Author: eaumaison (Page 111 of 210)

Another Atkins salad, and a sneaky smoothie for Jack.

Ben has already started teaching Jack to use a controller. They are playing “Hydro Thunder.”

 Another delicious low-carb dinner:  Cajun blackened steaks, aged cheddar, and mixed salad with blue cheese dressing.

 I had a request for post salon pictures.  Just more red and a trim.  What do you think of the prescription sunglasses I got from Zenni Optical online?  Stylish?  Or comically small?  It was a gamble ordering online, but I’m happy to have good vision in the sun now.  Oh, and did you notice this?

Yeah, I got a purple extension.  Because why not?

We had a busy morning.  First brunch with Mavi and Brian at Breakfast on the Edge.  We ate on the breezy patio and watched water skiers on Sloan’s Lake.  Also lots of impressive motorcycles down Sheridan (impressive to Jack).  His gear came off for the meal, like a gentleman. 

 Then we all went to Echter’s nursery.  Mavi had a mission, but the rest of us bought plants too.  Must be Memorial Day weekend, right?  I went kind of crazy with the succulents.  It gave me a good reason to re-pot the others I’ve had sitting at home, and sweep up the back patio.  Jack wanted to help, and now I’m researching how to clean stuffed toys.  Kipper is prematurely graying. 

Here’s Jack while we wait for Ben and Brian in Edward’s Meats.  Too much running around and sunshine I guess 🙂 

I worked 6 shifts in the last 7 days. They were all rough too. Glad to be done with that and have a 4 day weekend. I'm at the salon for a cut and color, long overdue.

Atkins is going well. My weight loss stalled, but after a long stressful day yesterday I'm down to 157, 5 pounds down. Still not craving breads or sweets. I like it. But I'm starting to plan Jack's birthday cake. I need to browse recipes and baking aisles.

Ben Here: I took a video of the phenomenon

 End of Week 1
A much better shift at work today.  Amazing what good staffing can do.  I’ll just touch on some things I noted while posting all those other entries.
–I’m not tired anymore.  I’m actually energized.  I used to feel a big slump after my lunch break but now my energy stays up and alert, even after crazy yesterday.  I do feel more dizzy and weak if I can’t eat right when I want to.
–I don’t feel that restricted in my food options.  I have no true cravings.  I’ve figured out what foods are ok and what aren’t.  I’m enjoying the vegetables.  I have my shakes and gold coke, my almonds and cheeses, and those are doing me ok for now. 
–Eating out just isn’t an option with this diet so I feel resigned to make my own food.  You have to be creative, but it’s such a limited source of material I can usually settle on a meal instead of endlessly waffling.  
–I’ve talked to people about the diet and everyone who tried it had good success with it.  That’s encouraging.  
–I’m having a weird post-cold sore throat.  Although Jack’s contagion never fully blossomed in me, I can’t shake a scratchy throat for a couple days. His nose is drying up.  I hope he can go longer than two weeks this time.

Today I stuck to the 20 gram limit.  I hope that will pay off on the scale tomorrow.  Ben and I talked about reaching the end of one week and how we feel about long term plans.  We both are feeling wellWe both want to stop induction at 2 weeks.  I’m going to move up to the next phase (fruits and nuts are ok and carbs are 30 a day).  Ben is going to maintain a low carb diet while nixing junk food.  No fried potatoes, he said, and a lot less sweets.  Kind of a Pollan diet.  He’ll do periodic weight and carb counting, but not be to as finicky as we have been.  We both like the idea of doing the induction whenever we get back from a vacation.  That way we can enjoy ourselves, but then kickstart back into healthy habits when we get home. 

Here’s a couple dinners we had.  Tossed salad: butter lettuce, parsley, red pepper, and boiled egg with italian dressing.  Hot wings and dip, jalapeno bacon cream cheese wraps, and roasted cauliflower salad.  

Day 5, Monday May 21


I’m so glad I didn’t have to go back to work last night.  I had a page at 1:50 am that just needed some discussion on the phone.  Ben made me fried eggs this morning, alongside my usual bacon and sausage.

I lost more weight – down to 158.5.  I’ve never been lower in the past two years except for when I’m sick.  To celebrate I’m taking Jack to Target to buy some new exercise clothes.  I get to do Zumba today!
I’m excited to dance without the usual carb-water bloat I carried.

Zumba was awesome!  I had great energy and a lot of fun.  I hope I burned some real fat.  I worry about how much my weight loss so far is just do to water weight.   Earlier today I bought some new exercise clothes as a treat, for sticking with the diet so far.  They were comfortable and looked good (it helps to take classes with women over 50).

I went to trivia in our neighborhood at Teller’s Taproom. When I walked in the door I had the sudden urge to order something even though I already had a full dinner.  After all, you really need to order something at a bar, it’s like rent on the table, even if I was only staying for a couple rounds of trivia.

