Friday, September 26, 2008

Back from the Big Easy

So we are back from vacation and as usual things have been hectic as I get back into town. We had a great time in New Orleans, and as you might expect, I did not think too much about diet there.

We had a great time however there was on issue that still lingers till today. The baby bug! As we left our son get a little tummy flu and was sick. We were dismayed, but then on Saturday in New Orleans Jennifer got it as was puking and other things on Saturday. She was mostly better on Sunday, but her stomach is still not right. So far everyone that has come into contact with our son has gotten it. My dad, her dad, her mom and now... Me! I have been (thankfully?) unable to eat much for the past 2-3 days and had to miss work one day this week.

Perhaps this will keep the diet destruction I have been doing to a minimum. We are going on some calorie counting system soon (well at least I am.) Right now I am doing some recipe research. Weigh in will be on Monday and it will be a new starting point.

Glad to be back and hope everyone is doing well.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Thanks for the encouragement

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to the commenters who have been so suportive.  I am going through a rough patch now diet wise.  I have let myself become a little too overwhelmed with my perceived failure of late.  It is about time to dust myself off and get back to it.  I am definitely going to have to use an agressive workout schedule this time.

Anyway, still alive, still kickin'.  More to come soon.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Ruh roh

So I see I was featured today on Jimmy's low carb blog.  I guess I should explain a couple of things to clear it up.  I am trying to lose weight to be healthy for my daughter who will be born at the end of November, as well as getting in shape for my wife Jennifer and stepson Jackson.  I am actually a Kentucky native, but currently live in Richmond, Indiana.  I am going through a bit of a low carb crisis on my own and am trying to do low calorie for awhile.  Do not let that sway you from the low carb path!  I honestly believe it is the right way to go, but because something has changed for me I am not able to go as low carb as I need to.  I am right now one of the rare few people who are so resistant that I am not losing weight.  I am going to give low calorie a try again and then slowly cut the carbs back out and see if that works.

I hope all you bright eyed low carbers stick it out.  I lost 70 pounds doing low carb the last time, but for some reason the exact same diet will not allow me to lose now.  Maybe it is my age now, but I am working to figure it out.  Don't let anyone tell you high fat, protein laden food isn't healthy, and keep working at it.


Yesterday was a day...

So, yesterday I may have eaten over my caloric limit, but it is all about getting back in the swing of things no?  It felt good to get back in the Kitchen again!

Breakfast-
1/2 Freshly made french pastry at our local chocolate shop
Coffee w/ Cream and Splenda

Lunch-
6 inch Chicken Breast sub w/ veggies, some ranch and some provolone cheese

Snack-
6 inch Chicken Breast sub w/ veggies, some ranch and some provolone cheese

Dinner-
2 low carb tortillas
5oz Ribeye fajita meat w/ peppers&onions
1/2 cup cooked Spanish Rice
1/2 cup Cuban Black Beans

No great, not horrible, not causing weightloss.  I will get it back down again.  I am feeling the morning workout schedule coming soon too.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Sad but true...

I had a realization this weekend that my diet is not working for my life. I know that there are hard core low calorie and hard care low carbers, but at the end of the day the eating habit has to be a way of life. Right now I am not losing doing low carb, I only seem to lose doing zero carbs. I am unable to sustain eating that way for a prolonged period of time and fear it will be much sacrifice for a ton of gain back. =) Anyway, I have spent the last week wondering what I should do and over the week I came to a choice. I am going to go back on to monitoring my calories and working out. I am not going to pig out on bad carbs, and try to make the best decisions, but I have to find a way of eating that I can sustain and lose weight on.

Many low carbers may argue that I am harming myself or whatnot, but I have to try. If I still do not lose weight I may have to start considering more drastic measures, but I think I can drop some weight if I just focus on something I can maintain for awhile. The last time I reduced calories I ended up losing quite a bit of weight and then shifted back into low carb and lost a ton more. Maybe that is what my bodies need right now and perhaps I can switch back of to low carb after I have taken off some of this fat.

Anyway, for those friends I have on the low carb boards I hope you understand. Your support has meant quite a bit to me as I have struggled losing and gaining the same 10 pounds back. I know that I would never have lasted 2 months without so much support. I will still be working to lose my weight, and continued support would be appreciated.

I do still believe that the evidence that low to zero carbs is and could be a healthier life style is there. From my reading and all the information I do believe there are benefits. My problem is that whether it is conditioning or otherwise I am unable to eat 0-5 carbs and that seems to be what would be required of me at this point. I wish you all the best and I will continue to update my blog with what I eat and interesting things I read.

Good luck in your journeys, whichever path you take,

Dwayne

Friday, August 29, 2008

Yesterday....

So here is the food from yesterday.

Breakfast-
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water
3 eggs
6 pieces of bacon

Lunch-
N a d a

Dinner-
4oz adobo beef
4oz adobo chicken
3oz lettuce
1oz Pico de gallo
1oz hot sauce
2oz cheese
3oz Guacamole!!!!
(Nice dinner at Chipotle!)

Jennifer had a friend in town with a toddler Jackson's age so I spent the evening reading and dining out. She works the next 3 nights in a row so it will be me and the little stinker each evening. Hope everyone has a good Labor day. Oh and I weighed 324 this morning so I am only .6lbs over my low. That is good I guess.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Oh and I forgetted

In my fasting haze this morning I think I forgot to mention that I went to the gym again yesterday. It is amusing to me that I enter the gym, get my workout done and leave with all of the same people there. Granted I am sure they are all like, "Wow that fat guy really doesn't stay long." However I think people spend waaay too much time at the gym. Yesterday I did arms and shoulders. I was out in 40 minutes. A long gym stay for me is 50 mins to an hour. I see the same people there. They do have some impressive muscles though. I can't fault their devotion. I remember last year when I started to show some serious muscle in my back and shoulders. It was a great feeling. I think that even if I can't lose the fat I am going to work on my muscle. It always feels good when I leave the gym with mild sorness for a couple of days. Tonight I am going to do legs at home. Lunges+squats when you weigh 325 pounds is really all you need for a good workout. Gotta use the weight for it's positives no?

Anyway, they took like 6 vials of blood from 2 arms and a urine sample. Can't wait to get all those results back. I am worried I am going to have to fight off the statin faires, but we shall see.

Anyway I just had some coffee, eggs and bacon and now my brain feels functioning again. No more doom and gloom like this morning. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Around and around...

Food from yesterday:

Breakfast-
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water
3 eggs
3 bacon

Lunch-
4oz adobo beef
4oz adobo chicken
3oz lettuce
1oz Pico de gallo
1oz hot sauce
2oz cheese
(Nice lunch at Chipotle!)

Dinner-
4 hamburger patties
3 slices of cheese
1 Chicken Breast
2T LC Ketchup
2T LC Peanut butter later in the evening

Today I am going in for some blood work. Had a big dinner last night since now I have been fasting for 14 hours. Yay. =) Anyway I am still going downhill and wanting to cheat more each day. It is hard to keep it up seeing very little positive reinforcement.

I am sure I will snap out of it because I have to.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Hola!

Ok food for yesterday was:

Breakfast-
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water

Lunch-
2oz Cheese, 2oz Sausage, 2oz Tomato sauce
2 Double Cheeseburgers sans buns (bleck!)
2T PB

Dinner-
1 hamburger patty w/ cheese
1 Chicken Breast w/ Cheese
2T PB

PB+Cheese+Tomato Sauce = too many carbs yesterday. I weighed this morning and was 325 again. No surprise that a few carbs is keeping my weight up. I did go to the gym yesterday. Did Chest and Back. Fun fun. It is getting harder and harder for me to keep from cheating as no matter what I do I can't seem to consistently lose and even when I am cheating both my calories and my carbs are low enough I should be losing. This is crazy. =/

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Omnivore? No no I am a musclevore. I <3 animal muscle tissue. You?

For my friend Dawn I have decided to do this little blog exercise from Very Good Taste. It is called the Omnivore's Hundred and here are the instructions and the list if other blog posters want to do this:

Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (I've used italics for this).
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.



1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I used to be quite the omnivore. =) I think I have had a few more things on the list but I am not going to look them up. Too much work today.

Induction flu again!

Well though I have stayed in Ketosis throughout the weekend I obviously had enough carbs to cause another round of induction flu. For me it presents as a brain fog. I just feel like I am working through a haze. I can deal with it for a day or two. Just shows me that small cheats or any cheats or even eating higher carbs for me can cause problems. I still haven't weighed. I can sense through my clothes there has been no change. I don't know why I am having such a hard time as I try to lose. Usually all it takes is commitment and I have had that in spades. The long lapses of not losing weight are what keep mentally derailing me. Anyway onto what I ate yesterday.

Breakfast:
3 eggs
4 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ Sweet Water&HC (3 carbs)

Lunch:
Salad w/ BC (4 carbs)
Cajun Seasoned Steak (1 carb)
Mushrooms/peppers/onions (2 carbs)
Coffee (2 carbs)

Dinner:
2 Hamburger Patties
3T Low Sugar Peanut Butter (5 carbs)

Total Carbs:15

Not the best day for someone trying to get their carbs close to zero. Not a bad low carb day though. Still need to do better I am just not losing.

