Walking the Lake

Weight: 142.4
Calories eaten yesterday: 1665
Calories burned: 1943
Calorie deficit/overage: -278
Calories burned in exercise: 104
Fat: 80g (45%)
Net carbs: 54g (14%)
Protein: 101g (25%)

45 days cheat free today! I really think the magnesium is helping me stay on track by blunting the cravings.

142.2 this morning. Yay! I know I will gain a bunch tomorrow because I won't be counting and then have to lose it by Tuesday to come in under last week's official weight of 144.6. I hope I will show a loss!

Walked around Lake Merritt today. That's a long trail! Took me an hour to cover just the lake, not counting walking to and from the bus. A picture of the lake from the Oakland Park Department is below.


I also baked the sugar free chocolate chocolate chip cheesecake. It's cheesecake with sugar free chocolate pudding and chocolate chips added. I sprinkled cinnamon on top. Low-carb is sooo depriving, lol! It looks good, but I can't test it until tomorrow. The batter sure tasted good, though. I'm having cheesecake for breakfast tomorrow! Woohoo! I can't wait. :)


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Thanksgiving will be with my family... :(

Weight: 143
Calories eaten yesterday: 1653
Calories burned: 2094
Calorie deficit/overage: -441
Calories burned in exercise: 265
Fat: 80g (46%)
Net carbs: 54g (14%)
Protein: 124g (31%)

As of yesterday I have over 400,000 steps toward my million step challenge. I'll make it!

I went grocery shopping, but Safeway was out of pork rinds. I walked the last 1.5 miles to work and stopped at WalMart for the pork rinds. Tonight is laundry. I bought more breakfast sausage so I'll fry that up. It gets cooked in the microwave, but looks terrible if it isn't fried first.

Tomorrow I'm going to try making the sugar free chocolate cheesecake. I think I will also add some sugar free chocolate chips. Speaking of sugar free, Safeway had sugar free Torani vanilla syrup today. I snagged a bottle.

The big news today...my sister is free for Thanksgiving so it looks like I'm spending Thanksgiving with her and Dad in Seattle. Gack. And double gack...she wants me to drive up with Dad. She has a four day weekend; I do not. I gained 10 pounds during the time I was at her house for her wedding. She's a low-fatter. This is going to majorly suck, even if I do some low-carb cooking, which I plan to. I still see so much hard work going down the drain. One day off plan, okay. But 3-4 days off plan? The last time I did that for my glucose tolerance test I gained 10 pounds - weight I am still trying to get off.

April has never had a weight problem in her life and doesn't take a medication that makes her hungry 24/7. She also doesn't have the issues with food that I do. So she doesn't understand why I have to low-carb and why a little cheat can turn into a major binge, or that I really can gain 10 pounds of real weight in 5 days.

I finally got back to the 6th notch on my belt today. I am so not happy about this news.

One piece of good news - I got my reimbursement check from my employer for 80% of the $600 I spent at the dentist last week. Now I can put some money toward the rent. Thankfully, there were three paychecks this month instead of the usual two, so I'm not hurting at least.

Walked over 14,000 steps yesterday.


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So tired...

Weight: 143.2
Calories eaten yesterday: 1521
Calories burned: 1953
Calorie deficit/overage: -432
Calories burned in exercise: 90
Fat: 80g (49%)
Net carbs: 48g (13%)
Protein: 102g (28%)

Down to 143.2 today. Yippee!

Working out makes me so tired. After 45 minutes of weight training, 22 on the treadclimber, 8 on the elliptical, and 9 walking on the treadmill, I am so wiped out. A medium coffee at Starbucks did nothing, and my 16 oz. diet Rock Star energy drink is only minimal help. Could it be lack of food? I had a protein shake after my workout, so that's some calories right there. At least FitDay says I burned 265 calories, and my graph is showing an overall downward trend (finally!). That's something.

No gym tomorrow; it's grocery day. Gee, is it Wednesday already? This week is flying by! I can't believe tomorrow's my Friday. Yippee!

My walker tracker badge has been updated to add miles along with total steps and average steps. Check in the upper part of the left column for the new addition.

I don't know how long I can keep up this lower calorie diet, even if I am losing. I go hungry enough on 1900 calories a day. You can imagine what 15 or 1600 does to me! I'm so close to goal, but I can't lose at 1900 calories a day no matter how low my carbs are. I do believe low-carb is the healthiest way to eat because it's the way our paleolithic ancestors ate, but for weight loss, it really does come down to the calories for me, not the carbs. Low-carb does help diminish those constant carb cravings I used to have, though.

I started Atkins because it promised that I wouldn't have to go hungry to lose weight. I haven't found that true for myself, though I know many others swear it's true. I chalk it up to my medication. I believe it causes weight gain by 1) causing carb cravings and the whole insulin cycle, and 2) causing me to just plain be hungry all the time.

But I probably wouldn't have tried very hard to lose weight knowing what I know now - at least for me, weight loss AND maintenance will involve some hunger. I can handle that now. Two and a half years ago I couldn't have.

The forecast for the next week is cooler weather so it looks like the Bay Area's short autumn season is here. Time to pull out the long sleeved shirts and the sweatshirts. The first rain of winter shouldn't happen for about another month.

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Week 6 Weigh-In

Weight: 144.6
Calories eaten yesterday: 1433
Calories burned: 1948
Calorie deficit/overage: -515
Fat: 79g (51%)
Carbs: 49g (14%)
Protein: 85g (24%)
Calories burned in exercise: 89

Week 1: 147.6
Week 2: 147.6
Week 3: 147.6
Week 4: 146 (-1.6)
Week 5: 145.4 (-0.6)
Week 6: 144.6

Total gain/loss: -3.0

Yay! I lost 0.8 pounds this week! Woohoo! Low calorie is working! My fat jeans are finally getting loose. Needless to say, I'm sticking with this for another week.

