Monthly Archives: May 2012

Day 137: Nothing to report

Today was my dad’s burial, and I’m taking a break from blogging and weigh in. See you in a few days.

Day 130: I hit the 30 pound goal!

Today’s weight loss: 5.5 pounds!

Total weight loss: 31.5 pounds!!!

EUREKA!

Finally! I know it’s probably just me, but 30 pounds finally feels like I’m seeing some real progress. It’s just a numbers game in my head, but I’m pretty happy with today’s weight loss. After working hard to keep under carbs, it’s nice to see some big numbers. Knowing how it’s gone on this journey, however, I may gain a couple of pounds back next week. The up and down trending keeps plodding more downwards, though, and for that, I am thankful.

 

Day 124: Yummy keto-friendly BLTs

Total weight loss: 26

Saturday started slow because I still have a bad cough. However, I couldn’t let that stop me from attending the trivia finals!

Jo came by to pick me up for the semi-finals which started at 11a.m. at the Pizza House in Ann Arbor. I didn’t have time for breakfast because I stayed in bed as late as possible. Our team was actually allowed to skip the semis and go straight to the finals, but we like to get in the spirit and watch the teams compete, plus we try to answer the questions ourselves to see if we would have made it through the semis without our “pass.”

I ordered chicken quesadillas for brunch. Not strictly keto, I know, but being ill, having a good weigh in and all, I decided to throw caution to the wind. During the past week, I went over on my carbs a couple of times and the weigh-in was still good. I think its more about drinking lots of water and eating ENOUGH calories to be successful on this plan.

I didn’t have much of an appetite, so I only ate 3 slices of the 8 or so on the plate, then asked for a box. During the afternoon finals, I also had 5 tortilla chips from Brandon’s nachos. That was it for my morning and afternoon consumption. I got home around 7. (Yes, we spend an entire day in a bar on finals day, but it’s fun!) Oh, and we didn’t win.

I sat outside and regaled Rick with the story of my day. We came in to watch a movie around 9, and I decided to try baking bacon, a trick Brandon and Lindsey told me about. I preheated the oven to 425 degrees, lined a rimmed cookie pan with foil and baked for 17 minutes. The outside pieces were crispy and done, but the inside pieces were a tiny bit floppy. I HATE floppy bacon, so I nuked those pieces on a plate for 3 more minutes. Two would probably have been better; they were a bit TOO done, but still tasty.

I decided to try to make some keto-friendly BLTs. I used Mama Lupe’s low carb tortillas, mayo, bacon, a slightly diced up vine tomato, and spinach leaves (I had no lettuce on hand). They turned out very well.

Later, while watching TV, I had one square of chocolate. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the wrapper, and I discovered it was one of Rick’s orange-flavored chocolates, and not my keto-friendly version. Oh well.

Day 123: Another good weigh-in

Today’s weight loss: 2.5 pounds   Total weight loss: 26

Well, one more pound and I’m back where I was a few weeks ago. That part is frustrating, but going in the right direction again is satisfying.

Yesterday was Friday, and I went off my plan to NOT skip breakfast. I just wasn’t hungry, I still felt sick, and had a bad cough, and I was pretty busy at work.

At noon, I ate 2 pieces of leftover shawarma pizza. At around 4, I ate some almonds because we planned to work on the house for awhile right after work, so I knew I’d be eating a late dinner.

We did about an hour of work, but I didn’t accomplish much, because I still felt tired and under the weather. When we got home, I ate another piece of pizza toppings, then went out to sit under the gazebo with my man. I had a glass of vodka and Diet Coke.

For my late dinner, I had the final piece of leftover pizza, followed by some chocolate mousse

 

Day 122: Chicken shawarma pizza – a new favorite

Weight loss: 24.5 pounds

I woke up yesterday morning feeling awful. It actually started the night before. Just before going to bed, I found it difficult to breath. When I awoke in the morning, I felt like I had some type of bronchial asthma.

A few years ago, I had these symptoms and had to go to emergency. They gave me an IV, pumped me full of fluids, and that helped immediately. I didn’t go to work and drank lots and lots of water.

Around 11 a.m., I felt a little like getting out of bed, so I got up and went to work in my home office. We have several deadlines at work and I don’t want to get behind. I felt good enough to work, but didn’t have the energy to shower, dress, and go into the office.

I also had no appetite. I ate  a yogurt, but didn’t eat again until 5:30, when Rick picked up a chicken shawarma pizza for me. I then did the (formerly) unthinkable: I ate 3 pieces with the crust!

I have been learning that just maybe I am a little too regimented about the whole no-carb thing. I have been on this plan nearly 4 months, and I’ve only had 3 cheat meals, and never a whole cheat day. Brandon and Lindsey are much looser about eating a few carbs now and then, and they are losing weight like crazy. I think on a day when I felt like hell, I could eat three pizza crusts.

