Monthly Archives: March 2012
Day 71: Taking stock of the past 10 weeks
Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th
I realized last night that I’m really getting the hang of this low-carb diet. It was around 10 pm, and I was done eating for the day. It occurred to me that I hadn’t entered any of my meals into the myfitnesspal.com website. I usually do it as the day progresses, so I can evaluate how many grams of carbs I have left.
I entered all the meals for the day at once, and, lo and behold, I was just about spot on for a carb count. I guess I can estimate what I’m eating pretty well at this point. More than two months into the plan, I think I’ve got it!
It also occurred to me that it’s been a very long time since I…
- Ate between meals
- Had cake, cookies, pies, or donuts
- Ate bread, bagels, buns
- Ate ice cream
- Ate pasta
- Had pizza with crust or french fries
It’s been 71 days, in fact.
I’ve found a nice pancake substitute, low carb tortillas, and pasta, rice, and potato substitutes (usually consisting of cauliflower). I’ve eaten a couple of squares of 70% chocolate. I’ve also had maybe 4 slices of low-carb bread.
This is definitely an big life change for me. And it has not been difficult at all, in terms of cravings. It has been more difficult to saunter into any restaurant or deli and easily order a meal. It takes some calculations and substitutions, but it isn’t too onerous.
And, as usual, I have to give a big shout out to Rick, who is keeping the house stocked with low-carb food items, cooking lots of burgers and chicken, and meeting me for lunches that help take the monotony out of having a salad at work every day.
Back to the food diary:
Yesterday began with eggs/sausage.
I skipped lunch AGAIN. The work deadlines keep me so busy (and I’m so OCD) that I forget to eat. I grabbed a handful of almonds at noon.
When I got home from work at 6:30, I ate the tops off of two leftover pieces of Albert’s pizza. I threw some eggs on the stove to boil, and headed to my office to work on web company issues. Then I needed to work on Dad’s affairs, again. I didn’t finish until 9 pm. I grabbed a vodka and Diet Coke and met Rick out on the deck.
While I was in my office, Rick barbecued some chicken. I cut up a couple of ounces and put it in 2 Mama Lupe’s tortillas with some cheese, salsa, and onion. They were great!
Oh, and I quickly peeled the hardboiled eggs and made up a dozen deviled eggs so I’d have snacks on hand. I ate about 4 of those as a pseudo dessert.
Day 70: Back to work and a lovely evening
Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th
Again, I missed breakfast. I took my egg/sausage meal with me to work, but didn’t have time to heat it. I decided to have a yogurt instead, but didn’t have time to eat that and forgot about it.
Around noon, I had a handful of almonds and I called Rick to ask him to meet me for lunch. He came up around 2 and we went to Checkers where I feasted on a Baconzilla.
After work, we went to see my dad at the nursing home. He was himself and it was a great visit out in the courtyard, so I called Marsha and the family came up to join us. We stayed until about 8 pm, then set off for dinner.
We had planned to visit for only a little while, then go find an outdoor cafe. Instead, we went up to trivia at Albert’s so I could deliver the gift card we won last week, so the team could pay for their meal. Rick and I ate pizza out on the patio. I, of course, didn’t eat the crust. I had a vodka and Diet Coke to end our beautiful, relaxing evening.
Day 69: Another great day for bicycling
Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th
The weather was great again, but I had quite a few items to take care of before I could go out and play. I heated up the leftover mockaroni and cheese for breakfast and sat down at my desk to get my dad’s taxes and other paperwork in order. I also worked on our website business and various bills and other chores.
After I got some laundry done, Rick persuaded me join him on a bicycle ride up to the diner for lunch. I ordered the gyro with fries, gave Rick the fries and ignored the pita bread.
After dinner, I went a little wild and ate 3 french fries. They weren’t as good as I thought they would be.
The mockaroni and cheese from breakfast was calling me again. I ate the rest of the leftovers for dinner. We had some chocolate mousse for dessert.
Day 68: Beautiful weather: time to get out the bicycle
Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th
It was a beautiful Saturday and we had lots of work ahead of us: more garage cleaning, plus finishing that floor tile. I also needed to to bills, arrange some of my dad’s paperwork, and, in general, get some of my affairs in order.