I'm revising my goal back UP again to 140. I don't know if I can make 137 and really doubt I could maintain it. And really, 140 is a perfectly acceptable weight at my height (5'7") and bone structure (medium). So anywhere within a couple pounds of that and I'll be happy. I just want to fit into my skinny jeans again!
Six weeks cheat free today! I rock!

Couldn't get to the gym today, so I walked the last 1.5 miles to work. FitDay says 90 calories.

The book I was asked to review came yesterday. A woman saw my reviews on Amazon asked me if I'd like to review Dr. Dan's Super Weight Loss Plan by Dan Curtis and Scott Helvenston if she sent me the book. I said sure. Hey...free book! :) I e-mailed her yesterday to tell her it came and that I will be reading it as soon as I finish my current book. From a quick perusal it looks to be mostly focused on fitness with a fairly typical low-fat, high-carb diet. 40-45% isn't too far off from the Zone diet (40% carbs), but, IMHO, is still too high for most people.

I walked over 12,000 steps yesterday, but I'm going to only take pictures at over 14,000 steps now. I was getting 12,000 way too often. :)

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The dogs are still attacking...

Calories eaten yesterday: 1469
Calories burned: 2147
Calorie deficit/overage: -678
Calories burned in exercise: 340
Fat: 68g (44%)
Net carbs: 60g (17%)
Protein: 98g (28%)

Diamondwife tells me they are still attacking me at the low-carb forum over my refusal to accept the fat acceptance movement. Here's the comment she left here:

Hang in there. I always value your insight, that's why I come to your blog. They are way off-base over there. One person even compared your disagreement with the "fat acceptance" movement to racism. Give me a break!

I guess all logic has gone out the window because (and I'm sure my intelligent readers have already figured this out) there's a big difference here - people can't choose their skin color. 99.9% of obese people could do something about their weight if they wanted to; no one can do anything about their skin color. This kind of basic logic, however, escapes those blinded by anger. These people really do have issues that they are projecting onto me. They are truly threatened by my success.

I received a wonderful comment on yesterday's post about this whole debacle, and I'd like to share it here.

Kate said...
Hi Newbirth,
I've just been reading through the thread on the low carb forum.

I actually stopped posting on the forum when I "got my act together" low carbing. I find that place in many ways demotivating. As much as I appreciate information from all sources, seeing people low carbing for years and years and still being 300lbs or more is NOT motivating for me.

You, on the other hand, are. You got up to a similar weight as my heaviest (202), and down to below my goal of 155. I'm really inspired by your commitment to exercise and combining that with low carb, healthy eating.

I'd like to thank you for posting the Fat & Fab thread. I agree with your major point: being 100lbs overweight is NOT healthy and should NOT be applauded. Yes, there's no need to discriminate against heavy people, and I don't support that, but neither will I clap and cheer for someone parading their obesity as a positive example. I wouldn't do that for smokers, drinkers, drug users or anyone else choosing to live in an unhealthy manner.

Thank you for your courage and clear thinking. I'm very sorry that you were attacked and all your valid points twisted and misconstrued. Keep up the fantastic work!

Thank you for your encouragement, Kate!

Didn't get any exercise today except for the 1.5 mile walk from the BART station. FitDay says 89 calories. Oh well.

I forgot food again today. This time it was the pork rinds. So I substituted 2 more tablespoons of peanut butter. Yum!

Tomorrow is the official weigh-in for the 30-in-30 Challenge. I don't know if I'll make a new low. I was 145.4 last week and about 147 this morning. That's an approximate weight, not an official one, but I am up still over last week. I hope I can lose it today. Going to drink lots of water! I'll update my tickers one way or the other.

Walked over 14,000 steps yesterday. 6.45 miles.


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40 Days and 40 Nights

First, an apology to the poor woman I blasted in the comments. She was trying, in her own way, to be helpful. I didn't ask for help and I don't recall whining about my lack of weight loss in that post, but I have been stalled. I came on as harsh as I did because I'd spent the last day getting blasted on the low-carb forum for saying that the "fat acceptance" movement is stupid and that *gasp* if people really loved themselves, they'd love themselves enough to do something about the excess weight (a statement I still stand by). Being obese simply isn't healthy. Too many health problems can result. Anyway, it was due to getting bashed for saying this that I came on as harsh as I did, and I'm sorry for that.

For the record, I've lost 60 pounds while drinking the shakes; I have no other way of getting fast protein into myself after a workout. I don't have the option of sitting down to a steak meal right after my workout. It takes time to travel to work and by then the window for getting protein into oneself after weight training has closed. And I am building muscle, so the protein is working. The second shake is to cut calories by replacing lunch with a shake.

The peanut butter was added just a few weeks ago, long after my stall began. I did it as a way to add more fat to my diet while at the same time decreasing the protein. It replaced the yogurt I was eating.

The wine is not stalling me. I have been drinking it since day one and have always lost just fine on it.

Oh man, am I tired! *yawn* I had limited time at the gym, but made the most of what I did have - 45 minutes of weights and a half hour on the treadclimber. I was dripping sweat on the machine by the end of that! I forgot to pack my peanut butter and lunchmeat for work today, and since my cardio was short I decided to walk from the BART station to work and stop at Pac N Save on the way. That got me up to 10,000 steps by the time I got to work. :)

I'm fat today after indulging yesterday. I didn't even drink any water yesterday - just diet soda and (at church) hot and cold tea. Today it's time to detox with green tea and plenty of water. My soda for today was a diet Rock Star. Did I mention I am tired? I need coffee.

