Just checking in

Sorry I haven't had much time to write lately.

Other commitments have occupied my time.

I am here, I am doing well. I will write more soon.

Atkins Rumor Mill

It never ceases to amaze me how often I hear rumors about how bad for you Atkins is.

Or hear horror stories about people who 'tried' it and had worse health.

In every single case they have been because of people thinking they knew what Low Carb / Atkins was but not researching the actual program. Not reading the Atkins book and really following it.

They follow what they think the plan is based on what they hear from their friends.

Regardless what you have heard:

Atkins is not a license to eat a pound of bacon a day (in fact it should be avoided)

Atkins is not a high fat diet (it is a low carb diet)

It is not a meat only diet. You are supposed to eat 2-3 cups of vegetables per day in balance with lean meats like chicken, turkey, fish etc.

Atkins is not bad for your cholesterol (in fact it is fantastic for it)

Atkins is not hard on your gall bladder, liver, kidneys etc.

Just this week I heard of two cases of people whose cholesterol sky rocketed when doing Atkins which is near impossible if done properly and another person having gall bladder issues.

The gall bladder person told me she was eating a pepperoni and that caused it.

Atkins in his books warns about high fat foods, and all meats with nitrates are supposed to be highly limited (pepperoni, hot dogs, bacon, many lunch meats etc)

I find people latch on to the concept that you can eat red meat and take it to the extreme.

The reason that steak is allowed is it is actually lower in fat and calories than some chicken dishes but it isn't supposed to be your main food source.

You need a well balanced diet even on Atkins.

It also is not just cutting down on some carbs and eating more protein.

Also, If you cut some carbs but don't get into ketosis then your body is not burning from it's own stores so you are not doing any good and might as well had the potato.

All you are doing is adding calories and fat into your diet without providing a mechanism for removal so that can cause worse health.

You need all things working together to make the furnace burn. You must be in ketosis for the health benefits to be there.

So, if you plan on trying Atkins, again please buy and READ the book. Don't count on a friend or even this blog for your guide.

You need to know what the program is really about and commit to the program not someone's interpretation of the program.

By the way, my cholesterol is only borderline high at 203 and didn't change since starting Atkins but my triglycerides dropped from 292 to 191 and my Doctor is so happy that she is expecting to be able to take me off meds soon.

Search for low carb recipes

I have been experimenting with some low carb recipes lately and not having much success.

I have tried low carb waffles which looked fantastic and were pretty good but not perfect.  The ones that I cooked to a golden brown were soft and almost soggy textured, the ones I cooked to the crisper side to give a crunch like waffles should have were almost burnt. It may just take practice.

I have tried 2 "cookie" recipes and they are okay but for me, I just can't get over the texture of almond flour/meal.

the only recipe that I do love is the ricotta pancakes that I posted before.   (http://journeytohalfself.blogspot.com/2009/08/some-recipies.html)

I have not yet tried flax seed meal flour.  I will try that next and see if I can handle that flavor.

If I find anything good enough to share I will post it here.

Photo and Cooking for Others

First I wanted to share a new photo of me in my favorite pants that my husband took this week.

It is so awesome to be shrinking so much.

Second, I have been asked how to cook for the family when eating the low carb way.

Actually it is really easy, all you do is skip the side dishes.

For example when I make meat and potatos for my husband, I just skip the taters.

Or if I make chicken and pasta, again - just eat the chicken and skip the pasta.

I usually have a salad instead


-- Posted from my iPhone

Fun day at the "shrink" - part 2

As I mentioned in yesterday's posting. I had to have a Psychological Evaluation yesterday in preparation for LAP Band surgery.

Today I wanted to write a little bit about the actual appointment and testing to help others who may be considering surgery to understand the process.

It was quite painless.

I am sure every Doctor is different, but my evaluation was in two parts.  First a basic interview with the Doctor and then some tests.

The interview part was just some basic family history questions. (how many siblings, birth order, parents get along etc)

He didn't get into weird stuff like you see in the movies like how old I was when I was potty trained. LOL.

It was basic conversation to ensure I was sane.

He asked what was the date, year, season etc.

We also discussed the surgery so he could determine how prepared I was for the undertaking.