So, that was that. I was full, took a late nap, awoke to watch some TV in my easy chair and called it a day.

Day 121: Bon voyage party at Red Lobster

Total weight loss: 24.5 pounds

Yesterday was the last day at work for my friend Chris, the IT guy at work. He is off for greener pastures, and the boss threw had a goodbye lunch at Red Lobster.

Before going to lunch, I had a breakfast yogurt. I didn’t want to go into the den of temptation ravenous.

My best accomplishment? Ignoring the cheesy biscuits. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Red Lobster cheesy biscuit. Which reminds me, I have some Carbquik and should work on perfecting that fake biscuit recipe some more. But I digress.

We had a lobster pizza appetizer, so I ate the top off of my piece. I ordered the shrimp scampi with a side of broccoli. Do I have a halo, or what? Normally, I order the Walt’s fried shrimp with garlic mashed potatoes and unlimited CBs. This time I ate sparingly and had a little Caesar salad with my meal.

I really am not craving the carbs, and it really wasn’t that difficult to eat keto-friendly choices.

After work, we stopped by to see my dad, but he was sleeping. I’m always disappointed when I don’t get to talk to him.

We then set off for the Home Depot. We stocked up on the rest of the supplies we need to finish up the house for sale, then headed home for dinner.

I made another successful spaghetti squash and we had Cincinnati chili leftovers. The meal was just as good as the day before.

 

Day 120: The secret to successful spaghetti squash

Total weight loss: 24.5 pounds

Tuesday morning started with a tasty low carb banana cream pie yogurt. The boss bought pizza for everyone for lunch, so I had the toppings off of three pieces and a healthy salad.

After work, we worked on the house, put down some more molding and a couple of thresholds, then called it a day. I decided to make Cincinnati chili over spaghetti squash, since I hadn’t had it in awhile.

The sauce was simmering and it was time to start cooking that difficult spaghetti squash. Half the time, it’s so tough that I can’t cut into it. Other times, it takes a really long time to cook, and one time, it blew up in the microwave.

This time my process worked like a charm. Here is my secret method:

1. Stab the squash with a fork about 10 times in various places.

2. Put it in the microwave for 6 minutes.

3. Take it out and find it is still hard.

4.Nuke it for another 6 minutes.

5. Remove with oven mitts and plop onto a large cutting board

6. Slice in half long-ways

7. While holding in place with hotpad, scoop out seeds and membranes with large serving spoon (don’t take too much; only the really obvious goopy stuff)

8. Put one half in a flat glass cooking “Pyrex-type” dish and put about an inch of water in the bottom

9. Microwave for approximately 10-12 minutes

10. Remove with oven mitts, place on cutting board and use the large spoon to scoop out the spaghetti

If you’ve done it right, the shell should be very thin and all the squash should be scooped out

Look at that delicious bowl of “spaghetti.”

I portioned some out for Rick and myself, topped it with Cincinnati chili, onions, grated cheese, and soy black beans. Yum de yum yum! And plenty of Chili leftover for tomorrow.

Day 119: Disappointing meal choice at trivia

Weight loss: 24.5 pounds

Breakfast: yogurt

Lunch: 2 Beddar Cheddars

Dinner: trivia

I wanted to try something different at trivia, so I thought I’d get the steak and cilantro empanadas with spicy Ranch sauce. How difficult could it be to eat only the insides, right?

Very difficult. I cut each of the 8 empanadas in half, and used my fork to scoop out the insides. There was about one and a half teaspoons of filling in each. The exterior “shell” was really thick and made up the composition of most of the empanada. They were good, but I left unsatisfied and hungry.

When I got home, I made 3 ham/cream cheese rolls to tide me over until bed time. I guess there are some foods that just can’t be adapted to the keto plan.

Day 118: Get-together with the old gang – the low-carb hostess

Weight loss – 24.5 pounds

I skipped breakfast and worked on website projects all morning. We decided we didn’t have time to work on house projects before we were due at my friend Traci’s at 3.

I boiled one and a half dozen eggs to devil for the party, then shelled them and put them together.

When we arrived at the party, I was thrilled to see that Traci had provided some great low-carb appetizer options. Turns out she’s been eating low carb for a couple of years. The spinach/artichoke dip and veggie crudites were great. I drank vodka and Diet Coke, and all in all made it through a potentially high carb get together. Thanks for being a thoughtful hostess, Traci!

Day 117: Saturday – the usual

Total weight loss: 24.5 pounds

Saturday morning started at the diner. I had a cheese and onion omelet with sour cream and a side of bacon.

Afterwards, we picked up supplies at Home Depot, then worked on the house for a while.

Lunch was a burrito/no tortilla at Del Taco.

I’m writing this a week later, and I can’t remember what I had for dinner!

Dinner