!).  I'm still trying to get back on top of things after being gone for our 2-week vacation.  Now it's that crazy end-of-school time, and I've been spending a lot of time on a volunteer project for my daughters' school.

Anyway, I did a sort of modified version of the diet most days - eating the breakfast right away, doing eggs and meat and beans, that kind of thing.  But when I was in the various countries I always ate what I wanted - who knows when I'll be back?  And I ate whatever I wanted for dinner, but I usually avoided the pasta.

And guess what?  I only gained a pound! 

I've been following the diet faithfully since I got back, and I have now lost 11 pounds total, and three inches off my waist.  I feel so much better, and I have quite a bit more energy than pre-diet days.  Who knew? 

9 more pounds to go.  Woohoo!

Vacation diet dilemma

We are leaving for two weeks' vacation in three days, and I'm kind of wondering how I will manage with this diet while I'm gone.  We are doing a cruise of the Mediterranean, and I have no intention of depriving myself of amazing food from different countries while we're away.  One of our stops is Rome, and I used to live in Italy, and I haven't been back in years.  There is no way I'm not going to get some gelato while we're there.  And some pasta.  Mmmm, authentic pasta.  It won't be quite as good as in Bologna, I bet, but I'm sure I'll manage.

At any rate, it's going to be a challenge, and I haven't quite decided how to handle it.  I know I can follow the eat-within-an-hour-of-waking-up rule, no problem.  And I can certainly avoid many of the carb-loaded foods while we're on the ship.  I don't think I'll follow it while we're in port, though - that's just silly.  There's a workout room on the ship, and I intend to use it.  I guess I'll see what the dining options are like, and play it by ear.  To be completely honest, I'm looking forward to a break from this food routine, even though I'm only on my third week.  This diet is a pretty difficult undertaking!

Sunday, all over again

Yesterday's splurge was a little bit disappointing, I'm sorry to say.  I work at the library every other Saturday, and it was my work Saturday yesterday.  We ordered out for Chinese food from a place that is relatively new to us, called China 1.  My husband and I have been very disappointed in the quality of Chinese food nearby, but this one has fairly good reviews on Yelp.  We gave them a try a couple times, and while it didn't wow us, it was still better than anything else we've had outside the District.  So several of us at work ordered lunch to be delivered.  It took almost twice as long to come as they said it would (55 minutes instead of 30, which left me with 10 minutes to choke down my lunch - on the one day I can eat what I want! - before I had to run out to the reference desk.

Plus it just wasn't very good.  I ordered the chicken w/cashew nuts lunch special, and the food was so bland and blah.  The vegetable fried rice was mushy.  The cashews were soggy.  It was pretty depressing.

But anyway, whine whine whine.  I did start out the day with a Krispy Kreme doughnut, so all was not lost!

I'm going to plan better next time, that's for sure!

So, back to eggs for breakfast.  And turkey bacon.  I also heated up some of the soup that I made last Friday.  Still not appetizing so soon after I wake up, but what can you do?

For lunch I made a salad with tuna, cucumber, pinto beans, shredded carrots and red onions in a balsamic vinaigrette.  Plus more soup.

For dinner we made tacos, but I did mine like lettuce wraps, and they were delicious.  I did miss the cheese, but still, I had guacamole on there, and it was good!  There were black beans, diced chicken breast, red onions, cilantro, guacamole, and tomatoes.  They weren't quite as filling as tacos with tortillas, so I had three.  Oink.

Splurge Saturday is here again!

Finally.  It took long enough!

So, here goes, although there were a few things I forgot to snap photos of, including a doughnut, chicken with cashews, a spring roll, and hot and sour soup, an apple pastry and a chocolate frosted brownie.  Other than that, here it is:

Would you think that would be enough to make me gain 2 1/2 pounds overnight?  It was!