Keep in mind the main reason for this evaluation is to determine if the person seeking treatment is able to follow through with the treatment. It is a major life change and people need to be able to handle it.

Anyway, the only tests he personally administered were he asked me to remember three words and then a few minutes later he asked for them to be recited back.

He also asked me to spell 'world' forward and backward. Backward was a little trickier that I expected.

I also had to replicate a few shapes from a piece of paper onto a blank page.

And that was the extent of the interview part.

Next I had to take 3 quizzes.

The first one (MMPI-2) was over 500 questions but thankfully he had me do the just first 370 questions. That was a bit tedious and some of the questions were pretty extreme but it looks for overall mental health with questions that will determine depression, anxiety as well as more major illness.
	The 2nd test was  was (MBMD) This was only about 150 questions and was very similar to the first test.
The last test was an eating inventory and it looked for eating patterns. It had questions about emotional eating or depression eating. It was only about 30 questions.

This whole process took less than 2 hours.

If you have been avoiding surgery because of fear of this, don't be afraid

It was less of a hassle than the colonoscopy that I also had to do for this
surgery.

Fun day at the "shrink" - part 1

One of the many things I need to do for my insurance* was to undergo a complete Psychological evaluation.

Tonight I am going to write about some more facts about weight loss that I learned today from this psychologist .

Tomorrow I am going to write about the evaluation itself to help people understand that and hopefully alleviate any fears about it. : -)

The doctor said that Psychology has been interested in weight management issues forever.

There have been countless studies about behavior patterns.

He told me that there is now over 30 years of studies about weight.

They have done studies where they provide very strict diet and exercise programs or ones where people follow popular plans (like Atkins or Weight Watchers) and everything in-between.

These studies show that people can loose the weight but statistically speaking (over 30 years of research), regardless of method of weight loss. Only 2% keep it off.

Yes, you read that right. Only two percent!

My Bariatric surgeon had said it was less than 4% which was bad enough.

To hear it is even lower than that is just amazing.

He said there are many reasons for this;  hereditary reasons, will power reasons. set points, etc 

With the Lap Band it is over 70%.   And he said that the < 30% who can't keep it off are ones had other factors against them and perhaps should have never had the surgery.

For example they thought it was a magic bullet instead of a tool and didn't change their lifestyle at all.


So, Yes, I have lost a lot of weight already, 50 lbs and I will keep loosing until the surgery but the surgery option just just got another check box in the pro column. 

This time, I want to loose and keep it off. 


*Be sure to check with your insurance company because what mine required may be different than yours.

Slipery slope

So today ended up being my cheat day.

It wasn't supposed to be. I was trying to save it.

Here is what happened. My husband and I decided to go to an outlet center this afternoon after church. (North Bend WA)

We were doing fine until we went into one of my favorite stores (Le Gourmet Chef)

Anyone who knows me well knows I love to play in the kitchen.

I once spent over an hour in one aisle of Whole Foods. The aisle with all of the oils and other jarred and bottled concoctions.

Anyway; this store not only has gadgets and bake ware. It has a ton of wonderful stuff in jars. And of course they had samples out to try.

May not sound so bad but these items averaged about 5 carbs per serving and that didn't include the pretzels they were serving them with.

Then came the bread dipping aisle. Oh-oh. Can't resist trying that.

One little bite won't hurt.

Don't be fooled, before I knew it I was up over 40 carbs just from a sample here and there.

So, because I had blown it anyway and my last cheat day was about a month ago, I decided to make today my monthly cheat day.

We went out to eat at one of our favorite Italian places and I had the pasta. Smoked salmon ravioli. Mmmmmm soo good.

And then of course the day was gone anyway so I enjoyed the bread and oil they provide and had a limoncello tiramisu for dessert.

But tomorrow is another day and I will be back on track.

Typical Grocery Shopping

Today being Saturday I started out my day running errands.

One of the items on my list was to do simple grocery shopping and as I looked in my cart at the checkout, I thought it may make a good topic for today's blog.

What do typical low-carbers buy at the store?

