Week Two: Day 7

Weight: 202.6 (-2.4lbs)
Waist: 40.5 (-1.5 inches)

Weigh in today! Well, I lost 2.4lbs, which is pretty good and I lost 1.5 inches from my waist, which is incredible! I am happy with the results of this week! I didn't record my body weight/muscle because I didn't think that would change too much over a week. I will do that every two weeks. The only slight problem I have is that I wonder if I could lose the same amount of weight on another diet. But, I imagine calorie counting or weight watchers will not permit me to eat fabulous gourmet food! I do like the food I am eating and I think that is what will keep me going. A few weeks ago I tried to go back on weight watchers (at home) and do the core program (no longer a part of the momentum program) and I think I might have lost 2lbs also. But, considering how I wasn't really hungry during the past week, did zero exercise, and drank wine- I should be happy with the results. I wasn't concerned with getting into ketosis, so I am sure I would have even better results if I was more focused. I guess the way to look at it is that I have 5 more weeks and if I keep losing 2.4lbs per week, I should lose 12 more lbs! Well, we will see!

I was thinking of starting an exercise regimen, but I am not sure that will work this upcoming week since I will be traveling A LOT! I am leaving tomorrow and will be home to sleep on the 9th, but I won't be back until the 15th! Since I will be missing my weigh in next week, I will post my results on the 15th, when I return. What a hectic week this will be!! I won't be able to update this blog, but I'll be back soon!

Stay tuned!

Day 6

Last day before weigh in..yikes! I'm not sure how I will do. For the most part, I did my best. There were a couple of areas that I could improve on for the upcoming weeks.

Yesterday I sauteed some shrimps in a french brandy sauce. So, okay, I think brandy is probably not the best thing to have when you are on atkins. It is very strong, but also sweet. I used 3TB in my sauce, but it was amazing! I loved it. I chopped up onions, tomatoes, parsley and added the brandy, chicken broth, and tomato paste. It was really good. My husband made a side of rice. I think he is getting into this cooking thing too!

One of the problems I noticed I am having is my afternoon snack. I seem to get hungry, but have no real options. Maybe I need to think larger than just "snack". Maybe I should think of it as a mini meal because I am snacking on cubed cheese and it's just not the best idea. I think I am eating too much cheese as a result. I have some low carb shakes in my fridge, so maybe I will try that today. Not sure if that will satisfy me, but we will see. I could also opt for a portion of tuna salad or some boiled eggs.

Just found out that after my ski vacation this weekend, I have to travel to the West Coast for 4 days. Basically, I won't be home all week. I am not sure if I will be able to keep up with the blog, but I will definitely post when I get back. At least I will be able to weigh in tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Days 4 and 5

Whew! It has been a busy few days! I have been sticking to the diet, but yesterday I sort of slipped - I'll explain. I started a new job yesterday. It is the same type of job I have been doing for years, but a different company. For the most part, I travel for my job. But for the rest of the time, I am home-based. So I began my new job at home, but boy was it busy. I had so much training to do that my head totally spun! I am used to doing my job at home, at my own pace without having to complete time sheets. This new job requires time sheets so I was stressed! Also at my old job, I had the luxury of working whatever hours I set for myself. This position is 8:30 to 5:30 when I am at home. The problem with that is when I travel, sometimes I work 12 hour days. My old job allowed me to cut my time short at home to make up for these differences. This job - not so much. So, needless to say I was stressed and as a result I DRANK the wine while I cooked with it last night. Ugh! I made a simple chicken dish with a red wine/cream sauce, but boy did I drink that wine! I had about 12oz! I felt miserable about it later because even though I allow myself certain things that are not on induction, this was a little overboard. Anyway, I am moving on and hoping to improve. I probably should have found a better way to relieve my stress. I probably need to start working out. Maybe next week I will come up with some activity plan.

This weekend went pretty well. I made Beouf Bourguignon stew and it was fantastic. There was a bit of wine in that as well, so I am not sure if I would make that a regular meal, but it was tasty. I had leftovers, but decided to allow my hubby to take them since I wasn't sure about the carbs. I also made another quiche just for me, for the week. I am eating that for breakfast or lunch. On Saturday, my husband and I made some fillet Mignon with sauteed mushrooms. That was great and so much cheaper than eating out!

I am getting a little anxious for this weekend though. We are going up to our cabin in NC and skiing with some friends. The good news - our cabin has a kitchen so I can make whatever meals I like. The bad news - the friends like to eat carb filled foods. Of course, none of them have weight problems so they will look at me like I have 5 heads when I tell them that I don't eat bread. I have to plan ahead and ultimately, deal with the crazy looks. But hey, if they are friends, they should understand, right? To top that off, the last time I went skiing I was a size 10, so none of my ski pants fit!!! Even though my husband is like my best friend, I was still embarrassed to tell him that none of my pants fit-and I had to try his on! It's times like this when I get soooo mad at myself for gaining so much weight. Why couldn't the light bulb gone off, say 20lbs ago???? Oh well, chin up! Just a few more days until weigh-in!

Day 3

Well, this is not getting any easier! Yesterday my husband came home from work and starting eating girl scout cookies right in front of me as I was cooking dinner. He left the open box right next to the stove and went into the next room. Normally I would have popped a few in my mouth and hid the evidence. But this time, I knew that it would be cheating not only on the diet, but the challenge and this blog. So I jammed the cookies back into the the box and put it away in the pantry..go me! And then I finished cooking....