Day of Reckoning

Woohoo!  I have now officially lost 7 pounds!  And not only that, but I've lost inches, too.  Since I first started this diet, I've lost:

• 1 inch from my waist
• 1.75 inches from my hips
• 1 inch from each of my upper arms
• 1.25 inches from each of my thighs

It seems unbelievable.  I don't know that the changes are noticeable at this point, but wow, I can see why the book emphasizes the importance of measuring inches rather than just pounds!  It is something to help keep me inspired as I move into another week of slow-carbing.

Friday catch-up

Friday was a bit rough - it was the longest I'd gone on the diet without a break, and I was getting pretty tired of the same old stuff.  So to change things up a bit, I tried a recipe I found from a link to recipes that mostly (some include optional cheese) follow the guidelines of the slow carb diet.  I made the omelette muffins, and I put turkey bacon and spinach in mine.  They took way longer to cook than the recipe said, though, which meant my breakfast was later than I wanted it to be.  But don't they look tasty?  They tasted like eggy popovers.

The coconut oil I used, as suggested in the recipe, wasn't much help in preventing them from sticking to the muffin pan, so they fell apart a bit when I pulled them out.  I'll have to pick up some muffin papers for the next time I do it.  This would be a great way to get mileage from leftover veggies as well as have eggs in a new and different way.

At lunchtime I mixed up a quick batch of soup.  I used lentils again - I am really enjoying them, particularly with that turkey bacon, and I tossed in a can of diced tomatoes and spiced it up a bit.  I had the soup with a Nicoise-inpired salad I threw together - lettuce, tuna, olives, and onions.  It was pretty tasty.  I wish I'd had some avocado to go with it!

I forgot to take pictures of dinner last night - the chicken I'd planned to use wasn't defrosted enough, so we ended up getting takeout from Chipotle.  I got a burrito bowl with black beans, salsa, chicken, guacamole and lettuce, and it was so filling that I couldn't eat it all. 

So I made it through one more day of slow-carbing it.  Whew!  It is really tough sometimes, but it's doable.  Particularly with Saturday coming up, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thursday

It seems I'm developing a routine with this diet.  I'm a lot hungrier early in the mornings than I used to be, which I guess is good, since it's helping me adjust to eggs and beans and things a little better.  Today I had more scrambled eggs, and I'm finding that lentils are the easiest legumes for me to eat so early in the morning.  I sauteed some red onions and turkey bacon, and then I threw in the lentils, and I pretended they were potatoes as I ate my eggs.  Luckily I have a vivid imagination.

For lunch I heated up some leftover chicken and zucchini from last night's dinner, and I tossed them with some baby greens, along with red onions, chickpeas, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It wasn't bad, and I also added some chicken broth to the leftover lentils to make a quick and easy soup.  That stayed with me, so I wasn't too hungry for the rest of the afternoon.

\

I was so excited to eat dinner that I neglected to take photos.  I made some haddock with a quick and easy Minimalist recipe, and it came out great.  First you sautee some minced ginger in some vegetable oil - about a tablespoon or so.  Then you add the fish (any white fish will do), and pour over it 1 1/2 cups of water, a half cup of soy sauce, some sliced green onions, chopped cilantro, a teaspoon of rice vinegar, and you bring it to a boil.  Then you cover it, turn off the heat, and let it sit for 10 minutes.  Then it's ready!  We ended up using  a little cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce, and that worked out great.  My husband made rice to go with it, but I had soup - yes, more soup!  This time I used the immersion blender to mix the bean (pinto) and veggie (celery, onions, garlic and carrots, along with some cumin, salt, and a dried cayenne pepper) into a creamy soup.  It was delicious.  One of my daughters thought so too, so there are no leftovers for work tomorrow.  I'm glad she enjoyed it, though.  We also had some steamed broccoli, which was tasty dipped in the fish sauce.

I am still feeling energetic, which is great.  Particularly as we are leaving for our trip soon, and there is so much to do!  I do feel as though I'm spending a lot more time cooking than usual, but I'm also thinking that there have got to be ways of streamlining this more effectively. I will figure them out. 

