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.

"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.

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.

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.
  

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.

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