Monday Check-in and Sugar Free Chocolate.

Mondays are my weigh-in day.  The other day I was at 49 lbs lost and so I thought that I would be able to be beyond the 50lb mark by today.  Unfortunately no, in fact I gained a pound and am currently at 48 lbs lost.  We all know weight fluctuates day by day so I am not upset by this.  But a little disappointed. I was hoping this would be a celebration blog.  50lbs being quite a milestone and all.



I am still very happy with this loss and know that it will turn around any day. 

I also know why I only lost 2 lbs this week.   Sugar free chocolate.  

Many companies now make sugar free chocolate.   I have seen or tried Reses Cups, York Peppermint Patties, Hershery bars and then Russell Stovers makes about 10 different types, everything from Carmel Pecan to Truffles.

These sweet treats are are made with sugar alcohols like Malitol or Soribitol or with Sucralose. 

Lets talk sugar alcohols for a minute.   Most of them are naturally occurring in fruits, vegetables or even in wood. 

They are carbohydrates but they are harder for the intestine to digest so they don't spike blood sugar levels.  This makes them ideal for diabetics and also can be useful for low carb diets.

Because of the way these are absorbed, many low carb resources say to deduct the content of sugar alcohol from the carb total. For example lets say the item says it has 22 grams of carbs and has 21 grams of sugar alcohol.  You can deduct the 21 from the 22 and treat it as1 net carb.

This works for some.   Apparently it doesn't work for me.  I had some sugar free chocolate for the past 2 days and today the scale is up.


I also find that when I allow myself these treats, I crave more treats. I have a hard time eating just one or two. I also seem to eat more of everything else.

I had suspected it was causing my prior plateaus so I had given them up a few weeks ago and that is when the scale started to move again in the right direction.  

So, as of today, no more of these treats for a while.  I am going to get back into a state where I am losing every day and then just to be scientific about it. I am going to eat some of these and see if again I go up or plateau then I will know for sure and give away the rest of the chocolates that I have to a diabetic friend.

Have a fantastic day!

Ketosis

First, a disclaimer; I haven't been home all day so I doing this for the first time from my iphone. Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors.

I mentioned ketosis in a prior post and some people asked me what it was so I thought I would write about it today.

Ketosis is the wonderful thing that low carbers seek.

Our bodies are designed to burn fuel. Most of the fuel we burn comes in the form of carbs we eat.

When you stop consuming enough carbohydrates to fuel your body, your body still needs fuel so it looks for fuel elsewhere and starts to burn from stored fat.

This is ketosis.

A remarkable thing happens when you are in this state, for some reason you stop being hungry so you eat less. So, you consume less and burn from what you have in storage.

Benefits of Cheating

Okay so I know this will be a controversial post but today I want to talk about the benefits of cheating on a diet.

I firmly believe part of my success has been that once a month I cheat. 

I also believe that it is important to actually call it cheating.   Let me explain.

The mental benefits of cheating:
When you are on any lifestyle program like low carb and you are told you can NEVER have something... this sends a negative message to your brain.

If you are anything like me and hate rules and love to rebel, this is not a good thing.

If I am told I can not have something I end up wanting it even more.   My cravings for it increase to the point where eventually I cave and eat that item and a ton of it. I can't stop at one taste, I really go overboard. 

But, for me, if I know that one day a month I am allowed a day where I can eat anything I want.  It is a day I can look forward to.   I can look at that pasta dish or that sourdough bread (my two weaknesses), and instead of caving into the desire, I begin to plan my menu for my cheat day.


The Physical benefits of cheating:
A friend of mine told me she was on a plan where one day a month she could eat whatever she wanted. She was convinced it actually helped jump-start her metabolism each month.

I have played a little with this and am coming to the same conclusion.

It seems to kick the weight loss engine back into gear.

For example, in early August, my scale hadn't moved in almost 4 weeks.

I was on a plateau.

This is of course discouraging and can make a person give up.

My husband and I go on vacation every year for our anniversary and I decided to use that time on vacation to be my cheat time.

This time I cheated (or ate my old way) the whole time I was on vacation.  I had ice cream. I had pasta, I had potatoes etc.  My friends and I joke that not only did I fall off the wagon, I fell off, was ran over by the wagon, and then reached up and grabed the wagon and ran it back over myself again and again.

I came home from vacation and was up 4 lbs. This is no surprise with the way I had been eating.   I didn't allow myself to get discouraged.  Instead I just went back on plan.