Today is 40 days cheat free for me! Yippee! I sure wanted to give in after the gym. I was so tired and knew a good dose of carbs would wake me up. Especially with forgetting part of my food for the day, cheating seemed like a good idea. But I stayed the course and kept sugar free.

I received another nice PM today from someone who thought the bashing I took was wrong. This note basically said that the "clowns" who were bashing me were still "thinking fat" and that they would never be happy even if they were a size 2 tomorrow. LOL. They also pointed out something I missed - about the one post quoting the Bible verse about not judging - and all the time judging me! I have to agree that was very hypocritical. They also pointed out that the forum seems to be "hostile" toward people at goal. I have to agree. People who have succeeded seem to threaten those who haven't. And I'm not even at goal! I've been fighting the last 15 pounds for the last 18 months!

Speaking of which, hanging out in the high 140s is depressing. I'm 5'7". I shouldn't weigh more than 140, and yet I'm unable to get there. :(

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Dentist Day, take 3

Friday's weight: 143

Calories eaten Thursday: 1743
Calories burned: 2126
Calorie deficit/overage: -383
Calories burned in exercise: 297
Fat: 77g (41%)
Net carbs: 59g (14%)
Protein: 116g (28%)

Saturday's weight: 143.8

Calories eaten Friday: 1726
Calories burned: 2076
Calorie deficit/overage: -350
Calories burned in exercise: 238
Fat: 77g (42%)
Net carbs: 50g (12%)
Protein: 113g (28%)

The dentist was hell on earth and reinforced my fear of them. When they explained that I'd need novacaine, I decided to get the whole thing over with at once. They used gel to help numb my mouth, then gave me four shots of lidocaine - one in each mouth quadrent (OUCH!) - and did the deep cleaning beneath the gums. I was really freaked out and after they gave me the shots and sat me up while waiting for the lidocaine to take effect, I started crying. The dentist is traumatizing for me. I couldn't eat or drink for a while afterward because my mouth was numb, and once it started to wear off I could only drink through a straw. The first thing I made was the low-carb pina colodas. I needed a drink after what I went through!

Anyway, it's over for now and they want to see me in two weeks to see if the deep cleaning worked. I hope it did because it was very expensive and I can't afford to do it again.

As of Thursday, I'm over 1/3 of the way to my 1 million step goal, and have just over 150 miles walked! :) I'm going to do it! After I make 1 million steps I'll shoot for 2 million (884 miles), and then I'll shoot for 1000 miles.

Walked over 15,000 steps on Thursday. Yay! 6.64 miles.


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Walked over 13,000 steps on Friday. 5.75 miles.


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Dentist photo courtesy Geek Philosopher.

The bashing continues...

Weight: 144
Calories eaten yesterday: 1242
Calories burned: 1943
Calorie deficit/overage: -701
Calories burned in exercise: 81
Fat: 62g (46%)
Net carbs: 50g (17%)
Protein: 75g (25%)

I'm not going to post my menus anymore since people seem to think that posting it means I want it critiqued. Get this clear: If I want advice, I'll ask for it. I posted it because my FitDay journal is out of order and doesn't make sense to some people. I guess it was a bad idea to flesh out the food breakdown. From now on I will just post the total fat/carbs/protein and the percentage that comes to.

I didn't lose even water weight today because my calories were too low yesterday. I get it now - anything below 1300 and my body goes into starvation mode. Lesson learned. I was upset because of the bashing I got on the low-carbers forum and I don't eat when I get upset. Today I am making sure to eat, no matter how upset I am.

The bashing on the low-carbers forum (I will not link to the forum obvious reasons) continues. People are ascribing all sorts of motives, thoughts, and even words to me that I have never said or thought. It would be funny if it weren't so vicious. It's clear they see my name and react viscerally, without actually reading what I say (otherwise they would know that they are believing total lies). But in an effort to discredit someone, lies must be made up. Say it long enough and loud enough and, like the low-fat lie, people will believe it.

These people have some real issues, that, as one person PMed me, they are seem to be projecting onto me. I would love to show you the sweet note this person sent, but as it was a private note, I won't do so without her permission.

I received another kind note saying that people were taking what I said out of context - something I have noticed myself. But, like the debaucle at the depression forum, their minds are made up that I am evil and therefore have nothing useful to say. Too bad there is no "ignore" feature, only a "buddies" feature.

One basher suggested "ridiculing" people who exercise because they might hurt themselves. She was intimating that I was ridiculing people who didn't exercise. I wasn't, but putting words into my mouth makes her look better by putting me down. As I said, these people have issues - very serious issues that they are projecting onto me. It's really quite sad. I expected better from this group but human nature never fails to disappoint me. These people seem truly threatened by my success. Very, very sad.

Well, they have won the "debate" because I refuse to argue with people who refuse to read my arguments. A debate has to be two-way and this was one-way - "Bash Victoria and don't listen. She threatens us because she's succeeded. We can't feel threatened so we must attack her."

Diamondwife posted about all this on the my old stomping ground, the About.com Weight Loss forum, where I was jumped on for posting the anti-low-fat article. Here's her post. You can navigate through the rest of the discussion at the bottom of the page. I don't feel welcome there so I don't go there anymore, but I found it as I was looking through my site tracker. Lots of hits from the bashing thread in the low-carbers forum.