I lost another half pound, which puts me at 5.5 pounds lost, total.  I get the feeling from others who have tried this and other similar diets that the weight loss will probably go a lot more slowly from here on out.  I'm hoping to see progress, even if it's small, because that will help me to keep going.  If there's no progress, I am more likely to throw up my hands and wonder what the point is.  We'll see how it goes!

Wednesday

It's a bit pathetic - I completely forgot to take photos of anything I ate today!  It was a busy day, I guess, and with so much going on, it just slipped my mind.  But I stuck with the diet - it's feeling like a challenge now, so I am not really tempted to cheat.  I know that Saturday is just a few days away.

The best part of today was that my friend D at work has decided to join me with this diet!  I know she's been trying to lose weight, and this seems to be working for me.  It will be fun to do it together - we can help each other out along the way.

For breakfast today I had eggs over easy, turkey bacon and some lentils that I just heated up a little bit.  Even though the beans are not appealing to me in the morning, they definitely help stop me from getting hungry, so I'm going to keep trying to include them.  I didn't have much time to get lunch together before work, so I just threw some baby greens and diced veggies (onions, red peppers, tomato), and some garbanzos, too, in a container, along with a side of balsamic vinaigrette.  I also grabbed a can of Amy's split pea soup, which I'd never tried before, just in case.  I was so glad I brought that, because the salad just wasn't enough.  In fact, D and I ended up splitting the soup later on in the afternoon, which totally hit the spot after we both sat through a staff meeting with banana bread sitting right there on the table the whole time - plus some delicious candy, too.  It's not so hard to resist food when I'm not hungry, but it's a struggle when I am!  We decided we are going to stock up on "legal" foods to help us out when these things happen.

For dinner I made mashed cauliflower, which I was a bit skeptical about, but it turned out great.  I microwaved a cut-up head of cauliflower in a covered casserole dish with a little water in the bottom.  It took quite a while - maybe 8 minutes - until it was soft.  Then I used the lid to hold the cauliflower in while I poured off the excess water, and I added some butter (maybe a tablespoon or a bit more), a dash of cream - maybe a tablespoon or so - salt and pepper, and some Cajun spices.  I whizzed it up with an immersion  blender, and it was surprisingly delicious!  We also grilled some zucchini and chicken.  It wasn't bad!  I did not feel at all hungry for the rest of the night.

Oh!  And I almost forgot to mention that I lost half of that pound that I gained yesterday.  Woohoo!

Two more days, and then Saturday will be here again.  I'm already thinking about foods I'm planning to eat.  I may make some brownies.  And French fries would be nice.  And definitely strawberries and bananas!

Tuesday

Well, I've been on the diet for a week now, and so far, so good.  Despite today's minor setback, I'm still sticking to it faithfully.  Breakfast was a bit of a struggle this morning - it's hard to fit in breakfast on school mornings, but if I wait till I get back from dropping the girls off at school, too much time has passed for me to eat within an hour of waking up.

  

I had eggs again today - even though I was so craving a big bowl of oatmeal!  I made them with turkey bacon, red onions and spinach mixed in, and I had some of the black bean soup from the other night.  I tried, but I was only able to eat about half of the eggs, and a little bit of the soup.  It's so hard that early in the morning!  I will keep at it, and maybe the mornings will get easier.  I noticed it wasn't bad on Sunday, when I was able to sleep in a bit.  But so early in the morning, it is a bit rough.

I met a friend for lunch at Clyde's in Georgetown.  It was the most challenging time I've had finding something from the menu that worked.  We ended up splitting the "crab tower" appetizer, which is one of my favorite things on their menu.  It has lump crabmeat with avocado, seaweed salad and roe on a very tasty rice cake.  I left the cake and the crispy wonton garnish and just had the crab, avocado and seaweed.  It was delicious, as always.  I didn't miss the rice all that much, surprisingly.  I didn't think to take a picture till after we'd split it in two, but it looked even better before we got our hands on it.