I went back on the program on 8/17 and today 8/29 not only have I lost that 4 lbs but also broke through that plateau and have lost 9 more lbs beyond that.


I of course am not a doctor and have no way to know physically if this is possible but she had great success with this and every time I have done it, it seems to work for me too.  


The word cheat itself.
I also believe that for me the word "cheating" is a good thing.  At least for the way my brain works.  If I told myself it was part of my program to have a day off or a day of rest then it is just part of the program and I don't feel like I am getting away with anything.  Some people may need to do this so guilt doesn't get the better of them.  For me, I need to use the word cheat.   When I call it cheating, for me it is a guilty pleasure and allows my rebel side to be happy. 

Dangers / Downsides:

• Be sure it is one day and it doesn't cause you to go off the plan all together.  
• You can go so far overboard on that day that  you gain back all that you have lost. 
  
• For those of  you following Atkins, you will fall out of ketosis and have to go back on induction for a bit to get back into ketosis.
  

Quick Note

sorry I didn't have time to blog today.   Just a quick note to say I am out here. 

My official weight in day is Monday but I weighed myself today and saw I was down more.  I am now 1 lb away from 50 lbs total lost.   yippee.   There is nothing like seeing the scale consistently go down.

Tomorrow  I will be writing on the benefit of cheating.

Some Recipies

I promised I would share some of my favorite recipes. I will continue to post these from time to time. For today's post I will just share one recipe per meal. I have gathered these from various cookbooks, websites and other blogs.

Starting with the most important meal, dessert!

Dessert:
Gelatin and Whip Cream
Most commercially prepared gelatin products are sweetened with sugar or aspartame so you have to be a little creative. I make my own using a recipe I found on low carb friends

3 packages unsweetened gelatin (like knox)
1 or 2 pkgs Kool aid
4 cups water
1 cup splenda

boil 2 cups of the water
Combine the other 2 cups with the kool aid and Splenda.
sprinkle gelatin over top and allow to bloom
stir this mixture and then add in boiling water and mix until gelatin is fully dissolved.
Add in sweetener
Pour into containers and put into fridge to set

While gelatin is setting mix up some Heavy Whipping Cream with some splenda to taste. I use about 1 package for every 1/2 cup of cream.

You can either stir this into the unset gelatin to make fluffy gelatin or you can wait and let the gelatin set all the way and then cut into pieces and stir in some of the cream.

I often mix up enough cream for a few days worth and then just add a few tablespoons per about a cup of gelatin.

Carb breakdown:
The gelatin has 24 grams carbs (from the splenda)
The whipped topping has 3.3 grams carbs per cub and .9 carbs for each package of splenda.

This amount of desert makes enough for about 12 servings so the breakdown would be
24 from splenda in gelatin
3.3 from cream
1.8 from 2 packages splenda per cup whipped topping
---
29.1 total / 12 servings for 2.45 carbs each.


Breakfast:
My favorite breakfast so far has to be Ricotta Pancakes. This may sound really weird but believe me they are very delicious. My dear husband is not on the program with me but he even loves these.

You will find this listed on many low carb websites, cookbooks etc so I don't know where this originally came from. I don't even know where I originally got it from.

2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 splash vanilla
1 dash cinnamon
1 package xylitol, stevia or splenda

Mix making sure to get it all blended really well and then cook in pan on stove just like you would a pancake.

It is thinner than a traditional pancake, sort of like a cross between a crepe and a pancake but there is no flour in it at all. And the cinnamon and vanilla make it a really sweet treat.

Carb Analysis:;
I posted this on RecipeZaar (http://www.recipezaar.com/ricotta-cheese-pancakes-387597) so that they could help calculate the carb count for me.
They came back with 1.5 carbs per serving and 2 total servings for this recipe.  That is about right when you consider that an egg has 1.5 carbs, splenda has .9 so the rest is from the 2T of ricotta. 


Lunch
I usually cook something for dinner and the leftovers becomes my lunch. I don't really think of a segregation between the two meals.

I often prepare this on the weekend and then have this during the week several days for lunch.

Easy Grilled Chicken
This is from Sugar Free Sheila http://sugarfreesheila.com/ which is a FANTASTIC resource for low carb or sugar free recipes and other resources.
1 bag of boneless chicken breasts
Poor in 2 bottles of low carb beer*
Marinate for 2 days
Season to taste**
Bake in oven 350 for 1 hour.

You will have a whole bunch of fantastic chicken that you can eat for dinner or lunch for the next week or so.