Due to an unfortunate incident here this morning, new rule for this blog, effective immediately:

If you comment anonymously you must sign your name to your comment. I'm tired of people who don't even know me posting advice, etc. and hiding behind their anonymity. Any anonymous comments found to be unsigned will be deleted at my discretion. The only other option is to disable anonymous comments, but there are some people without blogger accounts who are supportive of me (hi Brad!). I may enable moderation for a time.

In case you think I'm not serious, I am. I once asked for people to give actual reasons why taking pictures of fat people was wrong (or not). One woman hit the roof and went off with nothing but emotion. Her comments were deleted, sometimes without being fully read (I could tell from the first sentence what the rest would say). She got really pissed that breaking the rules got her comments nuked, lol!

The showers at the gym are fixed so I will be able to work out and shower and then walk to the dentist's office. So I will get to work out tomorrow after all! Since I hit the weights hard today, tomorrow will be straight cardio.

Yes, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. This is for the deep cleaning/root planing. I'd be lying to say I'm not scared. I had this done 10 years ago and it hurt. I'm going to ask for gel to numb my gums, but somehow I think they won't like the idea.

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Day 36

Weight: 144.2
Calories eaten yesterday: 1398
Calories burned: 2151
Calorie deficit/overage: -753
Calories burned in exercise: 314

Down again today. I pretty much expected that. I lose during the week when I watch my calories, and gain it all back on the weekend when I don't watch my calories. I know it's just water fluctuations. As long as the Tuesday weigh-in is lower each week I can deal with that.

Oh, I forgot to mention, yesterday on the leg press I used a 45 pound weight on each side! Woohoo! I'm making progress! And my biceps are getting huge from all the arm exercises I do. :)

I came home to a mess last night. Not what I needed after a long day at work. Xena had gotten into the plastic bins where I keep my clothes and tipped three of the five over onto the floor. It took a while to clean up. I took this picture:


Stupid cat. I know it was Xena because Abby has never shown any interest in the bins or their contents. This is not the first time Xena has done this and I had hoped she had learned her lesson. I guess not. Ah, life with cats.

Found 2007 calendars at the store today. :) I bought three. A "pathways" calendar and organizer/sticker calendar for me, and a dog calendar for my sister.

Since going low-calorie I haven't had to cook meat for my lunches, so today I mostly bought salad stuff for dinner - bagged salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, and dressing. I also bought the ingredients for the cauliflower potatoes, which I plan to bring to the church potluck again.

My sister sent me a little gift that arrived yesterday - a Starbucks mug with a bag of their anniversary blend. The note she wrote said that Starbucks and me were both created the same year - 1971.

The fat acceptance article I post on the low-carb forum resulted in major bashing of moi. Jimmy recently posted on this subject and I agree with him. Please click over there and read what he has to say.

Yesterday's menu:
9:30 a.m.:
8 oz. black coffee
1 cup Crystal Light

10:45 a.m.:
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto Ketato mix

1:15 p.m. (post-workout):
Atkins chocolate delight shake

3 p.m.:
small Starbucks coffee with sugar-free vanilla syrup

5 p.m.:
unsweetened tea (2 large cups)

6:30 p.m.:
SlimFast chocolate low-carb shake

7 p.m.:
1 package shirataki noodles

8 p.m.:
1 can Hansen's diet soda

9 p.m.:
6 thin slices turkey lunchmeat
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter

10 p.m.:
12 oz. Green & Crisp salad with
1/2 a tomato and
1/2 a large cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

1 a.m.:
1 glass of wine
1 cup sugar free Jello

Total calories: 1398
Net carbs: 51g (16%)
Fat: 63g (44%)
Protein: 92g (28%)

Walked over 14,000 steps yesterday. 6.48 miles. I'll be lucky to break 10,000 today. Didn't go to the gym because it was grocery day and just made the 1.5 mile walk to work. I should be able to make it to the gym tomorrow.

Oh...I've broken over 300,000 steps and am closing in on 1/3 of my 1 million step goal. :) Check out my badge on the left.


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Week 5 Weigh-In

Weight: 145.4
Calories eaten yesterday: 1567
Calories burned: 2140
Calorie deficit/overage: -573
Carbs: 45g
Fat: 76g
Calories burned in exercise: 318

Week 1: 147.6
Week 2: 147.6
Week 3: 147.6
Week 4: 146 (-1.6)
Week 5: 145.4

Total gain/loss: -2.2

Yay! I lost 0.6 from last week! Maybe I would have done better if I hadn't cheated so much on both Friday and Saturday. I'll stick with low-calorie this week since it seems to be working.

I've updated my tickers above.

I now have pictures of the Friday BBQ so here you go. You can click on any picture to enlarge it in a new window on Flickr. Sorry that some of the pics are washed out. They were really dark and needed to be lightened.

Me and Davina:


Me:


Me:


Lisa, Davina, and Brad:


Brad:


Brad:


Yesterday's menu:
9:30 a.m.:
get up, make 8 oz. black coffee
1 cup Crystal Light to take vitamins with

10:30 a.m.:
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto high-protein chocolate pudding mix

1:15 p.m. (after workout):
Atkins chocolate royale shake

3 p.m.:
medium black coffee from Starbucks

5 p.m.:
unsweetened hot tea

6:30 p.m.:
SlimFast low-carb shake

7 p.m.:
1 package shirataki noodles
1 oz. pork rinds

9 p.m.
1 can diet soda (sweetened with Splenda)
6 thin slices turkey lunchmeat
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter

10 p.m.:
10 oz. Lettuce Trio salad with
1/2 a tomato and
1/2 a cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

1 a.m.:
glass of wine
1 cup sugar-free Jello

Total calories: 1567
Net carbs: 45g (12%)
Fat: 76g (47%)
Protein: 113g (31%)

I'm trying a bit of calorie cycling again to keep my body guessing, so today's menu is a bit higher than yesterday's.