Rick arose earlier than I did (no surprise) and ate breakfast alone. I showered and got right to my desk. Around noon, I decided to have brunch at Del Taco. Rick was off riding his bike and met me there.
I ordered a steak taco Asada and a chicken taco and removed both tortillas. That did not assuage my hunger in the least. I looked around online to see what else was recommended low-carb fare at Del Taco. They didn’t have the taco salad on their menu, so I went with another choice: a beef burrito. It was made up of seasoned ground beef, cheese, onions, and sour cream.
I unrolled my giant tortilla and found that it was very similar to eating a taco salad with no shell. It was really really delicious, so I have now fortunately added another fast food menu option to my growing list. I plan to be on the keto diet for around a year until I reach my goal. It’s always nice to have some choices along the way.
I finally got to the tiling I’ve been attempting to finish. Unfortunately, I was one or two tiles short, and Rick couldn’t get them at the local Home Depot. We’ll have to go to the one in Canton tomorrow. We did get another truck load of Salvation army donations together and will deliver those tomorrow, as well.
It was a gorgeous day and we both enjoyed working outside. By the time we got home and unloaded the truck, it was close to 8 pm, and I had been hungry for hours. I took a quick spin on my bike, just to get my sea legs back. Then I set out to find a meal idea.
Rick said he felt like hotdogs. I felt like something more, and wanted to make him a treat because he had worked so hard. I looked around online for “keto appetizers,” keto snacks,” then started thinking…doesn’t macaroni and cheese sound great with hotdogs? My next search for “keto macaroni and cheese cauliflower” did the trick. I just KNEW cauliflower would be involved. I made this recipe for Mokafoni and Cheese.
I was a little short on the cream cheese, so I subbed with a little parmesan. It was a hit! I’m going to add it to my list of favorite keto recipes, since mac and cheese is an old comfort food of mine.
While the mock and cheese was baking, I took a glass of vodka and Diet Coke outside and sat with Rick under the gazebo. I didn’t want to miss a March summer night. We ate a late meal and skipped dessert.
Day 67: Seeing progress–a good weigh day
Today’s weight loss: 2.5 pounds; total weight loss: 17.5
I was relieved and happy to see the numbers starting to go down for a change. It still seems like slow progress, but as Rick says, it’s going in the right direction.
TGIF. I worked four 10-hr days Monday thru Thursday, so my weekend began yesterday. Rick and I started our day at the Toast diner. I tried a 3-cheese mushroom omelet with a side order of crispy bacon, and it was very tasty. I forgot how much I used to enjoy mushrooms with my eggs.
Around noon, we worked on cleaning out the garage and I skipped lunch. After going to the funeral home to see a coworker whose mother passed away, I was tired and hungry and didn’t feel like doing much, including tiling the floor as I had originally planned. We stopped to get some groceries then headed home.
I heated up 2 Beddar Cheddars with a side of almonds and had a quick nap.
I didn’t have much for dinner: some microwaved cheese chips with guacamole.
A few hours later, I had quite a few carbs left so I made 2 pieces of low carb toast with almond butter.
Day 66: Chili dogs at the diner
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat, Mar 17th
Now that our textbook is off to the printer, the pressure is off a bit. However, now it’s time to get our software finished. I was running late in the morning, plus we were out of breakfast sausage, so I grabbed a yogurt.
Around 11, I was getting hungry, but Rick was out delivering a client’s newsletter, and I wanted to wait for him to finish and meet me for lunch. We didn’t get to the diner until around 2 pm. I ordered 2 chili dogs. I never bother asking restaurants to remove the bun, since that always seems to get complicated (don’t know why). The buns did make nice little beds to hold my dogs and chili. I treated myself to a Diet Coke as well. I knew it would be a long day and I wasn’t getting off work until 7 pm.
Once I finally arrived home, I heated up some Indian butter chicken and the rest of the cauliflower from the fridge. Even after dinner and mousse, I still had carbs left again. I have to plan better.
One discovery I forgot to blog about was in the “healthy” isle at Kroger. In the refrigerated section where they keep the soy milk, I found hummus that had only ONE net gram of carbs per 2 tablespoons. …and it was on sale! I microwaved little piles of cheese to make some handy little crackers. The whole snack was only the amount of carbs in the hummus, because the cheese was zero.