Monday, August 25, 2008

The good, the bad... and the carby.

Ok food first:
Breakfast:
3 Eggs
4 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/HC and Sweet Water (3 carbs)

Lunch:
2 Kosher Dogs (2 carbs)
1/2 Chicken Breast w/ Buffalo Sauce
1 Hamburger Patty
Coffee w/ HC&SW (3 carbs)

Dinner:
2 Kosher Dogs (2 Carbs)
1 Chicken Breast w/ Buffalo Sauce
4T of Low Sugar PB (6 carbs)

Carbs: 16 + 4 hidden = 20

Bad day for carbs. Time to rededicate once again. It is like I somehow can only pseudo fall off the wagon. Which is worse than a total fall off. Bleck. Anyway, Jennifer is working all evenings this week, but I have to make it to the gym if I am going to succeed. For some reason my focus keeps slipping. Didn't get any new info at the doctor yet, they rescheduled me for the end of September for some fasting bloodwork. They are going to test cholesterol and my thyroid. Should be interesting information. My blood pressure was high 141/90, but we are going to try to see how diet affects that. Anyway, on to work work work! I just had 3 eggs and some bacon! Mmmmm.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Quick weekend update

Saturday's meals:
Breakfast-
3 scrambled eggs
3 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water (3 carbs)

Lunch-
2 hot dogs (2 carbs)
1 Hamburger patty
1/2 piece of chicken breast w/ buffalo sauce

Dinner-
Lots of pizza toppings and cheese (10 carbs)

Total Carbs:15

Saturday, August 23, 2008

And so it goes again...

Well we had a good time at Cena last night. The food was not as good as we had remembered. It may have just been an off night, but for 32 dollars a plate there should never be an off night. The meat was rarely very tender and was overseasoned mostly with salt. I had a couple of diet cokes with me meal. The bad news is I am up 2.5 pounds this morning. I think it is the salt+soft drinks. Anyway the food for yesterday was:

Breakfast-
Coffee w/HC&Sweet Water (3 carb)
3 eggs
5 pieces bacon

Lunch-
10 spicy garlic wings (2 carb)
Blue Cheese (2 carb)
Salad (2 carb)

Dinner-
Coffee w/ HC&SW (3 carbs)
Lamb, Chicken, Sausage, Beef, Pork (2 carbs)
Salad (4 carbs)

total carbs:18

Anyway, back on the wagon! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Thought I would brake up the end of the day..

Yesterday was just another day in paradise. =) Tonight is exciting because the wife and I are going to CENA!

Breakfast-
Woops! Missed it except for my
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water (3 carbs)

Lunch-
10 Buffalo Wings w/ Spicy Garlic sauce (2 carbs)
Blue Cheese dressing (2 carbs)
Salad (2 carbs)

Dinner-
3.5 Kosher Hot Dogs (3.5 carbs)
1 Salmon burger (1 carb)
1 1/5lb Hamburger patty
Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)
Decaf w/HC&Sweet Water (2 carbs)


Daily Total Carbs:16.5 carb! EEP!

Too many carbs yesterday. No weight change yet again.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Life of a middle coast...

Anyway, the diet yesterday was:
Breakfast-
3 eggs
5 BACON strips
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Watah! (3 carbs)

Lunch-
Chicken Sausage (2 carbs)
2 1/5lb Hamburger patties
mayo+mustard (1 carb)
Decaf Coffee w/ HC&sW (2 carbs)

Dinner-
3 Hamburger patties
2 oz Cheese sticks (2 carbs)
Mayo+Mustard (1 carbs)

Total Carbs: 11 Carbs

A bit of a high carb day. Good news though I checked the keto strips and I am in heavy ketosis. I at least know I am low carbing semi-effectively. I have been in pain the last couple of days so no real working out. Going to the doctor tomorrow and I plan on getting some nice Cholesterol tests. Yay. Anyway, no more weight lost. Hopefully tomorrow I will drop a pound or something.

Back to work.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Busy as a C

So I don't have time to babble.. onto the food!
Yesterday:
Breakfast-
3 eggs
6 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ Sweetwater and HC (2 carbs)

Lunch-
2 1/5lb Hamburgers
1 Chicken Sausage (2 carbs)
Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)

Dinner-
Turkey Filet
2 1/5lb hamburgers
Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)
1 Salmon Burger (1 carb)
Decaf Coffee (2 carbs)
Total carbs=9

No weight change which is good since I am still below previous lows. =)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

We came, we saw...

So I weighed 323.4 this morning. That is some great news because I feel it is at least a new low set point below 325. The very low carb is working for me. Last night I went and saw Attack of the Clones. It was a poor movie in my opinion. Oriented towards kids, with some neat action. The animation was good and odd. A little fast/jerky in some action sequences for my taste. Anyway, I guess I should have seen Tropic Thunder. On to the food:

Breakfast-
2 1/4lb hamburger patties
Coffee w/ HC&Stevia (3 carbs)

Lunch-
1 12oz Ribeye
4 pieces of bacon

Dinner-
1 Chicken Sausage (2 carbs)
2 1/4lb Burgers
1T Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)

Snack/Deviant Behaviour!
1 Diet Coke at the movies (1 carb)

Total Carbs:7

I lost my 2 pounds but I do feel bloated today. Serves me right!

Oh and I got my Sweet Water liquid Splenda in today and put it in my coffee. So I tried a few drops because it is soooo sweet right? Well it didn't taste sweet so I put a few more in and as I was driving I took a drink and it was CRAZY sweet. I guess you have to let it set to distribute! Oh well back to 6 drops tomorrow. I am going to have to thin this coffee out with more coffee. =)

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. I must go fix some broken computers. Yay!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Et tu Outback?

Well I could have done better today. I am not going to lie. Here are the foods.

Breakfast-
3 eggs
5 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ HC&Stevia (2 carbs)

Lunch-
1 Grilled Salmon Burger (1 carb)
2 1/5lb burgers
Mayo+hotsauce+mustard (1 carb)

Dinner-
2 1/5lb burgers (at home)
Outback Ribeye
Salad w/ BC&Cheese (4 carbs)
3 (of 5) Grilled Shrimp (They tasted sweet so I gave the remaining two to my wife)
Coffee again (6 carbs)

14 carbs =( The problem is I am not sure the steak was 0 carbs, and I am not sure how many carbs were in the shrimp. They were both sweet to my taste, which is a bad sign. How could The Outback do this to me? Blimey!

Anyway, date night seemed more like a cheat night. One thing about this way of eating is that it makes me think there are conspiracy theories by "Big Sugar" to get some corn syrup/dextrose/sugar/fructose/maltodextrin into my system by hook or by crook.

Anyway, my weight is unchanged from yesterday so that is good right? Now if only I could beat my 325 set point from last round. Goal is 320 for the week!

Hope you all have a great day!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Check out my graph!

Down to 325.4 as of this morning. That is 10 pounds since I am back from NY!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Starting out early!

Well I am up late and it is just me in the house so I thought I would start my update early since I already know what I ate yesterday at this point.

Breakfast-
3 Eggs
5 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ HC and 4 Splenda (2+4=6 carbs)

Lunch-
3 1/5lb burgers
1/2 of a chicken sausage (1 carb)
Mixture of:Bacon fat+mustard+hot sauce+1T Mayo (1 carb)

Dinner-
3 1/5lb burgers
1/2 of a chicken sausage (1 carb)
Mixture of:Mustard+hot sauce+1tsp chili powder+1tsp garlic powder+1T Mayo (1 carb)
Decaf coffee w/ HC and Stevia (2 carbs)

Total carbs=12

Over for carbs for the day but... I was fairly active today. I had tons of energy and took my son out for a long drive and when we got back home it was nursery cleaning time. He took a nap and my wife and I cleaned out the room that is going to be our daughter's nursery. I carried a desk down to the basement and a bookshelf upstairs. We also hooked the Wii Fit up and had a great time competing on the downhill skiing balance game. I am in the lead now, but it should be pointed out that she is 25 weeks pregnant. I played that and Wii Sports for about 35 minutes. At the end of the day I took Jackson on a 15 minute walk around the neighborhood. So, not a bad day in my book. Tonight I had some bad acid reflux. I am not sure if it is from my condiments or the meat and excess water. Gonna try to get it under control tomorrow. Anyway, bedtime. Hope everyone has a great Sunday. I am hoping to have Date night!

New York... New York...

As promised pictures from New York. I don't caption or edit, so it is a hodge podge. The blonde guy is Dave, the brown haired guy is my friend James. Two great guys and the reason I made the trip.

Ahhh the weekend

Well my wife is working two night shifts this weekend so I am not sure how much updating I will do. As far as food yesterday:
Breakfast-
Starbucks Coffee w/ HC and Stevia (4 carbs)
3 Hamburger Patties (3/5lb)

Lunch-
3 Hamburger Patties
1T mayo+hotsauce+mustard (1 carb)

Dinner-
1.2lb of Hamburger
5 pieces of Bacon
Bacon fat+1T Mayo+Hot Sauce+Mustard (1 carb_

6 carb day! Yay!

