Victoria the Pin Cushion

Weight: 139.4
Calories eaten yesterday: 1811
Calories burned: 1885
Deficit: 74 calories
Carbs: 40g (good)
Fat: 90g (yippee!)
Calories burned in exercise: 44

Even though I didn't do any formal exercise yesterday, I still managed to rack up over 9000 steps on my pedometer. I counted 15 minutes of exercise (in my exercise journal) for all the walking I did to and from WalMart, but didn't count anything else. I was running all over. It was a very productive day, if frazzling.

I walked the last leg to work today, for a total of 30 minutes and 88 calories. Yippee. Back to some semblance of normalcy.

Went in for the first of my blood tests today - cholesterol and a complete metabolic panel. I decided to go in next week for the thyroid and glucose tolerance test. Helen said I should have the GTT. For it, Dr. Atkins says to eat at least 150g of carbohydrate a day for at least four days beforehand. I think I'll do the test Monday and start today, with Monday being my last high carb day, then back to Atkins again. I almost can't wait to get back on program because I know I'll feel awful the next few days and I know how great I feel on Atkins! :)

This will mean putting the scale away for a couple of weeks and not weighing in. Anytime I cheat on low-carb for more than a day I gain about 10 pounds. Guess I'll be wearing a lot of skirts until I can get the weight off again. I'll probably take the ticker above out for a while since moving it up 10 pounds would be too depressing, and start my cheat free count over.

Stand by me through this all because I'm not good at intentionally going off plan and gaining a ton of weight just for a blood test, but there doesn't seem to be any other way to get a correct reading. As Dr. Eades explains in this blog post:

Following a low-carb diet makes one a little glucose intolerant, which is the reason that the instructions for a glucose tolerance test always include the admonition to eat plenty of carbs in the week before the test. Why? Because all the macronutrients--glucose, fat and protein--are broken down by enzymes during the metabolic process. And all the enzymes necessary for the metabolism of the various macronutrients are made on demand but not immediately. If you are on a high carbohydrate diet, then you will have plenty of enzymes on hand to deal with the carbohydrates you consume. If you switch to a low-carbohydrate diet, it takes a while to manufacture the enzymes in the quantities needed to deal with the extra fat and protein that your metabolic system hadn't been exposed to. This deficiency of protein/fat metabolizing enzymes is the reason people starting a low-carb diet become so easily fatigued--they've got plenty of enzymes on hand to break down carbs, they just don't have the carbs to metabolize. Once they produce the enzymes necessary to deal with the load of protein and fat, which takes a few days, they become low-carb adapted and no longer feel fatigued.

Once people become low-carb adapted--as I hope we all are--then the same thing happens if they go face down in the donuts. They don't have the enzymes on board to deal with the sudden influx of glucose, and, as a consequence, their blood sugar spikes higher than it would on a person eating the same amount of carbohydrate who is already carb adapted.

So to give my body the chance to manufacture the right enzymes, I need to eat plenty of carbs in the days leading up to the test.

I had them use my left arm for the blood test today and it hardly hurt at all. My left arm has a really good vein running down it. It's so good it actually pops out of the skin a little. I'll have to remember this for the future and have them draw from my left arm next week.

Anyway, in other life news, Brad said he would take me grocery shopping tomorrow afternoon, so I didn't do that today. I also need to bake communion bread tomorrow.

I finally got my Xanax today. Whew! What a hastle that was. I asked for a second vial so I could split the pills up. That way I won't lose them all if I lose my purse. I have 30 pills so I split them 15/15. Hopefully, that will prevent this from happening again.

Called the post office today and they said they could change the lock for me and have a new key; they just wanted to know what day I'd be coming in and I told them next Wednesday. This will be the last loose end to tie up and then all will be well.

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