So here is a list of what I bought today followed by what I will use them for:

1 bag frozen chicken breasts
1 5lb block Swiss cheese
2 six packs of Hansen's black cherry diet pop
1 18 pack of Eggs
4 boxes frozen spinach
and

10 packages of Hormel frozen entrees (I had a coupon)

The chicken breasts I put half (4 breasts) into a Ziploc freezer bag with a bottle of low carb (I use Michelob ultra) and put into the fridge to marinate for a few days. The other 4 I put into the freezer for later.

The cheese is one of my foods.  We can have about 4 oz of cheese per day and Swiss has always been one of my favs.  I sometimes slice it over hamburgers. Sometimes I just eat it in cubes. I also needed it for my quiche.

The diet pop is somewhat obvious. However, I add some  DaVinci to it to make it even better.

The eggs will be used for a lot of stuff.  I am going to try another cheesecake recipe later today so some will go into that.  Some for my weekly quiche and the rest I may hard boil for a snack for my and my husband or just leave for future use.

The spinach is for my weekly quiche.  I make a crust less quiche every week.  It is straight out of Atkins book. I will post it below.  I eat 1/8 of it everyday for breakfast so it lasts me about a week and is a lot faster than cooking eggs every breakfast.

and the Hormel dinners are one of my newest loves.  They are precooked so they heat up in I think it is 3 minutes and they are fantastic.  You have to read labels of course, some have more carbs (meatloaf for example because of the binders).  But the roast is fantastic.   Great for weeknights when I need something quick.   also, even though they are prepared food, they don't have preservatives.  


Atkins quiche recipe:

First here it is directly from the book.  Below I will say what I change. 

4 oz. bacon
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
6 eggs
3/4 c heavy cream
2 boxes (10 oz. each) frozen chopped broccoli or spinach, thawed and sqeezed dry
1/2 pound Swiss cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Heat oven to 350*F. Butter a 10-inch tart pan or 9-inch deep pie plate ( I used a square 9 by 9 glass baking dish).
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels; coarsely chop.
3. Remove all but 1 tablespoon bacon drippings from skillet. Add onion and cook 5 minutes, until softened but not brown. In a large bowl, combine eggs, cream, broccoli, cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir in bacon and onion.
4. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes (tenting with foil, if necessary, to prevent over-browning) or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes before cutting into wedges.

Number of Servings: 8
4.7 carbs each serving.

My changes:  I don't eat pork so I use turkey bacon. I am not partial to onions but I love their flavor so I use onion powder.    I also sometimes add other herbs like Herb De Provence.   I haven't experimented too much outside this yet.  I plan on someday making a cream cheese and salmon quiche.  I will post about it if I ever do.

My new addiction: Davinci Syrups

On many of the low carb forums I use people often say how much they love Davinci syrup.

I wasn't sure what the big deal was so I decided to buy some myself.

My first experiment:
I made some cookies the other day (using nut flours of course) with the gingerbread syrup.

While I didn't end up liking the cookies I could tell that syrup added a great flavor.

I didn't like them because the recipe called for brown sugar twin and I just can't handle the taste of that artificial sweetener.

I actually spent most of the day trying everything (food, mints, brushing teeth etc) to get that fake taste of saccharine off of my tongue to no avail. 

I have been following the advice of many others in forums and adding the syrup to beverages.

Tonight was raspberry flavor added to Hansen's diet root beer. This added a great flavor.

I have also made Italian soda with diet rite white grape soda and some huckleberry syrup and a splash of heavy whipping cream. Unbelievably fantastic.

Because these are sweetened with sucralose in liquid form, there are 0 carbs so this is just free flavor.

I bought them at cash and carry for about 3.50 each. You can also get then in grocery stores or online. I heat netritution is a great place to buy them. (http://www.netrition.com/)

I am going to try a lime flavored cheesecake this weekend.

Here is the DaVinci website: http://www.davincigourmet.com/

Enjoy!

"fast" food

I have had some friends say they can not do a low carb lifestyle because they don't have time to cook.  They live out of boxed foods, canned goods and frozen dinners.

I myself work full-time, go to college, run an Avon business and help my husband with administrative duties in the Ministry (like manage the Church website, create the bulletins etc) so I understand being busy.

Here are a few suggestions for quick easy meals for those of you who don't have a lot of time to cook.