The stevia was weird. I am going to be getting some Sweet Water soon which has 0 carbs for the quantity I will use to sweeten the coffee. It is liquid sucralose, with no fillers and hyper concentrated. Yumo!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Headaches and perspective

So I woke up with a huge headache this morning. It is caused by one or two things. The first being that I have not had any caffeine other than my morning drink. I am still having my Starbucks in the morning (more on that later) and that seems to quiet the headache some. I have noticed my head starts getting foggy around 2-3pm and that I get a full blown headache by bed time. When I wake up it is at it's worst. It feels like a hangover, but not the full body kind. The other reason I may be feeling like this is re-adjusting to a severe cut in carbs. I was doing 15-25 carbs a day before my trip to New York. Since Wednesday I have been doing 5-10 carbs a day and trying to reach 0.

Many people, myself included, have what is called induction flu where you body reacts to switching from running on carbs/easy glucose conversion to running off of ketones and mostly fat converted to gluclose. It is much more complicated than that, but my head hurts so that is all the info you get. It is easy to look up if you have some spare google time. Anyway, long story short, for about 1-2 weeks you feel lethargic and have less energy. You mind is a little foggy. This happened to me when I started back in July, but I got over it in about 4 days. You know it is over because you feel like you have TONS of energy. Anyway, I am not there and I feel that it is probably for both of the reasons above.

Anyway, on to the news of the day as it relates to my weightloss. First, what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast:
2 eggs
6 pieces of bacon
Starbucks HC&Splenda (7 carbs)

Lunch:
3 eggs
6 pieces of bacon

Dinner:
2 Hebrew National Hot Dogs (2 carbs)
5 1/5lb burgers

I found out that my coffee itself has carbs in it. Probably 2-3, on top of the splenda and HC I use in it. Very disheartening. I am addicted to it... So I bought some Stevia sweetener packets I found at the store and have started using those instead of Splenda. They suck in comparison, but I will get used to it while my liquid splenda comes in the mail. I order some Sweet Water splenda sweetner off of Ebay yesterday. I should be able to use 1 drop of it (0 carbs) to sweeten my drink. That will make me feel better about having to have it. I want to get to 5 carbs or less a day. I also know there are a few carbs in the eggs I am eating, but that will change soon.

Last night I grilled a ton of frozen hamburger patties and hot dogs for myself and Jackson. That should last me awhile and keep me off of eggs for the time being. I had 3 patties this morning instead of the eggs. The hardest part of the hamburgers is 0 ketchup. I love ketchup more than any other food. For the time being I am not even allowing Low Carb ketchup. I have decided that I need success before I can add things back. Removing things one at a time was not working.

As far as weight goes I weighed in this morning and I was back at 328. I weighed when I got back from NY and was 334 so I have already lost down past where I was before I went. I am still not at my low for being on diet, but this is a good sign that I am back on track. I am hoping by next Friday to have a new low below 325. I better with as much as I feel I am sacrificing.

The goal for the upcoming week is progress/pictorial evidence of my weight. How am I going to get on the Today show without evidence?! I bought a tripod recently so I just have to fiddle with the digital camera and find a place to set it up where I can take daily pictures. Then I have to figure out what to wear in them! I am not up for the undies and no shirt yet, and I know none of you are up for that. =)

Anyway, babbled quite a bit this morning, time to get some work done!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

There will be pictures...

Yes I am finally able to post again. It has been a crazy week! I ended up not leaving New York until Tuesday because my flight got canceled on Monday! I missed Jack and Jennifer quite a bit. I had a great time. Now on to the important part. Did I cheat? Yes, quite a bit. I didn't eat a ton of food, but I did eat more carbs than you can shake a stick at. It was amazing, amazing food, and amazing experiences. I don't regret it. So anyway, onto where I am at now and moving on.

Yesterday's menu was:
Breakfast:
Starbucks coffee w/ HC & 4 Splenda (5Carbs)
2 Scrambled eggs and Bacon (1 Carb)

Late Lunch:
2 1/3lb Hamburgers w/ Mustard and hot sauce

Dinner:
3 Small chicken breasts w/ pepper and salt.

Carbs for the day: 6-7

I did not have any diet soft drinks, and had water all day minus my coffee. I will weigh on Friday to figure out where I am at. So far today I have had 3 eggs, coffee and bacon! I am going to keep my carbs below 10 for two weeks and see how that goes.

I got a Wii Fit FINALLY but have not been able to hook it up. I will post more about that and my trip later. Just trying to get back in the swing of things.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Travel day

Well yesterday I had:

Breakfast-
3 eggs over medium
3 bacon strips
Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Lunch/Dinner-
18oz Ribeye
A1 (1Tbsp)
2Tbsp Sugar free peanut butter
Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Workout-
Off day

Nothing really to report. I went to see Pineapple Express and it was ok I guess. I really wasn't paying attention and thought I was going to see Tropical Thunder. It had it's funny parts, but was a little cheesy.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

I am going to pretend I didn't weigh in this morning...

Well so I decided to take a peek this morning... I was up to 331. No one to blame this on but me for my couple of cheats. I am focusing on the positive though. I am back in the gym. I am sore. I am playing my Wii daily. =)

As far as food went yesterday:
Breakfast-
5 sausage links
LC Ketchup
Starbucks HC&Splenda

Lunch-
Italian sausage
LC Ketchup
2 1/3lb Burgers

Dinner-
3 1/3lb burgers
LC Ketchup
LC Cheesecake
2 Italian Sausages

Workout-
Chest workout
3 sets dumbell bench presses (12@40, 10@45, 8@50)
3 sets machine independant arm training incline bench press (12@45 per arm, 3 times)
3 sets machine independant arm training decline bench press (12@45 per arm, 10@50 per arm two times)

I go to New York tomorrow. Getting pretty excited. When I get back I am going to quit Starbucks and Diet Drink cold turkey for a minimum of two weeks, and get as close to zero carbs as possible.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Again and Again...

Well I cheated and went to the gym. I doubt they cancel out. At least I am going to be honest though. I have no reason, but last night I was crazy hungry. My meals yesterday were:

Breakfast-
2 sausage patties

Lunch-
Ribeye
Salad W/ BC

Dinner-
2 1/3lb Hamburger patties
2 Hot Dogs
2 Italian Sausages
1 piece of birthday cake

Workout- (45 minutes)
Arms (bi and triceps)
Abs

Ok... So I threw my sons birthday cake leftovers away after the cheat. I am really not too down in the dumps about it, but I need to be making some forward progress and this is clearly not the way.

Onwards and downwards. Not much more to add. I am looking forward to my New York trip, but I am already missing my wife since she is working all week on evenings.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Keeping on...

The info from yesterday:

Breakfast:
5 Sausage Links
LC Ketchup
Starbuck HC&Splenda coffee

Lunch:
2 1/3lb Hamburger patties
1 (1) carb hot dog
LC Ketchup
Mustards
LC Cheesecake (3 carbs)

Dinner:
2 1/3lb Hamburger Patties
1 LC Hot dog
LC Ketchup
Mayo
Mustard
1 chicken breast with bacon and cheese

Post Dinner snack:
LC Cheesecake (6carbs!)

Workout: (50 minutes in gym)
Heavy Resistance Training-
Back, Shoulders

The day was ok. This morning I am .2 pounds lighter, but still above my low. Not much to report, just trying to get through the week and get to New York!

Monday, August 4, 2008

When we cheat...

Well bad news.. This weekend I had 1 bite of potato chips, one bite of birthday cake, and two bites of ice cream. In my mind any cheats while on low carb are huge cheats. It isn't a diet that allows for many mistakes. Especially in my case where I have been having such a difficult time.

Anyway, out with the old and in with the new. I did go and workout on Friday which is a good habit to start getting myself back into. I worked out my chest and legs. I was very sore for the two year old birthday party.



Which is where I had all the opportunity to cheat. I didn't have a full meal off but I nibbled. =/

On Sunday I was back on, and went to the Western and Southern Financial Masters and Womens Open. I took some nice pics because we were four rows back behind the players/umpire's chair.
I went to the mens double and single finals. The single's final was between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic (who beat the current Wimbeldon Champ Nadal the day before). The doubles were a ton of fun. The current number 1 doubles team (Bryan brothers) played and excellent match. Anyway, it was the first tennis tourney I went to and I loved it.



Today I am back on the horse and hoping to finally lose some weight.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Some good, Some very bad...

Well I weighed this morning and as I feared... I have gained 3 pounds. I am not going to freak out about it, but it does require that I make some changes. I am bothered that what I did before (last year) is not working well at all this year. It seems odd that my body could have changed so much in such a short period. Starting today I am going 2 weeks without any sort of diet coke/diet rite and strictly drinking water and one coffee a day. I am going to decrease my cheese intake, and try to lower my carbs even more. This weekend is going to be crazy since Jackson's birthday party is this weekend on Saturday and I am going to the Western and Southern Finiancial Group Open tennis tournament finals on Sunday. A friend of the wife has some great tickets and she is taking me. =)

The only good news is I was able to workout with my son running around me last night. The workout you may ask? Simple cardio on my Wii, using Wii sports boxing and some tennis. I really worked up a sweat and it felt good. As soon as my wife's schedule stabalizes I am going to start hitting the gym again. That is one HUGE difference between the diet this year and last.