I set a new record yesterday! 18,891 steps - 8.3 miles! :) On my walking challange I now have over 300,000 steps toward my goal if 1 million, and over 130 miles.


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Day 34

Calories eaten yesterday: 1332
Calories burned: 2085
Calorie deficit/overage: -753
Carbs: 44g
Fat: 64g
Calories burned in exercise: 278

Looks like over the weekend I gained back all the weight I lost last week. Stupid water weight losses. :-p I'm back to low-calorie again. I can't keep this up. It's hard to go hungry. Official weigh-in is tomorrow. I better be below last week's weight of 146 or I'll be crushed. I'm also trying a bit of simple calorie cycling to keep my body guessing.

Spent all my gym time today doing cardio. FitDay says 289 calories. I had over 10,000 steps by the time I left the gym, and over 12,000 by the time I got to work. :)

I bought a couple packs of low-carb SlimFast shakes at the drugstore today. $6 for a 4-pack is pretty cheap, and God knows I've been going through shakes like crazy lately, often having two per day.

My new headphones for my iPod came today from E-bay, as well as my $150 Netrition order. Brad said he will drop the Netrition boxes by my house on Friday evening. I just hope that with the hot weather recently that the sugar-free chocolate chips aren't melted too badly... :-p

Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast:
8 oz. black coffee
1 cup Crystal Light
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto high-protein pudding mix

Post-workout:
Atkins strawberry shake

Lunch:
Atkins chocolate royale shake

Snack:
6 thin slices turkey lunchmeat
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter

Dinner:
12 oz. Green & Crisp salad with
1/2 a tomato and
1/2 a large cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

Before bed:
1 glass of wine
1 cup sugar free Jello

Total calories: 1332
Net carbs: 44g (14%)
Fat: 64g (45%)
Protein: 96g (30%)

Walked over 14,000 steps yesterday. 6.48 miles.


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Dentist Day, take 2

Sorry I didn't get around to posting anything the last couple days. Today will be a long post so I can catch up.

First, Friday's stats:
Weight: 142
Calories eaten: 1570
Calories burned: 2156
Calorie deficit/overage: -586
Carbs: 53g
Fat: 66g
Calories burned in exercise: 322

Got back to my original goal of 142! Yay! I didn't watch calories Friday or Saturday so I know I'm up again. No biggie. I did really well last week.

Friday I made the Atkins brownies (with coconut oil and nuts - yum!), and then the "Just Like Stuffed Baked Potatoes" recipe. It looked and tasted great. The three main ingredients are cauliflower, cream cheese, and cheddar cheese. The brownies went to the BBQ and the "potatoes" went to the church potluck and went over pretty well.

The dentist appointment went okay. I drank some wine before going in, took two 0.5mg Xanax, and some Ibuprofin. It didn't hurt much and wasn't a big deal. Now next week - that will be a big deal. This was just a basic cleaning. And with root planing they only do half your mouth at a time so it will take two appointments to get it done.

Mom and Bill said they will pay for the teeth whitening I want. I asked for it as a Christmas and/or birthday present. It's $300 and Family Radio won't help cover it because it's purely "cosmetic." :-p

Anita was out of town on Saturday so I got up at 6 a.m. to take public transit out to El Cerrito where our piano player would meet me and drive me the rest of the way. I was exhausted from the early hour alone. When I got home from church I ate something and then took a 3 hour nap. Needless to say, there was no exercise. I did do a lot of pacing in the apartment in order to get 10,000 steps though and keep my average over 10,000.

Back to doing the low-calorie thing today. Might as well. Sunday is the easiest day for me to cut back calories. Made it to the gym today, but I had to cut short the treadmill so I wasn't able to get 10,000 steps by the time I got to work. Since I did weights today and I can't do them two days in a row, I should have more time for cardio tomorrow.

Friday's menu:
Breakfast:
8 oz. black coffee
1 cup Crystal Light
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto high-protein pudding mix

Post-workout:
Atkins strawberry shake

Lunch:
Atkins chocolate delite shake
1 package shirataki noodles, plain

Snack:
4 slices turkey lunchmeat
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter

Dinner:
12 oz. Double Carrots salad with
1/2 a tomato and
1/2 a cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

Before bed:
2 glasses of wine
1 cup sugar free Jello

Total calories: 1570
Net carbs: 53g (14%)
Fat: 66g (40%)
Protein: 98g (26%)

Walked over 15,000 steps on Thursday. Yahoo! 6.87 miles.


Click to enlarge.
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Blogger Beta and commenting

Bumping this post back to the top for any who haven't seen it yet. For those who have implemented at least one of my requests, THANK YOU!

For all of you who's blogs I read, you need to know that Blogger is currently operating two systems. There's the old system we all know and love, and there's the new system, Blogger Beta. Unfortunetly, for now, once your blog is switched to Beta, you can only make comments on other Beta blogs. And most of you aren't on Beta yet, hence my silence.

Eventually everyone will have to switch to the new Beta system, so consider making that change now. Just go to http://beta.blogger.com/start and follow the directions.

Until then, I may want to comment but will have to hold my silence. Like I really wanted to comment on the question about Dreamfield's pasta, but I couldn't post!

In the interim, could you please enable anonymous comments if you haven't? It would make life for those of us on Beta a bit easier by enabling us to say something. I'm not ignoring you guys, really!

One month cheat free!