For my entree I chose the grilled chicken salad.  I suspect the candied walnuts aren't optimal for the diet, but I ate them because I had told them not to put any goat cheese on the salad, so I felt entitled to a few nuts. 

I was rushed getting to work this evening, and I forgot to snap a picture of the small bowl of last night's leftover lentil soup I had before I left.  Plus I took a salad to eat at work - baby greens, leftover salmon, red onions and diced tomato.  I was pretty hungry when I got back from work, so I helped myself to a small bowl of wasabi peas.  They are spicy and tasty!  Sometimes I just need some salty crunch.

Oh, no!!!

I gained a pound. 

I usually go up and down a whole lot, but I was enjoying this uninterrupted downswing in my weight. 

It could be cyclical water weight gain (I think I'll cling to that), or residual effects from Saturday.  I will try to continue without getting discouraged, since the official weigh-in day isn't till Friday (or maybe I should move it to Saturday morning, before the eating begins).

Ferriss continually emphasises that people tend to put too much importance on the reading from their scales, so I am trying to keep that in mind and not get discouraged.  After all, I have lost 4 pounds in the course of a week, so I am ahead. But still, argh!

Tuesday: lunch and dinner

I went out to lunch, and again, it wasn't too difficult to find acceptable things.  We went to Panera, and I ordered a small Thai chicken salad (without the wonton strips), a cup of vegetarian black bean soup (no potatoes, pasta, or rice in it), and some unsweetened ice tea.  It was pretty good.  I was really hungry, though, and I realized that although skipping beans at breakfast might have been more palatable, the meal did not stick with me as it has been doing, so I will try some kind of beans tomorrow.  Blah.

For dinner I made more soup again.  I think everyone's starting to get a little tired of the soup, but that's okay - more leftovers for me to have at lunch!  Today I diced up some of that delicious turkey bacon from Whole Foods and sauteed it with some onions, carrots, and garlic, and then I poured in a box of organic chicken stock, added some cumin and salt and pepper, and after a bit I drained some canned lentils and threw them in.  Just before serving I added some minced parsley, and it was pretty good, with a nice smoky flavor.

My husband cooked up the salmon while I put together a salad.  Oh, and I roasted some cauliflower, too.  Usually I toss it in some freshly grated Parmesan cheese just before I serve it, but I served the cheese on the side, since I'm not eating any for the next few days.   

I had seconds on the soup.

One thing I am enjoying immensely about this diet is that I actually eat until I'm full, and I feel totally satisfied for the rest of the evening.  Usually I try to cut back on portions, which leaves me feeling peckish for the rest of the night, constantly thinking about food.  Not any more, and that is a nice change.

Tuesday - It's working!

I weighed myself this morning with some trepidation, but I needn't have worried.  I lost the pound I gained after Splurge Saturday, and one more pound on top of it!  That brings me to a total of 5 pounds lost since I started the "Slow Carb" diet one week ago today.  Woohoo!

I also realized that if I omit the beans from breakfast, I won't get that faint nausea that's been pestering me in the morning.  I'm good with beans at lunch and dinner, but for some reason I just can't handle them first thing in the morning.

Check out this delicious egg scramble that I made today, with diced turkey bacon (picked some up at Whole Foods yesterday - and wow, is it good), sauteed red onions, and fresh spinach.

This diet so does not have to be boring!

Back in the saddle again...

I was a little surprised to find after all that eating on Saturday - the bagels, the milkshake, the ice cream, the doughnuts! - I only gained a pound.  Pleased, but surprised.  And actually, just the tiniest little bit panicked. Was the one pound weight gain, as has happened so often before, the beginning of the end?  I sure hope not.