Anyway, as far as food went yesterday.

Breakfast-
2 Sausage patties
3 pieces of bacon
2 eggs

Lunch-
2 double cheeseburgers hold the buns!

Dinner-
Cheesy Chicken with ground beef cheese on the side (mexican leftovers)
Guacamole
Un pocito salsa ;)

Onwards and downwards I hope...

Thursday, July 31, 2008

I was going to weigh in today, but...

Well lets just say that I won't call my meal last night a cheat. However, I won't call it a good idea either. First off here is the list of foods for the day:

Breakfast-
WOOPS! I forgot to eat! (I did eat this morning though, so at least I can improve)
I didn't forget Starbucks though so at least I got some calories!

Lunch-
Easy Cheesy Chili Chicken
1 TBSP LC Ketchup

Dinner-
1 Order of Cheese and Ground Beef (3 Carbs worth)
1 El Rodeo Pollo Especial! Which contained:
1 Large Chicken Breast
Lots of white cheese (3 carbs worth)
Zucchini, Onions, and very few tomatoes (6 carbs worth)
Guacamole (4 carbs worth)

My day was still below 20 carbs from my estimates, however they were ALL concentrated at the end of the day! Such is life though. It could have been much worse I could have had the CHIPS AND SALSA!

Anyway, back to work. I may have more interesting things to say later, but I doubt it. =)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Cheese Chickens are lovely

Well yesterday was good since I didn't weigh in. =) Regardless, it was a good day. I will get the foodstuffs out of the way:
Breakfast-
2 Sausage Patties w/ LC Ketchup

Lunch-
Chicken Cordon Bleu Salad w/ Ranch Dressing from Penn Station
(That had 8oz chicken, salad greens, 2T Ranch, a few slices of ham)

Dinner-
Easy Cheesy Chicken

The Chicken was delicious. I changed a few things with it. One is I didn't have Cilantro so I did not add it. I could definitely tell I needed to add some fresh greeness to the dish and wish I had gone ahead and put in some flat leaf parsley. It was still great. I also added mushroom and one slice of bacon per breast. I just microwaved the bacon and added it on top of the cheese when I added it to the chicken before I put it back in the oven. It was GREAT. For those of you who have never gone to Linda Sue's website, it has really great recipes and information on ingredients used in Low Carbing. You should check it out!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

When you are not the "poster child."

When I started my journey back on 7/1/08 I thought to myself... My weight loss is going to be like one of those Today Show segments. Matt will come out and say, "Dwayne began his weight loss in July of 2008, and had amazing results in his for month eating a carbohydrate restricted diet. He lost a whopping 25 pounds in his first month! This was only the beginning of what would be an amazing journey for he and his family where he would lose over 100 pounds."

The reality is I have lost 11 pounds in my first month. It has gone up and down the more I watch it. I am more comfortable in the clothes I have, but I know now that my expectations may have been a "little" high. I was basing them off the old me. The 20 year old that could drop 20 pounds in a week and a half and laugh in the face of fat. The 32 year old me is a completely different person. I am spot on with my diet and the scale jumps around like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.

At the end of the day I am going to be successful at this not because I raced to get it done, but because my family needs me around. I want to be there for my children and my wife. That means that, slow or fast, this is more than a race it is my life. Every mini goal I set is a path that leads to the ultimate goal. A long, productive life for my family with a healthy body. No Today show results for me, but in the end I know I will get there because I have to.

So with those thoughts I will post my meals yesterday!

Breakfast-
WOOPS I forgot to eat! That is a first.
Starbucks Coffee w/ Splenda&HC

Lunch-
10 Buffalo Wings with Blue cheese dressing and spicy garlic sauce
Side Salad w/ BC

Dinner-
20oz of Ribeye w/ HC/Pan Dripping/Worchestershire Sauce

I had to watch my wife eat Fazolis last night. She is pregnant and loves some carbs. It was very difficult watching that spaghetti and lasagna go. I did it though.





Anyway, onto

Monday, July 28, 2008

The weekend

What I ate yesterday!

Breakfast-
Omelet (Cajun Chicken and some Spanish from OCharleys)
SB Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Early Dinner-
3 Roast Beef and Cheddar sans buns from Arbys

Late Dinner-
5 Sausage links w/ LC Ketchup

It was a good weekend until the end. Went out with a couple of friends on Friday and on Saturday went one of my wife's friend's birthday parties! Live band and everything. It was quite the event. My son got the CRUP on Sunday and I was up most of the night with him. My wife worked till 2, so it was quite the challenge. He seems to be doing better today, but she is working all night tonight so that will make things challenging. He likes to have Mommy close when he doesn't feel good and crying while you have the crup is a bad thing.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Another quick update

Breakfast-
Creamy Scrambled Eggs w/ Parmesan Cheese and basil

Lunch-
5 Sausage links w/ Cheddar and LC Ketchup

Dinner-
16oz Ribeye
6 Buffalo Wings
Heavy Cream Latte w/ SF Cinnamon Dolce&Carmel syrup

So far today I have had an omelet!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Quick!

Ok I am in the kitchen and thought I would do a quick update for yesterday.

Breakfast-
5 sausage links
SB Coffee HC&Splenda

Lunch-
Chicken Sausage and Red Cream Sauce

Dinner-
14oz strip steak (cooked wrong at the restaurant!)
Asparagus
Green Beans
Garlic Butter Shrimp


Anyway back to the family. Just made some Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Basil and Parmesan!

Friday, July 25, 2008

F i n a l l y!

Ok, this morning I weighed 325 EVEN. That is 11 down total sine 7/1/08! I am just glad the plateau is over. I am definitely not going to weigh in again till Monday and then not again till Friday. Weighing in every day and watching the fluctuations is bad in the beginning for me. As far as food went yesterday:

Breakfast-
5 sausage links (2 carbs)
LC ketchup (1 Carb)
SB Venti Iced Coffee, HC&Splenda (3 carbs)

Lunch-
Cobb Salad w/ avocado and ranch dressing (7 carbs)

Dinner-
3 Chicken wings w/ BCheese (2 carbs)
Weird new chicken sausage and broccoli dish I made (4 carbs)

Ok the Chicken sausage thing I guess I should describe. I have leftovers I plan on eating at lunch maybe. I really liked it, but I will explain why I am partial to it and others may not be.

What is in it?

Ingredients:
5 Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage links (bought in a brat-like package at Meijers)
2 Packages frozen broccoli (the rectangular box kind)
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Dried Parsley, Oregano
2oz Cream Cheese
3oz Heavy Cream
Red Pepper Flakes
2-4oz Parmesan Cheese
3-4 Tbsp LC Ketchup
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Butter

Goals:
Make a creamy tomato italian sauce to go with the broccoli and italian style chicken sausage. I used the LC Ketchup since I LOVE ketchup (I eat it on sausages) and I knew it was sweet and would counter all the savoy/salty cheeses. You could substitute some splenda and tomato sauce it really didn't take much to give the pinkish color to the sauce and the tomato flavor.

How it was made:
- Set out cream cheese to soften
- Use running water to thaw/get ice off of frozen broccoli
- Brown the sliced chicken sausage 2 minutes per side in the heated olive oil. (medium high heat)
- Season with garlic, salt, pepper, pepper flakes, oregano, parsley
- Add Broccoli and re-season cook w/ broccoli and make sure to stir to prevent burning 4-5 minutes
- Add cream cheese, shredded parmesan, Heavy Cream, oregano, garlic powder, pepper, parsley, LC Ketchup to a microwave safe bowl (I used a measuring cup)
- Stir to combine, and heat in microwave 25-40 seconds just to warm/temper it (better not to shock the fat when you are going to be putting it into the sudden heat)
- Add in this mixture when the broccoli seems softened/done
- Take the pan off the heat and combine cream sauce, add butter at end to add extra creamy love
- Serve as is if you are me

I did this dish with broccoli because I am trying to get rid of our old frozen stuff. They actually held the sauce fairly well. The sauce tasted like a Napoli style sauce of a marinara mixed with alfredo (which is what it was really.) I really liked it, but it is hard to divorce my love of ketchup from it. I think adding in some color would help the dish. Maybe some yellow/red/green bell pepper and/or topping it with fresh parsley/green onion. Overall it was successful, but maybe asparagus would be worth trying as well. Sorry for the lack of measurements I cook so often I always season to taste. To me Italian has strong garlic backgrounds with italian herbs hitting you in the front of your palate. "Season" it till it tastes Italian to you. =) I always try to think, Does this taste too sweet or too salty? Once I have figured that out I used the seasonings to even it out. Too sweet? Salt/Garlic/Vinegar/Parmesan, too salty.. Splenda, tomato paste etc etc. Not Italian enough? More herbs/garlic!