I made the most delicious crust-less quiche! I got the recipe from a French Country Cooking cook book I took out from the library. Basically, I sauteed bacon, onions, ham, mushrooms and tomatoes. Then in another bowl, I mixed 3 eggs, 1 yolk and 2 cups of cream. The filling came out a bit too much, so next time maybe just 1.5 cups of cream. I placed the bacon mixture in a dish, covered it with grated Swiss cheese and poured the cream mixture over everything. I baked it for 35 minutes and let it sit for 25 minutes afterwards. Presto! It was amazing! I even ate some for breakfast today and it gave me an idea...I should do mini quiches and have them as a quick breakfast option. I am not that big on eggs, but the cream really hid the "eggy" taste and texture. I thought it would taste like an omelet, but it was very different. My husband loved it!

I also asked my friends on an Atkins forum about cooking with wine. I got mixed reviews. Some said absolutely no, but another person said, that it may be okay because cooking can burn off the alcohol. Here's my take...I know alcohol is not allowed on induction, but I have done this diet sooo many times and if I can make interesting food with wine and still lose .4lbs (like I did this morning) then I am happy. I would rather eat Beef Bourguignon with wine and lose a smaller amount than force down another boring salad or bunless burger! So, I may not be following the induction 100%, but these small allowances might just keep me on the diet this time. We'll see. Maybe I will stop losing and I will have to deal with that, but for now, I am not overly concerned with getting into ketosis.

I also sat down and planned my meals for the upcoming week. It gave me something to look forward to. As I stated in an earlier post, my husband is from France and so I decided to use a lot of French recipes to help me along with this diet. This food reminds him of when he was young, so it is fun for both of us. (I will never be able to deny my emotional attachment to food!!). Some of my recipes for this week will come from the book I talking about earlier:

http://www.amazon.com/Look-Cook-French-Country-Cooking/dp/156458867X

I am trying not to make this all about cooking, but food is probably the best part of this diet!

I am so happy to see some followers, so please feel free to share ideas! We can do this together!

Day 2

I didn't want to do it, but I woke up this morning and weighed myself. I was curious to see how my first day went. Yes, it's probably water weight, but who really cares, right? A loss is a loss! So I am down 1.8lbs! Very very good for the first day back. I won't go into detail about the meal plan for yesterday, but I will say that I made Bacon Chicken Roulade with a red wine reduction for dinner and it was great. My husband loved it too. At first I thought it would be time consuming, but it wasn't that bad.

Here is the recipe I used:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_bacon_roulades/

Instead of the white wine, I used a Chianti. I used to be completely hard core when it came to counting carbs, but then I realized that it wouldn't be the end of the world if you used a little bit of wine with dinner. I think 4oz has about 2 grams. The recipe also called for 1 TBSP of flour. That was a tough one, so I used just a sprinkle. My sauce came up a little thin, so maybe I might have to use the full tablespoon next time.

Anyway, pretty good for a first day back in Atkins land and I am happy to report no headache this time. Usually I get this horrible headache on the first day. I am looking forward to cooking my next meal. But first I need to figure out what it will be!

41 days to go!

Week One: Day 1

Weight: 205lbs (eek!)
Body Fat: 41.3
Muscle: 47.1
Waist: 42

Okay, so today we start. I weighed myself and took my measurements. Awhile ago I purchased a Biggest Loser scale that tells me all of those nifty facts (except waist measurement). I also like it because it weighs you in .2lb increments. Even a loss of .2 can motivate you!

My send away meal yesterday? I only chose to eat poorly for dinner and we went to Pei Wei Asian Diner. I had mongolian beef (my favorite), brown rice, and girl scout cookies for dessert. I love those cookies. My husband just bought 8 boxes from his boss and now I have to find a way to hide them in pantry! The meal was great and loaded with carbs!

My goal of this blog is to keep myself motivated and responsible. I am not going to detail the exact meals I eat each day, but if something cool comes up food wise, I will be sure to report it. The biggest question is, how am I going to make this time different than the others? Here's my answer: I recently realized that a lot of fabulous, gourmet food is low in carbs. My husband is French and there are so many possibilities. What, with all that butter and cream they use! So, I figured, if I have to do this, why not make it interesting and try new things. So I will do my best to make food creative rather than eat salads all the time. However, I travel like a crazy person for my job, so that may pose a problem when on the road. In those cases, I will have to turn to the usual suspects, burgers without buns, salads, etc. But when I am home, watch out! I told my husband to mind his waist during this experiment. Maybe he will join me!

The Atkins Challenge: Why am I doing this?

I decided that I am going to challenge myself. I have started and stopped the Atkins diet too many times to count. But, here's the deal. I turn 30 in exactly 6 weeks. I am having a huge party with old friends that I haven't seen in awhile. The truth is that I have gained a TON of weight and am really embarrassed to see them all. See, about 2 years ago I lost about 85lbs, went to my high school reunion and looked fabulous. I started with a calorie counting program and then finished with Atkins. But, I couldn't keep the weight off. Rather quickly, I gained about 35-30lbs. I hovered there for a bit and then gained another 20lbs. Then came the holidays and whamo, another 10lbs. So depressing! My mom always told me to get my weight in check by the time I was 30 because of metabolism or something. So I always had this deadline, but I was so young, it didn't matter. Now it does. So here I am, about to engage in an Atkins Challenge. To stick with the diet for at least 6 weeks, in good times and bad. Starting this blog will commit me to the challenge. I am hoping it will have the same affect that Julie Powell's blog had on her...a sense of determination to see it to the end. Except, hers was a year and mine is only 6 weeks. For those of you don't know, Julie Powell wrote the Julie/Julia project and it is now a great movie.

Wish me luck!