One thing that I've been loving since starting this diet program is that I feel, for the first time in ages, that I actually have control over my body.  It's a strange but really positive feeling - but one that I'm not quite ready to trust.  Could it all be a fluke?  It just doesn't seem possible that I can do this without feeling really deprived - sure, there are cravings for things that I'd love to eat - but there are so many things that I can eat that I'm never feeling hungry or grumpy from low blood sugar.  Plus there is that sparkly light of all-you-can-eat Saturday at the end of my tunnel.

I was so busy yesterday trying to get things done around the house (we're leaving on a cruise the week after next) that I completely forgot about the food pictures, except for breakfast.  I made scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and green onions, and although I would have loved to have thrown some fresh goat cheese in there, I didn't.  And I didn't miss it.  All that much.  (Saturday is coming!)

For lunch I ate leftover bean soup from Friday, a small bowl of cottage cheese (the only cheese we're allowed - and I imagine that should be occasionally), and some leftover salad.  Nothing to write home about, but I certainly wasn't hungry.

Dinner was actually delicious, and I wish I'd thought to take pictures: black bean soup with veggies and fresh cilantro; a salad of baby greens, red onions, a few garbanzos, and some diced tomatoes in a balsamic vinaigrette (my 10-year-old informed me that the salad would probably be better with some blue cheese crumbles on it.  She went and got some and I was envious!  But Saturday is coming); grilled chicken wings, and grilled asparagus.  I'm definitely not feeling deprived. 

Whoopee! Saturday is splurge day!

Finally!  Saturday came and I was able to eat all those things I'd been dreaming about.  First off was a big  bowl of strawberries for breakfast.  Don't they look delicious?  I ate about half of the ones in that bowl.  My kids scammed the rest.

Then it was time for some bagels.  I've been wishing for some every morning - I'm a lot hungrier for them than these egg and turkey bacon breakfasts, but hey, I'm losing weight, so I won't complain.  Sadly the only bagels I had were from Panera.  So they're more like round rolls than authentic bagels.  I had a jalapeno chesse one and a cinnamon one.  They weren't actually as good as I thought they'd be...

...but the banana was!  Then my husband came back from the farmers market in Old Town with some pastries.  I hardly ever have the pastries because, you know, I'm trying to loose weight.  But on Saturday, I now get to eat whatever I'd like on Saturdays!

What's better with pastries than a tall glass of milk?

I actually only had half of the croissant because my daughter came along, and so I shared.

Then there was a little bowl of fresh pineapple.  And a vanilla milkshake.

And some more bagels at lunchtime.

And some of Trader Joe's frozen mushroom turnover appetizers.  My daughter scammed one of the ones on my plate.

A little afternoon snack.  Isn't Krispy Kreme delicious?  The chocolate cake doughnut had just come down the conveyor belt and was piping hot.  The chocolate frosted one had custard inside, in case anyone's curious.  My favorite!  I went with my kids.  No one wanted milk but me - and then they drank most of it!  Of course, if I'd ordered a bottle of milk for each of us, no one would have wanted any.

We went out for dinner to a place we enjoy called Rustico on Slaters Lane in Alexandria.   I ordred a beer - it was tasty.

I nearly forgot to take a photo of the appetizer we shared - it was a delicious zucchini "carpaccio" with shaved parmesan cheese, pesto and roasted tomatoes.

Rustico has the best eggplant Parmesan I've ever had.  It is so good, with a delicious zucchini mousse, and not much tomato sauce - and the little sauce there is has a real tomato flavor.  It's not that abysmal thick corn-syrupy tomato sauce.  The salad that accompanied it had kalamata olives and thin strips of fennel.  There wasn't anything terribly tempting on the dessert menu, so we stopped at Ben and Jerry's on the way home.

I got a little distracted by my ice cream, but here's a picture of what was left by the time I remembered to take a photo.  Later on that evening,  I enjoyed the yummy cantelope from the farmers market - I figured I'd better eat it while I could, because it won't be any good next Saturday.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day!  I think that with having next Saturday to look forward to, I will be able to stay on track.  I hope so, anyway.