Weight: 143.4
Calories eaten yesterday: 1358
Calories burned: 1969
Calorie deficit/overage: -611
Carbs: 45g
Fat: 64g
Calories burned in exercise: 107

Today is one month cheat free for me! Yay! I never get much past one month so let's see how long I can keep this streak going. As the ticker above says, "I will not cheat on my diet." The only thing cheating does is cheat myself.

Today I spent 45 minutes doing weights. I had to lower the weight on the weight-assisted chin-up (this is the same as raising the weight on other machines). I went from 110 to 100 pounds on the chin-up, and 100 pounds to 90 pounds on the dip. :) I'm doing 70 pounds now on the leg press. When I first started the weight of the press was enough.

After the weight training I went for a hard 1/2 hour on the treadclimber that had sweat dripping off me, then a 20 minutes easy walk on the treadmill at 3.5 mph.

Tomorrow is my teeth cleaning at the dentist. I'm going to take a couple Xanax before the appointment and have some Merlot to drink, probably some Ibuprofin as well for the pain. And next week will be the root planing which is worse! I'll have to leave Brad's BBQ early to make the appointment.

Yes, the BBQ! Yummy meat and I'm bringing Atkins brownies and I'm adding chopped nuts to them! Yummmmm. I'll skip the potato salad and other carby stuff and just stick with the meat and brownies. :)

Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast:
8 oz. black coffee
1 cup Crystal Light
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto high-protein pudding mix

Lunch:
Atkins strawberry shake
1 oz. pork rinds

Snack:
4 slices turkey lunchmeat
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter

Dinner:
12 oz. Double Carrots salad with
1/2 a tomato and
1/2 a cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

Total calories: 1358
Net carbs: 45g (14%)
Fat: 64g (45%)
Protein: 97g (30%)

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Day 29

Weight: 144.4
Calories eaten yesterday: 1482
Calories burned: 2152
Calorie deficit/overage: -670
Carbs: 41g
Fat: 72g
Calories burned in exercise: 315

Didn't get my walk from the BART station to work done today. My grocery tote finally stuck what was left of its wheels up in the air and died today. So after getting the groceries I ran around Alameda looking for a new one. I finally found a large duffel bag with wheels that will suffice. Not perfect, but better than what I have now, which is fit only for the trash. So I ended up coming into work from the opposite direction and couldn't do any walking. I did about 20 minutes of "laps" around the hallway here at work, though, so I could rack up some steps and burn a few calories at least.

Today is day 4 of low-carb/low-calorie. Even though I had both salty lunch meat and pork rinds yesterday my weight was down again this morning - 144.4. That's a common weight for me to hit as I go up and down so we'll see if I can break it.

Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast:
8 oz. black coffee
1 cup Crystal Light
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto high-protein pudding mix

Post workout:
Atkins chocolate royale shake

Lunch:
SlimFast low-carb chocolate shake
1 oz. pork rinds

Snack:
3 slices turkey lunchmeat
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter

Dinner:
12 oz. Green and Crisp salad with
1/2 a tomato and
1/2 a cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

Total calories: 1482
Net carbs: 41g (12%)
Fat: 72g (46%)
Protein: 113g (32%)

Walked over 13,000 steps yesterday. Yahoo! 6.05 miles.


Click to enlarge.
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Week 4 Weigh-In

Weight: 146
Calories eaten yesterday: 1340
Calories burned: 1986
Calorie deficit/overage: -646
Carbs: 39g
Fat: 65g
Calories burned in exercise: 106

Week 1: 147.6
Week 2: 147.6
Week 3: 147.6
Week 4: 146

Total gain/loss: -1.6

Woohoo! Finally showed a loss. It could just be because low-calorie means I'm taking in less sodium but let's hope that's not it and that this is a real 1.6 lost. ;)

Today at the gym was awesome. Some days your get up and go has got up and went, and some days you just have it. Today was a "have it" day and I have to wonder if taking 1000mg of L-Glutamine right before my workout wasn't the reason. I have a hard time remembering to take it in the locker room. It's supposed to help you lift more and I know I did that. On the weight assisted chin-up I was able to do 3 sets of 10 reps each - a record for me. That means I can change the weight to make it harder and move on. I was able to do the same with the weight assisted dip. Progress baby!

Anyway, did 45 minutes of weights, 30 minutes on the crossramp elliptical (and had more energy - woohoo!), and 25 minutes of walking on the treadmill. FitDay says 315 calories and boy am I bushed!

Shake it, move it, work it! Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels!

Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast:
8 oz. black coffee
1 cup Crystal Light
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto high-protein chocolate pudding mix
1 large breakfast sausage

Lunch:
SlimFast low-carb shake

Snack:
3 slices turkey lunchmeat
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter

Dinner:
12 oz. Green and Crisp salad with
1/2 a tomato and
1/2 a cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

Total calories: 1340
Net carbs: 39g (12%)
Fat: 65g (46%)
Protein: 95g (30%)

I'm trying a bit of calorie cycling again to keep my body guessing, so today's menu calls for about 1500 calories.

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Day 27

Weight: 148
Calories eaten yesterday: 1355
Calories burned: 2105
Calorie deficit/overage: -750
Carbs: 46g (14% of calories)
Fat: 62g (43% of calories)
Calories burned in exercise: 301

Tomorrow of course is the weekly weigh-in. After three weeks of no loss even though I've been working my butt off, I don't expect good news. I was 148 this morning - a gain. My body wants to be fat. My jeans are tight. My stomach sticks out. I hate what I look like.

Made it through day one of low-carb, low-calorie. But Sundays are easy because I eat so much Saturday. Today and the rest of the week will be the challenge.