Tuna.   Open a can of tuna and add a little mayo.  You would be surprised how good it is even without the crackers or bread.

Nitrate free chicken sausages. I like Aidells. Their chicken with feta and spinich is fantastic. Just slice some up and fry it in a pan or microwave it.   Just be sure to look at labels, ones with sweeteners or fruits are more carbs.

I cook up a batch of beer marinated chicken every week and then can easily pop one of those breasts in the microwave at any time.

I make a crust-less quiche every week and have that most days for breakfast.

Frozen hamburger patties (beef or even turkey) are a quick fix. Simply stick them on a Forman grill and let them cook for a few minutes.  Yes, this is cooking but it only takes about as long as a frozen dinner does in the microwave.


Leftovers.   Most leftovers work great in a quick hurry.    I usually cook on the weekends and then have the leftovers for quick options during the busy week.

I don't personally eat this but they also make other canned meats like canned chicken or even canned corned beef.    Watch the sodium on these items and look to make sure they don't have nitrates.

I hope this gives you some ideas of some quick items you can eat on the run.

Dining out places

My husband and I dine out a lot.  Perhaps too much both for our pocket book and our waistline.  But, it is one of our pleasures in life.

One thing I enjoy about this program is it allows you to eat just about anywhere and find stuff to eat.

Some restaurants are more friendly than others to the low carb way of life.

First an illustration of a place that just doesn't get it.  Today my hubby and I went to a popular chain that is famous for breakfast. 

I asked if I could substitute the high carb sides, (pancakes & hash-browns) for some vegetables or a salad. 

You would think I asked for a year of free meals. 

The waitress said she could tell them not to put those items on my plate and then she could bring me a side salad at my expense.   

This is an example of a place that doesn't get it.   I wasn't asking for a free steak and lobster, I was asking for a small side salad and in place of food of equal or higher value.   

I then decided to look at their lunch and dinner menu to see if there were choices there and almost everything was breaded or had a sweet (BBQ for example) sauce on it. 

Not my favorite dining out experience.  I ended up with a chicken Caesar salad hold the croutons.

On the other side of the coin there are many restaurants that do understand and provide wonderful options.

Red Robin for example offers any of their sandwiches "protein style".   Instead of a bun they use lettuce, it sounds weird but they actually sort of shape the lettuce like a bun and you can pick it up and eat it just like the rest of their sandwiches. 

Of course you may have to watch which sandwich you choose. Example one with onion straws and BBQ sauce can still be VERY high in carbs even without the bun.  

Red Robin also allows you to sub the fries for a salad.   Be sure to tell them to leave the tortilla chips off of it though.

Carls Jr also offers a lettuce wrapped sandwich.


Amante and Romios have low carb menu sections.

TGI Fridays has a few low carb choices on their right portion, right price menu.

Ruby Tuesday has their carb count on their smart eating choices menu and has many very low carb options.

Many fast food places will give you a salad instead of fries. Watch out for lite dressing though, it is full of sugar so high carb.

The good news is you can make anything work. You can always just leave the carb stuff on the plate and eat the rest, but how wonderful that some places cater to us.

Sticktoitiveness

Tonight I come with a question that is really bugging me.

Where is our sticktoitiveness?

Why statictically speaking are only 4% of people able to loose weight and keep it off without surgical intervention ?

I read other blogs and forums and discuss weight with many people.

Often I read or hear something like "I did that and it really worked but then I quit".

Just today at my niece's baby shower I was talking with someone who told me she had also had success on Atkins (she had lost 35lbs) but then stopped.

She didn't really seem to know why she stopped it.

She just did.

After talking to me she indicated she may try it again.

Why do we do that? Why do we stop? Why do we forget? Why does it take a talk with a friend to remind us.

How do we find sticktoitiveness?

I don't have the answers here. On this one I am as puzzled as can be.

I myself have lost before (never this much) and gained it all back and then some. Only to repeat the cycle.

Is it self sabotoge?

Is it a secret desire to fail?

Is it we become lazy?

As I have said I am on a path toward weight loss surgery. Whether I do the surgery or not is still in the air but I am working toward it so I am ready.