Anyone that is how I do it, little to no training but I love to cook. If anyone has suggestion I am open to them. Try the recipe and change it and let me know how it goes. Next week it is crockpot city!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

On working out

I am not stranger to dieting and working out. During my last weight loss I was in the gym 3-5 days a week for about 5-6 months. For about 2 months of that I had a personal trainer and was in during the mornings with him and at night with my friend. That is why I find it so odd I am not back there yet. I figured I would write about my experience so that I can re-motivate myself and maybe share some of my experience being very overweight in a gym with others and maybe do a little motivating.

Sure, at first the gym is intimidating but I have found that the more you go the less you worry about that. You start to see the same people and they start to notice you working hard. The only judgement ever passed in gyms I have seen are on people that are there to socialize and not work out. I have even had people offer advice which I humbly took.

In my opinion (and you will find others touting this or that) resistance training is the way to go. I have read all about (HIIT)High Intensity Interval Training, I have read the articles on LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) as well as many on the benefits to resistance training (lifting weights.)

At the end of the day, no matter what you choose everyone is going to react differently. I think the best is to try a little of each. A great forum I have used in the past for ideas and finding information is the John Stone Fitness Forums. This is not exactly a pro-low carb place but it is great for diet information/working out information.

Most of the diets stressed on the site are of the 6 meals a day, reduce you calories below you basal metabolic rate and slowly burn the weight off. I am not going to get into the calories vs insulin debate, this is my workout post. =) I just thought I would warn people that are low carbers reading this that read some of the diet information there and get upset.

Anyway, onto my experiences. I have found that lifting weights worked very well for me as far as losing inches and getting stronger. One thing about lifting I noticed is that initially you will gain muscle mass quickly if you have not been working out before. Why do I mention this? Well because imagine that you lose 2 pounds of fat and have gained 3 pounds of muscle. What is the result of that? Well for me it was dropping a belt loop and losing 0 pounds or even gaining 1. It felt great though to see myself improving on the weights I could use. Just remember that muscle is dense and fat is not. That is how you shrink when you gain muscle weight. The goal is to lose fat, minimize or gain lean muscle mass. The great benefit is that lean muscle needs more energy to be maintained than fat. Thus your body will use more fuel to maintain itself.

As far as the actual lifting what I did (and would recommend) is to do each exercise at a weight that allows you to do 8-12 repetitions before your muscle fails. If you can just keep going and going you should up the weight. Make sure you start out low the first time you go, don't want to hurt yourself. You should do at least 3 sets of these repetitions per exercise. For example my favorite exercise was the dumbell bench press. I got to where I was using 65 pound dumbells, but when I go back this week I will start back at 40 and work my way up. When you get to the point where you can do 11-12 reps for 3 sets, move up in weight. Just to the next weight up. Rinse and repeat.

As far as how often and when to work out which muscle groups. I am not an expert go to the forums and you will see 1000 different routines where people tell you do a full body workout, others will tell you do do chest/arms and then back/shoudlers, then legs... The way I did it was I just broke it down to Chest/Back, Shoulders/Arms and Legs. I highly recommend starting out with basic compound exercises. Hit your large muscle groups! Squats for your legs, rows for your back, bench presses for your chest, and about 2 other exercises per body part. Why do you break it up? Simply because your muscles will not heal efficiently if you keep stressing them. Give yourself 48 hours AT LEAST before you work the same body part out again. Muscles grow by micro tears/stress and then healing. I know people start off really motivated, but gradual workouts with healing times are needed. That is another reason people break up the exercises by body parts. If you do a full body, fine, just make sure you give your whole body 2-3 days to heal before going back.

I could make this long and perhaps as I go back documenting it would be a good way to continue the conversation. I just wanted to get started. Things I would strongly recommend for overweight people starting out...

Squats and Lunges! Your natural body weight is all you need when you are really heavy and this is where extra strength will help you in your daily life. Do a squat (proper form) the first few times 3 sets of 15 squats with proper form. The next day your will burn. The same with lunges. Be careful with doing a lunge because with either of these exercises you are putting stress on your knees that with your heavy weight they are not used to! Proper form is a must! After awhile add a medicine ball (5-8lbs) and do the squat while holding it, and at the top of your squat put the ball above your head for a shoulder press and come down. I love that exercise. My shoulders were weak when I started and that really burns.

Situps! Remember that your abs are muscles too and you should let them heal like all other muscles. Do your sit ups and wait a couple of days before doing them again.

Work your back out! Seated Rows are great! I noticed that my back got the strongest the quickest. It helps your posture and is great!

I will post the workouts I start here in a few days and show you the other ones I am going to add. Just starting is the key and don't burn yourself out!

One more thing to add.. You WILL BE SORE! The first 2 weeks you will be the most sore. This is just a sign that your muscles are building up, and in the beginning they are building more because of the abrupt change in routine. I promise it will pass over time.

Anyway, not sure if that is a help, but at least I got it out there.

Is lack of bad news good news, or is it neutral?

Well I didn't weigh in this morning so how bad of a day can it be? Yesterday I ended up going to see my wife at work (she works at a hospital) because she wanted me to get my blood pressure taken. It has been high for my spry 32 years and she has been worried. We had a nurse take it and it registered 120/65! That is the best it has been in a long time. She still set up an appointment for me to get cholesterol and whatnots measured. That is good I guess. Anyway onto the FOOD for yesterday!

Breakfast:
2 Sausage Patties
LC Ketchup
Venti SB Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Lunch:
Green beans (4carbs)
Chicken Tenderloins w/ Cheese
4 Strips bacon!

Dinner:
3/4lb of chicken tenders w/ Broccoli Chinese style (more below)

So for dinner I decided I was going to flavor up some chicken tenders spicy chinese style. =)

I used:
3/4lb Chicken Tenders
1 Package frozen Broccoli
.5T Pepper flakes
1T Garlic Powder
Lots of Soy Sauce (3-4T)
2T Olive Oil
.5T Seasame Seed Oil
Salt and Pepper
1T butter

Prep work:
Ran water on broccoli
Chopped up chicken in 1 inch pieces
Heat pan with Olive Oil and Sesame Seed Oil

The steps:
- Throw the chicken in the hot oil, add pepper flakes, garlic, salt pepper let it cook for about 2-3 minutes at high heat and flip the chicken around so it semi-browns but does not burn

- Add some soy sauce to chicken, mix around and let it reduce with the chicken in it for about 1-2 minutes

- Add broccoli, add more garlic, pepper flakes, salt and pepper, let broccoli heat through with chicken for a couple of minutes

- Add more soy sauce, stir every so often, let soy reduce out (you can add some sirachi hot sauce or what not be careful it is carb loaded, but powerful in little bursts) Another 2-3 minutes

- With soy reduced, broccoli very warm and steaming add in 1T of butter and flip pan around till it melts and creates a nice buttery soy coating on your food. It should just be a coating and there should be little residual liquid. It is important that you have either broccoli you have soaked and semi-thawed and dryed, or fresh to decrease the amount of reducing time you need.

Anyway it worked for me, it was spicy, buttery and soy soy salty.

Hopefully when I weigh in tomorrow things will be better. I have my doubts. I really don't understand what is going on. Even Calories wise at 328 pounds I should lose weight on any diet that is less than 2500 calories and I am eating 1800-2000 I would imagine. I have done many diets where I count calories and have a pretty good feel for it.

Hope you all are having a great day. I have to do some work!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Wow

Well good news and bad news! I gained those two pounds back! @#*(^%()*@#&*%!!!! However, from comments here on the blog and from some of the forums I am on people have mentioned that fast food "meat" has fillers and non-meat carby things in them. I don't know why I didn't think of that! Last night I had 2 Baconators and as Sal mentioned that is 16 carbs right there! My last low carb efforts I RARELY ate at fast food, but being a dad now makes it so much easier to do. I am going to severely limit fast food from this point forward and see if that helps. Yesterday's foods were:
Breakfast-
4 patties
LC Ketchup
Venti Iced Coffee HC & Splenda

Lunch-
3 buffalo wings
2Tbsp Blue Cheese
Creamed Spinach leftovers

Dinner-
2 Baconators from Wendys (16g Carbs @%%$#)
Diet coke at the movies (batman again!)
LC Ketchup and Mayo
Iced Venti Decaf Americano w/ HC and Splenda

328 AGAIN! Well at least I have a good idea of what is keeping me from dropping now. I will try to eat things at home for the next week. Also, I am not weighing again till Friday. Until I figure out my stall completely it is hurting more than helping.

Oh and I bought some Canola Oil Mayo instead of the soybean oil based mayo I had been eating. Too many times I have been hearing that the soybean oil is not so good for you and I am eating lots of mayo. =)

Anyway, I will stay positive and move along.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Finally...