In case you can't make sense of the posted menu link, here's the breakdown by meal.

Breakfast yesterday:
8 oz. black coffee with sugar free Hazelnut syrup
1.5 oz. (powdered) Keto high-protein vanilla pudding mix

Post workout snack:
Atkins shake

Lunch:
SlimFast low-carb shake

Dinner:
1 hard boiled egg
3 stalks of celery with
2 tablespoons sugar-free peanut butter
3 slices of turkey lunchmeat
12 oz. Green and Crisp salad with
1 tomato and
1/2 a cucumber and
1/3 cup low-carb, low-calorie dressing

Bedtime snack:
1 glass White Merlot wine
1 cup sugar free Jello

Total calories: 1355
Net carbs: 46g (14%)
Fat: 62g (43%)
Protein: 99g (31%)

Ran into the City today. Got my mail and closed my CD at one bank. I got a cashier's check and will send it to my IRA at my other bank.

My cafe press shirts from Atkins All the Way came. One is a tank top that says, "Atkins isn't a diet, it's a...Way of Life. Improve yours!" The other is a long sleeved shirt (winter is coming soon) that lists the top 25 reasons to lose weight (in really tiny print). I'll type up the 25 reasons and post them at some point, but they go beyond the purview of this post.

So far I have over 200,000 steps in my million step challenge. This is just since August 22. :)

No gym today due to the city run. I walked the last 1.5 miles to work even though the bus was parked right at the stop when I came out of the train station. I just reminded myself that I needed to rack up steps, so I crossed the street and headed toward work. The bus passed me soon after. Tomorrow I hope to go to the gym and do some serious weight training. Yeah baby!

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Horror & Healing

Today is the 5th anniversary of 9-11. If you are like me, you know exactly where you were when you heard the news. (I was in bed listening to the radio.) Where were you? Leave a comment.

9-11 split history down the middle - before and after. The '89 earthquake didn't do that. Five years later and I barely noticed that anniversary. But this was different. This was so completely foreign to my experiences. When I was a child and terrorists took over planes, they had the pilots land, and they would negotiate for the lives of the people on board. Sometimes a few died; sometimes all survived. But no terrorist took flying lessons to fly the planes into buildings, purposely killing themselves and all on board. It's indeed a new era we live in, and we've all settled into the "new normal." Now, everytime I see a plane in the sky I say a quick prayer of protection for America and her allies.

I want to share with you a political cartoon from the San Diego Union Tribune shortly after 9-11. Someone e-mailed this to me and I uploaded it to my Web space.

preparation.gif

Let's purpose to never forget the lives lost. Never before. Never again.



God bless you, my beloved country. I am proud to be an American!

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Sunday, Day 26

Calories eaten Friday: 1980
Calories burned: 2135
Calorie deficit/overage: -155
Carbs: 45g
Fat: 94g
Calories burned in exercise: 274

You know, life sucks. I sit here thinking that I've been gaining weight steadily since my February body fat test. I've gained muscle, yes, but also fat, and my clothes are getting tighter. I must do something. My body is trying very hard to gain weight and seems to store everything I eat as fat. No amount of exercise burns anything. My body is an enemy instead of an associate to work with. It hates me. It desires to be fat; it is desperate to be fat.

Today I'll have my high-protein normal breakfast and my protein shake after my workout (I need these to keep my muscle mass). I'm substituting a low-carb SlimFast shake for lunch and leaving my regular lunch at home. I must lose weight and 1900 calories a day with exercise is not cutting it. So, for one week (excluding Friday - I have a BBQ to go to) I'll eat low-calorie and see if that helps. I don't like going hungry, but I really don't think anything other than low-carb, low-calorie can help. So, here goes nothing!

SlimFast is really pushing its Optima diet right now, but those shakes have 18g of sugar! Eek! Who would put that into their bodies? Speaking of sugar, the low-carb bars they sell have tons of sugar alcohols! Way to stall weight loss there! Yike.

Friday is the BBQ with Brad, Lisa, and Davina so no way to count calories that day. I will stick with low-carb foods, however. I told Brad I'll make brownies. I have several packages of Atkins brownie mix, and I'll use coconut oil instead of butter. I bought $150 worth of low-carb food from Netrition.com on Saturday, including some Eat Well, Be Well chocolate chips. I doubt they will be here in time, but if they are I will throw some of those in as well.

I also bought a bunch more of Baja Bob's pina colada mix, some more donut mix (they are a nice treat from time to time), and a bunch of Atkins shakes - they have good prices on them! Oh...and more coconut oil. I didn't buy any chocolate bars since I still have tons left from my last order. I just haven't had the need for them.

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A smile for today...

Found at Smaller Susie's blog. Thought it was too funny not to share. :)

Situational Awareness Senario

You are driving in a car at a constant speed. On your left side is a valley, and on your right side is a fire engine traveling at the same speed as you. In front of you is a galloping pig which is the same size as your car and you cannot overtake it. Behind you is a helicopter flying at ground level. Both the giant pig and the helicopter are also traveling at the same speed as you.

What must you do to safely get out of this highly dangerous situation?



Answer:
Get off the children’s "Merry-Go-Round"; you’re drunk.

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Dentist Day

Weight: 145.4
Calories eaten yesterday: 1870
Calories burned: 2170
Calorie deficit/overage: -300
Carbs: 61g
Fat: 79g
Calories burned in exercise: 331

I've had a couple (alcoholic) drinks, so I'm ready to write this now.

I was down to 145.4 this morning. Let's see if I can hold that weight for Tuesday's weigh-in.