I had a coke zero (first caffeine since the diet, and an hour before bedtime) and a fried artichoke.  It was delicious.  I later discovered an artichoke has 7 net carbs.  Yowza!  That put me way over my limit for the day.  But for the moment I enjoying being in a restaurant with friends and enjoying myself.  I helped nail the 90s Billboard Music round then went home.  A three minute drive home.  I’m going to like having trivia here.

Day 6
A long day at work.  13 hours and I didn’t get a lunch break until 4:15 pm because we are short staffed.  That’s 10 hours without a rest.  I ate my snacks at my desk while working.  String cheese.  Atkins shake.  Mini cauliflower salad.  Almonds.  Lots of water.  When I finally got down to the hospital cafeteria the salad bar was incredibly limp and depressing.  But it was my only choice, aside from the leftover bacon-cheese-jalapenos in my lunch bag.  The lettuce was wilted, the cucumbers turning mushy, the egg and chicken were most certainly partially fake and possibly injected with dextrose and who knows what.  I’ll stick the Adventist hospital salad bars from now on. I packed a big lunch for tomorrow where I’ll be working the same shift, some place.

At home I made a sandwich wrap with low carb tortilla.  While eating it I realized consuming a whole tortilla, while only 6 grams of carbs, is probably not kosher for induction week.  When I tallied up my
dinner I went over the daily limit again.  Feeling pretty bummed out. Also, Ben is having a harder time on the diet without me around to help make meals.  The rest of my week will be rough.  Two more shifts and then I have a long stretch off of work for Jack’s birthday.

Day 2
I had eggs, sausage, and bacon for breakfast and it didn’t sit well. I’ve eaten cheerios or frosted mini-wheats before every work shift for over three years.  My body is expecting that carb load and it’s
rejecting what I gave it instead.  I felt slightly nauseated.

Then I felt hungry all morning.  Maybe I didn’t eat enough at breakfast, but I couldn’t stand the thought of eating more meat. Sadly, fruit is out of the question during this stage of the diet. Vegetables don’t appeal to me before 11 am.  I snacked on beef jerky and cocoa powder covered almonds.  They tasted so incredibly sweet! My sweetness sensitivity must have dropped a lot.  Technically almonds are not a part of this diet stage.  But I don’t have much to lose so I’ll give myself little allowances. They are only 2 carbs.

I notice my caloric intake has dramatically dropped.  I estimate normal for me is 2500-2800.  The past two days it’s under 1600.  I guess that’s good for dieting.  It’s probably partly due to the carb elimination because those foods are so high in calories too.  Also the queasiness.  I need to work on eating more volume.  But it’s hard to keep the limit down and keep the calories up!

Ben and I were both exhausted tonight.  Hard to say whether I felt bad because of Atkins or because of my crappy day at work or because I’m catching Jack’s cold.

Day 3
Dreamed about counting carbs last night.

I weight 161 this morning.  Down a whole pound already!  It’s probably mostly bloat -loss, but it still encourages me.  I actually feel trimmer too.

(PS a big componant of Atkins is water intake.  You need a minimum of 8 x 8 oz glasses water per day.  I’ve been drinking 10-12 per day.)

Ben and I both feel better today.  His headache is gone.  I definitely have Jack’s cold but it’s mild.  After some Dayquil I feel pretty good.  The breakfast sat better in my stomach and I ate an extra
sausage link.  I’m not so snacky this morning, although I did eat my cocoa almonds and some string cheese.

We ordered buffalo wings for dinner.  I wanted to “eat out” so I could feel more normal about our habits.  (we eat out far too often.  Maybe 30-40% of lunches and dinners?). The wings were good and I liked the celery.  But I missed have fries on the side and a giant diet coke.  This caffeine free coke is not as good.  Caffeine is supposed to cause insulin spikes so Atkins says to quit it during the diet.

Day 4
I lost 2 pounds!  I’ll be super impressed if this continues.

Right after I woke I was called into work.  I ate a giant plate of scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon.  My stomach was pretty happy with that.  Quite the change.

Unfortunately because of how far the hospital is from my house and some delays on their end for another procedure, I won’t be done here until 4:30 pm.  Glad I ate extra eggs.  I had an Atkins chocolate shake (weird after taste) and some almonds I smuggled in my bag.  Gonna be hard to drink all this water but not pee for 5 hours.

I ended up working all through the middle of the day.  I’m glad I had my atkins shake, beef jerky, string cheese, and almonds to sneak. They were surprising satisfying.

At home Ben made a big chopped salad and it was delicious.  I made a smoothie for Jack and it was so awkward to not taste-test it.  I’ll be a little teaspoon of it would be a couple carbs though, so I
refrained.  He seemed to enjoy it without my taste approval.  After he went to bed we watched Thor.  I wanted a movie snack.  I found our low carb tortillas (3 grams per half tortilla) and broiled them with olive oil to make crackers.  We ate them with a spinach cheese dip for a total of 4 grams.  The chips were not good, I would easily reject them in my normal lifestyle.  But there’s something about a dry crunch with dip.  Celery and other veggies just can’t replace it