Well I am going to try to not get too excited but I finally dropped back down to where I was beginning of last week. I am at 326.8 as of this morning. As far as food went yesterday I had:

Breakfast-
2 Sausage Patties
1Tbsp LC Ketchup
Venti Iced Coffee w/ Splenda and HC

Lunch-
2 Baconators (double cheese w/ bacon YUM!)
LC Ketchup and mayo

Dinner-
Creamed Spinach
8 Homemade Buffalo Wings
2Tbsp Blue Cheese dressing

I did have some diet coke and some Sprite Zero.
I am unsure what has stalled my weightloss but hopefully I will drop a few more pounds before it happens again. I really don't think it can be the diet drinks. I have reduced the number and am keeping my carbs at <15 a day at least.

Anyway back to work!

Monday, July 21, 2008

No cheats, no results

So I didn't get to post at all this weekend. It was crazy! I found out that we are having a girl in December (95%.) I can't wait to be a father again. =) As far as the weightloss goes I am STILL 328.4 pounds this morning! I AM SO FRUSTRATED! My only cheats this weekend were diet cokes. I was 100% on my low carb diet! I guess this means a week without any diet drinks. I have never had this problem on low carb before though. Last time I was having diet drinks and eating more than I am now and was dropping continuously.

We got a nice little camera tripod this weekend so hopefully I can start documenting my progress or lack thereof!

Well all I can do is make a small change and see what happens. I am going to start going to the gym this week so maybe that will take me out of this stall. Hope everyone is having a great day.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Reflections on a bad or mediocre week...

So I weighed this morning and saw what I expected. No weigh down and 2 pounds up from my minimum. It is disheartening once again. I will get over it and it is not going to make me cheat, but it really is depressing.

Anyway, in the good news section we are going to find out the sex of our baby today! Boy or Girl? We shall see soon I hope. I am excited and of course this means we will be shopping. We are going to Lexington this weekend so we will conveniently be near some good shopping for my wife. I am committed to 5 hours on Saturday!

As far as food went yesterday I upped what I was eating since some people said I wasn't eating enough for my size:
Breakfast:
Venti Iced Coffee w/ heavy cream
2 sausage patties
2 eggs

Lunch:
6 Grilled chicken tenders with hot sauce and blue cheese
Side Salad w/ blue cheese

Dinner:
2 Baconators (double cheeseburgers w/bacon) from Wendys

2 Sprite Zeros

That is it for posting. I doubt I will be able to update over the weekend. Hopefully I will drop in on Monday with a new weightloss! See you all then. (All 3 of you!)

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Ho Hum...

Well I am not weighing until tomorrow. It is too depressing over the last few days. I imagine it is mostly water weight, but at this point I really don't care. I just hope on Friday I am where I started the week at. Bleck. Anyway regardless here is what I ended up eating yesterday:

Breakfast:
SB Venti Coffee w/ Heavy Cream
Bob Evans Farmer's Omelet (3 eggs, onions, spinach, hollandaise sauce)

Lunch:
Wendy's Double w/o Bun
LC Ketchip

Dinner:
Burger King Triple Whopper!!! (w/o bun)
Leftover hamburger patty
LC Ketchup

And yes... The last 4 pieces of Sugar Free Chocolate I am going to have. =( I think it is my problem and we shall see going into next week.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

argh

328 =( Not much to say about this today. Maybe I should not weigh again till Friday.

Yesterday I ended up with:
Breakfast:
3 Sausage Patties
V Starbucks Coffee

Lunch:
Splenda w/ Iced Tea
Cobb Salad w/ Avocado and Ranch dressing

Dinner:
2 Huge burgers with cheese and buffalo sauce
Green beans w/ Bacon

The bad:
6 pieces sugar free chocolate (this stuff really is gone now!)
2 Sprite Zeroes

It is hard for me to believe that the SF Chocolate and 2 Sprite Zeroes could do that to me.

Anyway back to work!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Again with the frustration!

So... I know I said I would get over it and not care, however.... I am up to 327.4 again. I know this is just bloat/normal fluctuation but it frustrates me. I feel like I should be in weightloss freefall for about 40-50 pounds. I guess if it is easy it would be called eating. =/

Anyway yesterday I ate more than I had been since I was oddly hungry. I ate:
Breakfast-
Starbucks w/ Heavy Cream!
3 sausage patties
1 egg
LC Ketchup

Lunch (yes I ate a lunch)
3 Double Cheeseburgers (sans bun)
LC Ketchup

Dinner-
Crackerbarrel Chicken Tenders (grilled 6)
Side Salad with Blue Cheese
Green beans

That is much more than usual so maybe that is why I am bloated. Also... I am sad to report that I had a diet coke at Cracker Barrel. Maybe this poor behaviour is why I am rewarded with 1 pound gain! WHY!?! Ok anyway I will calm down. The reason I went to Cracker Barrel was my brother and father-in-law were in town. My F-I-L had been on Atkin for 5 years and maintained weightloss that had kept him happy. Of course as I go on he switches to Weight Watchers.

This morning I have had 3 Sausage patties. Hopefully that will keep me through till dinner.

On another note we received a neat little gizmo yesterday that is supposed to help us organize our lives and other cool stuff. It is the HP Touchsmart PC. It is really really sweet but... The programs that come with it seem very rushed and have little true functionality. We were excited about the calendar program that would let my wife and I keep track of our crazy schedules. Well, it does not show text in the month views just that there is an event. So we can't see her workschedules or what event is going on unless we zoom into the days. It seems like that would be the most basic feature. There is no file management inside the touchscreen software for your videos and pictures. You have to go out to Vista to manage the files. It just seems like they could have done more. On the other hand it is VERY cool looking and the touchscreen is fun to play with. I hope they add on to the touch applications. It has good possiblities and is a great Kitchen PC for us. With our old computer going away in the room that will become the new Nursery it is the best place for a PC for us.

Anyway, enough with my rambling about new gadgets and back to work!


Monday, July 14, 2008

Beginning of another day!

No change in weight this morning which is good. I hate it when I seesaw upwards. This morning I had an egg and three sausage patties. For the last 3-4 days I have only eaten breakfast and dinner. I have been impressed with not needing the food.

Yesterday I cleaned the our two cars out. Had a nifty little spotbot we purchased to clean up pet messes. Turns out it is great to shampoo car floor mats and floors. It worked like a charm and she is very happy with her vehicle this morning. It was quite a workout since it was hot here yesterday.

Last night I check my keto level and it was as high as possible. I am glad about that since I have cut so much out of my diet to get there. I am going to continue eating the way I have been. I need to keep the losing up and adding things to see when it stops seems counter productive until I plateau for awhile. Then I will change it up so that I can reset myself and get past the plateau.

The last time I low carbed I plateaued every two weeks which became quite frustrating. The only bright part of that was after it broke I just woke up 3-5 pounds lighter and moved on. I really hope I can get to 20 pounds lost in the each of my first two months. That would put me close to where I was before my last major slip up period. Realistically I only lose 10 pounds a month max so I need to keep that in perspective.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great day.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Another Quickie!

First off:
Last Night I ended up having some Meatballs (0 carb ones)
Alfredo (2 carbs of cheese)

Today was:
Breakfast-
Starbucks w/ Heavy Cream
3 Egg omelet w/ basil and cream
4 pieces of bacon
2 pieces of turkey sausage

Dinner-
2 Meatballs w/ Alfredo (2 carbs)
Green Peppper Lasagna Popper leftovers (7 Carbs)

I had a diet coke today and the one at the movie yesterday. Went to see Hellboy 2, it was ok, but less than I expected.

Anyway baby is yellin! Oh and I weighed 326.6 today.

-D

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Short and Sweet

The Bad:
I CHEATED!

The Good:
I just had a couple of diet cokes at dinner with my wife and an extra starbucks coffee so it wasn't really cheating. It was just a little extra carb. =) I was still below where I needed to be, but I strayed a little from my non diet coke goal. That is ok because... I weighed 326.8 this morning! That is almost 10 pounds down.

I am excited, but I am also watching the little one so this is going to be short. Just thought I would hop on and share.

Yesterday's last two meals were:
4:30pm
1 Hamburger, cheese, with some mayo and low carb ketchup

7pm
12oz Ribeye
Green Beans
Few Peanuts
Starbuck Vente Iced Coffee

Today I had a huge breakfast but doubt I have lunch. The breakfast was:
3 egg Omelet with Mushrooms, Sharp Cheddar and some Andoille sausage
6 pieces of bacon

I am going to a movie and am going to CHEAT and have a diet coke. =) Going to let my hair down a little. =)

Anyway hope everyone is doing well. Back to making sure the little boy doesn't tear the house down!

-D

Friday, July 11, 2008

New Stuff Over there ------->

I added in my SkinnyR graph on the side of the blog as well as a set of pictures in a slideshow of me at different weights. I embeded them from some stuff I had over on my Picasa Albums. From my worst at 380 to my best at 280. I may start doing weekly pictures to update this place. I will try not to do the shirtless weigh ins. I will spare your eyes from that as long as possible.

Also I will just go ahead and embed the album here in a larger form for your viewing pleasure!

Live and Learn

Well I did the morning weigh in and was at 328! You would think that with all of the times I have gone up and down losing weight I would get used to the peaks and valleys. It is all a mental game sometime. Anyway, enough with the good news on to last nights eating/activities.