The only reason I would do the surgery is to help in this battle.

Like the discussion I had with my surgeon.

He told me to loose 10%.

I told him if I could do that without him, why would I need the surgery?

He replied that I needed the surgery to keep it off.

WHY????????

I think if anyone can really crack this nut it would help millions of people.

Again tonight I have so answers.

I only seek knowledge and wisdom to find the key to sticktoitiveness.

How to Start Atkins

My reaching the 50 lb milestone generated some questions about how I did it.   That prompted this blog about some of the basics of low carbing to get people stating today.

Let me start this by saying that this blog will be the highlights.

I can not stress enough how important it is to read the Atkins books for yourself.   

I personally prefer his original book published in 1972. From other reading, apparently his estate is who was behind the new edition that came out in 1992 or 2002 and they were more concerned with profits from the product line they launched than in actual weight loss.  

I have both books and have read both of them if for no other reason than the recipes, but I stick closer to the 1972 version for the program.

Here is a photo of what the books look like to help you locate them in a store:

These are easy to find used at many book stores or on Amazon.

The basics:
The original Atkins was around levels.
first level was induction followed by 2nd - 5th which are to add in carbs a little at a time.

Revised Atkins is a four phase approach:
Induction
OWL (ongoing weight loss)
Pre-maintenance
Maintenance

The most important step with anything is getting started so let me take a minute and talk about induction.

This is a phase where you get your body to enter Ketosis.  This is for 2 weeks.

Side note: I highly recommend you get some ketosis testing strips.  I bought mine at Walmart for about $6.  You will need these all along your journey to tell if you are in and still in ketosis. 

During this time you eat NO MORE than 20 carbs per day and only and I mean ONLY foods on the acceptable food list.   No Exceptions.   The original acceptable food list was pretty short. The new book's list can be found here.    The 1972 list can be found here.  

I don't care if something is carb free, if it isn't on the list, don't eat it.   Or else you will find yourself not getting into ketosis and not loosing. 

Trust me! I have learned this the hard way. 

It isn't about just eating 20 carbs, it is about eating the right 20 carbs to get your fat burning furnace ignited.

It is also very important to look at the list of forbidden food.   Just one bite is the kiss of death to this program and forbidden means forbidden.   This list is in the first book and it contains things like potatoes, corn, honey, ketchup, cashews, milk and more.


If lists don't work for you, just remember that all unprocessed meat, poultry, and fish are allowed (not shellfish). You can also have 4 oz of hard cheese. Fats like butter, olive oil, mayo. And salad greens, celery, radishes and cucumbers. No more than 2 cups of loosely packed veggies per day though.  That is the basics of induction.   You can see why it was called the steak and salad diet. 


Again, I can't stress the importance of buying the books for yourself and reading them all, not just the recipes.


I mentioned in one of my first posts that there is a right way and a wrong way to do low carb. 

Lesson learned: Buying a ton of low carb products and not really paying attention to what it takes to get your body into ketosis (acceptable food list) and then eating say 40+ carbs of low carb products a day and wondering why the scale isn't moving.   This is not the right way.   Actually reading and following the program to the letter is.

When you read Dr. Atkins' books you will find out he learned through experiment that people can increase their carb count gradually and not fall out of ketosis. 

For both the old and the new program, the next step includes adding in some more carbs and more foods.

Does this mean you will soon be eating deep dish thick crust pizza again? Sorry,  probably not.

But it does mean you can add in soft cheeses, nuts, more veggies and eventually fruit and still loose weight.

These increasing carb content phases work on the philosophy of adding in carbs and little at a time (5-8 per week) until your body stops loosing and then backing off to the level where you were losing and that is your maximum amount allowed. For some people this may be 25 carbs total, some may be 150 carbs. We are all different and you will need to experiment to find out what works for you.

To summarize this in a picture for my visual friends out there:

One area I deviate from the books is I still try to stick to around 20 carbs per day.  I know I could increase this amount until I find the point where my furnace turns off, but I am used to the 20 carbs rule and find my diet really satisfying so why change.   It is working for me so far.  Of course as I blogged about before, I allow myself to cheat one day per month too and so I have to go back on induction after this anyway, so it is easier to just stay there.