*I use Michelob Ultra but this website has carb counts: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art14302.asp)

**I usually do every breast different. Last night I did 2 with Greek seasoning, one smokey paprika, two with chicken rub, one cayenne, one jerk, you get the idea.

Carb Breakdown:
5.2 Carbs total (from the beer) so < 1 carb per serving.  

Dinner:

This is an old family recipe that was off limits for most other diets I have been on. I was surprised and delighted to find it was allowed. Now it isn't smart to eat this type of meats (pastrami, bacon etc) often due to other health issues but this is okay every few months.

I call this Stuffed Chicken from Heaven.

Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 (11 1/2 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup (or chicken, broccoli, etc any cream soup will work)
1/4 lb pastrami (from deli works best but packaged is okay in a pinch)
1/4 lb corned beef (from deli works best but packaged is okay in a pinch)
16 ounces mozzarella cheese
12 ounces turkey bacon (you can use real bacon if you prefer but it will make the saucing greasier and not as thick)

Directions
Coat 9 1/2 x 13 baking pan (glass is best) with cooking spray.
Measure out 4 slices of pastrami and 4 slices of corned beef. Cut each of these in half (for new total of 8 slices) and set aside.
Line bottom of baking pan with remaining sliced meat.
Mix sour cream and soup together.
Slice cheese in about 1/4 inch slices. (Note, string cheese also works and saves on having to cut cheese).
Place chicken on cutting board and put plastic wrap over top and then pound chicken flat. (Note; If you don't have a mallet, you can use a heavy pan.).
Cut each pounded chicken breasts into 2 pieces.

Assembly:
1 piece of chicken.
top with 1 piece of cut pastrami.
top with 1 piece of cut corned beef.
top with mozzarella cheese piece.
Roll into a tight ball.
Wrap each chicken roll with a slice of bacon and secure closed with a toothpick.
Place rolls in baking dish on top of leftover deli meats.
Repeat for remaining 7 pieces of chicken.
Top with sour cream/soup mixture.
Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.

This has 6 carbs per serving but can be made lower if you don't use the soup.

I hope you enjoyed these recipes.  From time to time I will post more of the ones I have enjoyed.

Weight Loss Surgery Myth and Fact

There are a lot of misconceptions about Weight Loss surgery (WLS). While I am sure this is by no means an all inclusive list, this is a start of some of the ones I hear most often.

Myth: WLS is an easy way out.
Truth: Some patients say it is the toughest thing they have ever done. I am not talking about the decision or pre-work or even surgery itself but the rest of your life. Surgery is not a magic bullet. You have to change your entire life once you have surgery or you at best get really sick and at worst die.

Another myth came from a dear friend in response to an earlier blog. She gave me permission to quote her.

Her quote: "On my worst days, I've considered surgery and then I get to thinking, I know how to diet and exercise and can quote chapter and verse on the whys and wherefores of it. It's the behavior patterns I can't control and the
surgery sure isn't going to help that, so I talk myself out of it."

Myth: I know how to do it and can do it by myself
Truth: I hate to be the bearer of bad news but statistically once someone is obese only 4-5% of people are able to loose weight and keep it off without surgical intervention. It isn't a will power issue, or a behavior issue or a knowledge issue, it is a physical metabolic issue.

Myth: WLS won't control behavior patterns.
Truth: Actually surgery forces you to change you behavior patterns. For example with Lap Band, many people can not tolerate dairy, can not tolerate pasta, breads etc. You are pretty much forced into a low carb lifestyle. When you cheat and go off of this you can get so violently ill that according to those who have experienced it, you will only do it once it is so painful. You are also forced to change your pattern of eating. No snacking in between meals. No inhaling your food, you have to eat about a teaspoon at a time, let it digest and then the next teaspoon. These are all forced behavior modifications etc.

Myth: WLS just gives you a smaller stomach so you can't eat as much.
Truth: This is a true statement except the just part. WLS forces you to only eat about 4 ounces total per meal but it also greatly reduces cravings. Most people who have had lap band say that they just don't even have the desire to eat.

Myth: After WLS you can eat anything you want and never gain weigh.
Truth: In fact WLS is just a tool. You are forced to eat less and smaller portions and slower but if you consume nothing but chocolate for your diet you will not loose or if you loose, you can gain it all back. You must still follow a diet for the rest of your life. WLS is just a tool to force the habits.

My friend also had this quote that is worth addressing: " I agree with you about the fact that the ulterior motive just might be that you'll find out what to do and not need the surgery."