Day 65: Love that Indian food
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat, Mar 17th
I got to work at 8 and never had time for breakfast. To hold me over until my late lunch date, I had a handful of almonds.
It was a beautiful sunny day, so Rick and I decided to meet for lunch and Checkers and eat outside. It’s only a little ways from work, so I walked down to meet him and we had a nice time outdoors for a bit.
I ordered a Baconzilla with mayo and tossed away the bun. 
I worked until 6:30, then met my niece Marsha at the nursing home to visit my dad. The visit didn’t go too well, he was depressed and not too aware of what was going on. I didn’t get home until 8.
Rick had thawed some chicken tenders for me, so I cut them into pieces and made some Indian butter chicken from the convenient package mix. I chopped up a half head of leftover cauliflower and micro’d it a couple of minutes to use as the rice base. I didn’t eat dinner until 10 pm, so I ate very little. I followed it with some chocolate mousse.
I know it was way too late to eat, but I usually don’t get to bed until after 1 a.m., so it’s probably the equivalent of most people eating dinner at 6, then going to bed by 9 or 10 p.m.
I did my day’s calculations and was way under on the carbs again. I also drank very little water. Time to get back on track with both of those goals today.
Day 64: More than two months on keto
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Mar 17th
I don’t know that I’m too happy to have only lost 15 pounds in 2 months. Then again, it’s better than gaining.
Yesterday was a typical day at work, rush rush rush to meet the book printing deadline. I ate my egg breakfast at my desk, then took a 1/2 hour around 1 pm to have 2 Beddar Cheddar sausages. I had the usual almond snack between breakfast and lunch. Later in the afternoon, I had a low-carb blueberry yogurt.
I made sure to drink plenty of water again. I only made it to 6 glasses, but it’s better than I usually do.
I didn’t get home until about 7. I was perplexed as to what to make for dinner, then remembered I had tortillas and cheese, so I put together some quesadillas.
I was sure that I hadn’t had too many carbs, so I made two. After eating our chocolate mousse dessert, I added up my carbs and I was 6 grams over for the day. Damn. That extra quesadilla that I really didn’t need nor want was exactly 6 grams. You live and learn.
Day 63: Trivia night
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Mar 17th
Back to work yesterday. Rick was still under the weather so I let him off the hook for breakfast. I planned to eat a yogurt, but when I took it from my bag, I realized it was the high-carb variety. Oh well. I ate a handful of almonds instead.
Lunch was 2 beddar cheddars. The pickings were slim, so for a late afternoon snack, I had another handful of almonds.
I worked until 6:30, and rushed off to trivia. It seemed forever before it was time to order, and I ordered the chicken club salad again. It was so filling, I could only eat half.
Back home, we had some chocolate mousse for dessert. I was well below my carb limit, but fell asleep before I could muster up the energy to make a piece of low-carb toast with almond butter.
I did manage to drink about 10 glasses of water yesterday. I hope eating below my carb limit doesn’t trigger some type of starvation mode. I need all the metabolism movement I can get.
Day 62: Birthday party again
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat., Mar 17th
I woke up the day after cheat day with no appetite and a huge stomach. I decided to have a light breakfast, so I ate a low-carb blueberry yogurt.
We attended our granddaughter Danielle’s birthday party at noon. I made some chili/cheese dip to take, but decided to use up the low-fat cream cheese I had on hand, which made it off limits for me. They served Pizza Hut pizzas, so I ate the toppings off of 2 slices.
The cake looked delicious, but I wasn’t really tempted to eat it. The Superman ice cream REALLY didn’t tempt me. LOL
Back home after the party, I worked on Ebay listings until about 8 p.m, at which time I was pretty darned hungry. Rick got out of his sick bed to bicycle up to the store for a chicken and Beddar Cheddar sausages. I ate 2 with mustard.
I hadn’t eaten much all day, so I was still hungry when Rick too his freshly barbecued rotisserie chicken off the grill. I took a small piece of the breast and whipped up some cauliflower mashed potatoes for a second late late dinner. We each had a piece of low-carb fudge afterwards. I was still 5 carbs under for the day.