Hopefully this will be enough to get you going.   Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions. I am no expert but I would be happy to tell you what I have found or what the books say.

Milestones and Goals

So I am very happy to announce that I made it past my first milestone of 50lbs lost today.  

WooHoo!!!

Yippee!!

Woot !!

etc

This got me thinking that a good topic for blogging could be about the importance of goals and milestones.

Someone on one of the message boards I frequent said she vowed to loose 1 pound 36 times.  

This person subscribed to the philosophy that smaller achievable goals are the better way to go. 
One lb at a time.
Inch by inch, everything's a cinch etc.

This works for many people but I know it doesn't work for me.   I think one of the secrets to my success so far has been to understand who I am and what games I tell myself and then find methods that don't allow that to happen.


A goal that is too easy for me would lead me to complacency.   Taking it one lb at a time would allow me to cheat too much.

For example, I am the type of person who didn't believe in weighing myself each day because one of two things would happen: 

1. Either I would be down a few pounds and then I would justify eating poorly by saying "I have been good and a little bit won't hurt me". 
2. Or I would be up or the same and I would say "well what is the point, I don't loose anyway so I might as well eat this"

Either way I was using the scale to eat poorly. 

So, for me to say that I am going to loose 1 lb 150 times wouldn't work. I would loose and gain and loose and gain and justify it because I had lost one pound x times.  It was the same lb over and over but hey. 

I believe that goals should be S.M.A.R.T
Specific
Measurable
Atainable
Realistic
Timely

Just saying, "I am going to loose weight" is not trackable, it is not speciic enough, how do you know when you are done?

A goal does need to be attainable and realistic so even though my ideal weight is 160 and I started at 402, I am not saying I plan on loosing 242 lbs.

Even with weight loss surgery the average person only looses between 40% and 60% of their excess weight. I need to be realistic.

My total goal is 150lbs lost which is slightly more than 60% of my excess weight. I may change this when I get closer to that but for today that is my realistic attainable goal. 

The good news is even 5lbs weight loss makes a difference.   I will be thankful for every lb lost.

I have structured my goal around milestones.

Wikipedia says this about milestones:

A milestone (from the Latin milliarium) is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road or boundary at intervals of one mile or occasionally, parts of a mile. ...
Milestones are constructed to provide reference points along the road.

So, using that expression,  A milestone is not the end, it is just a mark along the journey to let you see your progress.

• My first milestone was the one I reached today.  50 lbs lost or 352 lbs. This (50) was a milestone because of it being half of a hundred and also just to prove to myself (and others) that I can do it. 

• My next milestone is 82 lbs lost.  This will put me at 320 lbs so this is a very significant milestone to me for 2 reasons:  
  

1. 
   
   

   First; I weighed 320 when I got married 16 years ago.

2. 
   
   

   Second: my goal weight is 160 so this is exactly twice my goal weight.  After this point I will no longer be able to that I am two times what I should be. 

• My milestone after that is 100 lbs lost or 302 lbs

• Then 280 lbs because that is what I weighed when I met my husband. 

• And for now, my last milestone is my ending goal today which is 150lbs lost or 252lbs. 
  

Being milestones, I can not see any on the road I am on beyond this.  Once the road gets close, the rest of the milestones will come into focus. 

I would love to say that I will be my ideal weight of 160 lbs.   Who knows, maybe I will.

But, keeping with the SMART philisophy. 150 lbs lost for a new weight of 250 would be 62% of my excess weight lost so that is within the norm of possibility of 40 - 60% for my current end goal and that is as far ahead as I can see right now.

I also have physical goals:

• My Daddy was a mountain climber and he took me a few times to climb a local mountain Mt. Pilchuck.   I have a goal of climbing that mountain next summer.    
• I also have a goal of sitting in a theater seat that doesn't have armrests that go up.  
• I would like to be able to sit in my own dining room chairs with armrests.  I am now able to fit in them but not comfortably yet.  
  

Today I was able to sit in one of the stuffed comfortable chairs in Starbucks for the first time.

I hope you will think about what goals and milestones you want to set.