The Lasagna Poppers just did not do it for me. In order to cut carbs I eliminated a ton of ricotta cheese and severally limited the tomato sauce I used in them. Not to mention I left the peppers a little too al dente. I will have to bake them longer and load them up a little more to make this a viable family recipe. I think I will put that off for awhile. Not to mention that the mushroom I had planned on soaking things up in the meat did not do their job as planned. I would give it a 5 out of 10 as far as meals go. Back to the drawing board.

Yesterday ended up looking like:

Breakfast-
2 Sausage patties
1 Tbsp low carb ketchup

Snack at 4pm:
About 20 Turkey Pepperoni Slices (0 carbs)
4 Jerky Sausages (2carbs)

Dinner:
1 Green Pepper Popper (7 carbs)
Serving of Bacon Green beans (2 carbs)

It was amazing how long I went without being hungry.

Last night we went on a nice family walk around the neighborhood and it felt good to get some exercise in.

For far today my only food has been:
Breakfast-
3 Sausage patties
1 Tbsp Low Carb ketchup

More later when I have time, back to work!

-D

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Well...

So I gained a pound back this morning. My dinner last night was a big cobb salad with a couple of cherry tomatoes and some avocado. I imagine it was around 9-12 carbs total. Too much to consume before bedtime aparently.

I seem to start off so slow now when I diet it gets frustrating early on! Damn aging is affecting my metabolism I tell ya. Anyway so far today I have only had breakfast and had two sausage patties and 1 Tbsp of low carb ketchup. It is 2pm and I still have not had lunch. I am going to be able to hold it off till dinner I believe.

I had so much energy today I cleaned my office and am looking for things to do. The headaches are gone and I am thinking it may be time to start trying MWF Starbucks instead of daily just to see how it goes. Who knows I may even go to the gym after dinner if there is time. I feel the need to get back to it. I did so well for about 6 months and have just fallen off!

Tonight's dinner is going to be a Green Pepper Lasagna popper. I am excited to try out the new recipe I threw together. That was what I planned on last night before a pick up order was made for salads. I will post the recipe if it turns out well. I may tweak it and post it anyway. Hopefully I will do a better job than with the Fajitas in posting.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Changes

Well first the good news, I am down to 329.8. Yes I don't round! I am just glad to see that the scale is moving in the right way. First off I need to amend what I ate yesterday.

Yesterday for breakfast I had:
Starbucks Iced Vente Coffee with Cream
5 Turkey Sausages
2 Tbsp Low Carb ketchup

Lunch:
Alfredo Chicken
3 egg Omelet w/ 1 Andouille Sausage and some cheese,
onions and green peppers

Dinner:
Self made Fajitas
Beef, Chicken, Green Peppers, Onion with seasonings:
Garlic Powder, Cumin, Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder
2 Tbsp Guacamole
2 oz Cheese
1 Tbsp Salsa

Snack:
5 pieces sugar free candy

Ok so now the low down. I really enjoyed the Fajitas, but I had a horrible headache yesterday. I am not sure if it is from Low Carb flu, lack of caffeine, or no diet soda/aspartame. Whatever it is I had it until I had my Starbucks this morning! I am going to gradually give up the starbucks once I see how my weightloss goes over the next week. If I think it is stalling me then I will actually give it the boot.

I really believe that the sugar free candies knocked me out of ketosis! That is annoying. No more weaknesses there.

Even with just 6 pounds down my belt is much much loser today. I think that is my favorite part of losing weight is seeing it in my clothes. Overall I would say being able to buy nice clothes is a huge motivator. Not as much as being healthy for the family but up there with being able to ride on an airplane comfortably.

So far today the meals look like:

Breakfast -
Starbuck Vente Iced Coffe w/ Cream
2 sausage patties


I am not sure what lunch will be, but I will post either later today or tomorrow about it. If you are interested in how I prepared the fajjitas I will list it below:

What you will need:
Meat of Choice in strips ( I used ribeye, sirloin and chicken 2lb total weight)
1 Onion Sliced(I used yellow)
1-2 Green Peppers Sliced
1.5 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Cumin
.5 Tbsp Chili Powder (Mexene is what I used)
Salt and Pepper to taste (I used them fairly liberally)
Cast Iron Skillet (or other dense, well conducting cooking skillet)
4 Tbsp Oil (Regular Olive Oil not Extra Virgin)

The Technique:

First I set the Cast Iron Skillet on the stove at medium high heat and added 2 Tbsp of oil.

Once the oil begin to smoke I added my beef to give it a nice quick browning. It stayed
in for about 2-3 minutes until each side was nice and brown and fairly crisp. Then I
removed it to a plate.

Next I added the chicken to the empty skillet and seasoned it with some of all 5 of the spices
above (salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin.)

I let the chicken brown and then move it towards the outer edges of the pan forming a large
well in the center of the skillet,

I add the remain 2 Tbsp of oil to the well and drop in the onions, as you do this again season the onions with all 5 seasonings.

After letting the onions reduce down I add the green peppers (season again)into them in the well and stir them together with the onions in the center of the skillet.

Give this about 2-3 minutes and add the beef back into the skillet and finish off your seasoning.

Once you add the beef you will keep this on until you start to notice the vegetables are getting flimsy, stir it every couple of minutes and it should take another 6-7 minutes before you serve.

---

So I am not the best at writing recipes yet, maybe I should do it in a video so I can better explain how I add spices. I try to layer them into each component in this recipe. The same spices repeated, but not to exceed a certain amount. You can alway add seasoning at the end so do not add too much to each individual ingredient. Taste as you cook and you will know when things are done. My reason for taking the beef off and adding it back was simply to keep it from getting too overcooked. The beef juices actually do well for the chicken as well. Quite a bit of liquid is released from the meat and vegetables, this should mostly boil off in the end. The Fajitas should not be soupy.

Anyway, first attempt at a recipe I will refine it more with time.

-D


First

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Yet another Tuesday, maybe something different

Well today I did not weigh in the morning simply because I want to wait until I am sure the scale is not going to read plus or minus 1 of the same thing. It really gets me in a slump to start out this way and feel like it is going slow. Remember that I weigh 300+ pounds so my first 2 weeks are the big flashy beginning that are supposed to propel me in to dealing with 1 to 2 pounds a week. I will say that today I really do notice that my belt/pants are loose. That is always a good first sign.

It is hard for me to give up so much at once, but I feel like I am doing myself a disservice and rationalizing my way into some mediocre weightloss. I need to get going if I am going to drop some good weight before my new little one is born. That is what all of this is really about. Becoming a stay at home dad, but one with the energy to make my childrens' lives fun and rich learning environments. At my current energy levels that is going to be tough.

I gave up carbonated diet drinks yesterday and bought some Crystal Light. Well I really think I am only slightly in ketosis because I am drinking artificial sweetners. So I am switching to water only, and I am also debating on eliminating my morning coffee. The problem with that is I will go through some major caffeine withdrawls. I have been drinking Starbucks every morning for about the last 4 years. Crazy as it sounds it is what motivates me to get my day started. It is an expensive habit and I am hoping it isn't contributing to my problem as well. I think for the purposes of getting into high ketosis I am going to try to give it up for two weeks starting today.

Anyway in conclusion:
No diet drinks
No Starbucks until I am into ketosis in a big way or two weeks are up

So far the game plan for today is:
Breakfast:
5 turkey links for breakfast
2 Tbsp Low Carb ketchup

Lunch:
3 eggs scrambled with cheese
2 turkey sausages

Dinner:
2 Hamburger patties
2 Tbsp low carb ketchup

Monday, July 7, 2008

Post 4th weekend

Good weekend of not cheating at least. I am back in Ketosis, but only mildly so. Here is where we stand for today. I can give you today's menu so far and a peek at tonight.

So far today I have had:
Starbuck Venti Coffee w/ splash of heavy cream (1g Carbs)
5 turkey sausage links for breakfast (Got in a hurry)
2 Tbsp low carb ketchup (2g Carbs)

Lunch:
1 ribeye with 1tbsp peanut oil, salt, pepper
2 eggs over easy
< 1 Tbsp A1 (1g Carbs)

Dinner: (Projection)
1 or 2 Hamburgers with 2-3 Tbsp of LC Ketchup (2-3 carbs)

So far for drinks today I have stopped drinking carbonated beverages but I am probably still going to have
sugar free lemonade/tea for the next day or so while I get used to the idea of just water. My current deal with
myself is for every one I drink I must have water before I can have another. It slows down my consumption.


On a side note does anyone have suggestions for preparing hamburger/steaks that does not generate a heap
of smoke. Our vent is broken and I set off our ADT fire alarms at lunch today pan searing my ribeye in the cast
iron. DOH!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Weekend update

Well I am somehow out of ketosis so I have done something wrong with my low carbs. Last night we went out and I had a salad with blue cheese and a nice 16oz ribeye. This morning was eggs and bacon. I am having cream in my coffee and I am worried that I am sneaking in too many carbs with it. Not to mention that I am over consuming diet drinks this weekend. The goal next week is to finish off my diet drinks in house and switch over to 98% water. I have a feeling that is holding me back as well. Just got back from the grocery with a nice cast iron skillet and some more eggs to devil! Those deviled eggs are great snacks. I just have to stay ahead on making them.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Thursday part 2

Quick lunch update and time to test out a neat little graphic.



