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

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

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.

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

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

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!