And remember as you pass the milestones to celebrate your successes.   I plan on making cookies (low carb of course) to celebrate.  My first attempt at baking cookies with nut flours. I will let you know how it goes.

Rant - Treatment of Obese people

I am sure I am not alone here but I am getting sick and tired of it being okay to be discriminated against for being obese.

It seems it must be human nature to have a group of people we make fun of and it is politically incorrect these days to make fun of anyone else so now the new group is anyone who is overweight.

In a single night's TV watching I can easily count 10 or more fat jokes.   It wouldn't be so bad if they were based on any facts at all.   If they, for instance, showed a fat person having problems running or climbing stairs. Those are pretty real.   But, inevitably they are showing or speaking about a fat person sitting around doing nothing stuffing their face with doughnuts and assume that all overweight people do nothing but eat all day long. 


I personally experience discrimination for being obese all the time:

• I have had sales clerks ignore me.
• I have had waiters give me the smaller portion (trying to help me I am sure).
• I have also had the opposite where when someone at the table turns down the free desert waiters assume I would want it and just scoot it over to my area.
• I often have teenage kids laugh, point or make snide remarks.  
• Just last night I went grocery shopping and had a group of kids behind me make mooing sounds.

I live with this all of the time.

When did this become acceptable???

The thing that irritates me about this ridicule is it in unfounded.

We don't all sit around all day eating.  I actually think I ate too little for the past decade or so and that was keeping me obese by messing up my metabolism.   I would skip breakfast and lunch most days.  I would then eat an unhealthy dinner full of carbs and eat it too late but overall I would still consume fewer calories in a given day than my thinner friends.

I also didn't just eat bon-bons or doughnuts. 

I actually was on a health kick a few years back where I didn't eat anything from a box or a can for almost a year.   I still try to limit my intake of chemicals.  That doesn't match the picture portrayed by Hollywood and being propagated by the general public of overweight people living on ice-cream and potato chips. 

The same rules we now live by in other discrimination / prejudice areas should apply to this area too.   Don't assume that someone who is overweight just sits around eating all day.  Don't assume they are lazy.   Basically, don't assume anything.   Get to know the individual.

Because of this type of treatment, I went through about 5 years where I suffered pretty severe anxiety. I even had a few out and out panic attacks.

I had a time where I left a party at a friends house and went running to the car to lock myself inside.  No one had said anything or done anything but I felt like they were all staring at the whale and judging so I freaked out and left.  My poor husband was so shocked and so was my friend, they had no idea what happened or what they should do.

Remember the golden rule of do unto others as you would have them do unto you and remember to be kind. Your judgment may have an effect on people way beyond what you can imagine.

Dining out

I am writing this again from my iphone so please forgive spelling and grammar.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about the low carb lifestyle is the ability to lead a fairly normal life including dining out.

Here are some of my favorite choices for dining out by cuisine:

Mexican:
Taco salad without the shell and hold the beans
Fajitas without the tortilla

Italian:
Caesar salad
Chicken Marsala
Chicken Parmesan (if not breaded)
Some Italian restaurants have a low carb menu. Amante for example has 5 dishes including a no dough pizza. This is meat and sauce on a plate covered in cheese. I have never tried this but I bet other pizza places would do this too. If not, simply don't eat the crust.

Asian:
Chinese is honestly is the hardest with so much rice and breaded food and the sauces tend to have a lot of sugar. There are options like almond chicken. For me, I avoid this genre of food. Japanese and Vietnamese is easier with many grilled meats and salads. Of course avoid the noodle dishes.

American:
This is the easiest. Almost any chicken or beef dish works. You can even have fried chicken, just peal the skin off. Many restaurants will substitute high carb sides for salads or veggies just ask. A note on salads; ranch, blue cheese and Caesar are the lowest carb choices.

By the way, my favorite choice for low carb is a buffet place. My husband and I ate at Old Country Buffet tonight which was the motivation for tonight's blog. I was able to start with lettuce and add taco meat and salsa for a makeshift taco salad. I then had boiled fish and chicken breast. I was able to eat quite well with a lot of variety and the only carbs were from the lettuce.

I'm here

My husband and I apparently both caught some stomach bug.  I am here but not feeling well enough to write anything today.