This was from my prior blog where I spoke about how you have to loose weight before surgery and I explained the reasons why. I stated that I thought it was also to see if you could stick to a program. I didn't mean to indicate that they were hoping you would decide not to have surgery. In fact when my Dr told me I need to loose 10% my statement to him was that if I could loose that much I wouldn't need him. He laughed and said that I did need him because without the surgery I would gain it all back. He was just stating statistics (again 96% are unable to keep weight off without surgery). Plus let's face it, he doesn't get paid if I don't do the surgery, why would he talk me out of it?

What I was trying to say is that because of some of the stuff I outlined above about the rigid post surgery lifestyle they want to see how serious you are and if you have the dedication to do it. They want us to succeed and if we couldn't handle a simple diet how can we handle something for the rest of our lives?

Again, these are only a few of the myths. Hopefully this helped people understand.

I am not sure if I will have weight loss surgery or not but I am marching down that path and doing all of the necessary pre-work for it so I am ready to make that decision when time comes and not have to do additional work.

Our Enemy - Aspartame

I have to share one of the biggest secrets I have learned on this journey.

Avoid LIKE THE PLAGUE Aspartame if you want to loose weight!

Aspartame is a sugar substitute commonly called NutraSweet or Equal and it is in 90% of the diet foods in the world. It is especially found in just about every diet soda on the market. It is also in diet gum etc.

Why did I put it on my enemy list?

Is it because it is an artificial sweetener?
No: While I personally try to eat organic, whole foods and avoid chemicals, that is not my primary reason. That is something that has to be a personal choice.

Is it because eating sweets makes you crave more sweets and not kick that habit?
No: That is partially true and another reason to avoid it but not the prime reason.

Is it because Aspartame causes headaches, cancer, MS etc?
No: Many claim those things but there has not been any conclusive evidence one way or the other. I am not saying I am an advocate for chemicals in our food and I do believe they may be harmful, but that wasn't my motive for adding this to my worst food to eat list.

Well, then why?

Because it makes you not able to lose weight.

Yes, you heard me right. You stay fat if you are consuming this.

Ever notice how many people who drink a lot of diet soda are still very overweight? This is no coincidence.

Okay, so here are the facts and what I found from experience.

As I stated earlier, I am following the Low Carb lifestyle. Dr. Atkins in his original book was a huge fan of this chemical as a way to allow people to still satisfy their sweet tooth but no or low carb/calorie. The revised book however said not to use it because people for some reason don't loose weight when they eat this.

When I first read this, I was skeptical, I thought that it was propaganda by the "granola's" who are against all things artificial and I decided to ignore this advice. I bought diet pop, diet gum etc. I was drinking a ton of a popular diet beverage that you add to water (the brand with the commercial that says women who drink thier beverage drink 20% more water). I thought this was good because it is true, I was drinking more water. But, I was being really good on the low carb plan following it to the letter and the scale wasn't moving at all.

I started to do the research and found some articles online that seemed to agree with the statement that it makes it hard to shed pounds.One article stated that it slows down metabolism. Another doctor found it stimulates appetite. Another article I found pointed to the way it was broken down by the body and how the body actually stores it as fat instead of flushing it out. So, let's summarize, you want to eat more, your metabolism slows and it stores fat. And this is diet food?

If you are anything like me, you read this stuff and get confused. Everyone has an opinion and they contradict each other. Some say it is poison, some say it is nectar of the Gods. Who do you believe.

Well, for me, I have to pretty much prove something out myself. I should have been born in Missouri (the show me state).

So, what did I do. I stopped all aspartame cold turkey to see what would happen. well, guess what? I woke up 2 days later and was down 16 lbs.

Yes, 16 lbs overnight!

I didn't believe my eyes. In fact I didn't believe the scale. I went to the gym and weighed in there too. And it was real.

As I said, I had been following the plan to the letter and should have been loosing but nothing. I was about to give up on that diet and try another one.

The aspartame was causing my body to hold on to the weight. When I got that stuff out of my system, whooshh out it all went.

From some reading I have done, not everyone has this with aspartame, but more do than don't.

The good news is because of some individuals who are seriously allergic to this product, all items with this product are regulated to have a warning on them so it makes avoiding this stuff pretty simple. Look at labels when buying stuff, if you see a warning at the bottom that says "Phenylketonurics - contains phenylalanine?" that is your hint to toss the product out. You don't even have to read all of the ingredients. This warning will jump out, it is often even in bold making it easy to spot.