Well maybe not so neat. I need to lose some more weight so you can see the start points.

Hmm and maybe this one:
My Graph


Well one thing is for sure... I need more data points! The beginning is always the worst for things like this, but in the end you are glad to have them.

Anyway just got back from lunch and had:
5 deviled eggs (2.5 regular eggs)
1 Hamburger patty
1 Tbsp Low Carb Ketchup

I am full and I think the wife and I are going out tonight. It will be my first sit down meal on the new diet. I am sure it will go well. =) Afterwards it is on to see Hancock.

I still have only told my wife and one friend about this site. I am not sure at what point I am going to be ready to share it with more people. The fear of failing still exists. I have been up and down on this roller coaster so many times. Making it public is a bit of a stretch. Perhaps I will wait another week or so to see how my weightloss experiment with low carbs is going.

Thursday morning post

Well I never had a chance to do another post yesterday. The rest of the days foods went:

Lunch-
Weird Indian ground turkey concoction I tried to make
(It has both yogurt and cream in it) (6g carbs in the servings I had)
2 more deviled egg halves

Snack-
Serving of peanuts (3 carbs)
2 pieces of sausage jerky (1 carb)

Dinner-
2.5 hamburger patties with provolone cheese on them
2 Tbsp Low Carb Ketchup (2 carbs)
2 Tbsp Mustard

That was it. I resisted some great ice cream my wife was eating. I am finding it difficult to figure out what to feed the family while I am on this diet. I am perfectly capable of eating the exact same thing day in and out, but that is not fair for them. I am typically the one who prepares food, so I feel horrible subjecting them to what is easiest for me on this diet. I am going to have to consider some way of coming up with tasty low carb foods for them, but it is so hard to do this in the bulk I need to not go off diet.

As far as weight goes I weighed this morning at 332.5. That is what I am going to use for my starting point. I am going to continue where I am at with carb consumption and see how my weight loss progresses. I have been reading some interesting stuff in a 0 carb message thread over at the Livin' La Vida Low Carb discussion board. I am definitely going to work my way out of drink diet soft drinks. This also means I need to work on my caffeine addiction. I am hoping that by the middle of next week I will have gone through all of our diet drinks and I will mostly be drinking water.

Over the past several days my water drinking has increased I just need to keep that trend going.

So far for food today I have had:
Breakfast-
5 Turkey Sausage links

That is about all I have this morning. I have to drive to one of our other offices so I may be able to check back in today. Oh and my wife has agreed to help me take some before pics. Not sure when I am going to post them, but we shall see. I am a bit shy after all, and though I like to think I make 332 pounds work, I am also realistic about what people don't want to see. =)

-D

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Wednesday morning post

Well last night I am not sure how well I did since we had company. Our company was my father-in-law and he has actually been eating low carb for several years now with a good maintenance of his initial weightloss. He loves to order Pizza from Pizza King here in Richmond. He gets double toppings on the meat feast and only eats those. So, last night that is what we all ate. I tried to minimize how much of the sauce there was in the bites, and I think I was fairly sucessful. I also had a salad with it so I don't feel too bad. I really want to ensure I am under 25g of carbs a day and with all that I tried yesterday I may have been too close for comfort.

In other news I shared the info of my blog with my wife yesterday and she seems fairly excited. She offered to weigh me and not let me see so she could record the weight for posterity. We had just consumed massive amounts of pizza and it was evening. Typically when I go on a diet I weigh myself in the morning fasted. She wrote down the results and my blood pressure. (155/85!) Not the greatest, and I imagine until I get my lean meats down and more fiber/less weight it will stay in that range. I plan to redo the blood pressure when I have lost 10% of my current weight.

I had thought my weight would be around 330 just from the way my clothes fit, and turns out (since I cheated and looked) I was pretty close. 336 was what the scale told us. I can't believe I went ahead and looked, but at least now I can track it. I will start monitoring it in the morning tomorrow. I also plan on putting my information in fitday. That way I can track food and carbs a little more accurately.

Anyway, so far for food today I have had:

Breakfast-
5 turkey sausage links
2 Tbsp low carb ketchup (2 carbs)
1 Vente Iced Coffee with half and half (3 carbs)

I am about to head home for lunch and will probably check in post lunch.

I am feeling great this morning and my clothes seem not so tight today.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The intro and the beginning

First things first... I am not going to weigh myself until I fit into my previous belt and am comfortable at the second loop. You may wonder how I am going to track progress in the interim. I can tell you right now that it is simple. How my clothes fit and how I feel. How about we get to some background info.

From March of 2007 until about December of 2007 I lost around 70 pounds and was at 279 pounds. I felt great and went from wearing size 48/50 jeans to size 42/44. I was going to the gym and was on a low carb diet, and doing resistance training in the gym 3-4 days a week. This was the second significant weightloss of my life. What happened? My high school sweetheart and I get back together, I quit my job, moved to Indiana from Florida, got another job, got married and now have a wife and a stepson. In short, through all of those massive changes in my life I let myself get off track. All of those changes have been great for me since I now am with the woman I love, have a great family and another baby on the way in December, however... I let it give me an excuse to gain weight and change my diet. This blog is an attempt to keep me honest as I go forward. This will be my second major weightloss in my adult life.

My first sucessful foray into weightloss was simple. I weighed 380 pounds and HAD to change. My first diet was simply, "do better." I started off by walking up two floors instead of taking the elevator and I limited my calories to 1600-1800 a day. I still ate horrible processed foods with days looking like one Mcdonalds breakfast burrito, one twelve inch turkey sub from Subway, and three chicken soft tacos from Taco Bell for dinner. Do the math, it adds up to about 1500 calories. I lost 30 pounds doing just this and started feeling better. The best part of all of this was I ended up finding some great nutritional information sites and changed my diet to 5-6 meals a day of healthy carbs, fats and high amounts of protein. I will go into this time in later posts, but all in all from March of 2003 untill August of 2004 I lost 100 pounds. At the time I traveled for my job to Orlando, Florida to work on the 7 hurricanes that impacted the region. Over the next 2 years I gradually crept back up as I took on a huge new job and worked 70 hours weeks.

On to how I am going to lose the weight this time. I plan on setting some simple goals each week and working towards an overhaul of how I behave. This week I plan on simply getting on a low-carb diet. I will have less than 25 (preferably less than 20) carbs a day. I am not going to track my caloric intake this week, and I am simply going to eliminate the starchy carbs.

Future weeks goals will be: reducing coke zero/diet coke intake, increasing water intake, tracking nutrition info online, taking weekly update pictures, taking daily pictures, breaking meals up from 3 to 5, creating new recipes for my odd tastes, going back to the gym, various strength goals at the gym, completing the 100 pushup challenge.

Anyway, onto what is going on this week. So far I have eaten less than 20 carbs a day for the week. Also, starting this blog is a fairly large step for me. It seems so simple now, but I feel like I am leaving so much out it is ridiculous. Small steps... Small steps. Today I went to the grocery and got some nice low carb cooking items to help me with dinners. The real trick of all this is cooking for my family throughout this experience. They are not low carb eaters normally.. My stepson is going to be 2 in August, so he should be easy to please. However, my pregnant wife loves her some cherry and chocolate ice cream. She is very supportive so I don't see this as being a real issue.

The grocery thing is a big step since grabbing food out while I transition is bad. I want to have mainly lean proteins (turkey, chicken, fish) while doing this. Not bunless hamburgers and processed cheese. I will have quite a bit of cheese for snacks, but my goal is to use healthy fats whenever possible and avoid processed cheeses.

For those of you wondering how much I do weigh right now, I can guess that it is probably 330-340. I imagine that when I am in my previous belt and weighing in again I will register 310-317. I have no idea how fast this is going to happen, but in the past I lose about 12-18 pounds the first month and a half, and then average 10 pounds a month afterwards.

What is my goal and when do I want to reach it?

Well my goal this week is to change to no carbs.
My goal is to be back in my other belth by August.
My first long term weight goal is to be at or below 275 when my child is born in early December.
My second long term weight goal is to be at 250 pounds by my first wedding anniversary on March 3rd. I can't think of a better way to celebrate our first year together than giving my beautiful wife a healthier husband.

To be honest those are the only goals I am going to set for right now aside from my weekly goals set on Mondays.

Food Eaten today:

Breakfast-
Two sausage patties (0 carbs)

Midmorning Snack-
2 beef jerky sausages (1 carb)

Lunch-
4 McDonalds Double Cheeseburgers w/o bun (4 carbs)
2 Tbsp Low carb ketchup (2 carbs)

Afternoon Snack-
1 cheese stick (0 carbs)
1 oz peanuts (3 carbs)

Dinner-
Unknown yet! I will have to add this in the blog tomorrow.

Anyway, that is all for today and hopefully a good start.