First today I went to the gym. Because I did weight training yesterday for 45 minutes I only spent 10 minutes on it today, then did an hour of cardio. FitDay says 274 calories.

Then I went to the dentist. They took x-rays and told me that 10 years away from the dentist has been very bad for me. I had only four cavities, but massive bone loss and may need surgery! Eek!

Anyway, for now I will get a regular cleaning (set for 4 pm next Friday), and after that I'll do the root planing, which they call "deep cleaning." After that I haven't decided. The cavities are, of course, last priority as long as they are not bothering me.

I don't want to do any of this, but if I claim to be interested in health, then oral health has to factor in somewhere. Pray for me. Getting me well will be quite painful. *sigh*

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Body fat test

Weight: 146.8
Calories eaten yesterday: 1719
Calories burned: 1968
Calorie deficit/overage: -249
Carbs: 56g
Fat: 81g
Calories burned in exercise: 93

Had my body fat test today. I'm a little worse than in February but better than in May (which was a fluke - I was holding onto a lot of water weight at the time). Official body fat percentage - 22.85%, so basically 23%. Some of the caliper measurements were higher than in February; some were lower. So things are moving around a bit. My fat mass is 33.76 pounds, and lean mass is 113.98 pounds. All my measurements were higher except for around my breasts; that was down a teeny bit. Ideally, I'd like 21% body fat. That would be my dream goal. The tests have shown my overall weight creeping up (144.5--146--148) . Must reverse that trend.

After the test I did 45 minutes of weights and a half hour of cardio. Then I had to leave for work, but when I got to the Coliseum BART station I had enough time to walk the rest of the way to work, so I did. FitDay says 331 calories. The walk from BART helped up my total steps so that I had over 10,000 by the time I got to work. My goal is 10,000 steps per day, but I don't always make it. However, I'll feel just as good if I can keep my average over 10,000, with the high step days balancing out the low step ones.

I did 8 reps on the first set of dumbbell curls today! That's the highest number of reps yet. Set 2 and 3 were 7 and 6 reps, respectively. I use a 20 pound dumbbell.

I'd like to be able to do men's push ups. I was inspired by my women's muscle and fitness magazine, which had an article on it in the last issue. I can do girl's push ups pretty well, but the male ones elude me. This is definitely something I'll be working on. :) I will do this!

Here's my FitDay graph showing calories eaten (in orange) and burned (in purple) for the past week. As you see, I should be losing.


Click to enlarge.
My dental appointment is tomorrow (4 pm). Pray for me.

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All about Atkins

I want to touch on what Atkins is about today, but first, my personal daily stats:

Weight: 146.8
Calories eaten yesterday: 1833
Calories burned: 2145
Calorie deficit/overage: -312
Carbs: 61g
Fat: 84g
Calories burned in exercise: 294

The magnesium does seem to work against PMS. I had no idea it was "that time of the month." Not that I get PMS very bad - I don't - but I often get cravings or something. This month - nothing. So magnesium works. Too bad it doesn't help the cramps at all.

Ok, now onto Atkins. I received the following comment on the Vegan Insanity post:

I've been reading a few blogs on the Atkins diet because I am thinking about getting on it, is the basis of the diet meat and vegetables,or just meat, someone told me vegetables are also an important part of the diet, is this true? If so how much vegetables does Atkins say to eat each day? Thanks.

First, let me say that if you are thinking of doing Atkins, get the book. Amazon even has cheap used copies. It's about $7 at any bookstore and is necessary for doing the program right.

Atkins is not just about meat and cheese. Vegetables have been and always will be the cornerstone of the program. A typical lunch for me is meat and some sort of hot vegetable. Dinner always includes a huge salad.

The first two weeks are called "Induction" and meant to break your cravings for sugar and starches. It really is like detoxing from drugs (grains are a drug - activating the pleasure center in our brains). During this time you should be getting 20g of net carbs per day (total carbs minus fiber), with 10-15 of those carbohydrate grams coming from vegetables and low-sugar fruits such as avocado, cucumber, and tomato (all three of these are fruits). The book says to eat three cups of vegetables a day, but the newest guidelines are 10-15g of carbs a day from veggies, which is usually way more than three cups.

After the first two weeks you increase your daily carb allotment by 5 carbs per week until you stop losing weight, then drop back to the previous level to continue to lose. There is also a specific protocol for the order in which foods are added. Most people don't count calories, but some of us (including me) find we have to.

The Atkins Web site is a wealth of information on how to do the program. They have information on each specific phase.

Phase 1 - Induction
Phase 2 - Ongoing Weight Loss
Phase 3 - Pre-Maintenance
Phase 4 - Lifetime Maintenance

And of course, don't forget the Induction food list.

These links will give you a pretty good overview of the plan, but you still need the book if you want to do the plan.

For some online videos on doing Atkins check out this link on You Tube. This guy has several videos on Atkins. Just look on the right hand side.

I eat a LOT more vegetables now than I ever did before, and am "regular" for the first time in my life.

How many vegetables do I eat? Currently around a pound and a half to two pounds most days. I simply love them, and most are low in calories and carbs. Here's a (slightly blurry) picture I took with my cell phone camera of my groceries today. Click to enlarge and see the notes on what each item is and what else was in my cart that didn't fit in the picture.


Viva la Atkins!

And don't forget exercise. It's non-negotiable on Atkins. I go to the gym every chance I get and look forward to my gym days. I do strength training and cardio and it seems to be working. (Click to enlarge the picture.)


Walked over 13,000 steps yesterday. Yahoo! That's 5.75 miles.


Click to enlarge.
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