Do you have to give up diet pop and gum?
No, not at all, there are many alternatives that don't have this effect.

In Grocery stores buy Diet Rite or Hansen's diet soda, they are both sweetened with sucralose (Splenda)



Better yet, check your local health food store and there are diet sodas sweetened with Stevia or Xylitol, these both are natural sweeteners and actually have health benefits. You can also find great variety of gum at local health food stores that are sweetened with xylitol.

If you like Crystal Light and need a substitute for that, there are many options made with sucralose. Here are some photos of some of the ones I love. These are not carb free, they have about 3 carbs per package on average. I usually don't use a whole package at once. I find that too strong. Propel for example is my favorite and I get about 3-4 bottles of water out of one package.

Where I am today.

As I stated in my introductory post, I have been trying to loose weight most of my life.

My highest weight was 402 lbs. Ironically this occurred after I started my pre-work toward Lap Band surgery.

One of my requirements for surgery preparation was to loose 10% of my weight. I weighed 385 so that would mean I would need to loose 38 lbs.

The reason they require you to loose weight is two fold:

• First, they need the extra room in your stomach cavity so weight loss gives them the room to do the surgery that weight loss would provide them.

• The other reason is to shrink the liver. The stomach sits under the liver and the fatter the liver is, the harder it is to see the stomach and the more difficult it is for them to do the surgery.

I think there is also a hidden agenda of them also seeing how willing you are to stick to a diet and how motivated you are. The bariatrician (weight loss doctor) doesn't give you this reason. Just my opinion.

Anyway, my insurance also had a requirement for me to do six months of a nationally recognized weight loss program under the care of my doctor. I chose Weight Watchers because I have had moderate levels of success with that in the past. However, because I weighed so much my daily points were set to 42. For those of you not familiar with how weight watchers works, every food has a point value and so this means I would need to eat 42 points worth of food. This is a TON of food, I felt like I was eating non stop and was forcing myself to make unhealthy choices (ice cream etc) to get to the 42 points. in just 3 weeks I ballooned up almost 20 lbs to my high of 402 because of this. Weight Watchers does provide healthy eating guidelines, but these are easy to ignore and there are no foods off limits so if your whole 42 points are in ice cream, you will gain weight.


I was frustrated and went back to my bariatrician and explained what was happening and he suggested a low carb diet.

Believe me, I know what you are thinking: "here we go again, didn't we already prove that Atkins didn't work?"

The reason I know what you are thinking is that is what I thought. In fact I had a frank discussion with my doctor about this. He said to just trust him, after all he is a weight loss expert and to try it again.

Well, I am here to tell you, he was right. I have been low carb for months and almost every day the scale moves. In doing research I found there is a right way and a wrong way to do this type of weight loss plan and I had done it the wrong way before like many others. Look forward to future posts about the low carb lifestyle including tips, tricks and recipes.

I am still following weight watchers to a degree too. I just am not eating all of my points and the points I am eating are low carb. I am mainly doing weight watchers simply because it is required for insurance for the surgery.

As of this morning I weighed 356 so that is 46 lbs from my highest weight.

Today, I am unsure about the surgery. My honest fear is that if I don't do it, I will end up gaining it all back again. We have all been there haven't we? Lost a ton and gained back 2 tons. I see the surgery as my mistake proofing device to keep the weight off.


By the way, today I had quiche for breakfast, I plan on having a Chicken Caesar salad for lunch and a homemade Greek seasoned lamb hamburger smothered in cheese for dinner.


Have a great day and God Bless you.

Karr

Hello World

Hello world,

This is a blog about my journey to half of my current size and then some. That is why I titled it journey to Half Self.

I have been on a weight loss journey for over 20 years. I, like many others, have tried every diet, every pill, every club etc I
finally decided last year to have weight loss surgery and started down that path.

Part of the requirements by the doctors and insurance is to loose weight before surgery। I know ironic that people who can't loose weight are asked to loose weight
(I will post more on the reasoning for that in a future blog)

An amazing thing happened on my journey toward surgery, I found a regimen that actually works for me! As of this morning I am down 46 lbs. I still have many to go, but an exciting start.  
As of today I honestly am still marching toward surgery but am starting to
wonder if it will be necessary.   No decision yet.

However, I decided to blog about my journey.  This is
a way for me to be accountable but also hopefully help others. 

This will be a candid blog. I will be honest about my
weight, my thoughts, my feelings, my tips, my findings, my recipes etc.

Hopefully together we can become healthy.

God bless

Karr